Today, my piece at the OC Weekly, 10 Jazz Albums to Listen to Before You Die, went viral. It was incredible. Okay, so I’m going to be honest with you here; I check my posts to see how many hits they get. If I write a piece for the LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Long Beach Post, etc, well, I want them to do well. I want them to be read. That’s why I write the pieces in the first place.
Sometimes, I’m pleased with the turn out, but other times I just can’t help but wonder: Why didn’t that piece get read? I mean, there is so much great writing out there, why doesn’t all of it get read by everyone? Obvious reason: There is so much content and little time.
So today, I was working on my research for a piece I’m writing on concussions, when I went back to the OC Weekly page to check out the stats. It was doing really well on StumbleUpon, but nothing really on Facebook. All of sudden, I noticed the ticker at the bottom of the page said there were about 500 people reading. I couldn’t believe 500 people were reading. That was a hell of a lot of people. Then click on the slide show. You’ll be able to see the jump it took within minutes.
The funny thing was that it just kept growing, and the count stayed like that for hours. In fact, right now, it’s still growing and there are 800 people reading the piece right now. If you’re one of the people who read the piece, thanks so much. It’s great to know there is still an audience for jazz — even if you disagree with my choices.
Goodnight everyone. Need to sleep.
