Jerry's Electric Church
Today Scott Heisel will come into my office and say, "Why haven't you blogged in close to a week? What's your problem? Blog, dammit." Tim Karan solicits his readership for topics of scintillating interest while wearing a primitive cardboard sign with the phrase WILL BLOG FOR LOVE scrawled on it. I keep telling him the readers can't see it unless he jpegs that shit up, but some people are simply too proud. Now me, I have honest-to-God topics. What do I have on deck? Well, there's my fave band in life; chat about the new influx of British bands; girls (and who doesn't like girls?); favorite Christmas songs (although you'll probably demand plenty of soundfiles for that installment, I bet); two Killer Born Man installments; all my fave discs of the year; where I get my obtuse blog titles from... that's a week's worth of cyber-babble there, right?
But while I've got drafts of all of those things compiled and near completion, they aren't done. You could make the same parallel to musicians who give some close friends some demos and then said tracks end up online. Or maybe you want to see that new Will Smith movie, but it's too cold to go out to the theater. So you find a digitized copy of it on the 'net, where you are treated to guys getting up to go to the concession stand and the outlaw cameraman filming the thing falling asleep. It doesn't matter that the sound is bad, the lighting is terrible and the whole experience is nowhere near studio-grade. You got to see it for free!
Computer technology brings the world to your fingertips. At times, it renders said world in a less-than-optimum experience, whether it's compressed mp3 files or grainy 'n' glitchy film bootlegging. But because having the experience didn't require anything on your part (read: It didn't come out of your PayPal account), you settle for sub-par work. But let's take this out of the realm of art and put it into a journalism perspective. Because the net is so immediate, there's no way a magazine or newspaper can "break" stories anymore. At this point, all those organs can offer is analysis of what's happened. We used to fight about this stuff all the time in AP staff meetings: Do we want to have the FIRST story or do we want the BEST story? Does any of that matter to a culture obsessed with being online?
I will do my best to be more diligent in filling up this space in the future. But first I gotta check facts, scan images, chat with people who specialize in certain fields and maybe get an imeem account to offer you some more evidence for whatever kind of psychobabble I'm espousing. If you're taking your time to check up on my sorry ass, then I should step up my game with a little more than a list of what I'm listening to, who's pissed me off that week or significant return-key abuse to illustrate some kind of implied afterthought.
Which reminds me: I'm late getting Tim my copy for next week's List feature. So enjoy this ironic photo and I'll see you in a few.
But while I've got drafts of all of those things compiled and near completion, they aren't done. You could make the same parallel to musicians who give some close friends some demos and then said tracks end up online. Or maybe you want to see that new Will Smith movie, but it's too cold to go out to the theater. So you find a digitized copy of it on the 'net, where you are treated to guys getting up to go to the concession stand and the outlaw cameraman filming the thing falling asleep. It doesn't matter that the sound is bad, the lighting is terrible and the whole experience is nowhere near studio-grade. You got to see it for free!
Computer technology brings the world to your fingertips. At times, it renders said world in a less-than-optimum experience, whether it's compressed mp3 files or grainy 'n' glitchy film bootlegging. But because having the experience didn't require anything on your part (read: It didn't come out of your PayPal account), you settle for sub-par work. But let's take this out of the realm of art and put it into a journalism perspective. Because the net is so immediate, there's no way a magazine or newspaper can "break" stories anymore. At this point, all those organs can offer is analysis of what's happened. We used to fight about this stuff all the time in AP staff meetings: Do we want to have the FIRST story or do we want the BEST story? Does any of that matter to a culture obsessed with being online?
I will do my best to be more diligent in filling up this space in the future. But first I gotta check facts, scan images, chat with people who specialize in certain fields and maybe get an imeem account to offer you some more evidence for whatever kind of psychobabble I'm espousing. If you're taking your time to check up on my sorry ass, then I should step up my game with a little more than a list of what I'm listening to, who's pissed me off that week or significant return-key abuse to illustrate some kind of implied afterthought.
Which reminds me: I'm late getting Tim my copy for next week's List feature. So enjoy this ironic photo and I'll see you in a few.
2 Comments:
Jason, I think your blogs are the best by far. The only reason your numbers aren't as high is because you don't do as many. Keep the quality not quanitity and I'll be happy.
I know that I *don't* leave many comments because I am stunned into silence by your posts.
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