(Warning: There is blogging about blogging text ahead, one of the most dire and cliched and tedious tropes across the entire Internet, easily, hands down. Proceed at your own risk).

As I noted in my 2021 and 2020 Year in Review articles, I’ve been quite profligate here at Ye Olde Blogge over the past 24 months, in large part because of Anno Virum lifestyle choices that have found me sitting in front of my computer far more regularly than I had expected to, after I retired from full-time work in late 2019. It was nice to see that my increased attention to this web-space actually resulted in increased traffic flow, so my efforts, such as they were, did seem to entice readers, new and long-standing alike, to visit this place more than they had in prior years. Thanks to you who are reading this accordingly, whether you’re old virtual friends or new ones. I appreciate you. Truly.

I have mentioned recently that I spent most of 2021 working on a book, which will be headed off the publisher next Monday, once my collaborator and I finish up with final photo placements and ancillary documentation of our research. Having finished that big, non-web, project, it would seem that I would, could, and should have more time and energy to dedicate to this website, but as January squeaks into its final week, I find myself a bit befuddled about where I want to go here in 2022, and what I want to write here, and why. For the past few years, I’ve had several ongoing series that have engaged me, and have seemed to work for my readers, too. There were two periodical recurring articles related to my favorite musical artists (see here and here for summaries on those), and before I got going on those, I spent a year working on my Credidero series. I found all of those projects enjoyable. Until I didn’t.

From my original list of favorite artists to be documented in my 2021 series, I still had about ten entries remaining to cover, and expected to address them in 2022. But I find myself not being terribly excited at this point by writing more of those pieces (as much as I love, and apologize to, the artists that I did not get to gush about soon enough), so at this point, I think I’m going to put that series to bed. Having finished the long non-fiction book project, I also find myself not really being engaged by the idea of returning to poetry or short story series (both of which have worked well here in the past), even though I’ll likely have more free time available to me by virtue of not having commitments related to the bigger book project. Weird psychology at work there, as having more time to write whatever I want somehow seems to be making me feel less like writing whatever I want. Go figger.

I suppose I will continue to pump out occasional entries in my ongoing 10,000 Words and With Which I Am Well Pleased series, though neither of those is particularly verbal in terms of actual added-value commentary, so they don’t really count as meaningful writing in any meaningful ways. And beyond that . . . I’m just not sure what 2022 could or should bring here. I might have a lightning-bolt “a-ha” moment at some point soon that will frame some thrilling (?) new series, or I may muddle along waiting for inspiration to hit, just reacting to things has they happen around me. I guess at bottom line, I’m not feeling deeply committed to providing loads of content here for the foreseeable future, with apologies to those who have been getting regular fixes of my piffle and tripe in recent years, as I’ve tried to maintain sanity and fill time during various lock-downs and hunkers associated with the raging pandemic.

Maybe it’s a positive sign that I’m not feeling as deeply committed to writing a lot here, as it could be my subconscious finally accepting that there’s an end in sight to our current virus-dictated cultural malaise. Or maybe it’s a negative sign, in that I just give up, braj, and don’t have it in me to continue providing content to all you other folks who are hunkering in your own bunkers, desperate for entertainment. Or maybe it’s neither of those things, and this is just one of those occasional lulls here that I’ve been through countless times in the past since launching the earliest version of this website around 1995.

We’ll see. I welcome suggestions or feedback, as always, if you’ve missed or want to see something in particular here, as I consider “Whither the Website?” Lest this post feel like a complete navel-gazing waste of time to me, I’m going to turn it into a Five Songs You Need To Hear series entry, with the following five cuts from my catalog all exploring the concept of “whither?” More to follow as the year goes on, but maybe less than what has preceded in years past . . . .

#1. “Whither Goest the Waitress,” by The Weasels

#2. “Whither? Hither,” by Shrunken Head

#3. “Whither Thou Goest,” by Les Paul and Mary Ford

#4. “Whither the Starling,” by Walt Kelly and Norman Monath, featuring Mike Stewart

#5. “Whence to Whither,” by Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizon Ensemble