The Thrill Is Gone

I'm, like, OhmiGawd! Ricky threw me a stick, and like the overeager Labrador puppy that I am, I'm running after it, tongue and tail wagging. (No, you don't really have to visualize that. Trust me on that.)

Here's the meme:
Behold, the Caesar’s Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can’t really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), “Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."

Hmmm, let's see ... what makes me shrug when my friends sing praises? Oh yeah ...

1. Cigars, and cigar bars. Why is is that otherwise health-minded people, who sneer at folks smoking cigarettes, think it so chic to smoke cigars? And how come it is such a craze in California, where smoking cigarettes is practically outlawed?

2. Oasis. The next Beatles? Yeah, they got some catchy tunes, but c'mon! Puhleeeeze. A coupla three-year olds throwing temper tantrums, believing that's what makes you cool. Fuck off, and grow the fuck up!

3. "Reality" television. Could it be more aptly misnamed? There's nothing real about it.

4. Blogging. Got one in common with Ricky, although I don't know if it's for the same reasons. Everybody is salivating about blogging as Journalism with a Capital J. Jeeez, people! Didn't you learn ANYTHING from the dot-com collapse? Blogging is just writing done online, no more and no less. Good writing, bad writing, juicy writing, dry writing, interesting writing, dull writing - could be any of these. It is not automatically good writing because it is BLOGGING. It will not give your mouth sex appeal. It will not get rid of the nubs. it will not make you look five pounds thinner. It will not be right back after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people. You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl. It will not go better with Coke. It will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath. It will put you in the driver's seat. *

5. Having to have MP3 recordings of 192 kbps rather than 160 or 128. If you really hear the difference - and I am not convinced that you do - buy the record and play it on your atrociously expensive big-ass stereo already!

Oh yeah. I'm supposed to pass this on. I'll give this to Fling93 - I know he loves fishies, but what does he not care for? -. To Jonas because he is opinionated. To Shaun because it's been way too long since she has blogged anything. And to anyone else who wants to play.

Comments

[Shaun]

Hmm! I'll have to give this a moment's thought... but a really interesting meme!

Good answer on the blogging / journalism thing. I'm getting tired of this idea of blogging as the new journalism. It's certainly an element of communication, it's contributed to journalism and it's a tool journalism will use. But it takes more than setting up a blog to be a journalist...

[fling93]

Oh man, now I've got two memes to catch up on (also that reading one from Silvia).

For now, let me just weigh in on the journalism thing. Blogging might not supplant journalism, but what it has already done is expose journalism for what it is: writers paid to write about things they don't necessarily know about and no incentive to learn. Blogs have also demonstrated spectacularly that the MSM does not deserve any more trust than any other outlet, as accuracy is prioritized below sensationalism and timeliness, and there are few self-corrective mechanisms. Blogs have also highlighted the obvious problems in the restrictions of the 800-word op-ed column format (which are also typically written by nothing more than famous laypeople).

If mainstream outlets learn from these weaknesses, they may survive. Otherwise, they'll just recede to become one of many voices.

[Shaun]

Here's an interesting post by Ken Sands, posted on The Media Center blog (which someone just sent to me yesterday):

"A couple of times a week I hear from newspaper and online editors who are looking for blogging advice.

"The good news is that they seem to have gotten past those pointless arguments about whether blogs are journalism, blah, blah, blah.

"The bad news is that many of their plans are ill-conceived and undoubtedly will fail to meet the unrealistic expectations of the writers, editors and publishers, and will be largely ignored by the readers..."

[Joel]

I'm going to steal it....