Wine blog blahs

I was very taken by a post by Alfonso Cevola the other day.  He seemed to be lamenting a number of things, but this paragraph about wine blogging and keeping up with the proliferation of wine blogs echoed my own recent thoughts:

...I have been thinking about wine blogging. I am not all that interested in wine blogging. Folks stare out into their screens with their tasting notes and their wishes and their hopes and they pour them out and we are all supposed to drop everything we are doing to read someone’s blog? I have had too many people tell me lately that they can’t and they don’t care to keep up with wine blogs. I understand. For sure, I am not interested in mommy blogs about wine; don’t care what they ate during their trip to Cancun. And those existential quandaries that I have been sent lately by friends of bloggers, people who think I’d like to know about their crisis in Chieti. And so it probably goes with many of my ramblings as well.

He's pinned the "mommy blog" label on me, for one, although I'm not exactly sure what it means.  Oh, I parade my feelings and miseries all over the place, etc., which sounds like a good piece of projection on his part.   The man's a natural elegist anyhow.

Another elegist, this one in verse

Never mind.  I fully understand what he's getting at here. And then he offers these paragraphs, where he gets to the heart of things:

I have been thinking for some time about cutting back or at least giving folks a breather, time to catch up with all these posts. But that would assume there are all kinds of folks laboring through these thrice weekly posts as though it were the NY Times or the BBC. They better not be.

I don’t think I want to slow down, the discipline of writing this much is getting close to what is needed to complete a book in a year. And though this is more free form, it still is an established discipline. So, I’ll probably keep up the pace. And folks can come and go as they have been doing.

Disingenuous disclaimer aside ("They better not be"), Alfonso's hit on the current conundrum in wine blogging.  We want to be read, to have a steady readership and, to varying degrees, to be taken "seriously," though aiming as some do to compete directly with the "filter of the mainstream media" (!) may be a little too ambitious and a misunderstanding of this medium.  At the same time, he's implying that there's nothing all that compelling to write about much of the time. Quindi it isn't too important and quindi maybe he or we all should cease scribbling.

Yes, slaving over a well-written, thoughtful blog like Alfonso's takes an inordinate amount of time.  Hell, even a shoot-from-the-hip (and almost daily) blog like mine takes an inordinate amount of time and care, not least in responding to comments and private messages.  As my life has become busier over the past 6-8 months, it's sometimes been hard to squeeze in the time to write something reasonably well-considered.  And I have less and time time to follow other blogs on a regular basis. 

But here Alfonso tips his hand when he writes, I don’t think I want to slow down, the discipline of writing this much is getting close to what is needed to complete a book in a year.

Each wine blogger has his vision and his self-perceived mission, audience and editorial profile.  And many of us -- the ones who publish regularly and frequently -- are doing so because we have to.  We have an unquenchable need to write, to tell our stories and the stories of the people we meet along the way, and to do so in our own fashion. We have to.  It's hardly a matter of choice.  And we engage with the blog, and indeed the world, through the prism of wine.

We set sail for our wine-dark seas.  And welcome you aboard.

 

Tangerine Moon and Wine Dark Sea, 1959 - Milton Avery

Comments

[fredric koeppel]

Well we all have existential crises from time to time (i.e., daily) but Alfonso's post (and he is a thoughtful man) does make me have to wonder: why do we do this? I've had BYTH going for almost two years and I've made a total of $600. I agonize that I don't post often enough. If the hits dip for a month, I worry that nobody cares. Eric Asimov puts up a post and gets, you know, 59 responses; I put up a post, even the ones I think are my best and most provocative, and get 2, and that's you and Thomas. If I added up the time I spend on this a week, I could indeed write a book, or get in more piano practice. It all seems like a crock, but it's 6:30 a.m., and I have a post to write.

[Strappo]

Thanks for weighing in, FK.

You do feel as though you're a voice crying in the wilderness, the howling indifferent wilderness, but I guess you must do it for the same reasons as Alfonso, me and a lot of others.

But, man, stay the course...

[David J]

You may've noticed I've been MIA myself...but maybe that's the rule rather than otherwise.
From the start, this blogging thing has been developing into something like a genre or form in itself.
Whoever arrives at blogging from a clear commercial focus can use this 'cultural space' with much less emotional wear-n-tear-- certainly with no need to put themselves on the line in their writing beyond whatever professional ax they may have to grind.
This is not confessional poetry, although some of us seem to bring some of its tropes to bear on narratives that strive for practicality, if not strain at pragmatism. What's the point? Beats me.

[tracie b.]

i don't know how ace does it, when i was blogging away 5 days a week back in 2006, i didn't have a job.

it's rewarding, but way too demanding! especially for those of us who aren't natural writers.

[Strappo]

Rewarding but way too demanding is right.

The point about a clear commercial focus and the reduced wear and tear -- a good one. There's plenty of room for both types of blogging, the kind you describe here and the personal, quirky kind. "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't."

[David J]

'This is not confessional poetry, although some of us seem to bring some of its tropes to bear on narratives that strive for practicality, if not strain at pragmatism...'
I short-circuited my thought here, copping out to the feeling of pointlessness in the moment of posting. To attempt a follow-through: the strain-- the tension-- is in the attempt to mesh the sense of personal immediacy-- intimacy, even-- that lends its attractiveness & cachet to electron-based literary forms with that pragmatic strain--strand, better that would, one the one hand, somehow disciplice & build consistency of expression from a personal source while engaging the passion for the good things in a practical life, arguably epitomised by wine, under the pressures of self-publishing... (whew)

[David J]

(I need to go to secretarial school or sumptin'-- take two:)

The strain-- the tension & wear-n-tear of contradiction-- is in the attempt to mesh the sense of immediacy-- intimacy, even-- that lends its attractive & cachet to electron-based literary form(s) with that pragmatic strain or strand that would, on the one hand, somehow discipline & build consistency of expression from a personal source & POV while engaging the passion for the good things in a practical life-- arguably epitomised by wine; all under the pressures, both external & internally generated, of self-publishing... (whew)

[Taster B]

I love to see posts like this because they validate my wavering level of commitment to The Blog. But, now I feel I must offer some words of encouragement: Everyone gets busy, burned out, sapped, scooped, outdone, etc, from time to time. I don't know why some blogs have a loyal readership lapping up every daily post like a big ol' Marmaduke dog, but they do. Yellowtail has a bigger following than your favorite Brunello has too--big deal. That's not what it's about. Don't think about it too much, just follow your bliss. Oh, and as far as quality vs. quantity, maybe you guys don't get as much fanfare but, I'll bet the quality of the appreciation for your prose is much higher than it is for those mass appeal blogs. ;)

[Strappo]

Well, you've made my day. Thanks for the pep talk!

Now would you like to give some examples of the Marmaduke blogs? Heh heh.

[TasterB]

er, no comment. ;)

[terence]

Aawwww!