It’s a broken record in blogsylvania, but I’ll say it anyway–December got busy and I got sidetracked and didn’t post everything I meant to. Specifically, the NKOTB’s got severly neglected in the holiday shuffle.
Making up for lost time, here’s a slew of NKOTB remainders to help wrap up the year like a Macho combo burrito:
Yeah, yeah–these guys are seriously everywhere now. And sidenote–did you know that Mumbai used to be Bombay? I did too–but it’s still fun to point out. Regarding Metroblogging’s rapid growth, I once asked Sean Bonner how he does it–somehow I envisioned him travelling the world, with a suitcase full of blogs and a smile, selling them to any metropolitan area that would buy. But he said the writers come to him virtually every time. So to the people of Tijuana–please organize and contact Sean. We’re aching for some Metroblogging Tijuana.
You know, we don’t cover many b5media blogs here in the NKOTB. Not sure why. If Emerging Earth is any indicator, I imagine many of them are quite charming, and not too bad to look at either. EE is written by Aaron Brazell, and it’s all about the Big Three (Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google) and what’s next from Redmond, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View. Somewhere, Jeeves is sitting in a corner crying and eating a full pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
Like b5media, NKOTB has been unkind to Instablogs. Again–no offense meant, we’re just a bit overwhelmed by how many new sites/networks are launching and vying for our attention. Don’t get me wrong, it’s flattering. It just makes it difficult to be truly thorough. But Unholy Wars is definitely worth a look–just check out this description from the site:
The globe sits on a terror volcano: day in and day out, it’s tales of terror and violence that keep choking our ears. In this all-round chaotic scenario, this blog is our effort to analyse and report the possible reasons that have brought things to such a pass, apart from suggesting some practicable solutions to the issues threatening the very existence of the humankind.
How can you turn that down?
This one’s the least new at this point, but it was prettiest too–and you know how far that will get you around here. Sexerati is the possibly-defunct Fine Fools Network’s answer to Gawker’s Fleshbot. The young site has already built quite the following–which makes its current up-in-the-air status all the more painful (and not in the good way). Pr0n fans everywhere are waiting with baited breath to see what will happen next for the 3rd Sexiest Geek on the Planet, Melissa Gira and Sexerati.
BlogMedia.biz, the folks behind the Blog Network Watch, are apparently behind this stealthy pre-alpha blog. Details are intentionally sketchy, but the ones that we know are interesting–this is where at least a couple of the Fine Fools defectors will be landing, including the one that used to write for us. As for when/where–we have no clue, and quite frankly are suffering from too much BNOS (Blog Network Overload Syndrome) to research any further.
Horribly shameless plug ahead, but first disclosure–Jeremy’s our publisher, and I actually put the site together for him (including the lovely fast food burger montage on the header). We wouldn’t have said anything, but the site’s been getting bombarded with attention, after Jeremy’s account of a cabin depressurization onboard Alaska Airlines flight 536 was linked to by everyone (us included), vaulting him to the forefront of a slow news week on the blogosphere. Oh and since you asked–when I was making the 10 different burger-header graphics, I had no idea 50,000 people would see it the next week. If I did, I would have charged Carls’ Jr. for the product placement.
It seems the New York bloggerati are in search of new New Years’ plans — Womens’ Wear Daily reports that Nick Denton’s planned New Years’ Eve extravaganza has been cancelled, due to Denton’s inability to get back into the States from the U.K.
The WWD piece says Denton’s return is being delayed by a work visa renewal; while we assume this to be true, the publisher of a Bush-critical outfit like Wonkette winding up on a TSA “Do Not Fly” list wouldn’t be without precedent.
Remember the days before the blogosphere, when you actually had to wait for a year to start to find out what was going to happen? Sadly, those days are dead; replaced by a seemingly-infinite annual pile of next-year predictions.
Since us blogosphere dwellers can’t make the Predictions lists go away, Blogebrity decided to address the problem with the de facto pop culture treatment for media overload….the MASH-UP. The result is a teeming orgy of Nostradamus impersonators, covering topics ranging from A-listers to the big business of Google, Yahoo and Web 2.0.
So proceed at your own caution. Don’t blame us if the onslaught of predictions after the jump causes you to lapse into 2001-style vision of beams of light streaking by your face.
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Blogebrity’s own Jeremy Hermanns (and his trusty Treo 650) was on board Alaska flight #536, and snapped photos of the scene when the cabin depressurized at 30,000 feet. Today, he’s all over the mediaplex–both the blogosphere and the legacy kind.
While we’re ever so proud of his steady camera work during the emergency landing, we can’t help but ask–what, no podcast?
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Nicole of Verbs Via Ones and Zeros is a writer in Hollywood. But she also is a woman with a scientific mind.
“Who are all these men answering personal ads in Craigslist?” she wondered.
Perhaps if she did a little science experiment, she could learn more. What would be the results if she posted three different types of personal ads, all of them for one day only — 4:30 Christmas Eve to midnight Christmas Day?
The three ads, as described by Nicole:
Ad 1: “Commitment”
This one was about how ready I am to be in a committed relationship.
Ad 2: “Unsure”
This one was about how I am just out of a long term relationship and am not sure what I want, i.e. committed relationship or fling.
Ad 3: “FWB”
This one was about how I don’t want anyone who will get attached, no commitments, just looking for a “friends with benefits” type of relationship.
Science proves that a woman (even without a photo!) can get 218 responses from men, with 45.1% of men being most enthusiastic about the “friends with benefits.”
What is most intriguing in Nicole’s “study” are the various ways men try to woo a woman online, including telling Nicole that he made a “kiss-ass cheescake,” invited her to a Scientology meeting, and the inevitable sending her “a naked picture of himself, at full “attention”, taken from his own POV on a disturbingly messy bed.”
Modern Romance.
Although Tom Reynolds of London’s “Random Acts of Reality” is anything but an underappreciated blogger, it’s time he was known as much in the States as he is in the U.K.
This might happen now:
The Friday Project is delighted to announce that it has secured the rights to ‘Random Acts of Reality’, a book based on the acclaimed online diary of London-based Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.), Tom Reynolds.
Tom began working as a nurse for the NHS at the age of 23. He worked in four hospitals but moved to the London Ambulance Service after realising that working in A&E was making him ‘want to torture patients’. Now, as an E.M.T., he has finally found his true calling - so much so that he has stopped torturing ‘all but the congenitally obnoxious… and drunks.’
Since 2003, Tom has kept an online diary (or ‘weblog’, or even ‘blog’), candidly recording every aspect of his daily working life. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heartwarming to the terrifying, the stories Tom tells give a fascinating - and at times alarming - picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.
In today’s compelling blog post, Tom Reynolds writes about the poor staffing of ambulances in London, and his experience helping a young man with an asthma attack. And how they have to wait for an ambulance. And wait some more.
So the patient got a cab to hospital. At his insistence. The double dose of medicine had cleared his lungs up nicely, but he would probably need some short-term steroid treatment. I rechecked my assessment of him, and was happy that his physical condition was well enough to get a cab to hospital. But I wasn’t happy that there was no ambulance for this patient who actually warranted an ambulance.
As I write this I wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t responded to the medicine that I gave him.
You can read more on his site. This blogger definitely deserves this book deal.
We wish a Happy Holidays to our friends in the U.K. Be careful on New Year’s Eve with your partying — especially now that you know the ambulance situation in town.
Calacanis and Scoble call into the Chris Pirillo Show, making Chris the Blogosphere’s Howard Stern. Or the Blogosphere’s Oprah, which would make Leo Notenboom its Dr. Phil, and that’s just unkind.
Calacanis is not buying any blogs. We assume he’s responding to feedbuzzard.
Jeff Jarvis discovers the new standard RSS icon. Kevin Marks and Dave Winer comment, and Jake heads down the road to a celebrity childhood which can only end in emotional pain and too many nose jobs.
Thank you for all the kind emails during the last few days saying that the Douchebrity parody of my post was just plain nasty. I had to restrain Sophia from flying over and punching this guy in the mouth.
“How would it look if Laura Bush yelled at the New York Times every time they criticized her husband?” I asked.
Even though the parody was mean, I didn’t take it too personally, mostly because I could have done a better job myself.
I was actually more hurt by Cowboy’s comment on Jack of All Blogs asking the question, “Seriously does anyone care about Neil Kramer?”
And the answer is, “Sure. Why not?”
Blogebrity asked me to write here in order to introduce others to some undiscovered talent — bloggers who write personal blogs — blogs written by truck drivers, ambulance-chasers, African-Americans, gays, sex addicts, and just plain crazy people.
Anything, as long as it was interesting.
I was impressed that Blogebrity asked me to do this, considering that they were mostly known for their infamous lists of A-B-C bloggers. I quickly learned that their “Blogebrity” attitude was more tongue-in-cheek than elitist.
But there are some out there who want the blogging world to be the same as the traditional media — where there is an elite that matters and those who do not.
Luckily, the blogging world doesn’t work that way. In blogging, it is the BLOGGERS that rule. It is the only “industry” where a housewife who writes about her kittens can compete with a professional journalist working for the New York Times — and frequently gets a more loyal audience. This is why newspapers, TV networks, and corporations are all starting blogs — they are scared of the power it gives to the general public, and want us to focus our attention back on them.
As scary as this might sound to me, there is nothing stopping my mother from going on the computer right now and creating a Blogger account in five minutes. And who knows? She might be very successful at it. She can write a blog about playing mah jongg. After all, communities have grown around every subject imaginable, from knitting to the Talmud.
Most of the blogging community is bored with blog-insiders who only write about blogging. Many blog-insiders have an elitist attitude that I’ve seen before in the worlds of publishing and television. They have a disdain and hatred for the very audience that they cater to. They want traffic. They want an audience. They want ad dollars. But they actually have no interest in the individuals who make up their own readership. It’s like the Hollywood TV network executives who sell some crappy new show to their Midwest affiliates, but then make fun of Midwesterners while they eat lunch at the Ivy.
So, Cowboy of Jack of All Blogs, I do find it odd that someone who writes a blog about blogging and bloggers would ask, “Seriously does anyone care about Neil Kramer?”
Because YOU should. I am a blogger. Everyone on my blogroll is a blogger. The only reason your blog about blogging exists is because someone like me reads it.
I am your audience.
If all you really “care about” are blogs by big blog networks, then let them be your audience. You and Douchebrity can spend your nights reading each other and laughing over insider jokes. For those interested in real bloggers, I invite you to click on all of the wonderful writers who are on my blogroll. Maybe some of you will actually learn who is out there in the blogosphere besides Nick Denton and Paul Scrivens.
Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukkah to personal bloggers everywhere you blog.
In case Neil turned you on, Boing Boing de-sexifies porn with language AND image.
I have a feeling Joi Ito would be a terribly polite next-door neighbor.
JewsforJesus.blogspot.com pisses off Jews for Jesus. Apparently the org’s name is a trademark, and JfJ doesn’t want to dilute the Jesus brand, as it were. Reuters reports. [via Lifehacker]
People of Flint: Jason Calacanis says you are not professional. Revolt! March on Santa Monica! Do you have pitchforks in Flint? Bring pitchforks.
Problogger could do our job with Christmas comedy like the Virtual Christmas Party comic, featuring Steve Rubel (”I’ve got 10 hacks for photocopying bums”), Jeremy Wright, Darren Rowse, Robert Scoble, a sloshed Duncan Riley, Jason Calacanis, Nick Denton, and Paul Scrivens.
I do not know what these VisualMedia men are saying but I hope it’s funny.
Leave it to a Blogebrity B-Lister, Washington D.C.-based Kris of “I’m not a Girl, not yet a Wino,” the self-proclaimed “David Hasselhoff of Blogger” to do the hard work of collecting together the best personal blog posts of 2005. Read it around the Yule log.
In other personal blog news, Dean of “Inspired by a True Story,” has started the Carnival of the Mundane, a new blog carnival that focuses on posts that “capture some of the humor or offer some insight into the experience of daily life.”
So, bloggers, remember to bring you laptops with you during New Year’s Eve, so after waking up with a hangover in a stranger’s bed, you can write about it in your blog.
The holiday season has become so commercialized, so today I searched through blog-land, looking for some spirituality. Luckily, I found Lynn of the Seattle-based blog, Sprigs. She was telling about her experience finding inner peace at a Catholic retreat doing “poustinia” — a time to meditate and have an inner journey toward self-awareness and selflessness.
“Here’s how poustinia works. You are led by a nun into a smallish, sparsely furnished room. The room includes a twin-sized bed, two lamps, a rocking chair with a small table next to it, and a desk with several items laid out on it ─ a pad of donated stationary, a pen, a copy of the Bible, and a brochure about poustinia and Madonna House. A ginormous cross hangs on the wall, and there is a little thingy to kneel on in front of the cross, in case you are moved to do so. The room does not have a door, only a curtain drawn across the doorway. The curtain doesn’t reach the floor; it stops about 9 inches above it. I guess the nuns want to have the option of looking underneath the curtain to ascertain what you are up to during your stay with them. As one “making a poustinia,” you are to stay in the room for 24 hours (though you can slip out quietly to use the restroom down the hall). During the 24-hour period, you cannot talk, and you cannot eat. (You can actually have tea and a little stale bread, but that’s it.)”
With nothing else to do, Lynn turned to the Bible. She had once heard some interesting rumors about the Song of Songs, mostly that it was as sexy as page 183 of Judith Krantz’s Princess Daisy.
Lynn read Song of Songs. Wow. She read it again and again.
“It must have been a couple of hours into my stay, after I’d filled up on bread and read through Song of Songs, when something finally stirred inside me. It was a strong sensation. Palpable. I was horny.
Horny as hell.”
Let’s just say Lynn “spiritualized” herself — seven times that day.
“Apparently, I had really managed to get in touch with myself… just not the way I’d anticipated.
What the hell? They say God works in mysterious ways.”
The awkwardly colored Douchebrity launched a blog, and judging from the comment count, everyone else is about as impressed as I am. Might as well make them feel loved and go visit.
Not that there’s much to see. A Jessica Cutler gag makes me wonder if they’re even trying. At least they understand the Blogebrity spirit.
But giving a “fuck you” to Calacanis and Denton ain’t the best way to land a job at a real blog. And we’re sure as hell not letting you onto our fake blog. But we appreciate the backhanded legitimization of our presence. Sez Kyle, “Apparently when hack networks want to launch, we’re stop #1 on the bad parody train.”
Speaking of hack networks, Douchebrity’s choice of the triSexuality Wordpress theme from Jarkolicious unfortunately lumps it with Weblug, a fugly blog network straddling wrestling and laptops — a level of synergy only explicable through string theory.
Now available at Kinja. Print them out and play them, D&D style, and delve into new levels of geekdom previously uncharted (via Steve Rubel).
Hey Guys–
Totally flattered to be at the top of the A-list.
But at the risk of losing my own A-list status (or climbing to some new level of douchery), I must tell you–your logo makes no sense as is–try this one out:
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What happens when a self-styled “exclusive” list of it-bloggers gets a little too bloated, a little too self-aggrandizing?
It becomes an easy target for the cyber-jackals to go in for the kill: enter Douchebrity, a strangely more exclusive satire of Blogebrity’s own list, featuring the “best of the worst…douche-a-riffic” bloggers on the web.
Un-ironically (perhaps even post-ironically?), Douchebrity’s List borrows most of it’s members from the original.
