Why I Haven’t Posted in Three Months
A friend suggested that I start off by complaining about having no time and end the blog with an incomplete sentence, cut off at a random point, which would be funny but I feel I owe a little more explanation than that if there is anyone who still checks this.
To put it briefly, I became a dad in July and have been doing that and working full-time since. I have had zero time to go out, much less go to shows and interview bands/artists, which was of course the original raison d’etre of fleabomb in the first place. But more on that later.
This is a picture of the little guy. His name is Duncan and he’s really pretty cool even though all he can do right now is mess himself, sleep, and occasionally swing his head around like he’s at a rave somewhere. Fatherhood has taken over my life completely and I don’t envisage getting it back any time soon, which brings me back to the original point of this post.
I feel that fleabomb, as it used to exist, is gone. It worked well when I was able to go out at the drop of a hat, interview locals, and thus maintain the main thrust of the site, which was giving the artists and musicians in Birmingham the exposure I have always felt they deserve. When fleabomb started, this was a vital service to the arts community. No one, including the Black and White and Birmingham Weekly, was covering local artists, unless you consider a cover-band playing at Courtyard 280 “artists.” Now, the Weekly is taking a much more active interest in the local art and music scene, and they have the staff and dollars to give the scene the coverage it deserves. As much as I would like fleabomb to continue to be a leader in this area, I am realistic about the amount of time that takes versus the amount of time I have. As much as I would like it to work, it can’t and won’t–at least not how it used to.
I have thought long and hard about what to do. A part of me thinks that if fleabomb can not be what it used to be, it shouldn’t exist at all. I should take down the blog and let people remember it as the vibrant and content-rich site it used to be. However, in a way, this is more contrary to the original idea than anything else. To take it down completely simply means one less venue to promote the musicians and artists of Birmingham, and one less source for writing that is completely free of the demands of sponsors (ours like what we do and stay out of our hair).
I have decided that half-ass is better than no ass at all. So, the blog will continue, albeit sporadically. I can not promise posting to be regular, but I feel that now that fatherhood is becoming less of a climb up Everest and more of an incredibly demanding and difficult power-walk, that I will be able to get back to posting on a semi-regular basis. But posting what has now become my problem.
For some reason, having a child has made me loathe to take interest in or discuss politics. This is partly attributable to a combination of some sage words from my grandfather and partly due to the recently elected Democratic Congress. My grandfather opined at one of our recent family gatherings that politics wasn’t worth discussing or even worrying about because ultimately there is nothing you can do about it other than vote, and nine times out of ten (10 out of 10 in my case) even that doesn’t make a lick of difference. Right about the time that he made this comment the Democratic Congress began proving him dead-on by succumbing to any and all whims of the administration they pledged to take on. Probably the biggest electoral shift since ‘92 and it didn’t so much as stem the tide of privacy invasions, wasted money and troops, and innumerable impeachable crimes that will never be punished. After seeing the alternative in action for two straight years, it’s fairly obvious that there is no alternative, a suspicion I have held for a long, long time. I won’t lie and say that things don’t still piss me off on a daily basis, but I am coming around to the idea that bad and wasteful (if not criminal) government sits right between death and taxes on the bench of inevitability.
So, not time to really interview bands (that I don’t have the time to see anyway) and no real interest in beating my head against a brick wall anymore. Not to fear, I am sure I will come up with something. If anyone is still reading, I marvel at your perseverance and promise good things to come.
Also, I will be reading at the mixtape reading hosted by the2ndhand tomorrow night at 7:30 at “What’s On Second.” I also have the first part of a short story I wrote up on their site right now that you can read by clicking the link to their site. There are a bunch of other readers, and if you want excerpts or more info, just pick up a copy of the Weekly though it appears they don’t have anything about it on their site. Weird.
So that’s the deal. Glad I got that off my chest. Now I have to see if I still have a copy of what I am going to be reading tomorrow night.
Tags: fatherhood, fleabomb, the2ndhand