mission statement
Introduction:
“Entertainment” - and here there is no need to affix a pejorative such as “bad” to “entertainment” as there is no such thing as “good entertainment” to distinguish it from - shares this in common with the blogging phenomenon: a lowest common readership denominator.
Both, moreover, are increasingly and intimately subject to the ineluctable rule of “reality programming” that flood our social space and minds. The imperative of reality programming began with the chat show, the classics spawned its daily early morning, mid afternoon scions presented by overly sensitive, eager to comfort women of the world. The blog is just another aspect of this logic.
If, therefore, weblogs are but manifestations of “the reality imperative”, where irreverent narcisistic jottings are self-imbued with a particularly presumptuous hue, we nonetheless decline this mass invitation and remain content in, and commited to, forging a critical perspective to social-cultural phenomenon in their historical specificity. To do anything less is to betray Nietzsche’s dancing star.
Therefore, this latest incarnation of a dancing star! is a grappling with the following confusions and premises.
take note:
blogging kills brain cells;
incestouous cross net-, blog-referencing breeds conformity and dulls critical thought;
creative writing nourishes deadened minds;
new age spirituality is bunk;
the challenge is to cross the virtual-print duality without jeopardising either;
reading flourishes;
love’s way is seldom transparent;
debts are perpetual; debts must be repaid.
In this unrelenting battle, we too have our slogans to combat the tide of egalitarian dumbing down. “Blogging reduces brain size!” Just like the revolutionaires of Red, we despatch our bullets crying “Choose life, not blog!”
With the above in mind, a dancing star! also hereby unveils its latest format: a weekly entry - that what is called Cronica; reviews of non-virtual text.
guidelines:
The creators of a dancing star! solemnly promise never, ever to make fun of stupid people, or clever people, or dogs, however much we are tempted to.
We do reserve the right to point out instances of wastages, to wit: whereby a book (or journal, musical release, cultural phenomenon, site) and / or its author (or composer, artist, blogger) - through action or inaction, wilful or otherwise - has the effect of depleting (natural or other) resources, whether time, bandwidth, money, affection or other - without good cause.
Think of this website as the on-line, blog equivalent of what the late Bill Hicks used to deliver during his stand-up routines. Note: I do not compare either this site or myself with the late, great Mr. Hicks, merely our shared function in this universe.
typology of blogs:
1. The “this-is-what-I-did-in-school-today” site, complete with text speak and other indecipherable words. Boring. Best to avoid.
2. The “this-is-what-I-did-at-home-today” site, complete with recipes. Boring. Best to avoid.
3. The “this-is-what-I-did-at-home-today-and-I-had-my-camera-with-me” site. Boring. Best to avoid.
It may well be that the blogging phenomenon - one based on repetition, recording and documentation - is a mirroring of the publishing world, and part of a larger tendency altogether, but that does not make it any less offensive to modern sensibility.
the idiocy of blogs:
Two sites have dealt with this topic:
“Why your Movable Type blog must die” and Why I ***ing Hate Weblogs! Read them.
