{"id":15463,"date":"2014-04-20T10:52:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T14:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=15463"},"modified":"2018-04-21T11:01:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T15:01:22","slug":"ramh6-discoveries-a-playlist-and-a-rumination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/ramh6-discoveries-a-playlist-and-a-rumination\/","title":{"rendered":"RAMH@6: Discoveries<\/em> (A Playlist, and a Rumination)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: 19th-century drawing by A. Roeseler for “the German <\/em>Punch,” <\/em>Fliegende Bl\u00e4tter.
\nPosted on\u00a0Flickr<\/a> by user “digitalsextant.” For the whole three-panel thing, click the image.]<\/em><\/p>\nI<\/span> wondered what I’d write about for\u00a0Running After My Hat<\/em>‘s sixth anniversary — because, damn it, I was determined to write about something<\/em>\u00a0rather than let it pass completely unremarked.<\/p>\n

Before I get into the gist of my answer to that question, I thought I’d offer you up a playlist of a variety of music from posts here. Each\u00a0link in the below table takes you to the post where it was featured; the links open in a new window or tab, and the corresponding posts almost always\u00a0include (or link to) lyrics, if appropriate. (If you just want to see the post title and date, hover your mouse over the link without clicking on it.) The songs follow no particular sequence, except that (in my estimation) they sound pretty good in this order.<\/p>\n

A little audio-player thingumabob appears below the track listing. Feel free to ignore this, or use it as a soundtrack for what follows.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nArtist<\/strong><\/td>\nSong<\/strong><\/td>\nTime<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/strong><\/td>\nNicola Benedetti<\/td>\nConcerto for violin and strings in D\/”Grosso Mogul” I. Allegro<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a05:28<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/strong><\/td>\nThe\u00a0Staple Singers<\/td>\nSlippery People (Club Mix)<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a06:38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/strong><\/td>\nLenka<\/td>\nThe Show<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:56<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/strong><\/td>\nAriana Grande<\/td>\nTattooed Heart<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/strong><\/td>\nB.B. King<\/td>\nOne Shoe Blues<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/strong><\/td>\nShook Twins<\/td>\nRose<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a02:58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/strong><\/td>\nOld Crow Medicine Show<\/td>\nDown Home Girl<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/strong><\/td>\nRising Appalachia<\/td>\nSwoon<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a02:30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Black Keys<\/td>\nLonely Boy<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/strong><\/td>\nDominant Legs<\/td>\nMake Time for the Boy<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a05:12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/strong><\/td>\nSantana (w\/Rob Thomas)<\/td>\nSmooth<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a02:33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/strong><\/td>\nCaitlin Rose<\/td>\nPink Champagne<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a04:06<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/strong><\/td>\nEmmylou Harris\/Rodney Crowell<\/td>\nSpanish Dancer<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a03:45<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/strong><\/td>\nBig Bad Voodoo Daddy<\/td>\nMr. Pinstripe Suit<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:39<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Rankins<\/td>\nMovin’ On<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/strong><\/td>\nCarrie Rodriguez<\/td>\nLake Harriet<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/strong><\/td>\nLucky Soul<\/td>\nUpon Hilly Fields<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a03:55<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/strong><\/td>\nRed Molly<\/td>\nWayfaring Stranger<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a05:42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/strong><\/td>\nTom Waits<\/td>\nHold On<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n\u00a05:34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

…and here’s the playlist-player doo-dad itself. (Total length of all songs together: ~78 minutes. So, yeah: settle in.)<\/p>\n

RAMH@6: Discoveries<\/h4>\n\n


\n—<\/p>\nS<\/span>o, to the question of the moment: why “Discoveries”?<\/p>\n

What it comes down to is that I’d always thought of\u00a0RAMH<\/em> as bringing something\u00a0to<\/em> the Web… But on the contrary, doing the blog has in fact brought much more to\u00a0me<\/em>: many things completely\u00a0unexpected, even unsuspected.<\/p>\n

Take the music, for example.<\/p>\n

The first post in which I embedded an audio player was on\u00a0July 5th, 2008<\/a>. The featured song then: “Cool, Cool Considerate Men,” from the musical\u00a01776<\/em>. Before that Independence-Day week, I’d never seen the movie. Never heard the soundtrack. But for some reason, as soon as I heard the song I realized I wanted\u00a0to figure out how to share it.<\/p>\n

I’d contemplated sharing music before, but never acted on the notion. No hurry, I’d always thought: I had so\u00a0much<\/em> favorite music, I could start at any time…<\/p>\n

What a laugh.\u00a0I didn’t have <\/em>that much favorite music to share<\/em>. And when I opened my mind to all the music I’d never listened to at all, all the artists I’d never heard of, forgotten about, ignored — wow, what a revelation.<\/p>\n

So that’s the first discovery to\u00a0which\u00a0RAMH<\/em> led me, a discovery which\u00a0I’ve finally boiled down to a playlist wide-ranging but short enough to fit on a CD. (It was\u00a0tough<\/em>.) The reason the music classifies as\u00a0“new” varies. I might have known the song before, say, but never from that particular artist. Or I’d never even heard of the artist, period. Or\u00a0I knew the artist like an old pair of jeans, but they’d somehow hooked up with an amazing tune. And every one of these\u00a0tunes, these performances, absolutely delighted me when I first came upon them. They still do.<\/p>\n

This is also a good time to mention another discovery: how reliable have been the musical instincts of the other bloggers and RAMH<\/em> visitors whose suggestions I’ve read over the years. Some of the songs in this playlist I “discovered” all on my lonesome. And many, many of them came to me by way of someone else — possibly\u00a0a stranger at first — whose tastes I came to admire, and to rely on.<\/p>\n

People whose musical tastes I eventually came to rely on include (but are not limited to): Kate Lord Brown, Julie (Jules) Danielson, Froog (of<\/em>\u00a0Froogville), Marta Pelrine-Bacon, Nance Meeker, Jayne Guertin Schlott, Simon (of <\/em>Beat Surrender), Mike Simpson, Steve Page, Cindy Page, Dad, Mom, and of course The Missus. Thanks, everyone!<\/em><\/p>\nO<\/span>n to Discovery #2, which might be summed up as: Why do I blog?<\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, for a long time I assumed\u00a0that I blogged as a way of making myself known to the outside world. The advice, after all, was universal, especially for (would-be) writers:\u00a0when someone asks,\u00a0Do you have an online presence?<\/em>, you must have\u00a0a\u00a0blog to point them to.<\/p>\n

The catch? This “universal” advice turned out to be\u00a0time-limited, in effect for years but only until the widespread use of what came to be known as social media. No one really expects anyone, even writers, to maintain a really active blog these days\u00a0(not unless they’ve got some other reason for doing so). Now those longed-for agent and editorial contacts are just as (if not more) likely curious\u00a0about your\u00a0presence\u00a0on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and all the rest.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, one thing\u00a0continues to\u00a0confound me:\u00a0the extent to which writer’s guidelines for publication and contests\u00a0forbid previous “publication” in any form… including on a personal blog. If you’re going to show off your writing on a blog, you must limit it to writing which you (a) have already published or (b) don’t care to have published. While some more far-sighted publishers and periodicals are relaxing a bit on this front, they constitute a tiny minority of outlets for print.<\/p>\n

So, again: why blog? I’m still figuring out the answer to that. Importantly (to me), I’ve recognized what I was getting from blogging before which I’m no longer getting, an element I had disregarded or dismissed. Which leads me to…<\/p>\nD<\/span>iscovery #3<\/a>: Facebook.<\/p>\n

I know, I know. A firehose\u00a0of trivia. Insubstantial. Impermanent. Careless. Indifferently courteous. Slapdash. And all the rest: I\u00a0know<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing about Facebook, though — a reward which blogging (for 99% of blogs, including\u00a0RAMH<\/em>) can’t even begin to touch — it is indisputably\u00a0social<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I could put up a blog post after three days’ work, and never hear a peep from anyone about it. I could see from web-visit stats, maybe, that some people were at least\u00a0seeing<\/em> the page. But unless they were friends,\u00a0these visitors themselves seldom acknowledged the post: not in a comment, not in an email, not in a link back to\u00a0RAMH<\/em>. Silence — crickets.<\/p>\n

On Facebook, here’s what happens: you drop a ten-word wisecrack or other mot<\/em>, and eight or ten people “like” it. This doesn’t mean that they really like it, of course — the “like”\u00a0acknowledges, reliably, only that they have seen it, and probably read it. They might comment with an emoticon, or an “lol,” or an “Oh, I’m so sorry,” or “Wow — I never knew that!” The point is: it’s\u00a0something<\/em>. And that has been Discovery #3<\/a> for me, a true revelation: I never really,\u00a0really<\/em> blogged because I wanted to promote or market myself, or to show off my writing, or because I thought I had something important to say. Because if any of that had been true, I’d still be posting three or four or more times a week; you couldn’t keep me from posting.<\/p>\n

No. The reason I blogged, the thing\u00a0I\u00a0didn’t realize about myself until the world moved on from blogging to all those shallow, trivial, quick-and-dirty online venues of little to no “consequence,” was simply this: I needed people; I was <\/em>lonely.<\/p>\nA<\/span>nyhow,\u00a0RAMH<\/em> will not to my knowledge be going\u00a0away for a good while. I still use blogging as a lash — an incentive — to explore music. (If I hadn’t had this anniversary thing to work on, I’d have posted another pair of entries in my long-ignored “What’s in a Song?” series<\/a> this week.) I still like to assemble\u00a0the\u00a0whiskey river<\/em> call-and-response things<\/a> on Friday. I have not forgotten about my most recent series<\/a>, on the Golden Treasury of Natural History<\/em>\u00a0— or, really, about any of the other topics\u00a0I have written about from time to time.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, rarely, I still like to put something here just because\u00a0I don’t want to\u00a0consign it to Facebook’s time-limited shredder.<\/p>\n

And yes, I expect — the gods willing — I’ll still be here posting a “RAMH@7” entry, and a “RAMH@8,” and so on.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much for visiting.\u00a0Always<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: 19th-century drawing by A. Roeseler for “the German Punch,” Fliegende Bl\u00e4tter. Posted on\u00a0Flickr by user “digitalsextant.” For the whole three-panel thing, click the image.] wondered what I’d write about for\u00a0Running After My Hat‘s sixth anniversary — because, damn it, I was determined to write about something\u00a0rather than let it pass completely unremarked. Before I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,247,12,74,250,37,5,209,372],"tags":[229,2333,3422],"class_list":{"0":"post-15463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-backwards","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-03_runningaftermyhat","9":"category-music","10":"category-art","11":"category-onlineworld","12":"category-06_writing","13":"category-the-business","14":"category-style-and-craft","15":"tag-blogging","16":"tag-blogiversaries","17":"tag-blogging-in-the-21st-century","18":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-41p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15463"}],"version-history":[{"count":73,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20226,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15463\/revisions\/20226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}