Saturday, January 29, 2005

Links - Street Smarts, the Dresden Dolls, and Overhyping the Blog Revolution

So I hear that, aside from rumors, there's also lots of these things called "links" on the Internets. And that blogs are like the greatest storehouse of links on the Internet, and that to blog is to link, and to link is to blog, and yes.

MB Matthews: Street Smarts

Just found this the other day. I'm interested in the city around me, so. "Since 1987, I've taught high school in the inner-city public schools of Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Municipal School District is a system fraught with the challenges inherent to a large district and an impoverished city. I am publishing this journal in response to those who are quick to criticize 'those lazy, greedy, teachers'."

The Dresden Dolls Diary

I've been liking to think of myself lately as sort of a pusher. A pusher of music. I find something I like, I try to make other people like it, too. It's not a full time job or even a steady hobby, but I like that connection made, when I find something new, and make someone else find it, and they like it, and there's a shower of sparkling lights and we advance to the next level to battle the boss so we can get the key to get into the castle. So I think it's kind of funny that, of all the albums I've tried to push onto other people recently, the album I've had the most luck with was released by a band who I know for a fact is not for everybody. They're called The Dresden Dolls and they dress up like dolls. They play a style of music called "brechtian punk cabaret", and they perform songs about hermaphrodites and being too broken to love. And robotic prostitution. And, seriously, everybody I've played the album for, has immediately fallen in love with them, forever. (And if they came to Cleveland again they'd certainly have a lot of people there who weren't there the time before.) Amanda Palmer, the female half of the rock-love couple who are the band, she updates this diary fairly often, I think. Tales of the road and tales of artistic treachery. Fun stuff.

"Blog Overkill: The danger of hyping a good thing into the ground" by Jack Shafer

Everybody else on the planet links to this article by Jack Shafer, so I will too. There's lots of responses to the story at the bottom of the story, many of which I agree with and many of which I disagree with. There's comments that agree whole-heartedly with the article and comments that thoughtfully consider the points of the article and then there's comments that pretty much call the author a lying doodie head. Which is funny: there's something funny about fighting the elitism of the establishment with the elitism of the non-establishment. My--admittedly only somewhat well-thought-out--thought on the subject? Screw replacing the old establishment--everything in blog-ville is pure as snow today but once you knock the old king off his throne the corruption's just going to find its way into the newbie sect soon enough anyways. I suspect the true heart of blog-as-news-device lies in commentary and open, free discussion. Isn't that good enough?

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