Some weeks ago, we here at Monochord headquarters were pleased to find ourselves featured in the latest issue of The Journal of American Folklore.
The article, by Nicole Saylor (head of Digital Services at University of Iowa), surveys several blogs that are “interested in vernacular culture,” and are of interest to folklorists.
Among other things she says about the Monochord, Saylor describes us as “an obscure but interesting midwestern vernacular music blog.”
The article focuses on three sites — Community, and Celestial Monochord, and The Art of the Rural — and the sites they include in their virtual communities, such as friend-of-the-Monochord, Old, Weird America, and the excellent Excavated Shellac.
Getting ahold of the full text of recent academic articles is often a headache for those not in academia. If you need help with this one, you might contact me personally or consult your friendly public librarian.
Of course, honors like this one — or the occasional fan letter — always make me feel guilty about not writing both more and better. I’ve developed a blogger identity crisis the last year or so, and nothing’s duller to read (or write) about than a blogger’s identity crisis.
I suspect I’ll feel more free to express myself once the Saint Paul City Council is done with its deliberations about the Victoria Theater.
As the most prominent defender (possibly) of a whole neighborhood’s most valuable architectural resource (conceivably), it’s suddenly a little intimidating to just logon and go joshing blithely around about kitten astronauts and garbanzo beans named Dylan.
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Keep it up, kitten astronauts, garbanzos and all. Heaven forbid you should become “important”. But you sure could up the frequency of your posts; the Monochord is hands down my favourite blog, but the vast stretches of time between posts can feel eternal.