In Progress

Short paragraphs punctuated by numerous images, preferable some animated gifs included in the mix. I really like the deployment of this format on This Recording, where the writing tends to be sprawling, referential, funny, and occasionally deep, a nice mix of the superficial and critical lenses my brain uses to break down life into manageable bits. (e.g., what time do I need to leave…oh look, yet another horrific statement on the treatment of women in this trashy movie…i wonder if Graham Greene’s attitude was towards the Vietnamese people considering how he portrayed them in The Quiet American…mmm, I love oatmeal!)

But then I stumbled across Hipster Runoff, which uses the exact same format and tone, like exACT. (Except, not as funny or imaginative, at least in this painfully obvious post on the horrors of dentistry. Not to mention that it loses points for naming itself after a loathsome modern-day evil. And it is of course plastered at the moment with ads for Where The Wild Things Are.) Why?? What is it about people that they have to see something and then imitate it exactly down to the smallest details, like the way Huffington Post imitated the Drudge Report‘s crappy fonts and colors and GIANT TEXT — what the hell is that? Can’t there be competition among products that aren’t interchangeable in design, if not content??

Now that I’ve found the two, the questions start plaguing me. Which came first? How many others are out there and fast multiplying? And which other types of blogs are going to adopt the image-heavy format with meandering writing style? Time for a gif party to calm me down. Yeah, This Recording wins hands down.

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Media