Blogs: Modern Day Coffee Houses
Here’s my shallow insight of the day, which you’ll already know if you read the title above, which should probably teach me to do a better job of managing expectations and creating interest: blogs are an interesting development of the coffee house phenomenon of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Here of course, I use phenomenon to mean unexplained and possibly unexplainable occurence rather than exciting new development as in Tearing up the US charts is the British Pop Phenomenon, the Beatles!
Funny word, phenomenon. Ever hear that classic song from The Muppet Show? It’s called ma-na-ma-na or something. Phenomenon is kind of similar, at least when you use it several types in one paragraph. That was a classic sketch, by the way. Not quite John Belushi, but amusing.
Where was I? Oh yeah, coffee houses. Actually, a cuppa sounds good right about now. Hang on, I’ll be right back….
Changed my mind. Good old Coke Classic instead, in a styrofoam cup with ice. Aaah. Doesn’t get much better than this.
Where was I? Oh yeah. Well the thing was, at least in theory, in those heady days of social conscience and activism, if you cared at all about anything you would hang out at a coffee house. These weren’t Starbucks with free wifi. That’s so today, so shallow. Instead, somebody who got it, who really got it, would either recite poetry or sing poetry set to music. They would tell the world about its shortcomings and thereby improve the planet and life for all its inhabitants.
Now, keep in mind, I wasn’t actually there. There were coffee houses when I was growing up, but I wasn’t allowed to go seeing as how I wasn’t even a teenager yet. Besides, we were not in a trendy part of the world. We were in a small city in the midwest, thousands of miles and a couple of decades away from trendy.
The way I picture it, though, was that there were a handful of really talented, really devoted people spending untold hours writing and practicing and singing to get the message out. Like anything else, they were surrounded by dabblers, incompetents, and wannabes. But this core was sincere and talented. They sparked something, lit a fuse, and influenced a generation. The fact that we mostly remember the posers doesn’t change the contributions of the core group.
I see a parallel with bloggers. There are a lot of talented people blogging about things that matter. I’d like to be one, but chances are I’m just a wannabe. My lame comments and obvious “insights” shouldn’t reflect poorly on the stars.
There are a couple of cool differences, though. First, it’s hard to sing anonymously, but this blog (among others) doesn’t work too hard to publicize the author. I don’t really have anything to hide, I just am a private person and I want to say some things here that I would have trouble saying if my name was written in large caps all over the site. Anybody who really cared could find me very easily. Heck, just email me and sound like a real person….
The second difference is also obvious: the audience is no longer limited to the group of people who can make it to a physical location at a fixed time. These words here will live forever, or until I don’t feel like paying $9.99 a month, whichever comes first. Anyone who has internet access, from Outer Mongolia to Timbuktoo to Boise can take part. I have mixed feelings about this. The old way, there was some barrier to pass each time someone could reach a wider audience. Wanna make it in Sioux City? Well, you have to have more talent than it took to perform at the West Hicksville Junior High Talent Show. Minneapolis? That’s a big step up from Sioux City. On teh internets, though, everyone who’s interested has to wade through the online equivalent of gong show rejects to find anything good. If I have talent, it’s harder for people to find me. If not, well, it’s still hard for people to find me but more will than I deserve.
So, what’s my point? I have two:
- People are getting involved. This is good. We all need to tie into something and this gives a lot of a chance.
- Most of us don’t have talent. Talent for writing, that is. I truly believe we’ve all got some kind of talent. It may take more development and effort for some of us, but it’s there in everyone. It is not a talent for writing in everyone. In fact, most people’s writing is dreadful. I’d like to think I reach, at a bare minimum, crummy.
