One of the joys of blogging is its transience. It's immediate, it's spontaneous, it's constantly changing. This is why the idea of making books from blogs seems so odd (which doesn't mean that such books are necessarily bad - but a good blog does not necessarily make for a good book).
Inevitably, as new blogs appear, others bite the dust. In recent months, we've said bittersweet farewells to Molly Bloom, and Pashmina and Realdoc seem to have eased into semi-retirement. But I got a particular twinge of regret when I saw that Spinsterella has chosen to hang up her bitter, twisted, endlessly entertaining sword. She (along with Bob Swipe, Patroclus, Slaminsky and a few others) was one of the first people to take notice of my self-indulgent ramblings, and without her encouragement, I might not have carried on. Thanks for the memories, Spin, and I hope you come back in some shape or form.
In the vain hope of filling a Spinster-shaped gap, Chasms of the Earth returns to satisfy all your deconstructing-mediocre-genre-fiction needs; Valerie dips a toe (and more) into the latest internet craze; and did Paul Morley just identify Morrissey as the world's first blogger? I think he might have done.
9 comments:
What we need to do is convert all of our friends to blogging.
Hmm... I'm more likely to convert them to chess.
Hear hear re. Spinny. I'm hoping she'll come back in a new guise and surprise us all.
What did Paul Morley say about Morrissey?
what's cool about blogging is finding people of like interests all around the world. or people of unlike interests but interesting nonetheless. the ability of other people to blather randomly yet with great skill is fascinating to me. so i am happy that i not only discovered your blog, but the myriad strange blogs that are linked to your site. thank you for all that.
Billy: Why not get them to blog about chess?
Patroclus: "For me he was Ground Zero blogger... all bloggers originate with Steven Morrissey." Fair enough.
Amylola: Shhhh... don't say "strange". They think they're normal.
Has Spinny definitely hung up her curling tongs for good then Tim? (I reckon she's just doing a me, personally...I hope that's the case anyway)
I really enjoyed your book Tim. As you'll no doubt read elsewhere, it's provided me with a lot of inspiration, song-wise. In fact, to be 'on post' for once, the only bit I cringed at was the Paul Morley quotation you used.
If ever there was a living embdiment of that old James Brown song, "Talkin' loud and sayin' nothing", it's Morley. I think that could be your next book - deconstructing one of his sentences, in the vain hope that there's a glimmer of sense in it. It's fun though, I guess, to see him flailing around on Newsnight Review, rocking backwards and forwards, gabbling on in a world of his own like the anoraked Care in the Community person on the bus everyone tries to pretend isn't there; repeating self-defeating mantra-like sentences about whether or not the Arctic Monkeys are being knowingly unknowing about the knowingness of the tambourine track on track three of their new LP. I never thought I'd say this, but come back Tony Parsons - all is forgiven. Even *Alan* Parsons would be an improvemnent...
L.U.V. on ya,
Bob
I wish I could join your gang - but am I up to the challenge? Anyway. Any excuse not to clean the kitchen and get a proper grown up job.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your kind words, Bob. I think we could argue about Morley until Ian Curtis came back to life, but think of him as a situationist, a provocateur - he certainly provokes you...
And Sylvia, the gang operates an open door policy. See, we even let Bob in, despite the rumours and allegations. Although maybe there should be an initiation ceremony. Any ideas?
"Although maybe there should be an initiation ceremony. Any ideas?"
the obvious one, tim. everyone has to read your book! wait, BUY and read your book, no fair borrowing or stealing it.
Me in a bathtub is not going to fill any part of a Spinnygap... I hope she returns soon, but can understand many reasons for taking a break and even changing avatars. I posted far more details of my personal life on the Internet from 1982-1987, when I finally smacked up against a potential cost in this behavior — you are providing anyone who actually wants to hurt you with lots of ammunition. I am a trusting type, admittedly. I took a needed break to save sanity. You can argue about whether or not it worked.
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