When I said it was blog fatigue, I wasn't lying.
Too busy with other stuff to think about blogging. The "press of business" or something like that. Catching up on my blog reading. Still trying to decipher Cevola's allusions and elisions.
There's more to it than that, of course. I've been talking with some close associates. I've been having a dialogue between my own Self and my Soul. At least one of them is deeply dissatisfied with my work.
I think it's time
to change directions on mondosapore. Less personal and idiosyncratic. More about Serious Wine Topics. Reviews. A scoring system (NB: every wine will be given 90 or higher. A halfway decent one will get a 95.) Fewer but more in-depth stories. Less about my so-called life and more about...you know. Things people actually give a shit about.
This is not a plea for your tearful responses to persist in my folly, eg, "Your blog is your soul spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table, you! mon frere, mon semblable!" blah blah blah. Not if I hope to join the major leagues of wine blogging, if I want to Be Somebody. If I want a vast multinational readership and commercial success. If I want something that's long eluded me. Success. Money. Quotability. The unexamined life.
That's right, folks. I want to be the American Martin Amis. Only not as arrogant and off-putting. Not that snobbish and self-adoring.
Nice dress, Marty
Stern, mandarinish
OMG
Posted by: Marco | April 24, 2008 at 08:04 PM
boooo! hissss!
well, if you are going to go for the gusto, i guess do it as best you can and give it your all. good luck, dear uncle.
Posted by: Mo | April 25, 2008 at 09:02 AM
Mo, I say all sorts of things. Don't ever take me at face value...I hope I'll always have some hyper-ironic tricks up my sleeve.
Posted by: TH | April 25, 2008 at 09:05 AM
Maybe I should just start another blog. You know, the Serious one. For Serious people. For people who are starved for another Authoritative voice.
To tell you the truth, I got sleepy just writing that.
Posted by: TH | April 25, 2008 at 09:08 AM
i don't think the unexamined life has eluded you.
Posted by: Fredric Koeppel | April 25, 2008 at 10:53 AM
Now I'm hurt. Not only hurt but astonished. Not only astonished but outraged. Hasn't all my online, recessive, obsessive navel-gazing and airing of dirty laundry indicated an examined life? And, by the way, it's torture -- excrucior!
Posted by: TH | April 25, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Terry please change pusher this one is giving you bad drugs :)
Posted by: Gabrio Tosti | April 25, 2008 at 04:02 PM
i don't think that the examined life has eluded you either
see double negatives create such ambiguity
Posted by: Marco | April 25, 2008 at 04:09 PM
Gabrio, this is a problem. Need. More. Wine. Nectar of Bacchus, the best drug of all.
Mario, I dunno...I think FK WAS slapping me down -- made it sound like I have been a shallow, feckless type of guy. Well, no one can dispute feckless.
And to all -- I am going to resolve to be more serious, etc., but I will find it hard. I may fail. I may make yet a bigger fool of myself. Only time will tell.
Very exciting to see a madman teeter on the edge of the precipice, eh?
Posted by: TH | April 25, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Er, that was Marco, not Mario. Got Mario on my mind, gonna see him next week. (Mario of "Gravner's wines are dirty" fame.)
Posted by: TH | April 25, 2008 at 06:12 PM
thank you Marco for getting the point.....
Posted by: fredric koeppel | April 25, 2008 at 08:09 PM
fume espiritu + vino
smoke two before you smoke
Posted by: Marco | April 25, 2008 at 08:15 PM
FK, still not sure you stated it right but I will trust in your good intentions.
See you and LL soon.
Domani partiamo per Venezia.
Posted by: TH | April 25, 2008 at 08:33 PM
What??
"Fewer but more in-depth stories. Less about my so-called life and more about...you know. Things people actually give a shit about."
Less is less, more is more. My grandfather said, "look before you leap, than leap anyway". Sounds like you have the old loss-of-faith-is-raising-its-ugly-head thing. The things other people give a shit about is their karma, not your's. Just be mindful and do no harm.
Mondosapore is a unique viewpoint. Perhaps loose the blog/advertising/acheiving thing, and just tell your story. That's all there is.
Posted by: Richard Peden | April 26, 2008 at 12:32 AM
Thanks for the POV, Richard. You know, this is the only writing "venue" where I've ever just allowed myself to be me, ugly mental carbuncles and all. Every other one was to persuade a client to buy an ad campaign, or to persuade people that I was a serious novelist, or whatever. So mondosapore has, as you imply, evolved to be "my story" with all its good parts and dumb parts and a lot of highs and lows.
So thanks to you for the thought-provoking comment.
Finally, a big grazie to Gabrio for a persuasive offline conversation on this matter yesterday. A presto, caro, e non dimenticare il vino dell'anniversario!
Posted by: TH | April 26, 2008 at 09:30 AM
maybe a triple negative?
be safe and have fun.
Posted by: fredric koeppel | April 26, 2008 at 10:53 AM
T
whatever changes that you've been planning or will be planning,i will still be 'loyal' to mondosapore..heheh.. besides what are you going to lose?
if it doesn't work, you can always change it back to the 'old' you rite?
whatever it is..i'll stick with it..
Posted by: Ronald | April 28, 2008 at 08:59 AM