Joe.Blog

The kids and I started our film photography journey in the lead-up to Xmas. They're shooting on a Kodak Ektar H35 half-frame camera, while I semi-impulse bought a mid-70s Canon AE-1 with a 50mm f1.4 lens. We're trading rolls of film and prints in the mail, back and forth. So far it's been a lot of fun.

I had a multi-year go at getting into the practice of photography on a Canon EOS DSLR about 15 years ago but it never really clicked the way I hoped it would. Shooting film, on the other hand, has been a revelation from the get-go: the constraints and the simplicity are wonderful, there's something very meditative about the practice, and chipping away at getting better at something but needing to wait for the results is an excellent exercise in patience.

Thanks to Sydney Super8 on South King in Newtown for getting me started. As chaotic as this little store can be at times, it's a fantastic little local business of real ones - they've been super generous with advice.

Pitchfork Is Being Folded Into GQ, as Condé Nast Seeks ‘Best Path Forward’ for Music Publication [Variety.com]

I'm hard pressed to think of any way that this isn't a disastrous moment for music journalism.

Welcome to Joe.Blog, the second time around.

Joe.Blog was a dumb little unoriginally-named blog that I had from around 2004 to 2010. At the time, it helped me find a voice online - such as it was - and I met a lot of people through it.

Blogging was incredible. I continue to be drawn to the idea of having your own self-managed space for your own musings and memories that isn't attached to someone else's platform. Somewhere you can share - in the most low-stakes manner possible - things that are in your mind. No vanity metrics and no temptation to perform to get reach. Just a simple space.

So I've brought this back. I've been gradually deleting all of my social media accounts and replacing them with disposable burner accounts. This is my only channel for chatter. It probably means nothing, but it's mine.