The Author: Changes Around Here


You might have noticed the name change of the blog and the business -- along with the color scheme taken from the original source for "my" logo -- an Oahu "The Guitarist" rag from 1941. The business name hasn't really changed: I've been doing business dollar-wise under my own name almost the entire time I've been doing this.


The real change is that I want to divorce myself from the antebellum moniker. I started using it when I was doing most of my business as a lark back on Dear Old eBay and wondering if the job would stay put. It has, so I've wanted to take the leap forward for a long time. The antebellum bit started as a Latin reader's joke -- it literally means pre-war. I was working mostly on pre-'40s instruments. I didn't think it'd stick and in this particular era and its continuing troubles I don't want anyone to mistake it as anything other than a label I used for instruments. For those not in-the-history-know, outside of this rarified world, antebellum has a totally different connotation.

Before second grade I was living in Los Angeles and going to a magnet school. It was diverse -- kids of all stripes and backgrounds -- just like the city itself. Star Wars geeks were mixed with lowriders, Hammer pants, movie cowboys, mariachi bands and the whole garbled history of various waves of Asian cultural immigration. I was mixed-up in culture and food from all over the place. My mother is an anthropologist, for goodness sake. I was dragged around the country (and often outside of it) as a kid and peoples' customs begin to blend into a deliriously-rich panorama of odd folk tales and half-remembered stories as you get accustomed to them all.

When I moved to semi-rural Connecticut and went to school there, it was the whitest place I'd lived in at that point -- and a mix of working-class kids, middle-class professors' kids, and upper-class dandies in polo shirts. It was truly the first time I'd daily heard kids of all social levels hurling about derogatory phrases about people, countries, and ethnicities they'd never even met or been exposed to before -- all the usual racist words you could imagine being used as put-downs. I remember the first time I heard someone call another kid a "dirty Mexican" (said target was as Irish-looking as you can get) and trying, in vain, to get that wrong righted. My mom worked a lot with a clinic in East LA, and that kind of bull hit close to home.

For me it was a shock at that age and it still is even now. Fortunately, that state has graduated to a somewhat more mixed land and that type of thinking has begun to die off (more or less) as people, you know, mingle. It's hard to talk down about people you actually know and become fast friends with.

So -- I figured it was time to change. I'm not sure what I'll do about the website domain and whether I will change it all to jakewildwood.com (for now it will remain at the ante address), but I do know that I will be mixing my public personas -- guitar doctor, musician, contented Vermont resident, and music history buff -- all here on one site in the near future. I just need a little time to iron it out.

In other news, all photos will now be square as that's the way the net operates images most successfully these days. It also makes it easy to post things to my Instagram page. At some point I might start doing soundclips as videos, but until it's easy as pie and fast to do it, they'll remain simply audio.

Comments

strumdaddy said…
Go for it Jake - thanks for sharing your story, love ya work
Brad Smith said…
Excellent on all fronts, especially the anthropological/ethnomusicological roots of it all. A few more suggestions: Now that you want to devote more space to your music and family, maybe you don't need to write up so many of the instruments that come your way as much as we all love to see our own featured. Maybe it is enough to concentrate on the more unique and first timers, and not include every Kalamazoo KG-11 that graces your doorstep. On videos, I love the soundcloud clips and format and maybe you could reserve videos for those fabulous home-made instruments. For example, I would have loved to see you play the electric Kazoo or ironing board Hawaiian, both of which are far more difficult to imagine than a six-string guitar.

Unknown said…
While I really like the name "Antebellum Instruments," your rationale is sound, and you've got a solid reputation for work as Jake Wildwood. Just keep doing what you've been doing.
With best wishes,
Russ Donahue
Rob Gardner said…
Sounds great to me Jake. I like the Antebellum name, but it does have other connotations, no doubt about it. And just to add my two cents, I really like the posted detail of every odd musical mongrel instrument that wonders in the door, no matter how many repeats. I think it is a service to every odd guitar geek in America. You know I can't get enough of the old Kalamazoos. And I like videos because you get to see the instrument in action, as long as the audio is good (and with you it would be). Must be a lot of work for sure posting all that detail, but I love to read it. Good luck on the new venture, even if it is pretty much the same as the old venture. And anyway, Jake Wildwood sounds like the name of somebody in a 40's western, who would probably be playing a Carson J, Robison cowboy guitar...
bev said…
Enjoyed reading this post and about the reason for the name change. I seriously don't know how you find the time to write all that you do and still have such an active life. Wonderful stuff!
Unknown said…
Jake, I applaud you for the re-name. It did occur to me recently that it potentially had unfortunate connotations. In the current context I think it was the right thing to do. Bravo.
Jake Wildwood said…
Thanks, everyone, for your support -- and also ideas and input. You're all welcome to chime in with good ideas whenever you like. I'll put a list up on the wall and check them off over time... :)
Brad Smith said…
One more thing. All of us who appreciate this blog and all the thought (and occasional eccentricities!) that go into it have the option to help support it by using the "donate" button that can be found at the bottom of this page.
Brad Smith said…
Whoops. The "donate" button appears at the bottom of home page!