Black Sunshine Media
A wise man once told me, “Nothing good ever happens if you stay in one place. You gotta keep moving.” In December 2018, I very quietly resigned from my position as writer and editor of a publishing house in Taipei, Taiwan, following over a decade of service. Meanwhile, despite having gained permanent residency on the […]
Source: Taxicab Mandarin: How to Navigate Your Way through China | Listen & Learn USA
Three Relatively Obvious and Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing Right Now The following three ways of improving your writing are obvious and simple yet seldom discussed in the writing forums because they’re obvious and simple. But it wouldn’t hurt for all of us to revisit them right now. 1. READ YOUR SHIT OUT […]
Freelance writing is by far the most variable, infuriating, and futile work I’ve done in my life…so far. Have you seen my resume of dead-end jobs? It’s pretty impressive. Barback, barista, bartender, busboy, carpenter’s apprentice, delivery driver, doorman, dishwasher, entertainer, ESL teacher, file clerk, food runner, garde manger, general construction laborer, general manager of small […]
I used to think that Robert Plant ruined it for everybody. One could argue that rock music does not have a single, universally-beloved figure, for lack of a better term. Nobody can agree on The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones. Some people never liked Elvis or Bob Dylan. Nickelback may be the most hated band […]
The complete set of essays, more or less in one place. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not* | Black Sunshine Media.
There was one morning I woke up in 1992 and I felt like I’d been asleep for a couple of years. Right here, right now, at this very moment, I think the 1001 Albums list should end and start over. The book and list should be split into two volumes. It’s got nothing to do […]
Comparatively speaking, we’re going to breeze through this period. There’s a revolution of sorts on the horizon. At this point, recording artists are either making records that sell, or they aren’t making records. There will be fewer suggested alternatives simply because 1001 AYMHBYD already named most of the Must Hear records. You could almost skip […]
If 1985-86 is a dead zone for Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, then 1987-88 is a black hole. Mainstream popular music was more about hairspray and pastel colors than artistic achievement. How bad was music in 1987? It was Bruce Willis – The Return of Bruno bad. It was Whitesnake and Tawny Kitaen […]
Dedicated to my brother, Bobby Camp (1969-2015) who introduced me to more bands than I can count. Frank Zappa (among others) once said something along the lines of writing about music is like dancing about architecture. That’s wrong. If listening to music is an experience, then writing about said experience is just as valid as […]
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