The Obelisk is 14 Years Old Today
Posted in The Numbers on January 31st, 2023 by JJ KoczanI have to admit, I feel a little silly. This post should have been written to go up yesterday. In my defense, I’ll note that it was an extraordinarily busy weekend, involving monster trucks and family birthdays and a brunch and everything. But either way, yeah, I let it slip, and it wasn’t until I was tagged in a post in The Obelisk Collective on Facebook that I even realized, egads, Michael Jones was right! It is The Obelisk’s birthday, as of this past weekend. To think, I even hung out with Slevin — who built the site those 14 years ago — on Sunday. He was the brunch. Go figure.
To tell you the truth I’ve been pretty disoriented generally. Just kind of one-day-at-a-timing it, and I completely lost track of what the date was. I know, it’s right in the corner of my laptop screen, but I also got an email yesterday canceling jury duty that I wasn’t even thinking about yet because it wasn’t until something like Feb. 2 and that was eons from now. So I got to realize what week it was and not have to go to jury duty, and it’s The Obelisk’s birthday. The wins just keep coming.
The point of this post is to say thank you for your support of The Obelisk. Whether that’s commenting on a post (mostly it isn’t, I know) or sharing something on this or that social, being in the above-linked group, buying merch or sending music or even just reading once, forgetting the site exists for like three weeks, then reading again. Or reading every day. Or not. I don’t know. Thank you.
I don’t have any grand plans to reveal. More work? I know the Sandrider and REZN albums are killer if you want to do a top two of 2023 so far list, which I honestly thought about doing just as a joke making fun of basically my own lists let alone those of anyone else. But beyond that and what’s in my notes for the rest of this week and down the line in the calendar, I don’t know. I hope to travel this year. I’ll be at Freak Valley in June and Høstsabbat in Oslo in October. I’ve got my eyes on Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in March in Joshua Tree, but we’ll see. Monolith on the Mesa this year is a maybe if I can make it happen. Always love to be at Maryland Doom Fest when I can.
There have been a couple other invites — one to Iceland for Doomcember, which I was stoked on but couldn’t go this past December; one to Bear Stone in Croatia which I would fucking LOVE to do but for the camping because the bands are good, the people seem awesome and the vibe is right, but I’m no camper — that are kind of nebulous, and I suppose on some level driving the two hours with traffic to New York is supposed to be more convenient than flying to Germany, but I’ve sat at the Holland Tunnel in my life and legitimately been convinced otherwise, never mind actually driving in the city, which I’ve never particularly enjoyed. Gonna get my ass there for Desertfest though, I’ll tell you that.
That kind of travel will probably be the bulk of the shows I see this year, which is odd but just kind of how my life is organized at this point. Speaking of organized, I’ve got 175 emails waiting in my inbox, and, well, not everybody’s gonna get an answer. I hope you understand that even if I don’t go to every show, or review every record, post every press release and Bandcamp or social media update, or interview every band — or any bands beyond Questionnaires — that I’m doing my best. I’m trying to make this site a thing worth coming back to — for me, every day. For you, once if I’m lucky?
I won’t dismiss the amount of effort it is doing this. It takes up a significant portion of my time and brain capacity. My life would be easier without it, in many ways. Not trying to play Johnny Martyrblog, but I think it’s fair for me to say that running The Obelisk takes a lot of work. I’m doing my best to do as much as I can, all the time.
14 is cool. 15 will be cooler. We’ll get there. I’ll set a reminder in the calendar so I don’t let it slip, and hope to thank you again then.
All the best in the meantime,
JJ Koczan