Tag: blogs

The Death of Blogs

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though blogs are dead. Very, very, very few people read this blog on any specific day. I — apparently? — have some stalkers and hater readers who read this blog on a pretty religious basis. But, other than that, I have no idea why anyone reads this blog.

But it is flattering that *anyone* reads this blog these days.

I have to admit, that, I, myself, don’t read any blogs anymore other than this one — and I write it! I live in a very passive media cocoon where my media intake is whatever happens to puncture my Twitter feed. Other than Twitter, I really don’t consume any media.

I have vowed to myself that I’m going to watch some movies very, very soon, but I then turn around and punt that desire down the road. So, I don’t know. I really do need to start to consume media more instead of just (attempt) to produce it by working on a novel.

They say if you have time to write you have time to read. As such, I really, really need to do just that — read and watch, to be more specific. But I still find it a struggle to do any such thing. I just want to relax and daydream and, on occasion, work on my novel.

But I’m in something of an idyllic creative situation, so I need too acknowledge that and really lean into not just writing, but reading and watching too. I’m just so cantankerous about what it is that I want to watch. I’ve only really liked two TV shows in the last 15 years — 30 Rock and Mad Men.

Otherwise, meh.

Although, I did enjoy Fleabag and Mare of Easttown a lot, too.

Anyway. it definitely seems as though this is it for blogs — it’s over. I only keep writing on this blog because sometimes I need an outlet for longer writing.

Vibe Shift: A New Gawker For Generation Tik-Tok



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The Tik-Tok generation doesn’t really have a blog of its own. I’m old enough to see the progression from Late Night With David Letterman to Spy Magazine to Gawker to….uh…..nothing? And I use Tik-Tok a lot even though I’m an Old and it seem pretty obvious that Tik-Tok is Ground Zero for modern pop culture.

Julia Fox — Tik-Tok icon.

If you believe we’re in the midst of a “vibe shift” then it makes a lot of sense that the new vibe would have its own publication. It’s kind of sad that Gawker is now an undead husk of itself — even though the original version was fucking hateful and nasty before its demise.

Anyway, here’s what I would do. I would start a site that was ostensibly obsessed with Tik-Tok and the pop culture it flings off at an astonishing rate each day. But, I would also produce a lot of really interesting, serious commentary about other topics — politics, what have you. You get The Youngs hooked on this new blog by taking Tik-Tok deadly seriously, then prepare them for the Adult World by presenting them with hot takes on what’s going on in the broader world.

And, if I was involved, I would occasionally throw curve balls involving doing something silly with Julia Fox around New York City or whatever. Or maybe the occasional sexxy snap of this or that celebrity simply to be ornery. The issue is — do anything not to be meh. Not to be boring. The whole reason the blog would exist would be to provoke a response of some sort.

As best I can tell, Generation Tik-Tok doesn’t have its own Gawker at the moment. Of course, there is a risk that, lulz, by definition Generation Tik-Tok doesn’t want it’s own Gawker-like blog and fuck you.

But it is something to think about.

Generation Tik-Tok & A Vision For A New Gawker-Like Blog



By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I’m not saying that I would be involved in this in any way, but just doing a back-of-the-envelope study of what I see in my Webstats and here’s my suggestion for how to start a successful new blog.

The first thing you would have to do is realize to manage your expectations. Blogs are dead. Apps are dead. We’re all in a holding pattern while we wait for the kinks to get worked out of the Metaverse.

And, yet, I think if you flipped the script some on your traditional blog that maybe, maybe you could pull it off. But you would need a wealthy patron to help you with the backend and marketing. Here goes, though.

My magazine in Seoul.

If you were actually going to try to start a new Gawker-like blog now, you would really have to focus on celebrity news. But here’s the catch — you would need two or three people on staff who would simply use Tik-Tok all day and then turn around and write stories about what trends they saw. Tik-Tok would set the blog’s editorial agenda.

As such, right now, such a blog would be doing profiles of Julia Fox — or, hell, even turn her into the blog’s de facto mascot like Julia Allison was with the original Gawker way back when.

The point is — the reason why the undead Gawker is so meh right now is it has no spunk, no snark and it’s not laser focused on what Generation Tik-Tok is interested in. That’s the thing I’ve noticed about the new, undead Gawker. It just seems kind of indifferent to what’s really going on with pop culture.

If you want to be a pop culture media outlet, you have to be on the cutting edge of what people are talking about, and by definition, that means you have to be obsessed with Tik-Tok.

Anyway, the point is — you use the pop culture element of the blog to hang all the rest of the blog’s content on it. Come for the Tik-Tok meme talk, stay for a snarky feminist polemic or maybe a sexxxy snap of Julia Fox doing whatever it is that Julia Fox is doing at any particular moment.

This is just me mentally masturbating on a Sunday morning. I have no money and, hell, I don’t have any friends. I guess I occasionally get frustrated because I know, given the opportunity — and resources — I could probably bring back the spirit of the old Gawker with a new blog.

I’m A Delusional Moron: I’m Going To Study Hollywood As An Industry & Try To Start A Blog


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I keep thinking up blog concepts and they go absolutely nowhere. And, yet, I have noticed that on this blog there’s one specific type of post that has a bit more native traffic — entertainment (Hollywood) coverage.

As such, I’ve started a new blog called “Hollywood Chigum” that will feature only writing about the greater Hollywood industry. It’s going to take a while to understand what’s going on so I don’t make a fool out of myself, but I’m willing to put the work into it.

The theory is — if I suck up a lot of time researching Hollywood’s infotainment business, then what time I spend on the novel will be more precious and, as such, I will use that time I have more constructively.

But I’ve failed so many fucking times that I’m going to focus on the novel far more than anything else for the time being. What I might do is any entertainment posts I do here I will also feature at Hollywood Chigum.

Now, about the name.

I spent five years in South Korea as an expat. I really like the sound of the word “chigum.” It means “now” in Korean. I like how brash and snarky the name Hollywood Chigum sounds. And it does have Hollywood in it, so there’s a hook.

But I will note that I’m just a rando in the rural portion of a flyover state. Absolutely no one cares about me and I could drop off the side of the earth right now and barely anyone would notice. It is, however, fun to write about entertainment and the idea of focusing exclusively on Hollywood on a blog is rather fun sounding.

I have a rather unique, wry point of view and I think someone, somewhere might like my hot takes.