YeeeY, I Survived the First Year!

(or how I wrote my a** off)

Yesterday the blog turned 1 year old and what a ride it’s been so far! A total of 9️⃣8️⃣ publications, containing 4️⃣5️⃣ personal articles, 4️⃣0️⃣ Spotlights and a couple of indexes and Flashlights. Bringing me A Whole Lot of new, online friends! I have been thinking about doing something special, however, life has been a bit more hectic lately and it couldn’t be too time demanding. So I will share some of the statistics, to give you all an idea of how the blog has been ‘performing’, comparing last year to this year. When I’m talking about last year, that would contain the first 6 months and when I’m talking about this year, those are the last 6 months.

**Marillion – Kayleigh** Released in 1985, by a Symphonic Rock band. It spoke to me not only because I think it’s a really beautiful song, with beautiful lyrics, but because of the name Kayleigh. I had never heard that name before and thought it would be a really great name if we would have another daughter. Didn’t happen though 😂

In ‘You’ve Got Mail’, I told you a bit about how the first half year went: People from 3️⃣9️⃣ countries had visited one or more posts and I was pretty happy with that. The following X-mas Special, ‘Spotlight on YOU’, was a big success in my opinion, even if it was again, about music. I did give you all the chance to come up with other/new, ideas and just to be clear: I am always open to any ideas you would come up with.

**The Style Council – Shout To The Top** Released in 1984, this song is labeled ‘Sophisty-Pop’. One of my highschool girlfirends & I chose this song to dance on for our school cabaret evening. She was dressed up like a little devil and YES, I was an angel. WHAHAHA. We had a cabaret week every year and it was great fun to join. Love the Dramaaaa. **Obviously.**

This year, up till today, 6️⃣7️⃣ countries are represented on ‘my’ map and yeah, that’s freakin amazing. Of course a lot of countries are visible in both periods, but the last 6 months, a lot of ‘new’ countries were added. Below you’ll see a map of the countries which have been reading throughout the whole year. The darker the color, the more views, with – I think – a grand total of 7️⃣0️⃣ countries. Though there’s always room for more, I’m really happy with the growth!

I really loved to to see Africa getting a bit more coverage, since it was about the only continent that wasn’t really represented last year, save for one country – same with South America, which is red for the most part, this year. I actually know there are a couple of artists living there and seriously following the blog. Whereas the spreading of the blog was initially done by a lot of people I know in real life, more spreading was done by a lot of music fans. Any which way, I Thank You All for reading!

Views went up with over 6️⃣0️⃣%, which I am really hyped about, the number of followers have been growing slowly, but steadily and more and more people find the comment section and leave something nice. Same goes for the likes, which is very encouraging indeed.

**Orleans – Still The One** Released in 1975, by a Soft Rock Band, this is one of the albums I literally grew up with. The song still is a smashing hit and made for every true romantic at heart. I guess that includes me. And man, after all these years – even though I haven’t been listening to it – I can still sing along.

I did not give you a lot of time to respond to my call for today’s post, so I did not expect much either tbh. However, there were some nice ideas from a couple of people I treasure and of whom I know, they follow the blog. (You Know Who You Are 😉) The first person is one of my bff’s who actually came up with 2 ideas and let me tell you straight away, they have to do with music, since I’m such a music lover.

**Madness – My Girl** Released in 1979 by a SKA band and whoohoo I was a HUGE fan, even took it so far I joined their official fanclub – the only one I ever joined! – heck yeah 🙄. I had at least 2 of their albums, including this one and received ‘official’ mail every month. SWEET MEMORIES for sure.

The first idea – which was really suggested by 2 bff’s – you’ll find spread over this page, in case you were wondering. I’ll explain it in my own words: they basically said, I could choose a song from different – NO disco/funk/jazz! – genres and share something about why this song is special to me. Different genres, because everybody knows by now I’m a true funk lover. Though I Promise Nothing…there might be some of ‘the same’ in there too… A lot of the songs shared here, are from BIG names I grew up with and most of them still have a lot of listeners till this day, even if they haven’t produced new music for years. Classics.

**Imagination – Just An Illusion** Released in 1982, by a Brit Funk (sorry-not-sorry) Band. One of my highschool bff’s was so crazy about this song – as was I – though this was totally NOT her kind of music. So when I found the vinyl single in a very obscure record shop during one of our holidays in Spain, while it was about a hundred degrees Celsius, I bought it as a gift for her. I have NO idea why I did not just buy it while back home lol. Never forgot about it though and that IS special in my case.

I did like the idea, though I have been mentioning I did listen to other genres – still do – in My Kind of Music and I try to write about other genres too. My only objection was, there are So Many genres and sub-genres, and I’m only just scratching the surface still 🤐. The sweetheart even provided me with a couple of links, where I should be able to find any artist and their genre. Well Alright Then. Never thought about searching for something like that myself tbh. Wikipedia seems to work fine for me, including a lot of interesting facts about the artist.

**The Cure – A Forest** Released in 1980, by a New Wave/Gothic Rock Band. This song became one of my favs merely because I had a big brother and school friends who listened to this stuff. The epic song has The Cure written all over and I may or may not, have listened to anything else from this band…oopsies.

The second idea had her laughing so hard, I just started to laugh along, not even knowing what it was about. I started to fear though hahah. When we finally calmed down enough to continue the conversation, she suggested the following: since I now have my own Discord server – thank you very nice, hubby – maybe I should actually start inviting people and have my own DJ/show night. UHM…This is coming from the same person who said I could be a music producer in the future, after which she added: ‘we just need to hustle a mixdeck‘. Ahahah. Right. I have NO illusions about that at all.

**Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me** Released in 1985, by a Dance Rock/Art Rock Band. The song is EPIC if only because it is part of the soundtrack of the movie ‘The Breakfast Club’, which was and still is, a true classic. I bought the album, which I loved and played to death. it was just that time you know and that whole scene was such an inspiration for my fashion OCD. **It actually might have started there.**

However, doing some kind of show is not a bad idea, though I’d have to seriously look into it, which will take some time. I did tell her, I am not good at inviting people, since I never really like it myself, getting invited for all kinds of things. But yeah, gotta start somewhere right? Who knows, with all the contacts I have now, there might be a couple of artists interested in participating…I might just throw it out there at one point – read: whenever I find the courage to ask – though Twitch or even YouTube, might be better options for something like that tbh. You can be sure I’ll keep you updated 😂

**U2 – I Will Follow** Released in 1980, by a Permanent Wave/Irish Rock Band. Hah, here’s my past catching up on me 🤐. It was basically impossible to avoid them at that time and again, having friends listen to them, I did get influenced, though I don’t regret it. I bought the album and enjoyed it while it lasted. Haven’t listened to them for years tbh. **But it’s definitely a classic.**

BUT then there was one friend who did share something interesting about someone who inspires him a lot. You might remember my friend with the broken headphones – mentioned in My Kind of Music 2 – who lives in Venezuela. I did ask if anybody would want to shoutout and/or, recommend someone, and he told me this rather personal story about someone and how it affects his life. He was not sure if it would ‘fit’ the blog, but I said ‘almost anything goes’, because, why not? I am all about encouraging people.

**The Police – So Lonely** Released in 1978, by a Rock/new Wave Band. This was their debut album, which we had – if my memory serves me right. Their music was kind of new and refreshing, with only 3 men playing, they made for a strong performance overall. Sting is still active and an amazing artist.

When I asked him if he truly would be OK with me sharing this on the blog and if I could use his name, he answered, I quote: ‘U can use my name no prob! Uwu. And sure u can share it! I’m sure someone is also gonna get inspired by it’. I second that thought! So here’s Daniel’s shoutout, only roughly edited by me, to stay as close to his words as possible. I quote:

**The Clash – Rock The Casbah** Released in 1982, by a Punk/Rock Band. The song spoke to me because of the pretty funky beat – yess indeed – though it was only recently I found out about the background, which you can look up for yourself 🙃. I still love listening to it, bringing me right back to my youth. Those were the times.

‘She’s called Oozora Subaru, and she is a Japanese Vtuber (a streamer that uses an virtual avatar instead of using their actual face) idol. And I’ll be honest, I probably sound like a massive weeb or just plain dumb saying this, but she’s really important to me and that’s why I call her my muse, even tho I’m not really an artist (Still…:👀)

Yeah, She’s cute and all of that, but more importantly, she is strong. Stronger than it looks. To me, she is a perfect example of a lot of things, specially, on why u should never give up on anything and how u should threat every human being around u.

Subaru didn’t have an easy life, she was born with a hole in her heart. Yeah, I know that sounds kinda poetic, but I’m serious, she had a literal orifice on her organ. So for the most part she spent her childhood in the hospital where of course, she couldn’t move around a lot, because otherwise, she could die. Later, she got ran over by a car and finally her house burned down.

With all these experiences, desperate in finding the solution, apart from all the part time jobs she was taking, she decided to try to join Hololive, the company to which she belongs now. She even faked her entire personality just so she could enter. That didn’t really work, but they still accepted her.

After that, things slowly started to improve, she gained enough money to buy a new house, she made a lot of new friends that made her life a lot better, she gained a lot of fans worldwide and she’s overall a mentally stronger person. She was desperately looking for money and all at that time, but she never gave up. She knew that she had to become stronger if she really wanted to live, so she did. And she succeeded.

So, every time I feel overwhelmed by the things happening around me or I feel like I can’t continue with all this stuff, I just think about her, and I tell myself: “I can do it, that girl had an even worse life, and yet, she’s still there, smiling, being happy, so Do The Same.”

And that’s why I love her, and I call her my muse, even tho, again, I’m not an artist. Not gonna lie, I’m kinda cringing at myself for saying all this, especially cuz this is the first time I’m telling this to another person. But oh well’.

Thank you so much Daniel for sharing! You’ve become a special friend to me and your love and support means a lot! And you readers, If you’re interest has been piqued, just click on the above links and you can check out Oozora Subaru yourself.

That’s it. With this I leave you for this week – or should I say this year 😳 – because the only thing I can add is: Be Kind to each other, but also, Be Kind to Yourself! The above story fits perfectly in my blog, as you readers might well have noticed. Let’s get ready for the second year, I hope to see you all next week! & Again: THANK YOU FOR READING 💖💖💖 I Am Grateful!