It's time for me to come clean. I've been blogging, I just haven't been blogging here.
I've written a few entries over at Pop Ten, a blog that dances between art, music, movies, games, politics and other miscellania, and I plan to continue writing there in concert with the IMD blog.
Why the shift? A few reasons, I suppose. First of all, it's headed up by my brother in arms Juan Pineiro, of Pure West and Second Skin. All the contributors are old fellow Pure Westers and friends from my pre-California days... and I have to admit, I've been missing those guys of late. The West Coast has treated me very well, but these guys have seen me skin my knees during midnight games of laser tag. We've driven up I-95 in 6 AM mist, gotten lost walking the pavement of our neighborhood and walked over orange police lines to find our way home. I've known these guys half my life, which makes them essentially my family, and there are certain sorts of conversation that you can only have with your family.
Second, while I've been working on game designs for my thesis almost nonstop, my written inspiration has usually fallen outside the realm of Critical Interactive Discourse. That's not to say I haven't had those thoughts, but as an outlet, a steam vent, I've been moving towards writing that's less topical: an ode to conferences and a survey of my ten favorite working albums are certainly part of my thesis year life, but they don't seem to fit on the Interactive blog. Not that I've let that stop me in the past, but given the choice I'd rather keep my writings here at least somewhat game-related.
Third, I genuinely love the tone and the feel of Pop Ten... it's a constellation of people who have wildly different perspectives, but genuinely enjoy each others opinions and company. More than that, it's a bunch of intelligent people given the freedom to talk about whatever they want. We've got a novelist who loves Terminator movies and Thomas Pynchon, a Brooklyn poet riffing on crappy theater experiences, a sci-fi director with a sublimely dirty mind, a painter-turned-political analyst... everyone adds something different and unlikely to the mix.
If you have a chance, check it out, and see if you find something interesting. I'll be back on this blog soon (with a few announcements and updates), but til then at least you know where to find me.