Who the hell are you? I am a 22 year old male that knows nothing. I go to college and I have a strong passion for listening to music. I am a little lazy, so this will probably say I am 22 for many years.
Why the hell are you blogging? At this present moment in time, my goal is to ultimately work for a music publication. However, my journalistic writing tone is a little bit... unpolished, shall I say? For fun, I like to write Wikipedia articles for bands/albums that I enjoy. However, an encyclopedic writing tone can often times be rather dull and lacking any sort of character. I wanted to start a blog to practice my writing skills and see where it takes me. Maybe I'll get bored of this within a month, maybe I'll continue until death do us part.
As of January 2011, this is what I envision this blog to become: a place where I can freely write about music and express my ideas. I want it to become part diary, part review site, part news site and part research piece. Let me elaborate on that last one a bit. I was born into this world with zero knowledge of 1980s hardcore punk. However, over the years I have obtained some knowledge of this era of music through various sources. Until someone invents a time machine (fingers crossed that'll happen sometime soon), I can never experience 1980s hardcore punk first-hand. I only have little artifacts and treasures to help paint a picture in my mind of what it was like. I can listen to recordings of punk, I can read interviews with those that were involved in that scene, I can read books about that scene, I can watch movies that imitate that scene, but none of these will ever give me true first-hand experience--a much higher level of obtaining knowledge. It's similar to describing the color green to a blind person. Until they experience green, they'll never have full knowledge of it. So I would like to use this blog to describe what I believe 1980s hardcore punk to be based on my findings, but I will probably be wrong. And I believe that by making this error it can actually better my understanding.
Why the hell did you pick "GraveDigger" as your title? My general way of wandering about through life has always been from the perspective of The Fool. The definition of Fool I like to use is not quite being derived from the Tarot card, but more so from Eastern Philosophy and Taoism. While I am morally against the adopting of a philosophy, certain aspects of various philosophies speak to me. The idea in some Eastern Philosophies is that you know nothing, and that's actually a rather large concept to wrap your noodle around. Here's an excerpt from The Way of Wonder by Jack Haas, and I'm sure it won't sit quite right with a lot of people:
"To know that ignorance is the pinnacle of real wisdom is to come full-circle within the circumference of the mind; it is to be wise, foolish, oblivious, indifferent and passionate, all at the same time; it is to 'see' everything, and yet know nothing."You had to read it a few times and still don't understand it, right? It takes a while before it really makes sense, just try not write it off as 'stupid' so quickly. Anyways, I take that little bit from Taoism, and interject my own beliefs a little. This little riddle only touches on how a man ought to act in order to achieve enlightenment or wisdom. I naturally start just about every aspect of my life from the perspective of the idiotic Fool that knows nothing (and that is all that he knows), but through this act of ignorance, one can obtain a greater knowledge of the world around him. There are simple things around you all the time that you probably just accept, while I sit around puzzled and amazed.
Geese fly south for the winter. Most people stop right there and say they understand the nature of what it means to be a goose. I, however, stare in amazement and ask questions that, at the surface, seem foolish and juvenile. Something like, "Do geese have calendars?" What a ridiculous question that is. Geese have neither a wall to hang up a calendar, nor thumbs to flip the pages. However, through asking this odd question, I could develop a way to discover why they fly south and end up with a better understanding of geese than someone who just accepted that a goose is a goose. For many many years, no one cared about the nature of a goose. Why geese fly south for the winter was written off as "instinctual," but now it's our understanding that it has to do with their food source. It takes someone genuinely curious about the nature of what it means to be a goose to not only ask these ridiculous questions, but to have the driving force to want to figure them out. Science is full of curious Fools. It was probably a long chain of Fools that were rather passionate about electrons that created the computer screen you're looking at right now and the internet that's providing you these neat little words.
But the topic here isn't geese, it's digging graves. Because I envisioned this philosophy to be my general tone for this blog, I wanted a title that encapsulated my idea of The Fool within a single word or phrase. Preferably in Latin, because chicks dig Latin and blogging gets you laid (hopefully). So a quick trip to Google and Wikipedia turned up a fun little list of all the characters that portrayed a fool in all of Shakespeare's plays. I settled on The Gravediggers from Hamlet for two reasons. One, quoting ancient and classical literature is a quick and easy way to appear more intelligent than you actually are. Try it sometime, I highly recommend it. And two, since my musical tastes are geared more toward punk and metal, I figured a grim and morbid title would appeal more to my target audience than just "The Fool" alone would. However, my ultimate interest in starting a blog outweighed my interest in coming with the perfect name for it. I can't say I actually enjoy this title, and it's subject to change at anytime.
What the hell do you want from your readers? Lots of comments and constructive criticism on all levels. Because this is somewhat of an exercise to practice my writing, I want feedback on my writing. Because I will be expressing my opinions often, I want to know if you agree or disagree and why. Because I will be writing on things I may know very little about, I want you to help out and point me in the right direction if you happen to be an expert in a specific field. If there are any other Fools out there reading, won't you take this little journey with me? And if you work for say, oh I don't know... Decibel, Rock Sound, Revolver, Alternative Press, Noisecreep, Kerrang!, PunkNews or the like, perhaps you could consider hiring me one day? Pretty please? I'll be your best friend and trade you my best Pog!
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