I don’t really know how (let alone why) I and others write this stuff – in that I wake up, have no clue, read some places I read every day and soon find myself a bit amazed how even a small review of the day in the life of a handful of people is so startling. Compared to the seriousness of the news, the weight of things in life, and even the passage of a marker like Kurt’s suicide (not a biggie for me except as a parallel to Lennon’s murder the morning of my grade 11 Christmas English exam), this stuff should be fluff. While it is not journalism despite how much some pretend, it still, however, has heft or connection.
Take Ian, who I have praised here from time to time. I have followed him daily (then six times a week) through the writer’s life of thick and thin and now he’s apparently going through the junior apprentice TV writer program at Fox – the kind of thing we BA in English Lit. grads dreamed of (…err…I mean…”of which we dreamed.”) Craig’s in Australia…again…yawn. Rob1 posts an odd graphical representation of what the workplace appears to be like and then edits it but it still looks a lot like Alanis at the Junos. Shelly’s getting published and Mike is on the mend. Ben is looking for work in Georgia and Michael might be able to assist. Like Rob2, I am also following the playoffs and American Idol. I guess my gut feeling when I sit down to do this each morning before rushing out the door is that following the thoughts and experiences of ordinary folk like me must be dull. Then it isn’t.
What is the lesson? The real news leaves you dislocated. Heck, they even spend millions to put together Average Joe 2, hooks you in and then he goes and picks the wrong girl, the ditz. That was dull. Pretty much sent my week off on the wrong direction. Watching fake professional reality is nowhere near as satisfying as watching amateur reality. I hope Ian is paying attention.