one month later

sabbaticals, the post-postmodern new new journalism, hypocrisy

Contrary to popular opinion, I am indeed still alive.

The last month or so I’ve taken a break from the internet more or less and I apologize to any of you that I’ve resultingly blown off. The internet and I have been close for over a decade now, and I felt like I just needed a break from the relationship – it was getting a little intense there for a while.

So it goes.

This past week my friends from college Ari and Adam came to visit and crash at Top Floor while on their two month cross-country road trip. The road trip is ostensibly an exploration of drive in movie theatres across America, their death and resurgence, and their impact on and reflection of the changing culture. As they’ve been progressing through (about halfway through), Ari and Adam have altered their focus somewhat, to include more of themselves and their own experience as well. This is what Ari and I got into a somewhat antagonistic on-film conversation about when the boys were staying (in the visionary, of course).

I should say: I love first person journalism. It acknowledges the greatest human truth: no matter how hard you try, you can’t go beyond yourself; you are in everything you do. There’s a personality invested in the story, instead of surreptitiously (and sometimes dishonestly) hidden behind the material.

But there is, of course, a line between being a part of the story and becoming the story. I’ll call this the Thompson line. Hunter was an excellent documenter, but his Gonzo predilections often won out over his journalistic ones, leading him to purposefully alter the story to make it more exciting.

This is part of what concerns me about Ari and Adam drive in documentary. The other part is the narcissism, which I’ll call the MySpace syndrome (alternatives: Reality television and/or the blogosphere).The drifting, ambivalent neo-nihilist/alarmingly sincere twixter experience is a trendy and marginally interesting one (and you must agree at least a bit, considering you’re reading my blog.) But, you know. There are limits.

Incidentally, my other advice to Ari and Adam was to make their blog entries shorter and less rambling. So, a grain of salt.

So it goes.