my friends the crazies

journalism, at its most basic level,  can change minds, attitudes and policies.
poetry engages hearts.

if you want to get to the whole person, for good or for evil, start a blog.
freedom of the press, while not an end-all or cure-all by any means, has enabled some of the most swift and dynamic political and social change that the world has ever seen. speed is the key element of this ever-changing landscape.

and its only getting faster.

news used to break in weeks, then days, then morning and night editions and then...

i'm back. just checked my twitter feed.

as the late a.j. liebling reminds us, "freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."
however, with the advent of blogs (pronounced web-lawg), every one of my friends can be the owner of  a figurative "press" (wordpress, blogger, livejournal, etc.).

anyone could potentially start a blog in two minutes for free (and grandpa, if you're reading this, you really need to start one). a good blog can combine literary elements with journalistic motivations for a reading experience that is genuinely entertaining, enriching and worthwhile to the reader.

a few examples of brilliant blog-erary-ism:

the world awakens
emily writes some of the best poetry i've ever read. she is extremely down-to-earth, in a dreamy sort of way. her posts are chock of contradictory literature that's worth a read for sure!

hipstercrite
the tagline for this blog reads: "because pretending we're not hipsters is what we hipsters do best." well said lauren. and, by the way, you're a brilliant writer with some whack politics and an awkward fascination with drastically older famous men.

hyperbole and a half
allie and "boyfriend" have some grand adventures. i especially like how velicoraptors are so prominently and frequently mentioned in this blog.

puddle werld: a land of fantastic adventures
the late "puddle werld" displayed erratic posts by mr. puddle who was at once ingenious and sociopathic. though its no longer updated, the archives still exist. if you click on "older posts" at the bottom of the page you can access some strange and wonderful material from days gone by.