Well… okay not really, and that graphic is a TV screen, but, what I am about to relay IS kind of a mystery.
Back in December of 2018 I came across some photo booth photos of myself, which I believe I took to send to my friend Alan who had moved away when we were in school. There were 2 strips and also several that he and I had done together before he moved. It was nostalgia that drove me to it, but I wanted to post my individual photos. They were meant to be funny and self deprecating and a reminder to myself years from now. I try and make every post music related, so, in what was not really a huge stretch… I compared my look to Joey Ramone.
https://auralretentive.com/2018/12/20/joey-ramone-look-alike/
That post hit my site December 20 2108 and got some avid readers (my wife and family and a couple friends) to read it, but not much other action. That’s okay, I mainly write this for myself, I’m not monetized and it amuses me. I use this site as a way to share and sometimes connect with bands who check out my show review posts.
In fact I just sent an e-mail to the band METZ who are touring in the UK and have a new album (“Automat”) and a new single release (“M.E.”)
with a plea to come back to America and do some dates. I saw them in 2017 and it was amazing. I know that 99.9% of these types of e-mails rarely hit the mark, but why not.
I don’t normally stalk my stats, but I thought I would watch for a few days and see if that post on the show got any hits. Would I find it cool if a sudden spike in views of that post even in the slightest way indicated that someone from the METZ camp was checking out the post. Sadly yes, yes I would.
So I watched for a few days. The only view was the one I did to get the link to put in the e-mail. Wah wah…
but then I noticed something strange. The Joey Ramone lookalike post had like 4 views. In one day that is a lot, particularly for a post from 2018.
I checked later in the day. There were now 10 views, of that same post! I was like, huh? Is it Joey Ramone’s birthday? No, that is in May. Anniversary of his death? No, that is in April. I had no earthly idea why that post was getting hit.
In the end, it was viewed 18 times that day.
and a few the next day to boot.
What is going on? Why that post? All I can figure is that someone was passing it around on Facebook with a comment like… “Check out this idiot.”
Hope it wasn’t one of the surviving Ramones. Or METZ! I doubt either would target that post. Maybe I will end up as a meme at some point, like the Berks girl. Jokes on them, I would probably like that.
At any rate, I have no idea who was looking at that post and why, but it was really strange to keep seeing that number of views climbing all day long.
Thanks for the views mystery readers.
The Aural Retentive 