Blaaaagh

Here's what I hate about blogs: They pull you in quickly with the voice of the writer, the POV, the je ne sais quoi -- maybe the graphics (where ARE all those cooler looking blog templates? Where can I get one?) -- and then...THEY AREN'T UPDATED! At least not regularly, as in daily.

Come on, people, if you're gonna blog, the blog being an instantaneous publication genre, then you're gonna have to blog daily. Daily updates are, in fact, the nature of a blog. By definition, you see. Otherwise, it's just too easy.

And if blogging is going to enter the fray as an aspiring artform (as the novel did in the 17th century), then it needs to be difficult because, as Donald Barthelme said, "Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult. Art is difficult because it wishes to be art."

I have high hopes for the blog. Or else, I have high hopes for my blog. I have this dream of blogging becoming an internationally recognized legitimate genre, complete with big advances and "blog" deals (instead of book deals), movie options, speaking engagements, cushy university teaching posts. Nobel Prizes. The best bloggers will be banded together by superstar networks. When, from these blogstars' sites, you click onto other blogs, you are riveted and fascinated by the company they keep.

I used to be in a band -- called Shag (before Austin Powers movies). I was in this band for 7 years, but I never harbored dreams of becoming a rockstar because of it. A few of my friends and several fans told me that if I wanted to be a rockstar, I could be. I just needed a good manager. The effort it would take to become a rockstar seemed like a lot of trouble to me. If I were gonna become a rockstar, it was gonna have to be accidental -- like backing my car into a ditch. I never wanted to be a rockstar that much anyway.

But I do want to be a BLOGSTAR. Blaaaaghstar!!