Okay...he never really left, but for those of us who first discovered Bill Whittle through his essays on his blog, Eject! Eject! Eject!, his later work never seemed quite as personal or intimate. Not saying he isn't doing great stuff at PJTV with his Afterburner videos, or Declaration Entertainment with his Firewall videos, but there was something unique about his voice in those early essays.
So the great news, kittens, is that Mr. Whittle is back at his blog...complete with ALL the early essays he wrote. If you didn't purchase his book, "Silent America", which was a compilation of these writings (which I did and you should have), now you have the inordinate pleasure of reading them....either for the first time or to rediscover them...and I am jealous. I have Tribes memorized, I think.
YIPPEE!!! Welcome back, Mr. Whittle.
Bill is awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteTiming is everything in life. You and Bill were two of my TOP favorites when I started reading blogs more than a decade ago now. In fact, I found YOU on his blogroll years ago and, because I loved his writing so much and he said you were amazing, I clicked over and started reading you -- and became a HUGE fan.
DeleteThen BOTH of you left blogging. Bill obviously stuck around the internet, moving onto video projects...but still!
So now BOTH of you are BACK! How great is that? I could just get the giggles!
Not that it means jack shit to me here in my little town...but somehow it kinda does. HAHA!
Ha! Aw thanks Buttercup. I always thought Bill was actually too good for blogging and I love love LOVE that he went into videos. I watch every one of them when they come out. He's simply brilliant in ways that the rest of us can only fantasize about.
ReplyDeleteYears ago when he was thinking about going in that direction, he actually asked me - me??!!??? - to work with him and I had to say no because I'm abjectly terrified of anything but writing. I've lost touch with him since then but I'll never stop being his #1 fan. Which sounds incredibly creepy and Kathy Bates-ish but whatever. I love the guy and I'm glad you do too.
Only if you repeat it with a crazy look in your eyes..."I am your number one fan. There is nothing to worry about. You are going to be just fine. I am your number one fan." THEN it is incredibly creepy and Kathy Bates-ish. And please, for the love of God, put down the sledgeham--! HAHAHAHAHA!
DeleteSo now it appears that I not only have to admire you for your incredible humor and writing skills, I have to envy you that you've met the esteemed Mr. Whittle. Good for you! And, without knowing anything else, I will say that my vote would have been for you to have gone into film with him. He wouldn't have asked if he didn't think you were a remarkable presence, it seems to me. If he's as smart as he seems, he would know all about that and be a pretty damn good judge as to how you come across.
But I certainly understand the reluctance. I have been asked on a couple of occasions to do film, that whole beauty pageant thing in my past, and I wasn't any good at it. In fact, I was embarrassingly, humiliatingly NOT good at it. Smile for the cameras and take the effing picture is about all I can/could do. Talking was waaaaay past my skill level.
Hell, I can't even write without hiding behind an assumed identity. Big freaking coward. C'est moi.
I completely agree that he's too good for blogging, but I still am delighted that he did blog once and may put some time in it again. There is something really personal and immediate about blogging that just isn't there in other entertainment media. And I enjoy reading someone's writing more than I enjoy hearing them. I like reading the novel rather than going to the movie. Words have an intimacy that the screen doesn't. I can take my time over words, mull them over, roll them around on my own tongue...it's different.
I know exactly what you mean about the written word as opposed to video and I prefer it for the same reasons (as a consumer, not as a blogger) - being able to linger over the words, ponder them in your own time, etc. Especially with Whittle since he's such a magnificent writer that it makes my head spin. I just hate him being called a blogger like the rest of us chumps. He should be a columnist or something.
ReplyDeleteI only met him in person twice, way back in 2002 or 2003 when he came through Dallas a couple of times. We were "friends" in that bloggy-way back then; he was commenting on my blog originally, and then I helped him format his own because I knew HTML. (This was when it helped to know HTML...god how old are we?) We kept in touch sporadically until 2007 or 08, which is when he asked me to work on video stuff and I chickened out like a little turd, and then I moved overseas and lost touch with him.
He really is as smart as he seems. He blew me away in person and honestly I was completely intimidated and could not keep up in conversation. I hadn't ever met anyone like him before - he could talk about ANYTHING with authority and humor, and he totally dominated the room - in that good way that people like. Really, a remarkable guy. Also it wasn't just me and him - we were in a group with a couple of other TX bloggers, about 8 of us (there are pictures somewhere on the internet, all of us holding guns), and actually I felt like a dipshit with all of them and didn't talk much. I'm kind of a 'tard, really. Social awkwardness is what I excel at.
So I have no idea why he asked me to work on him with video stuff, except that maybe I was drunk the two times we met and acted confident or something. Also, what he asked me to do wasn't anything like these videos he's doing now - it was back when he was just working on small video group-podcasts and he only wanted to have me on for small segments or something. He would've changed his mind after the first one if I'd done it, ha!
I don't write about him on my blog usually because I don't want people thinking I have an inside track that I don't have. I will say that one of the most awesome things in my entire life has been that he mentioned me in the "Acknowledgments" part of his first book. That was f*cking awesome, a nice brush with glory, but now I'm just his fan like everyone should be. Dude is awesome.
Also, you're not a coward for blogging with a pseudonym. You're just sensible. Also, OMG you have to talk about the beauty pageant thing in your past. TELL. And you should post pics, even if you have to pixelate your face to protect your identity. DO IT BUTTERCUP.
First: HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! You ARE in the FORWARD of Silent America. I just pulled out my copy and looked. RIGHT THERE!!!
Delete"FREEDOM started out as a series of comments posted on Rachel Lucas' weblog."
HO--LY SHIT!!!!
But I always knew you were a fabulous writer and funnier than anyone, so Bill IS smart because he saw that, too. I laughed until I cried over too many posts to even list. I remember the one about John Kerry and how he thought that all of us hickbillies - along with the military in Iraq - were just too stupid to get it. OMG! Solid gold.
You're a rare commodity in the blogosphere, Rachel, because you not just funny...you're insightful and scathingly accurate. Dead. Spot. On.
As for Mr. Whittle, I would give my eye teeth to meet him. He almost came out here to my neck of the woods through the local Tea Party groups to give a talk this March, but it was cancelled. I am somewhat affiliated with the local group as I know all the leaders and I was angling to meet him. C'est la vie. I am going to see if we can create enough interest to have him come in September.
For my money, there are three writers now that are amazing in their scope, originality, knowledge and genuine humanity:
Victor Davis Hanson
Dennis Prager
Bill Whittle
Amazing minds. Amazing writing.
But they're not funny, like you. HAHA!
And, as for my beauty pageant past, it's nothing special...but it did open up film stuff. And even that wasn't special - small stuff. I was first runner up...and was THRILLED that I lost and didn't have to do a f*&king thing as far as public appearances after that -- except a few parades. I had already discovered that I was imbecilic in situations where I was being judged solely on my looks. I did win Miss Scholastic Achievement, though. HAHAHA! She sews her own clothes -- ALL the other girls like her -- and she's REALLY smart! HAHAHA!
Hope you had a great Memorial Day in Italy. We had guests over and were BBQing and drinking when it occurred to me that Americans don't have any solemn holidays...even those which should be solemn are turned into a reason to have a party. Other cultures actually retain the sense of loss and tragedy that created the need to honor the day. Not us. Everything's a party for us. I'm not sure if that's bad or good. Maybe I'll post an essay on that. I need to think about it.
Happy Memorial Day.
Hey Buttercup! Didn't see this until now but belated Happy Memorial Day to you too :) I know what you mean about solemn holidays. It doesn't seem we Americans do that very well, except I suppose (so far) on the 9/11 anniversary. Give it time, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments and for thinking I'm insightful. Honestly I feel like a total moron fool 100% of the time. I'm terrified every time I hit "publish" on any post. "People will finally realize I'm mentally damaged with this one..."
I LOVE Victor Davis Hanson and Dennis Prager!! OMG. I've actually been talking about this very subject with Jeff Bonwick, one of the other commenters on my site. Like I told him, it was a Prager book (Think a Second Time) that kick-started my transformation into a conservative about 15 years ago. No lie, that book changed everything for me.
And I read every single thing that VDH writes online. I'm even signed up for the VDH Reader that National Review sends out about once a week via email. Do you get that? If you don't, you want it.
Holy shit, if you can get Whittle to come to an event and get the chance to meet him, it will be SO worth your time. He's not only brilliant, he's a genuinely really, really nice guy. And he deeply cares about this stuff and about changing the narrative in our country, about getting the message out. I've honestly never met anyone else like him in person. It was a real honor for me.
By the way, your writing is hilarious and awesome and I'm glad you blog. Now have a good weekend.
P.S. Wanna know how they say "have a good weekend" in Italian?
"Buon weekend." I shit you not.