Monday, July 16, 2007

Shower Curtain Ring Guy

Two weeks since the Buzzards Bay Championship and my Teaser post and so far I've only written one post about it, in spite of all the "teases". And now another regatta under my belt this weekend with potentially lots more to blog about... a costly blunder by most of the fleet, a couple of racing rule conundrums, musings on sailing fitness or lack of it, my one brilliant strategic decision (they happen occasionally, very occasionally, I've no idea why), what motivates me to sail better and why it's probably a bad thing... Not to mention a day of practice in Bristol Harbor.

So why am I not blogging about sailing? I keep thinking of the quote from Steve Martin's 1987 movie, Planes Trains and Automobiles.

You know everything is not an anecdote. You have to discriminate. You choose things that are funny or mildly amusing or interesting. You're a miracle! Your stories have NONE of that. They're not even amusing ACCIDENTALLY! "Honey, I'd like you to meet Del Griffith, he's got some amusing anecdotes for you. Oh and here's a gun so you can blow your brains out. You'll thank me for it." I could tolerate any insurance seminar. For days I could sit there and listen to them go on and on with a big smile on my face. They'd say, "How can you stand it?" I'd say, "'Cause I've been with Del Griffith. I can take ANYTHING." You know what they'd say? They'd say, "I know what you mean. The shower curtain ring guy. Woah." It's like going on a date with a Chatty Cathy doll. I expect you have a little string on your chest, you know, that I pull out and have to snap back. Except I wouldn't pull it out and snap it back - you would. Agh! Agh! Agh! Agh! And by the way, you know, when you're telling these little stories? Here's a good idea - have a POINT. It makes it SO much more interesting for the listener!


Let's face it. A lot of posts on many blogs -- including a lot on this one -- don't have a point, or are even mildly amusing or interesting. Edward at the EVK Super Hyper Blog wrote about the problem with sailing the other day: a beautiful fun relaxing sail does not make for good blog material. Nor necessarily does a beautiful fun exhausting series of races.

When I used to write a sailing column for my local newspaper I always tried to have a "hook" for each article. I tried so hard not to write stories about our fleet that essentially said "some of the fleet went right, some of the fleet went left, the left was right" or words to that effect. But I often failed.

Can't a blog just be a daily journal? Sure. A lot are. "Got up. Had breakfast. Chatted online. Did some weeding." You don't want to read that sort of drivel here.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes.

This is all just a long roundabout way to say that I seem to have bloggers' block. I blame Steve Martin and Edward.

But I refuse to be the shower curtain ring guy.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Shower curtain ring guy"...? I don't get it.

Tillerman said...

Oh no. I write a post that was meant to mildy amusing and interesting and to have a point -- the point being that posts should be mildly amusing or interesting and have a point...

And then I find that I did such a bad job that the first reader didn't get the point.

I must be the shower curtain ring guy. Steve please pass me that gun.

Anonymous said...

It might have helped if you pointed out that Del Griffith was a shower curtain ring salesman...or at least hinted that Del Griffith had something to do with shower curtain rings.

EVK4 said...

Or anonymous could go watch one of the funniest movies of all time...that, too, would help.

What I would have liked to see is the title of this post be "the left was right". That is good writing.

I hit a chord with that good sailing is bad blogging business, I even read about it on the Pearson Ariel bulletin board (thanks Zen, um, er, Frenchie). I'm going to try to prove it wrong with a post about this past weekend's sail.

Tillerman said...

One of my articles for the newspaper was on the "left is right" theme. The article was all about why I wouldn't write articles about "they went left, they went right" while actually writing one.

Just like this post was about why I won't write posts without a point while actually writing a post without a point.

I think I've moved beyond post-modern irony. I think I'm into post-modern surrealist minimalism.

PeconicPuffin said...

There's always more to write about when it comes to sailing. I remember a riveting exchange about vang tension...it got me all hot and bothered about pulleys and blocks.

Tillerman said...

Don't get me started...

Pat said...

Shhhh, we're not supposed to try vang sheeting ... boom doesn't like it on our boat.

Pat said...

Carol Anne says she's never seen Planes, Trains, and, ...

Automobiles? What? No f**ing sailboats? I've got a tuning guide and a key but no $$%&**((#$$ sailboat! What are you guys trying to f&**(^%% pull around this f$%&**&%ing marina, anyway!??!

Carol Anne said...

This has been something I have been dealing with -- the conventional wisdom has been that the blogs that are most successful are the ones with the most regular posts.

But if I don't have anything to post about, does my blog gain anything by some silly post saying, "just the same as last time, the wind was light and it wasn't worth trying to sail"?

You know, maybe that's where having a blog with multiple topics can be good -- if it's not good enough wind to sail, I can post something about cats or grammar or poetry.

Still, I can definitely agree that posting meaningless stuff is worse than posting off-topic stuff.

Zen said...

On the other hand, Jerry Steinfield's whole show was about nothing... Look how long that ran...

Tillerman said...

Good points Carol Anne and Zen. Just what I've been thinking about where to go with this blogging thing.

Can a blog be interesting if it just posts items of daily trivia from the author's life? Yes if the author is good enough and has that talent for making the mundane sound fascinating. That's why Sherry's Stay of Execution was so successful. Here for example is a brilliant piece on Sandpaper.
Unfortunately I don't have her talent.

Or you could write a multi-topic blog. (As Sherry did toom I suppose). But I'm still not sure what audience would want to read a blog that covered sailing, politics, gardening, running, marriage, baseball, weather, ex-pat life, photography, travel, aging, guitar, fitness, environment, personal finance, gadgets and humor... to name just a few of the subjects that interest me.

Then there's the other point of view that the best thing is just to post occasional articles of substance and not bother to post anything at all if you don't have a meaty article ready.

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