MUSICAL RAMBLINGS' 200TH POST

To be honest with you, I don't know if I've done 200 of ANYTHING before. So to mark this milestone, I'll take you back through a little M.R. history. So grab your pillows and your Sominex.

Things started off inauspiciously enough. I heard of these things called blogs, knew that some people had turned them into big things, and wondered what I could do with one. About the only administrative experience I had on the internet prior to that was running a message board and operating a failed telnet talker, so I was pretty much a rookie coming into the blogging game. But hey, worth a shot, right?

So I started off with this post, which was supposed to set forth this blog's theme, which was supposed to be radio and the radio world. Hint to all prospective bloggers: the only people who are really interested in the intricacies of the business end of the radio world are people who work in radio (and probably not even all of them.)

An audience was going to be hard to come by, so I extended my theme to cover music in general. I reviewed a few CDs for an audience of... well, me. Then I reviewed The Best and Worst of American Idol DVD set. (If you go read, you'll notice there's not nearly as much of my trademark snark there.) Little did I realize that this would be a turning point in the blog, and that's not just because that was when I first met Betapundit, my first regular reader. This was where the seed was planted in my mind to include American Idol in my blogging, since it's a major music show, right?

I started hitting readers' nerves with a series of posts about Howard Stern and censorship, in which I took the stance that censorship is wrong in any case, which sort of alienated me from some of my more conservative friends. This was my first post that got unsolicited comments.

Around that time, I was hooked on a TV show called Reunion, and it had gotten cancelled, and I was never going to get to find out who the killer was. (I later found out the producers intended Samantha's daughter to be her murderer.) Mack Collier was upset about it too, and thus a great blogger friendship and synergy was born. Mack has led me to other great bloggers, like Ryan, Jaynie, Toby, Ann, Chris, Tricia, and Jordan. To think of what I would've missed out if I hadn't had a huge crush on Chyler Leigh!!

Also, early on I established a basic tenet of Musical Ramblings: Britney Spears must be ridiculed at all costs. It was making fun of Kevin Federline's moronic "Popozao" song that led Kristin of Eva Las Vegas to my site. I haven't regretted that at all.

I revisited the censorship issue as it reared its ugly head over The Book of Daniel, only this time I started taking Mack's community philosophy to heart. So I went to babble about my feelings on other blogs, dropping a link back to mine while I was at it. This was my first multiple comment post, and the count today stands at 21. And I think this was the point where I sort of solidified what my blog was gonna be about: music, yes, but also my personal thoughts. Would I report cold hard news? Yes. But I also wanted to put my spin on things.

Which directly affected how I handled American Idol as it began on January 17. Enter the Snark. Also, I managed to offend my first contestant, as Nicole Sticht, sister of Justin Sticht, sent me a nasty comment and email full of random nonsense. After which, I added her as a Myspace friend and found out just how ridiculously goofy she was. (She has since removed me from her friend list.) The post also triggered a much better sport, Katrina Yaukey, to write me a nice email about her experience. Katrina and I are myspace buddies to this day, and we send each other notes from time to time.

The A.I. blogs also introduced me to some of my favorite people: Cathy, Brownsoul, RealityMaven, Stacy, M.J., Kat, thekytikat, Lisa, Dancewriter, Sara, and badkitty.

Line of Fire became my first profiled artist.

February 5th's post saw me breaking up with Laura after four years together, which prompted a road trip, which turned into one of my favorite posts ever.

Seth Strickland, the Michael Jackson impersonator, became my first Idol contestant interview, followed quickly by Rhonetta.

I was beginning to worry that the only interviews I'd get would be the losers. But then, I met Brooke Barrettsmith, who turned that all around. Brooke is a truly wonderful person, down-to-earth, and just all around beautiful both inside and out. This blog owes her quite a debt of gratitude, because her interview was what convinced the other Idol contestants to submit to one. I told her this just the other day, and she was very humble about it. (Still waiting on that autographed CD, though!) Brooke, you'll always be the American Idol here, and you're most certainly VIP status.

Speaking of autographed CDs, Ashley Melnick became the first featured artist to ever send me one.

April Walsh took exception in a comment to something I said about her in this post from the American Idol series. I apologized to her for calling her that, and we've become good friends since.

I started dating Emily in March, right around the time of my 100th post. Broke up with Emily in May.

Stevie Scott, April Walsh and Bobby Bennett all gave great interviews. Worth re-reading. Also, I made peace with Kellie Pickler and the world didn't blow up, even though my comments did.

The Reality TV Convention came along. I appeared twice on Reality Remix with Amanda Avila. I met and befriended Lindsey Cardinale, Jessica Sierra, Gregory DeLang, Scott Savol, Kristen McNamara, and many others. I also started a raging American Idol controversy over some remarks Jessica Sierra made at the panel discussion that were taken out of context. Jessica subsequently visited this blog and cleared it up for us.

You just read the interview with Bishop Stylez.

So what's coming up as we head to 300 posts? Who knows, but it should be good. Just as a sampler, look for upcoming interviews with American Idol's Heather Cox and Jordan Southerland. Also in the works, an interview with Netherlands star, Roxie Mae. And if I can finalize them, I am going to try to get interviews with rapper Paul Wall and recent ACM "Song of the Year" (for "Jesus Take the Wheel") winner Hillary Lindsey.

Stay tuned!