Sunday, December 13, 2009

State Of The Pretzel Logic: December

Well, here we are at the end of the year. The weather’s getting chilly and the holiday season is breathing down our necks. Personally, I’ve had a fantastic 2009 and I hope that the rest of you did as well. In a few short weeks, we’ll have not only a new year, but a new decade. I can’t wait.

Pretzel Logic has been online since January 1. It’s been a constant source of pride for me and has given me the chance to hone my writing skills. It has also kept me much more aware of current music than I have been in past years. Over the course a single year, I’ve written 276 posts and reviewed 127 albums. I’ve had a great time and I hope anyone out there reading has enjoyed what I’ve had to say.

Unfortunately, I’m rapidly becoming cynical about the role music blogs play in the world. People seem to be placing more and more stock in their own opinions, resulting in a culture where no one really gives a shit what other people think. Twitter and the assorted new communications media outlets are undermining more in-depth writing by reducing conversations to 140 characters. All these factors are leading me to consider putting Pretzel Logic to rest for good. While it’s been a lot of fun for me on a personal level, I feel like it isn’t serving much of a purpose in the world.

I haven’t actually decided what the future of this blog will be yet. I’m going to take a break from blogging for the rest of this year and decide how I want to proceed. If Pretzel Logic does come back, it will be sometime in the first week of January, probably somewhat radically redesigned. If it doesn’t, than I want to thank everyone who’s been reading. It’s been one hell of a year.

2 comments:

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  2. Well damn Simon. I'd say you've accomplished quite a lot with this blog. Not that you don't have every reason to be cynical, but I think that you should continue with your it. I've had fun reading it, and while I think you're downright wrong sometimes, I think that you manage to provide an interesting point of view on current music and have tackled some things that I'd never touch. Hell, you've actually succeeded in turning me onto some great music I'd never heard before. More than that, you're blog is a good source for Music News, I know I didn't keep up with stuff on my blog. The Third Rail is kaput (and had been for sometime now,) and I'm starting a new blog for the new year with a more defined mission statement and hopefully, more than just record reviews. Some ideas I've had for it have been inspired by your blog, I'm not ashamed to say. However, there's a lot I'm planning to NOT do with my blog that you do with yours because I don't have the where-with-all to deal with it. Basically, the whole point of this rambling, and likely bewildering, comment is that you should continue, even if you decide to continue in a different way. I wrote a manifesto recently explaining my views on Music Journalism and how I felt it should be conducted, or rather, how I should conduct it. Part of it is that in-depth writers need to keep doing in-depth writing, Twitter be damned. Again, I think you should keep going. Either way, cheers on your blog.

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