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Why do I not post here any more?

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I love this place, or I thought I did.

But somehow recently I have not felt inclined to post anything, either as a comment or starting a post.

It’s partly because I’m 12 hours behind (ie I am in Australia) – there are often wonderful raving loony conversations that I discover first thing in the morning and by the time I think of something vaguely worthwhile to say it’s all over.

But also, I don’t know, something’s gone, and I’d be the first to admit it’s “just me”, maybe I just don’t care enough about debating essential music questions of the moment. Or political or social questions. Or maybe I’m just too busy with having a life, which is not to suggest at all that the regular posters (the clique?) don’t.

That’s all. I don’t expect anyone to make any comment, I’ll quietly be my own thread killer.

I’ll still check in, cos I love you all.

But just wondering if anyone else feels anything similar.

6

Comments

  2. You’re not alone. Somebody brought this up about a month ago and the feeling was that this place has it’s ebbs and flows that can never cater for everyone at the same time. Certainly I’ve felt uninvolved for quite a while now, until the last week or so when, and this is just me, things have become more interesting. Personally, I like logging on to the word from the bottom of the world at breakfast time. Love you guys (but not your sports teams).
    Couldn’t let you kill your own thread man. THAT’S MY JOB!

    • Yes it was Podicle, I think. It’s all been a bit austerity afterword since the last outage. The hack seemed to drain the site of many contributors and the variety and diversity of opinion has been diminished. I really struggle to find an ‘in’ to many topics, but there are still some quiet corners where it is possible to connect with strangers and share a genuine musical passion.

      • I don’t think the blog is any better or worse than ever it’s been, but there are a lot of people who don’t seem to post any more who I miss. I’d be intrigued to know whether the number of active users is up or down on where it used to be.

        • I’d like Forks to come back, the thin-skinned, touchy old fart. But mainly I’d like to see an influx of young, sexually adventurous women who find old, bitter, out-of-shape men incredibly fascinating and arousing. Because we are.

            • Getting Faux back would be the Holy Grail! He is greatly missed!

              HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYABOOGAMANNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

              Awwr yuz seeee-in’ yuz neeeeeeds wor back, like, hinny pet laddie boogaman?!? Ah nivaaahh NOOOOOOOOO yuz cuuuwed!

              • The last time I remember him checking in, he told us all off for being trivial, and generally just got furious with people who don’t necessarily agree that the end of the world is about to happen, courtesy of The Posh. I can more or less live without being lectured.

              • One of the side effects of the Selfie Thread is that I’m fairly sure I spot FG in Waitrose on a regular basis. Obviously I haven’t said hello to him, as that would be weird, but perhaps I could issue a come back plea over the frozen peas next time I see him?

                I’ve a suspicion that all this may make me sound a bit odd.

  4. Don’t go, Mouse – we need you! You’re loved and appreciated here!

    As Hannah said a while back, the AW motto should be ‘Still Not As Good As It Used To Be’ 🙂

    It ebbs and flows just like our individual offline lives do. Sometimes the flows coincide for a while, that’s all. Take a break and come back in a month…

  5. When Fraser Lewry visited Auckland for an upside down mingle a few years ago, he said that he particularly enjoyed the bletherings from the night shift at breakfast time. I’m still enjoying it.

  6. Blog open to everyone.

    Nobody gets invited to post or comment – up to you.

    Character of blog formed by those who contribute content. Whoever they are.

    Content as varied as it ever was, from serious informed debate, through articulated opinion to facetious nonsense. Ever thus.

    Mistake to sit around waiting to be entertained or involved.

    Either everyone a member of the clique, or no-one.

    Posts lamenting current state of blog inevitable. Regular feature since forever.

    • Very well said Mr Moles. Nail hit right on the head,

      If you take a breather Mousey, you know that when you come back there’ll be a special bottle being kept cool in the fridge for you and we’ll be delighted to see you.

  9. What would you like to talk about, Mousey old chum? I can offer the following subjects:

    1. The marvel that is Tijuana Brass music.

    2. My new, more specific and more colourful vinyl grading descriptors for charity shop and boot sale records.

    3. Our cat’s new medication regime.

    7. My numeracy issues.

    4. Ottowan vs Boney M smackdown – who’s best?

    5. HP’s carbuncle (jpegs available).

  10. The Southern Hemisphere thing is tricky. There is just a few of us so it is a small pool and some times things get buried too. I did a review of Carlos Santana’s autobiography and there are only 4 comments. All from me. Now that is a small pool. ! And as you say Mousey sometimes we get onto the fag end of a fun thread.
    But been especially enjoying the GJ, HP, HP contributions.

  11. Lurked for years. Plucked up courage to join site about a couple of months ago. Made two short contributions to two separate threads. Received two pithy sarcastic responses from, I imagine, two bitter, middle aged (divorced. white and male of course) alcoholics. Everything I expected and more. Fantastic, best site on the internet..

  13. I only post now if I’m invoked by ritual, visualisation and email alert. Other than that, myself and this site seem to have largely diverted wavelength wise.

        • I enjoyed your Underpants thread more than anything else here, and I wish you could return to that kind of larkiness. I sense – oh, call it my woman’s intuition, if you must – a seriousness in your tone of late that tends to the doomy. You were never predictable though. Charmingly bonkers, bloody funny … whatever happened to RobC?

          • You are most kind.

            Whilst daring not to profane those woes espied or not, or perhaps unseen of us all, I have spent a season of portentous rune casting amidst the shadows drear that lieth betwixt the bins of wheels that like two vast cubed plastic shozone crocs of Colossus do beckon those cast from the Thin Place unto the wastes of Budgen’s Delivery Depot, after the Vanquishing by vile purveyors of Indiezak most vapid to the soul, I, my band of loyal Ninja Sexy Foxy Witchy Type Boho Chicks, the Hashishepchicks, and Wendy, dressed as a myopic hirsute foundling in welders googles and wheelbarrow, do chart the arc of Mercury atop Tors still pulsing with the blood of she Dragons in their celestial slumbers, and yea! the Crumhorn shall blow over ley and henge once more, and Tibetan Anus Flutes will be heard in the glades anew, their puckered rim blown airs of psychedelic gaiety bringing forth the yawning sun as gnomes cavort their lusty sutras of russeted fecundity as I don the Emerald hued tie dye day glow astral Undercrackers Of Power, meat billiards bewebbed and cosseted in filligree dew dappled spider’s web gusset.

            SHIVA ON BOARD ! HUZZAH ! HUZZAH ! HOOZEEHA !

    • It’s not you, it’s me, etc. The demographic of the place changed a lot after the mag folded, and it’s now even more of a hangout for a gentleman of, shall we say, the more pensionable persuasion. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I’m 38: it’s not really me. That’s no-one’s fault, but what I felt to be the energy and fizz of the Word blog never translated across fully to the AW, in my view. By the time Word closed, it was Mojo: there was a grumpy small-c conservatism which made it so much less good in its last year or so, and that was reflected in a lot of what made it onto the lifeboat.

      There are a few great writers on here, and a few really funny people, and even a handful of (mostly younger) souls who don’t think everything modern is shit. Those people are what keep me hanging around (even if I don’t post much) – and I suppose a sort of strange loyalty to the spirit of the thing. The Word blog circa 2009 was so powerfully brilliant a place to hang out that it’s hard to let go of the AW. But I find there’s less and less to interest me.

      • Up arrow for this one.

        I think one of the greatest risks for this community is that it become a scaled down version of the Mojo messageboards, with lots of very similar people sat around stroking their beards and trying to decide which of the Kinks wore the nicest trousers.

        I’ve warbled on about it before, but the great thing about The Word, and the thing I miss most from a music monthly, is that it combined a reverence for the past with a fierce interest in the future (even Hepworth, who loved the techie stuff). That strikes me as the golden ticket, as far as this sort of thing is concerned.

        When we reach the point that it’s just “everything modern is shit and I don’t want to hear about anything outside my own tightly-defined fields of interest”, then – really – what’s the point in talking at all? Why not just sit at home listening to Pink Floyd and scowling out the window at schoolchildren?

        The site is a reflection of the community – it’s up to us to generate the energy and fizz. That means getting excited by new stuff, and blathering on about it to anyone who’ll listen, and both making and taking jokes, and arguing about politics without taking it to heart, and generally just approaching the whole endeavour as a bit of a larf, which is all it really is.

        • Ta, Bingo. Of course it’s true that it’s up to us to generate the energy and fizz, but mostly I want to read, not write, at the moment. Like I say: my (very minor) problem, not the blog’s.

        • I, on the other hand, disagree somewhat. It seems to me that quite a lot of new music and new young artists get discussed here. The type of new music and new artists discussed tend to be of the same ilk as were covered by The Word (but not always – the scope seems a little wider here).
          As someone interested in music old and new, I see this place as a pleasant distraction, nothing more nothing less. It’s a very minor part of my life. And I think it’s pretty much now as it has always been. Sometimes interesting, sometimes entertaining, sometimes informative.

            • Oh!

              In my mind’s ear, the italics signalled a desperate urgency, a passion spilling into a barely-restrained madness, each clause driven home by a stubby forefinger jabbed into my chest, each word hissed through bared, clenched teeth, your glittering eyes bulging, red-rimmed, unfocussed, your top lip dewed with sweat, the final emphatic 3-part phrase rising to a roar on the very last word… And then you stood, glowering, gaze on the ground, fists balled, chest heaving, breath panting, a bull after the first pass, barely registering Bob’s banderillas in your massive bulging neck.

              I’d better read it again then.

          • My perception is that the new artists that generate the most excitement on here are people like Ryley wossface and that Steven Wilson person: throwbacks, in other words. I’m sure very good throwbacks, but throwbacks nonetheless.

            • Exactly this.

              Also: there’s a much deeper undercurrent of “fings ain’t wot they used to be” than there ever used to be in the past (as far as I remember).

              Obviously, everyone is entitled to their own view, but as the above notion gains traction I think it swings the dial from “musings on the byways of popular culture” towards “echo chamber for people who want to feel reassured about the 60s”. Maybe that’s our ultimate destination, who knows.

            • I gave a brief listen to Ryley thingy and Steve Wilson but didn’t like. I also discovered Public Service Broadcasting, Roger Robinson and Kendrick Lamar through this place and liked.

                • I have lost track of how much music I have been tipped about on the various incarnations of the site. I do know that I sincerely appreciate it be it new or old. Similarly with books.
                  The site goes through changes but thankfully it continues to provide stimulating discussion and many laughs.
                  It’s also taught me that despite my advancing years I remain just as big an arsehole as I was when I was sixteen.
                  This is less welcome though probably the single most useful thing I have realised in many years.
                  I am trying to amend that aspect of myself. Which just goes to prove that just occasionally an d dog can learn new tricks.
                  Oh and yes Gary, Savages.
                  Love ’em.

  18. Whilst I probably check in most days, I find I can go for a while without posting anything. I put it down to the fact that my brain was full of crap and so I had nothing meaningful to say.

  19. I don’t post on the ‘political’ threads anymore because it tends to lead to a bit of a dark place for me and one person on here is a nasty piece of work IMO. So I’ll stick to the occasional review and a non-pithy comment every now and again.

    But I still really like having a mooch around. Plus it is one of the best places that recommends stuff that I’m interested in.

        • That Chimunythingumybob geezer was good value before he went all Julien Temple on us.
          Only seen him on here once in a year, when he delivered the Miley Cyrus bomb (Up top✋fella) before mic dropping his way outta town..

      • Patrick Crowther was last active 11 months 2 weeks ago, according to the really rather fascinating Afterword Members list. Other familiar names missing in action include Admin 1 (whatever happened to Admin 1?), Disappointment Choir, Brilliant Mistake, Badger King, nickduvet, Zanti Misfit, molesworth, man.of.soup, Baron Harkonnen, Rosbif…perhaps they’ve all done a henpetsgi and renamed themselves.

        Dozens and dozens of lurkers, including the surprisingly named Ian S, who probably took one look and thought, there’s nothing for me here.

          • You are not that wrong on the bizarro ianess theory actually. I am 99.9% certain I half knew Ian S in real life, and a more firebrand socialist you would be hard pressed to meet.

            • 99.9% certain you half knew someone? What’s that work out to then?

              I still don’t know how long it’s taken those 3 blokes to dig that ditch.

              • haha, let’s just say my degree isn’t in maths or engineering….I say “half knew” because we worked for the same organisation, albeit at different ends of the country. I’d know him to say hello to in a corridor or meeting, but I couldn’t tell you what his kids were called or anything like that.

                • I just need a number though – I crave certainty – all this vagueness is making my leg do that thing again.

                  For God’s sake man, at least tell me how many kids he’s got, can’t you?

                  *rubs Blankey on lip*

                  • This should distract you Jeff:
                    If Kid A can chew through 60 discarded copies of Word magazine in 40 minutes and Kid B can only manage 20 in 45 minutes how long will it take the two goats to destroy all the back issues of The Word and which will be left with the Dido cover at the end?
                    Please type on one side of the tablet only..

                    • Is it…er, is it Kiiid Rrro-

                      No, wait!

                      Is it Kiiid
                      Creeeo-

                      No! Oh God, I don’t know! I just wanted numbers – I can’t do anything with them, I don’t know how to do Hard Sums!

                      *collapses to floor, sobs, wets paper onesie*

  21. I’m holding off from posting until it’s generally agreed that the blog is at its lowest ever point.

    My master plan is to then write as many posts as possible and wait for the respect to flood in as the person who started the comeback.

  23. There’s a smaller universe of contributors and within that a smaller number who contribute disproportionately. Which is a shame, because the people who post the most rarely have the most to say. I think that’s why it doesn’t seem as varied and inspired as it once did.

    But then I was thinking it has got better recently. A few months ago you couldn’t move for bloody I-Spy lists of youtube clips, and the political debates have improved dramatically. When was the last time we had a GIDEON EATS BABIES rant? Or a big huffy flounce? Actually, come to think of it, I kind of miss all that.

    I like posts where you can see that someone’s put in a bit of effort, and usually the shorter threads are more interesting than the, um, enthusiastically curated ones. You just have to hunt around a bit harder for the good stuff.

  25. It ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows. Still the best place I know to find ‘new’ music (even if most of it is IMHO crap) – sometimes it’s dull, sometimes I laugh out loud. When the site came back from its too long break I did at first think the magic had gone but slowly and hesitantly it’s come back. Of course there are a large handful of contributors who are sorely missed and of course it does often descend into fings ain’t what they used to be. But given the demographic in place here isn’t that kinda inevitable?
    I always think of this place as some sort of local boozer which serves a great pint: the great pint is what draws you in, you find yourself talking to the slightly odd person standing next to you – sometimes he bores the shit out of you, sometimes he (or more likely she) is brilliant.

    • Nicely put.
      There is a good collection of pretty smart people on here which can be a genuine tonic at times.
      Compared to most online sites there is a noticable lack of snottiness & point scoring, with most folk preferring the ‘rhythm’ of normal conversation rather than attempting to have the final, definitive word on a topic.
      This by itself makes it a worthwhile ‘place’ to pop into, as if you want to argue, sledge or otherwise find a beef with other types online there’s the whole of the rest of the internet to choose from.

  27. It’s like a relationship and your in the 7 year itch phase after attraction, lust, repetition, regret, boredom and now you need a break. Go and have a fling with another site and come back when you’ve got it out of your system and you realise you’re better off with what you know…..

  28. I still love it. I haven’t been on as much recently because I’ve got a new job and I’m SO FUCKING BUSY. I think the one reason the blog’s appeal might be becoming more selective is that we don’t come here because we all read the same mag or like the same things. We come here because of what came before, and the relationships that were made. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is unlikely to lead to growth.

  29. It’s got a lot more social media banter in approach, which can be limiting. As regards getting all Mojo, heritage 70s rock, it’s always had that majority emphasis. If anything more new music has been featured than in the past, thanks to the likes of Tiggerlion and others. The magazine though was more open minded and positive about new stuff than the blog. When I first started posting most of the content came from the standpoint that it was all better before punk.

  30. I rarely post anything of any worth. Very little of anything at all recently. I seem to have lost the urge. This. I’m sure, is related to a general feeling of weariness brought on by my job which is grinding at me heavily of late.

    They keep making me do things, man! I haven’t sat on my arse and phoned in the bare minimum in months. How dare they. Don’t they know who I am?

    I can’t stop logging in here though. More often than not to find something new. Which, sometimes, is something rather old that passed me by when it was new. It’s all new if you haven’t listened, read or watched it before.

  31. I like it on here as I genuinely don’t like open-minded people.
    Don’t trust them, in the same way I don’t trust people who like extreme sports.

    Seriously thinking about only listening to music made between 1955 to 1959.
    Been at it a month now, determined to be even more elitist and objectionable.

  32. It’s a funny old/crappy old/fabby new/flabby goo of a/always challenging/predictably repetitious/creepily cliquey/full of foreigners/not like it was/scurrilous/scatological/biological/logicaly illogical old blog but…..
    compared to what?
    And that’s the draw. There isn’t owt like it, so I love it. Even when it’s shite

  33. Y’know … (*BANGS PIPE ON GRATE*) scrolling through this absolute blinder of a thread reminds me why I still enjoy the thing we call “the blog”. I doubt if there’s been a funnier bunch of cunts gathered in one place since the Algonquin Round Table.

    http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t642/burtkocain/Afterwordblogyesterday_zps8mmqozmd.jpg

    From left: Myself, Moose (crouching), retropath2 (standing), Mrs Breakfast (pearl necklace – gift from Moose), DisappointmentBob.

  34. We have one of these hand-wringing navel gazing threads every so often don’t we? If nothing else I guess it shows we care about the old homestead. But (and you should never start a sentence with ‘but’, as I think we are overdue for a grammar pedant thread as well) I have yet to find anywhere else on the interweb that I’d care to linger for long, or with whose community I’d care to exchange pointless waffle on a regular basis. I look on this place every day, several times a day and add the occasional contribution. There are some very edudite and very funny posters on here whose writing and humour I very much admire, and it’s for that reason I keep coming back. I genuinely like the banter, and the more pointless and humourous a thread, the more I like it. Perhaps I should post more, but I don’t always have the time, or don’t have anything sensible to add because somd other bugger got in there and said it first. I don’t think the place is any worse or better than it’s been – if we are using the reduction in ill-tempered political threads or flounces as a quality benchmark, then that’s fine by me. Just be grateful that we’ve got a bloody good thing going here and accept the ebbs and flows as part and parecl of it.

    AW strapline, as I may have said before – “The Afterword – You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.

    • “There are some very edudite and very funny posters on here …” Well, yes, but don’t forget Chiz, and M.C. Escher, and the many other lightweights whose contributions form the mulch from which the funny and clever comments flower!

    • This is it really. It’s the way things are expressed that counts not so much what is expressed. One opinion is more or less as good as another, and often I feel I could just as easily lean towards one side of the argument as I could to the other side. The blog being rather weighted toward the music of the 60s and 70s, (but you can write about whatever you want) isn’t so important really. That doesn’t make it a Mojo type forum. It’s the spirit and attitude of the posters that makes it what it is. We can go on and build a better, greater Afterword, and we will my friends, for we have women here now, and yes we even have hiphop fans, so let’s all pull together and make this the greatest music discussion site the world has ever seen. With your help we can make it happen. So come on, not just for us but for our children and our children’s children (only try not to start sentences with so and watch those apostrophes).

      • It’s not the 60s/70s focus. That’s to be expected (and there’s obviously a load of great music and movies in that period). It’s the pride in a closed mind: the “it’s all shite after 1980/who the fuck is Frankie Knuckles/contactless payment is witchcraft/youngsters dress funny/why do people keep making up new words” side of things, which bubbles away and sometimes comes to the boil.

        Anyone of a certain age is likely to primarily enjoy the music of the 60s and 70s (ie their adolescence), but not everyone is hostile to the present and future, and certainly not everyone feels the need to wear that hostility as a badge of honour.

        Obviously, everyone is free to post what they like, obviously if I don’t like it I should post about something else (and I do). But in a conversation about the health of the blog, the above is something that I, personally, find offputting – in much the same way others aren’t that keen on the list or YouTube clip threads. Except that list threads are at least confined and easily ignored, whereas this stuff can be a little more pervasive.

        Just my tuppence, OOAA, keep your Alans on Saucecraft, etc

        • But … Bingo … kids today … they are rubbish. They don’t drop acid and roll around in the mud with the panache we managed. They don’t play interminable nodding bass solos while the guitarist gets a blowie backstage with the élan we possessed. They don’t spend their Supplementary Benefit on John Mayall albums with anything like the dedication of my generation. Neither can they find the resources – both mental and physical – to lie on the floor of Malc’s mum’s front room watching static on the TV after closedown and giggling about fuck nothing for the hours we unstintingly devoted to the task.

          I rest my case.

        • That’s just some posters who have that mindset, and they have always been here, and some of those are even entertaining with it, which helps. There are many others who offer another view.

        • I think it’s the fact that the two sides are so entrenched is the problem. It’s perfectly possible to embrace new technology and at the same time wonder who the fuck is Frankie Knuckles. You can dislike the misuse of words AND love Rihanna. I think the site of old reflected that, whereas it’s really quite binary now.

          • Is it though? Are there two sides? Where is the divide? You make it sound like the Western Front.

            Which side of the divide are you, for instance? I have no idea.

          • Not sure I agree that it’s quite as binary as all that. There are probably some young(ish: let’s not get carried away) fogeys here, just as there are some early-adopting, open-minded, Warp-loving older posters too.

            But the examples Bingo cites upthread (“it’s all shite after 1980/who the fuck is Frankie Knuckles/contactless payment is witchcraft/youngsters dress funny/why do people keep making up new words”): that stuff feels very much like an age-divided thing.

            • It isn’t quite that binary, no. I’m 58, yet I saw Frankie Knuckles live three times. I’ve even heard of at least 15% of the people Fatima mentions on here.

              By now, my mind is mostly made up, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s closed or can’t eventually – like a devilishly difficult bra – be undone.

              *shuffles off in his tartan slippers for a frustratingly trickly wee muttering “droppin’ ‘n’ drippin’ ‘n’ drippin’ ‘n’ droppin'” ad infinitum*

            • I love that in trying to get to the listening habits of open minded early adopters Bob’s example is Warp, to whom this label might have applied as recently as, ooooh, 1997 at a stretch. We are all old gits, it’s just the degree of decrepitude that varies.

  35. Wow as far as navel gazing this is one of the bigger ones.
    I wonder why people say they lurk and “pluck up the courage ” to post. The blog seems pretty welcoming and if there is interest in your thread all good and if not we’ll tumbleweeds for you like we have all experienced. Just jump in.

    I’m probably one of those over contributors with inverse value to paraphrase one post but my job is a bit boring at the moment and there is usually a few usual suspects. To chew the Fat with. I’ve got me topics, me music , me cultural reference points. Others have got theirs so they can chat on those threads.

    I make a point of dissing music someone else likes as that is rude but by and large it is chugging along ok. I think it is without peer in terms of the quality of writing for a blog.

    What was it some guy elsewhere said – that blog where they all want to be journalists ?

  36. Bloody hell. I am gobsmacked that my slightly sad little post has got such a huge response. I checked in this morning and there were maybe 70 odd posts. I’ve spent the whole day in the studio so haven’t had any time to reply. Now I’m home and there’s a couple of hundred!

    All I can say is, reading all this stuff, which has taken me the best part of half an hour, has been quite uplifting and affirming, not to mention jolly funny, chaps and non-chaps, and has caused me to splutter my Marlborough Pinot Gris over the keyboard several times. It’s actually quite a good quality vino for once, it being a Friday night, so bugger youse all for being so bloody witty and friendly, and oh fuck, you know, we’re in the pub and there’s love in the room (accepts another glass from someone…)

    There are several comments here that, if I was very diligent, I would reply to individually. However there are a couple that I thought were very relevant – this from @DisappointmentBob who I have often disagreed with in the past, but his post copied here resonates with me –

    “It’s not you, it’s me, etc. The demographic of the place changed a lot after the mag folded, and it’s now even more of a hangout for a gentleman of, shall we say, the more pensionable persuasion. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I’m 38: it’s not really me. That’s no-one’s fault, but what I felt to be the energy and fizz of the Word blog never translated across fully to the AW, in my view. By the time Word closed, it was Mojo: there was a grumpy small-c conservatism which made it so much less good in its last year or so, and that was reflected in a lot of what made it onto the lifeboat.

    There are a few great writers on here, and a few really funny people, and even a handful of (mostly younger) souls who don’t think everything modern is shit. Those people are what keep me hanging around (even if I don’t post much) – and I suppose a sort of strange loyalty to the spirit of the thing. The Word blog circa 2009 was so powerfully brilliant a place to hang out that it’s hard to let go of the AW. But I find there’s less and less to interest me.”

    And also this from @Lodestone of Wrongness

    “I always think of this place as some sort of local boozer which serves a great pint: the great pint is what draws you in, you find yourself talking to the slightly odd person standing next to you – sometimes he bores the shit out of you, sometimes he (or more likely she) is brilliant”.

    And to the people that namechecked me thank you too.

    Keep going please, although surely the thread is dead now?!?!?

      • Matey? Bubble bath. Soap on a rope. Drawing the bath. Drawing the curtains. Sunday night. School tomorrow. Boo! Can I stay up for the Avengers, Mum? No, not the Marvel franchise – they haven’t been invented yet, you daft ‘apoth – I mean the proper ones. “Mrs Peel, we’re knee deep.” Steed’s Bentley in racing green, like a flightless Chitty with a class repaint job like on Wheeler Dealers. Except that hasn’t been invented yet either. All in good time. Five David Kossoffs for an Emma Peel, that was the going swap rate. Matey is just Badedas for kids. No, no connection; Adidas hasn’t been invented yet.

    • Lovely Mousey, and I’ll go on buying your records, as long as they’re as good as the new one.

      *puts on serious face* As a gentleman of, shall we say, the more pensionable persuasion (© Disappointment Bob) I’m beginning to feel just a little bit twitchy about this anti-old git movement. I don’t think everything modern is shit; I don’t think everything old is wonderful. Like everybody else round here, I assume, I pick my culture from anywhere between the dawn of time and last week according to my tastes and how things speak to me. A lot of the grumpy old git stuff from me and others is merely ironic, not to be taken seriously. I realise that droning on about seeing the HJH or Hendrix live could get irritating, but, goddammit, things like that were possibly high spots in our dreary little lives.

      Anybody seen The Lobster? Crazy film in which once you reach the age of 45 you are killed, if you can’t find someone to fall in love with in a couple of weeks. Is that how it’s going to be? Hit 70 and fall in love with some hot new band or be cast into outer darkness?

      Everybody’s getting older. David Hepworth is 65.

      • Me too Tigger. In spades.

        If you haven’t seen them live, you must try and do so. A transcendent experience.

        Really nice blokes too who off stage are astonishingly down to earth and modest about the extraordinary music they make,

      • All that stuff about the water going down the plug hole in different directions is not true. The direction of the water going down the plug hole is entirely due to the design of the basin and whether the water has been swirled about a bit.

        The man who does that trick on the Equator where the water goes one way on the north side and the other on the south side is doing a trick. He fills up the container, turns to his right and puts down the container – and then you see the water swirl out of the bottom. He walks over the Equator to the other side – this time he fills the container and turns to his left – now you see the water swirl the other way as it drains. On the Equator itself, he fills the container and doesn’t turn at all. The water drains away without swirling.

  38. I’ve been in and out. It’s all as the mood takes me.
    I gave up for over three months last year after one poster had pissed me off (nothing directed towards me, nothing political, just an attitude I didn’t like) came back, stayed away and am here again.
    It’s strange seeing new names. Some of which are changes, but I don’t know who they used to be.
    But on the whole it’s a community of friends and from time to time something really interesting starts.

  39. I’ve lived through the various incarnations of this place. I’ve lurked; I’ve posted and I’ve teetered on the brink of posting but then thought better of it/lost my nerve. My tumbleweed collection may well be without peer. I even mingled once. All of which qualifies me to say that this thread has made me (1) laugh out loud. (2) think a bit and (3) go looking for music. To me that’s what the AW is all about, so thank you all for delivering such an entertaining afternoon and thanks to @Mousey for kicking it all off.

    Carry on everybody! You’ve all done very well.

    • Mingled eh? I’m impressed. I’m a mingle virgin.
      Nice post @fifer.
      Next time you feel like posting just go for it.

      And that goes for anyone who’s not sure whether or not to take the plunge. The more voices, the merrier.

  40. I’ve enjoyed this thread immensley & it’s a good example of the strength of this place that an OP
    one wouldn’t necessarily expect to fly turns out to be a corker.
    I’m not really concious of a generational divide on here that others allege.
    Surely nobody really buys into the Hepworth ‘1971’ notion? It’s a decent point to kickstart a discussion & may even
    be able to be sustained ( like a proper thesis!) but it’s so obviously bollocks I can’t imagine a single soul
    taking it seriously – least of all Hep himself.
    One of the things I enjoyed about the mag was that it gave me pointers to check out new ( to me at least)
    stuff, at a time when I was in danger of not bothering much.
    This place does the same thing & YouTube clips can convert you to new stuff in moments. That’s technology
    at it’s finest IMO. I’m all for youngsters & oldsters claiming ‘this is the greatest thing ever’ as long as they make an impassioned case for it.
    Long may it continue. Excelsior!

  41. What have I missed?

    I know, and enjoy/love cds by Disappointment Bob, Colin H and Twang…

    …Who as/what name does Mousey record under, please, and what is the oeuvre/genre?

    Apologies for my dreadful ignorance!

    • Bob, Twang and I are thinking of forming a supergroup: Total Disappointment. Our first ‘platter’ will be ‘No Disappointment Till Hammersmith’, followed by a career-spanning box set, ‘Weapons Of Mass Disappointment’, featuring the first official release of the lenegendary ‘Disappointment Tapes’ wherein the band members have a cringeworthy argument in the studio over musical policy:

      Bob: For God’s sake, lads, this track is 20 minutes long!

      Twang: You say that as if it’s a problem.

      Colin: But Bob, I haven’t even done my solo yet…

      (etc etc)

  42. Let me get this straight: the ‘youngsters’ on this site are now in their late 30s. Is that right?

    I joined AW to get some sex with hot young cuties. Not only are there no women here but the men are elderly and live on the other side of the world. Wouldn’t have happened in my day, I swear it wouldn’t.

  44. It’s interesting that the middle aged “youngsters” who are moaning most about this small-but-entertaining message board visit the site every bleedin’ day and post as much as any and more than most.
    Imagine what they’d be like if they actually liked it here!

      • Nope. Sorry. Don’t get it.
        Anyways, whenever I’m a bit confused I always think it’s best just to repeat myself: so, don’t you think it’s interesting that the middle aged “youngsters” who moan most about this small-but-entertaining message board visit the site every bleedin’ day and post as much as any and more than most?
        I mean, why would you keep coming back?

          • Best thing is, us old (UK) codgers are still up, drinking whisky and secretly listening hip hoppity rapping noise whilst they’re tucked up in bed.
            Mind you, my ears hurt a bit and I might move on to some 1971 singer-songwriter stuff if that’s ok.

        • It’s not that complicated.

          Participation doesn’t mean you think that literally everything is awesome. A while back, the regulars complained about the lack of a “track” button – you could just as easily have asked your question then, and it would have been just as much of a logic fail.

          If you’d care to have a look, I’m near the top of this thread suggesting that the blog is as good as it’s ever been. But something was then said that made me think “hey, I agree with that – that aspect does kind of suck”. So, I expressed my view. On a thread full of other people expressing their views about the health of the place.

          You then cropped up with what I considered to be a bit of a snidey comment, which I tried to make light of so we could all just rub along nicely. Obviously, that wasn’t what you were after, so now here we are.

          What I would also add to the above is that you have an excellent username, and I don’t particularly want to argue with anyone called Peanuts Malloy.

  47. Jeez, leaving replys to my own post? It really hardly matters whether it’s Limp Buscuit or Steely Dan. It’s the collective love of music that is expressed here better than anywhere else I know.

  49. @niscum raises a good point. Has anyone managed to get a root by dint of being on this site ?

    I think I might have missed out on a few from Mrs Wells when I’ve been on the site when I might have been better off fiddling about as Uncle Ernie would say * aged rock reference.

    • Yes. Me.

      As in root canal treatment. Without anaesthetic. Since reading this thread. Metaphorically blogging.

      This is a fabulous, enjoyable, informational treasure of a place, if you like music.

      Even new, popular acts.

      Just in the last few days I have been introduced to new sonic experiences including Beatles Band, Strolling Bonio, U Springsteen, Deep Floyd, Van Bowie, Dame Morrison, Limp Halen, it just keeps giving, the list is endless, ………..

  50. Damn, breaking my own rule of getting involved in these bloody meta threads. This place is quite unique and remarkably civilized, oldies talking about music and whatever and rubbing along with humour and panache and no little knowledge. Missed it terribly when the site went down, twice! So people come and go, flounce and withdraw. Indeed, whither SpecsBeard/Sheev/Faux Geordie and many others we’ve known? Curtis definitely dead, Stimpy presumably. And still! It’s as good as ever it’s been, thanks my virtual friends, and long may it continue. Tim, Hannah, &Co do a brilliant job.

    Yep, I do love it here.

  51. Sorry, by the time I’d scrolled down this far I’d forgotten what the question was.
    Just pick the answer that suits you the best:
    A1: Cauliflower.
    A2: OK, but only if take your socks off.
    A3: David Bowie, and an owl.
    A4: How very dare you, sir!
    A5: No, but I’m Swedish.

  53. Well said Junior. Well done Mousey!

    It’s been the Clash of the Megathreads this week and this one has left the seemingly unstoppable and very enjoyable Film Canon well behind.

  55. Logged in for the first time in a couple of weeks…..

    Ah, this looks like an interesting thread about why people don’t post any more.

    An hour later…….fuck me, that’s a lot of posts.

    Logs out again……

  58. This is one for the adjudicating panel: it’s a five year old thread…but it’s garnered 435 posts….does Mousey qualify for four hampers?

    (there’s only so much Corsair tinned chicken the body can take, surely?)

  59. What a great post! In the years that have passed since Mousey started it, we’ve seen a lot of changes. Moose has changed his underpants. I’ve become even funnier, if anything. Bingo Little is fully occupied with his Fish-In-A-Beaker© franchise. Mojo has his own blog to do. And Bellows is “a thing” (well, not all the news can be good).

    • H.P. Saucecraft says

      20/02/2016 at 04:40

      I’m finding time for nu-core synth-roots, myself. Anything with a picture of a bleak empty horizon on the cover, or a couple of twerps with bad hair and geek glasses. Or anything a teenage girl might have on her playlist – that’s bound to be good listening.

      A hyperpop fan so far ahead of the curve.

  61. I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

  62. Bloody hell wtf is going on here?

    I couldn’t believe it seeing that post in “Recently Updated”.

    “Hang on” I thought, “didn’t I write some nonsense of that ilk way back when???”

    Can we donate the hampers to some appropriate charity?

    Meanwhile back in Australia – I seem to still be posting, intermittently, and enjoying the camaraderie of this lovely place.

    Cheers everyone! I know it’s winter over there and Boris has fucked up everything but summer is icumenin, as are the vaccines, and you will all be OK

  67. I don’t see any need for any other posts, really. Post that fascinating review of the latest Jethro Tull box right here, or that really interesting clip of Finnish schoolchildren playing Smoke On The Water on ocarinas, or that long-awaited piece on 17c Agrarian Reform In The Low Countries – the possibilities are literally endless!

  68. Still no sign at all, not even a glimmer, of an influx of young, sexually adventurous women who find old, bitter, out-of-shape men incredibly fascinating and arousing.
    At least not that I can see.

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