Mighty Toy Cannon in the House

Bob Hicks, our Art Scattering friend, was snooping around where he didn’t belong and discovered--and then exposed--my eponymous, super-secret blog site: Mighty Toy Cannon. He even posted the very first comment. So now I feel obligated to tell Culture Shock readers what’s up:

Several months ago, I set up a new Blogger account and began to post personal musings on music, illustrated by videos culled from YouTube. I didn’t want to clutter Culture Shock with posts about my quirky musical tastes (my 25 "Election Countdown" posts in October and November notwithstanding).

My plan was to announce the new site after posting several entries to prime the pump and to test whether I could sustain my own interest long enough. Then two things happened: (1) I got busy with both real work and play work (this blog); and (2) I contracted a case of Blogger-Doubt—an affliction characterized by self-examination and the question: "Who could possibly care to read any of this?”

Now that the Mighty Toy Cannon site has been exposed, I’m inclined to dig back in. I will endeavor to keep posting new entries there at least weekly. My inaugural post on that site, described my intentions as follows:

The Mighty Toy Cannon blog will be akin to your friend with the big record collection. You know, the one who can stay up all night spinning tunes, with each song triggering a recollection of another in an attention-deficit-disorder frenzy of free association.

What I post won't be from my own collection, but what I find on YouTube or similar video warehouses. Like most, I thought YouTube was all skateboarding dogs, things being blown up, and adolescent ravings. I quickly discovered that it is also a rich source of music, both new and vintage. As a musician and glutton for music, YouTube has served me as an able research tool. I'm often surprised at what I discover. And, I'm the kind of sharing person who is wont to say, "Hey, look at this cool thing I just found!"

I'm not a music writer, nor do my insights into music go very deep. Don't expect Greil Marcus here. This will be a tour of my eclectic musical tastes and influences. I'll try to make each post fit within a thematic framework, and include just a few comments to explain what I've posted and why. I'll try to limit the number of videos I embed in each post to no more than three. And I'll try to add a few new posts every week.

I'll keep blathering on Culture Shock, but please drop in from time-to-time at Mighty Toy Cannon and let me know what you think.