Atlas Blogged

                                                 

        When I started reading it, I had not realized it would be so long.  The narrative started well enough and had me interested to see what was coming next.  Then the author took a detour.  In befuddlement I plodded on.

          Did this author have any sense of an inner editor?  There was this and then there was that.   And then there was this that had no relation to that.  On and on it went with no clear point in sight.  By this time I had already invested so much time in reading that I was determined to finish. 

             Finally, after what seemed like hours, I reached the end.  What was that all about anyway?   I could only sigh deeply and shake my head in frustrated disappointment.  That had to have been the longest blog post I've ever read in my life.  And for today it would be the only blog post that I would be reading.

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            I've been guilty of this, I know.  In April many of us will be trying to read more posts than usual and leave a comment on each of them.  Those long rambling posts will become a liability.  Readers may decide to just skip the long ones in favor of several more manageable posts.

            Here are a few things you might want to consider in April and perhaps always:

             1)   If your post covers a lot of different topics, then maybe it would be better to turn it into several different posts.

             2)   If your topic covers many different points, then maybe you should turn it into a series extended over several days.

              3)  If you really have that much to say, then maybe you should write a book.

          These are just some thoughts that I decided to toss out to you.  What do you think?


                                                                                              (302 words)


Coming Saturday:  Awards post.
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Thank you bloggers!

A Logical Decision:

           Starting next week I am going to change my posting days to a more logical schedule.   I will be keeping Monday as it is.   My Tuesday will be moving to Wednesday and my Thursday will now be on Friday.  Does that make sense?  In other words I will continue posting three days per week on the same topics I post on now.   See the schedule tab above if you want to know what those topics are.  And be aware that I often don't necessarily stick to those topics anyway.  In any case I believe this is a more logical approach since each post will have an extra day to be commented on and I probably don't have to say much more than that.

A Lot of Help From Our Friends:

          With April rapidly approaching the A to Z roster is heading toward 400 sign ups.  The 500 goal aimed for by Stephen and Alex (as well as the rest of us) seems to be a real possibility.   I want to thank the A to Z Team for the great efforts so far and again encourage all of you to go to their blogs (they are listed at the top of my blog page) and follow them if you are not doing so already and be sure to watch their blogs in the coming weeks for some of the special features they will be offering about the Challenge.

           Tomorrow (Wednesday March 2nd) Alex J Cavanaugh will be trying to drive home a point that some may have heard before but it bears repeating.  This will be an important post so I hope you will check it out.   My other co-hosts will also be having posts coming up though I don't have the scheduled dates at the present time so just be watching.

           As I've said before, our biggest help comes from all of you readers.  I have been impressed in how so many of you have been spreading the word to your blog friends and hope you will continue to do so to help us reach the amazing 500 mark.    Today I want to recognize some more of the bloggers that I have found with badges in their sidebars and special posts promoting the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

           
Badge in Sidebar and other special mentions:

Karen Walker  at Following the Whispers is one that I had missed earlier.

Kari Marie at Writing By Heart is helping out.

Walk 2 Write in Florida has joined us in the Challenge and announced it by adding the badge their sidebar.

Pamela Jo at There's Just Life gives the Challenge a boost as well.

Heather at The Waiting Is the Hardest Part displays the badge and mentioned the Challenge in her Valentine's Day post.

Jen at Widdershins and Skeleton Keys mentioned the Challenge and added the badge to her sidebar.

Sheila from Sheila Scribbles has joined up and added the badge but don't tell her husband (her words not mine).

A to Z also received a mention in a blog post from Steven Chapman (writer) .

The Challenge badge can be found on the Blue, Purple, and Scarlett blog.

J.D. Brown has also dived into the April alphabet soup bowl and plastered the badge on her sidebar.

K.C. Woolf at The Woman Condition gave A to Z a mention in a post.

I also noticed the badge at the Box o' Whine site with a rather different sort of message about the Challenge.  Her blog is available for comments after a rough start last year when her comments were disabled for some odd reason which she could only attribute to a template change.  Now the site looks nice and leaving comments is easy.

Returning from last year, Laura from Wavy Lines has put up the badge.

Newish blogger Li now has the badge in the sidebar of her Flash Fiction blog.

Nutschell The Writing Nut is another blogger who has added the badge to her site.

Petra at Penned Pebbles  has added the badge.


Special Posts:

Sue Roebuck from Lauracea gave A to Z a special nod.

Susan Gourley/Kelley at Susan Says had a nice offering on February 15th and she's correct in calling A to Z "Blogging Fun" because it is.

Scarlett at  Blue, Purple, and Scarlett had some interesting thoughts about A to Z.

AnnMaree (Emu) from Emu's Creations found out about the Challenge from Scarlett.

Mock at Stay on Target featured the badge with a link.

Thanks also to Tim at The Other Side for talking about the Challenge.

Bev at My Reader's Block had a special post about A to Z.

Holly from It's All a Matter of Perspective had me scratching my head until I realized she had signed up for the Challenge.

Ella from Ella's Edge gave us another nice mention--she's one of our top promoters of the blog event.

Thank you Blair at Yellow Matter Custard for your post.

Sue at I Refuse to Go Quietly! made some noise about the Challenge.

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            As always I would ask that you try to stop by each of these sites and follow, get to know them, and let them know that you appreciate the support they are giving.   Now's the time to start making your blog friendships as you prepare for April.   And I'd say the above bloggers are some friends you might like to have along your side in the future.

           And speaking of having blog friends to support you:


A Bit O' Promotion for an Upcoming Author:

"JM Tohline's 'The Great Lenore' is available for pre-order today! - http://bit.ly/bDvYFw .     This is the message that JM asked anyone who would to post on their sites today.  You know I'm always happy to help promote fellow writers.  If you would like more information about J.M. Tohline visit his site.

This is the message from Paul Joseph a friend of J.M. Tohline   You may want to visit Paul's site to find out how you can win a copy of The Great Lenore.

            We'll leave it at that for today--I'd say that's a lot of information.   If you have posted something about the A to Z Challenge or posted the badge and I have not yet mentioned you, please let me know.  I'm trying to get around to as many blogs as I can, but it can be easy to miss some of these.   Also if you are interested in doing a guest post about the challenge please let me know.  We'd love to hear some testimonials about how last year's challenge helped you or how you plan to use it to your benefit this year.
And if there are any special topics you'd still like to hear covered or questions that you would like answered please leave a comment below.

           Now let me get back to preparing a few more of my April posts.   I'm getting a head start.  How about you?




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Super 8 Debut Albums

           Be sure to check out all of the other lists by going to DiscConnected where you will find the Linky list.

            I thought that it would be difficult to come up with eight debut albums, but the difficult part as usual was in narrowing it down to only eight.  I didn't.   So what I did was come up with four upon which there would be probably be wide agreement on.   After that I have eight debut albums that are special to me.   You'll probably notice that most of these are from the late 1960s and early 70s--that's just the way it is.

Some No-Brainers:

     Steely Dan    Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)     This album first hit my radar when I saw Steely Dan performing "Reelin' in the Years" on The Midnight Special television show in 1972.  They blew me away.  And when I heard the album I was even more impressed.  Since that album, Steely Dan has been consistent in the quality of their releases.  But if this had been their only release, they would have still made musical history on the merits of this one alone.

King Crimson    In the Court of the Crimson King  (1969)     One of the early progressive rock albums remains one of the best of the prog rock genre.  It's an amazing album and the group has a reputation for cutting edge music.

    Blood, Sweat, and Tears  The Child Is the Father to the Man (1968)    Chicago II is probably my

 favorite of the horn band albums, but BS&T I think surpasses Chicago's debut effort.   Blood, Sweat, and Tears' debut is phenomenal jazz-rock fusion.

 

    The Band     Music from Big Pink (1968)     In my opinion one of the top ten best rock albums of all time.  I am not the only one with this opinion.







Some of My Favorite Debuts:


      Good Rats   The Good Rats (1969)     I recall that I was in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Undergraduate Library perusing a classical music magazine in 1970 and I found a review of this album.   I thought it odd that they would be reviewing a rock album in a magazine like that so I figured the album must be good.  I found a copy in the University Bookstore and bought it.   It was good and I enjoyed it.    Years later I was looking through cassettes in the cut-out bin of a record store and found several tapes by the Good Rats.  I had not realized that the band had continued recording after that debut album.    The first album is not my favorite, but it is an excellent album.  On hearing the later albums the Good Rats became one of my favorite groups.  The Rats still play primarily in the New Jersey area and maintain a solid base of hardcore fans.




        Crazy Horse     Crazy Horse  (1971)     Primarily known as a back-up band for Neil Young, Crazy Horse has been around with various line-ups for many years.  The original band members released a very fine album in 1968 when they were called The Rockets.   This Crazy Horse album is the first released under this group name (without being Young's back-up band) and I'm going to call it a debut, though in a way it's not.  It's a superb album that adds Nils Lofgren and  Jack Nitzsche to the line-up and includes support from Neil Young and Ry Cooder.     Danny Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It" is included on this album and has since been covered by many artists including Rod Stewart and Rita Coolidge.



         Grin (Nils Lofgren)   Grin (1971)   Grin was a band headed up by the very talented singer, songwriter, and musician Nils Logren.  He has been a singer and guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band for about 25 years in addition to his solo work.   His debut with Grin displayed his diverse skills as a songwriter.   This is an outstanding album.

Seals and Crofts     Seals and Crofts   (1969)     This duo had a string of huge hits throughout the 1970s.  Though they had been veterans of hit bands since 1958, they didn't make a real name for themselves until they embarked as a duo.   Their many commercial hits were wonderful examples of some of the finest in pop music, but this debut album to me is their real masterpiece.  Heavenly harmonies and mystical songs make this album an absolute joy to listen to.




       Spirit    Spirit (1968)   This is hands down one of the best, most tasteful, most well-rounded, finest musicianship bands in the history of rock.  I'll put them up against Steely Dan any day.   Their debut is a musical masterpiece and I just don't think there is any reasonable argument otherwise.  Spirit ranks as one of my favorite bands.

     The Police     Outlandos d'Amour (1978).   Before Sting and the Police became absolutely huge they were an edgy band that rode in on the New Wave rock music movement.   The album includes the controversial hit "Roxanne".   The entire album is simple reggae influenced rock and it's all good.

        Judybats    Native Son (1990)    This alternative rock band comes from Knoxville, Tennessee.   I have four of their albums and they are all excellent.  This debut is a truly outstanding effort that includes the Roky Erikson song "She Lives" which was also included on the tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye.

          Rich Mountain Tower    Rich Mountain Tower  (1971)  One of the earliest records released in quadraphonic stereo sound, this has the feel of the harmony bands like Crosby, Stills, and Nash.   The band came out of Knoxville, Tennessee and has a sweet country soft rock sound.   Of the three albums this group made, this is the only one I've heard.  The album is a real gem..




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