emancipation (from a ghost) and proclamation (of what to do afterwards)

I haven't posted in over a year and I feel really bad about that, but if you're wondering what I've been up since:

• I've been soldiering on with There Goes the Fear.
• I covered Great Escape 2012 alone (boo) and Liverpool Sound City 2012 (mostly alone but with John to run our hosted stage at the Liverpool Academy of Arts with our friends the Temper Trap, Clock Opera, and Dear Prudence).
• I started Music in Notes with encouragement from a friend.
• I went to Australia to cover the inaugural ARIA Week in November 2012; it so happened that was the same week as my birthday so I got to celebrate it at the famous Oxford Art Factory, a place I had seen so many times on Australian gig listings and band routings through Oz but assumed I would never visit.
• I covered SXSW 2013 (again, alone); however, I wasn't really alone as for the final 2 days I got to pal around with the exceedingly chivalrous Crookes, who made me laugh, smile, and forget that I was lonely, including me in a Friday night out that will be memorable for years to come.
• I was on holiday in Britain for 22 days in May, an absolutely glorious time (never again, unfortunately, unless I quit my job [hardly likely]).
• I covered Liverpool Sound City 2013 (with John and Martin, TGTF crew yay!) and Great Escape 2013 (with John, TGTF tag team, yay!) again; we are likely going again next year, just not sure who is going to which.
• I'm never mentioning the word Delphic again after an incident in Liverpool that shocked and upset me at the time but now I'm like meh, fine; bridges have been burnt.
• I visited Scotland for the first time (Glasgow - thumbs up; Edinburgh - thumbs down).
• I visited Newcastle for the first time (it's beautiful!) and got to meet Martin's family (super nice good people!).
• (thanks to an entirely last minute announcement) I visited Sheffield for the first time, and now I'm in love (in multiple senses of the word); probably not a good position for me to be in, but I'll let the chips fall where they may.
• I took it upon myself to organise a two music Web site-collaboration for the purpose of promo for the Crookes in London, when they played the Scala, their biggest London show to date (I've not seen the interview or session videos yet but I have every faith they will be fine); in the process I got to meet the lovely Heartbreaks from Morecambe and were touched by the Northern boys' warmness.
• I came back home, entirely unhappy to be back in America because I started missing England *immediately* after, which is a major problem considering my boss forbids me to leave the country again until 2014.
• I was asked by a friend to assist on, with my editing skills, a new project that makes me very nervous but I hope will bring us closer together as friends (we'll see).

I think that brings you up to speed? Below is a live video I filmed at the Crookes' show at the Scala on 21 May 2013. It's of the single 'Dance in Colour', which is absolutely beautiful.