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Author: Tom Coates
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On Fictional Weblogging…
Ok – it’s occurred to all of us at one time or another – weblogging is based upon the presumption of authenticity – people actually writing about their own lives. But this presumed authenticity is almost certainly to a greater or lesser extent a fantasy – while I’m sure most webloggers don’t lie about their lives, I’d be surprised if people were not selectively choosing what to write about in such a way that would alter people’s perceptions of their life.
So I’m sure it’s occurred to many of us at certain times to set up fictional weblogs – to generate completely articificial online personae. I know that it’s occurred to Matt and Nick because they’ve both talked about it with me. But what no one has yet talked about is undertaking weblogs of already established fictional characters. I mean – it would be a tremendous fan site for Buffy to have a weblog ostensibly maintained by Willow, with links and commentary based around what happened to her in the latest episode. And from a more literary perspective, a weblog based upon Sherlock Holmes writing each day about his cases (assembling itself into a chronology of the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) might be both interesting and academically valuable. Are there any weblogs like this out there? If not, why not?
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Why weblogs are wonderful…
By writing about the Minor Musings piece on the reasons for ‘weblogging’, I suppose I’m really rather missing the point, but nonetheless it’s worth talking about. I think it’s important that we have these conversations (at least with ourselves) every so often: ‘why am I doing this?’. If anything, the longer you maintain a site like this, the more you should be asking it of yourself, and (indeed) the more times you might be stumped for an answer.
In many ways, in the presentation of this site, the last thing that I’m thinking about is whether or not I should be finding new and exciting links for people out there in the ether. So in a sense I’m not a weblogger in the classic mode. But then, I’m not sure that many of us are. The links and commentary approach is, at its most simple form, rather uninteresting. My priorities are slightly different – first and foremost I think of this place as somewhere that I can write – and I use the hypertextual nature of the web to reinforce that writing. It’s like tracing an intellectual flow – following through the impulses that one has in some worked-out and public form, and in a place where they are not merely lost forever.
People read my site, and I have to confess that I like that, but I’ve run a lot of sites (fan sites, personal sites, creative sites) and a lot of people have come to those too. In the end I’ve deserted most of them. The thing that keeps me coming back to plasticbag.org every day is the opportunity to spark off a discussion, or to say something in a place where I know I’ll be heard. I suppose it is a space where my opinions feel valuable, interesting to people. And if weblogging gives other people the same feeling – well I can’t helping thinking that it is, therefore, a profoundly wonderful thing.
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An internet café for the mind…
I’ve found this internet café on Melrose called @coffee, which is quite cool, although vastly more expensive than places like easyeverything in London. It’s given me a little time to relax with the net – write a little, think some stuff through – generally to get a little head rest. If you can imagine the brain as a muscle imagine mine as tight and contracted – it feels a bit like there isn’t space down any synapse for a pulse of thought to travel. Fucking around on the net seems to let my brain relax – to slump like mush and swill around the bottom of my skull. It’s more relaxing than it sounds. I need this sensation of emptying stress and excess thought from my mind… Nothing else quite does it for me…
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Valentine’s Day arrives like any other…
Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles arrives the same way as every other day, as far as I can tell – I’ve been up since nine in the morning, and I can expect to wait until midday or one pm before I have any company. The weather has finally broken – it looks really sunny outside, although it’s still pretty chilly. I’m off to meet some people from barbelith.com in an hour or so.
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In LA for the Oscar Nominations…
I’m in LA for the release of the Oscar nominations, and they are a fairly mixed bag. The most important categories (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay) are mostly shared between ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, ‘Erin Brokovich’, ‘Quills’, ‘Traffic’, ‘The Contender’ and ‘Chocolat’ – but with notable appearances from ‘Almost Famous’ and ‘Requiem for a Dream’. One film dominates though: Crouching Tiger with a total of ten nominations, but even this is matched by the combined nominations for Steven Soderbergh’s competing films. Notable (and delighful) absence from Best Film: ‘CastAway’.
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Experimenting with Melatonin in the US…
I am currently trying out Melatonin pills as a way to regulate my sleep patterns while I’m out here, as not only do I have the eight hour time difference to deal with, but I also must content with my gorgeous hosts’ nocturnal debauchery. Essentially this amounts to a thirteen hour time difference from how I live in London.
It has rained pretty much constantly since I arrived in the city that Time Out says has ‘possibly the most temperate climate in the world’. Last week apparently was near tropical heat. Next week is expected to be more pleasant as well. In the meantime though, this makes two trips out of three to LA which have ended in near flooding. I must be cursed in some way.
I am having a cool time though – went to see a cheerleader movie yesterday with Kerry and Sean. I was hoping that the movie would resemble in some form the awesome ‘Bring it On‘. It didn’t. In fact ‘Sugar and Spice‘ sucked arse. Don’t see it.
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Jet-lagged in Los Angeles…
I’ve arrived in Los Angeles (near Santa Monica and Vine if that means anything to anyone), and am experiencing yet again the wonders of sleep deprivation and chronic jet-lag. I’m not at my best at the moment, that much is for sure.
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Shortly to leave for Los Angeles…
Announcement: It is now 10am GMT, and in two hours I will be leaving my flat and heading trans-Atlantically to Los Angeles to stay with Kerry and Sean. Since the flight takes about eleven hours, I am unlikely to post again today. I think I arrive about 2am GMT (7pm PST) at LAX. I’m back next Sunday evening. In the meantime I will, of course, attempt to post whenever I can – but no promises. [What I posted when I went last year.]
While I am out there, however, I would be more than interested in meeting any LA based webloggers or members of the Underground – although bear in mind that I have obligations to my hosts, which may preclude rampant socialising. If you’re in LA over the next week and you’d like to meet up, send me an e-mail. I may not reply if I get swamped, but please don’t hold it against me. I’m on holiday goddammit!
While we are on the subject, (and since I only compiled the links page of timeout.com’s Los Angeles pages a couple of weeks ago), here is a collection of links that might be of interest to locals and/or visitors to the City of Angels: LA Times | LA Insider | Streets of LA | Virtual Voyages | The Getty | LA Weekly | City of Los Angeles.
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$10 In Adwords
I’ve just invested $10 in buying sponsored links on Google because I thought it might be a laugh. It is indeed a laugh. I’m targeting people who don’t have anything better to do with their time than muck around on my site. Unfortunately, the search terms I have sponsored have only been entered six times all day. Very much recommended. [Addendum: Click here!]
