five years of a plan
On five years of the blog, taking pitches for the new issue of portable model, some song recommendations, etc.
I started this blog 5 years ago today. It was a different name on a different platform. It was about Shed by Title Fight and Cause A Stir by Charmpit. I reflect on the past of this thing all the time so you probably don't need to hear about it. I would say it doesn't feel like it's been so long, but that's not true. It feels very 5 years ago.
I still think "Muffy Plays Poker" is a really good song.
Molotov Milkshake
I've had a weird year. I was going to commemorate the music I listened to most over the last year, but it turns out I listened to "Thirteen" by Big Star 1,046 times and nothing else anywhere near as much. The Hold Steady always makes these types of lists I look at but "Crucifixion Cruise," a song that is barely a song, cracked the top 10. I'm rockin' with The Max Levine Ensemble. I love This is Lorelei. There's nothing here to look at really. I know who I am. I do more in depth look back at the year on my birthday in August, so this is a little silly.
While I was looking around Last.FM I checked my dms and looked through some of the music in there. This song is really good. Synthy bedroom pop music, in the true production sense, about being insecure at a party. What could be better than that. I think I've become more weird socially than when I was in college.
Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 13, 2020
That album is called i am very young and i am learning how to live. I think I was drawn to click on it because it kind of reminds me of Ada Lea's (great) one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden both in style and length. The album itself is pretty eclectic in sound. Highly lyrical. Non-studio produced. Best listened to on Bandcamp (tone positive).
I also think I am not so much very young anymore, but I felt very young when I started this blog. I was 22 and didn't really mean to start doing music writing. I still perceive myself as a zine maker, but at the time I was even more of one and benefitted a lot from the sort of novelty of the zine thing amongst writers I liked. I knew it was happening at the time, too. It was easy to get attention online by marketing myself as a reluctant music writer slash temporarily embarrassed zine maker. I think I still feel that way in my heart even though at this point, a lot of the time, I'm mostly a podcaster.
I was talking to my friend Lou the other day about making book objects and it really made me just want to I'm hoping to maybe revert in a more tangible way back to being more Zinester and less Blogger. I'm working on a zine right now that's about Men Writing Women in songs. Kind of slow going, but writing I like doing. Portable Model will be coming out with another issue as soon I'm able to fund it. (More info on that later in this post!)
I am learning how to live, too. Or maybe I'm learning how I want to live. I think there's an important distinction there. I don't know.
Here are 5 blog posts from the last five years I like a lot in case you might be new to the blog:
girls' girl's girls girl
miranda reinert
I like this one because it's about something ugly about myself – unhealthy competition and insecurity when I think of my female friends, disliking "Girl, So Confusing." It's always nice to admit to some ugliness in your personality, no?
I think one of the best things I've gotten out of this the last five years has been talking to other female writers. Sometimes I question if I should write so much about myself, but I've connected with so many women that I can't really. Thanks to anybody who ever replied to my more personal posts.
a personal essay about my car
miranda reinert
Probably the most Miranda personal essay of all the weird little personal essay blog posts I write. About my car, about my ex boyfriends, about becoming independent, a reference to "You Can Make Him Like You" by The Hold Steady.
on frankie cosmos bandcamp eps + how the internet isn't my enemy
miranda reinert
I like this one about being very online and intentional, more curated online spaces and Frankie Cosmos. It's very 2020 era pandemic but kinda fun to see where my head was at. I've also been thinking about Frankie Cosmos a lot lately and the world of the internet that I associate with her. New album is good.
self defense music. or at least some of it.
miranda reinert
Music. Writing. I ranked all the Self Defense Family EPs and it was so fun. It gets into what I think is good and appealing about Patrick Kindlon, too.
on orgcore: the worst genre name since skramz
miranda reinert
The single most important thing I've ever written. The thing on the blog I talk about in real life more than anything else. Special and beautiful. Still kind of funny, too. Orgcore scholar Miranda Reinert.
I'm taking pitches for the next issue of my music magazine, Portable Model. Please advertise if you've got something to sell. Please reach out with questions otherwise. Thank you !!!
Buy the old issue, too!!
Miranda Reinert is a music adjacent writer, zine maker, podcaster and law school drop out based in Chicago. Check out PDFs of most of my zines at the link on the top of the screen. Follow me on Twitter or Bluesky to keep up on the next time I write about online discourse or whatever: @mirandareinert. This blog does have a paid option and I would so appreciate any money you would be willing to throw me! You may also send me small bits of money at @miranda-reinert on venmo/on Paypal if you want. As always, thanks for reading!
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