Self-Indulgence Announcement.
by jep clayton Nov.2004

I'm having trouble getting motivated to write for this bad monkeyX thing, and have been paying more attention to adding comics and links than record reviews. My listening has not petered off, nor has my interest in music history and critique. I just don't feel like saying something about every record; Writing Reviews has sometimes got the same vibe as assigned essays did in school. When it clicks, when you feel you have something worth saying about a record, its a great thing. When you don't care to comment -- because you have nothing to say -- writing an essay is hellish.

Plus, there's the whole question as to what reviews are for, and what reviewers are responsible for knowing. During this whole four years with this thing, I've felt like apologizing all the time for the timing of my articles: always way after everybody else has commented. I just can't be arsed to keep up with what's going on, it's too much work.

And, no one ever really wound up sending us albums to listen to. We did receive some, and they were great and appreciated (most of the time). But not enough to change my listening habits, you know? I was still buying or finding most of the music I was listening to. And I listen at my own pace. So I miss everything cool except by fluke.

The articles James writes, by the by, always strike me as real studies, real explanations and explorations of new musical art. That kind of stuff I do see as valuable, and I aim to the same height of purpose. When I write an article I really dig (there's a couple) I think of it like that. I'm just not going to feel pressured to write a specific number of articles for Bad MonkeyX anymore. How that'll affect the layout over time is anybody's guess (Kro is bugging me to start using a database php thing, so that might be a time for a redesign). I guess it'll sort of become a blog written by two guys. If James is into it.

I really like writing about music. So I'm going to keep writing about it. Whatever. Onward and Upward.

-jep
aka mister zero.

(The pic is me and my brother and one of my sisters. I'm the Grape ape.)