Last week, I quit Twitter. I took one last look through my old tweets, said a few silent goodbyes to people and accounts I’ve followed from the beginning, and deactivated my personal account. It was strange, but also just the teeniest bit of a relief.
Before the conspiracy theories commence, it had nothing to do with anything except time, as in a lack thereof. For months now, I’ve been walking a fine line. I spend time working on Daily Duranie, and then I’m mom, and somewhere in between, I’m supposed to be working on a lot of just…STUFF…for a new hard cider company that my husband is developing. There’s a lot going on, and since this is Daily Duranie, I’m not going to get into all of that, except to say Twitter was a constant distraction, I’m not very good at ignoring it, so I deleted it. Done. I probably should have done it years ago, but here we are. Live and learn.
That said, I am still trying to remain engaged, at least when I have extra time, on the Daily Duranie account. So today, during my five minutes of relative peace in between wrangling a dog that was in desperate need of an urgent bath, a tween struggling with a few writing assignments, and my new job for Owlman Cider (oh yes, that’s my husband’s nickname…and yes, there’s a story behind it that is too long for this post!), I hopped on Twitter and realized that because I deactivated my personal handle, I wasn’t seeing tweets from one of my favorite accounts.
If you haven’t followed @concertweirdos yet, you really should. They are our people, particularly if, like me, you’re missing live music right now. Times are tough, with nary a concert in sight. I don’t know who runs that Twitter account, but nearly every time they tweet, they speak directly to my heart. Recently, they’ve had followers tweeting what they miss most about concerts, using #concertweirdos so it can be seen. There hasn’t been a tweet with that hashtag yet that hasn’t tugged at my heartstrings.
I don’t know what my own answer would be, if I were to reply. The list is lengthy, and of course at the top of that list is the band itself. I try to tell myself that this hiatus is just that – a hiatus – without thinking about why. It’s too much sometimes. I also miss my friends, more than I can really explain or put into proper sentences. Again, it’s too much sometimes. My brain just can’t. Won’t.
In my bravest moments, I say that I don’t know if I’ll see another Duran Duran concert. There’s a lot working against such things happening for me again. Time, money, and a genuine unwillingness to upset the natural balance of things here at home. Sometimes I’ll even go as far as to suggest that perhaps I’ve already seen my last. I hope not, but the feeling, or the suggestion, hangs in the air like the final wisp of smoke after a fire. In a strange way, I guess I feel like if I say the words, it might not hurt as much when or if it turns out that yes, I really have seen my last Duran Duran gig.
The great part about Concert Weirdos is that they cheer on the joys of gigging as much as they do the melancholy of a year without live music. Seeing their tweets each day reminds me that no, it isn’t strange that a woman my age still loves being front and center. There’s no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed that listening to any band makes my heart swell. In any given year, being a middle aged, female fan of Duran Duran can feel strange at times. The world isn’t necessarily kind to women like me. They assume we’re all out to achieve what they believe to be our ultimate goal of that one night in “paradise” with our favorite band member. This year, though, my fandom has provided me with a lot of solace.
In some remarkable way, listening to Duran Duran, talking about them, even doing the Vodka Friday videos with Amanda, has made the world feel a little bit more normal. Although I’m busy now, earlier in the year I had more time to really sit and just appreciate the music and memories. Tweets from Concert Weirdos continue to remind me that eventually – things will settle back to some sort of normalcy. Live music will return, and with any sort of luck, we will experience the great joy of live music once again.
In the meantime, give @concertweirdos a follow if you’re so inclined!
-R
