Thank-you, Trollheart! I'm curious, ws The Scrap Heap featured by random selection or personal choice? My objective with it was to produce something between Urban's Journal of Stuff and Classic Albums I Have Never Heard, but it seems to have gained a life of its own, and who am I to interfere? ;)

And Batty… that's impressive work right there.

` ` `Underneath the noise was a faint whisper. Frantically, the witch held the head up to her ear and listened. She remained motionless for long seconds, but eventually she lowered Varg's head and cradled it protectively to her chest. With pure hatred that eclipsed even her former loathing, the witch fixed her burning stare on me, and spoke with quiet rancor...

` ` `"It was you who murdered the Prophet. He gave you his aid to slay the dragon Fafnir. He bestowed upon you the sword which you have wielded against his chosen people. And you repaid his kindness with betrayal. You are truly the most loathsome insect to walk this Earth. If I had my way I would flay the skin from your body inch by agonizing inch and then leave your meat to the rats. But the Prophet has decreed a different fate for you. He is magnanimous, and will give you the chance to fight for your worthless life," and she addressed our guards, "Throw the Zionist poseur into the pit."

[/QUOTE]

Ah yeah, but when Batty? You left us all on the edge of our seats, hanging over a precipice and you're not appearing to offer a hand. Will the Kings of Metal escape the witch? Will Batty ever get a cigarette? Will Joey ever understand anything that's said to him? Will Kerry attend thos anger management classes he's been sentenced to? All this, and more, may never be revealed if The Batlord don't get off his fat, game-playing arse and leave the porn for a few days and write the final chapters of this epic! Come on Batty: Hollywood is calling (she's a nice girl, lives just down the street and has the biggest pair of ... eyes ... you've ever seen)

http://www.trollheart.com/crypt2.png
http://www.musicbanter.com/avatars/1...ine=1404823562
Has anyone seen DJ Chameleon recently? When I went searching for Batty's journal I came across his, stuck also on page five and not updated since March of 2013 --- that's a year and nine months now --- and I miss it. He had some grat reviews and some great comments. If anyone knows where he is, can you get a message to him and ask him to come back? We miss getting http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...chameleon.html and we want him back! Here's a sample of what he used to write:
http://www.trollheart.com/lookback.png
Time to choose a journal at random and go back to where I stopped being a part of this forum for several months, and pick up the entries that were made during that time. My sabbatical began in the middle of May, 19th to be exact, so it's that date, or as close to it as I can get, that I begin
http://www.trollheart.com/retrojournal2.png
This week I've chosen http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html, not just because Briks is a mate but because he puts a whole hell of a lot into his work, and I'm curious to see what he was up to while I was off sunning myself. Sorry, it's Ireland: staring out the window at the rain. But anyway...

Just before I threw my hands up and shut down my journals, handed back my swipe for the door of the forum and retired to my expensive beachhouse, :laughing: Briks was looking at an outfit called Kaizer Orchestra, who had a trilogy called “Violeta Violeta”, and had intended to continue with Nickelback Week solo. However, just as this very special was the catalyst for my withdrawal from MB, so too did Briks announce he was, quote, sick of Nickelback. Who could blame him? It's all very well poking fun, but to do that, at least authoritatively, you have to first listen to the albums, and that's a big drawback. So he forced himself to listen to one more --- “All the right reasons” --- then turned onto the true path with Metal, and a look at Dissection's “Storm of the light's bane” (one of the recommended albums I never got to to feature in Metal Month II, later) then an emo kick with “Rites of spring” before returning to Metal with Finntroll and Mercyful Fate.

Well into June by now ---unlike me, and probably like about 90% of the rest of you who are somewhat sane, Briks does not update every day --- he derided Kiss's live album and was similarly scathing about Mayhem, while as June turned to July he put forward the idea of a Pierce the Veil week. Knowing nothing about the band, I would not have been in, but anyway by then I was a free man, skipping over meadows and picking flowers --- well, you know. Next up was The Ramones and The Descendents, but after listening to one PTV album he decided to knock it on the head. I should learn from this guy! Empire, empire (I was a lonely estate) is apparently a band name, and he reviewed an album by them, then went on to do Quorthon's solo album (or was it the other way around? Anyway he did both) and as August turned to September he reviewed Exhorder and Jets to Brazil, and as I made my triumphant, ticker-tape-through-the-streets (well I remember there being ticker-tape! Yes, in my mind. What of it?) to the forum he spoke of “Death to false indie” and reviewed Myrkur's self-titled, something I would later come to recommend to others.

October saw him look at “100 hits: Punk and New Wave” (rather you than me mate!) with Blondie, Deutche Americanische Freundchaft or something, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and The Stranglers. Then he had a squint at My Chemical Romance, Four Non Blondes and others, then, with Metal Month II in full swing he decided to try some (gasp) grindcore, with Xysma, then more Mayhem. Off to talk about Weezer's new album due, about which he was very excited, and then taking a look at the movie Van Helsing. In November he began his journey into folk, kicking off with Dylan, then threw in some albums he had listened to recently --- Slayer, Slipknot, The Cleaners from Venus, Timbuktu --- in haiku format, a style he would develop later, and then stumbled over an album he and Ki both seem to love, from Kairon; Irse! Yeah, that's the name of the artiste. Ki has sent it to me as a present to go Under Trollheart's Tree, so I'll be listening to it soon enough.

More haikus with Boduf Songs, Judas Priest, McLars, Quiet Riot and that Kairon;Irse! Album, then for his 2000th post he reviewed Ozzy's “The ultimate sin”.

Which brings us up to Bowie Week, and the point at which I began the Monthly Update again. Well done, Briks! Lots of very decent entries and some great ideas. A journal to be proud of. Next week I'll choose another at random for “A Retrospective”. If you want it to be yours, shout!

http://www.trollheart.com/classicj2.png
The idea of the Classic Journal is simple really. I choose one journal which I believe has enriched the section, which is regularly updated and whose author has a lot to say and says it well, and I go through it in depth from beginning to where it is now. Obviously I can't be expected to do all this in one sitting, so each journal will cover weeks or maybe even months, depending on how large they are, and when I've finished with one I will choose another.

For the first foray into this new section I'm choosing, as I have already mentioned, http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html

I can I think claim partial credit for at least the genesis of this journal, as I believe it was me who encouraged Unknown Soldier to begin a journal, and since it debuted back in September 2012 it has become not only one of the most consistent and informative journals in the section, but is now the go-to reference for anything related to hard rock/heavy metal of the last thirty or forty years. Here's where it all began, over two years ago now.

The first person to comment in the journal was Janszoon, who rather prophetically but accurately described this as “quite an undertaking”, and indeed it was and is. Rather more poignantly, a few posts down we have the late Howard the Duck, who quipped “Give me Manowar or give me death”. A few months later he would die of a heart attack in his native Malaysia. Sadly missed.

But to return to the journal entries themselves, the first real post by US was “Ten influential albums worth listening to”, in which he namechecked Jimi Hendrix Experience's “Are you experienced?”, Creams' “Disraeli gears”, Jeff Beck's “Truth”, Vanilla Fudge and Gun's debut self-titled, Head Machine's “Orgasm”, Blue Cheer's “Vincebus eruptum”, Steppenwolf's “Steppenwolf the Second”, Iron Butterfly's “In-a-gadda-da-vida” and Coven's “Witchcraft destroys souls and reaps minds”. Interesting collection.

The real work then got going as Unknown Soldier visited 1969, looking at the roots of hard rock with Deep Purple and Bloodrock's self-titled debuts and Grand Funk Railroad's “On time”. He then introduced his “Album of the year”, and for '69 this was “Sea shanties” by High Tide. I'd never heard of them, but he spoke very highly of them. Well he would have to, wouldn't he, to have picked this as his AOTY? Grand Funk Railroad, however, figured prominently in his picks for 1969, with their second album, “Grand Funk”, making a decent showing at number 6 and MC5's “Kick out the jams” at the next spot up. What would be his top pick for 1969? Well, before we learned that we would hear about Humble Pie “As safe as yesterday is”, Free's “Tons of sobs” and taking the second position the second Led Zep album. But at the top? That spot was reserved for their debut, making Zep one of the most influential and successful rock artistes of that year.

Before moving on into the 70s, he checked one more album that could have been included but had overtones of other subgenres and so precluded him putting it in the top ten. This would be a recurring feature throughout his journal, and still is. The first, then, of “Also check this out” became King Crimson's prog epic, “In the court of the Crimson King”. He also then ran off a list of albums that had not made the cut, shown below:
Finally, there was “Hard, Heavy and a Classic”, with The Stooges' debut self-titled before he rushed headlong to embrace 1970.

This began with an overview of the year, listing the type of music that either faded out or became popular or dominant in this year, some of the bands and any other tidbits of information that seemed appropriate. It was a great introduction to each year, and would become standard throughout his journal.

Here's the original entry, made at the end of September 2012:
The top ten albums of 1970 then featured three self-titled in the lowest positions, with the debuts from May Blitz (who?), Stray (again..?) and Lucifer's Friend. Then came Free's “Fire and water” and at the number 6 slot, one of the most influential albums of the hard rock/heavy metal generation, as Black Sabbath unleashed their (also self-titled) debut. Album Pick of the Year was at number 5, “Kingdom come” from Sir Lord Baltimore (?) while number 4 saw Deep Purple's coming-of-age “In rock”, with the top three made up of Trapeze's “Medusa”, Zep again with their third album and at the number one spot, Sabbath's seminal “Paranoid”.

In “Also check this out” he had the Flower Travellin' Band's “Anywhere” and another slew of albums that didn't make the cut, including James Gang, Uriah Heep, Mountain, more Free and more Grand Funk, as well as others. Speaking of Grand Funk Railroad, they were to introduce a new section, the “Live Album section”, and for 1970 we had their “Live album”, while under “Hard, heavy and a Classic” this time we had “Funhouse” by The Stooges featured, as well as “Death walks behind you” by Atomic Rooster. We were now deep into October, and 1971was looming on the horizon. I''ll be looking at that and 1972, in the next installment.

And so we come finally to the reinstigation of my
http://www.trollheart.com/quill.jpg
which comes from
http://www.musicbanter.com/avatars/8...ine=1417551111
one of our newer members, who has this to say about “Dark Side of the Moon”. Sure, we all love it (well, most of us: those of us with taste!) ;) but what I like about this is the idea of handing the album on down the generations, father to son, and maybe to his son's son in time, and the universally positive reaction, proving that this album is, indeed, a timeless classic.
So we come to the end of another exhaustive edition of the Update Thread. Hope it's been fun reading. If your journal wasn't featured, well I'd be surprised but do let me know: anything published between the deadline for last week and this should definitely be mentioned here, but oversights do happen occasionally, especially when you have so much work to get through. If you feel jealous about all these guys and girls getting the limelight, you know what to do: get writing, start a journal. It doesn't take much and it can give you a great sense of achievement, plus it's great fun. Youre not in any way restricted as to how you run your journal once you don't stray outside the basic forum rules, so make a thread today and start your adventure! You'll be glad you did .
Probably.

Until next week,
Toodles!

Yeah, those weren't even close to the final chapters. I'm not even sure I was halfway.

It was a personal choice. I know that you also have the folk journal but to be honest it's not something I'm that much into and I haven't read much if any of it. The Scrap Heap is more varied, and I think reflects both your musical taste and your writing better.

Man, thank you for featuring my journal! It's much appreciated. :D

I do all my writing on Thursdays & Fridays.
Last week I was in bed with flu, the week before something came up and I didn't have access to a computer.

It's coming.

Thanks for mentioning my journal in the weekly update! I really appreciate it!

That's fair enough. Sorry to hear you were sick: maybe stay off the ice floes? ;)
Well, everyone gets mentioned as long as they update that week. It's getting it featured that's the prize...
You're welcome. It was the obvious choice. :thumb: You've done good things in there...

Thanks for the in-depth feature Trollheart and yes it was you that got me into writing my journal in the first place....... but you suggested that I write progressive rock one:D

You're welcome. When you put the words "classic" and "journal" together there is only one name that comes up...

Wow! Imagine if you had done a Progressive Rock journal! Would you have all the fans and admirers you do now, I wonder? And the answer is no, you would not. You went the right direction, without question. Glad I was able to start you on your journey anyway. 1971 and 1972 coming up this week!

God damn it. Now I have to update weekly just so I don't feel left out.

Just noticed this. Thanks. It's all of your mediocrity that inspires me to greatness.

The thing is, I don't know progressive rock as well as I know the 'heavy' stuff and I'd also say it's harder to write about progressive rock in depth, as there are so many experts out there when it comes to prog.

If I subscribed to that logic (being an expert on a subject before writing about it) I shouldn't really post about anything at all. I don't know much about the genres or bands I post. It's because I haven't thoroughly explored a genre or if it is about a band there's very little information about them. It would be great to have a bunch of background information but it still comes down whether you like the band's music/album or not. Sometimes I feel a waiter at a gala of the rich and famous except I am posting on a music board with a bunch of experts.

If any one could write a worthwhile Prog Journal, it would be Paul. I think he would do a decent job (if he had the time and inclination to do it) since he saw some those bands live.

I see where US is coming from though. Batty could write a great extreme metal journal, as he's very well versed in that subgenre. Pet_Sounds does a great folk journal, and if anyone could do a prog journal I would think it would be Ant, or Big Ears, who is now gone. I could have tried, but though Prog is my first love, there are bands --- big bands like ELP, Yes and Camel --- that I either don't like or don't know enough about. I think what US is saying is that to write a journal of "Pounding Decibels" depth, you need to have a very intimate knowledge of ALL the bands, big and small, who make or made up your chosen genre. If you're not fully confident that you know your subject it's difficult to start writing a history of it. You also need to know all the details behind both the bands and the music scene at the time, something US is almost unparalleled in in his journal.

Or you could just bull**** it.
I reviewed an album I'd never even heard and nobody noticed.
In fact some people agreed with me.

:laughing: Really? Where's that? I'd like to read it.

If I told you which one it was it would take all the fun out of not knowing.

Classic! Just goes to show what bollocks reviewing is anyway.

Well, I just skimmed through your journal and couldn't figure out which one it was (assuming it's in your journal).

Course you could. But I'm not talking about one album, I'm talking about reviewing the entire history of a genre. Could I bull**** my way through a history of jazz, or punk, or hip-hop? And neither could you. You'll get away with that in small doses, if you want to, but not over a year's worth or more of reviewing. That's the point I'm making.

Hope you're feeling better by the way...

How in-depth did you go?

Surely that's a very personal question....? :shycouch:

Well I am almost unparalleled in my lack of knowledge for the bands I write about. I guess I am the photo-negative of Unkown Soldier. I should change the name My lo-fi journal to My Low-Information Journal.

You're actually much smarter than you give yourself credit for :pimp:

The Music Banter Members Journals Update Thread: Week ending December 14 2014
 

Getting closer to Christmas, and everyone's getting in on the fun with Christmas themed ... oh no wait. Nobody is, except Ki and myself. Hmm. Do you guys and guyesses need a visit from three ghosts in the night? Cos I know some guys...

Be there Christmas cheer down in Journal Town or not, everyone's emulating Santa's elves and busily working away to make their journal the perfect Christmas present to go under your ... okay, I'm done making Christmas puns and references now. Let's see what's movin' and shakin' down the many roads that lead to Journal Town...

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html sails on, where Anteater introduces us to someone we probably don't know, but we sure know the songs he's written! Yeah, Steve Kipner may not be a name that leaps easily to mind, but look at the hits he's penned! No, not here! Go get piped aboard and Ant will see you right. Speaking of things penned, I'm not sure whether these pieces of prose before the music are Ant's own writings or quoted from somewhere, but they really set the tone as he heads into music from a band called Lake. No, not with Emerson and Palmer!

Batty's paying tribute to his favourite girl with a Harley Quinn special, so http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-oblivion.html

Briks is warning us about a Sonata Arctica album whose title he wishes was all that was on the album in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html
while
“Aqualung” is featured in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...rly-years.html. Whaddya mean, who's it by? Get out of here you! Go on! Scat! The nerve of some people.... Also another stone-cold classic in “Led Zeppelin IV”. And looking into a certain three gentlemen from Texas with one of their seminal albums.

Totally new journal from a totally new member (I mean like, with two posts as of writing this!) as Chascoso opens http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-journal.html. We'll be watching...

Moving a little away from his John Cale kick --- though still remaining in the basic area --- and even after all this time, still http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...wnapilago.html, our favourite exponent of experimental/noise/crazy music looks at an album made by Nico: without the VU!

1996 is under the Goofle miscroscope as he examines Swans, Tool, Beck and Ghostface Killah, among others, in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2013-a.html while
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...lbum-club.html continues to rock on, as he posts his own review of The Gris Gris album, and so does Briks. Then Goof goes for his second album, the artiste of which is way too long for me to write, but it's called “Kokura” and you'll find it if you click the above link.

Justin is getting his funny bone out (stop that now, behave!) in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-endeavor.html

Ki's looking at nasty, grotesque album covers in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-music.html as well as King Diamond, while some of the
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...east-once.html he wants to tell us about are (um) pg.lost again (but not “Key” this time) as well as two Alesana albums. Oh, and Floyd's last one. I would agree with him; it's worth listening to. Once.

Machine is looking at Shellac, Opeth,Death Grips, SOAD, Dave Grohl and Elliot Smith in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-song-day.html
and in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...otistical.html he's laying down information about his second single.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...dern-rock.html is where you'll find Neapolitan, and this week he's telling us about The Conduits

Mondo can write poetry, and well too. In http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...istortion.html he's also continuing his John Zorn feature, with “Locus Solus”, “Naked City” and “Ganyru Island”. Also Painkiller's “Guts of a virgin” --- apparently this is also Zorn material. Nice.

There sure is a lot of work going on where Oriphiel is still http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ck-garage.html! This week he not only talks about Lee Hazelwood and The Honeys, but dips into The Shadows of Knight AND begins writing his own western! Ah, but what about that Camaro you said you'd have ready last Monday, Orph? Eh? Guy's got quite the humourous turn of phrase too: I see the embryonic beginnings of a young Urban here....More on Latin garage rock and then some revival (it says here) bands beginning with The Barracudas, while our old friend Pet_Sounds drops in with some psychedelia.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...listening.html is more a case of what he's watching this week: 10 cool Randy Rhoads videos, to tie in with the anniversary of the death of Ozzy's guitarist.

One of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ts-sounds.html this week is Davie Allan and the Arrows, then he goes deep into the world of low-budget biker movies (all of which seem, for some inexplicable reason, to feature leather or scantily-clad nubile young ladies! Not that I'm complaining, oh no!)

Well knock me down with a wet fish! Sequoioideae is back with his second entry in over a year as http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...h-neofolk.html returns, where he's looking at Death In June. Let's hope this becomes more regular. Good stuff.

Sidewinder is up to 1995 with albums from Faith No More, Radiohead, Mr. Bungle and Fugazi figuring in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ar-1965-a.html

Continuing the countdown to the top album of 1983, Unknown Soldier has Motley Crue taking the midway slot at number five in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html while Def Leppard's classic “Pyromania” is at number four.

http://www.trollheart.com/retrojournal2.png

Going to look this week at a journal that hadn't even started when I “left” Music Banter, but which has since come on quite well. I don't even think this member was a member before I headed off, so I don't know him well at all, but let's see if we can get to know him through his journal. I'm talking about
http://www.musicbanter.com/avatars/8...ine=1416668608
who has been running his journal, rather cleverly titled http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...er-places.html since August. His first entry dealt with the self-titled album from Crosses, whom I don'k know but are apparently number 10 in his top ten albums of 2014, with another self-titled, this time from Nothing More, at number 9 and Afghan Whigs's “Do to the beast” at the eighth position, as August ended. September then saw Islander's “Violence and destruction” taking the number 7 slot while one of my own personal albums of the year, “Foundations of burden” by Pallbearers came in at number 6. Excellent album.

Before the number five album though, as he reached the halfway point, ContrivedNihilism decided to share with us some of his personal diary and poetry. Now, I'll admit that as my sig now says, I'm programmed to be very busy so did not get to read it, just skim through it, but what I saw was very impressive. Later, he and Frownland had a debate about the nature of dreams, which took him into October where he waxed more lyrical about his personal life, dreams and feelings. November rolled in and he decided to write about some albums that have influenced him, including Michael Jackson's “Dangerous”, Tom Petty's “Full moon fever” and Ted Nugent's “Cat scratch fever” (theme?).

Which brings us up to date. Been an interesting journey so far, man, but I think everyone is waiting for the second half of your top ten?

Time to return to
http://www.trollheart.com/classicj2.png
and continue our look through the beginnings of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html

1971 began with what was to become the standard “that was the year that was” intro, reproduced below
Then we headed right off into it with Budgie's self-titled debut at number 10, followed by “Nantucket sleighride” by Mountain, “Fireball” by Deep Purple and “Suicide” by Stray at numbers 9,8 and 7 respectively. Alice Cooper made his first showing, but a double one, at number 6 with “Killer” and then number 5 with “Love it to death”, while Flower Travellin' Band were back as AOTY for 1971 with “Satori” at number 4. The top three slots were shared by another band getting their first outing, Uriah Heep, with “Look at yourself” at number 3, Sabbath's “Master of reality” at number 2 and taking the top slot for this year, and the second year running, Robert Plant and the boys with the classic “Led Zeppelin IV”. Just time then for “Also Check This Out”, which featured a band called Hairy Chapter (no I am not making this up!) with their album “Can't get through”, and then all the albums that had failed to make the cut for that year, including offerings from Humble Pie, Jeff Beck, Dust and Sir Lord Baltimore. The live album section had “Free live” and also Humble Pie's “Rockin' the Filmore”, and not happy with all that work he refused to move on to 1972, opening instead a new section which looked at bands who, though heavy, leaned in other directions too, the first to come under the microscope being Wishbone Ash, then The Groundhogs and finally The Pink Fairies.

1972 arrived with “Bullet Proof” from Hard Stuff at number 10, our old friends Flower Travellin' Band at number 9 with “Made in Japan”, and taking the number eight slot, a band who had not made the cut for the previous year but obviously did for this, Dust, with “Hard attack”. Blue Oyster Cult's debut hit in at number 7 while Trapeze returned to take number 6 with “You are the music ... we're just the band”. Now Unknown Soldier introduced the idea of the “double-header”, where a band released two good albums in the one year (ah, those were the days!) and he couldn't decide between them so split the position. Therefore number 5 was occupied by Uriah Heep, with both “Demons and wizards” and “The Magician's Birthday”. He did mention that the first named album would be what he would see as the stronger of the two, so obviously “Demons and wizards” was the original choice here, but both were featured.

Another double-header at four, with both “All the young dudes” and “Brain capers” from Mott The Hoople there, and at number three an album I was not impressed with on Metal Month II, but which he chose as his AOTY for 1972, “Mournin'” by Night Sun. Sabbath's “Vol 4” took second place while top spot was awarded to Deep Purple's “Machine head”, as uncannily predicted by one Batlord at the start of the entry! Woooooo! Then we had the self-titled by Bang as an album you should “Also Check This Out” and some of the albums that didn't make the cut this year included efforts from Budgie, Jerusalem and Stray, while the Live Album section proudly presented Deep Purple's “Made in Japan”, and “Hard, heavy and a Classic” came from Humble Pie with “Smokin'” and the self-titled debut from Captain Beyond.

Another new section then, “In the shadow of Sabbath” featured bands who had been influenced by the godfathers of metal, including Lucifer Was, Iron Claw and Black Widow, as we went crashing into 1973, which I'll be checking through next week.

Time for my
http://www.trollheart.com/quill.jpg
which this week comes from
http://www.musicbanter.com/avatars/4...ine=1417090271
I was going to feature his interesting take on Floyd's last album, but this spoke more to me, mostly because it's him trying to gently promote a friend's band, not because they're his friends, but because he really likes the music. Here's what he has to say:
A new section I want to introduce now is
http://www.trollheart.com/workhorse1.png
This is where I recognise the person I believe worked the most on their journal during the week. This does not include comments or conversations, but has to be proper articles or features or reviews, or whatever they normally do. Last year, Ki would have won this hands down (and did get one of my Journey awards for his work) but you know what? He's got competition this year!
http://www.musicbanter.com/avatars/8...ine=1418338863
Oriphiel only started his journal recently, but already he's packed more into it than most of us do in months! This week alone he's made EIGHT updates, including an album review and the second part of his western. And I'm not talking about a few lines: these are proper, in-depth, thought-out articles. As I said, reminds me of Screen13. He's on holiday now, gone on a road trip, and actually apologised for not finishing one of his updates! It'll be hard to follow this guy's lead, I can tell you!

One more thing before I go...
http://www.trollheart.com/backfrom.png
This is yet another new section where I'll be pointing out a journal that has not been updated in a very long time, that has suddenly been taken up again by its author. This week it's the welcome return of Sequiodae ... Sequijdoa ... Sequeoid ... oh you know him! The tree guy! Back to regale us with an entry on Death In June, as I mentioned above, in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...h-neofolk.html. Hope it's not a flying visit! Are there flying trees? Anyway, I hope this little mention will give the people featured here a small boost and the will to keep going with their journals, but if nothing else it serves to remind us they're still here.

That's it for this week then. Bit late I know, but I had a lot to write as you can see. Back next Sunday, hopefully earlier and with more to talk about.

Till then,
remember Scrooge! ;)
Toodles!

Fantastic summation as always bud. And yes, those pieces of prose illustrating Koko's journey are my original material. At one point in the past I wanted to be a full-time novelist you know. :p:

You missed me! :p:

I didn't know Josef had a journal.

http://www.trollheart.com/otto.jpg
Sorry man! I was bound to miss someone! I'll catch you on next week's one, ok?

Sounds fine! Gives me more concentrated publicity, so to speak.

What's the deal with people starting up new journals every time they get a new idea or want to ditch an existing one?

Someone who updates frequently like Trollheart I can understand why he does it otherwise stuff gets buried but I don't see why anyone else needs to.

You can't manage 2 or 3 ideas in one journal?
Nobody wants to read the same shit over and over again, put a bit of variety in them.

Who are you talking about here Urban? I don't see, at first glance, anyone starting more than one journal for the same ideas, apart from ones that have been ditched as you say, and that's usually because the idea for it has changed.

I certainly don't want to get into a situation where everyone has ten journals, none of which are updated, but I'd rather people were making journals than not. As long as each is legitimately updated; don't want a mini-graveyard of journals here...

Maybe it's my fault for starting the idea, but as you say each journal is on a different theme and there's a proper reason for them, so I feel in order to focus attention on one particular aspect of my writing I do often need to put it in a separate journal. F'r instance, the "1001 albums" idea would not work in my current one, nor would "The Showroom"...

Guys, do you know what's ****ing hilarious and perhaps poetic justice? In my haste to get the update done before midnight, I left out one other person. He's not, to be fair, that prolific and really knows very little about journal writing, but I really should have included him or he'll moan like **** about it.

;)

Yeah. I forgot me! How's that for not being self-absorbed? Good lord almighty!
Normally I'd just include the entries next week, but the way I update that'd take up the whole bloody post! So here for the first time is the

MUSIC BANTER MEMBERS JOURNALS WEEKLY UPDATE THREAD ADDENDUM (DUM-DE-DUM) :laughing:

I also missed out Pet_sounds, who's talking about the word "Nowhere" and the different ways it can be written in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html and looking at Supertramp...

As for me, oh I've been doing the odd bit of writing, yes..

As I said at the beginning, some of us are trying to spread Christmas cheer, and down at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html I'm opening more presents that are Under Trollheart's Tree, with gifts from Rexx Shredd, Machine, Frownland, Mondo Ki and Briks, while I'm also reviewing Springsteen's “Born to run” and an (ahem) unusual Christmas album... oh, and there's an announcement about a massive project I'll be undertaking in 2015. Plenty of Christmas goodies on http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html where we're looking at special Christmas TV episodes of shows, with this time a seasonal episode from “Frasier”, and “The Scrooge Showdown” gets underway, with so far six movies battling it out. Who will win? I have no clue, but I already know two who have made it to the next level! It may be the season of peace on Earth and goodwill to all men, but not to robots as Dredd is still fighting them in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-2000-ad.html

Well, that was fun! Better remember to include my own writing next time!
Speaking of which, see you then!
Toodles again!

Thanks for the "Workhorse of the Week" shout-out! I'm moving to a place without an internet connection soon, so I wanted to jam my journal full of content before I left. Anyway, I'm really glad you enjoyed my journal, and I'll try to update it when I can!

Not sure what you're getting at since you have 4 separate journals in the journal forum.

How many journals do I need?
 

On foot of what Urban said earlier, and my own comments notwithstanding, I'd ask everyone who has more than one journal to perhaps consider if they need more than one. Yes I know, pot calling kettle black, but all of my journals have had a specific theme that would not have worked in my original one. If you'll indulge me a moment, I'll take you through the thought processes that led to my creation of each new journal:

The Couch Potato: When I decided to start reviewing TV programmes and movies, I knew right away this could not be undertaken in my main journal. This one would not have really any music focus, and would be quite in-depth, requiring a lot of work to be put into it. The choice was obvious, and journal number two was born.

Bitesize: After getting some negative comments about the length of my album reviews, and with more to do than I could realistically ever manage, the idea of doing shorter, more to-the-point reviews came to me, and while initially I thought of incorporating this in my main journal, I again realised that to do this properly I would need a new journal.

Classic Albums I have never heard: This idea came from the constant references I would see from people about supposed "classic" albums, which I had never heard, or in some cases heard of. It was a different enough idea to merit its own journal.

Trollheart's Psychic Album Reviews: Yes, to be fair, this is one that could have lived as a section in the Playlist, but I wanted to draw attention to it and so made another journal. Also, it's updated quite infrequently, so it doesn't really get in the way.

A Nightmare on Jazz Street: Originally I had intended to look at jazz in the feature "Stranger in a strange land", but then realised the genre is so huge that I couldn't do it justice in so short a time, so began a journal to explore jazz. Sadly, after a few entries I realised my heart was not in it, and gave it up. That journal is now dead.

Trollheart's Futureshock: Whether he believes it or not, this idea was conceived long before The Batlord opened his own comic book journal. I had in the beginning thought that it might fit in with The Couch Potato, but quickly discounted the idea and decided I needed to make this a separate journal.

The Showroom: Originally conceived as an idea in my Playlist of Life journal, it occurred to me that I would not be able to afford people the proper time and respect for their music if I did not put this in a separate journal, which is what I ended up doing.

Sure, that results in my having seven journals (soon to be eight!) but you can see that each one of them had its own reason for being, and would not have worked as well had I just subsumed them into my main journal. Also, I tend to update so much that as Urban says, new ideas I want to highlight would be lost within the general flow of my main journal. The thing about journals is that, although there are no rules and you can write about whatever you want, they tend to fall broadly into two categories: ones that concentrate on a very specific, often niche, subject, such as "Music of the Caribbean", "The rise of Punk Rock" or "A thousand things you can do with cheese", and ones that are more general, like the Playlist or Urban's Journal of Stuff, where within that loose structure anything can and does go.

If you have an idea that is so outside of what your journal is concentrating on, by all means create a new journal for it, but if you can fit what you intend to do into what you are already doing, it's better to do that. Journals can be, and often are, so varied that in one you might find Frank Sinatra sharing space with Mayhem, or Wu-Tang Clan standing next to OMD, while someone goes on about their hatred for soap commercials. You can literally do anything in your journal, and you should: the more varied it is the more it stands out and the more likely people are to read it. Niche journals are fine, and both fulfill a need and allow for expression from the author on a subject he or she may want to hold forth about, but the reality is that the only people reading them are likely to be people interested in that subject, or people just bored and looking for something to read. If you have a journal where you never know what's coming next, people will read it, because there's always the chance there will be something there for them.

So if you're thinking of starting a second/third/fourth journal, or already have, consider these points before you do:

1. Do I need to open another journal?
2. Would this work, or could I make it work, as part of my current one?
3. Will I update this, and/or my other journal(s) as frequently, or am I going to get swamped?

If you open a new journal and concentrate on it, to the detriment of your original journal, that is not a good thing to do. I always try to make sure that while I obviously concentrate mostly on my two/three main journals, I return to the other ones periodically, to make sure they're not forgotten or slip too far off the pages. If you can't do that, you really need to ask yourself if you need a second, or third journal.

If it's seen as a problem, mods might think twice about authorising the journal of someone who has one or more already, perhaps of contacting the author to explain their idea and why they think they need a new journal before they give it the green light. Or not. I don't know. Urban has a problem with it: do other mods? I can certainly see his point, and would agree that, rather than five journals apiece which are sporadically updated and end up drifting down the pages, I would prefer to see one good journal that is well maintained. What do others think?

I've only seen two, and one is his "Doctor Who Thing", which would have to be separate...

I really don't see a problem setting up more than one journal if it means being able to keep the content organized. I don't see how this is suddenly an issue.