A legacy of dorkitude
I went to the Whitney on Friday to check out its new exhibit on Picasso's influence on American art. The walls were covered with lots of Big-Name Art Dudes (or "B-NADs," as insiders call them) like Pollock, Johns, de Kooning, Warhol, Man Ray, and Lichtenstein. They may have been blown away by synthetic cubism, or they might have just decided that the best way to become a rock-star art celebrity is to copy a rock-star art celebrity. Either way it's worth a visit, not least so you can see all the surreal depictions of guys with feet in their mouths and women with boobs growing out of their ears. Then you can go home and determine his influence on you.
As I browsed and learned about who knew whom, and where and when who said what, I got to thinking about an exhibit about bloggers and their influence on each other. Let's face it: There are a lot of museums in the world, and some insomniac pothead with rectangular glasses and a soul patch is bound to pitch the idea to a curator sooner or later.
The idea gets better the further into the future it occurs. Picture researchers 80 years from now poking through billions of posts and e-mails, trying to piece together the Intra-Blogger Relationships of the Early 21st Century. Picture the holographic displays of jpegs rescued and restored from long-dead Flickr accounts. Picture some ancient, wheezy voice in your headset saying something like, "We are reasonably certain that throughout their friendship Maggie greatly admired Heather's use of poop as leitmotif."
From there, it's not hard to envision a Blogger's Museum, full of permanent displays like the Hall of Emphasis. Who popularized the overuse of ALL CAPS? Who was the first to create the Three. Period. Sentence? When did the first <shriek>code geekery</shriek> surface? Who was the first hysteric to <gasp>COMBINE! ALL! THREE!</gasp>?
These are the juicy factoids that future generations will clamor to learn. (Probably.) Thus, we must all be aware of our place in history, as our words are quite likely to survive us. Perhaps, if you're like me, you greet this chance with open arms, if only to prove to your great-grandchildren what a complete dork you were.
If so, you might want to beef up your oeuvre and try to keep up with Eden's National Blog Writing Month (helpfully abbreviated to "NaBloWriMo"), during which participants will post something every day in November. It's an intriguing idea, because I don't think I have the slightest chance of pulling it off. But I'm going to give it a shot, just to see how badly I can gum up the Interwebs with unfiltered blather. Besides, anything that's a month long and has the word "blow" in it can't be all bad. *
* Another stellar insight for the grandkids to treasure! O!M!G!
[UPDATE: Mrs. K has changed the name to NaBloPoMo, which officially ruins the "blow" joke. But hey, a month of BloP might be interesting, too.]
I would visit the Museum of Dorkitude. MoDo.
Posted by: RJA | October 15, 2006 at 23:02
Delurking to say, I'd visit that museum. Heck, I'd buy a membership even! LOL..I thoroughly enjoyed this post.
And, I love Fussy's November blog month idea too. Count me in!
Posted by: Steph. | October 15, 2006 at 23:43
This post goes a long way toward proving my suspicions this week that blogging as a culture is achieving some kind of big milestone right now...
I can't tell if it's losing its tail or learning to hold a spoon or what, but something is most definitely hitting critical mass.
That's how it seems from where I am sitting over here on the stoop, anyhow.
:)
k
Posted by: kyran | October 16, 2006 at 00:04
I kinda doubt, frankly, that any of it will survive. It's not like we're blogging in cuneiform into clay tablets. Which, thank god for that, as my cuneiform sucks. But what we are doing, talk about your ephemera. Still, I like your example about poop.
The interlinking blog influence you refer to is what a friend of mine calls 'in(ternet)cest'.
Posted by: s gazzetti | October 16, 2006 at 05:09
THAT. WAS. SOME. FUNNY. SHIT.
K.
Posted by: Chookooloonks | October 16, 2006 at 07:10
"Besides, anything that's a month long and has the word "blow" in it can't be all bad."
Well, you've obviously never had a month-long blowjob before. One word: chafing. Another word: expensive.
Posted by: the patriarch | October 16, 2006 at 12:09
If it chafes, then it's not expensive enough.
Posted by: LOD | October 16, 2006 at 12:20
What I've been wondering, is, who invented the term "asshat?" Because I only see it on blogs. And I love it. It is a stellar term.
Posted by: foodmomiac | October 16, 2006 at 13:21
LOD - Love your blog. You are one of the best writers out there. LOVE Mr. Picassohead!
Posted by: Kathryn | October 17, 2006 at 07:07
You're funny. I hope the museum comes into fruition with your blog in a hall of fame for humor (and Moxie's for quite sensible thinking). Some others should definitely be in a hall devoted to the chain of influence--like straight to video. Now I'll just put on my rectangular glasses and mull it all over.
Posted by: Helen | October 17, 2006 at 14:25
Nice riff on NaNoWriMo but not very original.
What's even better is bloggers like you who can write.really.well.
Posted by: 21stCenturyMom | October 17, 2006 at 16:27
Okay - never mind. I'm going to have to refrain from joining the overacheivers club. On the other hand, if the going gets tough the NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo peeps can just grab 500 words of the day's writing and toss it in the blog.
Posted by: 21stCenturyMom | October 17, 2006 at 16:30
Ilove the Whitney Museum, it is my absolute favorite in NYC. If I were you, I'd write to the curator and ask about a blog exhibit. If any museum would do it, I bet that one would.
The exhibit I remember most from my days of living in NYC is the Duane Hanson exhibit circa 1978. Hanson did life sized sculptures of people and they were far more realistic than any old wax museum. The Whitney had the sculptures all over the place and I remember seeing visitors doing doubletakes as they realized they had just said "Excuse me, can you move" to a sculpture and not a person!
Posted by: Devra | October 18, 2006 at 23:53
"Besides, anything that's a month long and has the word "blow" in it can't be all bad."
Was it your birthday this month?
Posted by: Lotta | October 18, 2006 at 23:57
Also: Old accounting records support the theory that many of the blogger's children went through therapy later in life after discovering the details of their potty learning escapades were posted on the Internets.
I'm insane. I'm participating in BloP.
Posted by: the artist formerly known as Very Mom | October 19, 2006 at 14:31
Doesn't every parent?
Posted by: LOD | October 19, 2006 at 20:09