DEAD AIR'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Left: This lovely photo of Elizabeth Kucinich accounts for the highest number of image searches I have had on one single photo; I had over 500 in one day, and the total number now reaches into the thousands. Ohhh, to be a tall, stunning, winsome, British redhead!!! (Oh, and there's Dennis, too.)

~*~

Happy Birthday to DEAD AIR!!! It's my BLOGGIVERSARY!

Amazingly, this blog is now a whole year old. It's a terrifying thought.

A year ago, after my very first post, I actually decided blogging was a waste of time (maybe it is?) and didn't post again for three weeks. Then I slammed my car into an SUV on Laurens Road, was somewhat shaken up, and wanted to write about it. I realized: this is why people blog. Later, I saw Valerie Bertinelli on TV, complaining about being fat, and wanted to say something about that, too.

That was it, I was hooked.

Yes, it starts out small at first. (The first one's always free!) I can't say when I crossed the line into addiction, but it happened. Of course it did. It always has.

OFFICIAL BLOG STATISTICS--as of this minute:

VISITS

Total 75,558
Average Per Day 321
Average Visit Length 2:17
Last Hour 8
Today 124
This Week 2,247

PAGE VIEWS

Total 109,224
Average Per Day 436
Average Per Visit 1.4
Last Hour 11
Today 172
This Week 3,051

Plus 413 visitors before joining Site Meter on July 28, 2007

~*~

Keep in mind that I didn't count stats until July 28th, because I didn't know how. (The "413" figure was the number of profile-views I had accumulated up to that date.) The true numbers are undoubtedly higher, since I only started counting stats during my first major flame war. I knew people were reading, because they were posting. Otherwise, might not have occurred to me to count--but I was curious.

And curse those nasty stats! It's worse than the bathroom scale--AVOID, AVOID! (Victoria Marinelli has sworn it off!!) For awhile, I was filled with raging jealousy for the Big Bloggers, until I had my first astronomically-popular post (by my standards, anyway) on April 22nd of this year. My post titled "On having a black name"--went through the stratosphere (approx 25,000 hits, total, and still coming in) and was linked on Big Blogs like MetaFilter and Jezebel. And in the process, I was spooked bigtime. I received numerous strange, semi-romantic emails ("You are a very well-preserved 50-year-old, or is that an old photo?") and heard from various bizarre sub-categories of rightwingnuts. My spam filter was overloaded with winning lottery tickets from Sierra Leone and offers to buy furniture. I even heard from an ex-coworker I never liked, assuring me that my name isn't THAT black! (accompanied by at least a dozen disconcerting correspondents demanding to know just what my name really is--and not in a good way!) ...they all came out of the woodwork. Yow!

Is THIS what internet-fame is really like? Ick.

And so, I have backed off the numbers obsession. The first step is admitting you have a problem!

~*~

I first named this blog after a four-hour Grateful Dead-oriented radio show titled UNCLE DAVE'S DEAD AIR (and yes, sister and brother Deadheads, I have heard from the mysterious Uncle Dave!)--a necessary spiritually-centering exercise and crucial repetition of my week. (Note: DEAD AIR SPACE is also the name of Radiohead's official blog, which I didn't realize at the time.)

DEAD AIR technically refers to a radio broadcast that has gone "dead"--or, one could say, DEAD AIR means one is "broadcasting nothing"--which I think describes a whole lot of Blogdonia. Thus, the name reflects my low expectations for the blog. I was afraid I wouldn't have anything to say, and I would therefore ALSO be "broadcasting nothing."

In addition, at the time I was reading Robert (Uma's dad) Thurman's translation of the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, so that cinched the deal.

I like the alliteration of Daisy's Dead Air (just like Uncle Dave), and I think an identifiable motif makes a blog more memorable. I love stealies, so that made it an easy decision. And besides that, once I got the name into my head, I simply couldn't think of any others. I don't think I could change my blog name at this stage of the game.

Thanks for visiting and reading. If you lurk (and I can SEE that some of yall DO! Don't fib to me!)--how about saying hello, just this once? (On the other hand, if you lurk primarily because you hate me, please forget I asked.)

We'll see what the next year brings. I never expected it to last this long.

MetaFilter and Amandagate

Left: from Patrick Farley's The Guy I Almost Was. (This one goes out to the MetaFilter gang!)

~*~

I am currently catatonic over the number of hits I'm getting. I always wanted a lot of hits, so I guess it's one of those "be careful what you wish for" scenarios.

I suppose it's like those fresh-faced kids who've been singing for the church congregation all their lives, then find themselves in front of Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. Paula applauds, tells you how fabulous you are, pops a Vicodin, while Simon sneers: "You don't reeeeeeeeeeally know how to siiiiiiing, doooooo you?"

Crestfallen person: sobs.

Yes, that was me yesterday. Although it's nice to get over 6500 hits (!!!) in one day, I would have preferred a few more Paulas, and take as many drugs as you need to get into that space, I'll wait. Several blogs that have linked me have contained far too many Simons, sneering, weeeeeellll, her writing is (insert William F Buckley eyebrow-arch here) rather ped-EST-rian, and rawther BAAAAAAAD. And I've sent my secretary to research the story, and she'll be back after lunch with the name of the Saturday Night Live character, so HOPE YOU AREN'T FIBBING, missy!

To the Simons in my new readership, whom Amanda Marcotte (more about which in due course!) would call "joy-killers":

1) Saturday Night Live goes back to 1975, and yes, I ALSO go back that far, as well. I do not refer to the last two years, when you kids were in the dorm, but you know, I refer to THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE SHOW... knock yourself out!

Apparently there have been numerous Shaniquas and Laquitas and various other names on the show. This tells us the black-named-hooker/crackhead joke is ongoing and simply gets updated with a new name every year. Just like Saturday Night Live in its entirety!

2) For those of you born last week, who dare to say such intelligent things as "I can't believe that happened in a classroom! That could NEVER happen!"--please understand that I am talking about 1964 or 65, you know, the year they passed the Civil Rights Act? You've heard of it, yes? You realize they had to pass that FOR A REASON? What did you think the atmosphere was for black people before that? Yes, I heard the n-word in school, even spoken by a teacher on one occasion. The word was not DIRTY then, it was considered an almost mischievous, cute thing to say. I do not expect you to understand what it was like for people born in 1957; at least get a clue that it won't be comparable to your life, born in 1987, okay? Good God in heaven.

Is it the schools?

3) If you think I am a bad writer, or stupid, then FUCK OFF.

Apparently, it costs a whole week of waiting and a $5 tip to post on MetaFilter. You may say I'm an asshat and an idiot, but I don't pay $5 to post a damn thing and you do, so who's the idiot? :P

To those of you who were sweet, thank you. They made me cry yesterday. :(

4) To the extremely persistent people who keep emailing me for my name: It is not forthcoming.

~*~

Left: illustration from Amanda Marcotte's It’s a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments.

And now, back to important stuff, like War in Feminist Blogdonia. Twisty calls it Amandagate, and I guess that's as good a name as any.

For my new readers, I'll recap. It's just like LOST and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA--if you miss any of it, you get damned confused.

Background, some months previous: Amanda Marcotte, important feminist blogger and famous Victim of William Donahue and Michelle Malkin (i.e.: people have respect for what she has endured at the hands of the right wingnuts), writes a book scheduled to be published by Seal Press. The cover is eventually shown on Amanda's blog PANDAGON (not linking, sorry Amanda). The cover illustration is comic-strip-type retro art featuring a King Kong-type-character kidnapping a beautiful cartoon-blond woman. Women of color say, you know, that is an insensitive, racist stereotype, and you might want to change it. Amanda hyperventilates, screams, calls the critics "joy killers."

After the controversy, the cover is changed to the current cover.

Next: Feminists of Color at the WAM conference are pissed off at Seal Press over their treatment of a WOC author. Black Amazon dares to say "FUCK SEAL PRESS" (in capital letters, no less) on her blog, which brings the Seal Press flunkies a-runnin over to chastise her. Then the flunkies take it to the Seal Press blog, and receive a shitload of comments criticizing their rude behavior (i.e. coming onto someone's blog and patronizing them, particularly with NO introduction or previous history of interaction).

Seal Press deletes the entire thread.

Amanda posts her famous Alter-Net piece, which does not acknowledge a very popular and cherished WOC blogger, Brownfemipower (known as BFP), who has been covering the same issues Amanda is writing about. For years. At least one of the immigration cases covered in the post is one that BFP pointedly mentioned at the WAM conference.

Amanda, called out publicly, proves that she wrote the piece before the conference, as various other bloggers back her up. Many people, including your humble narrator, point out that appropriation is one of those tricky, even unconscious things (which I also touched on in my "black name" post; people often believe they have invented things that they likely have heard previously). Amanda freely admits she regularly reads BFP and even mentions BFP's blog in her book. Yet, she does not say "Wow, okay, here's a link to BFP, sorry about that!"--which would have been plenty sufficient to avoid more trouble. Instead, she digs her heels in and says she was IN NO WAY inspired by BFP and goes on the counterattack. For many folks, the nastiness and cluelessness of the counterattack are far more disturbing than the Alter-Net issue itself. Amanda accuses people of being jealous, trying to ruin her career, etc etc.

And along the way, Brownfemipower deletes her entire blog, causing great sadness throughout Blogdonia.

Latest update, Amanda is on the book tour.

Apparently, Seal Press saw fit to change the cover art, but FORGOT ALL ABOUT THE INSIDE ART, which features (see picture above) the same blond cartoon lady, set upon by evil dark natives.

Ohhhhh, dear God. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.*

And so, that's where we are right now. Some of Amanda's defenders, it would appear, are left with their thumbs up their asses, as we say here in the south. Or as my endodontist likes to say, it doesn't look good.

When you've got all of this, who needs COURT TV? Stay tuned, fight fans.

*For the kids: this was the famous tagline for JAWS II, useful in many situations.