Being lazy & busy & lazy

Well, not actually being lazy.

Just busy, very busy.

That and also this: a couple months ago I added some extra security to my Google account. Surprisingly this has made me lazier in cases of dashing off quick posts about videos etc. at work.

Also this: I love NewsBlur. It's a great replacement for Google Reader, I've become quite attached to it. But it's a bit tougher to share links from there, as it requires an extra step. See the pattern here?

Is the Blogger format out of date? I keep thinking maybe I should switch platforms, but that strikes me as a lot of work. More laziness.

What I miss about frequently posting is getting thoughts on music down in some form. I've broadened the subject matter on the blog over the years - over seven years! - to give myself an opportunity to write about other stuff… but then again… laziness.

Get this though: I'm still listening to as much music as I ever have, but I'm just not bothering to post and share all this killer stuff. Lazy. Not necessarily new music, because I can feel myself reaching this "I likes what I likes" stage, which I'm enjoying more than I thought I ever would.

So I'm going to get back into more posting - I have a back log of ideas and great stuff you gotta hear.

Favourite stuff of 2013

In 2013 I didn't get out to any movies, and I didn't catch too much tv - at least not enough to warrant a top 10 or even a top 5 list.

What I did do was listen to a lot of music. That's nothing new. Over the next few days I'll drop a few of my favourite tracks and maybe even finish my own best of the year list! Hey, I can dream, can't I?

I think back to all that I lost in 2013... Google Reader, iTunes Party Shuffle, my Blackberry 9780. Life could have been worse.

It was also my first full year with my newest best friend, my daughter, and at barely over a year she already seems to be developing a taste in music. At least insofar as what I'll play for her.

I pretty much lost touch with writing this blog, and so did the rest of the web, apparently. In my case, it's tough to bang out a post or two, let alone 250-500 words on anything when there's a kid tugging on your leg wanting to play. The blog may have suffered, but I made the right choice.

Taking a look back at "American Boy"

This past week this post received the most traffic to this blog. I haven't figured out exactly why, but I thought this would make a good opportunity for some reflection.

The context for the post was that I had just returned from a month-long trip to Europe with my brother. We heard U2 every single day we were over there. Four different countries, a few plane rides, train rides, a bunch of pubs and coffee shops, and without a doubt we would hear U2 at some point.

I'm sure someone visiting North America might find something similar, but the sheer breadth and diversity of venues, and the distances traveled... I dunno, I guess something about that stuck out to me.

We also heard lots of Stevie Wonder and Madonna as I recall, but it wasn't the same.

The definite theme song of that trip was this tune, "American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye... featuring a pond-crossing performing duo plus a bangin' beat; which is to say the song featured, for us, cultural context as well as the content to match. This song will forever be tied to that trip for me. Great song, catchy hook, butchered nightly by karaoke singers everywhere.

1000 posts!

Hey look, a base-10 milestone. It's coincidental more than anything else, especially considering all the unpublished drafts of posts I have sitting in the queue.

For fun here's the most-played track in my iTunes library... Cocteau Twins - "Heaven or Las Vegas"

Linking friends

I recently cleared out a couple of seemingly dormant blogs in my 'friends' list down the right side of the page.

Email me about link swapping, I'll be adding to the list in the next couple days.

Obligatory New Year's post

It's about time I got that Christmas post off the top of the page. Happy New Year, and all that. It's been a relaxing, and then busy again couple of weeks. Last week I worked on some pretty cool stuff for work that I can post when it airs/goes online, so stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, to get the blog juices flowing again, here's a list of the most visited posts on the blog from the past year:

• Captain America trailer features Tool song
• Great songs in the Zookeeper trailer can't convince me to part with my money
• NIN track in the Avengers trailer
• Concert review - The Weeknd - I like the fact that all I did was post a link to the Star website and I got mad hits.
• Soundgarden concert review - July 2, Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto
• My favourite podcasts
• Cut Copy concert review & setlist
• TV on the Radio concert review - April 18, Sound Academy
• 30 Harshest Musician on Musician Disses
• Caribou shills for Lexus in new commercial

Bonus: This Resident Evil post from June 2010 was the third most visited post this past year. Go figure. I need to either post more, post more quality stuff, or post more about songs in trailers. And also more concert reviews. Who's up for a show soon?

Back to the blog

I've sort of fallen of the consistency wagon, which really is a basic requirement of maintaining a blog. Falling of said wagon means that I have notes and notes for great post ideas but lately just haven't getting them to virtual print.

In the coming weeks I hope to get some of these wonderful ideas on the blog. Here are a few posts that will hopefully be forthcoming:

-Prince concert review (way overdue)
-Best___ of the year
-Top tracks of the year
-Attempts to reach 190+ posts on the year (this will be 168).
-A review of National Novel Writing Month, which I could say left me to drop the ball on the blog, but is not true, comparing the post count for this month and last month.
Thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to flood your RSS feed with outstanding posts in the coming weeks.

Big shoes to fill... big shoes to fill...

My goal for 2010 was to simply post more often, and beat my previous record of the not-quite-200 total of 198 for the year. Well I did myself proud, crushing my own personal best at 256.

Goals for 2011?

Besting 256 would certainly be a worthy challenge, as well as the generic sounding goal of 'increase blog traffic', which also grew by a ton (thanks to about three Google-friendly posts).

More posts which feature rants.

Keeping up the 'Saigon Sunday' series, which has been really fun to do. Sorry I missed this past week (two weeks?), but I've been sick and coming down off the holiday buzz. Better late than never though, right?

Book reviews. Maybe a return of Fake Book Titles? #5 has been waiting two and a half years.

Pro audio stuff. It is my particular vocation, so why not write more on the subject? I may start posting my own music as well... probably the best thing to do is link to my stuff elsewhere, and keep the blog as its own identity.

Also:
I signed up for Sound Cloud. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but there it is.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to many more musical adventures in this new decade!

March to 300

I'm not talking about the movie, but the march to 300 blog posts on the year.

Last year I came up a couple short of my goal, but this year I stand reasonably poised to absolutely wreck my previous totals while I'm smashing Pageview records. No steroids will be used in this pursuit, other than the usual inspirational stimulants.

However I must also be careful not to set the bar too high, as I will likely be clamouring to raise the bar again next year.

Anyway, should be an exciting rest of the year. Stay tuned.

Blogger in Draft

Just found this tool, Blogger in Draft. I must have missed the email about this one, cause it's pretty handy. Boy was I ever confused when the Blogger help page looked nothing like the editor I was using. Anywho.

Music blog directory

Just added my blog to the Music Blog Wiki! Let the page views roll in! :)

I went to add myself at blogged.com but apparently I was already there. My reputation precedes me.