All those people, all those lives: I read once that the average lifespan of a weblog is around two months. Music blogs tend to last a bit longer – we are a tenacious, obsessive lot, and blogs with one or two year lifespans are not uncommon (maybe even the norm). NYLPM has lasted four and a half years, something that makes me a little proud and a little baffled – where did all that time go? This blog, and Freaky Trigger, were started just at the end of that shadowy pre-Google Internet era where it was just about possible for a hobbyist to read (and link to) every similar site. Looking this morning at one of the earliest NYLPM months I kept seeing half-forgotten names of places where I used to scavenge links and news – is Jejune still going? Catherine’s Pita? Lukelog? Oh Messy Life? The War Against Silence?
Well, The War Against Silence is still going, though not for much longer. Glenn McDonald has written 496 weekly columns, which means that he’s been doing TWAS for almost TEN YEARS. This is remarkable by Interweb standards – it takes him well back before shadowy history and into near-legend. The War is – probably – the longest running personal music website ever. And – even though I’d not read it for years – I was a little shocked to find he was ending it.
But it turns out he’s ending it happily (getting married – though not, old skool readers may be disappointed to learn, to Juliana Hatfield). I have so little aesthetic crossover with Glenn that I found TWAS hard going, but I said once (on here or ILM) that I thought he was the most original music writer the Interweb had turned up, and that still holds. Almost nobody else has related their life to the music they listen to so precisely and intimately: nobody else has done it for so long. Hats off, Glenn, and best wishes.
(Though it turns out he didn’t just write about music – here’s a piece on football!)
Since I’m in nostalgic mood, here are the answers to that quiz from last week. The idea was to match the weblogs to their first posts.
1. K-Punk starting as it means to go on.
2. This is from the first ever NYLPM post, a review of “Weekend” by Black Box Recorder, a song I wonder if I still like (probably yes, though I can’t stand anything else by them).
3. Spizzazz – nobody in the comments box guessed.
4. Nobody got this either, perhaps the fucked up punctuation marks confused – but it’s Mark S’ Radio Free Narnia.
5. The first post to unjustly unsung popblog Enthusiastic But Mediocre.
6. Skykicking, a fellow veteran.
7. The most recent blog on the list, Marcello Carlin’s KRTHM (should we call it K-Rhythm perhaps?)
8. The modest first post from the most-visited music blog in the world. (OK this is a guess)
9. No Rock And Roll Fun – the blanked site is bothsidesnow.
10. The one, the only DJ Martian!