Over the past few months, I have been having an ongoing discussion with a fellow blogger about the amount of personal information I put in my weblog. I feel that the my music and concert reviews are my personal thoughts. I would not want to cloud this with stuff like I went to the eye doctor on Monday and I am being evaluated later this month for contact lenses (really, I am.) If I were going to share this type of information with the world, I would do so on a separate blog. My fellow blogger feels the world needs to experience my sparkling personality online. I feel like if you want all that, call me at home or come see me in person and I will share my sparkling self with you. I realize this is kind of selfish because I definitely enjoy reading about everyone else’s lives and I do share my personal viewpoints on various topics on their blogs. It’s all about the music here and when things settle down a bit, I would like to start writing some entries on personal points of interests like the resurgence of the Hammond B-3 organ, Fender Rhodes, and electric piano in jazz which I think is quite fascinating. I hope I am not rambling too much here but I would like to ask the following question:
As bloggers, what and who determines if we are sharing enough or not enough information with the world? I know my girlfriend, A.J., will stop by and give her thoughts and wisdom.
By the way, I saw egg nog at the grocery store today so soon, and very soon, it will be time for this cake.
I think that a blog is the individual’s vehicle to share as little or as much as he/she chooses. That’s what so great about it. There are no rules, no limits, no minimums or maximums. It can be all about music, all about food, all about fishnet stockings or all about the octave of your flatulence after three bean chili. Whatever you want.
That’s the beauty of it. When I come here, I read more than music facts and opinions, I read your essence. Tell your friend not to worry. Your sparkling personality is clearly evident.
Well I wanna know what you had for breakfast this morning! 😉 But seriously, Elle said it very well in her first paragraph. Besides, there’s a lot to be said for not putting yourself on blast by posting a bunch of personal info.
I can relate to you wanting to keep this blog focused. That’s why I have so many blogs. I started off trying to use categories on one blog, but the blog just seemed too jumbled & unfocused.
Because you write about what interests and inspires you, your blog interests and inspires others. j-notes is a great blog because of your passion for jazz.
So if you’re not feeling posting personal information, it would not make interesting reading if you did so.
On the other hand, you can always start a different, personal blog and create whatever online persona you wish, depending on what personal information you choose to divulge.
But you bettah let a sistah know if you do.
The way I sees it, your blog is your personal soapbox. You get on it and talk about whatever the hell you want to. And personally, since I dig the hell out of jazz music, I appreciate this blog for what it is – a man who loves him some jazz music. Besides, anyone who has this much of a passion for the music can’t have a boring personality now, can he? It’s all about the improvisation, baby!
So I guess in short, it’s all about you – no one should say what goes on in the space you paid for, eh? Free speech!
You already know the answer to this question, boo. Rock on.
I think you express so much about you through your writings about music. And someday (sooner than later) I’m going to make that trip so that I can see you Snoopy dance in person. 🙂
It’s never been just about the music here. Were that so, you wouldn’t use words and pictures. You’d just post sound-file clips, and we’d click on them and listen and just feel what was on your mind and what the music meant to you.
Link selection and blog pacing (the space between days where one posts) are useful indicators of presence, which is not the same thing as a literal voice but offers inference-worthy information about you just the same.
In other words, what Karsh said. 😉
I find your blog insightful and thought provoking, as I do others… just in a different way. Yours also inspires me to go out and spend money on music. So, many thanks from Amazon.com, Best Buy, Discorama, Dr. Wax, et. al.
Enjoyed finding this site…Thanks
http://blog.jazz-not-jazz.com/archives/2005/05/11/an-interview-with-michael-adkins/