In 1968, the Rolling Stones filmed The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. The Stones played, Jethro Tull played, Taj Mahal played, John Lennon and Yoko Ono played, etc.
And oh yeah, The Who played. Boy did they play. I watch this from time to time. It’s a multi-part song that you don’t think they should be able to execute live, but they do.
Just the best.
Splotchy: What is your blog?
Lulu: Land-o-Lulu
S: When did you start blogging?
L: I started blogging sometime in early 2006.
S: Did you stop blogging?
L: Yes.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
L: Land-o-Lulu started out as a personal blog and became more of a travel blog once I moved overseas to teach. I finally closed it down because while I loved having a lot of readers, the earlier, more personal stuff seemed out of place in a blog that was easily discoverable by students and their parents. I had an experience where I went to a party in Bangladesh, and a woman was introduced to me and said, “Oh, you’re Lulu! I’ve been reading your blog for ages!” And it felt very weird and public.
S: Do you ever miss it?
L: I do miss my blog. For a while, I really enjoyed Facebook, but I don’t post much there these days, partially because it seems like every other post on my feed is an ad, but mostly because many of the people I am interested in keeping in touch with no longer post very often. I miss having a forum for longer-form writing and photography.
I also miss the community of friends, both real-world and online, that I had the privilege of interacting with while blogging. Several people I met online became real-life friends, and while many of those people are still in my life now, there was a sense of community that I no longer feel.
On Instagram stories, there are frequently little post-a-picture-of or ask-me-a-question-type trends, which are fine, but during the golden age of blogging, instead of a picture or question, there would be complicated, round-robin posts, long book reviews, thoughtful discussions of politics, popular culture and whatever else was on people’s minds. I looked forward to reading my friends’ blogs and to their comments on mine.
One of the things you learn as a teacher is that student writing is always better when they have an authentic audience reading their work rather than just their teachers. And I think the same thing is true for all of us. When I knew that a couple hundred people were going to read my writing, I cared about it more. I spent more time crafting my words and trying to make things funny.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
L: I don’t think so. I feel like the golden age of blogging is over. It seems like all the blogs I see are either corporate blogs or people trying to commodify their writing, and neither of those things is of interest to me. I am also very aware that any sort of online presence that isn’t squeaky clean can be problematic for teachers. I live in a conservative country and work at a very prestigious school; I don’t need to draw any attention to myself.
Sometimes I think about doing a podcast, but that seems like a lot of effort and equipment, and so many podcasters are annoying. I would hate for people to think I am annoying.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
L: My presence on social media is scaled way back. I do the birthday greetings thing on Facebook, and occasionally post travel or food photos there or on Instagram. I do post a lot of aggressively political memes on my Instagram Stories, but my audience there is very limited, and the stories disappear in 24 hours, so I feel like I can’t do too much damage. During COVID, my friend Jane and I ran a cocktail Instagram account called Drinking_While_Quarantined, and I actually became online friends with a group of people who ran cocktail accounts. It was similar to the blogger days because there was a lot of commenting on each other’s posts and doing themed group posts. Once we could go outside again, the urge to post photographs of fancy drinks dwindled and the account is mostly inactive these days. I don’t feel the same sense of engagement with social media that I once did, mostly because everything is an ad. Late-stage capitalism is a bitch.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
L: The internet is the worst. And also the best. We’ve created amazing tools, and we are unable to use them. We have the opportunity to communicate with people all over the world, and we spend our time trolling them on Twitter. Don’t get me started on ChatGPT.
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Thanks so much, Lulu. It was nice hearing your thoughts on things.
I don’t know about your experience, but there are tons of viral videos I have seen over the years, but there are also gaps where it seems everyone-but-me has seen a video.
This might be one of those videos.
I watched a lot of Letterman over the years, but most of it was when the show was on NBC. Over the last year or so, the Letterman YouTube channel has been posting lots of “favorite moments” by the staff — I’ve watched most of them, if not all. In his video, Drummer Anton Fig off-handedly mentions a performance by Future Islands, which is then followed by a very brief clip.
Wow. I sought it out and it was amazing. Vocalist Samuel T. Herring look eerily similar to a young Marlon Brando, and dances in a very hypnotic way. He occasionally drops his voice into a demonic growl. It all works.
Another nice little bonus is how clearly delighted Letterman is by the performance. It was great seeing someone who is often a little guarded just exuberantly enjoying a moment.
Was I the only person to not see and hear this? I hadn’t even heard of Future Islands before. It’s embarrassing!
Anyways, sorry if you’ve already seen/heard this video. If you haven’t, please enjoy.
Splotchy: What is your blog?
CupOfCoffey: A Cup of Coffey
S: When and why did you start blogging?
CoC: I started blogging in March 2006 because I thought it would be a fun way to stay connected with my friends. I never imagined folks outside my group of friends would read it! I learned so much about life and music and people during my three blogging years. I really miss that connection.
S: Did you stop blogging?
CoC: I did.
S: When did you stop blogging?
CoC: April 2009.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
CoC: I just couldn’t find the time to write a decent post anymore — and joining Facebook allowed me to keep up with those in our blogworld. Facebook is great for lazy interactions.
S: Do you ever miss it?
CoC: All the time! It was a great way to share my life with others and learn about their lives — and I loved doing the Mix Tape Friday posts! There was this lovely intimacy among our blogworld — and yet I’d never seen their faces or heard their voices. It was a lovely connection, wasn’t it? I couldn’t wait to dive into those posts every day. I often think of the stories and the laughter and the tears those posts brought me. So many good, honest writers out there. I learned so much — and I valued the takedowns I got when needed (I’m thinking of you, Coaster Punchman, and still feel filthy shame).
I made so many true friends through our blogworld, just some of the coolest people around. I’ve met a few in person — C.K. Baxter, Thomas Houck, Chris Hull, Jenny Shaw Kessler and Dax Kessler, Grant Miller, Joe O’Sullivan, Fran Szpylczyn, Lisa Williams, and Doug Golden — and I wish I could meet more of y’all. I also met some of my now-dearest friends through A Cup of Coffey, non-bloggers who read my posts.
There was one blogger, Mike Kascynski, who became a dear, dear friend, though we never met. I had planned to meet up with him in Chicago during the summer of 2022, but he died suddenly nearly two years ago. I miss him desperately and regret never seeing him face to face. Y’all get out there and meet people!
It was a beautiful, unique world.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
CoC: I do consider it on occasion. Maybe once I retire in 2025!
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
CoC: I think of social media as lazy blogging. You don’t
need to spend time thinking of a good post idea, then writing and polishing it, then posting it. I can post a photo and I’m done. But what does that say about me? How am I learning about others? I know the foods they like and the books they read, but there’s so much more. I’m a bit more protective of myself on Facebook and Instagram.
S: How do you feel about the state of the internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
CoC: The internet has opened up so much of our world for me. And it’s made my life so much easier. I bank online. Shop online. Travel via apps. Watch movies and shows. Discover music. But I do miss the connection of talking to a bookseller instead of ordering it online (we go to locally owned bookstores, but not as much as we should). I met my husband via Facebook (or re-met; we grew up together, but never really hung out), so that’s wonderful. There is so much good — political organizing, sharing secrets, tracking down that new band. But it breeds so much hatred. I find I’m following news less than I ever have because of that hatred and all the untruths out there.
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Thanks for the interview. It is so wonderful to hear your thoughts!
Oh man, your last post was for the Green Monkey Music Project. When I first announced the GMMP, I said it was inspired by your mixtape Fridays.
By the way, you dropped this, queen:
Because I feel like it and it’s my blog, I’m going to highlight videos that have personally affected me in some way. Here’s the first one.
It’s an entire episode of The Chris Gethard Show. It’s a talk show, but it’s different in really neat ways. First of all, it’s not a traditional studio audience. Everyone is sitting around Gethard and his guests. Gethard comes across as this incredibly empathetic and somewhat harried host. He’s barely keeping the show on the rails, but it really is something to behold.
The show started as a live event at the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC, eventually ran on public access channel MNN, then finished up after a few seasons on Fusion and truTv, stopping broadcasting in 2018.
There’s a show where Gethard and his cast/crew stay up all night before filming (a well-rested Seth Meyers is the guest), and the host is even more raw and emotional than normal. I say this as a compliment, I really do. Something is really happening, something genuine. Another show (Maria Bamford guesting) discusses depression openly and honestly, with everyone including Gethard, Bamford, and callers sharing personal, gut-wrenching moments in an atmosphere of support.
I’m going for more of a fun episode that I want to share, though. The episode I want to highlight is “One Man’s Trash”. Chris is joined by Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas to help him determine WHAT’S IN THAT DUMPSTER. A dumpster is wheeled into the studio under cover of secrecy, and at the start of the show, only Chris knows the contents.
There’s so much love and affection and ribbing from Paul and Jason (okay, way more from Jason) towards Chris. I believe the three did stints at the UCB in NY, and I think Jason and Paul are kind of mentor figures to Chris.
Anyways, please watch if you like. It makes me happy to be a human being. And also, please don’t peek ahead. You’ll enjoy it much more if you watch the entire show.
Splotchy: What is your blog?
VikkiTikkiTavi: Bells On
S: When and why did you start blogging?
V: I started in 2005, although I’d had a blog at Salon before then that has since been deleted. I’m not sure why I started, except as I go back and look at some of my first posts, it’s clear to me that I really needed to hear myself talk.
S: Did you stop blogging?
V: Yeah, for all intents and purposes. I still enjoy crafting a essay or even just writing a joke, but somehow it just doesn’t seem worth the effort anymore. Sometimes I will write a 1000 word post on Facebook and then just delete it. Facebook’s algorithm is not a big fan of me, so whether I publish or not it seems like the same amount of people will see it. That’s just how it works there.
S: When did you stop blogging?
V: It fell off sharply and then petered out during the first couple of years of the Obama administration. Like other political/comedy writers, I appreciated how easy W made it for us.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
V: Twitter and Facebook were huge, and the blogging culture just wasn’t out there anymore. You know down one side of your blog you would have your blogroll, the blogs that you read, and they were either very big important blogs, or they were friends that you read who also read you. And everyone just kinda stopped posting. They were on social media. It was the end of that short-lived era.
S: Do you ever miss it?
V: Yeah, I miss the camaraderie, and I miss the control that we all had over what we were taking in. We read what we liked, not what was being fed to us. We supported each other, and were always expanding our circle to include more people.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
V: Well, maybe, but probably not. Talking to an empty room is kinda sad.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
V: Social media has its good points and bad points. On the plus side, Twitter and now Threads has allowed me to listen to and learn from a lot of voices that I never heard before. And I appreciate keeping up with my friends’ activities on Facebook and Instagram. But the whole time I’m just very aware of the control that is being exerted over what I see, the monetization of my attention.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
V: I mean, besides all the advantages of information at your fingertips, the internet has taught me not to be a dick to people I care about. It’s such a cold medium, it’s very easy to be misunderstood, and so I think I am now always aware of how someone will hear what I’m saying. On the other hand, there are so many garbage people that put themselves in front of you, I’ve also learned how to cut and walk away very quickly. The internet is useful if you employ a reasonable amount of judgement to what’s out there, and sort of disastrous if you don’t.
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Thanks for this interview, Vikki. I really appreciate your thoughtful answers.
Both my parents were born in 1940, and both are now deceased. My father died in 2013, my mother died in 2021.
My dad had his own movie and sheet music auction site for many years, but didn’t really write anything personal on it apart from a random joke or pun. My mother had a collection of recipes online on a separate site that my brother set up for her, but she didn’t write anything personal there, either.
Both of them were relatively active on Facebook. That’s where they shared their opinions and photos, that’s where they commented on posts and photos of their friends, just like everyone else at the time.
After my father died, my wife (who was and is very smart about social media in particular) offered to request my dad’s Facebook page to be memorialized. I didn’t really understand the full details of what that meant, but I trusted her that it was the right thing to do. It seemed to take a while, but around 2015 I noticed that it said Remembering above his name. I believe existing friends can write on his wall, but only my niece and myself have posted there. It feels kinda sad writing to an online fragment of someone who I love who has passed.
My wife said the memorialization process has been updated in Facebook. Under Account settings you can choose what happens after you die. You can choose to delete your account after death, or designate a legacy contact to manage your account.
Note that neither choice in the above picture is selected. That’s from my profile. I didn’t realize it was there until I started writing this post. I would assume my mother didn’t select anything, either.
“Delete after death” is pretty self-explanatory. You can also choose a “legacy contact” to manage your account after you have died. It seems like Facebook just gives your list of friends to choose from for this role.
My mother’s Facebook page is not memorialized. I would also assume she did not designate a legacy contact.
Per Facebook help:
If the account holder hasn’t selected a legacy contact, the account won’t be actively cared for by anyone after memorialization has been requested.
So if we request memorialization, it just becomes this thing that we can’t touch or manage, it just sits there, unchangeable in perpetuity.
Since my mother’s account is still technically one of a live person, things that are disabled for a memorialized account — suggesting her as a friend, or birthday reminders to her existing friends — are still active.
If I look at her wall, I can clearly see people that are wishing her a happy birthday as a fond memory of her, but there are definitely a couple people who might have missed the death announcement.
What’s the point of this post? The Internet is this thing that lives and breathes outside of us. What happens when we go? Do we disappear completely? Do remnants of us float around that are tethered to nothing?
The children of a mother can feel very strongly about preserving an online avatar of her. But do her children’s children? Her children’s grandchildren?
If I designate my wife as my legacy contact to manage my memorialized account after I die, and then she eventually dies after me, she can have her designated legacy contact manage her account. What happens to my account? Is there anyone who can manage it?
We are entering into multiple generations of people living with the Internet. Is there a concept of preserving a familial footprint? A legacy for an entire family?
I don’t like to think of my own death. But I’m getting older. My kids are growing up into adults, and my parents are gone. I don’t know that anyone likes to think about death, but I wonder how an understanding and reckoning with death will eventually be incorporated into the Internet, something that we rely on so much during our lives.
Splotchy: What is your blog?
Gifted Typist: Gifted Typist
S: When and why did you start blogging?
GT: I’m a writer by trade and blogging was a good outlet for my thoughts. I thought it would be funny to assume the character of an earnest Les Nessman-like reporter.
S: Did you stop blogging?
GT: Yes.
S: When did you stop blogging?
GT: Around 2011, I think.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
GT: Life got messy with a breakdown of my marriage and I didn’t feel like sharing my life and thoughts.
S: Do you ever miss it?
GT: I miss the connection but did keep up with many old friends via Facebook.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
GT: Probably not a personal blog. The internet has morphed into a weird space and I’m not keen to share too much any more. I still write a newspaper political opinion column commenting on current affairs and do blog content for work.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
GT: Oh boy! I know it is really about data mining. Some really bad social outcomes have resulted from social media. I use it less and less.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
GT: Following from the above, the Internet has been a force of liberation that has allowed connections that would have never occurred – like this group of interviews with truly lovely people. It is also a force for bad things and has undermined our democracies, manipulated our politics and divided us.
I truly loved the connection and friendships with bloggers I never met – I still miss that part .
S: I realize this might be upsetting to you if this is the first time you are learning about it — It appears that giftedtypist dot com has been repurposed for some kind of porn site (I think it’s Chinese).
GT: Yes, I was aware of this and forgot to mention it.
S: Just as I did with the word “Splotchy”, you chose words not obviously connected to your name and offline identity to represent yourself on the web. When you stopped blogging, did you decide to let the domain expire? Does it feel personal that this site is using your old domain, or do you no longer feel a connection to it?
GT : I gave up the email account the blog was registered with, so when my domain was due for renewal I didn’t receive the notifications. Beyond that, life was complicated and I wasn’t focused on my blog. So it was overtaken.
Alt first I was sad that that part of my recorded existence had disappeared – just like that, poof! But with time, I accepted that phases and people come and go during our life‘s journey. The real joy was in the writing and the connection with the community I had.
I do wish I still had some of those posts too – I’m sure they would be amusing to me now.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful answers. Visitors beware, giftedtypist dot com is NSFW and is not in any way associated with our interview subject.
If it’s helpful at all, I found an archive of the real blog via The Wayback Machine. If you visit it, I hope it brings back some nice memories. 📇 ❤️
