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imomus
I don't keep a blog just to try and get comments, really I don't. I keep a blog to document the things that interest me, to remember stuff I'd otherwise forget, to prevent myself being forgotten, to develop ideas about art and life, and to accumulate cultural capital -- the hell bank note of class warfare. But it's always interesting, as a year ends, to look back over the Click Opera entries that got the most and the least comments each month.
The general picture that emerges in 2007 is the same as the previous year's:The subjects that got you commenting: America, Hitler.
The subjects that left you mute: Art and design.
Comment levels on the big hitters were higher than the year before, partly because of an invasion by a bunch of teenagers. The year's lowest comments came when I threw Click Opera into Retro Necro mode in order to concentrate on writing my novel instead. Full service blogging returned pretty quickly: I just couldn't stay away. Dialogue does indeed trump monologue.
January 2007
HIT
Down with jeans!
149 comments
A world in which 80% of people are wearing the same basic design of trouser cannot be a healthy one!
MISS
Misa opens her own gallery
13 comments
Misako Rosen has chosen Minami-Otsuka -- an area famous for mosques, porn and Pakistani curry stalls -- as the district for her new art gallery.
February 2007
HIT
Tell me a joke!
166 comments
I'm very interested in the subject of jokes right now. I want to write a "Book of Jokes". So tell me your favourite joke.
MISS
Transmediale 07: post-bit milk
9 comments
Berlin's seemingly constant flux of festivals has brought us, this week, to the part of the calendar reserved for the Transmediale, an annual event lasting a week, and marking the place where art and digital culture meet.
March 2007
HIT
Brick-and-mortar conservatism134 comments
Is there a link between owning a house and conservatism? Intuitively I'd say yes, there is, and that conversely there's a link between renting and radicalism.
MISS
The ten-year-long March
26 comments
A little formatted content guide stretching back ten years of the Momus website and blog. It seemed like an interesting idea at the time.
April 2007
HIT
The problem lays a floral wreath at the grave of the problem
125 comments
More than ever -- the week of the Virginia Tech shootings -- America feels like an Other. Why don't the guns die as readily as the people they kill?
MISS
Magazines as time capsules
11 comments
In which we discuss design veteran Steven Heller discussing 60s youth culture, psychedelia, underground publications, and his early art direction.
May 2007
HIT
iMomus Wired column, May 22nd 2007
57 comments
Since Wired News won't print my latest column about the hidden link between Apple's GetaMac campaign and Norman Mailer's "White Negro", I print it myself. A few days later, Wired fires me.
MISS
Bright Life Mascot Cleaning's Kuri-Chan says: "Stay sustainable!"
6 comments
12 on-the-fly observations from the streets of Tokyo.
June 2007
HIT
Panned Labyrinth
97 comments
In which I call Pan's Labyrinth "a terrible film, deeply impoverished both in imagination and in its moral vision, stale to the core, and brutal to boot".
MISS
Retro Click: The music's all that matters. The art about the music's all that matters.
1 comment
The year's comment nadir comes when I've thrown Click Opera into Retro Necro recycling mode in order to concentrate on writing my novel. You all concentrate on yours too.
July 2007
HIT
Is Jonathan Meese a fascist?
79 comments
Let's face it, everybody still loves to talk about Hitler. In fact, by getting people to talk about Hitler you can even trick them into talking about art. All you need to find is an artist who sieg heils.
MISS
Rabu-rabu kappuru
6 comments
Alin and Chie dress up as Nick and Hisae. Nobody cares.
August 2007
HIT
Tutti frutti requires fruit, but "folk soul" doesn't require Hitler
76 comments
Licensed to kill? No problem, mate. But licensed to talk about "the rejuvenating power of the German folk soul"? No way!
MISS
Berlin music stuff
8 comments
I knew I should have framed this as "the rejuvenating power of German folk soul music -- live tonite"!
September 2007
HIT
I become a sex object. And it's wonderful.
109 comments
Me and the LOLZGIRLZ are in our honeymood period. Later in the year we'll have some tiffs about something or other.
MISS
With Time: a Leo Ferre video installation
11 comments
No slash fiction about Leo Ferre = no comment credibility, apparently. But actually these video installations were one of the year's most interesting innovations on Click Opera.
October 2007
HIT
Recordings received whilst world-wandering
99 comments
In which I review a bunch of CDs people have given me.
MISS
This entry was written on an iPod Touch
16 comments
I'm excited by my new toy -- and the new New Museum on the Bowery. You aren't.
November 2007
HIT
Dandies skull-to-skull
144 comments
Sebastian Horsley's comments prove provocative.
MISS
High on horse
6 comments
Report on the Gothenburg Biennial, dubbed "Rethinking Dissent" by the curators. Dissent goes un-re-thought by you lot. (Or is your silence "dissent" against curators? Aha, subverting subversion!)
December 2007
HIT
I will see you in far off places
111 comments
No, we don't have Hitler this month, but we have the next-best thing: Morrissey. He doesn't like immigrants -- even though he is one!
MISS
Akio Suzuki and the joys or orientalism
11 comments
Sorry, Akio, you may be a terribly nice old man making terribly nice old music, but if you don't say the odd controversial thing nobody's going to give a fig!
There it is, then. A picture not radically different from 2006. Why bother? Because "cultural capital acts as a social relation within a system of exchange that includes the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers power and status", no doubt. Happy Christmas, clickers!![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 08:08 am (UTC)Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 09:45 am (UTC)Does commenting really correlate with interest Momus, politics will for better or worse always incite more comment than art.
Perhaps we have been hardwired by the media to prioritise in this way....and just about anything remotely political will do - why does the non-event of Blair's subscription to Catholism take the front page over what happening in the arts?
I'm probably as guilty as any of your readers of commenting more on your politically slanted articles but that doesn't infer that I'm ignoring your writings on art and art events.
Do you have any means of determining how many hits an article receives vis-a-vis how many comments are posted?
Happy Christmas - Thomas.
Re: Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 12:32 pm (UTC)a) What I'm doing here is being an "academic" -- "journalist" would be a much better metaphor, if you need a 20th century reference. There's an Anon who keeps contrasting what I do with what my brother does (without, it has to be said, betraying much knowledge of what my brother actually does do), presumably in the belief that I suffer from some sort of deep sibling rivalry, or wish I were in academia. Neither of those is the case.
b) I don't assume that the number of comments equates to the level of interest a post provokes. It's more likely to measure the provocativeness of a post. And yes, provocative things can be interesting, but maddeningly so. I think uncommented posts can sometimes be like Familiar Strangers. We agree not to make verbal contact with them, but we like having them around. That's how I explain the paradox of popular blogs like Jean Snow's, which get comment levels which out-miss my worst misses on a daily basis.
Re: Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 12:49 pm (UTC)Re: Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 02:47 pm (UTC)Quite aside from the untenable argument that a one-way medium is by nature moribund, you overlook the myriad of forgettable,dreary, pretentious and solipsistic journals that pull in comment by the coachload.
If these virtual-pub-talk ephemera trump low-comment, high-hit blogs then it's time to question the real merit of the medium.
Thomas.
Re: Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 07:47 pm (UTC)Re: Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 04:13 pm (UTC)Re: Does commenting add up to clicking
Date: 2007-12-25 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 07:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 09:38 am (UTC)YOU'RE WELCOME
also i still hate you, just so you know
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 09:40 am (UTC)>:(
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 09:41 am (UTC)I AM BRINGING YOUR COMMENT COUNT UP
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 09:44 am (UTC)MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 09:45 am (UTC)Would you let me peg you?
On topic
Date: 2007-12-25 10:17 am (UTC)Mon amour vêtu de rouge
Pourquoi ne restes-tu pas ici?
Toi qui as envahi ma vie
et ma maison
Maintenant que ma cheminée
et mon coeur
et mes jambes
sont grands ouverts
Pourquoi me donnes-tu
des excuses?
Les yeux étincelants
La chair rougie par le froid
et ton cadeau brillant
me donne tant de jouissance
T'as bu tout mon whisky
T'as bu tout mon lait
Les gâteaux, y'en a plus
et toi tu t'en vas...
Sale, sale brute de la cheminée
Je sais que t'es trop généreux
Pour pouvoir rester
T'as besoin d'en donner à tout
le monde
Tu n'arrêtes pas de le dire
Je vais pourrir ici comme une veuve
La tiédeur de ton cadeau
Toujours dans mes mains vides
J'attendrai
un accident de traîneau
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 11:00 am (UTC)And you know the Horseface article only has so many comments because it´s us typing ASSBABIES in giant sparkly font and talking about raping John Cale over and over. And over.
Anyhoodle, merry T.rexmas!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 10:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 11:11 pm (UTC)Get an Astral Plane harem, y/mfy??
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 11:14 pm (UTC)also omg i had a dream about you last night! so i was at some creepy fat guy's house and he was on this personals site checking his messages, and i saw he had a message from cale and i was like "OH MY GOD I HAVE TO TELL HANNA SO SHE CAN GO HIT ON HIM" but i was like "oh wait, this is a gay personals site!"
no cale for you, then!
i can has no caleburger
Date: 2007-12-26 12:12 am (UTC)IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW
CALE WON´T SHAG ME BECAUSE HE´S GAY! (in b4 loln00b to Cale)
ANYWAY, if this ever actually happens you should still tell me and we´ll just dress up as a man and take him to the Cockring to watch him get raped by 100 muscular Amsterdam bears. FUN FOR ALL THE FAMILY
lol I love that i am not the only person dreaming of flisters, too...
Re: i can has no caleburger
Date: 2007-12-26 12:22 am (UTC)and his legs!Oh God, I've lost count of how many times I've dreamt of my flist! You should see my Momus dreams where I tell him his shoes make him look like a douchebag or the time I dreamt I was rubbing his newly grown 6-pack abs while saying "ooh, that's nice!" I just want a dream where I can run him over with an American made SUV. >:O
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 12:40 pm (UTC)The Science of Dreams was also an odious, wet load in the back of cinema's pants. It wasn't a comedy, a drama, a love story or anything else but one retard mouthing his lines as quickly as possible to compete with the other retards in the movie doing the same to see who could finish first and get to the bag of cocaine at the set party.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 04:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 04:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-26 11:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 03:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 04:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 10:03 pm (UTC)not to me, of course. i already have someone to fill all of my orifices thank you very much.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 10:17 pm (UTC)(No, no, not like that...)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 10:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 10:40 pm (UTC)we're like an old married couple, bickering all the time
"GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN MICROWORLDS!" "EEEHHHH SHUT UP IMOMUS, YOU OLD COOT!"
i also love how i stumped you for months on that question.
in b4 loln00b to sparkly text
Date: 2007-12-25 11:14 pm (UTC)ASSBABIES
Re: in b4 loln00b to sparkly text
Date: 2007-12-25 11:16 pm (UTC)THIS IS MY TRUE CALLING, I WAS BORN TO GIVE MOMUS ASSBABIES!
HALLELUJAH
Date: 2007-12-26 12:14 am (UTC)Re: HALLELUJAH
Date: 2007-12-26 12:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 07:24 pm (UTC)Also, I used to (and I still do) posts with three music videos from youtube every now and then. When I saw your first video installation post I thought about the similarities. Though you make installations, I let people have a taste of music I find interesting.
Thirdly, you started video blogging just a month or two after I made my own first videocast (http://cap-scaleman.livejournal.com/52251.html). Talk about coincidence!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 08:12 pm (UTC)As for your art posts, I rarely have anything to say. I read and either appreciate or snicker.
Your critical musical posts seem aimed to antagonize/inflame the trendy hipster flavor of the month bandwagon-jumpers, regardless of whether that flavor is delicious or fetid. I typically ignore these posts because I don't usually care either way. I think the last one I really paid attention to was one praising Donovan - you and I share affection for the old fellow's genius.
And I love that your position regarding sociology/politics shifts almost randomly (though it falls within a wide-yet-distinct set of boundaries). These subjects are never black-and-white as it is impossible not to be suspicious of big government AND large corporate entities who often fill the political vacuum. And to be suspicious of so-called "Grassroots" movements (formed by the -often- untalented and uninformed "Common Man") is only natural.
In other words, I enjoy the kaleidoscopic diorama; the un-dualist dualism shifting between monologue and dialogue.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-25 08:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-26 12:18 am (UTC)have a good next year :-)
wine in the morning and breakfast at night..
Date: 2007-12-26 12:48 am (UTC)Breakfast just wouldn't be the same without you.
Why I read Click Opera
Date: 2007-12-26 01:05 am (UTC)I like that you're a modernist who's interested in postmodernism, and I like how you present the dialectic and then suggest methods for transcending it. I tend towards an ugly nihilist vision of the world, so your articles help to put flesh on my eviscerated cadaver of 'theory'.
Any article where you exhibit moral fortitude or righteous anger = snooze button, but those are few and far between. Agree with you about Pan's Labyrinth, but love Mark Kermode! Love Charlie Brooker (Nathan Barley = <3), the screenwipe episode on television news should be required viewing in all schools, "civil defence against media fallout" as M.M. called it. Love the photos of you and Hisae looking elegantly bored in modern interiors and narrow european streets. Rarely agree with your 'point of view' and prefer your cousin's musical output to your own (I refuse to die being an exception).
Re: Why I read Click Opera
Date: 2007-12-26 02:29 am (UTC)I think you mean moral rectitude, not moral fortitude. But I can forgive a Del Amitri fan anything!
Hits and Misses
Date: 2007-12-26 10:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-28 04:45 pm (UTC)