by Ana Carolina Lopes

At 13 years old, I already knew I wanted to be a journalist. Thankfully, I never had that feeling, that many of my friends and classmates had, of not knowing what I wanted to be. But it wasn’t until I was 15, when I saw a motion picture that would change my life significantly and how I wanted to live it, that I decided what kind of journalist I wanted to be.

I was in Buenos Aires, vacationing with my family. My shoes were laying around the hotel room as I was close to having a nap, taking a “siesta”, with maybe one or two bags of chips and chocolates on my nightstand (purchased at the supermarket, of course. We know how these hotel fridge charges can be). But the television in the room was on and this movie was being streamed, in English, with Spanish subtitles.

A girl and a boy – more like a woman and a boy – talk outside a dark concert venue during a time that from their outfits and the cars in the parking lot looked like the 1970’s. Just by the setting, I was immediately infatuated – little did I know I would never go back. She had a green heavy coat on in the middle of summer, and he had stunned eyes, raised eyebrows and a shy skeptic smile on his face. She said she was going to go to Morocco for one year. She needed a new crowd and asked twice if he wanted to come. He said yes. Both times. And the interaction ended with the phrase: “It’s all happening”.

If all is happening, well, I wanted things to happen to me too and so I found out that the film I just saw was Cameron Crowe’s Oscar winning masterpiece “Almost Famous”. I just hoped things would never stop happening, surviving the waves of time and space. Like music does.

No, I don’t know exactly how many times I’ve seen Almost Famous. Yes, I will continue to see it again. No, I don’t have a problem – I think. Yes, I know it by heart. No, I wouldn’t name my child Russell – I would name it William, though. Yes, I have written to Cameron Crowe. No, he hasn’t responded. Yes, I did become a journalist. No, “Almost Famous” wasn’t the only reason I did it – it was a major reason, but not the only reason. Yes, there are many references to it in my graduate thesis.

Music has always been part of my household. The strange, almost gut-wrenching, feeling is when nothing is playing. I would say I developed my taste in music as I got older, but the Beatles were always there for me since I was about 13 (one New Year’s Day I saw the movie “Help” and that was it. I was part of Beatlemania 40 years after its creation). Unlike Miss Penny Lane, it will be known by others that my name is Ana Carolina Lopes and I am a journalist from Brazil.

I was 5 years old when I went to my first ever concert. It was by a Brazilian pop duo called Sandy & Junior. The first concert I ever went to by myself, without parents accompanying, was pop rock English group McFly when I was 15. The first band I ever went to see more than once was the Foo Fighters. My favorite concert to have been to so far is The Who (and I got to take my parents and brother, which made it extra special). Other things will be told along the way.

Music is part of who I am. It’s that simple. And I’ve always had ideas, words going through my mind centered around this theme. So, I wanted a place to set them free. That’s how and why I came up with this place. With the imaginary (hopefully, one day, real) blessing of my music journalism idol, Cameron Crowe (my version of his Billy Wilder), my intentions are to bring many feelings to life and never ever let the work and the legacy of so many incredible musicians, past, present and future, fade. I know that is one tough, perhaps delusional, job, but hey, I guess… it’s all (really) happening.