Liner Notes
Took a few minutes this morning to adjust the sidebar links. Updated some, added some, just trying to switch things up a bit. One winter project is to maybe redesign/customize this blog a bit, or perhaps move the whole thing over to WordPress- that's the hip thing to do I guess. Or at least the cool kids think so. Of course my list of winter projects is loooong, and my motivation is loooow so who knows.
It occurred to me that the blogroll / link list is kind of the new version of the liner notes that used to be included in records. You know, records- those vinyl Frisbees that music used to come on? Well, back in the day I used to scan the liner notes of all my record purchases to figure out what the people I liked were into. Then I'd buy records from those bands, or read those authors, subscribe to those zines- whatever. It was a gleaning process, and really the only way you had back then to learn more about the scene (true of punk and to a lesser extent cycling). The was no Google- no internet (at least as we now know it)- pretty much no easy way. It was a slow process, and you had to work for it.
The upside of that process being slow is that it allowed you to formulate your own ideas- sure, you had influences from outside sources- but the heavy lifting was done all by yourself. Or if you were lucky maybe by a small group of friends. And doing that gave you a sense of ownership and of pride in your 'work'. One of Mike Watt's bands, Unknown Instructors has a song titled: Punk (is whatever we made it to be). And that was really the essence of it- it was (and is) what you made it, and it wouldn't exist unless you made it exist.
So go click around. Read. Think. Then go make something of your own.
It occurred to me that the blogroll / link list is kind of the new version of the liner notes that used to be included in records. You know, records- those vinyl Frisbees that music used to come on? Well, back in the day I used to scan the liner notes of all my record purchases to figure out what the people I liked were into. Then I'd buy records from those bands, or read those authors, subscribe to those zines- whatever. It was a gleaning process, and really the only way you had back then to learn more about the scene (true of punk and to a lesser extent cycling). The was no Google- no internet (at least as we now know it)- pretty much no easy way. It was a slow process, and you had to work for it.The upside of that process being slow is that it allowed you to formulate your own ideas- sure, you had influences from outside sources- but the heavy lifting was done all by yourself. Or if you were lucky maybe by a small group of friends. And doing that gave you a sense of ownership and of pride in your 'work'. One of Mike Watt's bands, Unknown Instructors has a song titled: Punk (is whatever we made it to be). And that was really the essence of it- it was (and is) what you made it, and it wouldn't exist unless you made it exist.
So go click around. Read. Think. Then go make something of your own.
posted by JD at
11:01 AM
2 Comments:
Great post, JD. I was thinking today, after talking briefly to Meg about our respective blogs, actually, (before the deluge...) about how I know things about my friends and acquaintances from their blogs that I would not otherwise know. I was thinking as I was driving over the Berkshires towards home how amazing the technology of the hyperlink is that we can mow all share our points of reference and moments of fascination with each other. Likewise the blogroll. It's the accelerated liner notes/zine process, for sure.
-n
hey now. i am not on wordpress, i just used some google to find a non-standard blogger template.
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