Blogebrity

Tony Pierce

Tony Pierce blogs daily at the busblog (http://www.tonypierce.com/blog/bloggy.htm), where he maintains a growing stable of devoted readers and fans with his posts about Los Angeles, politics, baseball, music (most often his favorite band, Tsar) and Anna Kournikova.

This interview was originally conducted on May 25, 2005 at 4:00pm via IM.

blogebrity: for starters….you use blogger pro, and always have, to publish the busblog, right?
tonypierce: yes
tonypierce: blogger has been berry berry good to me

blogebrity: never any thoughts about moving over to a movable type or anything like that?
tonypierce: yes, thoughts, but in a few bizarre ways i try to live by example
tonypierce: and i want to show people that you dont need anything fancy to have a good blog
tonypierce: and get a fair share of attention
tonypierce: so yes ive been tempted to move over to something else, and/or get a designer, and/or get people to edit my shit
tonypierce: but i think this is best in the long run.

blogebrity: while you have started other blogs, like lickmagazine, you currently dont blog anywhere else, do you?
tonypierce: no, ive been a slacker
tonypierce: i do comment on metafilter about once a week
tonypierce: and throughout the blogosphere
tonypierce: i dont even update my secret blogs
tonypierce: i suck

blogebrity: of course….i’ve had your back in one or two buzzmachine comment throw-downs
blogebrity: that i remember
tonypierce: ah thank you!
tonypierce: those are tough crowds
tonypierce: the repubs are very nervous for some reason
tonypierce: and defensive

blogebrity: now, as for blog-reading….do you have a blog/rss reader of choice?
tonypierce: I like the old fashioned way of having a homepage
tonypierce: http://www.tonypierce.com/links.htm
tonypierce: but when i do use a Reader i use projectdu
tonypierce: http://www.projectdu.com/reads.asp

blogebrity: you still have a promotional deal with them, correct?
tonypierce: yes, its a great relationship
blogebrity: sort of like jordan and nike?
tonypierce: hahaha
tonypierce: not in the slightest
tonypierce: project du has no sweatshops
tonypierce: on whose backs i make millions
tonypierce: i really dont like athletes who do things like that
tonypierce: sponsorships are ok
tonypierce: but think about who youre in bed with

blogebrity: speaking of athletes–who you rooting for the NBA playoffs?
tonypierce: i love hoops
tonypierce: but with the lakers out of it im not paying much attention
tonypierce: i guess the suns
tonypierce: oh wait
tonypierce: no Shaq’s heat
tonypierce: id like them to face each other
tonypierce: but it looks like its gonna be the pistons and the spurs
blogebrity: yeah
tonypierce: which would be dull as hell
blogebrity: they’re both so seasoned
tonypierce: too seasoned
blogebrity: hopefully this will be the last year for some of the older guards
tonypierce: duncan looks pretty good though
tonypierce: its hard to say
blogebrity: and teams like the suns and lebron’s cavs can step it up next year
tonypierce: definately
tonypierce: too bad phil jackson doesnt want to move to cleveland
blogebrity: yeah, i hate to bash it, since i’ve never been….but i haven’t heard glowing things about the place
blogebrity: but it does have drew carey going for it
tonypierce: ahaha
tonypierce: lebron will be a laker in no time
blogebrity: that seems to be the talk
blogebrity: what about phil–you think he’ll really come back to the lakers?
tonypierce: yes, hes proven his point
tonypierce: and LA is his bitch
tonypierce: he f’ed the bosses daughter
tonypierce: he wrote a book
tonypierce: he left and the team fell apart
tonypierce: now he will come back and have anything he wants
tonypierce: kobe may even listen to him

blogebrity: ok, so veering back towards blogging….
blogebrity: for a sec

blogebrity: do you have any plans to ever go pro, a la jason kottke ?
tonypierce: i barely get any hits
tonypierce: i couldnt do it
tonypierce: kottke is a genius
tonypierce: his design is amazing
tonypierce: he has so many things going for him
tonypierce: if you look at most of the technorati 100 you can totally see why those people are on that list
tonypierce: there is no way i will ever get the hits those people do, so therefore i will never be able to go pro
tonypierce: ive had my blogad thing up for three weeks
tonypierce: not even a nibble

blogebrity: on the subject of buzz and big traffic….do you have any idea what your all-time most popular post was?
tonypierce: yes my most popular blog post by far is my How To Blog post
tonypierce: it gets linked almost every day
tonypierce: its amazing
tonypierce: people disagree with a lot of it but they love parts of it enough to link it and copy it on their blogs
tonypierce: or translate it, or lots of cool things

blogebrity: How To Blog, for those of you reading at home who don’t know, is also the title of Tony’s book

tonypierce: yes, i like to make things as confusing as possible

blogebrity: you had published other books, or blooks as you call them, before How to Blog, right?
tonypierce: when i was in college i didnt have any money for christmas gifts
tonypierce: so i made little collections of my poems each year
tonypierce: and gave them to my friends
tonypierce: so in college i made 4-5 of those “chapbooks”
tonypierce: some of those poems eventually got published, which was nice
tonypierce: then two years ago i made Blook
tonypierce: and then when CafePress got into the selfpublishing biz, i made How To Blog
tonypierce: and i will have a new one coming out in June

blogebrity: does it have a title yet?
tonypierce: yes,
tonypierce: Stiff
tonypierce: its the stories i posted about dying and meeting kurt cobain
tonypierce: i wanted to call it “The Time I Died and Met Kurt Kobain”
tonypierce: but theres a hot picture of karisa on the cover
tonypierce: and Stiff looks better on her leg

blogebrity: sounds like the must-have beach read of summer 2005
tonypierce: ahahah i hope
tonypierce: it is good, i will say that
blogebrity: awesome….we’ll be sure to plug it all over blogebrity
tonypierce: that would be very very very nice of you
blogebrity: we’re big fans of the bus, if the A-list placement didnt already suggest

tonypierce: thats tremendous
tonypierce: i cant even believe that
tonypierce: im not even the best blogger in my zip code
tonypierce: so to be in that sort of company on your list is really flattering

blogebrity: who would that be?
tonypierce: matt welch, his wife emmanuelle
tonypierce: theyre both awesome
tonypierce: heather from suck used to live down the street
tonypierce: but she moved to a house

blogebrity: something in the water, just gave you all your freakish blog skills, or what?
tonypierce: Los Feliz attracts smart young hipsters
tonypierce: i dont know why there arent more bloggers around here
tonypierce: Franklin Ave. is good too
tonypierce: i think those guys would all have better blogs if their day jobs were easier
tonypierce: speaking of which Ben Sullivans Science Blog is tremendous
tonypierce: he lives around here i think
tonypierce: also Coop
tonypierce: the artist dude
tonypierce: he lives around here and has a good blog

blogebrity: well you’ve been a phenomenal first IMterview subject for Blogebrity….thanks a ton for your time
tonypierce: no prob
tonypierce: let me show you the cover of this book
tonypierce: http://www.tonypierce.com/2005/5/stiff.htm
blogebrity: hold it up for the audience
tonypierce: ahahaha

blogebrity: so….if anyone in the world started blogging tomorrow–whom would you want it to be?
tonypierce: thats a good question
tonypierce: because some people who i would never think to read actually have good blogs
tonypierce: like rosie odonnell
tonypierce: and then some people have super dumb blogs
tonypierce: who youd think would be super exciting
tonypierce: heres whose blogs id read right now
tonypierce: axl w. rose
tonypierce: jd salinger
tonypierce: jenna jameson
tonypierce: kurt loder should have a blog too

blogebrity: with john norris guestblogging in the sidebar?
tonypierce: i cant stand john norris
tonypierce: who did he pay off to stay on mtv this long?
tonypierce: he has no personality
tonypierce: all the people who have come through mtv and thats who their franchise is?
tonypierce: he was just in cuba with rage against the audioslave
tonypierce: how amazing is that?
blogebrity: from jefferson starship at spring break 85 to audioslave in 2005
blogebrity: what a wild strange trip it’s been
tonypierce: totally

blogebrity: well dude, thanks again for your time
tonypierce: no prob

Tony Pierce’s new book, Stiff, will be available online at the busblog merch shop in June. His previous bestseller How to Blog is available in paperback now.

This entry was posted by Kyle Bunch on Friday, May 27th, 2005 at 10:30 am and is filed under Feeds, Interviews, Jeff Jarvis, Movable Type, Tony Pierce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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