A Connoisseur
Admittedly, I sometimes get too wrapped up in my little niche. I love craft beer, a category that holds down about 5-10% of the market, depending on who you ask. I also love indie rock, a label placed on independent music that includes some non-corporately-sponsored acts but not all and is generally guitar-centric music that appeals to a small subset of music fans. These are two unique interests that I write about in this blog. What’s even more specialized is the fact that I write about the merits of only these two things.
I don’t know if this makes me a connoisseur or not. Maybe I’m just a blowhard with a blog who likes craft beer and indie rock. I pretend to know a lot because…well, I do know a lot about these two things. Not as much as some, but more than most. I guess this makes me a connoisseur as described in the comic above.
There could be more to say about many other things. In fact, I’ve often considered topics for this blog that don’t fit into either interest, but I tend to shy away from those. I’d rather write about what I write about. Still, what if I’m missing out on something else, something better?
Is craft beer really all that I’ve made it out to be? It has the uncanny ability to pair with any kind of food. There are beers perfect for every occasion. You can drink a beer with more or less alcohol, bitterness, sweetness, tartness, and some other -ness’s I’m forgetting.
What about indie rock? Is “indie rock” even a thing? It’s really a silly category of music if you get right down to it. Still, that’s what I write about.
Then, I think about the idea that anyone else could write a blog about whatever the hell they want to write about. This here blog is about indie rock and craft beer. That’s what I like. That’s what I write about.
Sorry for the filler, but I really just wanted to post the comic above and see what ideas it stirs in you all.
Beer and Pavement 
Is silly to have a category of music that has nothing to do with the sound or the lyrical content of music. It reflects more of a political or business stance than anything else. And yet I understand what you’re talking about when you write it, and plenty of others do to.
There are plenty of dilettantish blogs out there. There’s something admirable about exploring a topic or two in depth, and sticking to that, especially these days. So I guess I’m saying: keep on keeping on.
Oh, and to = too. Sheesh.
I think the comic is an excellent articulation of the geekification of everything. And the internet is a huge enabler of this sort of thing, because someone with an obscure interest can usually find other folks who share that interest, which only intensifies the original interest. Funnily enough, a blog about beer and music could actually be considered rather broad in terms of subject matter. There are some ridiculously niche sites out there. Some of my favorites:
Flaming Garbage Cans in Hip Hop Videos:
http://flaminggarbagecansinhiphopvideos.blogspot.com/
kim jong-il looking at things:
http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/
Animals with Lightsabers:
http://www.animalswithlightsabers.com/
And so on. There’s thousands of these! And I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with it either. I say this as a guy who has two blogs – a general interest one, and one mostly dedicated to beer (with the occasional post that pairs movies with beer)
A true niche beer blog would probably cover a really particular beer style, and an obscure one at that (Schwarzbier
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[…] could have easily added connoisseur to the title, but that’s been covered already. Regardless, we hate them all, even if we are geeks, nerds, or snobs ourselves about beer, indie […]