Monday, July 19, 2010

Three Years

Last week was the third anniversary of this blog, and I sort of forgot about it. So this is a belated announcement of that, and it's also a chance to introduce a new blog.

Over the past three years, I've gotten a great amount of gratification from writing this blog and especially from interacting with readers. It's also been frustrating and, like other bloggers we lost this year, I've thought about stopping.

Sometimes I get tired of it. Other times, it feels like not enough. I had no grand plan when I began in July of 2007, and launching was very spur of the moment. Since then, I've expanded beyond my original mission of preserving the vanishing aspects of the city. In some ways, I have felt that this unintentional expansion has diluted that mission. I am also feeling the need to stretch a bit. With that in mind, I am launching a new blog called The Grumbler.



The Grumbler is the person who walks down the street muttering about everything that's annoying--like yunnies, cell-phone shouters, and the proliferation of the word "artisanal." He is in New York, but his scope is global. The name comes with thanks to Roy Edroso at the Village Voice, who gave me that title back in January when I talked to him about my grumbling habit. Still, it won't be all complaining--The Grumbler will also write about good things, like books and movies and I don't know what else just yet. We'll see what happens.

Jeremiah will stay here, posting about things relevant to Vanishing New York. When he has nothing much to say, he'll simply put up a link to The Grumbler that day. Together, we should still post at least once a day, Monday to Friday.

Jeremiah and The Grumbler will probably sound a lot alike, since they are both aspects of myself. If you enjoy my more curmudgeonly and critical posts, you will like The Grumbler. If you're the sort who gets annoyed by my critiques about people, contemporary culture, technology, etc., you should stay right here.

I hope that most of you will read the new blog, and that it will give me the space I need to continue blogging for awhile longer.

Anyway, onward to The Grumbler...

23 comments:

EV Grieve said...

Happy (belated) anniversary!

The Grumbler? Well, I guess it's better than a bank or Starbucks.

Haha.

Anyway! Congratulations. I look forward to more of JVNY and The Grumbler...

NYCDreamin said...

Happy 3rd and best of luck with the new project...

Melanie said...

Congrats Jeremiah on your third anniversary. I love your blog and am sure I will love Grumbler too--

Bowery Boogie said...

congrats on the three-year! thanks for all you do.

esquared™ said...

to The Grumbler --

"Each time he took a walk, he felt as though he were leaving himself behind, and by giving himself up to the movement of the streets, by reducing himself to a seeing eye, he was able to escape the obligation to think, and this, more than anything else, brought him a measure of peace, a salutary emptiness within...By wandering aimlessly, all places became equal and it no longer mattered where he was. On his best walks he was able to feel that he was nowhere. And this, finally was all he ever asked of things: to be nowhere."
~Paul Auster, City of Glass

BrooksNYC said...

Happy anniversary!

Will all the dispiriting news of the last three years, this great blog is still one of the highlights of my day.

Congrats on the new launch. Am looking forward to The Grumbler!

Linds said...

Looking forward to the new blog!! I love JVNY and am looking forward to what the Grumbler will hold.

JamesChanceOfficial said...

Happy 3rd! Stupefaction is coming up on 5 in a couple of months...I just started following the Grumbler. That would make a great title for an old guitar instrumental record by Link Wray or Duane Eddy.

KSx said...

Congratulations on your anniversary, and I hope splitting in two up makes your life twice as satisfying!

BrooksNYC said...

If you have a sec, would you mind fixing my comment? Somehow I typed "WILL" instead of "WITH" ("With all the dispiriting...etc.").

Should be "With". Mea culpa, and thanks.

Jeremiah Moss said...

thanks everyone. glad to still be here.

so far, "splitting in two" has been a bit disorienting, but i'll get the hang of it.

sorry, i can't edit comments. you can only delete it in full and resubmit it. but typos are ok.

Marty Wombacher said...

Happy Anniversary! I'm going to go check out the Grumbler now.

Anonymous said...

O don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong
And isn't your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!

W.S. Gilbert

Grand St. said...

Soooo, Jeremiah Moss, mild-mannered gumshoe, is to Peter Parker, as the Grumbler, friendly-neighborhood Supercrank, is to Spidey. Right? Wrong?

Well, whoever you are, thanks for all the fine work through the years, but please, no Facebook Grumbler. How many bookmarks does one man deserve?

Congrats.

The Mumbling Grumbling Native New Yorker said...

You are a pathetic egotist. one blog by a fictional character wasn't enough??? so we'll have the entirely made up Jeremiah Moss, and now The Grumbler. Who will The Grumbler be? The real nameless blogger who pretends through the guise of Jeremiah to be the be all and end all of New Yorkers? Will he put on that pathetic 'hunkered down' attitude as well? GET OVER YOURSELF!!!

Todd HellsKitchen said...

Happy Anniversary, Man!

BabyDave said...

Happy Anniversary!

I look forward to The Grumbler. Nothing is better than a like-minded soul in his "Don't get me started . . . ." mode.

Jeremiah Moss said...

hello mumbling grumbling Debunker, so glad to see you'll be coming with me. i know you can't get enough.

and no, no more Facebooks. i don't think.

BaHa said...

Goodness, I nearly missed this! Happy anny, dear Jere. Look forward to the Grumbler. Perhaps I should start a blog called Crazy Woman Who Deliberately Slams Into People Who Are Blocking the Sidewalk or Walking Three Abreast Thinking They Are in SATC? Or perhaps not.

Jeremiah Moss said...

yes, Baha, i like it. go for it!

Anonymous said...

congrats and i personally WILL look forward to the Grumbler. i like all the grumbling. too bad not everyone likes it. i grumble every day about many similar things. so grumble AWAY! the grumbling part of your blog was my favorite part but i understand why you need to split it.
-stef

Cat Sitter in the City said...

Congratulations on three years of Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. I can't get through a day without checking JVNY and EV Grieve, and now I'll be making daily visits to The Grumbler, too!

Jill said...

Grumbling is under-rated and I hope you do it proud.