FdB:
But for all that there is another, more honest way in which old-school blogging has become actually egalitarian, grimy and uncool in the way real egalitarianism is. I like blogging now because whatever vestigial coolness it once had was gone. So now it really is what it was once sold as: just a repository of words. And there is a real, quiet, unsexy kind of egalitarianism in just words, a very basic fairness that doesn’t function as a social mechanism even in an online space where everything is some message about who you’re with. I’ve written a few times for Medium, and somebody said to me, conspiratorially, at a party, “You know, Medium’s very uncool.” And I just had no idea! God, the freedom! Joy for me is living outside of signalling.
Likewise, until this morning, I had absolutely no idea that Line 6 amps were regarded as “the butt of gear jokes” by people who care about such things. But one commenter assures us that they are “one of THE most hated amps amongst the respected audiophile and musician community.” Not just any audiophile and musician community; the respected one!
The last guy I worked on music with introduced me to Line 6 equipment. He worked as a manager of a music store, so he got to experiment with anything he wanted, and that was what he favored. I was instantly sold on their guitar pod, and being just a simple fellow who knows what he likes, I never saw any reason to keep up with the latest gear after that. Like so many good Germans, though, I was apparently allowing my blissful ignorance to provide cover for heinous crimes against audio.
As for blogging, barely a week has gone by over the last several years without seeing another epitaph for it. Even that pose has gotten old, though, so now we learn that the real “fascinating and challenging” writing is happening on a bunch of platforms I hadn’t even heard of, with the Ouroboros apparently ready to start devouring Twitter now. Ah, well, I suppose being fashionable is its own punishment — what more could you wish on people like that than to be perpetually dissatisfied, always afraid of missing out or being left behind? Me, I’m content being a Brian Wilson “In My Room” sort of man-child, spending my time on the fringe, shielded by others’ dismissive contempt.