Category: Uncategorized

Chum Bucket. Having been raised by an outdoorsman, I knew what a chum bucket was. In case you don’t here is Webster’s on it : 1. animal or vegetable matter (as chopped fish or corn) thrown overboard to attract fish.

Now you know.

The page is a three column layout, which is not my favorite. I feel all that stuff on both sides is a bit distracting to the main attraction, which should be the writing. But it is well organized and everything seemed to be in working order.

I was amused though by the goofy guy with bugs in his teeth at the top of the page, and was starting to look forward to some fun. My hopes were dashed pretty quickly however as I began to read the entries.

It took me a while, but I finally found an entry that explained a little about where our author was coming from. If I were you, I would read this entry first: Saturday 02.07.04 [12:15 am] .
Here he states his desire to become a stand up comedian. And it sounds like he has had some experience with it too. He also describes a little of his philosophy of comedy. After performing with a group of other people, it sounds like he had an epiphany. He describes it thusly: “It was the realization that most of the people on this planet aren’t aware of what surrounds them. I made it my lifetime goal to show you.”
He compares himself to several comedians, George Carlin among them.

Now, to the writing itself. While I give him credit for an active imagination, (he is very clever at making up names for imaginary diseases for one thing) I am afraid that he spoils his brilliance by being shockingly crude and insulting.

I am no student of humorists, but I can think of two who have been able to pull off this tightrope kind of humor. George Carlin is one, and Don Rickles the other. But you have to admit, that even they go too far sometimes. George is a New York curmudgeon on steroids. He’s grouchy. He’s cranky. He’s pessimistic. But he’s not MEAN.

Now I will admit that what is funny to one person is offensive to another and that we are talking about subjective stuff here. But the reason I am delving so deep into this, is that the author of this blog thinks that you have something to learn and he is here to teach you.

He says:”Nothing is sacred in comedy folks.” Which is a quote from a response to someone who commented on his blog. Well, I disagree. (and so did many of the people who commented.)

What is sacred, is the connection between you and your audience. It is a delicate balance that you enter into when you listen to or read comedy. I feel that our author has chosen a comedic path that, no matter how breathtakingly honest it may be, will probably not resonate with a wide audience. The insulting style, the crudity, and the just plain meanness of it, ceases to amuse pretty quickly. Contempt for your listeners, will never draw them into your circle. Without an audience, there is no comic.

It wouldn’t be honest of me to say that there is absolutely no humor to be found on this blog, because I DID laugh a few times. But overall, I ended up feeling abused by the content, and the delivery.

And there’s nothing funny about that.

ChumBucket

You will have to excuse me… my head is spinning. I have just spent a good solid hour (or was it two?) at MOM & Pop Culture. I think I need a beer. And I don’t even drink.

The page opens to a colorful repeating photo of our Mom and her kids. It’s cheerful, it’s cute. But what unfolds in the pages of this site will boggle your blog world. The page sports my least favorite three column layout. It is well organized but contains a dizzying array of links. Excess linkage is one of my pet peeves. But I know I may be in the minority here.

I have yet to encounter such an overachieving blogger in all my (admittedly short) weblog reviewing career. There is an About page which includes this statement: “I am a freelance writer and independent filmmaker and a mother of two (Olivia and Jared) and married to Mike for almost ten years. I live and work in suburban, New Jersey”, Then there is a list of “100 things about me” that I read in full.

I dived into the deep end of the blog and began reading the most recent posts. Our author writes on a variety of things that pique her interest. And she has many interests let me tell you! She writes often and at length. Her writing style is witty and irreverent and she gets her point across…. whether it is about Shrek II or Move On.org.

In one entry she describes herself, tongue in cheek thusly:

“Official Representative for Blogging Feminist Parents Obsessed with Pop Culture.”

She writes articles for at least two webzines that I found.(There may be more). “Literary Mama”, and “The Imperfect Parent”. She has a link to her filmaking web site “Olive Jar Films”. And if this was not enough, she is editor and publisher of her own webzine, “The Philosophical Mother”.

If you are looking for a feminist and liberal view of the world, this is your destination blog.
One has to admire this much creative energy. Although to be honest, I found the overabundance of linkage and information a bit overpowering. But being the more subtle type myself, I cannot speak for the general public.

Check it out and see what you think.

MOM & Pop Culture

It’s curious you know. Whilst I was thinking about how to write this review, I realised that this weblog has all the potential to be a complete flop in my book. It hasn’t got the prettiest template in the world, it is a blogspot blog, it is purely personal, has a lot of stuff about family life and is written by a middle aged woman. I have slated blogs before now for having one of these characteristics, let alone all at the same time.

However, I am not going to slate this blog. Oh no. And here’s why.

Firstly about how it looks. Ok, it’s blogspot, which has almost become a by-word for lazy blogging in my book, but not in this case. Firstly there is no advertising box. Good start. Secondly there is a really cute little weevil (which I think has been designed by one of her friends) which adorns the title bar and the sidebar throughout the blog. Granted, the rest of the blog is a bit drab, but all we ask here at TWR is that people make a bit of an effort, and clearly this has been done. She also only has stuff in her sidebar which should be there, i.e. links, favourite blogs and some more information about her. No javascript gimmicks or flashing things thankfully. So my mood lifted slightly as I perused the site initially.

Spotting that a few of the links were the same as the links on my blog, I thought I might have some stuff in common. So I had a look at the “100 things” and found out that this woman is clearly a happy, bubbly, positive person and also lives in the same home town as me! Blimey. It was weird reading through the blog and here her talk about places and streets which are familiar to me every day. Did this affect my objectivity as a reviewer? Yes, absolutely. I found it very refreshing. However it wasn’t just congruent geographical locations which enabled me to warm to this author.

Like I say, it is mostly personal, day to day things she writes about. She seems to post every day and a lot about her family. Some of the posts are in fact rather pointless. One tip though, is to bear in mind the “who’s who” link at the top – the author uses nicknames for various people she knows and it can occasionally get very confusing – “who’s who” clarifies it all.

However, there are two very important things which this author possesses which make this blog stand out from the crowd. She is funny and she is literate. I can’t express strongly enough how important it is, for a reader, to be able to read a weblog that is fundamentally entertaining. If I can laugh out loud whilst I am reading, it makes so much difference to how much I enjoy a review. Good writing skills are also (obviously) another important facet in a medium which is based almost solely on text. Again, the author excels at this – she is intelligent, knows lots of cool words (I wish I could think of a cool word to describe someone who knows lots of cool words, but I can’t), she is imaginative and she can tell a good story. My only regret is that I wished I had time to read all the entries, not just some of them.

I have scored this blog fairly highly and I think most people will find it as amusing and positive as I did. However, because the author is from my home town, it will be added to my list of favourites too.Weevil Stepmother

Wow.

I have just emerged from a labyrinth that begins innocently enough at a page called, Fred Sez. This page is only the blog portion of his website. It is the entrance to a vast domain filled to overflowing with all things comics and pop culture.

My head is spinning.

His blog page opens to a rather garish blue and pale yellow background with the words “Fred Sez” in bold block letters. As soon as I found out that our author is a long time published cartoonist, the colors made more sense. But they are still garish!

The opening entry that I encountered was a little retrospective on the passing of Fay Wray. I continued to read and found an impressive array of writing on subjects as diverse as, baseball, his misadventures with an overloaded clothes dryer, and an account of a family outing to a Paul McCartney concert. All of which are well written (if long) essays that left me feeling that I was in the presence of a hyperactive teenager, when in fact we are talking about a full grown man. But then cartoonists must have a very firm grasp of their inner child, otherwise they would grow up and be political analysts or something.

When I finally found his home page and a links page I was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information on this website. There are what I could only describe as historical archives of the comic genre in general, with a liberal dose of pop culture thrown in, both past and present.

There are links to his own comic book art and one section I would recommend checking out is the link entitled “Kidz”. There are full-length comic book pages there that you can read. They are reminiscent of the Archie comic that I used to read as a kid. (About the only comic I was ever likely to spend my hard-earned money on come to think of it.)

It is entirely possible that you will recognize this author, but I must admit I had never heard of him, not being a big comics fan myself. However I was very impressed with the depth of his knowledge of the subject and his amusing take on everything he chooses to write about.

Well worth a visit. But plan to spend some time here. And don’t be fooled by that deceptive opening page, there is a serious man behind it who still seems to be in touch with the magic of his childhood. And if you stay long enough, you may be touched by that magic yourself.

Fred Sez

There are a number of layouts/designs incorporated into this site, but I’m going to focus on the main page’s design.

This site is, well, coffee colored! Quite appropriate for the title! The site is neatly organized, easy to navigate, and eye appealing. The text is easy to read and the colors are compatible with one another. I’m expecting a semi-pessimistic author due to the “bitter coffee” ordeal, but the site looks enjoyable upon first glance.

It is slightly irritating that I have to continuously close the Tripod/Lycos side bar that opens up whenever I change pages. There are so many free blogging sites and programs out there, why waste your time on something as archaic as angelfire if you don’t have to? I also have to complain about the design of the archival page. The colors and design are okay, at best, but the text is VERY small and grows more and more difficult to read, as you spend more and more time on the site.

The “Concerning Linz” page (aka about me) section has a slightly different, yet corresponding layout that is pretty neat. I’m assuming the head graphic is the author. The ads at the end of the page take your attention away from the material at hand and are very disruptive. As for the list itself, Linz is very specific about her information, but it’s the typical points of (dis)interest you find on a lot of blogs.

Linz appears to be a young twenty-something in the throws of the dating. She is also on the quest to lose weight and regain her sense of beauty. A huge added feature to this site is a “side blog” aptly entitled, Taking Back Beauty detailing her steps on this journey, her outlook on it, and her accomplishments. To date, she has lost twenty-three pounds and appears to be doing it in a slow and healthy manner! No guru diets for this young lady! I commend her on her weight loss and hope other dieters will see her story as an inspiration.

She writes with a maturity that seems to pass some of the early -twenties group by and comes across as a bright, intelligent and caring women. However, unlike some who carry the first few attributes, she is not one to be pushed around or taken advantage of. She knows what she wants and she goes after it.

She is outspoken and tends to ride the blog-posting roller coaster that we all jump on. Sometimes she goes on for a great period of time with interesting things to say, and sometimes she openly admits that she has lost the will to write and really has nothing to say. At least she comes out and admits it rather than trying to “fill her space” with garbage nobody would care to read.

Linz gives you a detailed account of the happenings in her life while avoiding the daily list of “I did this, then I did this, and then this happened.” She has a light and cheery tone when it’s called for, but she gets irritated and emotional when appropriate. She goes into how she feels about events and occasions with gusto and there is very little pessimism to be found.

The author is very open and honest with the manner in which she is coming to discover who she is a person. Most people think that you’ve found yourself by the time you get into your twenties, but I tend to disagree with them. Linz is often questioning who she truly is, while knowing all along the true answer. This is personal growth and strength all in one breath. She is simply seeking out the best place for her in her world and isn’t afraid to let on that she doesn’t fully understand or know all the different aspects to her own personality. This gives her an endearing personality that makes the reader applaud her decisions and root for her success.

At times her blog gets dry and boring, but who’s life and blog haven’t hit those times? We can’t all be funny, emotional, and interesting all the time. Her better entries make weeding through her slow times worth the effort. This isn’t one of those all-empowering one in a million blogs out there, but it certainly has a number of attributes. This isn’t’ the “typical” blog of a “typical” twenty-something. I think anyone in the twenty-something generation would enjoy reading about Linz, getting to know her personality, and watching her charge through this time in her life. She is on her way and she’s busting through.

This is a blog to keep your eyes on, folks. This blog may just be going places!

Bitter Like Yesterday’s Coffee