Talking with myself

It occurred to me that perhaps the best way to celebrate (milk) the blogiversary is to answer some of the questions I asked Scott as couple months back.

What posting(s) have generated the most interest, either in terms of comments and/or referrals to your piece in Google?

Well, in addition to what I mentioned the other day, Lydia is usually good for a few mentions. There are certain people who really like it when I venture into the comic book realm. The very few times I mention the radio station my grandfather worked at, WNBF in Binghamton, invariably gets some traffic. In fact, that last sentence will almost certainly bring some old radio/TV fan to this post.

Who comes to your blog, if you have a way of tracking that? What exotic locales have sent you comments?

There are certain friends, Internet and otherwise, who let me know they’re reading; some of them even comment.

Oh, and BTW, those of you who are confounded by commenting because Blogger wants signed postings to have a Google account; you CAN sign as Anonymous, and put your name in the body of the post. Also, I’ve found moderating the posts, for me, to be the most preferable way to avoid the spam postings; I started doing that the same time I went to new Blogger a few months back. As a user, I find it easier than typing in the alphabetic gobbledygook some sites require, including some sites I visit regularly.

And I’ve actually left some “spam” on. There was a piece I did on the Supremes a couple months ago, and someone wrote selling a book about Florence Ballard; I left it. At least it was targeted spam.

Here’s something that didn’t happen at all the previous year; my wife occasionally reads my blog.

I’ve had people visit from many lands, from half of the countries in the Western Hemisphere, all over Europe and Asia, some from Africa, some tiny Pacific islands. The comment I got that was from the farthest point was a young woman from Singapore, I believe.

Ultimately, why are you blogging? Do you ever write something, hoping you’ll get some sort of reaction and then … nothing?

The initial motivation was curiosity about why anyone would blog. Then, and I think Scott was experiencing the same thing, it was to impart my VAST wisdom on the universe. Then, it was to rant. Now, it’s because it seems to be, for the time being anyway, What I Do.

Yeah, I gave a link to the Bible done in LEGOS once; thought people would think it was funny, or would be outraged. Nothing. Generally, the less likely I think a piece will generate comments, the more likely it will, and vice versa.
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Happy birthday, Janna and Annika.
ROG

ROG

Free For All


So, here’s an important question: on Saturday, will America survive the convergence of Free Comic Book Day, when stores all over the country will be handing out some comics that are free, free, FREE…

…and Cinco de Mayo, the third of that holy trinity of secular celebrations (New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day being the others), in which the primary goal seems to be maximum inebriation. This is definitely true here in Albany, where the Cuervo truck has been/is making appearances not just this weekend (starting tonight) at multiple locations, but last weekend as well.

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Speaking of comic books, Mark Evanier recently noted this show with someone called Smilin’ Ed McConnell here. I had never heard of him until about 1980, when the now-late Raoul Vezina told me that McConnell’s name was the inspiration for the FantaCo symbol and eventual comic book character, Smilin’ Ed Smiley. Fred Hembeck describes Ed (and Fred’s involvement in same) here.
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I think I’d have to be inebriated to eat this. Actually, my initial thought was, to quote that classic Life cereal commercial, “I’m not gonna try it, YOU try it.”
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Thanks once again to my covert poster, who put up my last three postings while I was away and computer inaccessible.
ROG

ROG

Ramblin’ with Roger Turns Two

Happy blogiversary to me! Two years since I first put keyboard to pixel, or whatever happens here, and started whatever this thing is.

One of the really useful things I’ve learned is that people find out about when you write about them. Case in point, the Royal Guardsmen, whose Snoopy vs. Osama single I had dissed, without hearing it, though I had read the lyrics. Or when I noted the obsessive JEOPARDY! fans who have been archiving shows, including the two I appeared on.

I’m fascinated by how people come here. If I were REALLY curious, I’d buy the Sitemeter Gold software, but since I’m only mildly curious, I have to rely occasional scans of the last 100 people to the site at any given time. Not entirely scientific, since I don’t do it regularly, but still I’ve noticed what seemed to draw people to the blog:
Bianca de la Garza – the former Channel 10 TV anchor who interviewed me for JEOPARDY! whose now a “hot babe” on FOX 25 in Boston
Non-urban initiative – my chastisement of this urban myth
JEOPARDY! probably enhanced by the Archive

There are also links of other bloggers that have brought people here. Not surprisingly, Fred Hembeck’s probably #1, but it appears Scott from Scooter Chronicles is #2, Jaquandor from Byzantium Shores is #3 and the inestimable Chris ‘Lefty’ Brown is #4. Again, not scientific, but based on random observations.

My favorite posts have been the back-and-forth I had with Mr. Hembeck. I write about Tom Clay. HE writes about Tom Clay and other things, which leads me to write about the Royal Guardsmen.

If I were to have guessed, I would have thought I had posted once a day, except once extra for Lesley Ann Warren’s 60th birthday, and three extra times for Oscar-worthy films of the ’20 and ’30s. This is what the numbers tell me:

Once a day, every month, except for 1 extra time in August, September and December 2006 and April 2007, 3 extra times in March 2007.

I’m averaging about 105 visits per day this year, though there’s been a recent uptick. I should probably add a fraction for that day and a half in the winter when I switched from Old Blogger to New Blogger and I didn’t notice that I had no working counter. Don’t recall my lowest count, around 50, but my highest count was on April Fools Day, when, inexplicably, I cracked 300. In fact, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to these things.

(Picture of the month taken 1:25 pm, April 29, 2007; the picture up top, from April 2006 to April 2007, about 5 minutes earlier.)

It seems that about 65% of my visitors are from the United States. I always have a goodly number from Canada and especially Great Britain, but I also seem to get hits from lots of countries all over the word. Also, increasing, Unknown Country. That doesn’t mean I don’t know the country; this means Sitemeter does not know the country via the numeric equivalent of the URL.

So what do I want to do in the coming year? More or less the same. But there is one thing I’ve decided: no more nasty things about unelected arbiters of taste. This list includes Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Nancy Grace, people like that. (So, not to bother with Rush Limbaugh’s Barack, the Magic Negro video.) This isn’t an attempt to be “nice”; this is an acknowledgement that these people so often irritate me that I’m probably incapable of thinking of some fresh way to express my displeasure. This doesn’t mean I won’t on occasion find a link that well represents my position about them, but I won’t bother using my own brain cells to bother venting at them. I’m inspired by this line: “These are minor, but important changes…Never get angry at the stupid people” (Piano Song by Erasure).

Now, elected or appointed figures are fair game. This means Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney are fair game. Yet, I won’t spend a lot of time on them either, but only because life’s too short, and I generally have better things to talk about.

Ultimately, the blog may be about something Anna Quinlen wrote about the heroine of the movie Freedom Writers (Newsweek, 1/22/07): “Ms. G….embraced a concept that has been lost in modern life: writing can make the pain tolerable, confusion clearer and the self stronger.”

ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: Raging Bull

I didn’t go to church on Easter Sunday. I felt pretty crummy. Carol had gone to her parents’ house with Lydia. So, the day before, I went to the library and borrowed Raging Bull, which, inexplicably, I had never seen.

OK, that’s not entirely true. I had recorded it on my DVR some months ago, and started watching it at a point when I was running out of room on the machine. I got really impatient and zapped it shortly after the first scene.

So, this time, I had an unusual block of time to see it. Initially, I found the boxing sequences more compelling than the other scenes, but as the movie progressed, I found myself engrossed in both aspects of Jake LaMotta’s life. This is such a highly regarded film that I shan’t bother with the (pardon the expression) blow-by-blow. I do think that, even though the fight scenes were sometimes rough, the black-and-white film made the scenes, if not palatable, then at least bearable.

I AM going to suggest that, on the second disc of this two-disc DVD, I found the making of the film to be the most compelling extras I’ve ever viewed. The whole making of the film, how Robert de Niro had found a book that he didn’t think was all that well-written, yet told an interesting story. How director Martin Scorcese initially balked at doing the film at all because he’s not a sports guy, but that he ultimately understood boxing as a life struggle. How the script was written, and re-written. Specifically, how the boxing scenes were all shot first, with different cinematic palates, which made me want to watch them all again. How all the other boxers were played by real boxers. How the filmmakers found Joe Pesci, who was all but retired from acting, and how he directed them to Cathy Moriarity and others in the cast.

If you’ve never seen the movie, see the movie, then see the extras. If you love the movie, or hate the movie, watch the extras; it’ll make you want to see the movie again.
ROG

ROG

More Music Meme!

Stolen from Tosy because he steals from me.

What was the first recorded music you bought?
Beatles VI from the Capitol Record Club. I got 11 for one cent, but the one I paid for was that one. My sisters, neighbor and I lipsynched to this one. The others: Beatles’ Second Album, Beatles ’65, Something New-the Beatles, Best of herman’s Hermits, Daydream-Lovin’ spoonful, Big hits from England and the USA, Goldfinger-Billy Strange. I forget the rest.

What was the last?
David Bromberg – Wanted: Dead or Alive. It features a song called “The Holdup”, which also appears on an earlier album, written by Bromberg and some guy named George Harrison.. This version, backed by members of the Grateful Dead, has a mariachi break in the middle.

What was the first “professional” music show you ever went to?
Quite possibly Seals & Crofts, Nov 12, 1971 with the Okie. Love makes you do strange things.

What was the last?
Sean Lennon, April 10, 2007. I even know his birthday: October 9, 1975.

What’s your “desert island” album?
Never easy. Revolver (Beatles), I suppose. No, Rubber Soul (Beatles). No wait, Still Crazy after All These Years (Paul Simon). Of course, it has to be Pet Sounds (Beach Boys). What was the question?

What’s your favorite album/song title?
Rubber Soul. Makes more sense as a result of some Anthology dialogue.

What’s your favorite album art (include an image of it if you can)?
Sgt. Pepper. Often imitated.

Ideal choice for a karaoke song?
Take Me to the River.

Song you don’t like that WILL NOT LEAVE YOUR HEAD if you hear it.
My Sharona-the Knack. Dammit. It’s mot that I don’t like it; it’s that I’m embarrassed to like it.

Which is cooler? — Vinyl? CD? Cassette? 8-track?
Vinyl is definitely “cooler”. I never owned an 8-track. Most of my music is on CD.
ROG

ROG
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