Who am I? What is this?

Welcome, dear internet traveler, you have stumbled to my corner of the internet.

As the title for this site/blog suggests, my name is Alex, and I like to write. For the past few years, however, my creative spark dimmed to nothing of consequence. Life provided too many distractions, and I became bogged down by the notion I had to pick a focus to concentrate on. There were too many stories and topics to write about, and I felt restricted to choose only one. Thankfully, I realized that belief is ridiculous; I just needed my own space to be as creative as possible. In the past, I have written about many topics – from pop culture to histry – and those pieces are scattered around the internet. Now, everything will be in one place.

The goal for this space is to re-kindle the creative spark inside me by focusing on what I love to do: tell a story. I created this site to archive old ones and have a home for new ones. My main passion is history, from understanding the past to how we interact with it today, and that passion truly is at the core of who I am. It dictates my taste in movies, music, work, what I do in my spare time, the conversations I have with others and the stories I want to tell.  From that broad passion, of course, interests within that world emerge, where specific interests like Hollywood history to American folklore live.

How should you navigate the site? I organized this space in a way where I do not feel that I need to focus on one topic and can post essays, thoughts, ramblings, etc. no matter the theme or subject. Let me explain the avenues you can take:

The first page is an About Me. Plain and simple. 

The second page is relaunched and reimagined Not in the History Books, a blog I created in high school. Naturally, I am calling this updated venture Not in the History Books 2.0. Stories here are about people, places and events that are not covered, normally, in standard history classes. This page will also feature highlights from past and future trips focusing on the visiting various historic sites.

The third page is titled Cultural Musings, and it will highlight different thoughts on pop culture (most often with a tinge of historical elements) and media projects I am currently working on. Mostly, this will live as a space to write about movies, books or music, but I am keeping it open-ended for now. 

The fourth page is The Archive. It is a re-sharing of previous stories and essays from different websites through the years. Again, this is a spot for me to have all my previous work in one spot.

That's how the site works. Who is behind it?

I am from Chicago, Illinois, but currently live just outside Boston, Massachusetts. I have long been telling stories, mostly through writing, and annoying friends and family with said stories for a long time. Through my life, so far, I have had various outlets to share the stories I feel necessary and interesting to tell – from blogs (shoutout Tumblr, Wordpress and Medium) to online publications. Now, after collecting and archiving pretty much everything I could, everything new and old will be in one place. I am particularly interested the United States history before 1900, where areas of interest include: the American Revolution, transcendentalism, the American utopian experiments, Native cultural history and the American Civil War. I also ​enjoy movies and general cultural history. I love reading about Hollywood history and the evolution of film history. Even more, I love see how the filmmakers of yesteryear and today tell the stories of the past. You will be seeing much more of that here.

But, Wait, There's More: 

In a hope to better illustrate who I am and what I am interested, I wanted to share some of my favorite places. Our "happy places" very much shade in the composition of the character of someone.

1. Libraries. I visit every week to my local library, and the access libraries have to everything can not be overstated. Libraries have access to not only books, movies and music but also: magazines, newspapers, internet access, lectures, research databases, museum passes and a safe, quiet space for one to decompress from a hectic world. In fact, I spent my 21st birthday at the Michigan State University library. I did have a paper due the next day, but I probably would have visited regardless.

2. In the same vein as libraries, cemeteries are among my favorite places to frequent because of their access to history and as a quiet oasis. Their natural beauty – especially when surrounded in the middle of a large city – offers a visitor a chance to experience what Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in Nature, "In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows". My favorite cemeteries are Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts; Woodlawn Cemetery in New York and Graceland Cemetery in Illinois.

3. A list of my favorite places could not be complete without one my favorite city: Salem, Massachusetts. Though it comes alive in fall, my favorite time of the year with Halloween being my favorite holiday, Salem is teeming with beauty year-round. Known for being the site of the infamous "Salem Witch Trials", the city is much more than an October destination or witches. It was a major sea sport and has extensive maritime history, plus a deep literary history with the House of Seven Gables. Salem continues to be my favorite town to really capture a New England feeling, where history and the modern world collide in the most interesting ways.