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