Wow, Fam! It’s been a minute.
When I whisked myself off to LA after my last post in August, I had every intention of coming back to the blog before the end of September.
However, as you may have noticed, it’s obv not September, and depending on how you found your way to this post, you may or may not be aware that this is not my typical ‘New Music Musings’ style content either.
& that’s because after I got back from Linney’s ‘We Dance’ EP release party, a couple of major things happened:
- My tanyabeacurates account was wrongfully deleted from Instagram
- My new account mstanyadawn has been flagged as spam, preventing me from being able to post (or comment on posts) without risk of it also being deleted.
If you use social media, whether for personal or professional reasons, I suspect you can imagine what a nightmare it would be to have your account wiped with no warning, no indication as to why and very little opportunity for recourse.
& by ‘very little’ I mean deep-diving down a rabbit hole of links that redirect to the completely unhelpful Instagram ‘Help’ Center, filling out countless (hidden) forms that deliver auto-generated responses and scouring an untold number of Reddit posts that suggest everything from randomly emailing US Attorney Generals, to straight up PAYING for Meta Verified to access the privilege of talking to an ACTUAL HUMAN PERSON. #ExtortionAnyone?!?!
While I’m still in the midst of deciding how far I want to take my own attempts at account reclamation (outside of paying Meta, because again, that’s EXTORTION), I have been doing whatever I can to support my mental health through the stress of the process, and one of the things that has helped me most is swapping long-form writing about weekly new releases with the practice of cataloguing them instead. #YouCanTakeTheGirlOutOfTheLibrary…
If you happen to be new to my little corner of the net — first of all, Hi! I’m so glad you’re here(!!!) & I’d love it if you’d drop a comment and let me know how you found your way to me.
Second of all, I started NovelliFans with the primary intention of creating an independent, digital record of Christina Novelli’s music — a la the special collections you find in academic libraries that are dedicated to creators of cultural and artistic importance like Beethoven, Bach, Mark Twain & Jane Austen.
b/c, no shade to Bach, Twain or Austen, but in my world, Beethoven is the only name in that list whose work could give Christina a run for her money. #sorrynotsorry
My earliest blog posts were a reflection of this intention, and read a lot more like catalogue records themselves — sharing the most pertinent details of a particular release or event, along with links to additional resources / media for anyone who might want to learn more.
I kept them brief because I wanted to devote as much time as I could to cataloguing the 12 YEARS(!!!) worth of music Christina has already produced, while also doing my best to keep up with the wealth of tracks she continues to release. 🥳🥳🥳
& while you may be wondering why I would invest my free time in collecting information from sites that either benefit musicians like Christina monetarily (i.e. Beatport, Spotify, etc.) or provide you with direct access to them yourself (i.e. Instagram, TikTok, etc.) all I can say is it feels important.
Preserving the catalogues of what has quickly become an entire family of artists whose music (and kindness) carries me through my best and darkest days, outside of the increasingly siloed platforms where discovery continues to become exceedingly difficult and delivery of their content is no longer guaranteed to reach even their most invested fans, is important to me.
Even more so now that I know first-hand what it’s like to have access to one of those platforms revoked at the whim of a bot. #thereareTHOUSANDSofus
Additionally, there’s always been something about gathering and organizing disparate pieces of information, especially when they are related to an area of special interest — like vocal dance music by the best in the game 👑 — that fills my cup and tames my AuDHD brain tornado in a way that I myself am only beginning to understand.
It’s one of the tasks that drew me to library work in the first place, and one of the skills I’m most thankful to have developed in school.
& rn, in the midst of this Meta-bot nightmare, I need that.
At the same time, I def want to find a way to incorporate some ‘New Music Musings’ style writing into my workflow, so if you’re game for sticking around while I figure things out, I’d love to have you along for the ride. If the prioritization of cataloguing over long-form writing in the interim changes the way that you feel about being a subscriber tho, I completely understand.
Whether this post encourages you to stay or go, I am so thankful for the time you have spent with me here.
I’m also still posting short-form content (v. irregularly) to TikTok & YouTube, so if those platforms are more your speed, I’d love to see you over there while I sort out what this newsletter is going to look like.
Ofc, if you have any thoughts on what would make these posts ‘must-reads’ when they arrive in your inbox, please feel free to leave a comment below or send me a note @ miztanyabea@gmail.com
& if you’ve made it this far, I hope you enjoy these shots of Christina taken during her recent set at Trance Signal in Oberhausen, Germany on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
The photos were taken by the undeniably talented Dutch photographer, Julian Spanhof (aka spanhof.info) and Trance Signal has uploaded a full album from the event to their Facebook page, including even more shots of Christina, which you can find here. 🔥
That’s it for me, Fam!
I hope the past several weeks have treated you well. Thanks so much for reading & I’ll see you next time. 🖤
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