Posted by It’s been a long, long time since I could call myself an aspiring blogger. Heck, in the early 2000s, I was on the tip of that movement, writing about reality television and pop culture, fancying myself to be some kind of flyover-state version of Perez Hilton without the snark, interest in fashion or bad taste in music.
Alas, I lost my interest in reality television and, for the most part, I lost most of my interest in all conventional television. I lost interest in my YouTube channel as well, which I had started back in 2006-07 as a way to promote my songwriting interests. I lost interest in that platform because I thought it was probably dead or dying with the advent of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like.
I couldn’t have been more wrong about that.
I couldn’t have been more wrong about the demise of blogging.
But I couldn’t have been more right about the need to align those efforts with my interests, and that’s what brings us to today. Well, it takes us to 2013. I started up a little site called thenormanfiles and proceeded to post to it twice. Maybe three times. What was bubbling inside of me relative to interest and passion was met with a complete lack of hustle on the execution side of things.
Enter Gary Vaynerchuk. If you’re in digital, you know who this guy is, and he likely energizes you as he does me. I’d rather watch three hours of whatever he’s doing than I would anything on television these days, and (frankly) I don’t really want to spend three hours doing anything passive.
Gary brings out the hustle in people. Gets them energized.
Enter Dave Brubeck. If you know your music, especially your jazz, you know who he is, and you know who Paul Desmond is, and you know what “Take Five” is — the quintessential jazz song of the 20th Century. It’s also the best-selling jazz song of all time.
Learning to play this song, in all its 5/4 time signature glory, is a lesson in patience. You’ve got to practice it over and over and over and over until you get to where you can just play the notes without messing up. All the hustle in the world won’t help you master the precision required to master this tune.
And I certainly haven’t mastered it. I’ve got the basics down, however.
Ultimately, that’s why I’ve decided to return to the world of blogging. It’s a platform that supports both my need for hustle and my need for patience, a quest to bring together years of musical efforts and digital expertise into one existence propelling me into the next 10 years or so of my own.
Hope you’ll come along for the ride.
ryanwelton.com 
When I first started blogging a little over a year ago, an early post was on John Coltrane. (My blog is a lot more rock than jazz but there’s definitely some of the latter.) I never forgot that some other blogger who had a jazz site came on and welcomed me and told me it would be rewarding to blog. So I pay that forward. I’ll check in on the jazz feed periodically to see what you’re writing about. Nice job on Take Five, BTW.
Jim, thank you so much for the response and the encouragement! As much as I’m looking forward to blogging, I’m equally looking forward to reading content from others — so I look forward to checking out your site as well!!
Great. Please do.