Collected Irritations

Why start this at all? Why invite this particular headache, more hours hunched over a Mac instead of listening to records, reading on a Kobo, or watching the protracted decline of civilization unfold on TikTok or Twitch?

The seeds of Rekordr.online were sown by an email I received early in my writing career. The sender wished I would publish a collection of my newspaper essays in a single, convenient book so she could “hate everything in one place.” Her wish (probably a One Wish Willow) is my command. We’re trying to collate all the articles that have made her rage against my machinations. Here’s a nagging thought: people allocate most of their wrath against musicians, filmmakers, actors and writers, among other creatives for failing to live up to the art inside the heads of office-chair critics. We have literal fascists, crooks, child molesters and warmongers living among us — in today’s world, in this era where Taylor Swift is married to a football player. There are worthier opponents than the Queen of Swifties or Disney.

It also irked me no end that, when looking at past articles, all I could see were garbled versions of what came out in the paper — pictureless, riddled with hieroglyphics and haphazardly posted. The Facebook page of the village where I live — with its endless justification of gate repairs and posts of geriatrics doing Zumba — looks more elegant. I couldn’t even find articles that I wrote prior to 2001. Everything else has been banished to the dustbins of non-history. As if I emerged from an egg and began my proper writing career with Alanis.

I still love newsprint, don’t get me wrong. I am an analog guy. But the incredible shrinking newspaper space and circulation have pushed most of us to the margins. When I attend press events, I get seated right next to content creators and glorified caption-makers. Shit, it is practically their era. And us dinosaurs have to slave away to get maintenance pills or Grab Food money or, in my case, the latest in the long line of Steely Dan reissues.

It’s cool, though, to recreate a lifetime of writing in this website. Reading old articles gets me really baffled as to who the hell I was at that time: an angry, insecure spiky-haired guy prone to linguistic ejaculations, grammatical and factual errors, as well as being obsessed with the notion that things are going to get far, far worse. Cue Zendaya’s mildly disappointed facial expression. Well, I was both wrong and right.

Things, well, they got better, er, relatively. These days, relationships with friends, family and a loved one are more profound; living conditions (except for cardiac-inducing Meralco bills) are excellent; the Ikea Kallax shelves are full to the brim with vinyl; and creating a database for my chicken-scratching and markings has become easier with Artificial Intelligence.

Like what an artist said onstage while we were both giving a talk: “A.I. is just a tools.” I refuse to rewrite some cringe-worthy entries in some of these articles. I embrace mistakes, spelling errors, and my methodical derangement of the English language because they show readers that whoever wrote the pieces is human, all-too-human. Ever listened to a live recording of The Black Crowes and heard a bum note? Chris Robinson will tell you it is because human beings were playing music on stage. The way to go.

The critic in you is going to point out the abundance of graphic images or illustrations on Rekordr.online created with ChatGPT and Midjourney. No apologies forthcoming. I love the way you can manipulate images into approximating what was written down or what was brewing in your head. But if you really hate A.I. for merely existing and find me fit to be crucified for using A.I. platforms, feel free to attend my exhibitions of oil paintings done from scratch and by hand.

So there, I’m sure this manifesto will keep expanding once I think of something that will either make you rage even more or, as I keep telling myself while looking back at a body of work that has provided me the life I have now, will help you understand where I am coming from and where I am headed.

And the Rekordings I made along the way.