Well, i was going to post a public apology, but then it got lost to a shuffle of copy and pastes, so here’s the condensed version.
I slagged the new Patti Rothberg record on the 11th of January. I didn’t like it. Since then, i’ve grown to like it, but it’s my stance that i don’t reccomend albums that i don’t like on my first listen to the general public (though i still have kind words for them to fans), so i never updated my review.
This week Mr. Freddie Katz, Patti’s current guitarist and songwriting pal, found my site via Google and read my scathing review and my indictment of him as the fault behind why i didn’t like the album. He emailed me and basically pegged me as the kind of fan who isn’t. It hurt. But, it was true, because what i said hurt him, and as a member of the general public i shouldn’t have that right.
Whoever knew someone mildly famous might randomly search down their name on my website? Certainly not i. Anyhow, i replied to Freddie and apologized, and informed him that i quite like the record now, which is true. I honestly would have rather heard Patti produce herself, or play every guitar on the record again, but she’s the artist and he claims the record met her artistic vision … which is enough for me.
Anyhow, my best wishes to Patti and Freddie in the future. I’ll still be listening. I dunno if either of them ever want to talk to me again, though. I think what this all proves is that i’m a shithead… yep. In case you hadn’t figured it out already.
meta
If you’re at all up on the politics of Pyra & Blogger you should definitely go read the very witty interview Evan Williams (the only person currently behind Blogger) just did with a self-proclaimed genius named Biz Stone. It provides an easy history of Blogger, why it’s not quite viable, and what might happen to it in the future. Also, there are some robots and giant brains suspended in large tanks of preserving fluid. Plus, a genius!
If i post once more about all this relationship crap, someone ought to remind me to rename the blog “My life is like an open wound” or something apropos like that. While i’m sure watching me pick the scab off of my slowly healing heart once or thrice a day is very thrilling, it’s starting to make me feel like the lowest common denominator on the Blog foodchain (and eventually i think it might wind up leaving a scar). Of course, a lot of LCD things wind up being really popular. Wouldn’t it be funny if i wound up all popular and loved because of my romantic problems, when up until two months ago this whole log was about how my only romantic problem was a lack of a problem? Yeah… that’d be damn amusing.
Isn’t it sick how i use my personal misery as fodder for traffic? Ironically, i stubbornly refused to talk about her while i was dating her because it seemed like a private affair, but this log has always been about yearns and burns, and i’m definitely doing a lot more of both right now than i’ve been doing recently. Still, this does feel a little destructive – but it also feels rather cathartic: i can unload bits and pieces of it on my friends, but here i can unload all of it and have it to come back to as proof of what i was feeling. And, godforbid i ever lose track of a feeling … maybe i should have blogged about how much i liked her to begin with.
I have to say that i’m with Re on this one. While BlogSpot is a terrific idea and opportunity for folks who don’t want to go through all of GeoCities BS to get a webpage, but all too often it’s just a stagnant pool of unimportant and uninteresting blogs. It seems to me that any halfway decent BlogSpot blogger would get snapped up by a domain as soon as they found a few visitors, unless they wanted to stay at BlogSpot for some reason. I personally grabbed Brant as soon as i found out he didn’t really want to stay on at the Spot, and would do the same for any other blog i read regularly and enjoyed. While trolling around to all of the domains for hosting is tedious and rather rude (trust me on this one), getting people like Re or I to read you is a simple thing if you’re interesting, and hosting can’t be too far behind. I think the issue is that BlogSpot makes it too easy to start a blog … so that it really doesn’t take any planning or ambition or thought or anything of the like. At least going through GeoCities forces you to monkey with the FTP settings long enough to decide what you really want to do with your time.
My point? Firstly, i’d blame a good bit of the Blogger overinflation on BlogSpot, which means it’s their own fault (maybe they should just start charging for Spot to make their money back…). Secondly, it seems like BlogSpot is a glut of a lot of uninspired people, and the inspired ones get snapped up pretty quick once they establish their own voice. So, … this isn’t an invitation to inundate me with hosting requests, but if you’re on BlogSpot and you don’t like it there, just know that all you need to do is find your groove and a small audience before your time there is over.