It’s come time to say goodbye, if for a little bit.
My first semester as a full-time graduate student at the University of Texas’s School of Information just lurched to a start. It’s a turn of events that came only with a characteristically protracted process of procrastination, and I do miss the security of the old computer programming job that sustained me for seven years. But this, this decision – it seems inevitable now that I’m actually here. On Office Naps, discussing 45 rpm records always superseded news of my personal life, but it will likely come as little surprise to many readers that I am pursuing coursework in archives and preservation – audio, specifically. It’s exciting.
Photo courtesy Ron Slattery’s bighappyfunhouse
Office Naps was something I that began as spare time activity, a trifle for my own amusement. I just knew I wanted to discuss music. Thinking about music’s place in the context of American post-War history is a big thing for me. I wanted to freely elaborate on music and, moreover, I wanted to do so online, where much discussion about records is either acutely anti-intellectual or mired in hopelessly cutesy collector talk. I half-heartedly thought that I might reach artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, pop culture freaks, amateur historians, bloggers, etc. Anyone, really, who loves interesting music and enjoys reading about it. The generous encouragement and word-of-mouth support from readers and other bloggers was not expected, though, and it absolutely sustained me. Better care was taken with the writing, research leads were followed more assiduously. The site evolved, organically, into something bigger as well as something that assumed a bigger part of every weekend. But my efforts paid off. Readership increased with every month, and now surpasses over one thousand visitors on a daily basis. I’m proud of that.
With my initiate’s anxiety and enthusiasm, I’ll be concentrating my efforts on the new direction, much to the exclusion of recreational writing, recreational anything. One thing, though: more than radio, more than club DJing, an audio blog is a supremely satisfying activity. I ’m hooked. Office Naps isn’t going to go away, and I do hope everyone will drop by occasionally. Expect mixes, podcasts, various digitized flotsam as well as the familiar thematic 45 reviews to be floated your way, just on a less frequent basis. Got an idea for a guest post or three related 45s you’re dying to write about? I’d love to hear from you, too. And – it may be a year or two, it may be a mere semester – but weekly Office Naps will be back, as surely as the junkie’s quest for vinyl curios continues unabated.
much love,
DJ Little Danny
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