Are blogs considered ~*~Dead Media~*~ yet?

Welcome to my art & design blog! It's either 10 years too late or right on time.

Hello, dear readers. I've been meaning to start a blog on this website for quite some time now, not for as long as I've had this website (9 years this month!), but at least since the beginning of this year.

2023 has been one of creative exploration for me, starting with taking my first ever film photography course in January, to teaching a gander of 6-year-old Girl Scouts about zines just this week (more on both of those topics soon).

I forgot to get a photo of myself teaching the Girl Scouts because C-H-A-O-S, so this is me in my *new* kitchen, which is much less chaotic than it used to be.

"Oh, you love dead media? Name their first three albums."

According to PCMag, "dead media" refers to, "a storage medium that has outlived its usefulness because there are no devices conveniently available to read it. The 5.25" floppy disk, various Syquest media and the 8-track cartridge are examples."

I think this can be expanded to not just media that is generally unreadable or unplayable, but also media that has been "lapped" at least a few times over by newer technologies. Cassette tapes could be considered dead media, though I do know plenty of bands who still produce them. iPods for sure. Perhaps, soon, DVDs will join the graveyard if this meme I saw on Facebook 💀 yesterday is to be believed:

I have no idea who DeRosa Driven is. This is just the random stuff that pops up on my workplace Facebook feed.

I thought this was about art and design?

Right. I promise this all ties together.

Somewhere between 5-10 years ago, I remember reading in a Reputable Source that "Blogs Are Dead." And so, I decided, "well, it's too late for me, then!"

How goofy is that? I love dead media! I love mixing analog and digital techniques in my work. I love creating things by hand that could surely be done easier (but certainly with less life) by AI.

I learned how to process film in a darkroom this year. I'm teaching Generation Alpha – the aforementioned 6-year-olds – how to make zines. I have a cassette tape tattoo for gosh sakes! I'm like the Dead Media Queen.

Plus, dead media has a funny way of coming back from the dead. There's vinyl, of course. How about how Gen Z is scooping up "dumb phones," the ones my generation couldn't wait to replace? Just today, I learned from my partner that Garth Brooks recently released a 7-CD box set EXCLUSIVELY at Bass Pro Shops. Like, you can't stream it, and it's not available in any other format, or anywhere else. Just seven CDs at Bass Pro.

So, with that in mind, I declare that blogs aren't dead. Just like me and lots of other artists and creatives who are keeping The Old Ways alive in the various mediums we may work in, this blog is l-i-v-i-n. Blogs are dead, long live blogs!

Wow, big claims for a welcome post!

Yup, now I have to keep this up. What can you expect if you follow along? I'll be using this space to chronicle what I'm making and how I'm making it. I'll probably pull some old work from the archives and write about how they came to be. Like how did a famous philosopher end up wearing a shirt I designed? That happened!

Please leave a comment below if ya'd like. And subscribe to my email list if you want to know when I publish something (check the footer for that). I've literally never sent a newsletter or other marketing email from this website. I also just created the subscribe form about 10 minutes ago. But we're going BIG, here! No time to waste. Byes & thanks for reading!