Artist's Rendition

Wresting Blingosphere

While I like the term Blingosphere, Levin's comments and implications with this talisman are nothing more than a plaintive cry, not unlike the the worried yelling of a buggy whip salesman trying to unload his inventory while autos are nearly running him down. The journalists I’ve heard commenting on bloggers, when they can pull themselves away from investigating alien phenomena, is at best patronizing.

Levin points out

Essentially, blogging is sampling plus a new riff. Political bloggers takea story in the news, rip out a few chunks, and type out a few comments. Rapsongs use the same recipe: Dig through a crate of records, slice out a high hatand a bass line, and lay a new vocal track on top. Of course, the molecularstructure of dead-tree journalism and classic rock is filthy with other people'sresearch and other people's chord progressions. But in newspaper writing androck music, the end goal is the appearance of originality—to make the productlook seamless by hiding your many small thefts. For rappers and bloggers, eachtheft is worth celebrating, another loose item to slap onto thecollage.
If you want to blog as AngryVeganCatholicGOPMom, bring a computer, anInternet connection, a working knowledge of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, and a whole lotof spare time.

Okay, so let’s look at the very serious journalism of Josh Levin. Perhaps he was referring to the scathing treatment he gave to locker room love triangles in his groundbreaking article Locker Room Affairs: The sordid history of the biggest taboo in sports. Or maybe he was chasing after the real story in Kornheiser, the Scrivener: What's with all the sportswriters on sitcoms?, and I won’t even venture a guess in the strain that he put on himself in ferreting out the story One Giant Lift for Mankind: The race for the 1,000-pound bench press.

In light of what Josh has to offer, I’d prefer he’d make better use of his Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.

Folksonomies

Blingosphere Levin talisman Journalist blogger rapper
patronizing journalism originality collage AngryVeganCatholicGOPMom Ctrl-C Ctrl-V Kornheiser Scrivener sportswriter bench press

Blingosphere Is Coined

Yesterday, I ran across my latest favorite word, 'blingosphere'. Seemingly coined by Slate's assistant editor, Josh Levin.

Yes, we all know that the term 'bling' has been driven into the ground; yes, any cache that it may have had is now dead, but I can't help thinking that retooling the word as a hybrid of Blogosphere breathes new life into it.

Michael Duff puts it best:

"Bling bling" is a phrase hijacked from black culture and press-ganged into white culture. "Blingosphere" is an ironic mockery of the original slang -- a term so lame that it declares whiteness on its face. Thus, while the original term carries the lameness of white people trying to talk black, the new term is an ironic mockery of that process, and is thus, reverse-cool.

So, I'd like to do something with the term, but don't know what would be most suitable.

• A record of geeky celebrity goings-on
• A blog on the hip hop scene (I'm not the person for this-- is Coolio still 'in'?)
• Entries on successful bloggers, material or otherwise
• A portal to the shizzle bling available on the internet today

I'm open to ideas. Rescue me from myself.

Folksonomies

Blingosphere Levin talisman Journalist blogger rapper
patronizing journalism originality collage AngryVeganCatholicGOPMom Ctrl-C Ctrl-V Kornheiser Scrivener sportswriter bench press