An Introduction

I'm an avid blog reader who's always come up with reasons to avoid the fray. I long ago lost count of all the thoughtful, passionate writers I've discovered while scrolling through blogrolls or clicking links, but rarely considered starting a blog of my own. My friends, accustomed to regular earfuls about my latest cultural enthusiasm, grew fond of mentioning the frequency with which I identified a blog as its source. But I always rebuffed their suggestions that I should join the discussion myself, citing privacy concerns, or claiming that that I didn't have anything worthwhile to say.

I am a deeply private sort. Truthfully, though, whatever high-minded reluctance I displayed was partly a front for simple stubbornness. I know that I can reveal as little or as much of myself as I'd like on a blog. I know that many of the best bloggers use their sites as a proving ground for their ideas, and rely upon spirited debate with commenters and fellow bloggers to hone their arguments. I also know how deeply I dislike being told what to do, and the extent to which I'll resist even innocuous, helpful suggestions like "Hey! You're pretty smart! Why not start a blog?". My refusals are polite and friendly, but good-natured irascibility is still irascibility. This contrary streak makes me the consummate late adopter, a guy who, for example, didn't own his own cell phone until 2007.

And so I relent to blogging, damn near a decade after the rest of the first world. After much of the second and third worlds too. As edifying as I find reading others' blogs, and as much as I learn from them, I understand that the greatest aspect of the form is the potential to participate in a practically-instantaneous, open-ended, global exchange of ideas. And I can't experience any of that for myself blogless. And that would be a shame.


In lieu of a set topic or format, I've decided the best strategy is to play around a bit while the blog is young, and see where I end up. I'll linger in the cultural slipstream, taking on art or music or film as the notion strikes. While the blog may lack an obvious focus, I hope that, with time, my idiosyncratic sensibilities emerge. For my title and epigraph, I've paraphrased a line from one of my favorite songs, the Minutemen's "Do You Want New Wave? Or Do You Want the Truth?". In it, D. Boon and Mike Watt convey the sensation of being confused by a rush of ideas and information, unsure of what, if anything, is true. As accurately as that described life in 1984, it is doubly true today. I hope to confront uncertainty with the same intelligence and wry humor that they did.