Thursday, August 28, 2003
Goodbye, Cruel World
We were putting the finishing touches on our best entry yet: a whole three-paragraph lashing of the most behind-the-times music site ever -- not RollingStone.com -- but worse, Earlash. Sure, it's not a blog. But we were having fun. And, we were quite proud of our literary accomplishment. Then the little Michael Hutchence in our brain said: why not just end it all right now? We had promised we would go out before our peak and we think we would've reached it with that post. So none of you will get to read it. Instead, we'll let you imagine what we had to say. And if your blogs are any indication, your imagination is quite limited.
Now is the time when we say goodbye. As is our practice, our work is not done and we're damn proud of it. We're also proud of the comments you emailed us, good and bad. We're even proud of the message board thread about us. Why? Because at least it got you to reflect on what it is you are all doing. Someone out there is reading your work. And someone out there is making fun of you to your friends.
There are many blogs out there worth reading. There are many more that are not. We definitely have favorites and this whole process has lead us to appreciate them more. We won't recommend any because that's your decision to make. Suffice it to say, the ones that are worth it are the ones that brought a dfferent opinion about what everyone else was reading not for the sake of being a contrarian, but due to the fact the individual writing it just saw the same thing differently. Simple enough, right? Wrong.
In music, for example, there are bands that have all the technical skills. They know every Velvet Underground and Ramones album inside and out. They buy all the right clothes. Even their name is just this side of hip. Yet when they go on stage, all they do is mimic someone else.
Then there are those bands that may not have all the technical skills. Maybe they listen to music that was embarrassing even in the 1980s to listen to. Maybe they don't wear aviator glasses or tee-shirts with ironic logos and maybe they even tuck their shirts in. But when they play, they add something to music that was never there before. Even if their sound is something familiar, they add something to it that makes it uniquely theirs. Eventually, someone will get to them to dress better, but that's just cosmetics. Though most bands are echoes, these are the bands that are the true voices. The bloggers worth something are the ones who can sift through the echoes and listen for the voices even if everyone else is doing otherwise.
In the marketplace of ideas, the masses are hip to all this to some degree and we should be thankful for it. That is why kids still worship talentless screw-ups while music know-it-alls end up working at Sam Goody trying to overwhelm novice musicians with jargon and eye-rolling. As a great man once said, "I don't care what key it's in, where it comes from, or where it's been. Just play the music."
If your blog was not the subject of a post, that doesn't mean we didn't think about writing about you. Especially you, Glamorama. But like many things in our lives, we just won't be bothered with it. Perhaps one day we'll return. Most likely, though, we won't.
In the meantime, let us hope we kept you on your toes. This is a new form of communication in many ways. Though we're no fans of terms like "responsibility", we think you should at least be aware that if you are going to subject people to your ideas, you should strive to do it right even if what you have to say is pointless.
Now is the time when we say goodbye. As is our practice, our work is not done and we're damn proud of it. We're also proud of the comments you emailed us, good and bad. We're even proud of the message board thread about us. Why? Because at least it got you to reflect on what it is you are all doing. Someone out there is reading your work. And someone out there is making fun of you to your friends.
There are many blogs out there worth reading. There are many more that are not. We definitely have favorites and this whole process has lead us to appreciate them more. We won't recommend any because that's your decision to make. Suffice it to say, the ones that are worth it are the ones that brought a dfferent opinion about what everyone else was reading not for the sake of being a contrarian, but due to the fact the individual writing it just saw the same thing differently. Simple enough, right? Wrong.
In music, for example, there are bands that have all the technical skills. They know every Velvet Underground and Ramones album inside and out. They buy all the right clothes. Even their name is just this side of hip. Yet when they go on stage, all they do is mimic someone else.
Then there are those bands that may not have all the technical skills. Maybe they listen to music that was embarrassing even in the 1980s to listen to. Maybe they don't wear aviator glasses or tee-shirts with ironic logos and maybe they even tuck their shirts in. But when they play, they add something to music that was never there before. Even if their sound is something familiar, they add something to it that makes it uniquely theirs. Eventually, someone will get to them to dress better, but that's just cosmetics. Though most bands are echoes, these are the bands that are the true voices. The bloggers worth something are the ones who can sift through the echoes and listen for the voices even if everyone else is doing otherwise.
In the marketplace of ideas, the masses are hip to all this to some degree and we should be thankful for it. That is why kids still worship talentless screw-ups while music know-it-alls end up working at Sam Goody trying to overwhelm novice musicians with jargon and eye-rolling. As a great man once said, "I don't care what key it's in, where it comes from, or where it's been. Just play the music."
If your blog was not the subject of a post, that doesn't mean we didn't think about writing about you. Especially you, Glamorama. But like many things in our lives, we just won't be bothered with it. Perhaps one day we'll return. Most likely, though, we won't.
In the meantime, let us hope we kept you on your toes. This is a new form of communication in many ways. Though we're no fans of terms like "responsibility", we think you should at least be aware that if you are going to subject people to your ideas, you should strive to do it right even if what you have to say is pointless.
