Month: January 1970

This was not my first stop at ‘Patriot Paradox’; I actually first saw the site a couple of months ago (around the time of the site’s last review), but haven’t visited since then. From the first look, it’s clear that this weblog will center around conservative American politics and values, from the American flag and quote in the header to the suggested reading list to the name of the site itself. This is a blog that immediately suggests it will contain views and opinions from a very specific and very strident viewpoint.

I dug into the ‘About’ page to learn more about the site’s author, Nick. The information is presented in an interview format, and definitely reinforced my first impressions — many of the answers deal with conservative politics, America, Christianity, and the author’s rather strong opinions on those and related topics. Browsing through the archives, I found mostly the same, with occasional posts used by Nick to introduce himself (in the very first entry), discuss his favorite comic characters, and advice regarding RSS technology, for example. But Christian conservative commentary is the order of the day at ‘Patriot Paradox’, and the vast majority of the recent entries deal in some way with American politics, religion, or patriotic themes. If that’s your bag, you’ll find much content of interest within this site.

In terms of design and features, ‘Patriot Paradox’ is fairly standard, with a three-column layout featuring a central region for text framed by areas dedicated to blogrolls, a poll, archive links, ads, and more. Comments, trackbacks, and search features are also enabled and easily accessible. Deserving special mention is an ‘extra’ called ‘King of the Blogs‘, which is a blog contest run separately by Nick, but linked in the sidebar.

To be honest, it’s difficult for me to review a site like ‘Patriot Paradox’. I have little personal interest in politics, find that I have few opinions in common with the author, and am a bit taken aback by the fervent partisanship evident in many of the posts. It’s simply difficult for me to relate to many of the entries personally.

That said, I feel that a good review should reflect how well the author accomplishes his or her mission. Nick certainly gets high marks for consistency and persistence in that regard — there are few surprises here, and my first impressions of the site were echoed throughout the posts I read. I do, however, feel that as a blogger concerned largely with politics, Nick could provide and encourage more discussion and debate over the topics he introduces. I found quite a few entries containing quoted news items and minimal or no personal commentary — I would prefer to see more discourse and individual perspective on the stories, rather than just a catchy title and perhaps a quick one-liner. Nick’s unique viewpoint and opinions show through in the longer, more analytical posts, but these are too few and far between for this type of site, in my opinion.

With Nick’s strong and passionate views, I would have expected a more involved readership (both for and against his point of view, most likely), but I don’t see strong evidence of this in the recent comments on posts concerning current events. I believe that a political, highly partisan weblog such as ‘Patriot Paradox’ would be enhanced by more in-depth and compelling analysis by the author, and a stronger sense of community throughout. Nick seems to be on his way there, but may have a bit further to go. I give ‘Patriot Paradox’ 3 out of 5.Patriot Paradox

When I first entered this blog, I really didn’t know what to expect, judging by the title. I did notice that this weblog was submitted for a re-review. When the page loaded, there was a little banner above the posts, saying that the blog had moved with a link to the new web address.

The old address was on “Blogspot”, and the new one was the authors own domain. The one thing that kind of puzzled me was why Charlie “the author”, had submitted his weblog for a re – review. One of the reasons being is, both the old and the new weblog looked the same. Same lay-out, same colors ect.

The weblog itself had a 3 column lay-out which I was never very keen on myself. In the left hand column, there were several links which were very humourous. There was an “About Me” and an “About This” links. They both made me laugh.

After I got through several of his links, which he had both on the right and left side panels, I started reading several of the archives. His archives dated back to June 2003.. Each entry was entertaining in it’s own way. What may be amusing for some readers, may not be amusing for others. I went through several archives, and there were only a few entries I really laughed at.

There was one entry where he talked about a time where his door key broke off in his lock . He tried to get it out by taking the lock apart with a screw driver, but it didn’t work. Then he thought of using WD-40, until he realized he didn’t have any so he used olive oil instead. But all he got out of that was a slippery door knob and a dog wanting to lick it. Now that is one of the few entries I chuckled at. I just didn’t find a lot of the posts amusing.

Now for the design, It is a very simple blue and white template. As I said earlier on, there are links on both sides and the entries are in the middle. To me , some of the links and the archives are not spaced enough. The entries are very well written and very easy to read. The posts are also quite long. I feel the design could use some work. If you have time to spare, drop by and pay Charlie a visit. Like I said, what some people may find humourous, others may not. I just didn’t get much out of it.Where the Hell Was I?

I am glad I got to review this site as it is always nice to review a blog which is a bit different – has a different theme or uses the basic blogging concept in a new way. I always approach these kind of blogs with a little more enthusiasm than I would a strictly personal blog. For those who can’t be bothered to click the link, this is a songwriter’s blog. There are loads of tips, advice and insight in to how to write songs.

The technicalities of the site aren’t fantastic- the left sidebar could do with some work and the site design isn’t the most imaginative I have ever seen, but I guess, being a musician, HTML coding and visual design may not be the author’s “thing”. However, with it being a Typepad blog (which pretty much sets everything up for you), it shouldn’t take too much effort to sort things out a bit better- the links on the side for a start. There are some nice extras- albums being listened to with a bit of information about what their appeal is, as well as some links to books about song writing, (though, sadly, nothing about why these are worthwhile books to buy, apart from getting the author credit with Amazon Associates, of course).

Ok, so technically, the blog isn’t great, but this is one of those blogs where the lack of an imaginative (or even fully functioning) template can almost be overlooked because the content is so well written. Like I have said before, this is a specialist blog and whilst on the surface it may only seem to appeal to songwriters wanting some help with their craft, I will stick my neck out to suggest that in actual fact, this weblog would appeal to anyone who is even remotely affected by music in their lives (and let’s face it, unless you live in a cave without a walkman or battery operated radio to hand, it is pretty hard not to be affected by music in some form or other in the 21st Century.) If anyone one has ever wondered how someone gets from a blank sheet of paper or silent guitar to producing Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, (or whatever else floats your boat) then this website will certainly provide some insight in to how this process is achieved.

Certainly if you are thinking at having a go at making your own SPLHCB then this blog would be an excellent place to start as it provides very specific, practical information along with perceptive thoughts about creativity and what makes a good song. In fact, although I have never read a book about songwriting, I would imagine that the information contained here would certainly be on a par with most books- the author writes very clearly and concisely and there is also no “angle” here- just her own thoughts as she has gone along with writing songs of her own.

The only major improvement I would like to see with the blog is for the author to post up some songs of her own so we can hear what she has done. Partly finished songs with annotations about where to go from here, also seems to me like an ideal addition to the content, especially with the multimedia capabilities of computers anyway. Although she consciously decided not to post up her songs (according to the earliest post in April) she has not given reasons why and I think it is a shame.

Although I have not given this site a 5, I thought it was a great read and a really interesting view on a creative process which baffles me completely. Or at least it did until I read this.
songrut

I took a quick look at the site, and it is definitely built for a specific audience. This is not always a bad thing however, so I kept reading. The site is laid out nicely with a good color scheme that makes it easy to read. The posts can be rather long, but the writer has used a click able drop-down that opens and closes the longer posts so if you are not interested in the subject you do not have to scroll past a long article in order to continue.

As I mentioned, this blog is for a particular audience, those that are songwriters or interested in the song writing process. The site is full of the author’s thoughts on how he comes up with the idea for a song and the practice of creating the finished product. There are also tips for songwriters to help them in their attempts at creating their own tunes.

The design of the site is relatively simple, something I appreciate. There is a list on the right of “Essential Singers” and the author hits the nail on the head with most of these. Anyone who includes both Ella Fitzgerald AND Billy Holiday has my attention.



There are pull-down menus for the Categories and Archives, which only goes back to March 2004 so this site is fairly new to the blogosphere. There are supposed to be other pull-down menus, but they do not seem to be working as yet.



There is a link to the an e-mail address for the author, along with a subscription option and chat room you can join. There is also questionnaire that seems to be designed to assist the writer of the site in better directing the site to match the needs of its readers, something that works well for such a specific site.



While I am not a songwriter or even and wannabe songwriter, the posts are well-written and interesting to a point. It is always intriguing to me to watch creative people at work and to see how their process of developing their art comes about. While readers that are not aspiring songwriters may find some of the posts a tad boring, it is still a well designed site that is suited to its task. And if you have ever been curious how songwriters work, check out the site. It gives a good glimpse into the mind of a creative person.
songrut

Songrut is a very new blog on the web that I believe is off to a great start. There wasn’t a huge quantity of entries to read, as the blog was only started in March this year and the actual content didn’t actually start until April 16. The writer’s intention with this blog is to note down ideas for songs in order to help them self and anyone else who is of an inclination to write a song but has “song-writer’s block”.

The look of the blog is fairly standard and I believe it would benefit from a makeover to suit the theme of the blog. A big problem with it at the moment is that the link drop-downs aren’t working – Bev may or may not be aware of this and whilst it doesn’t affect the reading of the blog, it is annoying for anyone who finds particular interest in such things and would like to check those links out.

Now, the actual content of each of the entries is fairly good. These are very personal ramblings of a musician and their thoughts on the song writing processes. It’s actually quite interesting to see how Bev puts a song together. If Bev continues along the same strain and if I was a musician myself, I would most likely find this site quite helpful. Bev puts forward tips, from watching a film and writing a song for it to surfing the web for inspiration. There’s even a reader’s tip which, if that theme carries on, could increase the readers enjoyment of the blog as it would seem more interactive.

All the entries are well written though, probably because I am not a musician or song-writer or have any musical talent at all, I had a little trouble with some of the terminology used (hook lines? Aren’t they for fishing?). Perhaps a glossary of terms would be useful in such circumstances and for people like myself.

As I said, this blog is off to a great start and I do hope Bev continues with it as it could quite conceivably be one of the better “song writer” resources on the web. No pressure or anything.
songrut