A Life Reset

Some time back, I came across an article (no link available) about the habits of bloggers that could create problems for their blogging and being able to create a base of steady traffic. Seven in all, I decided to compare my own personal blog against what the author sees as detriments to a successful blog.

1. Using Free Blog Hosting Services
• His take: if you want to be considered to be a serious blogger, then avoid using the hosted services like Blogger and use a dedicated host for your blog and a off the shelf web application like Wordpress or TypePad.
• My site: my blog is hosted on a server under my domain name of www.brianleon.com and runs on WordPress. Score one for me!
2. Ignoring the Basic Principles of Good Web Site Design and Usability
• His take: a badly designed website turns off viewers. Focus on good color combinations, clean layout with ample white space and a clearly defined navigation and avoid flashy graphics and animation and background music.
• My site: with the redesign I put into the site this past winter, it has received very good reviews. The sectional format and the front page look manage to draw people in to the sections they want to see rather than scrolling through an unrelenting list. The magazine format is increasingly popular though I wonder though if I can keep up the pace of posing articles to keep it fresh.

  Score this as one for me again.

3. Being the Jack Of All Trades
• His take:“The better thing to do is focus one subject and be the master at it.” People are drawn to some blogs because the author has become an authority on some topic whether it be politics, popular culture, or cats and they post just on that topic with very few side tangents into other topics.
• My site: This is probably my most glaring sin as anyone reading this site can recognize that I discuss any topic under the sun whether it be the economy, hurricanes, photography or my family. Hence the many sections of the site. But this site is A Personal Journal, a place for me to express my thoughts, observations and opinions much like I would do if I was writing into a journal. It is just that I share these thoughts with the world rather than just myself. I do not posit myself as an authority on any topic so it is unlikely my blog will ever become a single topic focus blog. Which is not to say that in the future, I may roll another site or two using Wordpress as the main engine but with more specialised subject matter like photography or sports.
4. Not Posting Regularly
• His take: Try to post at once a day on a regular schedule and you will find that you will cultivate a loyal readership who will return to your site regularly. This ties in with the third point of being an authority in your field.
• My site: At one time in the past, during the week, I would publish daily and several times at that with fewer posts on the weekend. Once again referring to the third point, the varying topics of my posts means that it may be several days between posts of the same topic like photography but you will find posts on sports, Winston Salem and a new dining spot in the interim.

  With the new magazine format, my posts have to be fewer but more lengthy which means less output but then again I did then to write blog posts on very trivial items. Now, I have not done much substantial blogging lately as my parents are now here, but I intend to pick up the pace again.

  I score my self as a half of a sin.

5. Publishing Badly Written Posts
• His take:Write in properly structured paragraphs with minimal spelling and grammatical errors and be able to convey your thoughts clearly and effectively.
• My site: When an idea strikes along with a turn of phrase or sentence, I find myself rapidly typing as quickly as possible to get it on record before I get distracted and lose my train of thought. In the process of doing so, I can make quite a few errors. Spelling is fine as I use a spellchecker for my posts but sometimes when I re-read a post, I find that my thoughts were muddled and expressed poorly. For example, on a recent post about Costco, I re-read the post after reading a comment by my brother. I cringed at some of the paragraphs I wrote so I rewrote them and provided more clarification and detail. This is typical of some of the longer posts I do as I rewrite them for clarity sake especially if I see that a post is getting heavy traffic. Score this sin as half.
6. Spamming and Stealing
• His take:Do not spam other sites with bogus trackbacks and do not appropriate other people’s work as your own.
• My site:I do not spam at all. When I post an opinion about something I read on-line, I always try to blockquote relevant parts of the article and always provide a link back to the original source. I paraphrase extensively but always ensure that the reference always belong to the original author and is not my voice. Score one for me.
7. Failing to Establish a Personality
• His take:Establish yourself with a particular personality conveyed through your own original writing so that you stand out from all of the other 20 million people who have blogs out there. Establish an opinion or position and stick with it.
• My site: This is the hardest sin for me to quantify. Do I really stand out? When reading my posts, can it be readily discerned that it is I who is writing not someone else? The best measure of having a personality is the traffic you generate from people willing to visit your site and from my stats and inbound links, I have a small but noticeable amount of them. Let’s score this as a half for now.

So I score 4.5 on my ability to avoid the Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging. A decent score I guess. The best way to address them all is probably stake out an area of expertise and blog exclusively on that but that will probably not happen. I am the kind of guy who can go to a coffee shop with friends and talk about subjects far and wide all night long. It is an endearing trait of mine.

After Christmas parties, I think Superbowl parties are the most food oriented parties around. So much food while socialiasing. There will be the staples: hot dogs, nachos, ribs and of course, chicken wings.

A few years back when I was on my Atkins diet, I came across this wing recipe as a way to liven up my diet. Very low carb and quite flavorable as well. Definitely a change of pace from the BBQ sauce slathered wing variety which is heavy on sugar (and not the good kind either) or the hot buffalo wings which tend to be all heat and no flavour.

These wings are called Heroin Wings because apparently they are addictive. Even Andrea likes it which is rare for her to say as few low carb recipes I did in the past have met her taste standards.

• 4 lb chicken wings
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper

First, preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the wings up into “drummettes”. (Freeze the pointy “tips” for soup — they make great broth!) Then combine the grated cheese and the seasonings. Line a shallow baking pan with foil. (Do not omit this step, or you’ll still be scrubbing the pan come New Year’s Day!) Melt the butter in a shallow bowl or pan.

Dip each “drummette” in butter, roll in the seasoned cheese, and arrange in the foil lined pan. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F. Kick yourself that you didn’t make a double recipe!!

The recipe was found here.

Number 1 ranked teams in NCAA basketball this year seem to be having a problem retaining that position for very long. Wake Forest had it last week, Duke has it this week but next week who knows. We do know it will not be Duke as Wake Forest beat the Blue Devils 70-68 on a last second layup by James Johnson.

It was a thriller of a game as both teams exhibited their strong defence and opportunitic play making. Wake Forest did get a 11 point lead at one point in te second half but Duke showed why they are one of the top teams in the nation by storming back and tying it. But Wake’s defence kept Duke shooting to 33% but part of that was due to Duke’s reliance on the perimeter 3 point shot. When Duke can not make those big baskets, they reveal the weakness of their inside game.

Jeff Teague had a off night point-wise with only 10 but Al-Farouq Aminu and Johnson came through for the team and even David Weaver manage to contribute critical points to the game.

So what now for the Deacons?

Well, they play against Georgia Tech which on paper should be an easy game for Wake but you can never tell what may happen especially after UNC’s near defeat by Florida State. Duke plays Virginia, another bottom team but it is doubtful that a victory there will preserve their ranking. So it would appear that UConn will take the top spot in the polls next week and Wake should be #2 or #3 again. But with the defeat of two top ranked teams this year, Wake Forest should solidify its position as one of the top teams to watch come tournament time in March

On Tuesday, 27th January, a meeting will be held downtown to discuss the current state of the various downtown initiatives such as the downtown ballpark, residential construction and so on. It is a most difficult time in WInston-Salem, much the same as anywhere else in the nation. But that is no excuse to continue on with the plans set forth to revitalise the downtown area and create an area with a mix of residential, commercial and entertainment businesses.

Still, there has been setbacks of various degrees. The West End Village development on Fourth and Broad has been forced to auction off the rest of the unsold condos it has perhaps at prices far less than the original list prices. The rest of the development has been on hold for the duration until the local housing market recovers.

Downtown restaurants are still closing down like the Center City Grille located at One West Fourth St building even as others start up. Retail remains a dead zone outside of the Trade St area. Even retail outside of downtown is in some serious difficulty with Circuit City going under now and various strip malls losing tenants.

Still, there is promise of better things happening. The ballpark seems to be resuming construction after several weeks of being idle. The Kernel Kustard is moving along renovating the Breuggers Deli location into a hot dog spot. Not sure if it beats Skippys in a hot dog competition. Went by there on Saturday with my father and he appreciated the flavour and quality of the hot dog on the pretzel roll bun.

The Downtown Partnership has come up with a new plan to help build up downtown. It is going to divide the downtown area into three sections, each with focal center and main business thrust. For example the center section will be focused on the Civic Plaza and will emphasize retailing while the southern section will be centered around the newly renovated Sawtooth Center and theatre. These sort of plans always come and go every couple of years. For many places, it is just an exercise to keep themselves busy but in the case of Winston-Salem, these plans do have a track record of success though the immediate future is bit murky for kicking off a new business plan.

In my part of Winston-Salem, Clemmonsville Rd is being extended from Old Salisbury to join up with another road that goes between the Wal-mart and the Lowes hardware store located off Peter’s Creek. Along the road, a new sub-division with a commercial area will go up along the south side of the road. As I not much of a Wal-mart shopper, the shorter travel does not mean much to me but it may mean a shorter commute in the future.

Manage to get out and take some photographs of the Old Salem area. I have plenty of photos from the historic section of town but I keep finding it a most interesting subject that I return to again and again. Some different looks at familiar subjects and some new items all together.

I never heard of Sacred Harp music until I receive my monthly issue of Paste magazine a few months back. The bundled CD that always come with the magazine had the usual alternative/indie tracks which I always like because it kept me up to date on the latest trends in music and who were the new and upcoming bands. However, there was one track that stood out from the rest of them.

The music started what sounded like chanting. It went like this: ‘So-La-La’. Then the words appeared: ‘I know that my Redeemer Lives. Glory Hallelujah!’. At no time did I hear any music accompaniment to the song. The singers were keeping their own rhythm and time. I would learn later that the chanting portion in the beginning is what set the time and beat for the rest of the song.

I listen to the song … and listen it to again… and again.

I became transfixed by the power of this piece of music. It sounded very primitive in many ways but it has a power that I rarely ever heard in any religious song. Certainly not in the music that is written today either in a pop or new age sort of music. To me, it sounded like the music was created for people of faith to be sung by them. It is like returning to the roots of Christianity in many ways. Yet the history of Sacred Harp music belies this.

Sacred Harp – a brief history
The term for this particular form of music is actually derived from a songbook that taught how to sing music by recognizing shapes and associated sound, shape-note singing. Four basic sounds and shapes: fa(triangle), sol(oval), la(square), mi(diamond). The beginning part of the song is called a lesson where only the syllables are sung. This establishes the melody of the song without having to say the words. It may sound like chanting or even gibberish to the uninitiated. On the music sheet, pitch is indicated as in regular sheet music but where there once is just one bar of music, there are four, one for each vocal group.

This form of music teaching was prevalent throughout the United States in the late 18th century when music literacy was minimal and musical instruments were scarce.It was typically taught to children as part of their education. But as people were able to afford better instruments and started to play standard music, this form of musical teaching start to fade away inmost parts of the United States.

The tradition lives on in those rural churches of South as until recently, rural southern churches which could not afford organs or pianos. The music is far less prevalent for regular services now but rather has become more of a religious experience held once a month in a local church or hall where people from all around an area from different denominations will come together and sing. People are organised in a square and divided among themselves in their choirs of altos, tenors, basses and trebles. Someone will take position in the center of the square and through their arm movements will keep time for the music. Then the music will begin and will continue on until all feel that they can not lift voices to sing any more.

A revival of the form
This uniquely American form of music is under some pressure of surviving this century. The South is not the poor semi-literate place as it once was and many people think of Sacred Harp as being part of the Old South which they are trying to get away from. Many of the devout practitioners of Sacred Harp music are much older than average as there are fewer new singers coming into the fold.

Yet Sacred Harp music is undergoing a new wave of popularization as many people are now discovering the music. Helped along by album releases of the music sung at Sacred Harp conventions and a recent documentary, Awake My Soul, people in all parts of the country are now participating in their own Sacred Harp music groups. There is some consternation among traditionalists on the take by the non-Southerners of the music. Going a bit too fast they say. There is also concern that the newcomers are missing the fundamental religious aspect of the songs as well as some of the meaning behind the music. This is not the feel good music of churches today. Many of the songs deal with the inner struggles we all have with our faith and how we can reconcile ourselves to God. The music and lyrics come from a time when death was a more common and personal experience than it is today. Terrible things happened to people and it was accepted as being part of their daily lives as something to be survive.

Sacred Harp meets the modern age
So it was after hearing Antioch a few dozen times, that I sought out more of this music form. Surprisingly, not too much of it has been recorded. A few albums have been released in the past few years of the various conventions held around the country. None of them has actually taken the nation by storm or rang up big sales on iTunes or Amazon.

Last year, though, a soundtrack to the documentary, Awake My Soul, was released which for this form of music represented a major release. The soundtrack was done a bit differently than what you may expected. The first CD is a compilation of Sacred Harp singing from various conventions around the nation, many featured in the film. The second CD, though, featured artists singing the songs associated with Sacred Harp but to a more modern interpretation including musical accompaniment. It is different to hear such songs done in this fashion and by extension should not be classified as Sacred Harp music but many of the techniques found in Sacred Harp are still present.

This track , China by the group All Things Bright and Beautiful is such a modern take on a classic Sacred Harp piece:
China – Modern Take by All Things Bright and Beautiful
Very modern, almost anthemic in the way it is sung.

Compared this to a classic version of the same music:
China – Traditional Sacred Harp

Very different in sound than we are typically accustom to for what we consider to be church music. Very raw, very guttural in a way but there is no denying that there is a power there.

Personal thought on Sacred Harp music

What is it about Sacred Harp music that is so appealing to me?

I have lived my life through my Catholic faith and all of the rituals that it entails. Music has always been a big part of the expression of my faith from the time I joined the school choir. I have always made the effort to sing within the Mass whenever possible.

When I lived in Halifax Nova Scotia, I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral where the church had a massive pipe organ and the music director was a professor at Dalhousie University. Before each Mass, he would play preludes, fugues, and Masses from Mozart, Haydn and Bach. Sitting in the pew and listening to the organ play made me reflect on the majesty of God. It was awe inspiring to hear such music. When it comes to religious music, I do tend to be quite traditional especially within the setting of the cathedral.

I never have been overly fond of the music selections found at most Catholic Masses this days. A bit too new ageish, a little too pap and also a bit harder to sing without practice.

Perhaps that is what draws me to Sacred Heart Music. It is traditional, it is easy to sing but more importantly, though, it is the music of people who have nothing more than their voices and faith. If the early Christians were able to sing, then they would have sung in a similar fashion in the primitive churches of those days or on pilgrimage walks.

Because the music is sung together in all day sing-a-longs now, it is as much as about community as it is about the individual which is what the Church is all about.

This is profoundly spiritual music. To have an effect upon you, you must be a believer though if you are not one before, then this music would make you one as it would carry you away. When I listen to the traditional form or even the modern interpretations, I feel a certain peace in my soul, a soul that in the past year has been troubled by personal tragedy and difficulties. The songs I listen to do not sugar coat what lives we as a people and as Christians must go through. There is a longing there but there is also hope.

Brethren, farewell, I do you tell,
I’m sorry to leave, I love you so well,
Now I must go, where I don’t know,
Wherever Christ leads me the trumpet to blow.

Here I have worked, labored awhile,
But labor is sweet if Jesus doth smile.
When I am done, I will go home
Where Jesus is smiling and bids me to come.
Christian’s Farewell – 347

Being Catholic is part of whom I am. That will never change. Yet, I found within this music a re-affirmation of my faith, of being a Christian once again.

I feel blessed once again.