Focus

My father called me on the matter of my blog not being terribly focused. I think that was true a few years back when I had a lot more time for blogging and reading other people’s blogs. There was a HUGE range of stuff I couldn’t resist passing on to the readers of this blog. After he made this comment, I tried to stick to my blog’s byline — RB writes about music and life — which gave me a fairly wide latitude. Too wide for some: some would prefer that I stick to classical music; other wish I focused only on Rufus Wainwright; some love peering inside my diary, while others find that tedious.

I posted and then removed a cranky little diatribe against a fellow blogger who disqualified my blog for not being focused enough on classical music. After thinking about it, I realized he can make whatever lists he wishes, just as I can start my own religion if I wanted to. Freedom is a great thing, and we should never ding another person for exercising that freedom.

Daniel Wolf wrote in a smart comment about my cranky post:

While ACD’s ranking method (reverse Google links) might well be questioned, especially as it is a measure that favors his own blog, I don’t think that his criteria for inclusion are too far off the mark, as the goal is a list of blogs with a mostly classical focus. I believe that my own blog is somewhat on the edge of this, going off to the experimental corner of the ranch, while Alex Ross, who sometimes mentions his popular music interests, writes a blog that is quite clearly classical in focus. […]

My father’s solution for having a variety of interests has been to keep three different blogs going. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of time these days, so maybe later.

DW pointed out my propensity to post middle-brow pop music from the 60s. An amusing assessment and not entirely true, but close. Why do I do this? I guess it’s the same impulse one gets when you say: “Gee, I haven’t heard the Hammerklavier in years, I think I’ll see whether there is a video on YouTube and share it with my readers.” I know there are some readers who appreciate discovering new musicians through my posts.

I’m not resolving to change anything drastic, but the blogosphere can handle an infinite variety of formats, including this one.