Blogging Blogs v2.0

Blog #2: Guster's Road Journal

Guster hits the road, and percussionist Brian, aka Thundergod, posts about the craziness. I chose this partly because Guster is another one of my favorite bands, but also for the context of this assignment - with only one author and a tighter focus, it serves as a good contrast to the multi-author, anything-goes BNLblog. Brian also posts to the studio journal during times of recording, and singer/guitarist Ryan used to keep the Guslog.

A note about this blog: in order to get the post archive links (and/or the crazy site header... yay flash sites) to work, you'll have to start on the main page and either click on "road journal" or click on the archives directly. Also, you may have to click the swirly lookin' thing with the red balloon in the bottom right corner (and watch a snake come on the screen, and hear something about "mothafuckin snakes on a mothafuckin plane" with "guster" dubbed over it) in order for it to scroll down and show the whole entry. Or maybe that was just my computer/browser being idiots as usual. *shrug* At least I gave a helpful heads up though.

Technical stuff...

Filter, notebook, blog/journal?: Bloooogg. The entries are all about what happens to the band on tour, so there isn't much link posting or introspectiveness going on.

Genre: Music-slash-travel. The blog is kept for somewhat professional purposes, but the writing is definitely personal in style.

Purpose: Of the three listed on the assignment sheet? Reputation building. Like BNL, Guster is made up of some pretty down-to-earth guys, and the writing shows that. The website overall gets the fans involved, from fan art submissions to the whack-a-Ryan game in the header (go on, give it a try). Another purpose would be to show all the places they've been. Instead of just saying "we played in [insert town here] last night and the crowd was fun," Brian talks about what else they did during their time in that city. Example: the last time they were in Minneapolis. Rather than mention the show, Brian talks about how they went to a karaoke bar and got their tour manager to sing one of their songs. This practice not only shows fans cool places in different towns, it helps promote said cool places in general.

Other random mention: use of pictures. Brian lugs his camera everywhere. As opposed to BNL, who just have one picture at the top of their blog and change it on occasion, Brian takes pictures of seemingly mundane things and incorporates them into the post. See the Minneapolis link as an example, again. Who takes pictures of a karaoke screen? Brian Rosenworcel does, dammit.

Another random mention: guest blogger. The most recent post was written by a guy named Jeremy who won Guster's Scooter For a Day contest (Scooter is their drum tech) and got to go on BNL's recent Ships and Dip cruise (on which Guster was a guest band). Okay, I suppose this ties in with the part about the band getting the fans involved, but still, it's worth mentioning.

There isn't really a definition of the blog made by Brian or the band. But, like BNL, they include silliness to show that they have a sense of humor and the blog style is offbeat. Case in point: whack-a-Ryan. You're definitely not going to be reading a "we played here, it was fun" blog when the website header contains a whack-a-bandmember game.

Look for a completely different blog for my third installment.