(Still) Blogging in 2015

Part of what I was up to
last year

Another Happy New Year to any and all who are (still) reading J's Theater, or happening by here for the first time. This blog has experienced several different lives, beginning with its initiation as an experiment in 2005, and has shifted through various incarnations, including as a scratchpad for personal thoughts, a mini-news site, a soapbox (after some reticence) for politics, an ongoing global poetry anthology, a virtual gallery and translation journal, a memorial space, and, more recently--2014 to be exact--an increasingly fallow space, to which I paid intermittent visits amid all my other duties and responsibilities. Launching one new book (the Hilst translation) and finishing my most recent own book of fiction while teaching and serving as an administrator, as well as navigating life itself, which included some health-related hurdles, proved to be quite a challenge, so blogging paid the sacrificial price, though it was not for lack of desire, or material.

I still enjoy blogging, and have been happy to see that after blogging was declared dead a few years ago, it has witnessed a resurgence. In fact with platforms such as Tumblr and Instagram, as well as with the original weblogging format, blogging seems to be ubiquitous in our popular culture, such that I can turn on any reality show these days--they still exist and keep proliferating, it seems--and if I wait for a few minutes, I'll hear someone referring to "bloggers" or "the blogs" or "blogging," often as a site of conflict or notoriety. This blog probably will never be mentioned on anyone's reality show, or on TV at all for that matter, and has sparked little notoriety since my post many years ago on George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping--remember when that was controversial? I do hope to continue, when possible, to contribute to some of the public conversations underway, and I also hope readers will post when they feel moved to do so. (Spammers, though, no thanks!) The conversations with those of you who have offered thoughts has always been enlightening, and I appreciate that you do (still) drop by here.

So, on to 2015!

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I thought I'd post blogging stats for the week (Jan 5, 2015 7:00 PM – Jan 6, 2015 6:00 PM), which I find fascinating, and this past month (12/7/2014-1/5/2015).

First, the week:

I'm not that surprised by the US providing the largest number of readers, but it does fascinate me that Ukraine (!), Taiwan, Czech Republic, and Romania make up the top 10. For the week, the most read entries are: a 2005 post on poems by Allen Ginsberg, including "America" and "To Aunt Rose; a 2005 post of a translation, though not by me, of one of my favorite poems, Julia de Burgos's "To Julia de Burgos"; my 2013 post (not the 2014 one) on the Nobel Prize in Literature; my New Year's greeting post; a 2012 post titled "Whom Does Economic Austerity Benefit?," which is probably as appropriate for today as it was almost three years ago; poems and translations (by me) of Brazilian poet Ana Cristina César; a 2006 post questioning an award to Richard Wilbur, and exploring the return of track star Shawn Crawford Back on the Track; a note on a 2011 Encyclopedia 2/War Diaries reading at AWP; a short celebration of Nobel Laureate Herta Müller's lyric stories Nadirs; and my 2011 post on art curator Kynaston McShine, which I think remains one of the rare extended online treatments of him and his career.

And now, for the month:

I'm not sure why France is at the top, but over this past month, the most read pages are the Burgos post; the Ginsberg post; the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature post; a 2006 post on whether Thomas Pynchon was posting on his then forthcoming novel, Against the Day, from 2006; a post on MTV's True Life show episode "I'm Dead Broke," from 2007; my last random photos post from 2014; the account of the Ace Hotel residency; my 2014 holidays post; the new year's post; and a 2006 post on Claudio Lomnitz on Mexico's racial problems, among other topics. Perhaps there's something in that list that the French are drawn to. Burgos? Ginsberg? Pynchon? The images of the metro area? But Ukraine? Czech Republic? Who knows, but please, keep reading!