This is my 190th post since January 1st. Given that it’s the 236th day of 2025, that means I’ve thus far put a figurative pen to figurative paper four out of every five days of the year. I generally listen to new or recent music releases every morning, think, think some more, write, and then do it again, and again and again after that. Oh, sure, some days I respond to a Daily Prompt question or dig into the cinematic splendors of a decades-old film or TV show, but…it’s a lot. I’m on a pace to obliterate last year’s record of 225 posts. It’s insane, I tell ya, just insane!
I need a break, in other words. As a result, I’ll be away until early September—back just in time to spotlight a slew of cool albums and songs slated to be released on the 5th and 12th. One of the things that will be occupying my mind, however, is whether I want to tweak this iteration of the Old Grey Cat. I’ll always spotlight new music, but maybe not as often as I’ve been doing.
At certain junctures, I should explain, maintaining the original Old Grey Cat website (1997-2006) left me feeling somewhat like Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ancient mariner, who wore an albatross around his neck in order to atone for “a woeful agony” he brought upon himself and his shipmates. My initial scattershot focus gave way to a streamlined vision focused on the “unofficial” oeuvres of Neil Young and his erstwhile pals Davis Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash—and, about the time the site made the pages of Mojo Collectibles and Record Collector magazines in 2002, I’d grown bored. The malaise led me to mothball the site for months at a time (if not longer), then treat its What’s New page as something akin to a blog. Here were my thoughts from late May 2004, for instance:
(Yes, I enjoyed the era’s pop music! I still do. And I still feel the same about Maria McKee whenever I listen to her or Lone Justice.)
When offline demands led me to shutter that site for good, it’s why I didn’t flinch. I wasn’t just bored; I was chairman of the bored! Over time, of course, I began to miss it—that’s why, in early 2012, I began sharing essays on my local Patch. I wrote about whatever was on my mind—music, of course, but also the passage of time, the retail world, and my family’s long-ago overseas adventure. There was no pressure (internal or external) to produce; it was an occasional thing. I enjoyed the open-ended aspect of it.
I miss that approach, actually.
The Old Grey Cat 