Sunday 16 August 2015

The Plastic Bag is 10

This blog has been going for 10 years now, something I couldn't even dream of back when I started  but it's true. This is post number 2,360 and it's had 344,102 page views - or at least that's the number in the analytics since Google took over Blogger (whenever that was). To celebrate moving into my 11th year in the Plastic Bag I've changed the url for the blog to plasticbag2005.blogspot.co.uk so my user numbers will start from zero again.

I've blogged about all sorts of stuff over the years. Holidays, gigs, music, thoughts, exhibitions, theatre, news, annoyances and joys. It's all in here somewhere. The only theme here is me. It's not a music blog or a theatre blog or an art blog or anything like that. It's about me and what I'm interested in. And I'm interested in lots of things.

I've blogged about Buffy Sainte-Marie and Amanda Palmer (especially receiving AFP hugs), about Matisse and Paul Klee exhibitions, about buying cushions, about people switching on their phones in theatres, about theatrical productions I've enjoyed or hated, about my holidays and penchant for making lists, about poetry on the Tube network and more. I've blogged about all sorts of stuff and all of this is part of me.

We're all made up of many contradictions and I'm not sure what makes me continue to type out blogs and then send them out into the vastness of the Internet. That's a big space out there and my small voice is part of it. Sometime people notice and sometimes they don't. I don't really understand the patterns of viewing but I'm not too bothered. My peak month was April 2011 when I had 4,800 readers but I've gone steadily downhill since then but that's not bad for an unpromoted blog.

I was delighted that my blogging about Jane Aire & The Belvedere's attracted so many positive comments and then created a connection with Jane herself who now sings in a choir in America but appreciates our continued punk-love of her younger self. I was also touched by people welcoming my blogging about an operation for a stomach hernia and how to look after the wound since it wasn't explained by the hospitals. It's odd what people notice and find useful.

Anyway, let's see what the next ten years contains... I suspect more of the same - but who knows? Watch this space!

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