7/24/02
This afternoon I went downtown in search of the new issue of Cerebus. (There had been some speculation on the Cerebus discussion group that Woody Allen would turn up in the new issue, #280. Apparently, he does. Also, apparently, back in #135, someone in the letter column asked Dave Sim if he was ever going to write Woody Allen into the story. His reply was "145 issues." He does plan ahead--you have to give him that.) No luck there, and no luck finding the new McSweeney's, either, but I made it to Sound & Fury in time for the in-store performance. Thought it was going to be just the Mountain Goats, but in fact it was Mountain Goats/Franklin Bruno/Extra Glenns, each of whom did about four songs. This was the first Extra Glenns show in a long time--they hadn't rehearsed (John Darnielle arrived in a cab from the airport with his guitar and walked straight into the store), and hadn't seen each other in months, and it was just wonderful anyway, esp. a new song that Franklin had written for John to sing. I can't think of two songwriters more different in basic approach and temperament who collaborate so often and so well--the Go-Betweens is as close as I can come, and that's pretty far off--but it's great to watch them watching each other as they play.
Subsequently went with Sara Marcus to both TeaNY and Tiny, two vegetarian-friendly sandwich shops within a couple of blocks of each other on Rivington. (The former is Moby's place; the latter's where I got a BBQ veggie-chicken sandwich.) I suspect their names are a coincidence.
A third day, and a third advice question--excellent! Keep them coming! (Incidentally, the link from Tuesday's entry to Monday's now works. Sorry about that.)
I've had an anonymous online diary for nearly two years now. Over this time I've managed to build up quite a following, I'm linked by several well-known bloggers and have a solid number of people who check in with me daily.
I initially started the blog in order to work through some emotional and creative problems I was having. I kept it anonymous because I wanted to write freely. My writing improved with the daily exercise and many people were interested in what I was saying because I was able to be open.
Now things have definitely turned around for me and this is my quandary. I want to be able to share my successes with my readers. They've been loyal through the bad times and I'd like to let them know when I'm going to be touring or making an appearance. I want to be able to use the web to promote myself, but am not interested in having any of my previous creative partners in on my personal feelings.
I'd like to use the site I already have because I've put quite a bit of work into it. It looks great and suits me well. I don't want to put my name onto it yet because I don't want to censor myself. I'd hate to go through all my archives and delete entries because someone might get the wrong idea.
So the problem here is that you want to lead a double life, except not--you want some people to know who you are, so they can come see you, and a few other people to not know. Would it be cataclysmic if one of your old creative partners did find out, somehow? (Are you certain that they'd care about it, and that they'd go through your archives, and that that would cause a problem?) If there absolutely can't be any chance that they'll ever know that Blog-Person and Real-Life-Person are the same, then you've got a problem; there is no way to tell a bunch of people something and make perfectly sure it's a secret.
If, on the other hand, you just don't want to advertise it by putting your real name on your blog, you're fine; you're just going to have to do a little extra work, and they'll probablynever find out. Post something to the blog saying that you'd like to let people (inc. out-of-town people) know when you're going to be around, and asking for regular readers to email you with their names and where they live. That's all you need to say. Then you'll have to organize it into a city-by-city email list (and delete anyone you know is in touch with your former collaborators). You can subsequently email them en masse and say "hi, this is Blog-Person; I don't like to publicize the fact that I'm also Real-Life-Person, so do me a favor and don't mention it online, but as Real-Life-Person, I'm going to be in your town on the following date--come see me and say hi!"
hope that helps--