Looking back at the past week, I have had some successes and failures. The level of time that I have been putting in on the site is a lot higher than it appears, despite my job making some things more difficult than I would like at times. I guess I just have to be thankful for the things that I am able to accomplish…what still amazes me from time to time is the change in perspective I can have in a very short period of time.
When I started the week, I had the expectations of cranking out a full seven articles. I fell a bit short of that. I tried to make up for it this weekend, but I felt quite under the weather yesterday and was unable to produce enough new material for me to get caught up. However, as I hinted at during the teaser, I am mostly happy with the works I did manage to produce:
- Last Sunday’s Re-spin was, I think, pretty well written. I managed to get some information in there that will help guide me forward with the site, and it hit on some interesting topics.
- My Editorial on Jamendo’s Future was a hard written piece, and I am not completely certain that everything I have been thinking was well represented. At least, that was the conclusion I came to after I read the response from Jorg Fischer, which was well reasoned, stated and quite insightful as to where some of my article was weak and could be improved on.
- I was very pleased with the launch of a new recurring series: Finding Music Online. I think this is a series that is going to continue building, and will allow me to expand several other areas of the site. Be looking for the next installment in that series very soon.
- I write the first of the two-part January Classical Listening articles intending for it to be a filler. But, as I got into it, the article took on a life of it’s own I hadn’t expected.
- The only actual libre culture review this week was OG’s 01. I felt bad that I spent so much space in the review on issues that were more about Jamendo, listeners, and my struggles than it was about his music. Fortuantely, the music itself was wonderful, and the artist was very appreciative of my review.
- I finally posted my review of the Cowon iAudio 7 & 9. I have personally liked all the Cowon music players I’ve owned so far, despite the minor flaws I found.
In looking over the things that I promised last week, I see there were a few that I didn’t hit:
- I didn’t get the new Shoestring Classical Collection article out. That was a matter of trying to resolve a technical issue. I just resolved the issue today, and now plan to start working on the new article.
- I didn’t get around to writing up anything on my Droid. I have set out a plan for reviewing some things with it (not the phone itself, rather some applications that are appropriate to this site), but haven’t had enough time to work with the applications.
I sat down and did a mini-brainstorming session yesterday, and came up with a few new things to add to the site. Not posts or series, but rather longer-term articles / essays. I’m not going to jinx myself by talking about them specifically now, as they are bigger in scope and will require more work to produce.
With a few of the pieces I have been working on lately, I’ve been doing more research. The fun part about this is: there is a lot more that I can work with. It also means there is a lot more research that I need to do, and some more things for me to consider.
I started listening to an unusual piece tonight: Ergo Phizmiz’s “The Faust Cycle: or, the House of Dr. Faustus”. It’s an amazingly large work: 14+ hrs. It was released by the Headphonica Netlabel. This is more than a somewhat daunting piece to attempt to listen to, it seems about as insane to try to listen to it as it does to have created it in the first place.
According to the artists website, the piece too three years to complete and made his head hurt — and that’s only one of 46 Reasons to Download The Faust Cycle from the artists own blog.
I love an insane challenge! Until next week…
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