Today, we gather to speak of creative commitment.
Doing a weekly radio show is a big commitment, but it's doable, especially with a reliable and dedicated co-host like Dana Bonn. This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio With Dana & Carl has been locked into the idea of doing weekly shows since we signed on as TIRnRR back on December 27, 1998.
Granted, we have missed some weeks during that time; our most recent show was this week's TIRnRR # 1190 rather than the # 1281 that would match the number of weeks since our debut. The 1190 number omits a handful of additional TIRnRR special editions we did, maybe as many as five, though there was also one week when we did two shows. The weeks we skipped were due to circumstances beyond our governance. Y'know, things like blizzards that prompt a FOR THE LUVVA GOD STAY HOME!!!! mandate from local authorities, tech issues that fried our circuits and circuited our fries, the occasional illness (though usually one of us would still show up if the other couldn't), the collapse of a radio station that crumbled beneath our feet and had to be replaced with a new radio station, and...man, there was something going on in 2020, the week after our March 15th show. Can't remember what happened that wee...
...Oh. Right.
Even the onset of a friggin' pandemic only forced us to miss one week. On 3/29/2020, we did a live Zoom TIRnRR with our guests Pop Co-Op, and then we started prerecording shows at home. That remote pre-planned programming began with TIRnRR # 1019 on April 5th of 2020. We've continued this method every single week since then.
Committed. This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has a specific weekly promise to keep. We're not ones to break promises.
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| Portrait of the blogger courtesy of Dan Pavelich |
Doing a daily blog is also a big commitment. Someone called it a guano-crazy commitment, and that someone was me. Nonetheless, my daily blog commenced on January 18th, 2016, initially under the title CC Says. It switched to its permanent moniker Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), and has never missed a day. In fact, over the course of 2738 days, this is Boppin' public post # 2863. I, overachiever.
It's a challenge to keep this ill-advised vow to post daily, no matter what. I could bail on it, and no one would complain. I've come close to pulling Boppin's plug on several occasions. In each such instance, though, it wasn't because I couldn't come up with something--anything!--to write; the intermittent temptations to quit blogging were the result of self-doubt and/or emotional tsuris.
At which point I always reminded myself: ya can't stop writing because you feel down. You feel bad now? Just imagine how you'll feel if you stop using this forum to express yourself. Pull yourself together, Cupcake. Fercryinoutlod, write something.
Today's post is the sort of thing I might write on a day when I don't have anything else to say. But I have two other blog posts just about ready to go, right now, as well as a third that's almost done. They can keep. I want to post this on a day when I didn't need to post it, a day I just felt like posting it anyway.
Why does the commitment matter? It's not for the audience, as much as I love both of you. It's for me, plain and simple. Maintaining a daily blog forces me to keep writing. I need that. I freelanced from 1984 until around 2006, grew weary of it, and all but stopped writing after that.
In 2016, I started a blog. A daily blog. With that loony notion, I forced myself to start writing again.
Now? I have a book out, and another book completed. None of it happens without the daily blog and the weekly radio show. Yeah, people say I oughtta be committed for doing this.
They are correct. Can't get it all done otherwise.
If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.
Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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