Attention to detail is the ability to observe, analyze, and comprehend every aspect of a given task or situation. It's the dying art of being meticulous, precise, and thorough. I can be attentive. I can spend hours planning and structuring, searching for information, filtering data, fact-checking and cross-referencing, choosing and editing photos for the website. Pixel by pixel, if necessary. Paradoxically, certain things completely eludes me. I'm unable to remember or learn. It doesn't matter how many times i have performed a task. It doesn't stick. Attention to detail requires an interest. That goes for people, places, things, and even relationships. And why bother with things that you don't find interesting. And besides, the human brain cannot absore all information. It would lead to a stack overflow. It's a type of buffer overflow error that occurs when a computer program tries to use more memory space in the call stack than has been allocated to that stack. Too much focus on detail can cause problems. For you and related. Attention to detail is a good thing, taken in moderation. You need to combine attention to detail with an ability to see the big picture and make connections between the two. Where is this blog post going? The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail. There's no "work-around" or "quick-fix" when it comes to running a website. You have to put in the hours or else put it to rest. A job half done isn't done.

When I was young, I went to many concerts. Not so much anymore. After an incident (read more here, opens in a new window) I have become unsure of what I actually have seen and heard. In a few cases, I have a ticket or photos to help me remember. Maybe, I was at Konserthuset in Stockholm on October 21th 1975, or maybe I wasn't. I don't remember. Anyway, Blue Öyster Cult played there on their Secret Treaties tour. Heavy metal wasn't highly esteemed in the radical 1970s. Music journalist Mia Gerdin wrote in Dagens Nyheter "A part of the audience, which consisted mostly of young guys, identified themselves completely with the band and its aura of ice-cold strength and equally ice-cold potency. It felt terrifying because it seemed to happen so completely without reservation" (my translation). In hindsight, more of a participant observation in sociology than a review. Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and the most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals, keyboards), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals, miscellaneous instruments). Blue Öyster Cult are returning to Sweden in May 2025, 50 years after their first appearance. The band's current lineup includes Eric Bloom and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. I like their 1975 live album. The album cover depicts St Paul's Episcopal Chapel in South Salem, New York. The church is an example of Gothic Revival. Obviously, there is a gothic streak in my life. Blue Öyster Cult were never a band in the same division as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Nevertheless, I carved out the BÖC logo (a stylization of the astronomical symbol for the planet Saturn consisting of a hook, bars and a dot) from a piece of wood in craft lessons. It didn't bump up my grades. I got a D in crafts. Rightly so. Time to put on "Then Came the Last Days of May" and to feel unrestrained nostalgic. Time surely flies fast. 

This is the fourth of six blog posts in a series of female artists or female-fronted bands that will be published under 2024. This blog post deals with an obscure band called Ashcan Orchid. I consider myself skilled and competent when it comes to digging for information. If there is any information out there, I will find it, trust me. However, the only thing that I have found out is that Ashcan Orchid came from Portland, OR. It seems that they missed (or refrained) the second internet wave. One album can sometimes be enough for leaving a mark in music history (even more so in small subgenres that not many people know or care about). This is dark cabaret (which is a musical genre that draws on the aesthetics of burlesque, vaudeville and Weimar-era cabaret) mixed with gothic country. This should be mutually exclusive. It's dark cabaret or gothic country, not dark cabaret and gothic country. The end result could be disastrous as you probably can imagine. But this time it actually works. Their product declaration for their album caught my attention: "Cantillating scandalous hymns of carnage and lament; brutal, honest and timelessly out of time come the sordid tales of Ashcan Orchid. Their debut album "The Woods" was released in 2010. After that, they went into thin air. Let's indulge ourselves in counterfactual reasoning: what would have happened if they kept on going? We will never know and we can only speculate. I think that they would have made a bigger imprint. The best songs are "What Would My Mother Think", "Haunted", "La Bruja", "The Woods", "Stolen Ghost Waltz", and "When You're Dead". The arrangements are solid. This is so much better than all the copiers, fakers, imitators, impersonaters and imposters out there. "The Woods" isn't particularly rare. You can find an used copy here and there. 

This blog post isn't about the old saying about 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. It's about social interaction on the Internet. It started as a way for researchers to share information. The Internet later became a formidable tool for discussing and exchanging views. Not so much anymore. Some claim that social interaction is dead, while others claim that it has just changed. Anyway, I think we can agree that it's less social and more media. I started this website in 2014 when everybody else had moved on to the next level. The mission statement was (and is): "To explore and promote gothic country, southern gothic, gothic americana, american gothic and dark americana and ...whatever." What can I say? The written word is dying or at least in sharp decline. Instead, people invest their time and energy into sharing and liking. Nowadays, even this seems to be too demanding. Let me take an example. A couple a months ago I was invited to a group on Reddit (a social network in decline). It wasn't just any random group. It was a dedicated group for dark americana with 992 members (last time I checked). Great, a group of like-minded enthusiasts, I thought. I should have thought again. Every other week a Youtube video or a Spotify playlist gets posted. The responses are, to put it mildly, limited and restrained. I will give it to the end of the year and if it hasn't changed (not likely), I will delete my account. The internet is overflowing with dead websites and if they, for some reason, are still up - the latest update is from 2017. I have an ambition to post something every week. Since the activity level is low and regrowth in the genre is close to zero, I take the liberty to veer off into other subjects. After all, it's my website for which I pay for and I do as I please. Sometimes, I have to force myself to come up with anything to write. Still, a post is coming every week. Discipline starts where motivation ends.   

Do you live your life by design or by default? Living by design means living according to a plan in order to achieve your true purpose in life. Living by default means living without plans and letting things happen as you go. It's widely considered that living by design leads to success, while living by default leads to mediocrity. Most people can be placed in a spectrum between design and default. We all have a little of both in us. I think it's bad to be at the ends of the spectrum, especially the design extreme point. Planning is everything, but the plan is nothing. Not all things will go according to your plan. Even the best and elaborate plan will not make much difference. Instead, you should put your trust in people, circumstances and opportunities. When one door closes another one opens. It's a sliding doors moment, where you can look back several decades from now and see whether you chose the right or the wrong door. However, even in hindsight it will be difficult to determine whether it was the right or wrong door. Personally, I have always aimed at mediocrity. "Mediocrity is always praised" said my first boss and I marked his words. He met opposition and resistance with a cold steel approach. He also introduced me to the concept of repressive tolerance and how to master it. Because of his efforts, I was sent on a path for which I am grateful for.