BOPPIN' (LIKE THE HIP FOLKS DO) # 3000

This is the 3000th public post on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). 

Huzzah?

The figure does not include a significant additional number of private posts that were intended solely for paid patrons (back in the good ol' days when I had paid patrons). Nor does it include the handful of posts I shared and then removed from the blog. There weren't many of those; the only instances I recall were when I deleted posts of the first four chapters of a work-in-progress novel and reposted 'em combined with the fifth chapter.

Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) # 1 was an open letter to the late David Bowie, posted on January 18th of 2016 under the nascent blog's original (and short-lived) title CC Says. My clinically chowderheaded decision to commit to daily--DAILY...?!--blog posting forced me to start writing again. I freelanced (mostly for Goldmine magazine and a few other outlets) for more than twenty years, 1984-2006, and all but ceased writing after that. Daily blogging got me back in the game.

The only known cure for writer's block is writing. Period. I'm lucky in that I've never really suffered much from writer's block, but I did have a severe writing motivation block.

The only known cure for that also happens to be writing something. In the immortal batting advice offered by baseball legend Ted Williams: Just hit the ball.

A daily blog. At first, I had a lot of old material to rely on as I got myself going. Went through that stuff PDQ, forcing me to generate new content. Mother of invention, man. I have not missed a day yet.

The need to create inspired some longer-form efforts, beginning with the nine-part autobiographical Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio: My Life In Pop Culture, The 1960s. I wrote a nine-part history of DC Comics' 100-Page Super Spectaculars, a three-part reflection on wishing I could make music, the five-part A Brighter Light In My Mind (a fantasy imagining a world in which Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes became the big stars they should have been), and a seven-part memoir of struggling through the '80s on The Road To GOLDMINE. Among all the things I've written, The Road To GOLDMINE may be my all-time favorite piece. 

Plus I wrote about the Monkees. I wrote a lot about the Monkees.

Because of the blogging experience, I felt that I could write a book. I mean, I'd always thought I could, ever since I was thirteen years old. But now I had developed a greater ability to execute, to follow through. A lot of projects fizzle out (like the above-mentioned novel stalled at its first five chapters), but the process of creating feeds itself. I started writing a book, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and damned if I didn't see it through. It's still in search of a home, but the work has been completed. The draft is in a potential publisher's hands.

Meanwhile, pursuit of the GREM! project led directly to the May 2023 publication of my first book, Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, courtesy of the mighty Rare Bird Books. In between, I made my first-ever fiction sales, a series of short stories for the good folks at AHOY Comics, commencing with "Guitars Vs. Rayguns" (the first one sold) and "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" (the first one published), both in 2019. I even completed a long-simmering Batman fanfic story, then pirated part of it into a different story I could sell (and did).

None of this happens for me if I hadn't made the rash decision to maintain a daily blog. I guess even clinical chowderheadedness can have its upside.

And, 3000 public posts in, this particular chowderhead is still at it.

See ya tomorrow!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl