Recently, Kurt and I have been wondering how to spend our free time. The two of us graduated Providence College (go Friars) in 2017 and have been working and living in New England ever since. We ran a radio show at PC, which in all honesty is not much of an achievement, but I think it made us realize the potential for sharing a love of music and ideas. And those Sunday hungover afternoons spent watching movies? We could talk about that too. We need a place to really get into what we enjoy. Namely Music and Film. Our hope is this can be a place where we pass some of that knowledge, insight, potential humor etc. to you, the people. We want to discuss the things we love, because why not? WordPress is free. And we have spare time. This could just be a guise for productivity but who cares honestly. So, let’s give it a go.
I used to live in Portland, and let me say the music scene here is, as expected, a major upgrade. Thats not to bag on Portland, which I love dearly, it’s just they don’t get the attention of major artists given its a city with a population of 50,000. To be honest, I don’t blame artists for not wanting to drive up there in the middle of the winter. Summer though? No excuse. It’s an absolute beauty up there. One thing I will say though, is that Portland packs its shows to the brim, every time. Local band or big name, you’ve got an audience. That always impressed me for such a small town.
So I am a Maine guy, and Kurt is from a town called Hebron, Connecticut. I’ll let him do his own intro, but Kurt is a lover of all things music and film, amongst many other things, and as such has been my partner in crime for everything musically related since early in college attending Big-Room EDM shows at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. We had many laughs, plenty of grooving, and a handful of friends joining us along the way. We’ve come a long way from the Hardwells of the world, but that love of music still prevails, even with the 9-5 lifestyle.
Why do we want to focus on Beats, or music? For one, it’s easy for us to talk about. Music is everywhere. Literally everywhere. It’s almost impossible to go a full day without hearing a song, in a store, in your iPod, whatever. A lot of it is garbage, that is for sure. But sometimes you find a gem. And it runs your life for a few days until you can get it out of your head. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s about hitting a weeknight concert for some band you’ve hardly heard of and having your mind blown away by a no-name guitarist. It’s being packed in at the House of Blues while DeadMau5 slowly rotates in a Cube thing blaring lights and sounds that would comatose an epileptic. And everything in between. Our concert adventures and musical digesting on a daily basis is worth sharing, we promise. And to be honest, it’s more fun to share than to keep it all to ourselves. That goes for most good things.
Why movies? Film has something for everyone. Old or young, rich or poor, dumb or smart; there is a movie out there for you. Horror, Drama, Comedy, War, Psychological Thriller, Action/Adventure and everything in between, somewhere in there you’ll find some hidden gold. There are a LOT of amazing movies out there, and there are too many bad ones. But what we want to focus on are the movies that make an impact on us, make us think differently or drive us to have a conversation with a friend the day after viewing. The kind of movie that sticks with you emotionally and keeps you coming back year after year. There is no doubt that movies are the penultimate escape, even if it is just for a few hours. And no doubt there is a special kind of feeling when you can have a great discussion with a friend about a movie you both loved, or hated. Doesn’t matter where you see it, who you see it with, or what the hell it was about, a good film changes who you are in some way, even if you don’t always notice it. We live for that. And that’s why I’m writing this paragraph.
Music and movies, I think we can cover plenty of ground on a weekly basis to fill a page or two. Wish us luck.
Beats & Blockbusters 