***Scroll down for questions***
A gathering of Christians working to advance the Kingdom through blogging + internet technologies.
I’m headed back to Vegas!
I’m returning to the God Blog Convention, sponsored by Biola University in La Mirada, California. This year’s convention will be held at the Blog World and New Media Expo on September 20 and 21. (Last year’s GodBlogCon was in Vegas, too.)
Why a Christian blogging convention in Vegas? Blog Expo founder Rick Calvert wanted to organize a sort of blogging tradeshow where all kinds of bloggers (faith, tech, business, etc.) could gather and network. He asked the GodBlogCon organizers if they’d consider holding their annual gathering at the Expo, and they were happy to do so.
Filed under: Bloggers, Faith, GodBlogCon
9:35 a.m. PT: Social media’s useful after all. I just found out on Twitter that David Perlmutter, author of a new book called Blogwars: The New Political Battleground, recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Perlmutter interviewed me for the book a few years ago, but I didn’t think I’d make the cut. Lo, and behold, I did! On page 19, he calls me an attorney (which I’m not), wrote that my blog was “well cited by many leading conservative blogs” (which it was), and that I “attacked” him in a post (which I didn’t).
Perlmutter’s referring to a post I wrote called Peasants Don’t Blog, where I commented on an article he wrote about blog hype. Why do some people consider critiques an attack? Geez. It’s good copy, though.
Although Perlmutter misspelled my first name in the index, I’m pleased overall that he found my blog worthy of mention. On page 20 he quoted at length from a post called The Immorality of Race Preferences.
Publicist, if you want to send me a review copy, here’s my snail mail info. I’ll review the book on the blog, but I can’t (or shouldn’t) review it for a news site or print publication. Because I appear in it, there’d be a conflict of interest, or something like that.
I’m still experiencing the residual effects of a once-popular political blog. Nice memories for the most part. But I’d like to see myself quoted in books and articles about digital tech, music (Christian and non-Christian), the changing music industry (a good start), pop culture, fan culture (a new fascination), etc. And one day soon, I hope to see my own book for sale on Amazon.
Back to work!
Addendum: Music to work by (turn it up!):
“With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail.” - Charles Churchill
Notes on Envy
I allow myself a couple of minutes to wallow in bitter blogger envy every time I read about some blogger’s success, like landing a fat book deal.
And then I pick myself up off the symbolic floor and get down to the business of updating clients’ blogs and my own blog and pitching article ideas to editors.
And then I remember that someone else’s success, whether I think he/she deserves it, does not prevent me from succeeding. There are at least two people in book publishing interested in receiving a book proposal from me about me. What’s stopping me from sending it isn’t other bloggers or anyone else. It’s my own self-doubt. I just don’t think my life or my past success as a political and faith blogger is all that interesting to fill, let alone sell, a book.
A $300,000 Parody
If you haven’t heard of the blog Stuff White People Like, you must have been offline for the past month. Bloggers and journalist types have been buzzing about it for weeks.
I found a link to an old story in the New York Times magazine called “Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog.” It was published last year, but in web time, that’s old.
The gist of the well-written and appealing story is this: new and/or struggling musicians can make a decent living without record labels and big marketing machines if they harness the power of the web by starting blogs, running discussion boards, and interacting with fans, who want to feel connected.
Musicmakers and Blogupdaters
Heavily featured in the piece is a musician named Jonathan Coulton, who quit the 9 to 5 to write and perform music. He posts a new tune on his blog every week. Coulton’s earning a decent income selling his music online, and he’s managed to build quite a fan community.
One fan creates illustrations (for free) for each of his songs. Other fans make videos for his songs and post them on YouTube, which promotes his music and creates even more fans. Yet another fan built a web site to archive fan-made videos.
Coulton makes (and saves) money when traveling by doing what I call “target touring.” He polls readers to find where they live and schedules a concert if there are more than 100 fans in a given area. That way, he knows a show will sell well, and he endears himself to fans even more by hitting smaller towns where other acts rarely tread.
Thirty-five years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the murder of babies in the womb.
I couldn’t make it to the Family Research Council’s Blogs for Life Conference this year. According to the site, you can watch a live webcast of the event, which includes speakers like blogger Jill Stanek, a former labor and delivery nurse, and blogger Dawn Eden, author of The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On.
See my review of her book, Rebelliously Chaste.
Check out March for Life and Blogs4Life for more info.
Previous coverage:
Update (12:27 p.m.): Speaking of Islamofascism, Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, first female PM of a Muslim country, has been assassinated. Read more at Hot Air and Michelle Malkin’s.
Later…On a lighter note, my review of Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll has been posted.
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Jeff Jarvis, blogger, journalist, and media critic I credit for my appearances on MSNBC a couple years ago, points to an article about an American author sued in an English court for libeling a Saudi.
Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote in Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It accused a rich Saudi named Khalid Salim A. Bin Mahfouz of funding Islamofascist groups like al-Qaida.
Ehrenfeld sought protection under New York state law and asked that the judgment against her be rendered unenforceable, but the courts contend Bin Mahfouz is not subject to New York jurisdiction. It’s a procedural matter, but substantive to Ehrenfeld all the same.
Jeff is concerned, perhaps rightly so, that such a judgment chills free speech and postulates that such actions could extend to speech that merely criticizes Islamofascists. It’s not so far-farfetched, once you consider that Islam is incompatible with the West, given its propensity toward free expression, which includes the right to offend. But are we talking about libel, censorship, or both? Ehrenfeld accused the man of funding terrorism. What “free speech” right does she have to do that?
Continue reading Libel, the UK, and the Internet (Updated) - Bhutto Assassinated
Filed under: Bloggers, Technology, War - Islamofascism
***Live-blogging at Boundless Line and below***
***For earlier live-blogging, see Part II***
This photo was taken yesterday by Jim of Gateway Pundit. More photos here. Pictured: Matt Sheffield of NewsBusters.org, me, and Soren Dayton of RedState.org.
10:05 a.m. PT: It’s Day Two of the Blog World Expo/GodBlogCon Convention. Biola University professor Paul Spears will discuss “Trafficking in Substance: A Blogging Dilemma: The Case for Blog Euthanasia.” Christians interested in God blogging need to be representatives of a “bigger thing.” What does it mean to have “substance” on your blog?
Paul says Christians have a responsibility to enable our audience to come to an understanding of larger things. It takes work, but there’s no other way around it. This assumes you want your blog to be significant, to come from a place of substance and help other Christians in their walk toward Christ. Paul showed a series of famous paintings. These artists created the kind of beauty that lasts. Lofty idea for mere bloggers, but we should strive to create something meaningful that endures.
What’s the story we’re telling? For me, I want to share the story of how Christ affects lives, my own and other people’s. There’s more than enough blogging out there about the latest trends and hottest politic topics. What we need is transcendence.
