The Music Banter Members' Journals Monthly Update Thread

[Trollheart]

Well, after all the excitement, setting down of rules, tearing up those rules in frustration, starting out again, tearing up those rules and so on, we're finally at the first update which will feature the new Music Journals League Table. Who will head it? Who will be even in it? Find out later in the update. Right now it's time to see what exactly has been happening as people try to outdo each other to get in the league table.

Antonio's first up, with another "song he's diggin'" in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ng-ground.html

The Batlord has of course been doing his damndest to get to the top by updating all his journals, which is of course what everyone should do if you want to get your name in lights. Mind you, our batty friend may have gone too far! He's invited a guest reviewer into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...t-schemes.html to review Marduk's album "Panzer division Marduk". So what's wrong with that, you say? Well, wait till you see who he asked to review it...

But of course what he does best is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...lks-about.html, and at the moment he's deep into unfamiliar territory ... ah, no, not really. Slayer, Dr. Shrinker, Bullet for my Valentine (kinda) ... all the sort of stuff you'd expect from MB's premier metalhead. But then he does also delve into the world of Author and Punisher as well as talking about the Punk LA forgot, so there's a hell of a lot going on in there! And then of course there's his usual http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-fidelity.html where he's being forced to listen to ..... wait for it .... wait for it.... Dana! BWA HA HA HA HA! Now you know how us poor Irish felt when she won the bloody Eurovision for us mate, and all you could hear on the radio was "All kinds of bloody everything"!

A new journal starting up this week is everyone's favourite wannabe mod, CrazyVegn, who tells us all about what http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...veg-likes.html

while returning with a bang since his, er, resurrection last week, Duga is continuing to talk abou thttp://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-got-here.html, with Garbage this week's feature. No, the band. I don't mean his journal's garbage. Yeah, predictable joke # 23,507...

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...use-songs.html is doing good business, with the first and second parts of the Motown Story ... excellent, rivietting stuff, definitely worth checking out.

The Big3 is back! And he's annoyed! In fact, he's http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ming-moon.html about "when good bands go ****ty", looking in particular at TV on the Radio...

Remember that "I am not Drew"? thing Pedestrian ran a few months back? No? Well go back and read it cos it was hilarious. She's unveiling the second instalment this week in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...sswalking.html --- make sure your sides are well sewn together!!!

Powerstars is throwing the spotlight on a rap song about Pokemon called "The bird and the beedrill" (huh?) as well as reviewing Franz Ferdinand's debut and is soon to look at Bowie's new masterpiece too. Catch it all in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...sicalness.html. Oh, and there's a rant too, always fun. This one is about live albums. Or something.

Screen13 must never sleep! There's so much work gone into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...all-music.html it's frightening! Not only has he "Ghost Mall Music Special Overview" with albums "bubbling under" by the fistful, but he also runs an "Introduction to Crazy Louie's Hit Man Archive Cutouts, and reviews an album by Herman's Hermits! This guy does not know when to eat!

Another new journal is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-observer.html and the alien in question is Stephen, formerly known as stp formely known as fastsp. He's looking at some Australian band in his first feature, Hunters and Collectors. Looks good!

Now don't blame me for having not too much in the way of updates this week, as I've been diligently working on the league table, format, rules and the table itself, carefully following all your journals and adding points up like a proper little bean-counter, as well as listening to some classic albums. So in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html all you'll find this week is two old sections returning: "Crimes against Music" has the tale of the capture of Justin Bieber (ARRGGHH!) while after a year's hiatus there's finally part four of my NWOBHM feature. In http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html there's the first of only two two-part episodes in Babylon 5, and the incredible House of Cards begins. No, the original. Hey, I even managed to squeeze in a review of Rush's "Permanent waves" in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...i-reviews.html! Not bad for a slow week!


Unknown Soldier is hammering through 1976 with reviews of albums by Judas Priest and Moxy in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html

while Urban is looking at "Now that's what I call music!" No, I'm serious, and a very fine job he's doing too. Don't believe me? Head to http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-stuff.html and be amazed!

And speaking of being amazed, well anything Unknown Soldier can do Vanilla can too! She's reviewing a different Judas Priest album in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-eargasms.html, and making a very fine job of it too if I may say.

And so to this week's Showcase. I've had to go right back to page 3 for this, which is sad, but hopefully it may convince him to start updating again.


This journal was started by our favourite locomotive back in February and was shaping up to be one amazing story, however it seems to have (sorry!) run out of steam at the moment. Hopefully not for long because I for one want to know what happened to Erik.
Here's the very first post/chapter of "An equivocal flail aka The American Dream"...

Originally Posted by Engine

DISCLAIMER: The events, characters and entities depicted in this journal are fictional. Any resemblance or similarity to actual events, entities or persons, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Chapter One: Birth

In the mid 1970s a child was born on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. This was a monumental event for several people. The sex of the child was unknown until birth (that’s how people did it in the 70s) so there were two names picked out for the oncoming child. If boy: Erik. If girl: Alisha. The child was a boy so forget about the name Alisha insofar as you can, knowing that the boy may have been named that. The boy, of course, won’t forget this detail. There were baby-girl dresses in the closet at home waiting for him if he had emerged as a female. The dresses were yellow and blue, purple and green, brown and turquoise, and whatever else was popular at the time. Instead, Erik was dressed in almost exclusively blue. Navy Blue coincidentally became his favorite color from his infancy onward.

The child was born in a military hospital. These places were known for their cold sterility and nearly absolute void of emotional warmth. The child’s mother, Gabrielle, was particularly upset by her surroundings. Gabrielle had spent over 40 hours in labor in this place while her husband was drinking in a nearby bar. She suspected that he was smoking with his friends in celebration of the birth. Cigars, at least. This upset her not on principal but because she was jonesing hard for nicotine having been a regular smoker for the past decade or so, from the time she was a younger woman until now, in the military hospital bed. She had gone 40 hours without a cigarette, in labor, and was not very happy to put it mildly.

Of course, smoking was not reviled at the time. She also didn’t always necessarily use a seatbelt when she was driving an automobile. This was the 1970s and Gabrielle went with the flow. She was from a dirt-poor town, literally the daughter of a coal miner, a raven-haired beauty in her youth, popular among her peers in the days of disco. So of course she smoked cigarettes. From the womb, Erik listened to a lot of ABBA. Being encased in a warm sac of fluid, dosed with nicotine, and exposed to the rhythm of disco, he began to dance. Nobody can be sure how the prenatal nicotine withdrawal affected him.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Ladies, gentleman and those as yet undecided, I present to you the very first Music Banter Journals League Table!

First though, some notes to forestall any protests. For those of you wondering why there's such a disparity between the top and bottom of the table, those higher scores are based on mostly the points given for a Conversation, as per the rules, and/or High Praise. For the purposes of this table I've decided to define a Conversation as comments or debate involving three or more people. True, it only takes two to have a conversation (or one, if you're me!) but as two people could argue over and back about one thing I don't feel that's worthy of the 100 points awarded for a conversation. Unknown Soldier posts regularly in my journals, and I in Batlord's, but neither of those are considered conversations in this instance. Also, the points are only awarded for each separate conversation, so if you have three, four, five or more people talking about, say, the last Slayer album, even if this debate goes on for days, there's no new award until someone starts a new topic.

With that in mind, here's the table:


Congratulations to Screen13, whose fine work has earned him a top place in the first table. If you want to knock him down from that position then you're going to have to work at it! Kudos also to our two lovely ladies, Vanilla and Pedestrian, who have scored the second and fourth places respectively, and to Duga who, despite being away for three years, has stormed into third!

Bubbling under, this week: Antonio with 9 points, Bob, Burning Down, PoorOldPo and Big Ears, each with 4. Update guys and we should hopefully see you in the table next week.

Competition is good for the soul, they say, so let's see who can scale the table in the next few weeks eh? All you need do is write something, get people to comment, get views. Simple, huh?

Also, please don't argue with me over points, in this or any forthcoming table. It may not be perfect: it's hard to keep track of everything on a daily basis while still working on four journals, but I've done the best I can and it should be reasonably accurate. At worst, the odd entry might be one or two points off either side but not much more.

Anyone who wishes to may have their own individual points tally sent to them. PM me if you want them.


Till next week
Toodles!

[Screen13]

Thanks!

Still, I would seriously like to thank the people who allowed the change from the very long title to what it is now. If I would have stuck to just one decade (The original title only focused on The 80's with only a little room for the past), it would have not been as fun to write.

[Gavin B.]

Originally Posted by Screen13

Thanks!

Still, I would seriously like to thank the people who allowed the change from the very long title to what it is now. If I would have stuck to just one decade (The original title only focused on The 80's with only a little room for the past), it would have not been as fun to write.

Great journal, Screen 13. I'm not sure how old you are, but Ghost Mall Music is a wondrous snapshot of the lives of many suburban Gen X kids who grew up in the belly of the Rust Belt beast in the Eighties.

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I'd like to think I can claim some credit for that; before I even started this thread I think a lot of people didn't even know the journals section existed, or if they did, didn't know what it was and thought maybe you had to be some sort of brainbox to have one. You and I have proved that not to be the case...

But seriously, and not to sound like an douche, but perhaps the sheer fact that we both have six journals between us that we update at least semi-regularly means that there are at least some journals flooding the market when you click on "Today's Posts". Quantity before quality as I always say.

Originally Posted by Trollheart

And then of course there's his usual http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-fidelity.html where he's being forced to listen to ..... wait for it .... wait for it.... Dana! BWA HA HA HA HA! Now you know how us poor Irish felt when she won the bloody Eurovision for us mate, and all you could hear on the radio was "All kinds of bloody everything"!

I would have thrown my radio at a passing bus.

Originally Posted by Gavin B.

Great journal, Screen 13. I'm not sure how old you are, but Ghost Mall Music is a wondrous snapshot of the lives of many suburban Gen X kids who grew up in the belly of the Rust Belt beast in the Eighties.

I'm lazy about checking out other journals, but I'm gonna have to give yours a gander at last.

[Trollheart]

For those of you who want to, I'll adding in a way you can help others. (Help others? says the Batlord, tasting the words as if they were a non-alcoholic beer). I'm allowing everyone to vote for any journal that they think deserves Trollheart's GOYA, or Good On Ya Award. This is an extra 50 points that you can ask to be allocated to any journal except your own, if you maintain one.

It's not that simple though, so Batlord put that ten dollar note away! In order for the award to be, er, awarded, at least three people have to vote for the same journal. Mind you, the award can go to more than one journal BUT only one person can vote for one journal at any time. Next week you can of course vote for another journal, or the same if you like, and if you get two paid flunkies sorry fellow members to back you up then the GOYA will again go to that journal.

So help out struggling journal writers and get nominating. All votes must be in the thread, to remove the possibility of my being accused of being bribed --- what new motorbike? --- and to make this as transparent as possible.

Also, let me just note that the deadline for inclusion on both the update and the league table is 6pm (Irish time) on Sunday, and that means published. So if you have an article submitted but not approved by Sunday 6pm it won't get into the update or be counted against your score in the league table, in which case don't blame me, blame the mods. Or Urban. Yeah, blame Urban.

So off yiz go and vote. And remember, no matter what he promises you, the Batlord will not pay you a red cent so don't be fooled! I, on the other hand, deal in real money. Sometimes even as much as a Euro! No, I'm serious. What can I say? I'm a playa...

[Powerstars]

Cool chart there! I do wish people would strike up more conversation in my journal, I like having conversations about music. That's why I joined. Oh well, still doing fairly well.

[Powerstars]

I vote for The Playlist Of Life.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Powerstars

I vote for The Playlist Of Life.

Thanks, but as I said I've taken my main journal out of the running. Appreciate it though...

As for comments, I know: it's frustrating isn't it? But you can't make people comment. I've sections in my journals where I would have thought people would be all over it, discussing, debating, arguing, but no. Sometimes (most times) people just want to read and perhaps make silent comments to themselves but not write them down. If I knew how to get comments I'd tell you but it's just one of those things.

Still, your viewcount is pretty solid so people are reading certainly.

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Thanks, but as I said I've taken my main journal out of the running. Appreciate it though...

As for comments, I know: it's frustrating isn't it? But you can't make people comment. I've sections in my journals where I would have thought people would be all over it, discussing, debating, arguing, but no. Sometimes (most times) people just want to read and perhaps make silent comments to themselves but not write them down. If I knew how to get comments I'd tell you but it's just one of those things.

Still, your viewcount is pretty solid so people are reading certainly.

I know right. I figured I'd get more comments for my little stories than I did, if only just a "WTF?!" or two.

[Trollheart]

Commenting is such an inexact science. More often than not, it'll be people you know, but even then people seem reluctant to post comments even if they enjoy a journal. I'm guilty of this too: I read Unknown Soldier's journal but hardly ever comment, whereas he comments quite a lot in mine. The only way to look at it is that people will comment if they want to, and if you're lucky that comment may inspire another, and get a debate or at least conversation going.

Other than that, just watch your viewcount rise: it's the best indicator of whether or not people are reading.

Hmm. Maybe if I offered free beer? Or drugs? But then, I'd have to pay for that. Damn! Another fine plan crashes down in flames!