Be Erratic

A glacial erratic the size of a house at Beartown Rocks in Pennsylvania

A glacial erratic is, according to a geologist, any rock carried by glacial ice and deposited in a new place. The most well-known glacial erratic is probably Plymouth Rock, which is near where the pilgrims landed in 1620. In Pennsylvania, we have a rock city made from glacial erractics called Beartown Rocks (see above). It's worth visiting. (Hang in there, I have a larger point than "Rocks are cool!" coming if you stick with me.)

I'm guessing you now see that I think about erratics a lot. I've even written them into more than one of my screenplays. To my brain, they're a great metaphor, which is why I'm choosing to mention them here. In this metaphor, a glacier is a massive, slow-moving, destructive force capable of changing the shape of the world. In this day and age, giant corporations can act just like glaciers. Think about companies like Netflix, Spotify, Meta, and X: their aim is to scoop up everyone from creators to audience members (and call them users or subscribers), charge advertising companies per set of eyeballs, and flatten any and all competition in the process. As they grow in size, they can't help but become less interesting as their new main goal is retention for advertising pennies. Spelled out, they don't want you to leave. Which means you (and I) have all the power. So much of what we watch and read and listen to will improve if we stop relying on the glaciers of the world and just visit the erratics that already have. I'm encouraging everyone from creators to audience members to be erratics by finding ways to get off of the glaciers. Some folks already have!

It's a pretty funny name for a music website.

So today, I recommend a site called Hearing Things. Their About page explains what I'm trying to say in greater detail and introduces the few erratics there who were brave enough to leave the icy companies they saw as controlling and soul-sucking and start their own thing. Their goal: to help you find new music, to talk about good and great music, and to just share the one thing that makes them so happy, which is music.

As a creator, I'm inspired by their efforts. Each day I become less and less interested in what streamers are making, and I sort of decided to create this newsletter as my way of getting off of the glacier and helping others find erratic stuff out there in the world and on the internet.

As an audience member, I use the Hearing Things website to find new music, because discovering new stuff is hard. Companies hope you'll trust the algorithm for everything. I don't trust it. It serves the company, not me, not the creators. So, I still rely on word of mouth for the majority of things I watch or listen to. And places like Hearing Things are the kind of people-helping-people spots I seek out and look to support.

Plymouth Rock: a glacial erratic -- which has been cracked, carved, and covered with pennies by humans because, apparently, that's what we do.

indoor animal is curated by a human: Tim Papciak. On Mondays, he shares one link to one music video to help spark creativity in other creative types. On Thursdays, he recommends a book, movie, show, art piece, or link to some dusty corner of the internet that he believes either 1.) adds to the human experience, or 2.) serves as a coping mechanism in the year 2025. Note: this is not, and never will be, self-help content.