Thursday, October 18, 2007

2

A blog makes a fine pet, I suppose. You don't have to feed it, though it's a bit like a cat you have to knit fresh every few days from scratch, on the other hand; otherwise, it's just aesthetic taxidermy.

So happy birthday, little pet blog! I think these entries have to start "X years ago, I got it in my head to etc. etc." Well, two years ago, I started doing this with no idea of the fame and fortune that would follow. As I sit here in my Central Park West penthouse, acquired with the lucre of opera blogging...

Real story of course, as I may have explained last year: I started writing whatever bullshit popped into my head and now several people read it. And I thank all several of you for doing so, and thank you again for commenting. Sincerely. The exchange of [pick one: ideas, witticisms, raw snark, coded aggression, bourgeois banalities] is the whole point of this. To put it in context, I'm creeping up on my 100,000th hit, whereas I think Perez Hilton gets like 8 million hits per day. So I think from a statistical standpoint you could say that nobody has ever read this blog, including you. In the grand scheme of things, you are doing something else right now.

But anything that contributes to a sense of community is good in my book*, and just as the devoted found the mothership of Parterre back in the day, I hope this little network--please see blogroll, and the blogroll of those people--of opera fans and singers and so on, yammering on a virtual street corner (how many times, he thought, I have used the verb "to yammer" since starting a blog. what, I wonder, does it mean?) can contribute to that feeling of being among one's own. It's lovely to be a tiny part of that. If MFI is the corner of a cushion on a barstool in a virtual, operatic Cheers, rah!

Before I dispense with this round of sentimentality, I do have to say: through various stories that are almost funny enough to constitute a failed film script, I've met some fine and peculiar individuals in ways involving (oh, for instance) a blog, 2/3 of an operetta, pomegranates, and a traffic jam on 10th Avenue. For these things, I am willing to forgive life's failure to reward blogging with park view penthouses.

*well that's probably an overly general statement since Hitler created a really rather impressively strong sense of community, for example.

13 comments:

ACB said...

"If MFI is the corner of a cushion on a barstool in a virtual, operatic Cheers, rah!"

Rah! Rah! Sis-boom-bah! Happy blogday!

La Cowntessa said...

Congrats! *pets your blog*

Maury D'annato said...

acb: Your sis-boom-bah is deeply appreciated.

anonsopran: prrrrrr.

Chalkenteros said...

happy bidet!

Anonymous said...

You know, it's not so much the comfiness of the corner of that particular bar stool, as it is the free dish of mixed nuts you always get here without ever having to ask. Another Side Car please, and one for the house!

Anonymous said...

aye, happy 2!

Do you really want to know what "to yammer means" ;).

ch. r.

Maury D'annato said...

Chalkz: I tried to come up with a hygiene-themed response, but the results were pretty low-grade.

JSU said...

Happy^2!

Burns said...

"Sein Elends jammerte mich..."?

Yammer away, Maury! Your fans love to read your every word!!

Maury D'annato said...

See what suddenly occurred to me was "Trinklied von Jammer der Erde" Anyway thanks, Burns, et al.

Carrie said...

Gosh, if I am doing something else right now, how is it I never get anything done?
(Happy Blogday.)

winpal said...

If MFI is the corner of a cushion on a barstool in a virtual, operatic Cheers, rah!

If I may continue the analogy, I think each new MFI posting is greeted with a resounding MAURY!! throughout the opera blogosphere.

Happy b-day, and may your lucre continue to shine. You're the best.

alex said...

how i miss this?

happy birthday maury-kun! (or more specifically, happy birthday maury-kun no blog-chan!)

my cheers lore is quite lacking - but that's the bar where everyone knows your face? (in a good way?)

certainly feels like a familiar community here - will be coming back for as many more blog-days happen.

Brava! Go on like this!