Back in the USSA
Welcome to interimtom.blogspot.com. This is where my former blog, commonplaces, will hang for a while. It is perfectly in keeping with a more general sense of dislocation to be, if that's the word, here.
I will also note that, given my persistent view that matters of property and propriety are essentially contested conditions at best, it is satisfying to find this position ratified, as it were, by an act, if not of God, then of someone not far from that job title in the world of blogs.
I'm kind of busy putting my life back together. My "real" life. The road back to Florida from Mexico, elongated by a few detours, ended up being 2,830 miles long, nearly every mile of which (so far as my limited patience was able to determine) was eerily accompanied by one or another ceremonial moment of fictional mourning for the fictional leader par excellence, Ronald Gaylord Jehosophat Reagan, thanks to the choral castrati at NPR and related media.
Where other cultures, e.g. Mexico, have long living memories, large historical imaginations, small routines and rituals and styles that bind together collectives into communities, what we we have heah in the US of A appears to fall into the category of media psychosis: A glacial world of aberrant reaction formations born of fear, (especially infantile nostalgia for Great White (or Orange) Fathers), usurping all that could be known in ecstatic longings for a world that isn't ever to be known. Blotchy burning suns set in plush radiowave velour, suitable for framing.
It was amid this more pervasive sense of displacement that I discovered that my blog, along with some 3,000 others, was no longer available to me or to anyone else, at least for a while.
As I was saying, US media perhaps never was, and certainly is not now in touch with nonfiction. Dave Winer's gesture is difficult to fathom -- gratuitous, seemingly arbitrary, and rife with questionable logic -- yet for all that, it is an overt, above-the-belt expression of mere power, unvarnished, unfake, unassailable.
So if what we have heah is a problem of communication, I say, better the power you know -- even if you can't understand or control it -- than the wattage of NPR, aspiring to shape our wishes, dream our dreams, and weep our tears. Winer might have unceremoniously arrested the shared flow of thought and attention that he helped create, but as far as I know, he hasn't so far presumed to ventriloquize me.
If you happen to have a recommendation for hosting an exported Manila blog, or just want to say hi, I'd be very happy to hear from you.
I will also note that, given my persistent view that matters of property and propriety are essentially contested conditions at best, it is satisfying to find this position ratified, as it were, by an act, if not of God, then of someone not far from that job title in the world of blogs.
I'm kind of busy putting my life back together. My "real" life. The road back to Florida from Mexico, elongated by a few detours, ended up being 2,830 miles long, nearly every mile of which (so far as my limited patience was able to determine) was eerily accompanied by one or another ceremonial moment of fictional mourning for the fictional leader par excellence, Ronald Gaylord Jehosophat Reagan, thanks to the choral castrati at NPR and related media.
Where other cultures, e.g. Mexico, have long living memories, large historical imaginations, small routines and rituals and styles that bind together collectives into communities, what we we have heah in the US of A appears to fall into the category of media psychosis: A glacial world of aberrant reaction formations born of fear, (especially infantile nostalgia for Great White (or Orange) Fathers), usurping all that could be known in ecstatic longings for a world that isn't ever to be known. Blotchy burning suns set in plush radiowave velour, suitable for framing.
It was amid this more pervasive sense of displacement that I discovered that my blog, along with some 3,000 others, was no longer available to me or to anyone else, at least for a while.
As I was saying, US media perhaps never was, and certainly is not now in touch with nonfiction. Dave Winer's gesture is difficult to fathom -- gratuitous, seemingly arbitrary, and rife with questionable logic -- yet for all that, it is an overt, above-the-belt expression of mere power, unvarnished, unfake, unassailable.
So if what we have heah is a problem of communication, I say, better the power you know -- even if you can't understand or control it -- than the wattage of NPR, aspiring to shape our wishes, dream our dreams, and weep our tears. Winer might have unceremoniously arrested the shared flow of thought and attention that he helped create, but as far as I know, he hasn't so far presumed to ventriloquize me.
If you happen to have a recommendation for hosting an exported Manila blog, or just want to say hi, I'd be very happy to hear from you.
posted by Tom Matrullo at Tuesday, June 15, 2004
5 Comments:
Hey Tom - happy to find you here hale and in clear voice.
This situation sucks. I can kinda sorta understand the reasons why so many blogs were eaten - but to do so without process or warning is simply outrageous.
As a poster elsewhere has commented - Winer now has 3000 bloggers over a barrel. As there's likely to be a gap between what most people have backed up and what Dave is now the sole holder of - the majority of users will thing twice before starting the flame war, as they don't want to lose their content to a whim of the minor deity who rules weblogs.com.
Glad to see you've rolled with the blow and have found a temporary home for your blog. I'm going to post about all this later when I have more time. Just doesn't make sense...
Glad to see you found a new home, however temporary it may be. I've moved blog twice in the last year, and it was a right pain in the whassit both times. I'd go spare if someone dumped me the way Winer dumped you lot, though. Deeply unreasonable behaviour, if you ask me. Which you didn't, but still... ;-)
One thought: Be nice if you could ditch the black background. Makes my eyes hurt. :)
Word, Tom, from the Evanston branch of the fan club. Glad to find you.
Thanks youse - most gratifying to hear each of your voices. I am pleased to change the wallpaper at the request of those who found the black annoying. Personally I would wear only black, but then my dog can't find me, only abridging a most important "link" of affection.
Hi Jon:
Just to set the record straight.
You did hear from us.
No malice was intended ; the blogue.com domain name simply expired. There was no way for me to warn you since I didn't control the blogue.com domain name and was unaware it was expiring.
Your old blog is still live at the address I mentioned in the email I sent you.
And I will move your old content to blog.wirearchy.com since you seem to be unwilling or unable to transfer the old content over even after I emailed you instructions on how to do this!
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