By Jim Hagarty
Three weeks ago today I started Lifetime Sentences.
I am having a ball with the thing. For many reasons.
I have had almost 7,000 views in three weeks. I have only 6,437 relatives so I know at least some strangers have wandered my way. Actually, I understand that 7,000 views doesn’t represent 7,000 people. But it appears that at least, I have two or three hundred individual readers checking me out every day. And some are coming back more than once a day. That is my goal. To make this a vibrant site that is updated regularly.
The big reason I like this so much is that it feels like I am back in the newspaper game. I loved working as a reporter on newspapers but even more, as the editor I eventually became. My days were so varied. And I was never stuck just doing one thing. From writing (and reporting – my career was spent on small newspapers), to taking photos and designing pages, the work was interesting. I never watched the clock when I was newspapering. My challenge was to finally go home at night and sometimes I brought work home. I didn’t have to. I wanted to.
The fun for me in newspapers was not only in the variety of tasks but in the challenge I gave myself to try to attract the best writers, photographers and cartoonists I could. At the end of the day, that was my biggest source of satisfaction. I developed what I think was an eye for talent and I loved giving newcomers a start.
So I am taking the same approach with the blog. Reaching out to talented people so that they get exposure and my viewers get a chance to see more than just me blabbing on continuously every day.
One thing I love the blog for is the chance it gives me to offer music. You might know Stratford, Ontario, Canada, as the birthplace of Justin Bieber. But Stratford was a hotbed for the arts long before Justin came along to put us on the map. We were home, for example, to Richard Manuel, a member of The Band. We have produced many others who have had a big impact. And our city of 35,000 has always been a Mecca for singer-songwriters and aspiring bands. Every major musical act since the fifties has played our town and that continues to this day.
In the 1950s, Stratford opened a Shakespearean theatre which is still going gangbusters today. We attract almost a million tourists each summer. And years ago, a summer musical festival was begun to give visitors even more reason to stay. Famous musicians from all over the world in every imaginable musical genre perform at the music festival which continues to grow every year. And the Festival Theatre has attracted many of the world’s greatest actors to its multiple stages now.
So, I want to use Lifetime Sentences to share some of this motherlode of talent we enjoy in Stratford with you. Some artists I feature are friends of mine, some not, or not yet.
But I live in a wonderful place.
I hope you come to think of it that way too.
Thanks for your interest in Lifetime Sentences. It is still in its infancy. I am looking forward to seeing where it goes and I am glad you are along for the ride.
