Around the Corner

Dearest Reader,

I'm tired of what Syntax of Things has become.  Tired of feeling like I have to force out a post just because.  Starting April 1st, I'm going to try something different.  It may be similar to what has been but it won't be the same.  I'm not going to speak of what will be quite yet; I'm still trying to figure it out.  Until then, feel free to offer suggestions of what you'd like to see, what you'd like to read about, what you think has worked and what should be avoided.  I miss writing about baseball; I miss hating on Madonna; I hate being part of the litblog scene just because...Time to reinvent.  Time to talk more about the weather; time to figure out if R.E.M. can redeem themselves.  Time to figure out if my time has come, if maybe at 37 I need to give this all over to someone who has the energy and time.  Or maybe I should just not worry about any of it.  I do know that I'm not ready to quit.  Not when there are battles to be won.  Not when I still have to finish that Denis Johnson novel.  Not when I keep getting strange ARCs in the mail, ARCs about stem cell research for godsake.  Nope, not done. Not yet.

See you on Fool's Day.

love
SoT

PS.  The Litblog Co-op is no more.  It suffered from being insufferable at the end.  Something like it can work, even if it's run by the little people.

Comments

[Richard Grayson]

Sounds good. Too many people keep doing what they're doing out of habit and fear of change.

I think you should do what you feel passionate about.

I look forward to what's next.

Take care, Jeff.

[Matthew Tiffany]

There's been many times I've been tempted to quit my own site. It just starts to feel silly. But it's worth keeping going, because when that next thing comes along that you want to share, the site's there waiting for you.

I fight off the doldrums by redesigning. I know most of my readers don't even go to the site, using a feed reader instead, but sometimes giving the site a fresh look helps.

[Gwenda]

I love it when you hate on Madonna. Also: Courtney Love.

[Dan Wickett]

Don't forget, Jeff, the new Interview Magazine - plenty of stuff to hate on, I'm sure.

And Matthew, I love the multiple re-designs over at Condalmo!

[jmorrison]

I am of the opinion that the anonymity of the statistically present, but often silent, blog audience creates an unwarranted pressure on the blogger. We fill the unknown with expectations. I can say from experience that the need to evolve creatively, which is natural and healthy, meets its fiercest resistance from these spectral expectations. My best advise is to ignore them. Write something that makes you feel accomplished and makes your wife laugh.

Do whatever it is you feel compelled to do. That's the only kind of output worthy of an audience anyway.

Now kick some ass.

P.S. I agree with Matthew, a redesign is good for the soul.

[ed]

About goddam time. I'm glad you've come to terms with the cold hard truth, Jeff. That even when you're situated in a basement in Terre Haute, there's so much time to expend on a blog. Typing. Hitting that Publish button. My god! When I think of the one goddam second I waste every time I press that infernal button, I weep for the children who are starving in other nations. THEY don't have that second. And we do! And we take it all for granted -- this precious second, this damnable second, it makes me feel guiltier than a cube worker downloading porn at the office.

Something needs to change. And it involves endless dissemination of angst. Starting with the litbloggers. And starting with spending more seconds dwelling upon that second.

[Jonny]

I like Madonna more than baseball, I think REM have failed to redeem, you shouldn't post jack until you finish Tree of Smoke, and as long as you keep writing, I'll keep reading... assuming it's not about baseball.

[R Ellis]

I'll read whatever you have to write, cuz I like your mind. But no pressure!

[R Ellis]

But promise me you'll keep the baby pics coming.

[Bill Ectric]

I've always though it would be cool to take a picture of a baby's face, once a week, facing forward, at the same close-up distance, over a number of years, and then make a video montage of them fading into one another. That has nothing to do with blogging, it just popped into my head when I read the post by R. Ellis.

[auntie scott]

When you run,
digger, runner, listener, thief,
you carry it all with you.

Today I woke up uncertain,
and you know that gives me the fits,
so I left this land of fungible convictions
because it seemed like the pits.
When I say, "conviction", I mean it's something to abjure
and when I say "uncertain", I mean to doubt I'll not turn out a caricature.
So I set off in search of my forebearers,
coz my forbearance was in need,
but the only job I could get in dear old Blighty
was working on the railway between Selby and Leeds.
So I took a ferry to Belfast, where I had cause to think:
They wanted none of my arm-chair convictions
but nobody seemed to mind when I was putting on the drinks!

And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you 'coz you're guilty! so...

I stayed out all night in Ibiza,
by way of San Sebastian,
where they said;
'Yankee, you better watch what you're saying, unless you're sayin'
it in Basque or in Catalan!"
So all the way east to Novi Sad,
where narry a bridge was to be seen,
but Mother Russia, she laid her pontoons on down,
so I crossed over, if you know what I mean...
Then on the road to Damascus,
yes, the scales, they fell from my eyes,
and the simplest lesson I learned at the Mount of Olives: everybody lies.
And the french foreign legion

you know they did their best -
but I never believed in T.E. Lawrence,
so how the hell could i believe in Beau Geste?

You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didnt think they could hate you, now did you?
You didnt think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you 'coz you're guilty! So...

I spent a night in Kigali, in a five diamond hotel,
where maybe someday, they'll do the Watusi down in Hutu hell.
I fell in with a merchant marine who promised to take me home,
but when I woke up beaten and bloodied,
I couldn't tell if it was Jersey or Sierra Leone!

And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could have you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you coz you're guilty...

And the knocking in my head, just like the knocking at my door.
Maybe it was me or maybe it was my brother,
but either me or me and him went down to the bar,
where I got seven powers in me for to give me the cure,
but when seven powers failed to spin me,
I had to get me seven more.
And when I say, "me" I mean my brain.
And when I say "give me the cure" I mean to kill the pain.
And when I say "kill the pain" I meant to get the devil out.
And when I say "devil" I mean the manifestation of doubt!

And you didnt think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake - they hate you...

[Carolyn]

The flu'll do that to you. Take heart, spring is around the corner, and Courtney might throw compacts at Madonna again someday. There's "fun" in "blog" someplace, I swear.

[mai wen]

So, you going to the R.E.M. concert here in Raleigh on June 10th? I want to, more so because I love The National (an Indie band opening for R.E.M.) but tickets are pricey! $60 some bucks for Grass tickets???

[Jimmy Beck]

Mo' Marlie, mo' Marlie, mo' Marlie...