I promise to keep delivering podcasts with substance.
10 years ago today, I nervously hit the “Publish” button on OpenSalon.com and Voila!: my new identity as Various Artists was launched along with what was then called the My Life — In Concert! Blog.
I opened this stand-alone mylifeinconcert.com blogsite about a year or so later and published on both platforms for the next few years, until OS closed in spring 2015. As that was where the bulk of my audience was—and also that my life had truly been turned upside down and inside out at this point as I discussed in my 6th anniversary post—I largely put the blog on ice until 2020, now revived as a podcast.
Here’s hoping for another, and uninterrupted, 10 years as I look back on hundreds of live shows from my life.
You can read or listen to my Introduction for an overview of what I am doing here and with the mylifeinconcert.com podcast.
I’ve also rebooted my tradition of celebrating my anniversaries by creating a graphic based on an album cover where I love both the cover and the record.
For my 10th, I thought the elegant austerity of New Order’s classic 1987 compilation would make a perfect ceremonial visual (that and the Led Zeppelin mock-up ate up most of the allotted time I had for these covers).
Cheers everyone and be sure to come back!
Here are all of the anniversary covers and their original inspiration:
One Year Anniversary … Crivens!
Original Album: Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
I went with the North American version of the cover as that is the one I own and played a 1,000 times. I had yet to start up the stand-alone blog so it was a strictly OpenSalon.com-based anniversary. Never Mind the Bollocks also appears on my Top 15 LPs list.
It Takes Two: My Second Anniversary
Original Album: The Beatles’ A Hard Days Night (1964)
I added my pen name to this one. Nice to see the back of the head of our much-missed cat, Thurston.
Three Is A Magic Number: My Third Anniversary
Original Album: Talking Heads’ Fear of Music (1979)
I also wrote about the Heads playing possibly the best set I have ever seen at Heatwave in 1980. I have something planned for the 40th Anniversary of the festival later this year.
Four & (Hopefully) More: My Fourth Blogiversary
Original Album: Judy Garland’s Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961)
I was trying to remain upbeat about OpenSalon’s then-perilous future at the time of this post. Sadly, hope wasn’t enough and this turned out to be the last anniversary cover ever posted on the site as it went belly-up in late winter, 2015.
As for Judy, she is among the list of 20 (ok, 21) artists I wish I’d seen and never will.
Take Five: My 5th Anniversary
Original Album: Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation (1988)
OS is gone and no longer mentioned. I posted this one entry and then it largely siesta time for this project until this year (2020). As for Sonic Youth, this album is another one in my Top 15.
Blackstar: MLIC’s 6th Anniversary (Belated from 2016)
Original Album: David Bowie’s Blackstar (2016)
This graphic was created at the time but it never got published as I had too many fires to put out. And just like my life at the time, the graphic is fittingly upside down.
Getting Better: MLIC’s 7th Anniversary
Original Album: The Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
I admit, it’s getting better. While the larger world was in its early dumpster-fire stages, my personal life took a massive swing in the opposite direction, something long overdue. I did manage to work on and publish this anniversary image at the time, also marking Pepper’s 50th.
In The Light: mylifeinconcert.com’s 8th Anniversary (Belated from 2018)
Original Album: Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti (1975)
While this was the time of a very sad event, the passing of my father, the rest of my life continued to throb sunshine, basking me in the positive light. Ah, balance! I thought I’d pick this cover as I went through a period during this year of replaying Physical Graffiti repeatedly. For months. I kind of haven’t stopped.
And with this title for the entry, I now celebrate the actual series rather than my anniversary as an blogger/podcaster, as that was OS-based to begin with.
The Things We Did & Didn’t Do: mylifeinconcert.com’s 9th Anniversary (Belated from 2019)
Original Album: The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs (1999)
I did try to restart the podcast in early 2019 but didn’t go ahead with it as I wasn’t satisfied with my initial results, and then got super-busy with school. It would take a second kick at the can a year later to get it right. And here we are.
Ceremony: mylifeinconcert.com’s 10th Anniversary (2020)
Original Album: New Order’s Substance (1987)
(see above)
Next on Stage: The podcast returns to the beginning of my story after highlighting one concert each from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. My second proper concert was quite different from my first, with the show nailing the final coffin into the end of an era.
© 2020 VariousArtists
