You walk in - comfortable, inviting seating greets you as warmly as the immediately-available parking. You find your company and begin to thumb through an extensive selection of wines; red, blush, and white.
Electing to skip on the wine and go for the good stuff, the barkeeper presents a second menu, this one full of spirits beyond the basic Crown Royal, Bacardi, Tanqueray, etc. While scanning, selecting, and eventually drinking, a fusion of light hip-hop, r&b, gentle rock, and downtempo music plays in the background, setting a tone that is rhythmic, yet played at a volume conducive to conversation.
A cursory glance around the room shows all kinds of people: Birthday celebrants. First daters. 2Ls knocking off after another day of intense studies. Tourists, here for a midday drink, on the suggestion of a concierge. All of these people elect to come here because the place is pristine, the bartenders show a level of service and attention unlike any other watering hole in the city, the drinks are reasonably priced with a special every day (this particular day, standard and flavored call margaritas are $3), and the vibes given by the other patrons suggest a neighborly feel in an otherwise moderately cosmopolitan locale. A rooftop patio provides a second type of atmosphere; the music lightly floats here, but this is where you go if you want a view of the city skyline. As smoking is verboten inside, you may up here if you choose.
...
Why doesn't this place exist where I am? And if it does, can someone point me to it? I know what I want to do with my life, but the social side of me yearns for a place that feels part-coffeehouse, part premier bar. My tastes are evolving and honestly, I'm not one for the loud club scene anymore. I like to be able to hear myself think, and on my nights out I'm always thinking of a good place to take a date, especially on the nights when I'm out alone.
Just this past weekend, I stumbled upon a nice place that does salsa/merengue dancing - and I couldn't help but appreciate how genius this place was. Something simple, yet fun, and requiring no great skill to partake in brought joy to so many (seriously, you should have seen them) - and yet, that wasn't what I was out for.
I was looking for my place to hear myself think, that isn't a corner-plot residence in Gentilly. I wanted a beer and part of this cigar I got from a post-election party last year (I read that it smokes better with age, and while I'm not a smoker I just felt like it would sedate me a little) and a little time for me to be social, yet relaxed.
Did I get it? Of course not - or at least, not as I envisioned it (and probably wasn't going to get at a time beyond 1am). As I commented on my Twitter account, make my "w" lowercase - that is to say, I found beer and a rooftop to take in the cigar, but the music was put-offish and the crowd wasn't what I sought.
It all made me realize, maybe I have to create it, if I want it and can't find it... but the question remains: Am I creating it for myself, or am I not the only one who wants this?
Let me open this post with a recently-crystallized, full-out admission that attempt #8 at blogging has been about as up-and-down as the post-Charlotte Hornets.
The problem is, it doesn't have to be that way; I'm on my computer often. I have a laptop and a way around most of the time. Sometimes, even re-locating could probably help get my creative juices going.
I think the biggest problem is that I was a little before my time. Allow me to explain a bit:
Late 2001, my senior year of high school, I spent many an afternoon fooling around on Blackplanet. Nothing wrong with this, it was the turn of the century, and everybody who was anybody had a Blackplanet page. In fact, I probably even tried to contact you - ladies to holla, and guys simply because I saw having more guy friends as an in to making/meeting more girl friends to maybe make one my girlfriend.
I forgot whose page it was (and this is a bit of a shame), but I saw this person had a link to their own website. Wait, complete creative control? Yep! So I checked out this page with its blog, about me, contact, etc. on it, and would just link-hop to many other pages (some of whom even provided their Blackplanet links, I told y'all that site was popular once). Over time, I started to learn the basics of building MY VERY OWN WEBPAGE and eventually registered for one of those "50 megs free space" sites. Eventually I decided that I was sick of the ads, so I bought my first domain, unphazed.net as an early graduation gift.
I'm going to blow through the next seven years all within these next two paragraphs, during which I've owned a total of three websites, had a Livejournal account, flirted with Xanga, and joined and left many message boards:
I tried to do graphic design, decided I mostly sucked at it, and usually let others design sites for me. Because of that, I tended to be heavy on content, detailing my collegiate, military, social, and reflective sides. I had readers, I linked some of them via a separate "link exchange" page, they usually linked me back. Message boards were created. People met via these interactions. Friendships were made, friendships were broken, friendships were renewed. In a sense, the activity on the internet - whether it was having someone design your next layout for a plug, blogging about a topic you discussed on a message board to reach a larger audience, or just finding that next person whose site you admired for whatever reason - became an extension of real life for many of us. It made the internet more than people in a box in a chair in Detroit dorm or a Jersey apartment or a Miami house or an Oakland suburb. It took two people, whom likely did none of the five senses together firsthand, and made them pliable personalities. They became both a supplement and a release from your maintained, everyday life.
What does any of this mean? Well, we were doing this in the early 2000s. Which means that while dot-coms were busting and websites were being added to television commercials and product packaging, we were giving ourselves to the internet in a different way altogether. It would have been nothing to have an entire computing experience focus solely on reading your blogs, writing a post if you so desired, checking in on your forums, and maybe talking to some of these folks on a messenger. If I took a trip to Texas, I would summarize the trip with a blog post, some photos, and leave it at that. Nowadays, I can post them on Facebook, as I'm on vacation, and update my status regularly. I can twitpic with brief commentary and a small URL to save space. Back in those days, I would keep all my files from an old layout in their own folder, and updating (for me) meant updating my blog.txt file for the current layout and then re-uploading it. Now, I'm using a stock layout (or I might change it, as I am not very sleepy right now), have a Facebook & Twitter account that get way more love, and have only slightly entertained the idea of owning another website.
In a way, I'd mentally checked out, but I find that I actually like the idea of site maintenance, regular updates, and overall just getting some of that old groove back. And I'm sure some of my old-heads would feel me on that, if they read this (I only hope they would). At this point, I'm just wondering: Was I merely ahead of my time, or do I have it in me to keep going strong?
In advance, my next blog will be about turmoil for one New Orleans sports franchise in the face of prosperity for the other. In between, I may finalize this other post I have about Election Day 2008, or I might scrap it altogether. I was all amped for it last Wednesday, and cranked out a day runner post in record time. I might still post it for that very reason.
Since most of you will read this on Friday, I'll offer up a Youtube Thursday in this post. Behold, the best music video I've seen in years:
The problem is, it doesn't have to be that way; I'm on my computer often. I have a laptop and a way around most of the time. Sometimes, even re-locating could probably help get my creative juices going.
I think the biggest problem is that I was a little before my time. Allow me to explain a bit:
Late 2001, my senior year of high school, I spent many an afternoon fooling around on Blackplanet. Nothing wrong with this, it was the turn of the century, and everybody who was anybody had a Blackplanet page. In fact, I probably even tried to contact you - ladies to holla, and guys simply because I saw having more guy friends as an in to making/meeting more girl friends to maybe make one my girlfriend.
I forgot whose page it was (and this is a bit of a shame), but I saw this person had a link to their own website. Wait, complete creative control? Yep! So I checked out this page with its blog, about me, contact, etc. on it, and would just link-hop to many other pages (some of whom even provided their Blackplanet links, I told y'all that site was popular once). Over time, I started to learn the basics of building MY VERY OWN WEBPAGE and eventually registered for one of those "50 megs free space" sites. Eventually I decided that I was sick of the ads, so I bought my first domain, unphazed.net as an early graduation gift.
I'm going to blow through the next seven years all within these next two paragraphs, during which I've owned a total of three websites, had a Livejournal account, flirted with Xanga, and joined and left many message boards:
I tried to do graphic design, decided I mostly sucked at it, and usually let others design sites for me. Because of that, I tended to be heavy on content, detailing my collegiate, military, social, and reflective sides. I had readers, I linked some of them via a separate "link exchange" page, they usually linked me back. Message boards were created. People met via these interactions. Friendships were made, friendships were broken, friendships were renewed. In a sense, the activity on the internet - whether it was having someone design your next layout for a plug, blogging about a topic you discussed on a message board to reach a larger audience, or just finding that next person whose site you admired for whatever reason - became an extension of real life for many of us. It made the internet more than people in a box in a chair in Detroit dorm or a Jersey apartment or a Miami house or an Oakland suburb. It took two people, whom likely did none of the five senses together firsthand, and made them pliable personalities. They became both a supplement and a release from your maintained, everyday life.
What does any of this mean? Well, we were doing this in the early 2000s. Which means that while dot-coms were busting and websites were being added to television commercials and product packaging, we were giving ourselves to the internet in a different way altogether. It would have been nothing to have an entire computing experience focus solely on reading your blogs, writing a post if you so desired, checking in on your forums, and maybe talking to some of these folks on a messenger. If I took a trip to Texas, I would summarize the trip with a blog post, some photos, and leave it at that. Nowadays, I can post them on Facebook, as I'm on vacation, and update my status regularly. I can twitpic with brief commentary and a small URL to save space. Back in those days, I would keep all my files from an old layout in their own folder, and updating (for me) meant updating my blog.txt file for the current layout and then re-uploading it. Now, I'm using a stock layout (or I might change it, as I am not very sleepy right now), have a Facebook & Twitter account that get way more love, and have only slightly entertained the idea of owning another website.
In a way, I'd mentally checked out, but I find that I actually like the idea of site maintenance, regular updates, and overall just getting some of that old groove back. And I'm sure some of my old-heads would feel me on that, if they read this (I only hope they would). At this point, I'm just wondering: Was I merely ahead of my time, or do I have it in me to keep going strong?
In advance, my next blog will be about turmoil for one New Orleans sports franchise in the face of prosperity for the other. In between, I may finalize this other post I have about Election Day 2008, or I might scrap it altogether. I was all amped for it last Wednesday, and cranked out a day runner post in record time. I might still post it for that very reason.
Since most of you will read this on Friday, I'll offer up a Youtube Thursday in this post. Behold, the best music video I've seen in years:
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