2012
Things have been quiet on this site of late. The real party is happening over on OhBeery.Me my new beer blogging site. If you’ve somehow managed to trawl through the shit I have posted here in recent years you will find the occasional, and somewhat out of place, beer piece. Well, after putting off the inevitable and a chat with one of my more entrepreneurial friends, I bit the bullet and jumped aboard the beer blogging bandwagon.
My twitter feed is beer heavy, as are my after school activities so really it was about time. In fact OhBeery.Me is a bit of challenge for myself. For a long time, I considered myself a writer. I wrote for newspapers and magazines, comics and scripts. I studied scriptwriting at university and found great pleasure in hammering out thousands of words each week. Then something happened. I can’t place what it was but the love for writing faded away.
Last year I decided to do something about it. I realised I missed it but there had to be change. I needed to be passionate about what I wrote about. I had long had a dream of producing a magazine, not just for my work, but for others as well.
In 2011 I was instrumental in not one but two such magazines. First came The Bleed, a contemporary arts publication for writers, artists, poets & photographers. I was a member of the core group who pulled this together. Last year we released two issues, both with cover contributions from established artists, short fiction from exciting new creatives & fascinating articles highlighting the talent on show in the north east. The Bleed is printed on heavy stock paper. It’s weighty, dense with content and design. Having secured funding we don’t rely on advertising. It’s unlike any other magazine in the north east.
Our second issue was built around the concept of the end of the world. A terrifying dystopia where a lone editor assembled burned and scorched pieces of past publications and pulled them together into an analogy both of the past, present and future. It is a bold and ambitious piece of work and the next two issues we have planned are even more so. Fulfilling this dream was a huge step for me.
After the Bleed came Hopaganda, a craft beer fanzine created by fellow drinking buddies. It was released, in all its cut and paste glory, at a monumental meet up of the great and good in beer. The fanzine illustrated the positive effect the on and off trade can have on the community and the passion for craft beer in the north east. More issues are planned in 2012.
Pushing myself to complete these was the biggest gift I could give mysel. So to keep up my writing momentum and to ensure I learn as much as I can, I have started OhBeery.Me.
I took time with the layout, keeping it uncluttered and minimalist. Ensuring the eye would be drawn to the content, and not endless links and other bullshit. To push myself even further I set the focus of the site as a daily bottled beer review. 300-400 words every day about the brewery, style and occasionally peppered with, hopefully, witty analogies.
It’s day five and there is a huge journey ahead but I’ve never been more excited or enthusiastic to see something through to the end.
Wishing you all a happy, prosperous and creative New Year.
Notes