Reading Time: 3 Mins.
I have had many websites and blogs over the years.
When I lived in Japan I created a website and wrote a blog with my then-girlfriend called twocandiansinosaka.com. It chronicled our lives teaching in Japan and actually became a decent resource for those looking to make the move. We made several friends who first found us at the blog and who ended up working alongside us in Osaka.
Probably my biggest blogging effort lasted nearly seven years in the late 90’s/early 2000’s with a site called See The Donkey. It was my main creative outlet and I wrote regularly and contributed to various blogging circles and storyblogging carnivals (remember those?). While the blog had a modest readership, the site drew in thousands and thousands of hits per day thanks to me housing an archive of old TV theme songs, a minor pet passion of mine and, apparently, a good many others, back when streaming music was not yet a thing.
I retired the blog and let the site expire but the domain was clearly on someone’s radar because it got snatched up. Don’t visit it today – you will be blinded by Japanese flashing ads promising many things of a not-safe-for-work nature. I have nothing to do with the site in its current incarnation, let me be clear on that point. 🙂
Then back in 2016 I made a New Year’s resolution that I wanted to start writing online again and I wanted to focus more on my passion for music, so I started a blog called Tape The Night. I knew I would only be contributing to it when I had the time and definitely not as regularly as See The Donkey, so I made the decision to write anonymously under the name Hi-Speed Dubber. I set up a Twitter account and started the blog and have been adding to it off and on for the last six years.
Since I launched this website and the One Word blog focusing on my writing back in February, as well as cleaning up my own personal Twitter and relaunching myself on that platform, I’ve been managing multiple identities and accounts on Twitter (not to mention also being a turkey). The Tape The Night Twitter never amassed many followers but, then again, I didn’t really put any effort into it at all. It was just a space to connect and curate a more music-minded social media experience.
Lately I’ve really only been using it to chronicle 2022, posting a #SongOfTheDay every single day so far that reflects either my mood or something going on in my life. A soundtrack for the year, so to speak.
I woke up this morning and decided maybe it’s time to streamline things.
I’m about to get married, one week tomorrow, and I don’t want the songs I know I’ll be choosing for the next week leading up to the wedding to be under an online alias. I want them to be here, because after so many years of trying to be so many separate online personas (there are a number I haven’t even mentioned here), it’s time to bring everything under one true and authentic umbrella and identity: me.
I’ve added Tape The Night to the main menu here on the website and I’ll continue to use that blog for specifically music-related thoughts, stories and ideas, but I’ll probably steer away from the Twitter account for the time being.
If you’re here from the Tape The Night account, welcome, thank you for visiting and it’s nice to officially meet you! 🙂
I can’t quite put the words to it, but having just written all of this out, I have a weird sense of relief washing over me.
I think maybe I’m just feeling good about putting the pieces of myself back together again after so long.
It’s good to feel whole again.