Tag: Gawker

Watch Me Channel Lester Bangs: Undead Gawker Is Boring


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m day drinking rye on my way to working fleshing out the outline of the first of four novels I’m planning, so think of this as me channeling Lester Bangs while I psyche myself up to my attention to the main event.

In short, I’m drunk and writing.

Anyway, the new Gawker is boring. It has an element of spunk to it, and, yet, not one of the article headlines I glanced out just a moment ago was enough to make me sit up and take notice. Sometimes, you need to be ornery. We live in such surreal times that if you had the backing to start a new blog like the Undead Gawker, I would pull out the stops.

Find a few young obsessives — or maybe an old obsessive like me? — and tell them to rant. They would get traffic through marketing and buzz. Now, here’s what I would do if I was in charge Undead Gawker. I would very carefully study the site’s Webstats and try to glean what, specifically was catching the most people’s interest then I would attack that subject with the strangest, snarkiest hot takes I could possibly pull out of my ass.

You know what Undead Gawker reminds me of right now?

Radar Online.

Give me a blog format, a jug of rye, access to Undead Gawker’s webstats and an expectation of 10 solid posts a day and I could put that site on the map. I know what makes Twitter liberals tick. I know their internal media narrative. I can make bankshot references to cultural touchstones that every Twitter power user knows.

The point is: fucking hire me, Undead Gawker.

Ugh.

Anyway, this rye tastes nice and the novels I’m supposed to be working on are looking more and more attractive.

Undead Gawker Leaves Me Very Frustrated


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ugh. Seeing undead Gawker is beginning to eat away at me because I know I could really help them out, given the opportunity. What I feel like doing is obsessively writing about the site until they take notice and let me write for them in some capacity.

I would love to cover the Civil War Or Autocracy Beat.

And, yet, I don’t know. I do have four novels to develop and write. It seems like a huge waste of time. If I were to go the “Leave Britany alone” route, it would be just because my frustration got the best of me.

The point is — now that we’re (maybe?) coming out of the Rona era, there may be a first mover advantage for a blog to cover this new era we are entering. I’m the perfect person to start it, but only in the context of having a business partner. Given I’m apparently the most ghostable person on the planet, I need to just buckle down with the novels.

The thing I want — to either work for Gawker or found my own Gawker-like site, just isn’t going to happen. Or, it will only happen if something rather spectacular happens, like I win the lottery or something.

So, lulz, I need to focus on the four novels I’m developing and writing.

A Modest Proposal For A New Blog


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that we have had 24 hours to look at the soft-reboot of Gawker, and it’s obvious that my personal media tastes have moved on from the Gawker of yore. Besides my gripe about the new Gawker’s layout (it’s not really a blog), I feel kind of sad that none of the posts are as spicy-hot as the old Gawker’s. The whole thing is well done and interesting, but…not really viral-worthy.

This could change, of course, but it got me thinking.

Most of the traffic for this blog is coming from searches of people obviously worried about an impending civil war in the United States. My gut tells me that if I could find someone with some business savvy (read, money) and I wrote actual journalistic articles that were laser focused on pondering what appears to be our never-ending march towards the choice of autocracy or civil war (probably around January 2025) that you would have a recipe for some sort of success.

I could do it, but I have no money and no friends.

You get people hooked by long, interesting posts about how this or that recent event seems to indicate we’re closer to autocracy or civil war, and keep them hooked with weird articles like, “Is Tik-Tok Reading Your Mind?” and “Is Taylor Swift A Virgin?”

In the past, this would be the point when I would get frustrated, buy a URL and struggle for a few days to make this dream a reality. But, lulz, I four novels to work on.

So, I don’t know, maybe someone contact me about this? Or, hell, someone else can start this type of blog so I can have something to read?

The New Gawker Is Great, It’s Just Missing One Thing: ME


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The original Gawker got me through a very dark time in my life so I’ve always had a sentimental attachment to the site. The site has come back and it seems fine. I could see myself reading it on a regular basis. I struggle to see how they’re going to differentiate themselves from, say, New York Magazine though.

One way they could do that is to hire me!

I have a very old-Gawker sensibility. I like to look into weird concepts in weird ways for weird reasons. I did a great job with ROKon Magazine in Seoul for the the few months it existed in late 2006 to early 2007.

And I know the beat I could cover for them — the civil war or autocracy beat. Most of my writing on the subject to date has been rather vague for no other reason than I’ve just been letting off steam. But just the barest amount of money to write on the subject would cause me to throw myself into producing actual journalistic articles on the subject.

Julia Allison, the icon of the Old Gawker.

I would also love to get paid to do an actual investigation into my lingering fears that Tik-Tok is reading our minds. That would be a lot of fun to poke around in a silly, semi-serious manner.

One big concern I have is, are Websites moot? I know for me, at least, I get almost all news passively off of Twitter. That’s it — if there’s news, I get it form Twitter. For the New Gawker to work, it would really need to be bonkers and interesting — two things I definitely bring to the table. (Wink.)

Anyway, I wish them luck, no matter what. I have a novel or four to work on, so I’m not holding my breath that they’ll listen to — or care about — the voice mail I left them tonight about this very thing.

What I bring to the table.

Goodbye To All That: Maybe It’s Time To Let Gawker Go


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I keep hearing rumblings that Gawker is coming back in some form. While I’m all for something like Gawker coming back, I don’t know if bringing the Gawker brand itself back is all that great an idea. It’s too loaded. Any new version of the site would be judged by the old version.

Also, the Web is a lot different than it was nearly 20 years ago when Gawker first came out. The Web is now a mature medium. It’s almost impossible to organically grow a brand. A lot of the youthful vigor that helped grow Websites back in the day now is found on video services like Tik-Tok.

As such, I think literally bringing Gawker back may be a bit misguided. I would love to be involved in founding a new site similar to Gawker. I could do a really good job. I love shit like that.

But no one listens to me. I will note, in passing, how strange it is that the audience has moved on from the snarky, heady days of 2003-2004. There’s a fundimental change in audience tastes that I struggle to understand.

The Curious Case Of Modern American Pop Culture


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that the COVID19 pandemic is gradually beginning to abate, at least in the United States, it makes one wonder What’s Next. It would be nice to think that we might be entering a post-Rona world tan, ready and rested. That there might be the shock of the new in some respect on the cultural front.

And, yet, it definitely seems as though that’s not going to happen.

It definitely seems as though we’re going to continue to go through the paces. No new musical genres will burst forth. No new publications will stir new points of view. No new movies will will shock and delight in new, innovative ways. Something pretty big would have to happen for this not to be the case.

I can only speculate that maybe because the Internet is mature and Silicon Valley is thinking way too small that this is it. For the foreseeable future, American culture will continue to be in a vague neutral.

What’s so frustrating about this is I know, given the opportunity and resources, that I, personally, could do something really cool. I do have a novel I’m working on, and I’m pleased with how that’s shaping up. But it would be so nice to be able to work on a successor to Gawker or something. Something that would shake the media landscape up.

I think I’m just going to have to be content with pinning all my hopes and dreams on the novel.

Post-Rona Media: Idle Rambling About The Need For A Successor To Gawker


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because of all my obsessive ranting about Gawker over the years, its founder Nick Denton has blocked me on Twitter. I have to say that one kind of hurts — even if, from his perspective, I can see I kinda deserve it.

Now, let me be clear — I’m working on a novel (which is going well, thank you) and so this is just me letting off some steam. Absolutely no one, but NO ONE, listens to me. I really am, for the time being, just talking to myself on this blog. I’m a complete and total nobody. But occasionally, I like to think, I do write something interesting on this blog.

And I know I’m writing some pretty interesting things in the novel I’m writing. Some of them are pretty thought provoking, in fact.

Regardless, I’m old enough now to have some perspective .Looking back on what I’ve experienced, it definitely seems as though occasionally a New Era pops up that changes things in a big way. Thinking back, it seems as though there were big shifts in mass perception just after Watergate and in the 1991-1992 era.

It seems logical to me that…maybe?…the fact that both Trumplandia and Rona are set to end at just about the same time might be enough to reset things? A New Modern era? Young people will reference THIS as “the modern” going forward?

A lot depends on the economy and how stable things are on an economic front. Though, of course, you could say that the next four years may be the last gasp of America as a liberal democracy, so, as such, we’re ripe for some Weimar Republic levels of creativity in a short burst before ICE agents begin to patrol Broadway looking for “non-American themes and ideas.”

I wish I was joking.

But the point is — where’s our new Gawker? It would be fun to have a new Gawker-like site that would follow in the traditions of Late Night with David Letterman, Spy Magazine and Gawker. I know what’s going on — the Internet is just as mature as the rest of media, so the start up costs for a Gawker-like site would be staggering.

The dynamic just isn’t there for a site to grow organically anymore.

As such, I think we’re in for just more of the same. The economics of the infotainment industry as such that we’re just going to have bland everything from here on out.

I’m doing my part to create something fun and different with the novel I’m working on, but it just takes time. Be patient.

The Mysterious World Of Celebrity Online Engagement





by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I somehow magically came into a sizable chunk of money, I have the proper skill set to necessary to start a decent Website like the late, great Gawker. One thing I’m obsessed with is my Webstats. Something about seeing the origin of the few people who look at this site is very addictive. If I was running a major site like Gawker, I would be extremely obsessed with what, exactly, was popular on the site and how to make sure those things were written about as much as possible going forward.

One thing I’ve noticed is I spend a lot of time ranting about fascism coming to America and what gets the most engagement? My occasional post about celebrities. It makes you wonder what’s going on. One of the biggest mysteries about the world of celebrities is how much they interact with the online world. My guess is there is a spectrum. On one end there are celebrities who are very active online via burner accounts, etc and then on the other end there are celebrities too busy being, well, celebrities to care.

The only reason why I think a lot of celebrities might be active online via burner accounts is they’re extreme narcissists to begin with and why wouldn’t they want to know on a personal level what people are saying about them? It is interesting that many, many major stars are — at least on a superficial level — completely off social media. It’s for the best, of course, but it makes you wonder how they pull it off, especially the younger ones.

Of course, they may not pull it off. It’s possible that far fewer celebrities are completely off social media than you might think. The thing that is so frustrating, is there is definitely a marketplace for something like the old Gawker. And, yet, the obstacles are enormous.

You would have to have a huge amount (in real terms) of startup money. And, even then, the world of 2003-2004 when Gawker was launched is ancient history. I only look at three or four Websites on a regular basis these days, so to start a new celebrity-infotainment site like Gawker now is probably a bridge too far.

Anyway, why do rando losers like me even care about this kind of shit? I have a novel to work on.

Imagining A New ‘Video Gawker’ #startup

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

When I was in Seoul, there was this nebulous little group of creative-types who were doing Broad City-like videos with their phones 15 years ahead of their time. It just occurred to me that it would be cool if you did something like that today. Or, put another way, I think there’s both an audience and a marketplace for something of a micro-video version of Gawker.

If I lived in New York City (which I don’t) and if I had money (which I don’t) I would found a Website devoted to combining the best of The Daily Show and Broad City. Instead of fictional little adventures around New York City, I would find really funny young people to do field pieces about “real” street news.

These field pieces would be no more than two or three minutes long and would have a blog post associated with them that would flesh out the story for nerds who would actually like to, like, read and stuff. The trick is, of course, to find really funny young people who are so young that they aren’t already going the YouTube star route out of UCB.

Anyway, absolutely no one listens to me and I’m just letting off steam while I charge my batteries to get back to writing my novel.

Here’s the video where I gradually came up with this idea.

V-Log: Did Millennials Kill Snark? Or Did Twitter?

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some thoughts on NYC media.