10 years ago I started blogging, which I guess makes me a blogger, (not a descriptive term I’ve ever considered using for myself before now—not sure why). On 4 April 2006 the photograph above was the first thing I posted over on Blogger.com. It was taken in New York on my first visit to the city a few days beforehand.

In that decade there have been some significant changes to my life. I’ve changed jobs; very nearly moved house; been to lots of exhibitions and seen lots of bands; suffered the loss of some close relatives, friends and pets; stopped making music; stopped smoking; started taking shit loads of photographs; published a book; designed a few things; taught a lot of students; travelled this country much more extensively; been to lots of conferences; read a lot of books; listened to lots of music; become a grandfather; started an MA (ongoing); and written hundreds of blog posts of widely variying qualities. I’ve also managed to stay married to my lovely wife, which in itself is a major achievement considering how much I must annoy her a lot of the time.

The reason for this post is that tomorrow I am off to New York once again, the first time since my previous visit 10 years ago. The fact my blogging and my first visit to NYC coincided are mostly coincidental, although the it could be that the original trip opened up my eyes to a bigger world which made me want to document my part in it.

I’m going for slightly longer this time, but only an extra couple of days, (6 in total), but hope to get as much out of the visit as I did last time. Equally, I hope the students that I am going with will get as much out of the experience as I did on my first visit, and I’m looking forward to spending time with my colleague who has spent a lot of time in the city and claims to know the best bars.

Expect Dubdog: field readings to have a stateside focus over the next week—wifi access dependant—and probably for a while afterwards. Follow Twitter and Instagram updates via the links on the ‘elsewhere’ page.