Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Dagwood Summit


Last Friday Absolutely Fiesty and I had lunch with Midtown Miscreant at Dagwoods on SW Blvd over greasy food served by skinny blondes who call everyone "honey", spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with domestic issues on their cell phones, and have a difficult time sorting out the checks.

It was a Perfect Storm of quirky bloggers, unique locations, and compelling conversation.

One of the topics was twitter.

"Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them."

MM does not particpate in the twitterverse. He thinks it is silly and a forum for people who are too lazy to spend the time it takes to actually write something of interest.

As the cover story of last week's Pitch, he may be right.



Personally, I use twitter as a social networking forum for inappropriate flirtations and last minute lunch hook ups.

However there are those who embrace the restrictive 140 characters of a "tweet" as a concentration of creativity. It's called micro-blogging.

The idea of micro-blogging is to paint a complete picture or tell a complete story in just 140 characters. The optimal, competitive form of this art craft is taking up the entire 140 characters leaving 0 characters available.

There are some bloggers who really excel at this.

My latest discovery was SheriMonk who captured my heart with the following tweet:

"You asshole doing 20 in a 60, go jerk off with sandpaper and take your fucking time, okay?"

That paints a picture. It tells a story.

Another perinneal favorite is CRSE. I love this woman.

"So let me get this straight. Poop on the face is ok but dead grammas cross the line?"

"Technically, she's cancer free so she isn't even really dying now". "You need to totally bring that up next time she pulls the cancer card"

"So you show up to the checkout on crutches thinking i'll let you cut. Well played sir, but not on my watch."

"Look, bro, I do love you, but can we just not tell the anal bead story at the christmas party this year? If not for my sake, then for dad's?"

But in my book, the absolute master micro-blogger is Trelvix. I offer the following evidence.

"I told her friends I was collecting ear wax for a bust of Lincoln that I was sculpting in the cellar. Yes. They are gone now. Advantage me."

"You know how kids cry when you tell them that the mashed potatoes are actually elf lips and butt fat? No? Well then neither do I"

"As more of a Sookie Stackhouse than a Buffy Summers, my daughter accepted her gifted copy of "Twilight" with graceful & deliberate contempt."

"To the co-worker who changed my Firefox home page to the Ursine Fetish Man-Love Association Network: Well-played. And beware."

"Honestly - it wasn't so much the Bugs Bunny impression as the eye patches and Yiddish beat poetry that made the meal weird. For me, I mean"

There is something creatively challenging about someone being presented with 140 blank characters and a dare, don't you think?

DISCLAIMER: The following expresses the opinion of the Hip Suburban White Guy amd does not reflect the opinion of the other Dagwood Summit participants.

Much more engaging and interesting than reading some local, bookmarked, one trick pony with a tiresome agenda who is only capable of cutting and pasting from other people's original content and making snarky comments about it.

Life's too short for that shit.

Embrace creativity!

15 comments:

Old Fart said...

I've gotta agree with MM. I signed up for Twitter and just can't do it. Twitter aint blogging. They are two different worlds that some peole try to compare. Twitter is basically IM'ing on steroids. It's built for folks who wanna type on their cell phones. I can't stand texting, so I find it hard to use twitter.

Nice poke at Tony though!

The DLC said...

Dagwood's huh? Look's intriguing.

You like it how I totally ignore the entire point of your post in favor of furthering my own self-aggrandizing agenda? Yeah, that's the blogosphere, baby.

Trelvix said...

Once again you are too kind.

Hopefully I can add some color before the self-anointed protectors of the old guard get here!

Twitter is to blogging what haiku is to journalism.

To compare or contrast the two is to piss in the ocean and to then try to count the bubbles.

People who don't get Twitter don't need to get Twitter. There are already plenty of people sucking at it every minute of every day and we don't really want more of that, do we?

But to dismiss actively a compelling, expressive phenomenon that millions have embraced simply because of a lack of interest, motivation, or ability is absurd if not even a little embarrassing.

Some of the world's greatest novelists are among the world's worst poets. To my knowledge none of any merit have spoken out enthusiastically against the scourge of evocative verse however.

For me Twitter is an exercise - nothing more, nothing less. It's not my "product" by any means but if it's taken as such I will gladly accept that and roll with the changes.

Fucking hippies and their new-fangled gadgets!

Xavier Onassis said...

Trelvix - Well said my man. Well said,

Xavier Onassis said...

The DLC - You should totally check it out and review it. A classic Diner! Complete with horse shoe main counter.

Donna. W said...

Now that had to have been an interesting meet-up. Oh, to have been a mouse in the corner.

kcmeesha said...

I am already around the internet for 80 to 100% of my non-sleeping time. My daughter says I am addicted to my laptop. I don't need anymore involvement, AND I suck at texting.
Are you coming to the brewery tonight?

Xavier Onassis said...

m.v. - Yes, I plan on making an appearance.

Anonymous said...

Trelvix, that is probably the best pro twitter discussion I have ever read. I love the Haiku metaphor, as haiku is the only poetry I am able to write.

Twitter excuse me,
I must ramble on and on,
You are not for me.

I like the long form rambling blogging allows. I don't know if I can compress ideas in the twitter format successfully. Besides, many of my online friends do NOT tweet. I fear I would not attempt epic poetry once I learned the haiku.

The DLC said...

Twitter is great fun, y'all don't know what you're missing. XO regales us regularly with photos of his fattening dinners and throws out shameless ill-conceived propositions to any and all female tweeters.

It is also a whole new forum in which to give The D a hard time.

Personally I think everyone should test drive twitter for a week. But I'm being selfish because it would be entertaining to have Meesha, Nuke, MM and other bloggers I admire weighing in.

Mark Smith said...

Thanks for throwing me under the bus, dick. I do not text, it always seemed a little retarded to type shit out on a perfectly good phone. I have also noticed that people who at one time had some good blogs, got all strung out and hopped up on the twitter (crack), and ceased to blog. As far as I am concerned Twitter is just like O F said, "Texting on roids". Your buddy Trelvix made his point well, but could he have got all that down in a Twitter? My point exactly.

Poodles said...

I think it mostly comes down to who you twit with. If the people you follow are boring, twitter will suck, if they have a sense of humor it could be interesting.

Nothing like turning people off to the idea of coming to Jesus.

:)

Xavier Onassis said...

MM - Texting isn't even really a choice for me. I have a 14 year old daughter. I have to text. It's a primary form of communication. One of the (many) things that annoys her about her mother is that she doesn't text.

Given that I must text, twittering was just the next logical choice.

Average Jane said...

As one of the people who frequently has lunch with you thanks to Twitter, I concur.

I also follow certain people solely for the entertainment factor, including Fireland and HalfPintIngalls.

Unknown said...

I tried twitter and never got into it, maybe I should try it again.

Dagwoods kicks ass.