More Than Two Non-Blowhards
2 Blowhards is one of the liveliest web sites around, and maybe the least aptly titled. For one thing, there are actually five Blowhards. And none of them sound like blowhards to me. They are a lot of things: thoughtful, erudite, charmingly grown-up. But not blowhards. Each has his own milieu: Donald, the car design buff, Michael the autodidactic culture fiend and B-movie afficionado, Friedrich the art historian, Fenster the college administrator, Francis the architect. Michael and Donald do most of the posting, between all five there is always plenty of fresh material on the front page. Post range from three-liners to multi-volume treatises. Even the smallest posts can take your afternoons away. All the Blowhards seem to be of the type who’ve forgotten more than I’ll ever know, and they carry a “kids-these-days” sensibility to their writing that I often agree with, despite being one of said kids-these-days.
Michael Blowhard seems like the dirigeant of the site. He is certainly the most candid, and there is a great personal narrative woven throughout his posts. He tells the story of his victory over cancer in between inspired musings on teenage culture, or hard facts on illegal immigration in the United States. Some of Michael’s links even flirt with dirty-old-man territory at times, though he never manages to debase himself: he appreciates naked females, and who doesn’t?
What amazes me most is the sheer volume these guys pump out. They make posts twice as long as anything on my site, nearly every day, all of it of high quality. And they’re twice my age. About me, this says more than I’d like it to. Furthermore, they curate the comment sections meticulously, jumping back in with lengthy follow-ups and debates. Each post lives well beyond its timestamp. It’s an exemplar of the blog medium at its highest functioning peak; a vital, bustling place, well tended-to by its owners, engaging on every imaginable topic, and in constant change.
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Me, I Like a Web Site
Over the next little while I’ll post some sites that I like to read and that deserve more attention.
Thank God for Le blog de Polyscopique. I love everything about this blog. It covers one of my very favourite topics, Quebec politics. It’s thought-provoking, readable, researched well, updated regularly. Laurent sticks it to the separatists regularly, and has plenty else to say besides, but without a heavy heap of editorial cheddar on top. Just the facts. And best of all? It’s bilingual! Even better than that, the two languages are presented side-by-side, so I can read the articles in French (for practice) and wander to the left to get the English translation when I struggle with a word. How great is that? Are there any other blogs like this one? No.
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