(....or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the upper case.)
I have learned quite a lot about myself in the process of writing this blog. There's the obvious things that I've always known like, uh, I really like music. I'm happy enough writing about it, and whatever else occasionally takes my fancy. I'm probably not very good at it, but that's a secondary consideration as far as I care. And I've learnt other, less obvious things: such as, I really, really like consistency - to a fault. I've always liked information to be well-organised and structured (witness my longstanding penchant for tables and spreadsheets) but I have discovered I am a consistency perfectionist, in recreation as well as in work.
The impetus for this blog was to make the most of my music collection and branch back out into listening to stuff I'd forgotten about. More than 20 years after I owned my first cassette tape (New Kids on the Block's 'Step by Step', 1990), I have amassed quite a collection, in all of its questionable glory. But more than that, this was also a small, quick, easy and enjoyable distraction from that which dominates my life...work. If I could spend my "lunch" "hour" (i.e. ten minutes scoffing toast at my desk) tapping out a quick blog entry and therefore taking a break from an otherwise busy and often stressful day, then that was a good thing. The initial decision not to use capitals was, in all honesty, one of laziness. Lower case was always consistent, I never had to worry about accidentally leaving out a capital letter or - horror of horrors - putting one in the Wrong Place. Once I started, however, I realised that it often took longer - the natural tendency when typing is, of course, to capitalise correctly because that's what one does all day, every day. But once I'd started in one format - lower case - I just could not bring myself to change the format mid-way through the alphabet. People hated it, and it wasn't as easy a shortcut as I'd anticipated. I should've just changed. But I couldn't. Consistency. To a fault.
I love language. I'm not ashamed to admit that I like correctly-placed apostrophes, and love the effect of a well-used comma. Good grammar is sexy. But I'm kind of an all or nothing girl - this blog is littered with typoes, poor syntax and grammatical dodginess. It's kind of just something I whack out unthinkingly when I get a few minutes (or when I need a break) - it's not intended to be a masterpiece, and the use of capitals was just one more thing that could get in the way. Moreover, in writing this blog, I don't consider an "audience"- this is something I do for shits and giggles, on the side. If I thought I had an audience, I'd never write anything (hell, for nearly 3 years my best friend and sometime lover was an ethnomusicologist... Any thinking person would find that mildly intimidating when writing a blog about music. I hope he never read this, god knows I certainly couldn't ever win an argument with him. But I digress.) The take-home point is that I write the blog as if no one's reading it, and that way I'm completely honest.
In a roundabout kind of way, I guess the point I'm getting to is my utter surprise that the most feedback I get about this blog is about my choice to use capitals or otherwise. I mean, I am a person who thinks there's a valid debate to be had on Elton John vs David Bowie. (Criteria for said debate would be very important, which brings me full circle to my obsession with carefully structuring information.) I don't like The XX, I'm bored by Beirut, and it took me a long time to "get" Fleet Foxes. On the other hand, I think Fleetwood Mac may be one of the greatest bands to've ever existed. My taste in music is sometimes reminiscent of your Mom back when she thought she was hip. Sometimes I'm so uncool I even bore myself. I'm hardly earth shatteringly controversial, but still - I would have thought there'd be more debatable points in the content of this blog than whether or not I chose to employ capital letters.
This morning I listened to Metallica's Black Album. It was a blast from the past, and I loved it.
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