March 4 2009
In the age of irony and snark I really do try to be pragmatically idealistic—hoping for the best, yet understanding that things don’t always happen perfectly, or are exactly as they seem.
Unfortunately, despite my virtuous intentions, sometimes snark creeps in.
A few things that have recently caused me to arch a skeptical eyebrow —
1) A recent article touting ANOTHER potential “Vintage of the Decade”
2) $60 bottles of allocated Chardonnay just seems a little of whack to the times
3) The absolute preponderance of wine apps. for the iPhone. I think there is now a unique app. for every iPhone user in the country.
4) The American Wine Blog Awards and a little bit of backlash on some of the finalists. In my humble opinion, folks aren’t peeved because the blogs selected aren’t good blogs, it’s because they think they too have a good blog and they didn’t get picked.
Posted in, Vin de Napkin. Permalink | Comments (8) |
Oh, I totally agree with you, Dirty.
I think Dirty South, 1Wine Dude, and several others might have been a little over-looked.
The finalists this year do smack of House of Pain, “Same as it Ever Was.”
My blog is included in that bucket. My site design has been nominated three years in a row ... not breaking any new ground. It’s like winning a Cinematography Oscar for a movie that released in ‘06.
That said, I think folks are a little rankled because they’re not getting their due. That’s how I feel. If I’m going to be honest, I think I pumped out better content, more consistently then others in the category for Best Industry/Business Blog and Best Overall Blog.
I think it is a fine POV line in between “conservative” choices and why the hell am I not a finalist? And, I thought through both.
I do agree that criticism of the AWBA can in itself be criticized as sour grapes.
But, if The Pour (as good as it is) is a wine blog, then my name is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.
And no, his name is NOT my name too.
1WineDude - I’m going to start calling you “J to the third power.”
Seriously, I think you make a legitimate point - Tyler, Alice and Asimov can pretty much be considered pro’s and Alder thinks of himself that way, but the more these guys are noticed for blog awards, the more legitimacy it creates for everybody, especially the folks that do it as a sideline.
It doesn’t take much for people to look beyond the notables outside of the 95% percentile and see the other folks that are in the 20% of the 80/20 rule. I think you, Dirty and a few others are in that category.
Despite my Twitter rant the other day when I was moaning, I think the long view is okay here.
Anyways, that’s my less then 2 cents.
Jeff
At least now we know that at least ONE non-pro, little guy, blogger from a tiny lil wine region can win at least ONE category.
Plenty to criticize with these awards. It’s true. But, I don’t buy the “same nominees as previous years” as one of the valid ones.
Alder has a kick ass blog that has been one of, if not the top, for years. Unless someone comes along with an even better blog, shouldn’t Alder still be a finalist at least?
Similarly with the graphics (which I was somehow nominated for previously). I dig your design Jeff. And it’s not like there are ton of new blogs with great designs coming out. These are the meant to be the BEST blogs, which means that nominees may not change much from year to year.
600 categories could happen, but I honestly think that adding a few others would be good. Even “single-subject” is sorta useless. For blogs like mine, something like “Best Blog Focusing on a Single Region” might be better. Then again, that’s a category I’d have a good shot in most years, so maybe I’m the wrong person to ask.
Joe, I’m 100% with you that professionals shouldn’t be a part of this, unless they have their own category.
Do appreciate the rising-tide-lifts-all-boats viewpoint.
Thanks for the positive vibes!
Thanks for stopping by, Lenn.
I think we’re close to getting into a splinter argument about pro’s versus non-pro’s.
I think Alder has a fantastic blog. And, the dude knows a lot about wine. It would take me 6 hours of research to write some of his posts. I think it’s great that Tyler has written books and has a wildly popular blog that transcends the wine blogosphere. I think having Alice’s voice is a great thing, too. Ditto that for Heimoff.
Though, I think more wine writers are going to go online then bloggers go offline ala Tyler.
We’re lucky that Appellation America wasn’t a finalist for Best Blog or the apple cart would have really been upset.
I think Lenn hit the nail on the head—next year there should be a separate category for mainstream online wine writing versus wine blog. But, the two are getting very blurry, very fast.
And for the record for the cats on this comment string, I want to say that $$ are cool, but the community, the fact that I now have relationships coast to coast and a humble following more then make up whatever dollars aren’t present in wine blogging. I was a little sideways the other day on Twitter because I would oh so love to blog full-time and actually do one of the gazillion ideas that I have that only requires about $10,000 and time.
Be well, gents.
Jeff
It’s worth reviewing the exchange we had on OWC a year ago on a different sort of awards program from the AWBA. Tim Elliott was going to develop a talking paper but nothing came of it http://tinyurl.com/cb2pgw
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Jeff-
RE: #4
I think people weren’t peeved with the Wine Blog Awards because they think they have great blogs too, but a lot of the choices were the same nominees from years past, and weren’t that exciting.
These aren’t bad blogs (most are great), but just really conservative choices.