Gloria Swanson, aka Norma Desmond. Wikipedia Commons.
Like Sunset Boulevard’s fictional movie fatale Norma Desmond, I hate the word “comeback,” so let’s take her cue and call this blog’s resurrection a “return.”
After a catastrophic attempt to update WordPress over a month ago, your humble blogger was left scrambling to recover hundreds of former posts and photos and redesign Dateline>City of Angels from scratch.
Add to this an extremely busy personal schedule, and you’ve suddenly got the recipe for one very reclusive blogger. For a while even I was wondering if Dateline>City of Angels would simply wind up another blogospheric has-been.
Thankfully, no! I’ve finally hunkered down and got this site’s makeover close to where I want it. (Thanks to the new Thesis 1.6 theme, the whole design and coding phase was far easier than expected.) Even better, as I wrote in a post below, all the old entries have been recovered, at least text-wise. The re-uploading of more than 300 photos will, however, take significantly more time. (Simple math will tell you I’d have to work on 10 a day just to complete this task in a month.)
Nevertheless, to paraphrase Ms. Desmond, I’ve kept the adoring public in the dark long enough, so lights, cameras, action! Dateline>City of Angels has returned! (We’ll just consider the re-posting of all those missing photos a work in progress, OK?)
A Little Preview…
So what can you, the reader, expect from this blog moving forward?
First, no more technical fiascoes leading to lengthy hiatuses. I’ve learned my lesson: backup, backup, backup.
Plus I’m committed to more regular posting. Look for more short photo essays, pop quizzes and fun stuff peppered among the lengthier feature articles. I also plan to ramp up the podcasts in coming months, along with occasional “documentary vodcasts” on local topics.
Now also might be a good time to explain two somewhat misunderstood features that I began to experiment with before the big blog crash:
- L.A. in Quotes: A weekly quotation about our region, illustrated through either amateur photography and/or historical images.
- Old News: Interesting tidbits unearthed from the archives of historic (and even defunct) local newspapers. Normally, I look for 100-year-old news items that remain as timely today as they were way back then. When that fails, I just go for something bizarre.
In addition to the return of the above, expect a greater focus on Southland kitsch and obscure, offbeat attractions.
Finally, as this blog becomes more active with local ghost hunters and their paranormal investigations, I’ll also be stepping up entries in the ever-popular Cryptic L.A. category.
Please Bookmark It!
As a reminder, please also note that you’re now viewing Dateline>City of Angels at its new subdomain: www.mimlay.com/blog1 — a move designed to separate it further from my main professional writing pages, which are equally destined for an overhaul soon.
All in all, I intend to loosen up and have more fun with this blog — and hope you enjoy the changing scene here as well.
I’m so excited! After one post, we’ll make another post, and another, and… well, you get both the idea and the lame Sunset Boulevard reference.
Sardonic wit and all, this blog’s back and ready for its closeup.
