Big numbers

Up until today I think the single highest number of page loads I've ever had on the blog in one day was about 450. Nothing to sneeze at, but I've just never had one of those massive link surges that occasionally happens to a blog, so that your stats go completely out of whack of a day or two.

Well, boy oh boy, did I get swamped today. It actually started shortly after Republic of Doyle finished airing. Then I put up my review and we were off to the races. As I write this, the number of page loads for the day just edged past 1,000 and the number of unique visitors is pressing towards 850. To give you an idea of how completely out of whack this is, the number of returning visitors on a given day is usually around 50% of the unique visitor total. The returning visitor count is around 150, or about 18%. So yeah, a lot of new people hit the blog today. They came mostly from Google searches, but a nice few also made their way over from Facebook.

I'm under no illusion of keeping any of that traffic. It was a quick in and out on the review page and that was that. But for those of you poking around, welcome. Feel free to read about the blog a bit...yes, I live in Nunavut, but I'm originally from Newfoundland, hence my interest in the show. Go and check out some of the Nunavut blog links on the sidebar. It's a nice little community we have up here in Nunavut, so please take a few minutes to read. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Speaking of which, I'm pleasantly surprised that most of the feedback has agreed with my comments. There's only been one that's taken a bit of exception.

Believe it or not, this was a bit of a concern when I was writing up the review. Let's just say from previous experience there are certain members of the Newfoundland arts scene that do not handle criticism well. I can think of a couple of incidents, including one time where someone essentially called me an idiot on CBC. Actually, that was a career highlight, now that I think on it.

My belief is that Newfoundland needs more solid, thorough arts criticism as there is precious little, if any. It's going to be a thankless job and that person is going to be solidly hated. However, I think the only way an arts community really grows is if you have someone standing up occasionally and telling people that they have not, in fact, created a heartbreaking work of staggering genius and instead have created a steaming pile of crap. Or not even that far...just tell people that there is room for improvement.

I stand by what I said about Doyle, by the way. It's a good show, but there's lots of room for it to get better. That's a great number they got last night...nearly a million people tuned in. Fantastic. I'm genuinely thrilled. However, if they want to keep that number, then they need to work on some of the weaknesses I mentioned. And I'm far from the only one who has noticed them. Those who are not fawning all over the show simply because they're happy it's made in Newfoundland have also pointed out many of the same weaknesses.

Great job, everyone. Now go and do better.

Last Five
1. Not one of us (live) - Peter Gabriel
2. Anything, anytime, anywhere - Bruce Cockburn*
3. My love (live) - Paul McCartney
4. All I am is all you're not - Sloan
5. Money worries - Bedouin Soundclash