However, now that I’ve been posting for over a decade, there is a nostalgia component that has crept in. Not that this was remotely my intent, but this blog has become a nice chronicle of pop culture and events during that period. The fun of course is when you read back the posts are in the present tense. I don’t know about you, but I love watching vintage television shows that still have their original commercials. The commercials are sometimes more entertaining than the shows. You really get that “time machine” feeling.
So too, with the archives. There are probably weeks or months from the past eleven years that you’d like to relive – happy events and memories. Hey, maybe you won AMERICAN IDOL one year. I bet if you picked a month and year and read those posts they would give you a good feeling. And I bet a good laugh or two might be hiding in these dated entries.
Now, more than ever, I personally am longing for the past. If you are too, a good way to immerse yourself (or distract yourself) might be to scroll through the archives. See how wrong my predictions were. Re-read award show reviews and marvel at how many winners have now disappeared. Skip the baseball posts like you did when they first appeared. Enjoy the many photos of Natalie Wood.
Hey, the alternative is the present. Enjoy.
Yours is a wonderful collection of good writing and it's much appreciated by so many of us, I bet. Here's to another decade of posts (and Natalie pictures...)
ReplyDeleteWe usually long for the past when the present is not so hot, which is certainly the case today, but I try to use that to fuel my motivation to fight to make the present better by using the best aspects of the past (e.g. I'm sure we long for the optimism and economic opportunities of the 1950s and early 1960s without the racism, sexism, or McCarthyism).
ReplyDeleteWhy no Natalie Wood photos on your Instagram feed? I'm hurt.
ReplyDeleteWith the death of newspapers (and some columnists) over the past decade or so, your blog has become my go to to start the day.
ReplyDeleteAnd as bad as times have become, the laughs are critical.
Thanks.
My Carole & Co. site, http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/, celebrated its 10th anniversary this month with more than 3,300 entries, so I empathize with you...though since it is a classic Hollywood blog, many of my earlier perceptions of the past already are outdated, thanks in part to that wonderful resource known as the Media History Digital Library. (It has accumulated thousands of magazines and publications on movies, radio, etc., and is an invaluable resource for anyone conducting research.)
ReplyDeleteI've been blogging 12 years, and it's a great crutch for me remembering stuff
ReplyDeleteKen, thanks for doing the blog. You make it a lot of fun as well as informative to how the business really works out there. I'm sure sometimes you would rather jump of the Capitol Records Building than do a blog post that day but we really do appreciate it. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteLately, my own preferred method of disengaging from the present involves an ivory-keyed 1929 grand piano and music written 100 to 200 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI've only been following for three years, so I have a lot of catching up to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ken - this made me realize I have been following this blog almost from the start! There are days when it picks me up, days when it doesn't. One thing is that it is never (well hardly ever..M)boring. Most of what you talk about are things I have always an interest in - Baseball...Hollywood behind the scenes...radio, and so on. And now with the podcast - which is getting better and better all the time (And it was GREAT from the start), so that is more thing to look forward to each week. So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, and many many more years of fun!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, one of my escapes to the past is I have been perusing the back issues of THE SPORTING NEWS online (at www.paperofrecord.com), starting at the end of WWII. I am currently early in the 1952 season, and would you believe one of the biggest gripes of the day was....how long ball games were taking?!? Some things never change...
People arrive at old stories by googling various topics.
ReplyDeleteReaders should put there own name in the search box, you may find something written about you. I did.
ReplyDeleteFor my money, it's great that you're an announcer, a writer (TV, Film, Theater, Memoirist), a director, a producer, a showrunner, and even a warm-up guy.
ReplyDeleteIt's especially impressive that you were paid to announce professional baseball despite not having played much (ever?)
So, I'm NOT 'skipping baseball posts'. More Natalie Wood' please. More "inside" stuff on TV, Film, Theater, and your life.
(and again, lets see "Levine in the 1970's")
And what the hell is "American Idol"?
Regarding splitting TV seasons, I figured it was just a way to get customers to buy extra DVD sets. If I'm enjoying "Eureka", I have to buy Season 3 AND Season 3.5. And Season 4 AND Season 4.5. "Sopranos" did the same thing one year, as have other TV shows. Maybe with DVD's no longer the big money-maker they were, this is no longer a major reason to split the seasons, but they sure grabbed my wallet a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteKen
ReplyDeleteNeil Simon turns 90 on Tuesday. You probably have an entry ready for that day relating to the 4th, but it might be nice around that day to revisit some of your old pieces devoted to Simon. I remember the one where you help your daughter edit him. I also recall one where you wrote about seeing him at a restaurant. They recently combined his two memoirs into one volume, with an introduction by Nathan Lane.
>>And by the way, ABC is rebooting AMERICAN IDOL.<<
ReplyDeleteABC is also rebooting 'Battle of the Network (Celebrity? I forgot which) Stars'.
totally agree. after 12 years of blogging I sometimes look back in wonder re: what the hell I was blathering about :) And sometimes it's like a scrapbook I'll cherish forever...or until Blogspot disappears without warning me. http://xmastime.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI've commented previously on lurking in the archives. You ask "Who has the time?"
ReplyDeleteIn this case, artist who works with 3D and frequently is reading here while waiting for the rendering to finish on the main machine. (And waiting again and again and again after tweaks and fixes)
That accounts for most of it.