Athens, GA citizen and social work PhD student Brendan Beal's blog dedicated to:
1) Connecting with family and friends
2) Exercising my writing skills
and
3) Displaying projects to the community
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Posting
Geez, posting regular content on a blog can be difficult. How do people keep up with it?
I think it becomes an outlet for a lot of people and they don't necessarily think of it as "keeping up" as if it were a job. Think of it as a steam valve on a pressure cooker and writing about stuff bleeds off some of the pressure you feel day to day. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe writing a blog regularly is just easier for people who talk a lot and don't have more of a sense of personal privacy. You decide.
I couldn't write every day, but I think I could write often. My brain fills up and needs to be emptied of information or ideas once in a while. It is fairly teeming with words right now, but this is just an abandoned blog vehicle and maybe not worthy of my effort. What do you think?
I'm thinking about making a short film about beating a scarecrow - kind of a Scorcese Wizard of Oz.
Instead of bragging about how rich he is, I'm waiting for a really rich rapper to brag about buying a Cy Twombley painting and dating a museum curator......
This week in America's City Lakeland people have now stolen a total of 22 swan's eggs from the nests around Lake Morton and lake Wire. Evidently, it's fairly easy on Lake Wire, but they've now put up cameras to stop the thievery at Morton. When they had the swan sale last fall, they got $600 a pair for the swans they sold. So I guess money and not swan love is the motive. I read that they caught one of the culprits today - a Hispanic man who said he was going to sell them. It will be his swan song I am afraid.
Watching both the American Idol finale and the first show for a new one called Duets, I realized that I love watching shows where unknowns sing (and some knowns) and compete. The kid that won Idol was a young man named Phillip Phillips (kudos to his Dad for redundancy) from a tiny town in Georgia where he worked in his Dad's pawn shop. He only tried out, he said, at his family's urging; never realizing that winning would make it impossible to go back to whatever life he had before. He did not appear to be a young man particularly impressed by the trappings of fame; indeed, I almost felt as if he were appalled that he'd won. I picked him out and emailed Casey after the very first show and said that he seemed to be one of those people who were one with the music and simply channeled it. No big voice or voice gymnastics, no riffs or runs, just a merging of himself and the bluesy stuff he usually tried to choose. Saw him interviewed on Leno last night. He's relatively inarticulate, and could just repeat he couldn't believe he'd actually won. I hope his life doesn't overwhelm him or become unmanageable; he seems like a nice naive young guy of 21.
On watching Duets, I had the thought that I think I would actually have killed someone to have Jennifer Nettles' voice - strong and expressive - never thin or uncertain. And with all that emotion behind it. I think she and one of her team will win just because she is just so all that and Georgian to boot. The terms she used to describe the contestants voices gave me a little shuddery thrill to hear. Singing in harmony is just so visceral.
We are legion. You can see us getting groceries early in the day while everyone else is at work, in line at restaurants offering an early-bird special, and plundering the red tag clearance at fabric shops. Wearing our old-lady-wear, short sleeved blouses in pastels so they don't upstage our mannish-cut bluish white hair, our rectangular body shapes make us almost indistinguishable from middle aged men. We are to all intents and purposes invisible to younger people; they look not at us but through us. We are what they will become, as inexonerably and surely as death. Looking at us would remind them that this is what waits, unavoidable no matter how "hot" they are deemed to be now.
I want to be an Olympian. Not a God on Mt Olympus, but the cream of the athletic crop. People who do nothing else all year but train for their chosen sport. Evidently it's not an uncommon thing as I've heard several stories where people can't compete for some reason in the sport they chose and so they pick some other Olympic sport so they can still go to the Olympics every four years. Amazing how they can switch gears like that. To just be part of that over-achieving group of people would just be fabulous. London this year, somewhere else in four more years. This is Michael Phelps 3rd Olympics, but people like discus throwers and shot putters can go four or even 5 times. What a wonderful life!
Update on the swan egg thefts: Hispanic man was caught and it turned out he simply ate the eggs. His sister reported that she saw him do it, and he said they weren't very good.....Ignorance must be bliss.
Update on Duets show: two of Jennifer Nettles' team make up half the final four just as I predicted. The person who should win, won't. He's a taller, heavier John Belushi type with black nerd glasses and none of the cool. His voice is rich with lots of range and perfect pitch and control and a dash of blue eyed soul from his Georgia roots. Such a beautiful voice. I cry every week almost listening to him and Nettles sing together. Such a shame. The other coaches on the show didn't do as well. Robin Thicke seemed to go out of his way to choose people for his team who wouldn't upstage him. Does he ever sing any other way except that girly falsetto? Sounds so weird coming from a guy so big. Have developed some respect and appreciation for John Legend, however, and am liking his music.
I think it becomes an outlet for a lot of people and they don't necessarily think of it as "keeping up" as if it were a job. Think of it as a steam valve on a pressure cooker and writing about stuff bleeds off some of the pressure you feel day to day. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe writing a blog regularly is just easier for people who talk a lot and don't have more of a sense of personal privacy. You decide.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't write every day, but I think I could write often. My brain fills up and needs to be emptied of information or ideas once in a while. It is fairly teeming with words right now, but this is just an abandoned blog vehicle and maybe not worthy of my effort. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about making a short film about beating a scarecrow - kind of a Scorcese Wizard of Oz.
I appreciate your short film endeavors as well as your replies Anonymous.
DeleteInstead of bragging about how rich he is, I'm waiting for a really rich rapper to brag about buying a Cy Twombley painting and dating a museum curator......
ReplyDeleteWho knew starting a blog would be so easy and actually writing in it so tough?
ReplyDeleteThis week in America's City Lakeland people have now stolen a total of 22 swan's eggs from the nests around Lake Morton and lake Wire. Evidently, it's fairly easy on Lake Wire, but they've now put up cameras to stop the thievery at Morton. When they had the swan sale last fall, they got $600 a pair for the swans they sold. So I guess money and not swan love is the motive. I read that they caught one of the culprits today - a Hispanic man who said he was going to sell them. It will be his swan song I am afraid.
ReplyDeleteWatching both the American Idol finale and the first show for a new one called Duets, I realized that I love watching shows where unknowns sing (and some knowns) and compete. The kid that won Idol was a young man named Phillip Phillips (kudos to his Dad for redundancy) from a tiny town in Georgia where he worked in his Dad's pawn shop. He only tried out, he said, at his family's urging; never realizing that winning would make it impossible to go back to whatever life he had before. He did not appear to be a young man particularly impressed by the trappings of fame; indeed, I almost felt as if he were appalled that he'd won. I picked him out and emailed Casey after the very first show and said that he seemed to be one of those people who were one with the music and simply channeled it. No big voice or voice gymnastics, no riffs or runs, just a merging of himself and the bluesy stuff he usually tried to choose. Saw him interviewed on Leno last night. He's relatively inarticulate, and could just repeat he couldn't believe he'd actually won. I hope his life doesn't overwhelm him or become unmanageable; he seems like a nice naive young guy of 21.
ReplyDeleteOn watching Duets, I had the thought that I think I would actually have killed someone to have Jennifer Nettles' voice - strong and expressive - never thin or uncertain. And with all that emotion behind it. I think she and one of her team will win just because she is just so all that and Georgian to boot. The terms she used to describe the contestants voices gave me a little shuddery thrill to hear. Singing in harmony is just so visceral.
We are legion. You can see us getting groceries early in the day while everyone else is at work, in line at restaurants offering an early-bird special, and plundering the red tag clearance at fabric shops. Wearing our old-lady-wear, short sleeved blouses in pastels so they don't upstage our mannish-cut bluish white hair, our rectangular body shapes make us almost indistinguishable from middle aged men. We are to all intents and purposes invisible to younger people; they look not at us but through us. We are what they will become, as inexonerably and surely as death. Looking at us would remind them that this is what waits, unavoidable no matter how "hot" they are deemed to be now.
ReplyDeleteI want to be an Olympian. Not a God on Mt Olympus, but the cream of the athletic crop. People who do nothing else all year but train for their chosen sport. Evidently it's not an uncommon thing as I've heard several stories where people can't compete for some reason in the sport they chose and so they pick some other Olympic sport so they can still go to the Olympics every four years. Amazing how they can switch gears like that. To just be part of that over-achieving group of people would just be fabulous. London this year, somewhere else in four more years. This is Michael Phelps 3rd Olympics, but people like discus throwers and shot putters can go four or even 5 times. What a wonderful life!
ReplyDeleteUpdate on the swan egg thefts: Hispanic man was caught and it turned out he simply ate the eggs. His sister reported that she saw him do it, and he said they weren't very good.....Ignorance must be bliss.
ReplyDeleteUpdate on Duets show: two of Jennifer Nettles' team make up half the final four just as I predicted. The person who should win, won't. He's a taller, heavier John Belushi type with black nerd glasses and none of the cool. His voice is rich with lots of range and perfect pitch and control and a dash of blue eyed soul from his Georgia roots. Such a beautiful voice. I cry every week almost listening to him and Nettles sing together. Such a shame. The other coaches on the show didn't do as well. Robin Thicke seemed to go out of his way to choose people for his team who wouldn't upstage him. Does he ever sing any other way except that girly falsetto? Sounds so weird coming from a guy so big. Have developed some respect and appreciation for John Legend, however, and am liking his music.
ReplyDeleteHow quickly a year passes. It's been that long since you posted. I hated to see that you had lost the ability to write during that time. So sad.
ReplyDelete