Blogcritics Hits A Blogging Milestone

First posted on Mark Is Cranky:

Hmmm...where did it start for me? Two answers: 1. A little over three years ago because of a radio essay on bloggers and 2. Back in 1976 or so in my bedroom in central Maine, the culprits being Creem Magazine and Lester Bangs.

Going way back first, it'll be no surprise to anybody who's read much of my stuff that my mind was fairly well polluted at an early age by way too many columns/rants from the pages of Creem magazine. I ingested each and every issue like it was food, always with a health dose of Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath and other rock delights playing loudly in the background. The writing of Lester Bangs exploded off of those pages. The man was just brilliant. Or nuts. After a while it dawned on me that brilliant and nuts, being a writerly sort of cliché, was a perfect description of Lester. He had a severe passion for music that just about dripped off of his reviews. Sometimes I wasn't quite sure what the hell he was talking about, but my 16 year old brain told me that anybody with that much passion was worth hanging onto. At the time, I had some writing aspirations of my own. In truth though, I was no good at it...so it was all fantasy.

A few years ago, while driving home from work, I heard a radio essay on an Internet phenomenon called "blogging". Just what I needed, more reading material! A little web-searching (Was it Google back then? Mighta been Altavista...) led me to sites like What's In Rebecca's Pocket and, in particular, Up Yours - And More Helpful Tips. The former was an interesting site, written by blogging pioneer Rebecca Blood. The latter was a cranky, sexy and funny rant put together by Dawn Olsen. Holy smokes, could Dawn give good potty mouth. More than once I had to hold back a spit-take at work (yea, of course I shoulda been workin'....what, you don't surf the web during the day? Liar!) Anyhoo, at some point or other, Dawn mentions this new site being put together called Blogcritics, anybody who has a blog (I did!) and knows what they're doing with words (I sorta did!?) can join up. I figure, what the hey, this was a chance to finally indulge my inner Lester.

I consider this indirect stumble into Blogcritics to be one of the best things that's happened to me in recent years. All those pent up thoughts about music, which I've been collecting for almost thirty years, now had a true outlet. And what a blast (and hard work!) it has been. At times, I find myself wondering why I didn't head in the direction of writing way back when. This is before the rational side of my brain reminds me: you couldn't write your way out of a paper bag back then! Uh...oh yea, almost forgot.

Now Blogcritics has reached a new and fantastic milestone, ten million unique visitors. Yow, that's a lot of clickin'! It's also a lot of fine writing. I couldn't be happier for all of us. The word 'unique' is especially important here as it's quite true that there's no site like Blogcritics. There's so much great writing here, in so many styles, that in truth it's hard to keep up. Think about it though. Where else on the Internet can you find, in one place, the ravings such as those of Duke DeMondo, the rich and beautiful thoughts of Sadi Ranson Polizzotti, the libertarian ramblings of Al Barger and the considered essays of Natalie Davis? I tell ya, we are a freakin' dessert topping AND a floor wax!

I myself have sung the praises of Blogcritics to just about anybody who'd listen. So many good articles to pass on. I'm sure that others have done this as well. It's fun to think about who's reading and how they've fit Blogcritics into their lives. Here's just a single example: I've been bending the ear of a good friend of mine (the same guy who found the Hounddog CD) for a while about how funny The Duke's podcasts are. I sent him a link to podcast #2, which he ended up listening to on his way to work. It made his day. Tomorrow, he and his wife are leaving for a week of vacation, with a pile of The Duke's podcasts loaded onto their iBook. (Gee, I hope Meg's not listening when they get to podcast #6).

Ah, and I should not forget Eric Olsen who with a mountain of hard work, great writing, faith and encouragement, has made Blogcritics what it is. I'm looking forward to the day when Blogcritics is a household name right up there with Yahoo, Google and others.

And so Blogcritics has passed this milestone. With the daily numbers being up, we'll certainly have the next ten million within a much shorter time. Fantastic. It's no hyperbole to suggest that the future's extremely bright around here.

Congratulations everybody.

Article Author: Mark Saleski

Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. He has contributed to Jazz.com and also writes reviews for Blogcritics.org. He produces the weekly feature The Friday Morning Listen. …

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