I just realized this afternoon that I've been blogging for over a year now. My first post was dated August 29, 2006. (No one left a comment. . . . It's so cold out in cyberspace sometimes.)
At the time, I thought I would write about all kinds of things, and came up with the ambitious subtitle: "improvisations on literature : music : film : the spiritual : the political : the ridiculous." Looking back over the previous year, I see very little about literature, some on music, a lot on film, not much about the spiritual, some on the political and . . . well, the whole thing is rather "ridiculous," isn't it?
It's strange that I haven't written much on literature and spirituality, considering that these have been the two most important journeys of my life. Maybe, to quote 10CC, "it's just a silly phase I'm going through."
Maybe not. It's been a while since I've finished a novel. I read a bit of poetry here and there, but not nearly as much as I used to. Haven't been writing much of my own work. I do, however, have a poetry reading coming up this Sunday in Manhattan, with jazz musicians (!) - a longtime dream fulfilled. I'm looking forward to that. I even managed to come up with a new piece. But, all in all, literature seems to have fallen off my radar a bit. Perhaps I burned out after spending most of my energy over the previous seven years editing an international bilingual literary magazine, putting readings together, translating, writing grants, hosting events, etc. Je ne sais pas.
It's not like blogging has been easy and caused me to forsake the sweat and toil of poetry. I still find this the hardest writing I've ever done in some ways. My respect for good journalists, bloggers, and film reviewers has gone up immensely in the last year.
Anyway, just some musings. . . .
I have no idea idea where this blogging thing will go. I'm still struggling to find a certain voice in this somewhat strange format that demands both immediacy and thoughtfulness at the same time. My Dada Iraq post may have been the closest I've come to how I imagined this project. But that's life, no? Instead, I wind up writing weird reviews about obscure William Holden films. I didn't see that one coming.
The best part has been meeting and/or conversing with other people in the wide open spaces of our digital universe. My gift on this one-year blogging anniversary is all of you who've taken the time to read my posts and comment on them here or elsewhere. So thanks, Liam, Jeff, Crystal, Schertzer, Steve, Paul, Lawrence, and everyone else.
And most of all, to my muse (musette?) - Alexandra. La Reina de mi vida.
Meanwhile, here's a very profound and introspective song from my childhood to celebrate ONE. (OMG, I want those pants!)
Onward through the fog . . . .
Guillaume le fou
Monday, September 24, 2007
ZONE - Year One
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7 comments:
Happy Anniversary!
You're the only other blogger I know who like William Holden, and even though you have a bizarre fondness for John Edwards, I'm glad I can visit here and "talk" to you :-)
Thanks, Crystal. I'm glad you feel comfortable visiting. I just need to get some nicer furniture. and I wish the patio were larger. But what are you going to do?
I'm not sure I like Edwards as much as you think I like Edwards. I've been considering him, as well as others. But I've decided to concentrate support for one candidate now (i.e. sending money), and it's not Edwards.
William!
Congratulations on your anniversary! I hope you keep on blogging, because you are truly one of the best writers I've ever seen out on the blogosphere. For example, I'll never forget that Christmas rant of yours from last year. The passion, humor, and creativity made my jaw drop.
There may be plenty of blogs out there where one can discuss religion & spirituality, or football, or William Holden films, or French cinema, or chanson, or jazz, or Led Zeppelin, or politics, or the war in Iraq, or surrealism, or poetry, or literature, but there are scant few where you can find people who are even interested in all of those things, let alone able to write about them with any knowledge.
I've also very much appreciated the liveliness, good sense, and the friendship you've brought to my blog as well. You are always very welcome.
If you want to go more in the direction of blogging abvout poetry and literature, the only advice that I have to offer is that you may need to network beyond our small circle of cat-lick blogs to get some more traffic on that. Whatever you decide to do, though, I'll be interested in reading.
Good luck on your reading (with jazz)! That sounds pretty exciting. New York (I assume) is a pretty cool town in that respect.
Jeff,
Thanks for the many kind comments. They mean a lot coming from you. When I said my respect for good bloggers had gone up immensely in the past year, you were one of the ones I was thinking of. Still don't see how you can write so many lengthy and well-considered posts on difficult subjects week after week. Very impressive.
I don't want to start blogging primarily about literature and poetry. God, the thought actually makes me slightly nauseated. For one thing, there are already many good literary blogs out there. And I'm basically burned out on the literary world. I guess that's what I'm discovering, in part by seeing how little I wrote about literary things on this blog. But I would like to do more. Crystal does a nice job of posting poems and other literary stories.
It's just kind of weird after spending most of my life delving into the literary/poetic universe. And honestly, I'm a lousy literary critic who has little interest in even offering literary criticism. I find literary criticism much more annoying than film criticism. Perhaps because it takes itself more seriously, I don't know.
We'll see how the poetry-jazz gig goes. I'm nervous now, but I'll probably gt into it by Sunday. Thanks for the support.
Take a bow, Cowboy...
Thanks, John!
Happy blogbirthday, batman.
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