One of my favorite music blogs is scaling back! Jefito is getting that burnt out feeling from too much time in front of the computer. And from his latest post, he’s thinking of doing less on his blog (which I read everyday)!
He got into a battle with his ISP (which is the same ISP I use) over the mp3s he posts on his site. I don’t know the details, but my guess is that it has to do with having too many mp3s on his site and maybe they got nervous that they were going to be implicated in a lawsuit initiated by the recording industry. Whatever the case, his daily presence will be missed.
Every week, I looked forward to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to…, Cutouts Gone Wild, Listening Booth, and his newest feature: the Friday Mix Tape. He said he’ll still have a few of those features, but he won’t be doing any daily blogging anymore. Sad, but understandable.
Which leads me to one of the most common problems with writing a blog: fatigue. If you’re a quick writer who can easily pound it out, blogging might not be too difficult. However, if you like to take your time and work on a post, blogging can be a tough thing. And when you compound all this with a job, home life, and all the rest, it’s not an easy thing to keep doing day after day, week after week without getting paid. And Jeff does all of this for free. He shares the music, shares his thoughts, engages in dialogue with his readers, does all the artwork, links, troubleshooting, and a bunch of other things that come with running your own blog. And the level of writing is equal to (if not better than) the vast majority of music critics who get paid to write for major publications. His posts have analytical depth, it is clear that he listens to the albums he writes about, and he is often very funny. Whenever I read an Idiot’s Guide, or a Listening Booth feature, I automatically think about how much time it would take me to put something like that together. Guess what? There aren’t enough hours in a day for me to do what he is able to do. And he seems to do it so effortlessly. So while this isn’t goodbye for Jefito, it is an end of an era of sorts. 🙁
Before I sign off, Jefito asked me to do a Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dire Straits a long time ago, and I just never got it together to do it. So, I’ll finally honor my commitment and post one by the weekend.
But in the meantime, as an homage to one of the other features on his blog (i.e., “Bootleg City”), I’ll post the only boot I have. It’s from vault of John Scott — a fellow radio guy — and it’s from one of my favorite bands, XTC. John was part of the recording for Y-95 in Dallas, Texas where John had a radio gig. The back story on this is that this performance never aired on Y-95 (or any other station), so what you’re about to hear is a very rare bootleg!
–PK
Ml
October 25, 2006 at 5:24 amBummer about Jefito, but I can see where a person can get burned out. Most especially if their posts are well though out (like you said).
J
October 25, 2006 at 6:26 amJefito works WAY too hard on his blog. Maybe he’ll be back at some point to that taxing schedule, but I kinda hope he stays with the ‘cut back’ version. 😉
Py Korry
October 25, 2006 at 6:58 amJefito was basically doing a magazine and was doing it all by himself. I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago if I was doing all of that!
Beenzzz (Bean)
October 25, 2006 at 9:12 amWell, I hope he gets his well deserved rest and comes back to it again. I can see how he would burn out.
jefito
October 25, 2006 at 3:02 pmPy, you are FAR too kind, but I appreciate how thoroughly you’ve turned a blind eye to the hackery that infests my writing on a daily basis. This post has made my day.
Py Korry
October 25, 2006 at 3:12 pmHackery? I think not! I know you’re still going to blog, but it seems I’m not reacting to this change very well.
Gina
October 25, 2006 at 4:18 pmI have wondered for a while what makes me and others invest so much time in these blogs of ours, and I can blame no one when they decide there are other things in life they would rather devote time to.
Best of luck to him.
Dan
October 31, 2006 at 10:21 amDid you see Shaun of the Dead, where they flip through albums to see which ones they are willing to throw at the approaching zombies?
“Dire Straits.” “Throw it.”
I disagree. I’d wrestle zombies to protect my Dire Straits. But it was funny.