Post #1,696

To the Readers of The Big Opus,

In case it hasn’t been made clear by the dozen or so previous posts,
 The Big Opus is announcing today that we’re shutting down our formal 
blogging activity.  In the spirit of stealing ideas from the bands we 
love the most, let’s not call this the end.  Let’s say, “indefinite hiatus.”

The music we love is changing at a dramatic pace.  New musicians rise 
to and fall from prominence at an ever quickening clip, as has been 
the case for hundreds of years. It’s not that we can’t keep up with
 what’s happening, but at this point, doing so would bring smaller and
 smaller returns for us personally, while consuming increasing amounts 
of our time.  This would not have always been such a problem.

Our lives have changed dramatically since we started the blog.  In August 2009, Mike was enjoying a break between summer and fall sessions at grad school, and Ben was newly married, working a transitional job with plenty of time to kill.  Today, we both spend our days with meaningful careers that we actually enjoy.  Ben comes home every night to his little son.  In a MINIVAN, no less!

It is hard to fully explain the impact this space has had our lives. We strove to create an original and meaningful spot in a crowded landscape of music and culture commentary. Simply pulling off a functioning blog after several failed attempts was gratifying, but afterwards the outlet it provided in an uncertain time in our lives was priceless.

We decided that announcing a hiatus would be better than keeping the site alive in name but not in spirit.  It’s also a way of saying, “you haven’t seen the last of us…

“…because if you’re reading this, we’re probably friends anyway.”

Cheers,
Ben and Mike
The Big Opus