inaugral aftrthougts in YIII

Buddies,

In th middle o this munt, The Joey Polanski Show began its third year in th blogassfear. In th celebratory post, I reminiscd a bit about some o th fokes I met in th blogassfear who, fer one reasn or anothr, nevr became cmmittd playrs on th Polanski Show stage. By no means did I tell all th storys I mighta told in that regard. Ovr at th Show, I dont like t dwell on th negative, and I dont cnsider th JPS to be a place fer reggalr rantin.

Here at th Hole, howevr, a little off-th-cuff reflecktion & critickle commentary might be appropriate.

Evr since I firs startd bloggin, back in mid-July o 2005, I been “taggin” blogskis — meanin, I been leavin comments on blogs that lookd somewhat like theys bein run by fokes who might like “mixin it up,” JPS-style. And whenevr I taggd a blogski, I bookmarkd it as well, sos I coud check in ockasionaly & see what that bloggr been up to. (Also, th bookmark lemme acksess alla MY stuff in th blogassfear — evn isolatd & incidental coments.)

Ovr th years, I been adjustin th “organization” o them bookmarks. Like, if theres a blog Im “scoutin” fer a possible JPS linkski, I might put that booksmark in my “Dailys” foldr. Well, I got a “Scraps” foldr too. Thats fer blogskis I done taggd & finaly givd up on.

Since I told em storys ovr at JPS, I done a little browsin ovr at many o th blogs I bookmarkd but stoppd checkin out reggalrly — many o these in th infamous “Scraps” foldr. Thats what inspird the followin commentary.

Now I think th blogassfear is big enuff fer evryone. Bloggrs dont hafta blog Polanski-style if they dont wanna; but, that havin been said, I gotta say that some fokes blog inna way, or for a reasn, that I jus cant undrstan. I mean: Why create sompm in cybrspace that is interacktive by its very nature and then proceed to discourage interacktion? Im a-thinkin of a blog I was visitin fer a while, runnd by a chick who at least tended to respond to th coments I left. Well, she done that when I firs startd postin coments there, and then she kinda startd ignorin me. Well, aftr a while, her blogs bookmark went right inta th “Scraps” foldr, and I quit visitin. Not too long ago, I lookd at her blogski fer th firs time in a real long time, and to my srprise shes still postin reggalrly evn tho NO ONE posts coments there (cept autospammrs). But that dont slow her down one little bitski. She jus posts & posts & posts. Whatnaheck for? — I cant help but wondr.

Im guessin that some fokes blog at work, jus t kill th boredom o workin. Its a time-killin exrcise coupld wif evryday web-surfin acktivity. Probly they gots real-world friendskis who look at th blogski and who maybe do a little bloggin emselfs, but none of ems evr bothr to interackt in th blogassfear. Prhaps they talks in th real world about each othrs blogskis, and thats all th blog-relatd “interacktion” they needs. To each his own, I guesski, and I sppose I coud manage to get SOME kick outta doin th Polanski Show evn if I coont tell whethr anyone was readin it; but Im absolutely POSITIVE that Id get LESS of a kick outta it than I do when I gots plenny o witty wack-jobs chimin in post aftr post like I do.

There was anothr chick who woud respon to th coments I left ovr at her blog, and evn made one or two apearances at th JPS; but she had a “bloggin style” that I did not wanna encourage, so I quickly abandond her. More prcisely, she bloggd much in th style o one-time Polanski Show semi-reggalr, Chatul (whom I always calld “CAT”): her response to coments I left at HER blog would be left as coments at MY blogski, which realy tended to undrmine th “fun” in th coments-secktion at JPS. She ustas post on all kindsa “heavy” topicks, like th deff-pennlty & stuff. So imagine some goofy Polanski-style post atracktin coments about how serios is th takin of human life — shit like att. I like gettin coments ovr at JPS, and it crtainly goes against my grain to DISCOURAGE fokes from commentin; but thats all presupposin that fokes typickly can discern th sorta … ummm … th sorta art that Im attemptin t create ovr at JPS.

By th way, CAT always got a “pass” in this regard — evn tho her coments oftn tended to undrmine th “art” of th comments secktion. This is because CAT is a Polish girl — shes only in her mid-teens — and she is VERY unprackticd at English. So it woud be very HARD fer me to esplain to her how her “out-o-th-blue” coments at JPS were … ummm … out o place. Id a-rathrd see her responses to coments I left at her blog appear on HER blog, and a-rathrd her coments at JPS relate to th publishd posts at JPS. But remembr: CAT coud read Polish, and she coud SORTA read English, but my … ummm … my polack English was a bit beyond her. Im quite sure she dint know WHATnaheck my posts was sayin. So I coont quite bring myself to discourage her rathr strange interacktion wif th Polanski Show.

Also, I shoud say that, of all th bloggrs who at any time durin th histry o th JPS made frequent appearances on th Polanski Show stage, CAT seems t be th only one who found th JPS entirely on her own. Its well-known by now how I, in th very ERLYEST days o th JPS, went out & FOUND Doc Murk (who has since dvelopd “Polanski issues” and has abandond his long-time association wif th Polanski Show) and Tom Serafini and Lil Noodle (who seems to have quit bloggin) and HissyFitz (whos still bloggin, but who seems to have dveloped some kinda “Polanski issue” and has begun disassociatin herself from th JPS. (Wif th beginnin o YIII at JPS, the las two lost their long-standin JPS linkskis.) Its also well-known how I went out & found th Revrend Anaglyph, and how my association wif HIM (dreckly or indreckly) led to virtually EVRY othr JPS association (includin th association wif Mike, which led in turn to sevral othr valued JPS associations). But to this day, I have NO CLUE how CAT came to be associatd wif JPS.

Fer bettr or werse, CAT seems to have lost intrest in bloggin. Ah, well … I guess we gots t expeckt that what strikes ya as hot when yer fourteen dont seem quite so cool when yer fipteen.

There was a chick who was a ockasional respondr ovr at th blog o one-time JPS-affiliate, Salbert, who seemd t have a prtickularly populr blog (tho Im pretty sure that its apparent popularity was due to th fackt that her blogski was known to many o her real-world palskis) who woud respond to th coments I left ovr at her blogski, but her responses was cursory — almos dismissive — and evn bordrd on mean-spiritd. Guess what! Yep: “Scraps” file! Last I lookd, she aint postd since February o this year, her las post gettin only 6 coments so far — so far down from th twenny- or thirty-sompm they was gettin back in th day. Yeah. Bloggin kinda gets old when most o yer coments is comin from fokes whos comentin only cause theyr yer palskis, huh? Betcha wish youd a-been more invitin to them “outsidrs” who happmd by yer blog onct upon a time , huh? Hawty bitchski.

This remines me of a blog I was visitin fer a while where th guy — a young collidge dude — woud post about how dangd COOL he was. Yknow. Hed post stuff about th cool car he was gonna buy somday, and th hot chick he was gonna bang somday — stuff like att. Well, yous also know that a Polanski coment will tend to poke fun, but usualy in a benign sorta way. Aww, manski! This young fella did NOT apreciate th Polanski shtick! He was blligerent from th git-goeski! Initialy, I pretended to take no notice o th blligerence & cntinued to post coments that I knew woud irritate im, evn tho they wunt overtly insultin. They was irritatin, I suspeckt, primarily cause they DINT respond to HIS blligerent responses. Well, eventualy, he startd ignorin me. So, sensin that he was NOT gettin email prompts whenevr a coment was left on his blogski, I went back through his arckives & left a bunch o snide coments fruout his blogs entire histry — which, so far as I can tell, he aint nevr noticd — then, inta th “Scraps” foldr he went.

Last I lookd, he aint postd since Novembr o las year. He aint nevr got no non-spam coments from anyone othr than MEski. So, when somone shows intrest, he gets blligerent; and when no one shows intrest, he gets bored.

A very common tale, I suspecktski.

Now THAT remines me of a guy who postd, ERLY in th histry o th JPS, a coment that said only two things. It said sompm like, “Dude, yer hilarious!” It also included th URL o his blogski. See? He dint have nothin prtickular to say about my post; he was jus tryin t drum up readrs fer his own blogski. His own blogski was jus an outlet fer his rathr uncritickle right-wing opinions. And while I lookd ockasionaly at his blogski, I dint nevr post no coments there. Thats how much I objecktd to his spammish coment at JPS. I cant dscibe my delight in seein him start postin shit like, “How come no one evr coments on my blog?” His blogski is still “out there,” but he aint postd since Septembr o 2005, less than a munt aftr he startd bloggin.

If hed a-showd a little playfulness, Id a-been there for im. Spammin th JPS AINT th way to seek readrship. Its fer THAT offense that Salbert was fer so long lampoond at th JPS. He was a “spammenter” in his erlyest days o bloggin. He eventualy dvelopd into what I felt was a werfwhile bloggr, and thus he DID eventually get a JPS linkski. Howevr, once he realizd that comin up wif werfwhile stuff to post was rathr like WORK, he baild outta th blogassfear. Oh, yeah … He DID start up anothr blogski, but I pretty much IGNORD im until he belly-uppd THATn too.

But anyhowski, recallin that OTHR spammentr — th “Why-aint-no-one-comentin-on-my-blogski?” guy — Im now led to remark how MANY bloggrs will atchually VOICE a lamentation ovr th paucity o coment on their blogskis, but who will RFUSE to interackt emselfs in th blogassfear. Its as if they want fokes to coment on their blogskis only to be wholy IGNORD by themski. They seem t want a FAN-BASE, rathr than t be part of a bloggin CMMUNITY. Sadly, there are some o this stripe among th bloggrs whos blogs IS currently linkd at JPS. I usta tell bloggrs that if theyd come ovr and “mix it up” on th Polanski Show stage, that some o th JPS reggalrs woud be ALL OVR their blogskis like zombies from Night o th Livin Deadski. But these fokes seem, fer whatevr reasn (hawtyness, I suspeckt), wholy averse to “seekin” th company o othrs. Ah, well … fuck em, I says. Fer th mos part, their JPS links remain only cause they still got JPS links up ovr at their blogskis. So you can go visit em and come scamprin right back to JPS.

Prhaps these reflecktions help yas t see jus what th Polanski Show is all about, bofe style-wise and substance-wise. Style-wise, its all about interacktion. More prcisely, its all about cooprative comedy. Back at th start o YII, in mid-July o 2006, I indickatd that Joey Polanski is only th host o th JPS — he AINT th “star” o th Show. Hes jus ONE o th ensemble cast o Polanski Show Playrs. All th reggalrs is stars o th show. As host, I got th RSPONSIBILITY to come up wif invitin stuff to post. And make no mistake about it: thats WORKski. (Thats why, evry now & then, I DO bring up th subjeckt o “th final curtain.” Lifed be easyer if I dint hafta keep comin up wif stuff t post at JPS.) But I embrace th challenge. I try to keep it freshski & funski. I try nevr jus to “phone it inski.”

Wif that in mind, you can see why, substance-wise, I always been a critick o “th YouTube post” in th blogassfear. Lotsa fokes think I hate YouTube posts cause I aint got hi-speed intrnet service and it takes too long to load th vids on a dial-up cnnecktion. That aint it — or, at any rate, that aint ALL o it. I enthusiasktickly loaded th vids that was not jus LINKd, but POSTd by long-time JPS-afiliate, Geritopia; and I done that because th vids emselfs was th produckt o th bloggrs creativity. (Wanna see some Geritopia vids? THIS JPS post will link ya to two bzarre little psyckodelick cartoons, while THISn. will link yas to three clips from a truly creepy / comick film calld Dandy’s Inferno.) But when a blog-posts whole prpose is to link readrs to a YouTube vid, its kinda like th bloggrs sayin, “There aint nothin intresting happnin HERE right now, but theres intresting stuff happnin ELSEWHERE — heres a linkski!” If video killt th radio star, then YouTube has got creative bloggin in th crosshairs. Publishin YouTube posts is th present-day version o bein what erstwhile JPS ally — th ingenyus AWOLer, Anne Arkham — once calld a link whore, publishin a post whos primary prpose is to link readrs to sompm else. Speakin fer myself, I dont need no tour-guide in cybrspace; so if thats a blog-posts only funcktion, you can expeckt a HUGE yawnski from Polanski.

Fer similr reasns, I hate meme-posts. Fer one thing, theyr pre-fab. Its like th bloggr needs some kind o template fer creatin a blog-post. It remines me too much o when Salbert usta BEG his readrs (back when his readrs was restricktd to his real-world pals and … well … ME) fer ideas on what to post! Fer anothr thing, meme-posts is all unabashdly narcissistick. While evry blog is born outta a combination o narcissism and exibitionism, GOOD bloggin goes beyond em things. Meme-posts is, in my opinion, reversions to th cheap, th easy, & th automattick.

And, realy, THATS IT, if ya realy wanna know what th Polanski Show is all about. Its about buildin a blogski WIFOUT resortin to cheap automatticks, easy gimmicks. Thats how come I keep th JPS a secret from my real-world pals. To tell em about th Show woud be to bring in new readrs simply cause theyr friends o th host. Thatd also have a kind o “freezin” effeckt on th reggalr JPS playrs, since my real world pals might be inclind to share what coud only seem to JPS reggalrs like “inside jokes” or “private jokes.” There coud end up bein kinda a unavoidable inequality among th Polanski Playrs; and that woont be cool, in my opinion.

And that, in turn, is th reasn why I dont publish my email address and dont get involvd in “joint” bloggin projeckts. (This, by th way, is th root of Doc Murks “Polanski issues”; and I mention this only cause Doc Murk hisself once publicizd his displeasure wif me, tho he dleted em coments almos immediatly aftr he postd em.) This coud likewise create a palpable inequality among JPS afiliates — specifickly, a inequality o access to me. Yknow, it coud then end up that email convrsations take place btween SOME JPSers and JP about certain othr JPSers — behind their backs, as it were. Few woud know it, if evr that did happm. Id rathr it be virtualy impossible fer em kindsa cmmunickations to take place, thus preservin a kinda EQUALITY among friends o th JPS. And so, as I said many times in many contexts, “Joey dont DO email address.”

I guess theres one othr bloggin-relatd topick I gotta coment on. Thats politeness in th blogassfear. This is gonna soun funny, but I think politeness mus be prackticd in moderation. I say this cause o how many bloggrs there are out there who seem unable — or, more likely, unwillin — to post any coment that aint, like, gushingly polite. Like, if a bloggr posts a short story, its “Ohhhhh … that SO GREAT!”; or if a bloggr writes a post sayin, “I been sick fer th las cupla days,” its “Ohhhhh … I hope you FEEL BETTR SOOOOOOOON!” EGADski! Is there anything LESS intresting, less fit fer PUBLICK CNSUMPTION that THAT? I mean, if a coment reads like prsonal cmmunickation btween th commentr and th bloggr, then WHY POST IT IN A PUBLICK PLACE WHERE EVRYONE CAN READ IT? (I pose this question especialy bcause virtualy EVRY bloggr BSIDES ME publishs a email address. So send th Hallmark card via email, and try postin a coment that is werfwhile readin fer EVRYONE.)

Dont misundrstand me. I know why so many fokes is so effusive in their politeness. Few bloggrs is willin to entrtain th possibility that othr bloggrs is doin what I call “prick-shtick.” They jump right to th conclusion that th othr bloggrs just a prick. Im sure thats how come when I post coments at the blogs o relative “strangrs,” th strangrs act like turtles that jus been tappd on top o th shell. They do ANYTHING BUT PLAY ALONG.

Thats why I always had th greatest admration fer Doc Murk. Indeed, its why — Polanski issues or no Polanski issues — I woonta nevr removd th JPS link to th Docs blog if he hanta finaly belly-uppd th dangd thing. Doc Murk wunt afraid t do prick-shtick, and he was able to reckonize prick-shtick when he seen othrs doin it — well … at least by my seckon coment on his old blogski. Where fokes is afeard to razz away, I think ya end up wif th boringest bloggin.

Also, I shoud also say that I dont cndone ovious hostility or negativity — postin coments (or evn publishin posts) that reasonable fokes coud expeckt will eithr give prsonal offense to readrs or will have that “freezin” effeckt on th interacktivity within th blogs cmmunity o readrs. On RARE ockasions, strangrs postd coments like that here at th JPS. My reacktion was NOT a pleasant one. On one o th more notable ockasions when this happmd, evn some reggalr JPS readrs bent th strangr ovr & rapd im up th ass bfore he ran off inta th nightski.

Good bloggin begets good, interacktive, fun, & intresting bloggin. Thats th bottm line. Its also th oprative Polanski principple.