Where does the time go? Before you know it, I’ll be sending Greg+You=This off to college, dancing at her wedding, defending myself against the claims that she’ll make in her tell-all book, Greggie Dearest. Hold on while I wipe away the single tear that is now streaming down my cheek.
So… 1,377 unique visitors, 9,355 page views, 245 hours spent by you enjoying (I can only assume) the 50 articles I’ve published starting with my debut post, “This Is the First Post of the Rest of Your Life. Dig?“ I suppose I may as well keep chugging along, eh? I have some fun plans for the upcoming year, but you’ll find out what happens in the future soon enough. Or if not soon, at very least, in the future. And if not the future… WHEN???
When I told him that my blog was turning a year old, David Carbonara – the outstanding composer of the outstanding show Mad Men – put in a couple of calls to the legal department at Lionsgate, and as a result I am now able to stream the Martinson’s Coffee jingle that I performed on the season 2 episode, The Gold Violin. Re-visit my post, Mad Men & Me and have a listen to the full, unedited version. My sincerest appreciation goes out to David for making this happen.
More stats? Sure. The Top Ten Cities viewing my blog are Los Angeles, Burbank, Rancho Cucamonga, San Diego, Upland, Monterey, New York, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Minneapolis. Top Ten Countries: United States, Brazil, Russia, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany. Kinda crazy, considering I actually know people in the UK, Australia and Switzerland. Welcome folks, drop in for a visit anytime. And, hey Germany, step it up a little.
The post with the most unique page views (unique meaning viewed by a unique user) was Greg+Studio=Session | American Tune, which featured me doing a single-take performance of the classic Paul Simon song. I was joined on this marathon 19-hour session by guitarist Jimmy Lee. As exhausting as it was, I had a great deal of fun. There will be more sessions in the future, as the weather cools and my studio becomes more of an icebox than an oven. Go have another look… unless you’re chicken.
Leave it to my attention whore of a brother, Martin Lastrapes (author), to scoop up the most overall views (meaning, we counted repeat visits) with his guest blog post Martin+This=Greg. Of course, though I may suggest or overtly state otherwise, it’s always nice when Martin drops in for a visit. Hopefully, you’ve been following our dueling blog posts documenting the writing process of our screenplay adaptation of his novel, Inside the Outside. If not, start with the first installment, Adapting Inside the Outside | Part 1 now. Part 3 of our He (Greg) Said/She (Martin) Said series drops tomorrow morning! Incidentally, Martin and I will be announcing an exciting new online collaboration sometime in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Before I go, I should mention that I’ve uploaded 6 new video interviews to my OccupyLA Speaks series. As you may have guessed, I’ve been very enthusiastic about the Occupy movement and this series is my way of helping to keep a human face on the demonstrations, as the mainstream media attempts to do just the opposite. I visit the demonstrators a few times a week, waking up at the ungodly hour of 4:30AM, hopping the train downtown and spending as much time talking, learning and making new friends as I can before having to head back to Hollywood for work.
It’s been, and will continue to be, a richly rewarding experience meeting these incredible people and taking an active involvement in this historical moment. I have about twenty videos waiting to be edited, and I’ll be back next Monday to shoot more. Meanwhile, enjoy my new interviews with (below, L to R) Brenda, Eric, Teri, Señor Buddah, Skylar and Mark.
Well, time to dive headlong into Year Two. Thanks to everyone who lent me their time and talent – Scarlet & Piper, Karissa Noel, Jesse Meriwether, Dave Hodge, Lee Barron, Sean White, Katie Simondet – and mostly, thank YOU so much for riding along with me this past year. Looking forward to keeping you all good and entertained for the foreseeable future. I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Let me know your favorite posts and what you’d like to see more (or any) of in the future.
(One more shout-out, this time to my web host AN Hosting for being not only reliable, but supplying fast and terrific customer support. They just fixed a horribly frustrating back-end problem my site was having within an hour of me submitting my support ticket. Thanks, guys!)
