Richard Chiem

                When I first met heard of Richard Chiem, I noticed he began following me on Twitter. Then he invaded my blog with a question for Steve Roggenbuck for an interview called the “Pseudo-Social Scavenger Hunt” for the (Youth is Write Series). After I discovered why a question was on my blog for someone named Steve Roggenbuck, I told him it was awesome. He thanked me for using my site. 

                “Old Tampons” is the first short story of Richard’s I’ve encountered. It is about long distance relationships. Richard originally submitted it on “NewWaveVomit” and it resonated with a lot of people. First he read it aloud and you can hear it here. Personally, I enjoy his delivery of it. If it is possible for someone to sound like a poet, Richard Chiem sounds like one. He sounds similar to my college poetry teacher. Though my college poetry teacher was called “Mr. Beardsley” (which he might have legally done in order to teach poetry more ironically) one of the most ridiculous names I’ve encountered in my entire life besides “Bea Trout”. Richard’s work is well-thought out with an emotional core that makes the effort more than worth it. 

                A few fine individuals created a short film based off of his poem. Michael Inscoe, Meggie Green, and Melinda Wheeler star in it. All of them match the energy I get from reading the poem. If you’re more of a visual person, or don’t enjoy reading poetry, then you can watch the Youtube video right here. They have a well-chosen soundtrack as well, which is important to someone as obsessed with music as I. 

                “Long distance relationships are like believing in God and do you want to believe in God again?”

                The above introduces you to the poem. For me, it was strong. I’ve never been in a long-distance relationship. I wonder; what if I fell in love with someone. Could I manage to have the faith needed to let that connection stay strong, or would I just let it be, parting with one last hurrah as I moved away. I’m happy then that Richard’s story basically ruminates on that very emotional decision.

                A lot of religious metaphors are in the poem as well. They are beautiful. Using “Christ” in two different situations gives both the absolute highs and lows of a single word with all the baggage it entails. Having it mean the hurt and suffering Christ had at being so alone. Having it mean the pure joy and kindness he literally embodied as he embraced others to make them whole again. 

                Personally, I adored this poem. The hurt both of them feel is vividly portrayed. I couldn’t have asked for more direct language. As I read it, I feel sad at the amount of space and time countless others must have felt as they started out on a long-distance relationship. Both parties feel an unequal amount of hurt as they leave each other, her to go to Boston, him to stay on the West Coast. It was well-paced and gorgeous. Even as it was sad, it had hope for the times they met and were happy together. 

                I’d strongly suggest checking him out. He’s number #23 on Online Literary Power along with the editor of Vertebrae, an online journal of literature and art. If none of this means anything to you, he’s also really nice. That counts the most.

Poetry by Emily Dickinson

               Welcome to the Boykitten’s (or humanity's, take your pick) most collaborative effort ever! Poetry by Emily Dickinson is for all to partake in its many pleasures.  Steve Roggenbuck is the mastermind behind this deceptively simple concept. Multiple levels of collaboration are built into the concept. This allows people the ease to take part in the project in as big or as small of a role as they want. 

                Two roles are available to anyone interested.  You can work as a remix/editor of the material once it has all been compiled. Some material might be usable as-is, but other material might require forms of editing or rephrasing. While this may be wonderful work, going through the process of editing (and you can contact Steve at   steveroggenbuck[at]gmail.com for information on this) there’s a second role to play as well. 

                You can tag your tweets with #poetrybyemilydickinson. Any tweet with this tag will be considered as source material for this poetry project. So instead of using twitter for whatever you’re supposed to use twitter for, you can actually contribute something to literature and society in general. What Steve wants to do is show that Twitter and blogs are not useless for writers, but actually an important instrument in creating new bodies of work.

                Going through the tag, I’ve been introduced to countless new twitter friends and followers, including the 2011 Poet Laureate. I’m not sure if this is one of the desired results of Steve’s project, but it is an additional benefit. If you bother reading all the tweets under the hashtag, you’ll see a vast variety of people and ideas. Somehow, Steve’s managed to create an entire community of poets based off of a single phrase. These people have begun to follow and re-tweet each other. Already I have this as one of my saved searches, and I check up on it to see how people are doing. Personally, I don’t know how Steve is going to deal with re-tweets of the better ones (or more interesting ones).

                Part one involves the creation of this vast body of material. What I’d suggest is for you to do it, in order to create an even better project. The more participation this gets, the better it will be. Additionally, you might gain new followers and discover new online poets at the same time. Or you might become interested in poetry, which would accomplish another one of Steve’s goals. 

                Of course, Steve wants more people to get interested in this art form. Hopefully, by having such an easy way to encourage participation, he’ll be able to attract plenty of new people who otherwise might not have engaged or thought about poetry. That’s one result. Another will be the hope of Google-bombing the phrase “poetry by Emily Dickinson”. 

As I’m writing this, I notice the exact (un-spaced) phrase of ‘poetrybyemilydickinson’ is already the third result on Google search. So perhaps with a few more tweets, this can become the number one result. Steve’s calculations suggest this would hijack roughly 50,000 visitors per month. Instead of people simply finding out more about some dead person, they’ll find out more about an alive and kicking Steve Roggenbuck, a boykitten in the truest sense of the term.  Consider Steve the Santa Claus of online poetry, wrapping up gifts for your brain. 

                I encourage everyone to partake in this fun and interactive collaboration. Join the party. Participate today. Learn how to engage others through the power of poetry!

PS:

 If you would prefer to have poems of over 140 characters, there is another option as well. The fantastic concept is you ask to be added onto the author list. After that, you’ll be approved to publish a poem on there, full-length. Double-posting is not allowed, meaning if you’re the most recent poet, you need to wait until there’s a new submission. Go here "Let People Poems" to learn more about this wonderful site. Thank you.  

Katie Price denies her friend Amir Khan's claims that she dumped Leandro for boxer's best friend

Just when things were starting to look serious for Katie Price and yet another new man, her romance has been delivered a blow.
The model's good friend Amir Khan stunned followers on Twitter by posting a series of messages yesterday claiming that she had dumped her current squeeze Leandro Penna for Khan's best friend.
The boxer and Saj Mohamed, a member of his team, have filled their social networking feeds in recent days with posts about Miss Price, with Saj, 23, even claiming: 'Katie is and will always b the love of my life.'
Olympic boxer Khan, 24, wrote: 'Wow jus got a msg, y katie price broke up with her new bf, mr @saj23x cud be the cause of it, I think they both made for each other. (sic)'
But Katie, 32, hit back this morning, saying that she has only met Saj twice before and that there was no truth to his claims.
After issuing a denial on Twitter, Katie put on a display of unity with Leandro this morning.
The couple held hands tightly as she arrived, hair still in curlers, at BBC Radio 2 ahead of a day of promotion for her new reality series.
The day didn't get off to the best start with Price missing her first interview with BBC Breakfast after being stuck in traffic.
She earlier rubbished Amir's claims that his friend and the reality star had enjoyed liasons in London and that after a 'lengthy conversation,' would be making an announcement about their relationship.
Khan also claimed that Mohamed was shopping in a jewellery store for a gift for Katie - all of which now appears to be fantasy.
The whole saga kicked off last week when Mr Mohamed lashed out at Leandro Penna, 25, on Twitter.
Seemingly continuing a previous exchange on the social networking site, he wrote to the Argentinian model on March 15: 'What you did last night was wrong, First rule coming to england.... show some respect you little b****!
He added: 'I've never said a bad thing about him or to him.... and he insulted me for no apparent reason in his own language.. that really got me vexed!'
The following day, Saj appeared amused when the Daily Mirror printed his cross words, and, perhaps eager to live up to his newly raised profile, continued the Twitter rant.

10 lakh people don't make a hit: SRK

Shah Rukh Khan has been one of the most active Bollywood celebs on social networking site Twitter.

However, the star has been out of action since sometime now. Many would be content in believing that the Khan is inactive as he has no projects to promote and will be back as soon as his films near release. But the real story is very different from the common assumption.

In a recent interview when enquired about his absence from micro-blogging, Shah Rukh explained, "As an actor and as a celebrity, I often come across people who look into my eye and ask me embarrassing questions at press conferences. However, I don't have any option other than putting up a smiling face and replying to the questions even if I am upset or angry.

"It has been happening since 20 years and it happened even during my interactions on Twitter. But I am socially inept, I don't know how to handle relationships and am not very good at dealing with such questions and therefore I thought it would be best to quit," said Khan.

SRK also said that he was having a great time while on Twitter and thought it's great to deal one on one with his fans, until some people started posting crazy questions and comments. Relating one such instance SRK said, "There were comments that 'Oh he only comes on Twitter when he wants to promote his films'. Well with all due respect to everyone, I want to say that 8-10 lakh do not make a film hit."

But SRK also confirmed that he would go back to Twitter someday and as usual talk about life.

Neo-Dadaist Trends in the 21st Century – A Response

        On Thursday, March 10^th 2011, Kat Dixon wrote a piece discussing a group of writers and poets. Usually this would not merit much attention, but these writers and poets happen to be people I’ve actually covered in this blog, people such as Tao Lin, Steve Roggenbuck, and Poncho Peligroso. Having some familiarity with Dadaism, as it is a favorite art form of mine, I figured “Why not give Kat Dixon some attention. And, at the same time, focus more attention on the writers she disagrees with”. Why do this? Simple: I just want to see exactly how they measure up to the original Dadaists. Personally, I’m not convinced the two sets of writers have many things in common.

                Dadaists were anti in nature. Anti-establishment, anti-art, they were a true collection of brothers working internationally to change our perception of art forever. Or so they tried. The fact that people still argue whether or not their creations are art, nearly a century later, is a testament to their truly great work. 

                These poets don’t possess the biting, often visceral, anger of the Dadaists. Dadaists were upset at the vast awfulness of their world, for good reason (World War I). Similarities may exist between the two groups but they possess dramatically different goals.  Yes, re-uses of online posts are abundant in their work, it isn’t negative. Most of their poems may be sad or focused on the self, but they aren’t anti. Rather than have these works as a specific arguments or a rebellion, their work is more a celebration. Dada wanted to destroy institutions. What this group wants to do is change the way people approach and interact with poetry. Being against poetry institutions and creating your own isn’t the same as being against everything. 

Honestly, I enjoy both Dadaism and the work of these young poets but their work doesn’t really correspond well to each other. I’m not sure why this was offered as a point of comparison. In her opening, she even shows how controversial the Dada movement was by quoting her art teacher’s question “Is it art?” Using Kurt Schwitters’ poetry, she then shows how Dadaism exhausted itself but influenced Surrealism. Personally, I see Surrealism as an evolution from the younger, brasher impulses of the youthfulness of Dada into something more positive and romantic. Surrealism to Kat Dixon appears to be a more proper art form than Dadaism, which she seems to believe is a ‘plague’. 

Kat’s definition of the Neo-Dadaists is a bit off as well. Tao Lin appears to be to the Neo-Dadaists what Tristan Tzara (Romanian émigré) was to the Dadaists. She calls their work primitive, irrational, and over-dependent on shallow introspection. Yeah, what the hell? Poetry should be purely rational. I don’t understand that part of her argument to be honest, and she never exactly explains what she means by irrational. Focusing on the self is the exact opposite of what the Dadaists did, the Dadaist reacted against things. They didn’t explain their emotions, even if they had them. Neo-Dadaism already applies to multiple art movements from the 1960s, such as the Fluxus art movement, so I’m not sure how this group fits into that definition anyway. 

Anonymity appears to be another sticking point she has with these young group of poets. Regarding this, I might not be the best person to discuss openness regarding the internet, as I write as a sloth, but I disagree on this point as well. Nearly all of the writers infuse a lot of their writing with their personalities, perhaps more so than the average poets. They write under their own names, as opposed to some false identity. Whenever you go to Steve Roggenbuck’s or Poncho Peligroso’s websites, you see countless images of their pictures in various degrees of shock/apathy. 

 “Neutral facial expression” gets a mention in here, so I’m happy that she’s clearly done her research, either that or she’s absolutely sick with getting confronted by it. Her reference to the poets being emo kids who didn’t grow up at all feels a bit harsh. Considering how later in comments she accuses some of the poets of being personally affronted, it feels a bit hypocritical considering her more personal than objective criticism. This might be the worst part of her article to me and felt oddly petty to simply state “Oh they never grew up, poor emo kids. Guess they’re going to cry about it”.

Besides, emotional detachment isn’t exactly a hallmark of emo kids, usually the opposite. Besides, I thought the emo thing had sort of ended, and the emo kids grew up into hipsters. Or maybe I’m wrong. Please let me know.

Finally, she discusses Poncho’s manifesto, which I’ll republish below:

Language is language.

Words are words.

Poems are poems.

Words are language.

Poems are words.

Poetry is language.

Run wild.

Regarding this, the 2011 Poet Laureate does explain on his tumblr how he meant “All language has the potential to be poetry if we want it to”. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Discovery of new forms of expression is a good thing, as is an embrace of the ‘primitive’ vernacular language we use on the internet. Remember how John Cage stated “Everything we do is music”. Basically, it is the same idea with poetry. Whether or not you find their work to be poetry or not, they simply explore language in a more direct and forceful way than most people do. Her discussion of their work criticizes it for the simple language. Flowery or sophisticated language isn’t the hallmark of a great writer. A lot of great writers used simple language to great effect. Would Hemingway have been the same writer with an ornate approach? I doubt it. 

Finally, the ending reveals her true feelings towards the movement. Kat hopes the movement will ‘yawn itself out’, a clever way of saying it will exhaust itself. Though she might not enjoy the poetry it creates, it might be the beginning of something better. All of their poetry is still new, they’ve just found themselves, to hope for a movement to just get a hint and die off is harsh. Even her not particularly beloved Dada evolved into Surrealism, an art form she clearly has warmer feelings for. Perhaps if she doesn’t like what they are doing now, who knows how their work will change. Later on it might morph into something she appreciates or enjoys. 

Overall though, I’m glad she wrote this piece. I hope she continues exploring and analyzing poetry (visit her blogspot here)since she clearly enjoys it. Perhaps her next article might elaborate further on poetry she enjoys. While I might not agree with her article, she clearly did research on the poets involved. Though she didn’t like it, she did continue to give it additional coverage. By giving the internet poets attention, she inadvertently promotes them and their goals. To see an extremely spirited debate, I’d suggest reading the comments at the bottom to see various people’s reactions. 

Art’s purpose is to provoke. If these poets’ work provoked Kat Dixon, whether good or bad, that means they clearly serve a purpose. 

PS: I’d like to not call this group of people Neo Dadaists. Whenever a group first gets labeled, it is hard to shake a label off. Kat might not have realized this, but she may have given them a name which could stick. Since I’m not fond of this label I asked Poncho via Twitter what label he’d prefer for his literary movement. 

As per Poncho:

                CALL US BOYKITTENS

Rihanna bares all for Skincare Nivea, Rihanna bares all for Nivea

Rihanna has posed naked for a skin care brand.

The Bajan chart star bared all for Nivea’s 100 Years Skincare for Life campaign, reports the Mirror.

Two of her tattoos are visible in the first promotional shot.

The 23-year-old has hinted she might be having more, claiming recently on Twitter that she has “tattoo fever”.

Priety Zinta came back sad and deprived from Shirdi: Preity Zinta

Unlike her fellow actor Shilpa Shetty who was "at peace" after her visit to Shirdi recently, Preity Zinta has returned with unpleasant memories of being pushed by the media in the pilgrim town.

"Good morning! Went to Shirdi yesterday and came back with memories of media pushing me instead of the serene face and energy of Sai Baba (sic)," an irritated Preity posted on her Twitter page.

The 36-year-old actor is quite displeased with the mad rush for celebrities even at a place of pilgrimage and is upset that she couldn't even pray properly.

"I wonder why r temples have become so commercial? Why A temple trustee's urge 2 b photographed with a celebrity is entertained by media? In front of god, we bare ourselves and look to purify our soul. Instead of feeling uplifted i came back feeling sad and deprived from Shirdi.

"In the rut to make anything news, have we forgotten to respect god and someone's genuine devotion? I fold my hands to the media and request dem 2 Respect us and respect GOD! Not every celebrity goes 2 a temple 4 Tamasha! Some genuinely go 2 pray and 2 disturb them then is BAD KARMA," she added.

Preity has been off the big screen for sometime now. Her last full-fledged role was in "Heroes" in 2008.

Are Blogs Waning: A Report

                  Recently the New York Times had an article which hit a bit too close to home: blogs were declining in popularity. I sat there, reading up, tears welling up in my eyes at the horrible news. That draft I had been working on my blog might not be as significant anymore or remotely significant. Wondering if this was true all over, high-tailed it over to Hipster Runoff. After seeing Carles’ absolutely pathetic and sad meta-joke on the entire online hipster community ‘The Mainstreamer’ I thought they might be right. 

                Composing myself, I realized the New York Times hasn’t been right about a lot of things. Maybe there was something more than news compelling them to write such vicious material. The writers of the New York Times must know their days of being a newspaper are limited. Who are they to report on blogs and the state of blog affairs? Why can’t we have the President of the Blog-O-Sphere come out and reject such slander in her state of the Blog Address.

                “The State of our Blog has never been stronger. We produce more Memes than any other country on Earth.”

                While some people have turned exclusively to twitter and Facebook, most use them as supplements, rather than full-on platforms. In other words, you have to have tough skin for the internet. Michael McDonald, the young man they profiled in their extended piece, clearly didn’t have the guts for what blog life is all about. Rather than expand his blogging presence through dubious tweets and so on, he went all lame on it. Using the gripe of ‘not enough people visited my blog’ he closed up shop for good.

                If I were this kid’s friend, I would have told him to stick with it. Blogging takes a long time; it is more of a slow burn than a flare up. Simply posting stuff up doesn’t mean you’re going to get noticed, you’ve got to be creative. Create a Facebook profile whose single purpose is trolling other sites, implanting your blog presence elsewhere. Begin to connect with other bloggers, write something people want to read. Technical blogs don’t do so hot; you have to inject some truth and understanding into there at some point. Stating ‘all the people I want to reach are on Facebook’ it is clear he wanted positive feedback rather than constructive criticism (I’ve been able to accept constructive criticism due to my arm’s length approach to this doodad).

                Children 12 to 17 saw a 50% decrease in the amount of blogging. Good, what the fuck do tweens blog about? I don’t really care about how hard you have it in Middle School, in High School. I’m sorry lunch today was applesauce, lasagna, and cornbread, but just eat it. You have to go through some serious stuff, some interesting stuff before you can write turgid, long-winded posts like the ones better bloggers have. 

                Showing a decrease in the amount of bloggers doesn’t bother me in the least. Thinning the ranks a little bit can be a good thing. Having become familiar with other blogs, I’d say there’s always better and better stuff coming out. By staying around longer, you can ‘hone’ your ‘blogging chops’ and do a better job. Writing doesn’t come naturally to me; I had to work at this kind of work. Hopefully I’ve become a little better of a writer through various amounts of criticism. 

                Blogs offer a certain amount of conversation. I enjoy speaking with other bloggers. We help one another and form a community which is strong. Sure, I think the opinionated tag works for a lot of blogs, but those tend to be more political blogs, something I try to avoid on here. Besides, in case you’re more interested in the visual arts, Tumblr offers a great way of showing off your skills, probably much better than Blogspot does.

                Don’t let the New York Times lord over you. Stay strong fellow writers, bloggers, Google Bombers, Flarfers, and whatever else exists exclusively on the internet that I haven’t mentioned. Together we’ll make these Chains of Love.

My Growing Addiction to Twitter (A True Story)

                When I first got my twitter, I felt confused. I didn’t know how to use it. Rather, I ended up updating it with random sentences I found in articles I thought were funny. Later, after consulting with some of my hip friends, I learned that it could serve as some sort of bookmark database. Essentially, I could have it as an extension of my online brain.

                For a while, I coasted with this idea. Others took it to more adventurous heights, tying it directly to Facebook. Personally, I found such an approach aggravating and as a cheap way of finding people to follow you. Most of my friends began gaining followers this way, by the sheer fact that they knew many of these people in real life. How I decided to do this was to have almost exclusively people add me based on the content of my tweets instead of the content of my character.

                My twitter content remained too uninteresting for most people. No one followed me as I blazed through countless amounts of music links, political links, etc. Honestly, I didn’t mind. Twitter felt alone to me, as a place to reflect on my slowing growing interest in all things net-based. 

                Things changed. After this blog got started, I began thinking about new ways of using twitter. Almost immediately I changed the twitter name to its current name. Links were posted so one could find this more clearly. Hash tags began to be used with ever increasing amounts of abandon. I didn’t care if my review of Mouse on Mar’s album had anything to do with #bringingsexybackthursday. 

                Eventually though, something had to change. My hash tags became more accurate. One day, I lost my tweet at virginity to none other than that scamp, Kari Ferrell (aka the Hipster Grifter). After my in-depth article I wrote about her, she sent me the tweet that forever changed my tweeting world. It simply said:

                “hotdoghandjobs@Beach_Sloth: Everything you said is true, but you forgot about the part where I had seven abortions.”

                I guess she must have googled herself to find my article. She might have searched through hashtags. All I know is she popped my twitter cherry, I was free to frolic within the character limit of 140 words. For that, I’d like to offer her my greatest thanks. 

                After my first twitter hookup, I began to look for something more meaningful, less one-night stand-ish. Slowly I realized entire friendships; relationships could be forged in little, well-thought-out phrases. I could distill the essence of my character into a beautiful phrase, a broken little piece of poetry one might love me by. People became more receptive to me after they realized I wrote large scale pieces as well. Writing articles, reviews, other blurbs garnered me some sort of ‘twitter chops’ proving I could work in a larger format when I wanted.

                Now, after these followers have begun to truly know me, I can never go back. Forever I must respond to others, to interact within a web of similar, like-minded people. In many ways twitter feels freer than the average social network. I can remain completely anonymous, obscure, and distant, mirroring the approach I take with this blog. No one who knows or has met me in real life ever followed me on twitter, so I have complete freedom over the content.

                Plus, while I initially possessed some snobbishness about prolific twitters, I now realize how much of a skill that is. Few Americans actually use twitter or have an account (the percentage is about 6%) so more than most other platforms, you might actually be speaking directly to that very person rather than ‘somebody who handles their website’. Such intimacy while remaining so distant is a great pull. It is easy to update twitter, and most artists/musicians aren’t particularly web savvy, so it’s ideal for them.

                I’ve made many friends through twitter. You know who you people are. You’ve made my life more meaningful, more relevant through your tweets at me. Direct messages are even better; I adore those since they rarely are spam and can be pure emotion. 

                My worry would be if I end up getting too addicted to the constant updates. At times it feels like some sort of addiction, wanting the instant gratification that it undoubtedly brings. I know appreciation should take time, so I’m trying to temper my need for such a quick impulse. Hopefully I’ll continue to meet some of the strangest people possible without the joy or fear of ever having to meet them in person. Though if I ever met one of my followers or person I was following in person, I’d probably know much more about them than I’d be willing to admit. Add me on twitter by going here: Beach_Sloth

Latest Hipster Runoff Gimmick: The Hipster Runoff [official] Facebook Profile

                Two weeks have passed since I last covered the online hipster phenomena known as “Hipster Runoff”. A lot has happened in those two weeks. 2011 is the year Carles ‘pulls out all the stops’ and truly solidifies his online presence, since the internet has fully sucked him in. My wondering of him existing as a human being only increases upon this event.

                Of course, I’m talking about Hipster Runoff [official] coming onto Facebook. At first I was confused, like didn’t Hipster Runoff already exist on Facebook. Apparently that was a fake profile and this one was the real thing. So now you get updates from every single part of your online existence, from your RSS feed to your twitter, now finally making it to Facebook. 

                 I rushed in, becoming one of the select few to claim they got there early. Sadly, ‘second’ was already taken by Carles himself, eliminating the joy one might have derived from this action. Who got first? That proved to be ok, it was nice seeing Carles expose himself, his true self, and via the anonymous presence he has on the internet.

                While I said before that Hipster Runoff becoming a dating site, well I was wrong. Its presence on Facebook is a whole another matter. None of those people posting on HRO generally had a picture up of themselves. Looking through the profiles of the people posting, I am surprised at the amount of cuteness. Some of them look like perfect alt-baguettes. I’m half-tempted to sort of flirt with them, but I shouldn’t though I probably will anyway. For both men and women, there are serious HILFs (Hipsters I’d like to Fuck) in the group. 

                Oddly, I’m assuming this is why Carles set up a Facebook fan page in the first place. Some may think it is just another gimmick for Hipster Runoff to get more readers. I don’t think that, this appears to be a genius way for Carles to flirt with cute twenty-somethings. Sure, that hasn’t happened yet, but it will. I would put $20 on it since he already does that with Twitter.

           

               People act differently as well now that they have a picture associated with their words. They could hide behind an anonymous name, spewing nonsense before this. Actually, I like seeing what the commenters looked like. I felt a bit sad since only one of my other friends ended up liking it on Facebook. Clearly she ‘gets it’ while the rest of my friends are busy reading books by Karl Marx and working on their Grad School thesis. 

                 2011 might be the year that Hipster Runoff gains some relevancy again. Lately Carles has been almost in crisis mode, constantly adding more and more to connect with him. We can call him, have him talk to us on Facebook, I wonder what’s next? Will Carles have a Skype interview? Will Carles visit your house and drink a couple of beers with you for 4 easy payments of $19.95? I’m a bit curious. He tried to charge $3000 for having him hand-deliver his shirts, and that didn't work. But he might try again, who knows.

                Right now he’s taking on the persona of a kid who just joined Facebook. He asks his followers to tag pictures of him. This is funny because not only is it impossible to tag a fan page, but no one knows at all what he looks like or where he is. He pokes fun at the oversharing on the internet by deliberately providing incorrect information. 6969 Blog Avenue is not a real address, so please do not address mail to him, as he will not be able to receive it. 

                Parts of the group worry me.  Some people are wondering if Carles spends too much on Facebook and whether or not it’ll dilute his blog further. I wonder. I ponder the effects of his writing after being exposed to so many people. Does writing suffer upon being discovered by more people, of tweaking your writing for a particular audience? Having read his early stuff, I get the distinct impression he’s going to spend 2k11 trying to find what made HRO so special in the first place.

                These gimmicks buy him some time. With each one of these gimmicks, people focus more on his online presence and perhaps less on new styles he may be trying out. Hopefully he’ll be able to coin a new genre like he did in 2K9, I’m not sure if I count “Slutwave” as a genre or as a general observation, reflecting more on the packaging rather than the actual content.

                Stay tuned for more public insecurity from Carles as he takes on new personas and perhaps changes up his style and approach yet again.