I'll save you squinting to read the horizontal axis - this is a graph of the number of blog posts I've written every month for the last two years, prior to this one. The dotted red line makes the implicit trend explicit. I know it's just a count, it's got nothing to do with quality or page views (though both of those trend lines would follow a similar trajectory). Maybe I've just run out of words.
Take the rest of this post, for example. It starts with seeing this on Instagram the other day...
Which is one of those jokes that, if you have to explain it, stops being funny.
And then I thought, this could lead into a post about how U2 aren't all bad, actually (come back, Rol). Prone to pomposity, yes, effects-pedal-dependent, maybe, and so far over the shark even Quint couldn't get them, certainly. But there were some good songs there too, back in the day. Except ... I don't have the words, effort or energy required to write that post any more, it seems.
Bollocks to it. Here's a song.
See, that was alright, wasn't it? And if it was by anyone else, we'd all be enthusing. Although seeing Bonio in his big glasses inevitably brings this little snippet to mind:
"Are those your mother's cataract glasses?" Brilliant. And that's the post. More, by which I probably mean less, some other time.
I don't like U2. Bono especially. Actively against them in all sorts of ways, long held late 80s prejudices etc. Weirdly the other day the guitar line from With or Without You (or Where The Streets Have no Name, one or the other) hoved into earshot and I found myself enjoying it. Obviously I turned the tv off sharpish.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard, isn't it? They've obviously got a long history of irking, or even annoying, a lot of people. But then there are one or two good songs... damn them.
DeleteI despise him. A bigger hypocrite I think you'll struggle to meet.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/tax-bono-harming-world-poorest-glastonbury-avoidance-paradise-papers
JM
Doesn't make for a great read if you're Bono, does it?
DeleteSometimes a great and engaging piece comes about by not turning out how you thought it might when you started.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you stuck with it, Martin, and pressed ‘post’ at the end. It made me laugh (twice), made me follow and read the link, it made me think. And, just for a second, it made me wonder if that freeze frame of The Fly would pan out with Bono failing to outrun the oncoming vehicle and getting run over a la Wile E. Coyote. No such luck with the latter.
My oldest friend loves U2 so their music has become such a part of my life that I can’t hate them entirely. However I will never see them live and I won’t hand over any of my hard earned to buy their records or see their gigs (I think I got priced out of the latter years ago anyway)
Bono’s not the only twonk in U2 for sure but he’s the biggest and most hypocritical one.
That's interesting, actually, I hadn't thought of expressing an opinion through purchasing. I have seen them live, but a long time ago. I can't think when I last spent money on anything of theirs though, which probably tells a story,
DeleteAs for the stats, if I paid too much attention to mine, I may have quit before the first year was out! Since then, I get periodic surges of interest from the bot brigade but I think just like Spinal Tap, the appeal of my blog has become increasingly more selective…
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you do continue to post, as long as you have the will to do it. It’s not the frequency, it’s the quality and New Amusements is all about the latter for me.
Cheers Martin!
And cheers for this, Khayem. Never mind the quality, feel the width, as the old saying goes. Onward!
DeleteYou know, as part of the same self-help treatment that allowed me to re-evaluate New Order, I did consider that question you asked "And if it was by anyone else, we'd all be enthusing..." wouldn't we? There are three or four U2 songs I can listen to and actually enjoy (mostly from Rattle & Hum), but it's hard not to picture his smug face while I'm doing it. It's the same problem I have with Tom Hanks. I'm sure he's appeared in some excellent movies over the past 30 years, but I haven't been able to watch any of them because whenever I see his name in the credits, I just get Gump flashbacks. It's definitely something I need to work on... but then, I think "there's so much other music out there waiting to be appreciated, why do I have to force myself to waste even a moment of whatever little time I have left re-evaluating U2". I do agree with George Michael that we should try to Listen Without Prejudice... but unlike Louis, I don't feel I have all the time in the world anymore.
ReplyDeleteAlso, stop being so hard on yourself about the blogging decline. It's a self-imposed critique based on our contemporary obsession with online presence measured through stats, and it's not worth worrying about. Do what you can, do what you want... just don't beat yourself up for not doing the same as you did 10 years ago. We're all different people now. (Except Bono, who's still a twat.)
DeleteOn the other hand, if you stop completely, I'm coming for you with an axe.
DeleteI think you've hit the Bono nail on the head there, Rol - if he didn't look so smug, I think he and his band would be better liked. He's not even that good a singer, I guess he's made the best of what he's got. Trying to think if I have musical or filmic grudges. I certainly have blind spots - for example, try as I might I just can't ever seem to like more than two or three songs by Nick Cave. But is there an act that I won't enjoy on principle? I don't know. Liam Gallagher, maybe? John Lydon, perhaps?
DeleteAs for blogging, I am seriously thinking about putting in some hours before Christmas to schedule lots of post for next year, and then taking the whole of 2024 off, save for responding to comments. But only thinking about ... because that's a lot of work ...
If you come for me with an axe, I'm heading for the Overlook maze ;)
Ditto all Rol says!
ReplyDeleteAnd the pic made me, ahem, chuckle.
I see what you, ahem, did there, C... :)
Delete