Unsurprisingly, as most of us are suffering from turkey and/or beer overload, there's not been much happening in the journals section over the past week --- even I've taken a break for Christmas! But I would be remiss if I did not mention a few new journals that only started up in the last few days, and the return of an old favourite.
Firstly,
James is back! Yes, all of us who missed him can breathe easily as he's not only returned to us but has his own new journal starting up as he tries to take on the task of
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ove-stuff.html. His journal only began today so we'll wait till there are a few more entries before we tell you anything about it, but it looks like it'll be worth waiting for.
The
Taxman cometh! No, no! Don't burn the books or try to shift your ill-gotten gains to that offshore bank account you've been holding in readiness for just such a day! I'm not talking about THE Taxman, but the guy from Finland who has been here a little while now and has decided to start up his own journal. Rather oddly named
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...iet-grave.html, along with
William The Bloody's journal and at least two Caves here, it's giving the section a very macabre, gothic feel! Read what he has to say about Queen, Springsteen, Dylan and more.
Finally, the grandaddy of them all is back! Yes, that uncle you only see once a year but who always eyes you as if you're some sort of alien and smells of beer and other odd things you don't want to think about,
Urban has returned and is trying to out-Couch Potato me with
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...who-thing.html, in which he plans to review every Doctor Who episode ever shown, with some already flagged exceptions. NERRRD!! I mean, hermano! Check it out: even if you're not into Who you'll be amused at his take on the episodes. He never fails to do less than entertain.
And that's it for this week, and it's just as well because this is just barely the start of the show, and we have a whole lot to get through. So much in fact that this is going to have to be split into three or four posts! Yeah, that's what I've been doing while I took a break from my journals. Others would relax and let the turkey and ham go down, or pull stupid Christmas crackers with their family, or even sit back and watch the awful Christmas telly. Me, I've been a-workin'.
And so, without further ado, I present to you
Disclaimer: Much as I would have liked to, I could not include every entry from every journal, so I've gone for the more interesting ones in the more interesting journals. And if your journal consisted of mostly or only videos with not much in the way of originality I haven't included those. I want to show the breadth and depth of creative writing and inspiration that has made this section the lively, vibrant, intriguing place it has become. So if your journal is not featured here, maybe you should think about working on it next year so that it stands a little more out from the crowd. Just a thought...
So then, on with the show!
This past year has certainly been a busy and productive one for Members Journals, with some great new journals being started up, old ones coming back to life (BACK, you zombie! BACK!) and others just upping their game and really going for it. Oh, and mine of course.
I like to think that the general upsurge in interest in the section has to do in some small part with my creating the Journals Update thread, which originally began life as a footnote in the “What's happening on MB”? Thread in August of last year, and then eight months later secured for itself a separate home in the coverted “Editor's Pick”, of all places, since when it's taken on something of a life of its own.
Of course, there's no way I'm claiming credit for all of these wonderful journals springing up: that's entirely down to their authors making the effort. But I think some of them at least were encouraged to start a journal by reading the thread, so yay me! Anyway, in a totally unoriginal and yet first-time move here, I'm going to take a look back over what's been happening in the world of journals over the past year, noting the good parts, perhaps touchng on some not so good, and generally giving credit where credit is due.
Although I've compiled quite a list of entries from just about every journal going back to about the fourth page, I won't of course be mentioning every entry in every journal, or indeed every journal, but will try to give you a flavour of what has been happening in each member's journal, how often they updated, noting any milestones (good or bad) along the way and hopefully showing you just why those who have won awards have deserved them. I'll also be using this as perhaps a gentle reminder to those who started a journal and never went much further with it that maybe they might think about picking it up again in the New Year, and of course I'll be shamelessly promoting and advertising my many journals too.
So let's get started. As ever, we're going alphabetically but rather obviously we're also going chronologically. So the way I'm approaching this is to talk about all journals that were started, restarted or updated in January, then on to February and so on. I'll try not to make it too long-winded, and if I leave anyone out I hope you understand. I will of course be concentrating as ever mostly on the journals that have the most work put into them on a regular basis, though this does not mean that any who have only a few updates will be ignored. We'll try to find a nice balance.
JANUARY
Often a slow time for journals, or anything, as people shake off the fugue of the Christmas and New Year break and return to work, trying to get back to normal and realise that the credit card bills will be dropping through the door any day now. Not a time anybody concentrates on their journal, and yet this year we had a bumper crop. Here are the journals that started us off in 2013.
Anteater was still running his smooth jazz journal, although he was soon to move on to greater things. Before he did though, he used January as a time to introduce us all to the “delights” of one Paul Hardcastle. Hmm. Meanwhile, lurking in the background was an event of such cataclysmic majesty that it fair caused the earth to shake with its impending arrival, and strong men ran and screamed like little girls as it approached. But enough about my third journal! The Batlord also had his first on the way. Seriously, The Batcave had only opened the previous month but we had no idea what sort of greatness was coming down the line! He led us in quietly and slowly in January though, we poor fools unaware of what was to explode across the system the following month. For now we had glimpses of his greatness
(Batty, do I really have to read this? Shut up and keep reading? You still have the photographs? I see your point. Okay then...) in entries like “Tad will kill you and steal your drugs” (I still don't know who or what Tad is, not that it matters), a review of Suffocation's “Human waste” album and the author went head-to-head with his rival, incandescent with rage when he found that someone was using his name...
Meanwhile, The Big3 hit us with one of his infrequent but always entertaining entries in “Screaming at the moon”, talking about the “5 factors of metal subgenres” --- with diagrams! Big Ears continued to “Rabbit on” about Hawkwind's “In the hall of the mountain grill” and educate us about one of their famous album cover artists, Barney Bubbles, while Gavin B quietly and unobtrusively opened the door to his “Warehouse of songs”, which was for a time to become one of the premier journals here, but which sadly ran its course all too soon. He kicked off with a great opening offer: Gang of Four, The Kinks and Julie London, all for the price of a mouse click! Sure where would you get it?
Another member who updates far too seldom but whose writing is always welcomed and looked forward to is Janszoon, who began his third journal “A night in the life of the Invisible Man” late last year. Here he graced us with one incredible entry concentrating, musically, on Harry Belafonte, but it was and is always the amazing prose he writes that keeps bringing us back to this journal. What else would you expect from the man who won, and rightly, the 2012 award for “25 albums you must hear...”? Ki's original journal would only have four more months to run at this point, but he would be back with something bigger and far better. In January though he was getting deep into the Beach Boys --- musically I mean of course: that would just be sick otherwise!
One journal I would soon miss (maybe he'll come back some day) was Mankycaant's “Killuminati, Arab money and a semester abroad”, and here he presented his “Worst albums of 2012” with some interesting choices!
As for me? Well after spending the tail-end of 2012 catching up on the last albums released that year that I could, I took a break and looked at mostly albums from the eighties as 2013 began, and also in “The Playlist of Life” we had another trip into The Meat Grinder, where I laughingly tried to find a metal album I could review, and tackled Floyd's classic “Dark side of the moon” as well as opening up two new sections in “The Albatross” and “ShutupShutupShutup!” Over at “Bitesize” there was the usual non-eclectic selection of albums to be mini-reviewed, including the likes of Bonfire, Sabbath, Porcupine Tree and Antimatter. But the big news (for me anyway) was the launch of my third journal, one which would break the mould and pull completely away from music, concentrating ONLY on television and cinema. Yes, January saw the launch of the Couch Potato, with the first three series to be reviewed, Babylon 5, Red Dwarf and Supernatural.
Another journal that was shaking the foundations of course (and still is) hit January full pelt as Unknown Soldier finished off his look at 1972 in "Pounding Decibels" with “In the shadow of Sabbath”, an interesting feature on bands which were influenced by the masters of heavy metal, and then on into 1973 with reviews of albums from Montrose, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad and Nazareth. Urban Hatemonger is another who updates sporadically, but again it's always worth the wait. In January he had “Reviews for people with ADHD” which was a hoot, and also asked us members to pick an album for him to review, out of four presented. Something he later completely did not do. Oh, Urban! And keeping the best till last, Vanilla gave us an update to start 2013 with recommendations for Kimbra and Strawpeople.
FEBRUARY
As the second month opened, Anteater bade farewell (perhaps) to his Smooth Jazz journal with entries on Kyoto Jazz Massive and Special EFX while the world was truly shaken by the arrival at the Batcave of the first of some major epics by The Batlord, as “The Lay of Sigurd Remixed” got going. Epic is the only word to describe it. His Batness also found time to pen “An edumucation for you dumb
cunts” (sic) and Big Ears reviweed Pain of Salvation's “Remedy Lane”, while Engine began his first (so far as I can see) journal with the semi-autobiographical and completely unputdownable “An Equivocal flail”, which would sadly only run for a few short months. But while it did it was rivetting reading.
Gavin's warehouse was doing brisk business with the likes of Heather Nova, Strypes, The Noisettes, Richard Thompson, The Go-Betweens, Jolie Holland and a look at the then-upcoming new album from My Bloody Valentine, which when it hit had everyone wetting themselves over how great it was. Didn't see it myself, when I eventually got to listen to it, of which more later. We were treated to something of a rarity --- two updates from Jansz in as many months! --- as he waxed eloquent as ever, using Robotobibok as his musical backdrop to the tale of the insubstantial one, while Ki was getting ready to wrap up his journal with a look at HIM in the series he called “Flashback”, and Manky had a rant at the prevalence of social media in our lives. Great writing as ever.
I decided to resurrect “Flying/Crashing solo”, which hadn't been seen since 2011, and brought back "The 200-word Album Review" with a look at Maiden's classic “Seventh son of a seventh son”, while also descending into the depths again for another of my”Albums from Hell”, this time looking at the Pet Shop Boys. A new series began too, “Great moments in history set to music”, with the story of the Spartans at Thermopylae. In The Couch Potato we continued with our three series as already started, while also introducing three new ones in Spooks (which began that month), Irish crime drama Love/Hate and Rik Mayall's hilariously cutting “The New Statesman”. Series Link moved to its new home, while on “Bitesize” I looked at, among others, Dante Fox, Buckethead, Lacuna Coil and Texas.
Speaking of Texas, Unknown Soldier was heading down there to review ZZ's “Tres Hombres” as well as albums from Budgie, Sabbath, BOC (which was his pick for album of that year) and a live album from Uriah Heep, leaving us to end the month with more ADHD album reviews from Urban.
MARCH
Anteater fired off his final jazz-infused volley with a look at Jean-Luc Ponty before moving on to bigger and better things, while the Batlord brought The Lay of Sigurd Remixed to a powerful conclusion in the Batcave but also decided to kick in with a new journal, called “The Batlord listens to random **** and talks about it”. The first things he listened to were bands involved in the No-Wave movement, then a look at Proto punk and finally, as you might expect and very predictably ... Country. No, I'm not joking! Go check it out for yourself. And no, he wasn't being ironic...
Big Ears reviewed three albums, including one of my favourites from It Bites, while Engine continued An Equivocal Flail and Ki had more Flashbacks with I set my friends on fire and Green Day, among others. Pedestrian showed us some of her excellent artwork in “Crosswalking", while Plankton's “Chum Bucket” told the heartwarming story of how he found his long-lost father, and we all shed a tear. I was “Feeling mortal” with the latest album from Country crooner Kris Kristofferson, checking out the latest from Nick Cave while also recalling more Great Moments in History with a look at the 1916 Easter Rising, and finally getting the long-promised “Guitar Man” underway, with a detailed profile of the late, lamented Rory Gallagher.
The Couch Potato was growing, with four series now running, and they were joined by two others as well as my very first film review, “Dust devil”. “Bitesize” had the usual clutch of mini-reviews, while Unknown Soldier pounded in 1973 with albums from the Pink Fairies and Iggy Pop, the second part of “In the shadow of Sabbath” and then pounded on to 1974, starting with UFO, BTO and Aerosmith, with Double Headers from Kiss, Purple and Nazareth. He was a busy man that month! Urban revealed his deep love for Charlie Brooker, and didn't care who knew it, and also slagged off the cover for the new Bowie album, creating his own, while Vanilla introduced us to her new favourite, Iggy Azalea, and Bailter Space.
APRIL
This was a HUGE month for both updates and new journals! Again, I don't know if the fact that this thread officially began in its own home and things heated up so much here was just coincidence, but if so it was a happy one! In fact, the period April – September 2013 would be seen as the most productive and busy the journal world has ever seen, with more and more people getting involved. Anteater dropped out of sight to complete the finishing touches to a new journal that would blow everything else he had done up to now out of the water, while Antonio slipped into the “A” slot, coming in with some songs he was diggin' as well as the “Awesome soundtrack” of Metroid Prime. With two journals now on the go, The Batlord did not slow down one bit, with the Batcave seeing coverage of Mayhem and Arcturus, looking at early Electric Wizard music and telling us why General Hospital is “as metal as ****”. Oh, and he also gave us some more edumucation. In his other journal he worked the Country out of his system and moved on to The Pixies and The Jesus Lizard. More like it!
Big Ears reviewed Budgie's “Bandolier” and began an ambitious attempt to explain what exactly Prog Rock is (not a word, Batlord!) starting off with Atomic Rooster. Sadly this series would not last, but it's definitely worth reading what he wrote if this interests you. One of our favourite mods, Burning Down began her “Musical journey” in her journal, detailing how she came to love playing music, Ki brought his current journal to an end with entries on Darkwater, Bring me the Horizon and a final Flashback to Daft Punk, but he would return, more powerful than you could possibly imagine, next month, and become one of the mainstays of the section for the rest of the year.Manky looked at the Snoop Lion album, Pedestrian displayed more of her stunning artwork while The Phantastasio showed us she has talents of her own as she began serialising her novel in her journal. Plankton began a musical journey of his own, describing how he came to learn guitar and the various influences on him, and Powerstars started up his journal, with a review of Bonj Jovi's latest, “What about now”. April was a good year for people whose name began with P, and PsychedubDude also opened his --- unfortunately rather short-lived --- journal with his top five hilariously bad music videos and his favourite game characters.
April was a busy month for Screen13, who decided to open up not one, but two journals together. And these were not ones where ninety percent of the work was in one and the other had a few videos! These were proper journals. “Ghost mall music” was to become a real success for a while, and he opened this with Madness, The Firm and the OST to “Times Square”, while his other journal, “Screen13's rare single and album of the day” looked like it could really go places. But enough of people whose name begins with P! Let's look at one whose name starts with a T, and April was a busy month for me too. With Guitar Man in full swing I also started a new series, “Rolling the dice”, in which I literally took a chance on an album, and had time too to review Bowie's latest classic and start up “Triple Box Set” with Virgin Steele, not to mention reviewing one of the most important albums of the year, Plankton's “Krill”.
With now six series running in the Couch Potato I decided that was enough and ... oh no wait, I didn't! Adding in an introduction to my favourite TV programme ever, “The Onedin Line”, which would debut next month, there was only time for two entries in “Bitesize”, with Nina Nesbitt and Spanish heavy metal band Saratoga. With specials on Queen and Hawkwind, and albums from BOC, Bad Company and Budgie (“In for the kill” was his album of that year, and no I don't know if the alliteration was intentional) US charged into 1975. with Deep Purple and Rainbow, Montrose and Sabbath. And finally Zero, my fellow Irishman, made an appearance with a review of The Chemical Brothers' “Dig your own hole” as well as some techy stuff he had been working on.