It Starts With a Birthstone - Another Drop in the Ocean - Ten Years of Writing a Blog

 

It Starts With a Birthstone is ten years old today. I haven't baked a cake. It is, as McCulloch sang in The Cutter, (one of the most inspiring songs, still of my lifetime),' not just another drop in the ocean'. or it tries not to be. I'm quite proud of it actually.

I started this with the intention of writing about the albums that had meant so much to me when I first started buying records in the Eighties; Murmur, High Land, Hard Rain, Sulk, Rattlesnakes, Born Sandy Devotional. Those became sprawling, and I suspect largely incoherent epic written journeys, written often over the course of a week ir mire. There didn't seem to be much of a future in this modus operandi, though I enjoyed the writing experience from the start.

I chanced upon a new way of going about this on January 19th 2014, when I started my Song or Songs for the Day series which I've maintained ever since. For the record the first in this journey was The Andrew Oldham Orchestra. The most recent Radiator Hospital,  This was a real personal incentive, a spur. I've written something on here every day since and almost ten years on we're up to 3,400 days and counting. I've never missed a day and don't plan to start now. I've covered a broad ocean of musical testimony. 

Heavy Rock and thrashy genres are probably the only things I neglect, or rather avoid. I just don't care for that kind of stuff and why would I want to spend too much time thinking and writing about something I don't care for. Otherwise I feel I have an open mind and fairly catholic tastes. I'm curious. I think .Every day in this series has had me writing about a different band or artists though no doubt I've stumbled in that respect somewhere and inadvertently duplicated.

What are the objectives of blogs? To bring attention to things for others that the writer thinks worthy of notice, in my case music I love or at least like. To attest to lived experience. To try to become a better writer. To give me something to reflect on, to gather and focus my energy. All of these for me and more.

I don't really care about how many hits my blog attracts. I've come to be a bit cynical about this element of things. One day I get thousands of hits from Russia. The next day it slows to a trickle. Much of it is electronic traffic I suspect and nothing to get to elated or deflated about either way.  I know I could probably get more hits and attention by seeking out and adding advertising, but it's against my basic principles and reason for doing this and you should try to stick with your principles I reckon.

Basically I have one very loyal reader who often recommends great stuff and other people tell me that individual pieces are good. That's enough for me. I know that not everything is great. I write on here every day after all and sometimes I'm short of time so I don't proof read or fact check as thoroughly as I might. So sue me. Write your own. 

The way I do this is fairly consistent. I write in one go if I can, then post. Then if I think whatever I've written is good I go back and proofread. Then if I still think it's good I go back and proofread some more. A decent length piece needs a fair bit of proofreading I've found. I know it's annoying for a reader to see spelling mistakes, or incorrect facts, or a paragraph that doesn't flow well. The same adjective used too many times, but hey, there are only so many hours in the day and anyway I've got another review that needs working on. I like to watch the ones I've written recede in the rear view mirror too.

The Internet Age has allowed us all to kid ourselves that we are all creative artists of one kind or other. Possessed of remarkable critical or cultural insight and sensitivity. We all are of course, or have the potential for being so, whether we fully realise it, (in both meanings of the word), or not. This is an age of creation, but everybody is so busy creating they don't always have the time to encourage others efforts. People won't tell you something's good generally I find. Even though they know in their hearts that something is. Get used to it.  Persevere. 

What I'm most pleased about with It Starts With a Birthstone is that over the course of its evolution it has encouraged me to focus primarily on music that has just been released or will be released imminently. There was a time, about twenty years ago when I barely listened to new stuff, believing as many do that the best music of my lifetime was released during the years when I was 15 to when I turned 25.Or else in the Sixties probably.  I don't think this is the case anymore and never will again. I try to live in the now. That's the most rewarding approach to life I'd say.

I have a rundown of favourite albums towards the end of every year now. It makes no attempt to be definitive, just the records I like in some rough order of my liking. . I started this round about in 2016 with a list of 10. This grew to 50, then 100. This year I'm tempted to do 150. We'll see. It certainly won't be hard for me to find 150 records I'd say were worth listening to. Onwards and upwards..