Andrew Dubber     

Out on my bike instead of blogging

You may not have noticed, but I haven’t been blogging recently.

I don’t know how many of my blogs you read, or if you regularly read any of them, but if you routinely read two or more of them (and by my calculations, that would make you one of around 150 people), or if you’re an avid regular reader of just one of them (which puts you in a slightly larger crowd of around 5,000 people), then you may have picked up the fact that the words and pictures have dried up of late.

Not that I imagine you’ve been hanging on the edge of your seat for my next utterance – but there’s still a blogger’s built-in need to apologise for not meeting the expectations set up by prior regularity. In fact it’s only me that’s been let down by my silence. This blogging thing is therapeutic, you know – and I’m only hurting myself by not showing up.

But hell, it’s certainly not because I’ve had nothing to say. It’s just that I’ve had little time or inclination to say it. Here’s why.

1. I went to Germany for a wedding
It was my cousin Greg’s wedding. He married Nadine in her home town of Hamburg. Greg and I pretty much grew up together, and he’s more like my brother than my cousin. It was my first time in Germany, I was doing all the music, and it was pretty much the Euro-wedding event of the Millennium. Lots to say – and I took lots of photos – but I didn’t get the chance to write much of it up, and the moment kind of passed. [Hamburg photos here]

2. My parents came to visit
Same deal. Lots happened. They came for the wedding, hung around for a visit and a canal boat trip in France. The week they stayed in Birmingham coincided with all that torrential and unrelenting rain that caused all that flooding. It was good to hang out with them and we talked lots. Didn’t run off to my office and blog it, and by the time it occurred to me, I already had a backlog, what with the Germany trip to talk about and everything.

3. I went to London a few times
Seminars mostly. Sometimes I blog on the train, but the last few times I had company. Played and won travel scrabble. When I got back, there were still all those photos to upload from when Mum and Dad were here, and when we went to Germany. Trips to do seminars – even ones at the MCPS/PRS with big name music managers didn’t really take precedence – so nothing got written.

4. Clutch and I went to Islay
When you’re a whisky enthusiast, Islay is like Mecca. Only – if you’re on your hands and knees, you’ve over-worshipped. We squeezed so much into just a few short days (jazz festival in whisky distilleries!), it would be madness to try and blog it all here. It was my birthday. I ate my bodyweight in lobster and crab. Tried whiskies that were worth more than my annual salary. We’ve both been posting snapshots and impressions up on our joint blog, but I kind of lost momentum in the general blog ennui, and Clutch has been pretty ill. A virus, probably. Hangovers don’t last for weeks. [Islay photos here]

5. I put my back out
I was given lots of good advice about going for walks and doing stretching exercises – but the simple truth was that for three days, I just couldn’t stand up, so I was flat on my back for the majority of that week. Typing blog posts when you can’t concentrate for the pain (or wobbly from painkillers), and when there are very few ways of holding a laptop comfortably when you are completely horizontal, made the blogging thing difficult. So I didn’t try.

6. There was this big research project
I’ve been working with a couple of colleagues on a major research project at and with the BBC. It’s about radio listeners and fans online, and Tim and I were focusing on specialist music (specifically, urban, jazz and indie rock). We were given amazing access to BBC staff and facilities, found lots of interesting things out and we’re in the process of putting it all together into a big report. We’ve also got a couple of journal articles coming up – and Tristan from the BBC is posting the brief summaries of our findings on the (really excellent) Radio Labs Blog.

7. I’ve been working on a couple of books
I’ve been helping out on a new textbook about Media Studies – contributing sections about copyright and so on, and I’ve also recently signed a book contract with a couple of co-authors on a text book about the Music Industries. I’m supposed to be writing Chapter One right now, but I haven’t got much further than a very clear idea about what should be in it.

8. I DJ’d at a music festival
Bobbie, Jake and I went to Shambala. We took Jake’s friend Ethan along, and camped in a tipi with Juliet and Louise. Additional teens came and went. We had a campfire. I played jazz records in the bar tent on Sunday afternoon, and then some reggae, soul and funk in the Friendly Fire tent later that afternoon. Shambala was great, as it always is. [Shambala photos here]

9. I started an events company
Clutch and I are starting to put on corporate whisky tasting nights. There’s a bit of set-up involved, including lots of sampling and research. Our first real one is to 100 people. That’s a great way to kick off. We’re also going to be doing smaller, limited participant ‘Whisky for Beginners’ nights at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath and at Rooty’s in the Custard Factory. Dates to be advised. Details at the Dubber and Clutch site.

10. I haven’t really felt like it
Sometimes you just kind of burn out. Every time I’d sit down at the computer, all I’d want to do is play around with my iTunes library and make sure I had all the right artwork on albums and that the track names were capitalised correctly – stuff like that. It can be a very repetitive, time-consuming, immersive and satisfying task. Sort of like a digital music ‘cross-stitch’ activity. I needed to do that for a bit.

But that’s not all
There are actually lots of other reasons. I’ve been all sorts of other places (I’m writing this particular post in a hotel in Stockholm, as it happens), doing all sorts of other things, and filling my time in all sorts of other interesting ways. New routines, joined the gym again, spent some time playing games with Jake (and getting thrashed at chess) – that sort of thing.

There’s one other big reason that deserves a mention. I think I might have had a bit of a falling out with someone I consider a friend because of my blogging. Which sort of made me think.

I generally say what I think about stuff on my blogs. Take a position on things. In this case, it was more or less the opposite point of view from that of an organisation I was going to be working with. My friend at this organisation had to politely but firmly let me know they would not be requiring my services.

I understood why (actually, disagreed with their action – but it was their money), but all the same, it kind of felt like my ‘social media’ was getting in the way of my actual social relationships, which made me a little gunshy for a bit. It’s all cool – but it felt a bit weird and uncomfortable at the time.

But I’m back now, as promised. I’ve taken what I think has been a respectable break from blogging, and I’m just going back to it with the intention of saying what I think when I think it – and if an event goes by unblogged, I’m just going to let it slide.

Otherwise, I’ll just end up with ten more reasons and I’ll have to stop again. Probably same time next year…

Does anybody else get this blogging fatigue thing?

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Tagged: blogging, Internet, Personal, social