Welcome to SmokeyB's Haiku Review!

Years ago, I wrote music reviews for the college newspaper, got burnt out by trying to do too many in too short of time, and gave it up accordingly. Recently, I've been getting the urge to rekindle that past passion for expressing my ideas about music (and the occasional dvd). A blog seemed the most appropriate forum, but there are already a gaggle of music reviewing sites/blogs out there; adding one more to the mass/mess seemed a bit superfluous. So I figured I needed a clever angle or unique spin. Being the 80s metal fan I am, I had thought about "retro/active" reviews, listening to the stuff of my teenage years and evaluating it as I would have in 1987 (retro) and in contemporary times (active). My biggest problem there would be that I'd be writing two reviews for every record - fun enough and likely satisfying, but also double work and I'm mindful of not burning out yet again.
In my day job, I have students write papers with a formal word count in mind. Back when doing the newspaper, stuffing all of my brilliant ideas (at least in my mind they were brilliant) into a restrictive word count was remarkably frustrating, but an ultimately empowering task. Still, it made me recognize the power of self-editing and of conscious word choice. Left to my unrestricted devices, I tend towards wanting to address everything (this "welcome to the blog" entry as a case in point). Applying a word count to myself seemed reasonable. Enter the haiku.

Since this is for fun and I'm far from a haiku scholar, expert, poet, or traditionalist, I'm using a very loose interpretation of haiku here: three lines, 14-17 syllables, with a modest attempt at symmetry. Hopefully, I'm clever. Hopefully, I put forth some insight about the records I'm listening to (or videos I'm watching). Hopefully, I peak interest in somebody wanting to hunt down a record or two that they otherwise might not have given a listen (or save the bother for some of the stinkers). And hopefully, this entire endeavor proves satisfying - to me and to whomever happens to stumble upon this parcel of cyberspace. I'll post new haikus when I feel like it, often enough to keep the site lively, but not on any stringently regular schedule so I feel pressured to chuck out reviews disingenuously.

Also, while I did think of doing this independently, I by no means claim to have invented this style of music criticism delivery. A Google search of "haiku music reviews" offers a number of other folks doing similar things with likely far less metal content. I'd encourage folks to check those out as well - just don't let me know how much better they are, ok?