READY MADE SUBJECTS
As well as this blog I also post in one called Go Live. It's been on the go for just over two years now, and has almost three hundred posts.
I enjoy writing, I enjoy going out to various forms of entertainment. Put the two together and I have an ongoing flow of material. The blog title did quickly become a misnomer though. I envisaged it being about all the live events I'd been to see, but immediately realised I wanted to include films as well, or at least those I've been to a cinema to view. At first I also included reports on ice hockey matches too, but soon recognised that they didn't fit in well with the overall theme of the blog. So it's been narrowed down to encompass live music, drama, comedy, and the aforementioned cinema visits. (I've refrained from trying to comment on art exhibitions and galleries, as I'd quickly feel right out of my depth!)
Hardly anyone reads these reviews, and that's fine with me. I did get asked if I'd like to submit some to another blog, but in the end decided against it - I've no need of the pressure and having others read my words isn't what this is all about. I do it for myself, and if anyone else happens to get something from anything I post then that's a bonus. I do it because I enjoy the challenge, because I already try to write every day and here's some immediate subject matter, I do it just for fun and enjoyment. If anyone does find something helpful in my outpourings then that's a bonus.
It has changed the way I view gigs etc. though. Whatever I'm watching a part of my enjoyment comes from turning possible sentences and phrases over in my mind, trying to pick out the essential elements of whatever it is I'm looking at and listening to. I also carry a notebook with me to jot down my thoughts after it's finished. There are a few times when I feel my thoughts are clear enough and I don't need the notes. But come festival time - be it film, jazz or Fringe - the little book is an essential companion. Once you start to see two or three events in the same day the memory is not to be relied upon.
So I will continue with Go Live because it's become a habit I get a lot of pleasure from (even if few other people do!). Occasionally I get a wider readership if the artist being covered decides to retweet or share my post (but only when I've been nice about them!).
But there's one success I'm unlikely to repeat in the future. I had one of my reviews translated into Danish and published on a Danish folk music site, although I only discovered this by accident. With Danish being such an opaque language if you're unfamiliar with it, it was as well I'd put in a couple of made up words, which proved to be untranslatable, and a reference to Jaco Pastorius. Without them I'd never have recognised my own prose!
Tomorrow night I'm off to another folk gig, and then I'll be one step closer to the three hundred mark. Need to keep my hand in for festival season....
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