Tumblr makes me want to be a better blogger

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My recent update (I can’t call it a redesign, since I didn’t really design anything) to the WordPress site makes me happy.  It doesn’t have the clean look of the old MPomy.com, but it makes use of a lot of the new gadgets that can easily be implemented onto the WordPress platform.  So, yay!

But content is a different story.  All the beautiful widgets and plugins don’t add up to squat if the content sucks.  My personal blogging history has been up and down and up and down.  Usually, some new technical toy or fancy application tends to drive my desire to supply more content.  That’s where Tumblr comes in.  It has taken the interface and sociality of Twitter and packed it (tightly) into a lightweight blogging app.  You can post pretty much anything and the ‘pages’ can be modified quickly to give the user a personalized look.  Like WordPress, it’s kind of up to the user to determine who deeply this personalization can get.  Out-of-the box themes are available, but code can be accessed for infinite variety.  And all the posting on Tumblr goes through a really slick interface that is fast, intuitive and easy.  So the use can very easily post a picture, text, quote, music, whatever.

But the social aspect is, perhaps, what I like the best.  Just as with Twitter, you have a stream of other users that you ‘follow’ on your dashboard or home page.  This includes all of your posts and any posts created by those you ‘follow.’  Then, as with Blip.fm, there is a currency that promotes more use and more connections – ‘Tumbularity’.  You can use Tumblr just like Blogger or even WordPress and not give a rat’s ass about Tumbularity, but if you get sucked in, you will be rewarded for getting other users to follow you and reblog (like retweeting) your posts.  There is also a ‘like’ button, which is a nice borrow from Facebook.

Just as with Twitter, the feed can quickly get out of hand and I’ve had to get used to yet another flood of information.  The desired skill is filtering.  Tumblr doesn’t have a list feature, but if it continues to expand, that may be something that would be useful.  Currently, I follow 31 other users and it’s a very manageable flow of information.

Other stuff about Tumblr that has caught my interest: cross-posting is pretty easy to set up; Android and iPhone have nice apps, although the Android piece needs a little more work; the demographics I have discovered so far are a bit younger and more introspective.  I haven’t found any news or activist feeds yet.  I think it’s a bit more of a vanity project (even though it aggregates so easily) and it would be a bit unnecessary for a journalist to set up a Tumblr feed.

So, after using Tumblr for a few weeks, I’m inclined to bring some of the more impulsive habits to bear on my WordPress blogging.

Are you fucking kidding me? And what in GOD’s name is “pure abundant authenticity”?!?

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Daryl Stuermer and Martin Levac are Genesis Rewired.  On a day when we should be celebrating the birthday of the 20th Century’s greatest composer, I am nothing but embarrassed.  My love of Genesis does not stop with the departure of Peter Gabriel.  Nor does it end with the unceremonious dismissal of guitar visionary Steve Hackett in 1977.  Although the trio of Banks Collins and Rutherford is well known for its multiplatinum hitmaking tendencies, that same organization also creating powerful prog rock masterpieces such as Duke’s Travels/Duke’s End, Fading Lights and Down and Out.  These songs stand tall in the great pantheon of Genesis music.

But Daryl Stuermer?  On his own website, Stuermer, who was brought in as a touring yes-man with enough technical prowess to butcher Hackett’s poetry while not complaining, describes himself thusly:

In 1978 Daryl became the lead guitarist and touring member of the super-group Genesis.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is an out-and-out lie.  He was a touring guitarist who played some lead during said tours.  He was NEVER a lead guitarist for the band.  When Hackett left, all guitar duties for all music that band Genesis ever made from that moment forward was performed by the gentle Mike Rutherford.  There is no Genesis album (with the exclusion of live albums) that Daryl Stuermer ever played on.  None.  Zero.

And now, Daryl has partnered with an individual who has made his public life an imitation of Phil Collins professional career.  I’ve seen Martin Levac perform with the cover band The Musical Box, and he executed all of the percussive acrobatics of the Gabriel era with authority and panache.  He also ran his own Genesis cover band that focused on the post-Gabriel era.  From what I have heard of that band, the music is astonishingly good.

But now Martin has flushed his credibility down the toilet by partnering with Stuermer for a project that is described in terms that barely make any sense:

Together they create an unforgettable evening that reinvents the Genesis experience.

Destined to become this year’s most requested concert, this five-piece band with a sensational light show, presents the music of Genesis with pure abundant authenticity.

Can anyone tell me what any of that means?  And this mummer’s farce is only perpetuated by the fact that the website does not say of this is new and original music, Genesis music or Phil Collins music.

Fellas, listen.  Here’s a little tip for ya.  There is no such thing as “abundant authenticity.”  Something is either authentic or it is not.  At the moment, all indications are that Genesis Rewired is not.

OK – still plenty of work to do, but the new look is coming along nicely.

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It’s amazing how fast I was able to change the entire look of this thing. That’s not a testament to any knowledge that I have, that’s just WordPress being WordPress. I can’t remember how long I was using Atahualpa (which may still be a more flexible them than this one – Mystique), but it wasn’t much more than a year. Since then, there have been numerous updates to WordPress and the look of the free themes is so much more modern.

I’m feeling surprisingly level-headed about the Phillies’ Roy Halladay deal

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Am I sad to see Cliff Lee go?  Of course.  Despite a slight dip in his performance at the end of the regular season, he was standing tall once the playoffs began, and I found his attitude to be about pitch-perfect for this town.  Not a diva, not a headcase, just a guy.  So, of course, I would have wanted him to stay on the team, but, in the bigger picture, it didn’t make sense and Amaro made the right call.

The talk was that Lee had always wanted take his shot at free agency.  I don’t know much about the guy’s background, but he just doesn’t seem like he got into this game, when he was a youngster, just for the money.  When it became clear that he could pitch at a very high level and even win a Cy Young, I’m sure he realized that this was a moment where he could take care of his family for the rest of his life, no matter what .  All he has to do is be smart and seize the moment.

And Lee has already won in the playoffs.  He doesn’t have a World Series ring, but he’s clearly ready to sacrifice that in order to get financial security for himself and his family.  Which means the Phillies HAVE to move Lee now.  There is no chance that they can pay him after next year, and pay Hamels and pay Howard, and pay Werth, and pay Victorino and pay Utley, etc.  You keep Lee, you commit to breaking up the team.  I want to win next year, but I don’t want to break up the team.

Which brings us to Halladay.  This guy wants to win so much I can taste it.  And he’s already proven that he’s an ace – not a good pitcher, not a serviceable pitcher – an ACE.  Hallady knows that he will never win as a Blue Jay, simply because of the Yankees and the Red Sox.  For the duration of Halladay’s career, those other two teams will always be better and the Jays will never never never make the postseason.

So, Halladay will come here with such a fervent desire to win that he will take LESS money than he can get elsewhere.  That’s pretty much an offer that Amaro can not refuse.

And for those who want to see Cole Hamels shipped out of town, I can only say this:  I would not feel comfortable with the Phillies moving Hamels anywhere closer than Japan.  Even in the American League, I have no doubt that trading Hamels would come back to haunt us somehow, and, if he were to end up in the National League, you could count on him skinning us alive a few times per year.  I don’t know if he can get his shit together, but I know that he can’t have the opportunity to do it elsewhere because he’s too damn good.

Avatar – It’s Progressive Politics AND Progressive Rock

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After seeing Charlie Jane Anders io9 note comparing the concept art for James Cameron’s upcoming masterpiece vanity project epic Avatar to Roger Dean’s album covers for the band Yes, there’s now no doubt that I’m in.  That was after learning that the film’s heart, politically speaking, appears to be in the right place.  I guess I’m part of the blame-America-first-with-Mellotron crowd.

My head may explode

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I post on Twitter.  I post on this site.  I post on this site and it automatically goes to Twitter.  I post on Tumblr.  I post on Tumblr and it automatically goes to Twitter.  I post on this site and it automatically goes to Tumblr and Twitter, but not twice to Twitter, even though Tumblr is instructed to go to Twitter.  I have a Facebook account, but nothing goes there automatically.  I take posts from this site and use a ShareThis plugin to post links from here to Facebook, unless I’m using Google Chrome beta browser for Mac, which doesn’t recognize the ShareThis plugin.

I listen to music.  I listen to music on iTunes and it is Scrobbled to Last.fm.  I listen to music on Blip.fm and IT is scrobbled to Last.fm.  Blip.fm will send my selections to Twitter and Tumblr (and Facebook) if I want and the interface works very well – simple on/off switches.  Lala also has simple on/of switches for listening to music and posting it to Twitter and Facebook, but not Tumblr, but I’m not using Lala at the moment because it was bought by Apple and I’m uncomfortable with the limbo.  I did/do like Lala ver much.

Posterous will post everywhere, or only im some places, and it works by email.  I guess that’s good for mobile devices that email, but don’t have good web interfaces.  Otherwise, just upload a tweet or a WordPress entry or a tumble or whatever through the mobile web .  Email is still the mobile web, right?

I have a Google Wave account and an Orkut account and I don’t really use either one.  I don’t have a MySpace page, but why not?  Lots of bands are on MySpace and I can’t interact with their pages (read blog, see pictures) without having a MySpace account of my own.

I have Flickr and YouTube accounts, but they’re really family accounts with Em.  My understanding of social network dynamics is based on individuals and not couples.  I can either adopt the paradigm, let it be, or open more accounts.  I also have a Picasa account that I didn’t even know about.  It went with my Blogger account, which I had recently used for semi-not-exactly-legit music sharing.  A few weeks ago, someone broke into my host and scooped out all the music.  Karma’s a bitch.  So the Blogger account is now just sitting there.

That’s enough for now.  I could do this all day, but I have work to do.  Does any of this make any sense?