The Hour of Duque is Upon Us

Fourteen years ago this month, from my childhood bedroom, I started my first serious endeavor as a writer - The Second Disc, a website about my strongest musical passion: reissues and box sets. In the time since, that site has spiderwebbed into opportunities I couldn't see coming. I've worked for two reissue labels and found my writing on a host of other sites. I even got to write liner notes for my favorite piece of music, ever. In 2019, wanting to branch out into other bizarre niche cultural writing, I started Hollywood & Spine, a newsletter about novelizations that also afforded some fascinating opportunities as a writer and creative type.

As we begin 2024, I find myself in two situations that are, shall we say, interesting when put together. First, I am "between jobs," having seen an unexpected end to a year and a half with a creative agency that I adored; second, I am roughly eight weeks away from becoming a father of twins. This does not seem like the ideal time to start a new creative endeavor as I balance freelance gigs and turn an office into a nursery - and yet, I am "betting on myself" and setting up a shingle for not only Hollywood & Spine (whose hosting platform is shutting down in February - when it rains, it pours), but some other creative ideas I've always wanted to put into action.

The hardest thing about freelance arts writing is often finding an outlet or an editor that will show any interest in the idea you want to put out in the world. In this space, I am bypassing that process entirely to bring to you some ideas I find fascinating - mostly music, but some other cultural and film-based thoughts, as well. You know, the dispatches from the dustbin of history you've come to expect if you've spent more than two minutes talking to me.

There will be little things here and there for all to enjoy at no cost, but I am hoping more than one of you might want to part with what I hope is considered very little money and get "the goods" - meaning either Hollywood & Spine (new and old content) or, for just a bit more, some features on things like unstreamable music or quirky bits of cultural history that I will hopefully convince you are as interesting as my brain has convinced me.

Thanks for reading all of this, and thanks more for maybe reading the subscriber-only stuff. I wouldn't even try doing this if I didn't believe in myself, and that comes in part from readers like you.