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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
 "The Soundtrackers Group" 
"Blogging Circle of Friends "
"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
"JAFBG"
"Take up Your Cross"
Thanks for stopping by! 
February 28, 2022 at 12:41am February 28, 2022 at 12:41am
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 28
"You Can't Kill My Rock 'n Roll"
by Hardcore Superstar
I think it's fitting that I started "Invalid Item" with a song from a Norwegian glam metal band, and I'm finishing out this year's playlist with a Swedish heavy metal band from the country next door. This is also the perfect song to end this year's playlist with because it's a really high energy song about how music endures. At least in this context, it's a promise that there's more music blogging to come. The song says it all: "you can't kill my rock 'n roll."
I'd actually like to dedicate this year's final blog entry to all of my fellow Soundtrackers who shared some fantastic music over the past month. In particular:
eyestar~*  for including "Happy" and "Can't Stop The Feeling," which are two of my kids' favorite songs.
♥noVember tHiNg♥  for some great classics like "Layla" and "Come A Little Bit Closer."
Alex Morgan  for reminding me about how great Alabama and The Pointer Sisters are.
Anni Pon for the eclectic collection of artists including everything from Cage the Elephant to Sara Bareilles and Dan + Shay.
Nobody’s Home  for giving the Soundtrackers a try for the first time. I hope we see you again for future activities (don't worry, not all of them are daily challenges for a whole month!  )
💙 Carly-wrimo 2024  for the great worship bands and being a fellow Lip Sync Battle aficionado.
Future Mrs. Boo  for a playlist that has a bunch of my all-time favorite artists on it.
Elfin Dragon-finally published for giving Soundtrackers a shot this year.
Lyn's a Witchy Woman  for reminding me how great the P. Diddy and Faith Evans cover of "I'll Be Missing You" is, along with bands I haven't listened to in forever like Linkin Park, The Fray, Fleetwood Mac, etc.
Redtowrite for the Chris Isaak throwback and some great tribute versions of hit songs.
Leger~  for probably my personal favorite playlist (other than my own  ), and reminding me that Taylor Momsen is actually a really decent musical artist.
LeJenD'  for being another Cage the Elephant fan and for featuring that George Harrison tribute, which is one of my favorite performances ever.
Olivia: it's NaNo-Time
28082  for writing serialized narrative entries, which is really cool.
Choconut  for including some truly iconic musical acts, and everything from Whitney Houston to The Kinks to Superchick.
🌻 thankful pwheeler nano  for some really amazing worship music, which is a genre I've been enjoying a lot lately.
BlueMoon for some great cover versions of some of my favorite popular songs.
s for consistently being one of the first to post their entry every single day.
zwisis for the race to the finish, adding a ton of great catch-up songs in the final days.
You guys (and gals) are all awesome, and it was a pleasure to blog my playlist from last year alongside you all. I hope that you'll all join me for "Invalid Item" and the rest of "Invalid Item" activities coming up later in the year. In the meantime, keep writing, keep blogging, and keep on rockin'!
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February 27, 2022 at 3:57am February 27, 2022 at 3:57am
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 27
"I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)"
by Meat Loaf
R.I.P. Meat Loaf
I was never a huge fan of Meat Loaf the way a few of my friends are. I really like "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" and of course the classic I'm featuring today. But he was never an artist I spent a lot of time listening to outside of his hits. I've even been listening to some of his catalogue since his passing and I can't say I've had any new revelations in terms of songs that I just have to add to my playlists. But this one I could listen to on repeat for days.
More than the song, though, I want to devote my entry today to the music video linked above.
First of all, it's a nearly eight-minute retelling of Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera.
Second of all, it was directed by Michael Bay. Yes, that Michael Bay.
Third of all, the cinematographer was Daniel Pearl, who won the first-ever MTV Award for Cinematography for his work the video for "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, and was the cinematographer on the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie from the 70s. Pearl has repeatedly mentioned in interviews that this is his favorite project that he's done.
The thing that I found most amazing about this video, though, is the fact that the featured singer in the song, Lorraine Crosby, isn't the woman in the video. The woman in the video is actually supermodel Dana Patrick. Although this is Michael Bay we're talking about, so in retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised that he decided to cast a hot model for the female lead.  Dana Patrick actually did the same thing for Patti Russo's part in the music video for Meat Loaf's "I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)" (which starts out as a continuation of the story from this video and was also photographed by Daniel Pearl), and lip-synched so convincingly that she reportedly received multiple offers for record deals from music executives who assumed she was the one doing the actual singing.
This is one of the first music videos that really got my attention for its production value and storytelling. It's a big, bold concept for a big, bold song, and I think it still holds up today.
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February 27, 2022 at 12:39am February 27, 2022 at 12:39am
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 26
"Ain't Nobody Like You" and "I'm Falling in Love"
by Wildflowers feat. Emmi
This is the final song(s) that I'm including from my Spotify discoveries over the past year. This entry is a bit of an enigma for me because I usually research a band once I find a track that I like, to figure out what else they've released, when their songs came out, etc. And there isn't a whole lot of info available on this EP, which dropped in 2018. Emmi seems to be an British-Australian singer-songwriter but there's absolutely no reference to her work with Wildflowers. And Wildflowers have a Facebook page, but it hasn't been updated in over a year. Their Twitter and Instagram accounts are basically defunct as well, and their band's homepage is a parked domain with no public content on it.
It would really be a shame if this band has broken up or something because I really love their sound. The whole EP is pretty great and these are two of my favorite songs from it.
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February 26, 2022 at 12:11am February 26, 2022 at 12:11am
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 25
"10K Summer Nights"
by Eighty Ninety
Another song discovered on Spotify. I guess you're starting to figure out where I listened to a lot of my music this past year.
This is one of those songs where the thing that speaks to me doesn't have anything to do with the subject matter of the song. It's actually not even the whole song for me, although I do enjoy listening to it. For me, the part of the song that really resonates with me is the verse that ends with:
Just wishing I could see your face one more time
But for now, I'd stay up hoping that you find me in your next life
This verse reminds me of my mom, and how much I miss her. She's been gone for over a year now, but I still think about her every day and how much I miss seeing her. This is another one of those bittersweet songs that I find myself listening to quite a bit when I'm feeling nostalgic or a little down.
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February 26, 2022 at 12:03am February 26, 2022 at 12:03am
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 24
"Maroon Five"
by Spencer Jordan
I generally dislike songs named for other artists and pop culture phenomena, so this song about listening to Maroon Five is a bit of an exception to the case, but it's because I really like the rhythm of the song and think Spencer Jordan has a pretty great voice. I don't really know what it is about this song that works for me, but I find myself listening to it a lot in the car when I'm driving around and feeling a little melancholy. This is another song that I discovered on Spotify, and it's one of my most listened-to songs of 2021.
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February 25, 2022 at 11:58pm February 25, 2022 at 11:58pm
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 23
"The Heat"
by Moody Joody
I found this song through Spotify recommendations and have been listening to it quite a bit lately. I'd never heard of Moody Joody before this song, but I've been checking out some of their other stuff and really like their sound. "Villain" is also a really good track. Moody Joody is apparently a female duo collaboration of two individual artists (similar to how The Wreckers were a thing for a while when Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp teamed up) out of Nashville. Their songwriting is pretty strong, I"m excited to see what else they do.
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February 25, 2022 at 11:40pm February 25, 2022 at 11:40pm
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 22
"Driver's License" and "Good 4 U"
by Olivia Rodrigo
Sour was one of the most surprising albums that I discovered last year. I figured that Olivia Rodrigo, a Disney Channel actress, was going to follow in the footsteps of other young television actresses who decide to start singing and would release a generic pop album. I was really surprised to discover an album that had a clear point of view, an edge to it, and some pretty catchy lyrics and melodies.
I'm definitely interested to see what Olivia Rodrigo does next. This was a really great album and I'm curious to see if she can replicate its success with her next effort.
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February 21, 2022 at 11:27pm February 21, 2022 at 11:27pm
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 21
"I Can't Hold Back"
by Survivor
I was actually on a bit of a Survivor kick last year, and had a hard time choosing which of their songs I was going to feature on this year's playlist. I almost went with "The Search Is Over" or "High On You," but this one had the highest play count throughout last year. R.I.P. Jimi Jamison, who might be the single greatest vocalist among all the 80s rock bands. He was renowned for having near-perfect pitch, the band's sound engineers almost never having to pitch edit his recording sessions at all.
Survivor is one of my go-to bands when I want to get lost in an 80s rock rabbit hole. All I have to do is listen to a few of their songs (or Journey's), and then I'm suddenly revisiting Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Queen, Foreigner, etc. It's a gateway band to all kinds of classic rock.
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February 21, 2022 at 11:17pm February 21, 2022 at 11:17pm
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"The Soundtrack of Your Life" | Day 20
"Take Me To Heart"
by Quarterflash
I love it when watching something reminds me of a great 80s song that I had totally forgotten. That was certainly the case with this song, which was featured in Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. Quarterflash is usually better known for their hit "Harden My Heat" but I've always enjoyed this song of theirs better, and when the show played it on their soundtrack, it reminded me of how often I used to listen to this track growing up.
Back in the day, I remember Quarterflash being notable because the lead singer, Rindy Ross, also played the saxophone, which was unusual at the time. Quarterflash is also a consolidated band from two pre-existing bands, Pilot (not the Scottish one) and Seafood Mama. In the case of the latter, I think it was a very good idea to change their name to Quarterflash. 
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February 21, 2022 at 3:40am February 21, 2022 at 3:40am
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I have to admit, seeing this notification made me chuckle.
All due credit to NaNoNette  who inspired the idea with "Reading, Writing, Reviewing" .
Tonight I removed everything I had "fanned" on the site, hence the note above. That's not to say that I "unfavorited" people; I still have my favorites so I can keep track of the users and activities that I enjoy interacting with. But I've been really uncomfortable with the idea of obsessing over one's fans, and offering incentives to gain more fans. No judgement against anyone who does find the accumulation of fans important, or wants to encourage community-building by doing so, but for me personally it's just not sitting well.
I suspect it's part of a recent, larger move away from social media on my part. I also check Twitter and Facebook less. I'm not as enamored with the idea of scrolling through a feed trying to make sure I haven't missed anything, whether it's Instagram, LinkedIn, or Writing.com. I've been through cycles of trying to add friends, followers, fans ... whatever term a site adopts for its audience. I've seen people, myself included, chase artificial metrics for success like who has the most CR, whether you can collect all the merit badges in the shop, if you can be the #1 reviewer for the month, or raise/spend the most GPs in an activity. And if I'm being honest with myself, I'm exhausted by all of that. Exhausted and ultimately unfulfilled.
So I'm trying something different. I'm focusing more of my time on meaningful interactions rather than superficial ones. I'm slowly gaining back some of the time in the day that I used to use for productive purposes rather than social media interactions that haven't been filling the void that formed when I stopped exploring my creativity.
One of the things that I love about this site is all of the different ways one can participate. You can write, review, run activities, communicate on the newsfeed, shower others with gifts and recognition; each user contributes to this site in their own unique way. For me, I want to reorient that engagement away from chasing social rewards (GPs, CR, fans, etc.) and back toward writing and running activities that celebrate writing.
I have absolutely nothing against anyone who enjoys the social rewards on this site, but that's just not something that's a priority for me at the moment. Will I still visit the newsfeed and interact with others? Sure. Will I still collect trinkets when I find them? Of course. Will I still try to earn exclusive Merit Badges when a challenge comes up that strikes my fancy? Geez, I didn't swap out my entire personality.  But I'm going to try to be more intentional about not letting popularity and social cache drive the agenda anymore. And to that end, I've non-selectively chosen to "unfan" everything.
Okay, maybe that last GIF was a little extreme. I still have my favorites. I'm still always on the lookout for new activities and users to favorite so I can follow along and interact with them. But I'm going to try to let that happen organically, where connections are built on the quality of the interactions themselves. I don't need to "fan" someone (and they don't need to "fan" me) in order to make a connection.
Maybe I'll "fan" some things again in the future. One never knows. But, for right now, I think the right choice for me is to step away from the pursuit of fans and CR and the Writing.com social economy in general, and instead reinvest in the site's writing and creative community.
Stay tuned, I've got some ideas about what to tackle next. 
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