ALL THINGS MUST PASS

After much waffling, I've decided to stop writing for Splendid on a weekly basis. I'm just getting burnt out, man. All of my creative energy is going into writing reviews about crappy records and reviews that try to make mediocre records sound like they're worth the purchase or download.

I kept it up this long because I liked having that weekly deadline and I've received some amazing stuff in the process (TV On The Radio, Sufjan Stevens, Tompaulin) that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise. But of all the albums I've reviewed since January, I've listened to maybe 5 or 6 of them again. I need to devote time to other endeavors--for starters, I want to build up this site and post more intelligent, developed music and film reviews.

I'd still like to contribute to Splendid's Departments on a limited basis. But it's time for me to step back and begin something else. However,

NO ONE BLOGS FOREVER

This week, two of my favorite blogs come to an end. I've followed Glenn McDonald's weekly music blog, The War Against Silence, for nearly four years. Begun in 1995 out of his Cambridge apartment and churned out every Wednesday night, it reaches its logical conclusion this Thursday with its 500th issue, arriving two weeks after its author's wedding day. Highly subjective and dense, it's nonetheless an impressive acheivement; what started as a forum for music criticism evolved into an autobiography of sorts. I can understand why he wants to stop at this point, but I hope he'll eventually continue in some other format.

The other RIP site is by Marcello Carlin. I don't know much about this UK-based author other than he lost his wife to cancer three years ago, and started a mostly music-related blog called The Church of Me as a way of working out his grief. Last year, it mutated into another blog, The Naked Maja, which itself mutated into Koons Really Does Think He's Michelangelo two months ago. Today, he abruptly, bitterly retired from the blogosphere for reasons not entirely clear. For a blog, his writing was ambitious, thoughtful, and poetic. I'm glad he's encouraging readers to get out of the house and live their lives, but I disagree with his statement about blogs being "pointless". I care about what he has to say, and I hope the world hears something from him again.