Why Do You Blog?

 

Prompted by the same question asked By (another) Em over at Mirror Shards I thought I’d take a moment to contemplate my blogging navel.

It’s Full Of Stuff
I read blogs long before I started to write one myself. Previous blog attempts had petered out because their remit and subject target was too narrow (only music, only technical stuff (boring!!), only stuff in the news etc). This one is a bit more eclectic and that keeps me interested. It’s just full of stuff, useless stuff, quirky stuff, old stuff new stuff. I also have a few niche interests and it helps connect to others who may share that interest which I find beneficial (and I hope they do too).

The Digital Doodle
For me blogging is like a digital scrapbook, a place to doodle and also a place to etch your initials on the digital wall (a kind of “I was ‘ere“). I write because I like writing and I like using the medium of the Internet which lets me use writing , audio, video and link to like minded and unlike minded people in the process.I have a fairly non linear mindset so the kind of cut and paste, no particular order, type of eclectic media writing appeals to me and combines many areas of media that I’ve been involved in. It’s not a diary (that’s a deeply personal thing and I’ve rarely been a diary writer anyway) though I do write some guarded personal content and I’m certainly not looking for a vehicle to make money (I hope it’s more honest than that).

The Shallow End
I guess there are some shallower elements that appeal too. In today’s world it’s easy to feel insignificant, an unheard voice amongst the millions and blogging is like publishing your own book of short scribblings for free and getting a degree of direct feedback. It’s a place to externalise internal thoughts. It doesn’t matter if nobody reads my words though it’s great when somebody does leave a comment as it feels less like I’m just talking to myself in the dark.

Cathartic?
It’s also cathartic (some might say there’s an element of talking therapy about it) in that I can express an opinion about my world and the world outside that I may otherwise feel powerless to have much of a say in (though the established media now seems to want to hear many bloggers voices so in some ways blogging is part of a democratisation of some aspects of the media ,indeed from time to time members of the older established media may even leave a comment- how democratic is that?).

Professional Dabbler ?
I have to hold my hand up and admit to having to guard against my own tendency to be a dilettante at times when it comes to on-line tools. I like what you can do with computers and love to try new things and see if they let me be creative in a new way. I get something back from it. It’s probably hard for me to define fully what without sounding like I’m over examining the whole thing (what me?)

 

Random post__Blogs I Read__Twitter __My Stumbleupon__Facebook

Edwyn Collins Returns

I heard an interview with Edwyn Collins on the radio today talking, along with his wife about his recovery from the brain haemorrhage that saw him hospitalised and doctors fearing the worst. He’s had to re learn so much and his speech is still affected and he can’t use his right hand but has learnt to draw with his left hand. He’d completed recording an album prior to his haemorrhage but had not mixed the album which he has now done.

It was good to hear that Edwyn was back with us and was emotionally touched by the experience that he and his wife have gone through. They recounted a personal and touching story and I admit I was transfixed listening to the interview and not without a lump in my throat at times.

The Interview can be downloaded here

Channel 4 news also spoke to him

Twitter updates__Random blog post__Blogs I Read___My Stumbleupon

Makin’ A Big Song And Dance

On Friday we ventured out to the wilds of Hemel Hempstead (home of that crazy roundabout and the Buncefield explosion of 2005). My partner was very keen to see Scottish comedian Craig Hill and as we had a car that day we made a last minute booking. Little did I realise that we would become part of the comedic tapestry he weaved that evening.

Ye Olde Town Hall
Hemel old Town hall is a small arts type venue and we’d seen Lucy Porter there a couple of years ago and the performance area reminds me of the smaller studios in Battersea arts centre , itself a converted town hall, which I used to frequent in the 90′s. These are intimate venues with the smallest performance areas holding around 80 people. Real eyeball to eyeball stuff.

The Audience Is The Act
It soon was obvious that Mr Hill was an audience participation type of comedian and he needed fodder but the front row (stage level with tiered seating behind) was empty so he brought the lights up and moved some of those from the back down to the front row. Thank heavens, I thought, that we hadn’t got seats right at the back. The greatest interrogation was therefore reserved those who had been brought forward to sit in the front row by Craig at the start of the show resulting in the most excruciating interrogations reserved for a poor brother and sister aged 14 and 15 (I screamed inside for the boy who was a slightly fey and androgynous youngster (many are at that age) with highlighted hair who must have had the least enjoyable night out of his young life) had been brought along by their statuesque and Amazonian yummy mummy (did she say she had false legs?) and her new boyfriend who we learned she’d met through Friends Reunited.

Time To Volunteer
My partner is, as I’ve mentioned before, Australian and though no extrovert is not weighed down by such hangups as British reserve and so when Craig Hill asked if any body else had met on-line so my partner’s hand went up (!). My nerve endings all exploded at the same instant as suddenly we were the centre of mild curiosity and slight incredulity as it transpired that we had met on-line over 10 years ago (how geeky were we?) and that we were seemingly a lesbian couple in a room otherwise full of hets (or suitably reserved others- if we’d gone to the Brighton gig then perhaps the demographic would be different) as we were quizzed by La Hill with inquiries such as were we married? OK then, on your wedding day ‘did you both wear a dress?’ (nah dungarees of course!) and eeking out other awkward details that I’d perhaps prefer not to share in a room full of 80 people and a probing camp comedian looking for salacious comic material. Mercifully the interrogating didn’t go too far though my own name was pulled apart (I never offer the full version of my name when asked).

Point Of Reference
We were referred to throughout the night and at the interval a few people came up to us to express their admiration (or was it concealed glee?) at our dubious plight. One woman passed me as we made our way to bar and just said “well done” (er..thanks)) though I felt a bit self conscious in the seated bar area as we shared a soft drink and people glanced across at us with a few stopping to say the obvious “bet you didn’t expect that” sort of comments (well one of us put their hands up so…). One woman stood at our table babbling nervously for a while. I was unsure what she was trying to say but was either trying to exude nervous empathy, solidarity or the aforementioned glee at our predicament (it was hard to tell as she was babbling quite incoherently).

Applaud Now
Anyway the night was very enjoyable (aside, maybe from the temporary spotlight) and Craig Hill was very funny (I loved Craig quoting his mother saying that he emerged from the womb with a T-shirt saying ‘I’m so not going in there again’) with lots of improvisation and a good personal connection with the small audience. The show finale offered up a role call for those called upon throughout the night which included an obligatory ’round of applause for our married lesbians’.

Which was er..nice.

Twitter updates__Random blog post__Blogs I Read___My Stumbleupon

Advertising From The Air

It worries me the extent to which advertising is willing to invade our lives these days. Ubiquitous wall to wall advertising would seem to be the advertising industries greatest aim as we head for a bladerunner style landscape. Is there nothing that is sacred to advertisers?

I heard about Ad Air on the radio* last week and their plans to place football pitch sized advertising on land along the final approach path of landing aircraft in order to capture the gaze of those looking out of aircraft windows. Such moves do put me in mind of the late Bill Hicks‘ advice to those working in advertising (warning link has adult theme and language).

*AAC+ sound file. Quicktime, Songbird ,VLC (All Platforms) or Winamp (Windows only)player recommended.

Twitter updates__Random blog post__Blogs I Read___My Stumbleupon

Social Networking Can Include Being Socialable

Today was a bit different that most in that we met up with our Internet friend Vlad from the Ukraine whom I’d met randomly on-line around 2 years ago. He was over here for a week to see his friends who had come here to work and he wanted to meet the couple he chatted with sometimes on-line.

The Secret Life Of us
I’m a notoriously private person and seldom that keen to break the fourth wall of Internet friendship (I build my own defensive walls, my partner less so) but he’d come all this way and we’ve been talking for around 2 years and he seemed like a nice person with a great command of and interest in the English language and our peculiar culture. I’m usually nervous about meeting new people but didn’t seem to put out by the experience and anyway he had an excellent command of the English language.

Still about people?
There’s a lot of talk about on-line social networking not being really social but once in a while any one of us can make connections and friendships on-line with people we wouldn’t otherwise meet in our immediate neighbourhood ( and where we live hardly anybody in the ‘real world’ knows their neighbour) and sometimes choose to do ‘the real thing’.

Vlad couldn’t stay too long but we talked a fair while and he was keen to have a good old British cup of tea. What a civilised young man.

Picture by fotografisch under this creative commons license

Twitter updates__Random blog post__Blogs I Read___My Stumbleupon

Music In The Aisles 3/10/07

Managed to rush through the aisles when they weren’t too busy today and the first tune on the tannoy was The Eurythmics There must be an Angel, a song whose lyrics I miss-heard on first hearing all those years ago as ” I’m thrown and overblown with bees” (which I didn’t really question until somebody pointed out my mistake).

Checkouts were not too busy and I waited behind two young blokes who were not getting a smile from the checkout lady as they mimed to the then tune on the tannoy, The Carpenters Close to you. They put their heads together for miming the ‘aaaaaahs’ and ‘ooooohs’. They both looked somewhat wrecked otherwise and I found the sight of them miming at the checkout whilst waiting for their debit card to be approved ,together with the po face of the checkout lady, very amusing.

Related posts 

Twitter updates__Random blog post__Blogs I Read___My Stumbleupon

Milk Walk

Sunday 
I went to get some milk at a well known local store that specialises in frozen food (you know the one that the Mums go to). I go there for small items on a weekend as I’d rather saw my toes off with a blunt hacksaw than step inside a major supermarket on a weekend.

The Woman In Front 
I stood staring into space waiting for the woman in front of me at the checkout to pack her food stuff away whilst she slowly realised that the amount of food she purchased cannot possibly be carried by just one person.She was flustered and stressed and I could feel it.

The Tomboy Behind 
The tomboyish woman behind me was talking quite loudly and with a deep earthy voice as she bemoaned her lot to her friend behind (the general theme about being run off her feet and having no time). She placed her Sunday shopping onto the checkout conveyor belt and behind my singular item. She had 8 cans of beer and a small tub of cream.

The Traveller 
I walked back through the nearby green space area. The travellers there have moved on leaving rubbish piled up in the centre spot of a football pitch. Refuse is strewn around the nearby church. This seems to be a regular feature now. Travellers come, they leave, they return. A game of cat and mouse with the local authorities.

Twitter _Random blog post_Blogs I Read__My Stumbleupon