The Culturist Turns 13

December 6, 1924. "Greenwich Village Follies girls mending toys." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. Via Shorpy.

Today marks the 13th year of The Culturist.

Whilst my input here for the last few years is a lot less compared to the first few years of The Culturist, it’s still a space that I want to exist and maintain, even if it’s at a slower space.

And to be honest, there’s been a lot of other things I’ve had to focus on and prioritise in the past few years, the past 3 years alone slowed things down even more, so it’s a case of quality over quantity.

In the past couple of years, I’ve come to realise my blog has turned into a mini archive of past cultural events and activities across the UAE - many of which there’s no record of them online because websites have expired, orginsations/venues no longer exist, etc. What started off as a blog to share things of interest has now turned into a record of past events, and at times my thoughts about them.

Running a site singlehandedly for 13 years is a big task, and despite many suggestions of getting an intern or finding ways to make money out of the blog, I’ve never really been interested in working that way.

In most of my previous blog anniversary posts I’ve written about a promise of throwing a blog party, which never happens. So this time I’m not going to wish or hope for throwing a party to celebrate year 13.

But like I do every year, I want to thank whoever still keeps dropping by. I know blogs aren’t cool, so whoever still visits once in a while to read my posts or stumbles upon this space accidentally , I am forever grateful.