Sunday, May 11, 2008


Lemmonex
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Lemmonex takes her tax refund and invests it wisely. A nice bit from Lemmonex's self-description: "I have become increasingly ambivalent regarding politics; it is all a lie and they are all the same. Really. DC has embittered me further. Save yourself some trouble, pick one or two issues that are really important to you and just vote along those lines." As far as I'm concerned, with that passage Lemmonex has shown herself to be a more profound and useful political thinker than anyone at The New Republic or National Review. How lovely that she's also a cheekily sweet and amusing blogger with her own earthy, frank, and insolent-yet-vulnerable tone. Knock on her door and you'll find a full-fledged person at home. I ran into Lemmonex over at Roissy's. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at May 11, 2008 | perma-link | (13) comments

Thursday, April 24, 2008


Video Comments
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Dept. of Technology Marches On: Video commenting is now possible on some blogs. (Do a search on "Arrington" to get started, then scroll down further for more.) Video could add a lot to discussion theads, IMHO. Imagine Chris White vs. Shouting Thomas ... Roissy could speak from behind a mask ... Colleen could share some expressive improv ... Dearieme might upload tersely amusing 5 second clips ... Ian could prepare a raw and fermented lunch ... Hey, perhaps some of the ladies might see fit to make their statements by showing off their bellydancing skills. Bellydancing demos are always appreciated in these parts. As commenter Bwana says, "Text is so 2006." Best, Michael... posted by Michael at April 24, 2008 | perma-link | (13) comments

Monday, April 14, 2008


Blogaversaries
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- It's happy blogaversary to some showstoppingly good bloggers: supersharp and ever-flirty Alias Clio; that poetic muser-in-the-city Bixblog; and Roissy, whom no one will ever be able to accuse of having come out of the gate on timid feet. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at April 14, 2008 | perma-link | (6) comments

Thursday, April 3, 2008


Two New Group Blogs
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- * From the right: a new group blog by contributors to The American Conservative, edited by Daniel McCarthy. * From whatever side of the spectrum it is that libertarians inhabit: a new group blog from the Independent Institute. Best, Michael UPDATE: Thanks to TGGP, who points out another rewarding new group blog, The Art of the Possible, where the excellent Kevin Carson posts frequently.... posted by Michael at April 3, 2008 | perma-link | (2) comments

Tuesday, April 1, 2008


Blogrolling
A quick break from the usual to call visitors' attention to the fact that I've done a little maintenance on our blogroll -- the long list of recommended blogs that's in the left-hand column. Broke 'em up into categories that I hope are easy to use ... Prioritized the categories by order of importance (notice where I put Politics) ... Weeded out some blogs that have shut down ... Listed 'em alphabetically ... Speaking of which, I did my alphabetical listing by first name, since that seems to be the new Accepted Thing. Weird, isn't it, that we now inhabit a world where most alphabetical lists of names are organized by first name? Please let me know if you spot any goofs. And please take a moment to click on one or two blogs that you've never tried before. There's a lot of good-quality blogsurfing to be enjoyed out there.... posted by Michael at April 1, 2008 | perma-link | (7) comments

Friday, March 21, 2008


Irina in New York
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- As a writer / blogger / online-personality, Irina is a sweetie: woebegone yet hopeful; worldly yet childish; both Old World and New World. She's a clown, but a sexy and touching one. The fun of reading her has less to do with what she says than with accompanying her puppy brain and her womanly feelings as they zigzag loopily around each other, eyeing each other in fondness and exasperation. Here Irina ranks some American traits; here she inspires Agnostic to have another go at that age-old question, "Ass man? Or boob man?" American girls: Read Irina and learn about this mysterious thing called "charm." Best, Michael... posted by Michael at March 21, 2008 | perma-link | (13) comments

Tuesday, March 4, 2008


Roissy Sums It Up
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Never one to favor moderation or self-restraint, Roissy finally lays it all on the line. My main worry: Does he now have anything left to say? Roissy points out some videoclips -- here, here, and here -- that those who are curious about this whole "game" thing won't want to miss. That "Cajun" dude is good! I've got the hots for the female announcer myself. Best, Michael UPDATE: In celebration of Serge Gainsbourg -- an uber-player of a previous generation -- here's a video for his immortal "Je t'aime ... moi non plus." It was recorded in 1969 -- and I do mean "69": The Telegraph reports that at 61 Jane Birkin -- Gainsbourg's muse -- still has the magic. Nice line: "The less Birkin tried to do with her voice, the better she sounded." Did you know that Jane Birkin is the mother of pixie-sexpot actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon?... posted by Michael at March 4, 2008 | perma-link | (31) comments

Friday, February 29, 2008


The Teleology of Facebook
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- I'm glad to learn that not everyone loves Facebook. I signed up for an account myself, spent a couple of hours exploring the site, and still don't understand what the point of Facebook is. I just don't get it. Can anyone enlighten me? Best, Michael... posted by Michael at February 29, 2008 | perma-link | (9) comments

Sunday, February 17, 2008


Uploaders
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Some of the most undersung contemporary culture-heroes -- IMHO, of course -- are YouTube music-video uploaders. Just think of it: At no previous time in all history have we had anything like this kind of easy access to such a wealth of fabulous music performances. And we owe it to the voluntary efforts of a lot of amateurs, motivated by love, generosity and enthusiasm. It's enough to make a person believe in anarchist theory. (Incidentally, that's a first-class essay.) A few of the uploaders I rely on most heavily: rockabilly buff Gatorrock786; country-music lover Genewatsonfan2; Rolling Stones champion Ghostryder4067; StAlphege, surely in the top tier of the world's Emmylou Harris admirers; and the classical-music connoisseurs Judicaelp and Tbromley. Here's some footage of the legendary Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli playing Chopin: And a clip of the brilliant Maurizio Pollini performing Debussy: Pollini's Chopin is a modern legend in its own right, and there's a lot of it on YouTube. Here's one good example. A couple of recent discoveries have also been making me very, very happy. Oldtimer (456 vids uploaded so far -- imagine the time and effort!) Ultracoolsixties has an eclectic collection of '60s pop music clips that must be peerless -- it includes performances by Marianne Faithful, The Byrds, Francoise Hardy, and a longtime fave of mine, the high-octane, midwestern R&B group Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: And doesn't that take you back to the glory days of AM radio! When I'm the mood for workingman's rock, I'll take Mitch Ryder and the boys over Bruce Springsteen any day -- in my value-set, raucous party spirit always prevails over mythos and bloat. Here's Mitch Ryder's website Why not spring for this best-of collection? Newcomer Musicfirstlove has been sharing a priceless collection of alt-country clips, including many I hadn't even known existed of someone I never tire of going back to, the angelically-gifted Texas depressive Townes Van Zandt: Well-synch'd-up-with-its-sound or not, that's some precious footage. I wrote -- OK, I raved -- about Townes Van Zandt back here. Here's the Townes Van Zandt website, run by his widow Jeanene. Jeanene sent 2Blowhards a very moving letter that we were honored to reprint here. Buy a copy of "Be Here to Love Me," Margaret Brown's evocative and poetic documentary about Townes, here. Do you have some favorite YouTube uploaders that you can pass along to the rest of us? It seems to me that the urge to share our pleasures is a lot of what makes the Web the glorious place it is. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at February 17, 2008 | perma-link | (8) comments

Friday, February 15, 2008


A Few Discoveries
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- * Dark Party Review. Here's a cultureblog that's a rowdy joy -- an exuberant and enthusiastic publication full of mischief, zest, and brains. Who says that sophistication and showbiz, refinement and lust, can't boogaloo together? Read about Edith Wharton's "A Journey," then joyride your way through a collection of bad music videos from the 1980s. GFS3's "How to Be an Office Drone" made me laugh out loud. One funny passage: Skills to attending long meetings are the abilities to: fart quietly, disguise growling stomachs with coughing, pounce on food first to avoid soggy sandwiches, and to leave the meeting with absolutely no work. * The Philosopher's Zone. I've found Alan Saunders' radio show / podcast about philosophical topics very enjoyable. It's high-end yet accessible -- first-class intellectual entertainment. Saunders -- trained in philosophy himself but also a gifted, calm, and helpful interviewer -- brings on learned guests (mostly Australian) to discuss such topics as love, social justice, science, and the mind. I confess that I've never been entirely convinced that there's a point to Western philosophy; as fascinating and impressive as it can be, I often find myself wondering if it isn't just a weird and useless activity that a certain kind of person enjoys doing. But the mental- housecleaning aspect of it does have some appeal for me, especially when it's conducted in plain English. That's what Saunders specializes in doing. I wrote back here about how much I admire a good interviewer, and back here about Stephen Toulmin, one of the handful of Western philosophers whose work I really do love. * Stuff White People Like. A commenter at Steve Sailer's blog linked to this droll, deadpan, near-Onion-quality blog about things that the upscale paler-of-hue tend to go for. Do you enjoy expensive sandwiches? And Sunday breakfasts? How about dogs? And old stuff? And Apple products? Do you have a tendency to make unnecessary apologies? Were you an arts major? I'm guilty on all of those counts myself. Always fun to discover that you're a stereotype -- at least it is if you're a White Person. White People actually like stereotypes. (Hey, that's something that I just came up with.) Typical passage: It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education all poor people would be EXACTLY like them. In fact, the only reason that poor people make the choices they do is because they have not been given the means to make the right choices and care about the right things. And a hilarious line in a posting about White People's love of natural medicine: "It’s weird that there are some white people who won’t take aspirin, but will take Ecstasy, Cocaine, Xanax and Vicodin." This posting about Film Festivals is a hoot too. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at February 15, 2008 | perma-link | (15) comments

Thursday, February 7, 2008


Newspapers, R.I.P.?
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- * The New York Times reports on the shakey state of the newspaper business. Nifty/scarey passage: “I’m an optimist, but it is very hard to be positive about what’s going on,” said Brian P. Tierney, publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News. “The next few years are transitional, and I think some papers aren’t going to make it.” * Marc Andreessen inaugurates a New York Times Deathwatch. Funny bit: "Sometimes it's darkest right before it goes pitch black." Best, Michael... posted by Michael at February 7, 2008 | perma-link | (4) comments

Sunday, January 27, 2008


Urgently Entertaining
Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- Even though I was in Hawaii recently, I still ain't no surfer. Unfortunately, that includes web-surfing. Despite that handicap, the sites that I do regularly visit are kind enough to offer tempting links. Fortunately, Power Line -- the blog that brought down Dan Rather -- introduced me to a brand new blog by one of their part-time contributors, William Katz. It's called Urgent Agenda. Who is Bill Katz? Since he's a far better writer than I am, I'll just pass along his self-description: William Katz has, during an extensive career, been an intern for a U.S. senator; an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency; an assistant to Herman Kahn, the nuclear-war theorist; an editor at The New York Times Magazine; a comedy writer for Bob Newhart; an interviewer for The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson; and the author of ten novels published in many languages. A number of his books have been sold to Hollywood, about which nothing more need be said. What do politics, the CIA, journalism, comedy writing, fiction, and Hollywood have to do with each other? Think about it. In addition to running Urgent Agenda, William Katz actively blogs at Power Line. He's a graduate of the University of Chicago and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He is married, with two daughters, neither of whom agree with him. To give you some of Urgent Agenda's flavor, here's a segment from a recent posting. Students at Choate Rosemary Hall, attended by JFK, among others, are deeply upset at the choice of Karl Rove to be their commencement speaker. Oh, the dears. We go through this ritual every year. Get a commencement speaker anywhere to the right of Trotsky and some students rush to the mental health clinic. Question: Does anyone ever remember a commencement speech? Sometimes, we have trouble remembering the name of the speaker. But, if the students are serious, maybe they can have an alternative graduation and invite, say, Hugo Chavez. The school, however, should impose a condition: If Chavez comes, he should be permitted to confiscate all the students' stock portfolios. There are ways to shut students up. Commencement speakers: hmm. Of my four commencements (counting high school), the only speaker whose name I recall is Milton Schapp, who was governor of Pennsylvania at the time. He spoke to us at Dear Old Penn. All I remember of his oration was that it was stupefyingly long and dull. In 2007 their speaker was former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III. Better than Schapp, probably, and a better choice than many colleges and universities manage. But with the usual Dear Old Penn envy of the most famous Ivy schools, I see that we were trumped yet again by Harvard, which had Bill Gates on the podium. Later, Donald... posted by Donald at January 27, 2008 | perma-link | (5) comments

Thursday, January 17, 2008


Richard S. Wheeler Blogs
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- I'm very glad to learn that the Western novelist Richard S. Wheeler has begun blogging. Go read, learn, enjoy -- and bookmark. Some great stuff is heaping up already. Richard finally finds an XM station that suits him; he shares some shrewd and rueful thoughts about the fate of copyright; and he expresses skepticism about the idea that fiction-writing is a craft that can be taught. As a novelist, Richard brings together many wonderful qualities: dignity and gravity; wit and experience; invention, sympathy, and imagination. Although he has only recently begun blogging, it's clear that he's bringing those same characteristics to bear on his online writing. It should go without saying that this combo is unusual and refreshing, especially in the buzzing and shallow electronic space that we all spend too much time surfing around in these days. It's a treat and a privilege to have easy access to such human, rounded, and warm-blooded writing. And did I mention brainy? If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out some essays that Richard wrote for 2Blowhards. He shared some wisdom about writing and publishing; and he filed a report from a convention of the Western Writers of America. I raved about Richard's marvelous novel "Flint's Gift" here. Richard recently published a memoir, which you can buy here. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at January 17, 2008 | perma-link | (2) comments

Friday, December 14, 2007


Lester's Dad
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Lester Hunt shows how to write a beautiful, clear-eyed tribute to someone who sounds like an irascible and challenging man. Lester doesn't shy away from the larger thoughts that accompany such moments either. Lovely passage: If only there were some way to just download all that experience and pass it on to others through a cable! So much of it just goes to waste. Lots of sympathy to Lester. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at December 14, 2007 | perma-link | (3) comments

Monday, December 10, 2007


A Couple of Blogging Tools
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- * If you're thinking of taking up blogging, I'd urge you to give WordPress.com a try. It's a service much like Google's Blogger. The main difference between them is that WordPress.com is far more solid and deep; it makes Blogger seem like a toy for kids. WordPress.com can take whatever -- well, a lot of what -- you want to throw at it and offer it up to the public attractively. If I were starting 2Blowhards today, I'd avoid Blogger, and I wouldn't go to the expense and trouble of having a blog custom-made either. I'd do it on WordPress.com. A quick explanation for those feeling confused about the "WordPress" thing. There's a difference between WordPress and WordPress.com. WordPress (without the ".com") is an open source blogging platform that requires major geek skills to manage. It's apparently powerful and wonderful. Geeks rave about it anyway. But for the mortals among us, it's a bear. You have to download a copy of WordPress, you have to install it on a server, you have to configure it. The term "CSS" has to make some sense to you. And you can't do any of this without first having lined up hosting, purchased and "pointed" a URL, and without knowing how to FTP. To this pathetic English major at least, the whole thing looks like an endless series of annoyances, frustrations, and headaches. By contrast, WordPress.com -- note the ".com" -- is a self-contained, hosted blogging service that is based on the WordPress platform. In other words: no worries about downloading / uploading / configuring/whatever. With WordPress.com, no geek heroics are required. All you have to do is go to WordPress.com and sign up. Once you've done that, you get many of the benefits of WordPress -- everyone's current favorite blogging platform -- with none of the headaches. You're blogging within minutes. Between you and me: A small but fun thing that becomes clear as you mess with WordPress.com is that it doesn't limit you to blogging. You can in fact use WordPress.com to create surprisingly elaborate multipage websites. It may take a little fiddling and a bit of trial and error -- but if I can do it (and I can), you can too. Did I mention that the WordPress.com service is free up to a point, and very cheap even after that point? Are you reading, Spike Gomes? * Though I've mentioned the microblogging service Tumblr before, I'll mention it again as an EZ alternative to WordPress.com. Does conventional blogging tempt but seem like an awful lot of work? (And it can be a lot of work.) Do you want to take part in the give-and-take of online life but rarely find the time or energy to formulate actual, like, sentences and paragraphs? (And turning your thoughts, feelings, and observations into sentences and paragraphs does indeed take some effort.) Then running a WordPress.com blog might demand a little more of you than you have to give.... posted by Michael at December 10, 2007 | perma-link | (10) comments

Sunday, December 2, 2007


A Shouting Thomas Moment
Michael Blowhard write: Dear Blowhards -- * Loyal Democrat Yahmdallah finds much to agree with in Shouting Thomas' comments at 2Blowhards, and confesses that righties often seem to make better neighbors than liberals do. Sigh: Why can't more Loyal Dems be as honest as Yahmdallah is about how infuriatingly messy and incoherent life often is? * Shouting Thomas himself praises Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and says that Filipinas are anything but submissive. * A form that I've come to love thanks to the Web is the mini-memoir: quick snapshots -- verbal and visual -- from people's lives. ST puts a welcome spin on the form in a photo-illustrated series documenting Woodstock's Tinker Street: here, here, here. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at December 2, 2007 | perma-link | (9) comments

Thursday, November 29, 2007


Some New WebStops
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Hey, some high-quality bloggers you may already know but who I've just begun catching up with: * Jeff Sypeck. Jeff is the author of an excellent recent book about Charlemagne. Evocative, informative, and beautifully-scaled, it's first-class intellectual entertainment. As a blogger, Jeff loses none of what makes him a remarkable nonfiction book author: he's friendly, perceptive, and humorous; he puts on no airs; yet he's completely unapologetic about the pleasures and benefits of brains and knowledge. That's a nice, and all-too-rare, combo. Check out Jeff's very sharp thoughts about John Gardner's "Beowulf"-inspired novel "Grendel" -- "one of the most reactionary novels an English major will ever read." And on viewing the film "Beowulf," Jeff reverts to his 12 year old self to review it. Talk about an appropriate response! * Joe Valdez. Joe runs an ambitious-yet-relaxed blog about movies where he maintains a very high level of moviechat. Generous and sympathetic, he has an interesting conception of how moviechat should be conducted. He recounts the story; he nails the genre; he researches how the film came to be; he shares his own reactions; and he passes along the reactions of other fans and viewers. I'm pleased to see that he's no hero-worshipper of directors, but is instead alert to the many people (writers, producers, performers, etc) who contribute to movies. But my favorite aspect of Joe's multifaceted approach to the movie-thang is this: He doesn't let himself be tied down by studio release dates and instead follows his own muse, exploring new movies, movie history, and DVDs as the mood strikes him. That's movie-watching as a real movie-lover does it. For an especially good example of how rewarding Joe's approach can be, check out his beautiful posting about the 1978 Dustin Hoffman / Ulu Grosbard / Edward Bunker crime drama "Straight Time." Joe's site includes a very cool movie poster gallery. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at November 29, 2007 | perma-link | (2) comments

Tuesday, October 23, 2007


Flickr Huh?
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Do you "get" the wonderfulness of Flickr? Me, I've discovered that I lack the Flickr gene entirely. I didn't think this would prove to be the case. A few years back, I was as excited as everyone else was about Flickr. The world had never seen such a cool web-thing. Overnight it seemed that everyone embraced Flickr. Flickr was showing us a whole new way to interact with photos, even with the web itself. The mind boggled, the heart raced. I paid for a Pro account, I uploaded a lot of pix ... And I've barely used the service since. Wondering why, I come up with one thing only: I haven't discovered a single reason why I would use Flickr. I find its "Photostream" method of organizing photos confusing. I don't understand the difference between "Sets" and "Collections" -- and, hell, I don't want to understand it. Photos as Flickr displays them are rather small, and the service has been pokey-ish on all the computers I've tried it on. I tired very quickly of watching little pink and blue balls circle around each other above the word "Loading" ... What first appealed to me about Flickr was the idea of storing photos online. No more chance of losing them due to a home-hard-drive crash; easy to access them from no matter where. In practice, I've found that a combo of iPhoto on the home Mac and a weekly backup to an external hard drive suits me far better. I've also found that, when I'm away from home, one of the last things I feel a desire to do is to play with my photo collection. So much for my initial hopes and plans for the service. As far as using Flickr as a way to show off occasional handfuls of photos to friends and family goes, I've found Flickr to be a bust there too. My first preference is to email photos to family and buds. My second is to use Google's free Picassa Web Albums, which seems to me easier and faster to use than Flickr does; it also displays photos to better advantage than Flickr does. IMHO, of course. My own disappointment notwithstanding, Flickr and the impact of Flickr roar on, of course. Yahoo! bought Flickr for a rumored $15-$17 mill -- and Flickr at Yahoo! has been such a popular attraction that Yahoo! has junked their own old-timey photo service. Meanwhile, Flickr seems to be generally deferred-to as a pioneer of Web 2.0, if not Web 3.0. What is it that enchants so many about Flickr? Many people are evidently getting something out of Flickr that it doesn't even occur to me to look to Flickr for. What could that be? I have two hunches. One has to do with the idea of a website not as "a brochure with links" or as "a book with links" but as "a place to visit and play with." People don't just use Flickr... posted by Michael at October 23, 2007 | perma-link | (24) comments

Thursday, October 18, 2007


Missed Opportunities
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- For an arty guy with no technical gifts or interests, I smacked into the computer world at a relatively early stage. I don't mean "the computer world" in the absolute sense, by the way. When I was in high school back in 1970, for instance, computers were certainly around. But at that point they weren't of much interest (let alone of much use) to anyone other than extreme geeks. In 1970, the idea of computers seemed futuristic in appealing ways. But the reality of computers was much less attractive. In the case of the high school I attended, for instance: Computing meant one small, airless room with a keyboard and punchcards, and a connection to what was mysteriously referred to as "the Dartmouth computer." I poked my head into that computer room one time and one time only. Not pleasant: bad lighting, and full of geek b.o. and giggly social ineptitude. And why on earth would anyone think it was a big deal to be playing playing tic-tac-toe "with Dartmouth"? Since what I wanted from life was girls, movies, art, physical activity, and sunshine, computers in 1970 seemed like the opposite of everything I valued. They seemed like the antithesis of what I then thought of as "aesthetics." No, for the sake of this posting anyway, what I mean by "computers" is computers in a somewhat later sense: computers at the time videogames and personal computers were starting to make a more-than-a-novelty kind of impact -- the early-to-mid '80s, roughly. By then, computers and aesthetic matters didn't seem to occupy quite such opposite poles. Pong had long since given way to more complex games. Hard drives were beginning to seem like a plausible part of everyday reality. And when the original Macs came along -- in early 1984 -- the machines started to speak directly to the arty set. Right about then was when I woke up to the cultural implications of computing. I found myself on BBS's, for instance, caught up in debates about the impact of word processing. For those who haven't encountered the philosophy-of- word-processing field: The advent of word processing hit a handful of culture-types very hard. Nearly all writers were delighted by the way the new tools enabled them to get their writing down so easily, of course. But a small band of culture-fiends also found themselves looking at the phenomenon from a longer point of view, and musing, "Hmm, you know, this word-processing thing might really change the whole 'writing' game at a very deep level ..." It was a tiny world, this musing-over-the-aesthetic / cultural-implications-of-computers world. But for some reason I really zero'd in on it. For instance, I didn't just read Jay David Bolter and Michael Heim -- the philosophers of what word processing might mean in the big sense. I met and chatted with them. In 1987, Apple's HyperCard gave non-techies a chance to mess with databases and programming. By the late 1980s, software created... posted by Michael at October 18, 2007 | perma-link | (10) comments

Sunday, October 7, 2007


Commenting Explanation
I know some visitors are puzzled and/or frustrated when they try to leave comments on this blog, so a quick word of apology for that, as well as a quick explanation about how commenting works around here. We moderate comments -- in other words, we hand-review and hand-approve all submitted comments. We do this only because we've found that if we don't, the blog quickly gets overwhelmed by spam-comments. And what a misery that can be. As in hours and hours of weeding out loathesome crap. Depending on how regularly we proprietors are checking in with the blog, this can mean that it might take your comment anywhere from a few minutes to half a day to appear. And given the way we all enjoy the rapidfire, instant-gratification back-and-forth of blogging, this is unfortunate and a little bewildering. Like I say, sorry for that. I wish there were something I could do to make the process less awkward. Unhappily, spam-comments won't just go away. Unhappily as well, we have yet to figure out how to build a "captcha" function into commenting -- that's that scheme whereby you're asked to type in some random numbers-and-letters before posting. We also have yet to figure out how to build an explanation of what's going on into the commenting function. Wouldn't it be nice if a box saying something like "Comments are moderated by the blog-proprietors. This means that your comment may not appear for a while. Please be patient" popped up during the commenting process? But, well, my computer skills don't extend much beyond knowing how to link to other blogs. To be a little less flip ... This blog has been around for so long, and the software it's based on (Movable Type) has been upgraded so many times -- it's full of so much left-over back-end crud -- that even our beloved webguy (the man who set us up as bloggers many years ago) couldn't manhandle a "captcha" function into the process when we had him give it a try. Is this what those who know about such things call a "legacy" challenge? In any case, apologies for any inconveniences, and please keep those comments coming. They will show up eventually.... posted by Michael at October 7, 2007 | perma-link | (5) comments

Friday, September 28, 2007


Jan's New Site
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- In a recent posting about website-making software I made quick mention of a wonderful culture-intellectual website known as Jahsonic. Word now comes that Jan, the inspired brain behind the site, is building a wiki version of Jahsonic. Go here and lose yourself in supersmart yet accessible pieces on irresistable topics like sex, film, art, and Camille Paglia. A reference book with a point of view -- as Rachael Ray might say, What's not great about that? Jan has already posted over 12,000 articles (many derived from Wikipedia) and is still at work. I'd love to see more people with powerful brains, info, and thinking to share build online wikis of what they have to say. (Friedrich von Blowhard, are you listening?) I think that my own version of an ideal website would be a cross between a blog and a wiki ... Best, Michael... posted by Michael at September 28, 2007 | perma-link | (2) comments

Thursday, September 20, 2007


Website-Making Tools for Non-Geeks
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- It becomes easier every year to put yourself up on the web, doesn't it? Where not so long ago the non-gearhead who hoped to join the online party had to hire a pro or rely on bad tools that resulted in trashy-looking websites, today's webcreature-wannabe has a number of appealing options to choose among. It seems fair to me to say that today's website-making-tools-for-the-masses are so good that someone who really wants to have a website no longer has a valid reason not to. A few years ago I recommended the outfit Squarespace, a service that enables you to create a complete and attractive website for yourself entirely online. But, since I'm the type who likes doing research, trying out software, and playing with organizational tools, I've continued poking around the field, and I've run into some other cool and valuable tools. Why not pass them along too? A preliminary note: It seems useful to divide website-making tools into those that operate entirely online and those that are individual-computer-based. In the first group, both the website you make and the website-builder you use to make it are online. All that's needed to accomplish what you'll want to accomplish is a browser and a fast internet connection. Advantages: no programs to buy and manage; you can tinker with your website from any web-connected computer; there's no need to endure the headaches involved in acquiring a domain name and lining up a webhost. Disadvantage: Online tools tend to be less quick and responsive than do ones that live on your hard drive. Tools that belong to the second group are ones that you buy and then install on your own computer. Once you've done that, you use the program to assemble and / or tweak your pages (photo galleries, blogs, freeform pages, whatever). Then you upload your creation to a webhost, where it's made public. Advantage: Some of these programs are terrific, as well as easy and and even fun to use. Disadvantages: You have to attend to all that offputting webspace-making crap (domain names, webhosts, etc). Why can't anyone make those procedures less annoying than they are? Plus you can only mess with your website from the one computer that has the program (and your files) installed on it. Life is indeed all about weighing trade-offs ... To the first group might belong such familiar products as WordPress, Typepad, and Blogger. All three services have their advantages and their partisans. But they also limit you to creating a blog, or at most a blog-with-trimmings. (Some people have recently been using WordPress to create websites that aren't strictly blogs, but no matter what direction you bend it in, WordPress is a tool that wants to make you a blog.) Some tools that I can recommend (or in one case semi-recommend): The online tool that I mainly want to focus on is once again Squarespace, which is even better today than it was when I recommended it... posted by Michael at September 20, 2007 | perma-link | (6) comments

Wednesday, September 5, 2007


The Font of Blog-Post Inspiration
Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- I have no idea why Michael Blowhard is such a productive blogger. A Force of Nature, or something along those lines, I suspect. Me? I'm doing well if I can crank out posts at 20 percent of Michael's pace. At least I know why I post what I do and in what quantity. I've been at it nearly two years now, so the picture is pretty clear. Michael's initial marching orders were for me to write one longer and one shorter piece per week, with the unspoken hope that I do a little better than that to help reduce the pressure of being a one-man show, which he largely was at that time. I had the feeling that I could be productive for a while, though there were doubts. For instance, I figured that I could dredge up a dozen or so interesting articles simply by dipping into my memory. Yet I knew that it would be foolish to post all the supposed good stuff in one short spasm: showman Eddie Cantor's first television "special" was a knockout, but it chewed up a good deal of his best material from his previous decades in show biz, and his later appearances weren't nearly as great. So I've been careful to spread my "best" material, posting from that storehouse perhaps once every two or three months while posting at the rate of around four items per week. Where do I get the rest of my material? Michael has an interesting mix of long articles, shorter pieces and also posts several "link blogs" per week. I'm not much of a linker, tending to write essays. I try to avoid writing about the same subject in adjoining posts. That is, if I write about a painter I'll mix in two or three or more posts about other subjects before getting back to painters again. I've been doing a lot of reading about art history these last two years because I quickly realized that I was rapidly using up the material I'd received years ago in college courses. Once I finish a book or article I try to use the information as grist for a post as soon as I can, while it's still fresh. Otherwise -- and you readers who are bloggers yourselves will recognize this -- I try my best to be alert for things I encounter that might make for an interesting essay. I always carry a few small notepad sheets in my shirt pocket for note-taking. I also have a digital camera on my belt just in case I spy something that would make a good illustration for a post. There's one more thing I do. Three or four times a week I drive over to the local Top Pot doughnut shop (see photo below) for a cup of coffee and a Double Trouble doughnut. The Wedgwood Top Pot. Yes, tropical trees can grow in Seattle. The building is a converted gas station where the... posted by Donald at September 5, 2007 | perma-link | (4) comments

Monday, August 27, 2007


Some New Pleasures
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- I've been enjoying exploring the websites of some recent visitors to 2Blowhards: Matt Thorn, a cultural anthropologist living in Japan with an interest in manga (Matt certainly deserves an award for "best job title" -- he's an "Associate Professor in the School of Manga Production at Kyoto Seika University"); Rod McKie, an accomplished and very funny cartoonist who has had work in Punch, Playboy, and the Nation Lampoon; and Jonathan Schnapp, a student with a gifted eye and a lively mind who's studying art at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Jonathan's blog led me to something I should have known about before, given my interest (however amateurish) in neuroaesthetics, namely Jon Bardin's fascinating The Third Culture, a blog devoted to neuroscience and the arts. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at August 27, 2007 | perma-link | (2) comments

Sunday, July 15, 2007


Back: Searchie, Peter, Rick
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Some of my favorite bloggers have made returns from hiatuses (hiati?) and slowdowns. In each case I'm a little late in reporting the fact -- mea culpa. But don't let my ineptness deter you from some serious blogging pleasure. * After a few months away, some of it spent in her beloved Eastern Europe, Searchie blogs again. Searchie is part punkette, part intellectual, and part Left Bank dreamer. She's unafraid of both pain and beauty, and she's always a delight. Don't miss a couple of beautiful Euro-doorways that captivated her during her recent travels; photos are shown in this posting. For my money, that's some seriously great architecture. * Back in the day, Peter Briffa was one of the bloggers who opened my eyes to the kinds of opportunities blogging was making possible. Funny, smart, offhand, both blunt and crisp, he surprises initially because of his unapologetically reactionary point of view. "Reactionary" as a positive virtue -- you don't run across that very often in the mainstream press, that's for sure. Some of Peter's postings are cryptic and merry demolitions of British media and political figures I know nothing about. (Tony Blair? Gordon Brown? Who dat?) But many are mischievous blasts of crusty and provocative good sense that even a cluelessly provincial American can enjoy. A major plus: Peter never stops giving amusing and vigorous demonstrations of the art of writing short. * On a visit to the Southeast, Rick Darby -- who recently returned to blogging after a heart scare -- ventures on and off the Interstates, and marvels at all the shapeless new sprawl straggling this way and that. Great Rick quote: The United States has added a hundred million to its population since 1970 (most of it through immigration). Rural sprawl is one result. Yet for some reason I have never been able to understand, the country remains addicted to booming population. USA Today recently carried a front page piece on the fastest growing cities, and their local officials beamed with pride. New York City's reigning idiot, Mayor Bloomberg, could hardly contain his glee at predictions that the city will add another million people in a few years. Politicans and businessmen see in population growth only more tax revenue and more customers, respectively; the rest of us see more congestion, less open space, and more herd behavior. That's a seriously good topic Rick touches on: Who are the people who promote endless and fast population growth -- raw-number growth that isn't wanted by most of us? (A striking number from that poll: "Only one in ten agreed the population should reach 400 million or more, a number some have estimated the country will reach by 2050 if current rates of immigration and fertility hold." In other words -- and I'm going to blast this loud and clear -- current U.S. policies are promoting results that 9 out of 10 Americans don't want.) Why are these powerful people forcing sharp and unwanted... posted by Michael at July 15, 2007 | perma-link | (2) comments

Tuesday, July 10, 2007


2B Is 5
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- A quick pause to raise a glass: It was five years ago today that this blog was born. Here's my first posting; here's FvB's. We certainly had a case of Stanley Kubrick on the brain! Note the complete absence of comments on both postings -- we blogged for months with almost no visitors at all. We weren't by any means the first of the cultureblogs. My impression is that Alexandra may deserve the title of First Cultureblogger. But we certainly came along early enough that the idea of a "cultureblog" was completely fresh in most people's minds. In fact, in mid-2002 the existence of something called "the blogosphere" was still a hard-to-get-used-to novelty. Blogs first came into existence in 1999, as far as I can tell. But as the chart in this David Sifry posting shows, even by mid-2003, a full year after 2Blowhards opened for business, there were still fewer than a half-million blogs in the world. The total these days: more than 35 million. I'd like to say that FvB and I started this blog with great ambitions, and with a fully-formed agenda in mind. I don't think that was the case, though. Instead, we looked at this newfangled blogging thang and thought, "Hey, that looks like an easy way to make publicly available something that we're already doing -- namely yakking with each other about what's on our minds." Blogging seemed like it might be cheap and easy -- why not give it a try? Maybe a few other people would stumble by and feel provoked, and/or want to join in. "Lazy is good," we thought. Since we were already doing our culture-yakking via email -- in other words, we were already doing a lot of writing about culture -- it should be a simple matter to copy and paste the more-interesting parts of those emails into postings and call the results a blog. Using an epistolary (ie., letters-to-each-other) format made sense for a couple of reasons. Group blogs weren't common at the time -- readers weren't yet used to visiting one blog where they'd read multiple writers. So the "Dear Blowhards" convention that we still use today seemed not only like a way of minimizing the editing we'd need to do to our emails, but also like a sensible way of keeping our voices straight. OK, I lied: We did have some big ambitions. It can be hard to remember, but only five years ago the public conversation about culture was a very narrow thing. Who got into print -- and, far more important, which thoughts, topics, and observations got into print -- were rigidly controlled: bottlenecks to the left of you, gatekeepers to the right. FvB and I wanted to do what we could to knock these barriers down, and to help the culture-conversation open up and flow, baby, flow. We also had a lot that we plain needed to get off our chests. We'd both grown interested in... posted by Michael at July 10, 2007 | perma-link | (48) comments

Sunday, July 8, 2007


At Right Reason
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Max Goss has arranged for some tantalizing midsummer guest postings at Right Reason. Click on over and enjoy. * The excellent Philip Bess has just completed an ambitious 4-part series in which he makes a very personal case for the New Urbanism: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four. Philip uses a lot of well-chosen visuals to illustrate his points. He recently contributed a guest posting about G.K.Chesterton to 2Blowhards, which you can read here. * Rod Dreher delivers the text of a speech he made a while back on the subject of Crunchy Conservatism. Part One is here; Part Two is soon to come. Whether or not you approve of the CC phenomenon, there's no denying that it's something that's in the air. Max Goss reviews Rod's book on the topic here. Eye-opening, thought-provoking cultural thinking from the minds of conservatives ... Prior to the web, who'd have known that such a thing was even possible? Best, Michael... posted by Michael at July 8, 2007 | perma-link | (7) comments

Support Steve
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- I don't know of any journalist who is doing more than Steve Sailer to get some urgently-in-need-of-recognition-and-discussion topics and stories into play. Given that this is anything but a surefire pathway to success in the journalism game, Steve's activities are bringing him far more notoriety and fans than remuneration. So if you value Steve's contributions and want to see them go on, why not join me in taking part in Steve's current fundraising drive. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at July 8, 2007 | perma-link | (5) comments

Friday, June 1, 2007


Critics Vs. Bloggers
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Critics sure can be pompous, can't they? I was recently enjoying (or rather "enjoying") a couple of pieces by or about critics linked to by ALD. In this one, Time magazine's Richard Schickel writes that webyak isn't real criticism, mocks an enthusiastic blogger / book-reviewer for having worked as a "quality-control manager for a car parts maker," and compares blogging to "yammering," "cocktail-party chat," and "finger-painting." This other piece quotes the Washington Post's Michael Dirda -- an excellent reviewer, by the way -- claiming that the traditional "book review section ... remains the forum where new titles are taken seriously as works of art and argument, and not merely as opportunities for shallow grandstanding and overblown ranting." Well, I do declare. Hmmm, let's see: I really-really enjoy my life as a web-ified arts-gabber. I enjoy it in fact so much more than I ever did my pre-web artsgab life that I rarely bother reading professional reviewers at all these days. Which I guess means that I'm a bigger fan of finger-painting and shallow grandstanding than I am of "real criticism." So be it. I do understand that people will panic and say stupid things when paradigms shift and livelihoods are threatened. And I do sympathize with people who are caught in these predicaments, really I do. On the other hand ... While most of us have been sideswiped by history a few times, few of us have had the opportunity to fill up newspaper and magazine space with our outrage, exasperation, and self-regard. It all reminds me of the days when I hung out with critics and reviewers. Many of them were bright, lively, and interesting people. But more than a few were amazingly full of themselves. While reviewing always struck me as a groovy way to handle the moneymaking part of life for those who could manage it, it struck some of my friends as a religious vocation -- a calling. I remember one reviewer speaking about criticism as a form of "bearing witness." No surprise that these high-minded types also seemed convinced that the public -- or, if not the public then their editors and bosses -- owed it to them, or maybe to humanity at large, to support "real criticism." (Just to get this out of the way and be -- yawn -- fair: I can enjoy reading good reviews and essays; I admire people who can do criticism well; I've learned from some reviewers and critics; and I'm happy to agree that criticism is a branch of literature, if a minor one. FWIW, I once wrote a blogposting about why I never made a serious attempt to become a reviewer.) In any case, it seems to me that Schickel and Dirda are missing two key points. One is that the new state of affairs isn't best thought of as a contest between great thinking and mindless babble. It's better thought-of as a new participatory openness. The germane comparison isn't between... posted by Michael at June 1, 2007 | perma-link | (23) comments

Monday, April 16, 2007


Moleskine Videos
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Showing off what you've done in your Moleskine sketchbook seems to have become a YouTube genre of its own. This guy has some serious drawing chops. I love this guy's illustration-style images. I wish I could draw like this guy, or paint like this gal. MattiasA is quite a talent. Here's his blog; it's a sketchbook in its own right, and it's full of whimsy and sophistication. His visit to a fondue restaurant gave me a good case of the giggles. Buy your own Moleskine notebooks here. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at April 16, 2007 | perma-link | (0) comments

Friday, April 13, 2007


Alexandra and Jim Blog Again
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- I'm thrilled to see that two blogging pioneers are blogging again. At Out of Lascaux, Alexandra made smart and freewheeling observations about art, and gave wonderful short art-history lessons. As one of the very first -- if not the very first -- culturebloggers, she paved the way for the rest of us, wrote with a lot of personality, and was always one of my favorite blog-addictions. I see that she has now taken up an interest in quilting. What fun: I'll be learning a little something about a great artform I know less than zilch about. Right Reason's Max Goss points out that Jim Ryan is blogging once again too. I started reading Jim's Philosoblog at about the same time that I discovered Out of Lascaux. Both weren't just delights but inspirations -- they helped me realize that real people could use blogs to be direct about what they had to say. Don't laugh: Only four or five years ago, blogging still seemed like an outlandish and dicey new development. Alexandra and Jim deserve lots of credit for, along with their other virtues, audacity and guts. Anyway, Jim combines brains and common sense in a way that I find hard to resist. He's a former philosophy professor who is also, and miraculously, a down-to-earth and intellectually generous guy. Michael Blowhard sez "Go visit! You'll get to know some lovely and insightful minds." Slightly off-topic, Michael Blowhard also sez "Go read this fab piece by Roger Scruton!" It's a response to the Richard Dawkinses of the world, and an attempt to make the case for religion. I think it's pretty brilliant. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at April 13, 2007 | perma-link | (5) comments

Tuesday, January 30, 2007


Therapy
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Ladies, is your man giving too much of his attention to websurfing and not enough to you? Then this organization may suit your needs. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at January 30, 2007 | perma-link | (0) comments

Friday, January 19, 2007


Tracked to My Lair
Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- I suppose this is old news to some of you. And should have been to me as well; alas, I pay only passing attention to most news items related to Internet-related technology. But it came as a surprise when I was scrolling the Instapundit site and noticed something oddly familiar in the advertising & links column at the right of the page. It was an Amazon.com advertisement showing five or so thumbnail covers of books by and about artist James McNeill Whistler. So?... Well, the last time I accessed Amazon's site was a few days ago to find a link to put in my recent post about a Whistler book that I'd just finished reading. This is no coincidence, thinks I, so I clicked on a privacy statement link and up popped an explanation from Amazon telling me that, yes, their computer got into my cookie jar but, no, it was all harmless. I just went back to Instapundit and the same PajamasMedia panel is showing other ads (with no special relationship to my surfing practices), so it's some sort of ad-rotation that sometimes comes up snake-eyes in my personal-space zone. Aha!! I found it again; click here if you're curious about the disclaimer. True, I'm a big Instapundit fan. Moreover, I been an Amazon customer for years. And there's nothing intrinsically wrong with informing me about stuff I might be interested in buying -- Lord knows I get a lot of invited e-mails dealing with that. Capitalist tool that I am, I'm nevertheless not happy about my friends making this kind of use of my MacBook's hard drive. (Yes, I know cookie checking is necessary for operation of the Internet.) I am over-reacting? Later, Donald... posted by Donald at January 19, 2007 | perma-link | (3) comments

Thursday, December 28, 2006


Falling, Falling ...
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump off an orbiting spaceship and plummet to Earth? This mesmerizing, eerie, and beautiful video supplies something as close to an answer as I suspect any of us will ever get. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at December 28, 2006 | perma-link | (6) comments

Thursday, December 14, 2006


iPod Youngsters
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- One-third of American teens now own an iPod. A great quote from Jim Taylor, of the group that directed the study: "Teen life has become a theatrical, self-directed media production." I'll say. All that handwaving and face-pulling and teeth-bleaching and crotch-grooming ... My own way of putting it is that "kids today behave like the videojockeys of their own MTV show," or else "kids today aspire to be Photshopped media images of themselves." Speaking of which, check out Katie, who has some tips for the boys. She's as mannered, "on," and full of attention-grabbing tics as Rachael Ray. Any hunches about Katie? Is she just a sassy youngster perpetrating some YouTube mischief? Is she a fabrication of some newfangled cyber-sort, something along the lines of LonelyGirl15? Or have we already transcended that stage and arrived at the point where real-life young women have become their own cyber-fabrications? Best, Michael... posted by Michael at December 14, 2006 | perma-link | (4) comments

Tuesday, November 28, 2006


Conundrums of the Web Age
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- On her blog, Jackie Danicki writes that she was assaulted while in the London Tube. At the top of the posting, she includes a photo she managed to shoot of her assailant. Was she right to publish this photograph? Some of her commenters think she wasn't. Mindy McAdams is more alarmed by Danicki posting the photo than by the fact that Danicki was assaulted. Samizdata's Perry de Havilland, on the other hand, cheers Danicki's action. My own hunches / feelings run along these lines: "I can certainly see the potential for vigilante-justice-style abuse. But, really, screw the worrywarts. If someone attacked me or someone I care about and I managed to snap a photo of him, I'd certainly put it on the web too. What's really worrying is the state of crime and policing in London." Also, of course: "What a funny new era we live in." What are your own hunches and feelings about the Jackie Danicki affair? Best, Michael... posted by Michael at November 28, 2006 | perma-link | (17) comments

Saturday, November 11, 2006


Meeting Reid
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Pre-flu, the Wife and I had a fine time doing a little over-lunch F-to-F with the very smart, interesting, and affable Reid Farmer -- archaelogy dude, project manager, Santa Barbara resident, and regular blogger at Steve Bodio's Querencia. (Have I raved about Querencia lately? I should have.) Reid also passed along some very amusing links that I can't keep myself from sharing. * You've heard of the "Twinkie defence"? Now someone's trying a "My GPS system told me to turn" defence. * Sometimes the LA area smells of something even more noxious than car exhaust. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at November 11, 2006 | perma-link | (1) comments

Thursday, October 26, 2006


Chris Isaak
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Chris Isaak's music sometimes doesn't do much for me. But occasionally his easy-swinging, comic/soulful, super-smooth, po-mo-Elvis, dreamboat-crooner act snaps into enjoyable focus. Herewith my faves. "Let Me Down Easy." Nice cyber-eye-candy -- and dig those cute go-go girls!: "Somebody's Crying": And, of course, the immortal "Laetitia Did a Bad, Bad Thing." The visuals count for, ahem, more than usual in the case of this particular performance: Good lord, could there be a bigger Laetitia Casta fan than YouTube denizen "Terriblegallo"? Best, Michael... posted by Michael at October 26, 2006 | perma-link | (5) comments

Saturday, October 21, 2006


Are YouTube's Wild West Days Coming to an End?
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- The pruning has begun. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at October 21, 2006 | perma-link | (0) comments

Monday, October 9, 2006


YouTube Notes
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- * Another new Oscar category that's needed in this age of mix-it-yourself media: Best YouTube Uploader. My nominee is "balansoes" from Spain. For one thing, he's heroic: 318 videos uploaded so far, many of them 5-9 minutes long. For another: Man oh man, does this guy have taste, as well as the collection of material to back it up. Vids I've enjoyed so far: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Dawn Upshaw, Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli, Marilyn Horne, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, John Eliot Gardiner, the countertenor David Daniels ... Vids I plan to get around to soon: Some hard-to-find documentaries, including an interview with Jorge Luis Borges and another with Vladimir Nabokov ... A series entitled "The Art of Conducting" featuring get-togethers with and long performance samples from the likes of Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein, and Arturo Toscanini ... Any nominees from other YouTube junkies for the Best Uploader Award? * Did you notice that YouTube has just been bought by Google for $1.65 billion? * What will the consequences of the deal be? One widespread suspicion is that the lawyers will soon be swarming, with the effect that YouTube will no longer be the wide-open, copyright-defying playground that it has been. Or, as LAist bluntly asks, "Google Buys YouTube, Will YouTube Start to Suck?" Which might mean that the vids so lovingly uploaded by "balansoes" and others may not be around for us to enjoy forever. Oh dear, oh dear ... Oh phew: This good piece of software for Macs does a nice job of downloading YouTube vids onto your very own hard drive. Why live at the mercy of Google? Personal use only, of course ... Best, Michael... posted by Michael at October 9, 2006 | perma-link | (4) comments

Saturday, October 7, 2006


Half-Assed
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Apologies for nonexistent blogging over the last few days. I've been sick, and every time I've sat down to pull a blogposting together I've been able to take the mini-project only about halfway to completion. Hard to believe, I suppose, but I generally try to give my blogpostings a little pizzaz, shape, and focus. Links, general thoughts, Big Questions, etc ... I love doing it, but it does take some effort. Over the last few days, though, what with the illness (I'll be fine soon, thanks), the will to pull together a typical "Michael Blowhard blogposting," whatever that is, simply hasn't been there. But I woke up this morning feeling a little less droopy, and thinking, "Why get hung up on such matters as will, focus, and concentration? Stuff rattles around the noggin whether I'm sick or not, god knows. Why not share some of it in a less gussied-up way? That could be interesting and fun too!" So, for the next few days, here goes: half-assed, un-dolled-up, illness-addled half-musings. Please take 'em in the spirit in which they're offered ... Best, Michael... posted by Michael at October 7, 2006 | perma-link | (2) comments

Monday, July 10, 2006


Googling on Oneself
Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- C'mon. Admit it. Once upon a time -- let's say it was at the office on a Friday afternoon when it was 20 minutes before quitting time and you were totally bored out of your skull -- you hopped on the Internet, called up Google and proceeded to Google yourself. Andy Warhol's famous remark about everyone getting their "15 minutes of fame" predates the Internet, so perhaps he was thinking of being above the fold on page A1 of The New York Times. Or maybe anywhere in People magazine (hope they spelled the person's name correctly -- that's what counts). That was then. Now our/your/their fame can be quantified (something that brings a sprig of joy to my data-loving heart). All you have to do after Googling yourself is look at the upper-right part of the report Google sends back for an approximate number of citations the system found for your query. Okay, not all hits refer to you. But you can skim through a couple of screens to get an idea as to what share of them were truly yours. Back before I was (ahem) raised to Blowhard-dom, I boasted 50-ish citations total from various permutations of my name. These were mostly from references to web-based government publications, some articles I wrote in reference to computer languages, and a few references to a book I wrote ages ago. As I started writing this I Googled on "Donald Pittenger" and got 739 hits. Most of the ones from the first few pages were indeed references to me, mostly having to do with blog posts. A check on a later page turned up a larger proportion of Donald Pittengers who aren't (or weren't) me. "Don Pittenger" turned up 104 hits, but not many had to do with me. On the other hand, "Donald B. Pittenger" yielded a princely 14 hits, nearly all mine, mine, mine. Excited by results of my quest, I Googled the other main Blowhards. Michael got an astonishing 52,600 hits. Then I tried his real name and turned up more than 800: the guy really gets around. Friedrich yielded 12,800. I suppose I should be jealous, but he's smarter than I am and writes (mostly) about weighty topics instead of the silly stuff I often churn out. So of course the Internet gives him greater fame. (Friedrich's real name is a fairly common one so it got almost 100,000 hits, none on the first page or two seemed to have to do with him.) Conclusions? Apparently the new path to world conquest, fame-wise, involves having a blog presence (though I suppose hiring a good public relations consultant still wouldn't do you any harm). But even (Internet-) innocent bystanders can get swept up by Google's tentacles. My wife and children got a few hits even though they don't blog (though my son has a Web site). What do you think about Web fame? Eat it up? Recoil in horror? Castigate it publicly yet... posted by Donald at July 10, 2006 | perma-link | (19) comments

Friday, June 9, 2006


Elsewhere
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- * I recently learned via Peter L. Winkler that the well-known showbiz personal manager Jay Bernstein has died. Bernstein, often to be seen on the E! Channel reminiscing about his glory days, literally started in the mailroom at William Morris, then later helped make the careers of Suzanne Sommers and Farrah Fawcett. Peter interviewed Bernstein once and liked him. * Did you know that Americans dispose of 472 billion pounds of trash every year? That's only 2 percent of the country's total waste stream -- industrial refuse accounts for the rest. Let's see ... 50 times 472 billion ... (Sound of awesome computer-brain crunching great big numbers ...) That's a whole lot of trash. Can this really be true? * James Kunstler wonders what a contemporarary Progressivism might look like. * So now we need to worry about milk? * Quiet Bubble confesses that he generally prefers novellas to novels. I'm with him on that. * I have no idea what a good Bollywood musical sequence would look like -- popular Indian movies are a weak spot in my film education. But I was amused by this one, especially when the chorus joins in and everyone sings and dances in unison. MGM meets Shiva and Ganesha! * Take your friends out for a cruise on this old/modern beauty. Cost? A mere 300 grand a week. * Swinging through on a visit, Colleen sees the Midwest for what it is. I found Colleen's #9 especially, even urgently, true: "When visiting land-locked states and given a choice between the fish or the beef, pick the beef. Seriously." * Ginny finds evidence of Hard and Soft America at the junior college where she teaches. * Steve is growing a little weary of the Wall Street Journal. * Anyone intrigued or annoyed by my recent musings about movie reviewing should enjoy exploring Andy Horbal's recent bouquet of movielinks. * Medieavalist Jeff pays a visit to Whole Foods and finds a little bit of Olde Iceland on a shelf. * How did I miss this when it first came out -- a Roger Scruton appreciation of Jane Jacobs. Fun to see that Scruton includes some praise for James Kunstler too. Scruton and Kunstler (and of course Jacobs) rank very high in my pantheon of writers about architecture and urbanism. I wrote my own love letter to Jacobs here. Scruton recently wrote a posting (and a followup) about the ethics of meat-eating for Right Reason. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at June 9, 2006 | perma-link | (14) comments

Monday, June 5, 2006


2Blowhards Scores Again
Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards: Michael is either busy or modest, so let me note that 2Blowhards got linked by Arts & Letters Daily yesterday. The link was to Michael's post on movie reviewing. Look for it in the right-hand "Essays and Opinion" column. Later, Donald... posted by Donald at June 5, 2006 | perma-link | (2) comments

Wednesday, May 31, 2006


Thanks to Sluggo
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- I was sorry to see that, after three years of inspired blogging, Mike Hill is giving it up. He has a life that needs attending-to and a novel that wants to be written. Besides, three years of blogging is a long and terrific run. Although Mike has always been one of the blogosphere's most engaging storytellers, he also deserves a lot of credit for wit, earthiness, and generosity -- he tosses off perceptions and wisecracks at an amazing rate while never ceasing to be relaxed and friendly in his manner. I'll miss Mike's blogging a lot, but I'm looking forward to his novel, and I'm hoping he won't fall out of touch completely. Here's a wonderful and characteristic passage from a recent Mike posting: I'm on a week's vacation and it looks like I'll miss my goal, as usual, of putting aside two complete days with nothing to do. It's the single most difficult thing in the world for the Goddess to understand ... She'll say 'What are you going to do today?' I'll say 'absolutely nothing' and she'll look at me for a moment and ask 'What are you going to do today?' Will not penetrate. Her head would explode fifteen minutes into my ideal day. This afternoon we're taking off for a long weekend in Lake George. I'm thinking Adirondack chair on the lawn, beer in my hand, watching the Hudson roll past. She's thinking -- I don't even want to think about what she's thinking, it'll wear me out. That tells me more about men, women, and marriage than entire Updike novels have. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at May 31, 2006 | perma-link | (4) comments

Elsewhere
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards * The Communicatrix has some sensible -- and, as always, saltily-phrased -- advice for gals sans boyfriends. * Fred Reed nails much of what it's like to be a guy. I imagine guys all over the country asking their gals to read Fred's short essay: "Sorry, honey, but that's just the way it is." * The Patriarch got me giggling by self-identifying as "a commuter," then made me laugh out loud with this brief posting. * Game Theory is certainily clever -- but does anyone actually use it? * Susie Bright asks a Playboy editor how he went about compiling a list of the sexiest novels ever written. * In which we learn that surprises are not good for the health. * Crunchy Con, meet Radical Reactionary. Rod Dreher likes Bill Kauffman's new book, "Look Homeward, America." And here's a blog that should make the Crunchy-haters happy. Rod Dreher is blogging here. * Evo-bio-freak alert: Here's a collection of interviews with some of the field's biggees -- Trivers, Dawkins, Hrdy ... And here's a long Salon interview with E.O. Wilson. * Photoshop and real life sometimes merge in NSFW ways. * Mistress Matisse wants you to be a good boy. * Somehow it doesn't come as a complete surprise to learn that Marie Osmond's daughters have been acting out a little too freely on their MySpace pages. * Did your foxy 8th grade teacher ever send you videos like this one? Mine neither, darn it. How I wish I were still getting over that kind of trauma! * This is certainly one of the most elaborate pranks I've ever run across. * Dean Baker wonders why nurses are being picked on. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at May 31, 2006 | perma-link | (6) comments

Monday, May 1, 2006


Visit These
Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Ilkka at Sixteen Volts has a wonderfully droll (and fearless) way of asking difficult questions. Dirk Thruster admires machines, skewers politics, and assaults pretentions with a lot of shrewd brainpower and rowdy good humor. Are there 2Blowhards visitors who haven't discovered Peter's Iron Rails and Iron Weights? Ostensibly a diary of Peter's commutes and workouts, it's also a vehicle for his (often funny and always dry) observations and musings. There's much Beckettian entertainment to be had from following Peter's adventures in the train and at the gym. Citron, a former clergyman, has a generous, dignified, and impish eye that he runs over politics, people, and retirement life in Arizona. I especially loved his recent posting about how modern entertainment has become so loud. Best, Michael... posted by Michael at May 1, 2006 | perma-link | (5) comments

Tuesday, March 21, 2006


Morning Coffee With Blogroll
Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- Umm. [Stretch.] AhhUhh. [Yawn.] Torpor. Entropy. Sloth, even. It's setting in. Eyelids closing ... slowly. Must ... resist ... temptation ... to ... sleep. And I gotta ... come up with ... a subject for ... a blog post. [Sl