Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) # 300

 
 




300 of these things...?! Man, you'd think I woulda quit as soon as I found out there was no money involved.

But doing this daily blog has been a blast anna half. It's been gratifying to meet the responsibility of posting at least one blog entry a day, every day, with the view that it's an iron-clad commitment. It doesn't matter that the audience is small; whoever shows up each day gets to see the show, whatever the show is. If I don't have anything old ready to use, then I have to write something new. No excuses. It has been great, great fun to get back into writing again, and I'm grateful to all of you who check in with whatever the hell it is I think I'm doing here.

As we look ahead to Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) # 301 and beyond, I want to also look back at some of the things I've written in the first 299 entries. Excluding older material that I've dusted off as Encore Presentations, these are some of my favorites on the blog this year. This list only includes pieces I wrote in 2016 (and all but "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze" were written from scratch):

David Bowie [Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) # 1]

ETERNITY MAN! A rock 'n' roll superhero novel, chapters 1 through 5

Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio: My Life In Pop Culture, The 1960s

The Monkees Bring The Summer: A Girl I Knew Somewhere

The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze [starring THE BATMAN and AQUAMAN]

The Monkees: GOOD TIMES! review

On Broadway

Tom Kenny, My Daughter, And Me

Something's Really Wrong

The Story of BRIGHT LIGHTS! 2016

SHAZAM! My Secret Origin As A Captain Marvel Fan

The Monkees: Welcome To The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Brian Wilson and PET SOUNDS

Archie Meets Ramones

Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Writing requires a certain level of self-confidence, a quality that I can't claim to always possess outside of my writing. But the writing itself? I'm proud of it. Many of the things I've written this year can stand with the best I've ever written. I've always had confidence in the writing, and that's why I keep doing it every day.

So, what do we have coming up? Well, that can sometimes be tough to say with certainty. To tell you the truth, it's not uncommon for me to finish the next day's post right before I go to bed at night; Wednesday's post about Adventure Comics was written that morning. But I always have a number of posts in various stages of being, from embryonic to almost-ready. For example:

Yesterday saw the debut of a new series, The Greatest Record Ever Made; the subject was suggested by intrepid Boppin' fan Dave Murray, based on my familiar riff that an infinite number of records can be the single greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. It's a fun subject for me, so expect more GREMs in the future.

The Everlasting First, my alphabetical series looking back at my introductions to various musical acts and comics characters, will resume soon with the letter J (for The Jam and Jimmy Olsen).

The long-promised Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio, my de facto autobiography of reading comic books and listening to pop music while in the theoretical act of growing up, will also resume some time...well, pretty soon. These are very time-consuming to write, but I hope to get myself back to where we left off--September 1970--within the next few weeks or so. I've also hinted at a new series called Spain, but I still haven't decided about that one yet.

Comic Book Retroviews will also continue, with potential subjects including Atlas Comics, Vampirella, DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular, Avengers King-Size Special # 2, The Adventures Of Jerry Lewis, The Brave And The Bold, and Detective Comics # 439, as whim dictates. The Notebook Notions will probably return, with a tale about my teenaged plan to create a publishing empire combining superheroes and naked female models, provided I can stop blushing long enough to actually write the damned thing.

And, although I don't specifically have any more Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery concert memories planned, I was so pleased with the three I've already done that I can practically guarantee a return to that series. I can likely rule out wanting to write about seeing Regis Philbin live.

But all of this will be determined as I go, with no editor or outside mandate, writing about whatever I feel, and hoping an audience is out there somewhere. The only permanent fixtures here are Sunday hype for that week's episode of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, followed (usually on Monday) by the weekly TIRnRR playlist and commentary. What else? Check back every day, and find out. Thank you for making Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) a part of your own ongoing effort to waste time on the internet. Bop on, my friends.