DANGER, CLIQUINESS ALERT: It's the obligatory annual "Hurrah for my mates at the Bloggies" post.
Yes, it's Bloggies finalists time!No, of
course I wasn't. Don't mind me. I'll just sit here snivelling for a while, with only my
nearly one million page views for comfort. No need to, you know,
leave me a comment or anything. Why break the habit of a lifetime?
(Look, I've been going
five and a half chuffing years. My Gloria Swanson phase is long overdue.)
Anyhow. It's double congratulations to
Tokyo Girl Down Under, who achieves the unique distinction of qualifying for the "Best Australian/New Zealand"
and the "Best Asian" categories. Now, that's what I call globe-straddling.
Over in the "Best African or Middle Eastern" category, I am pleased to see the delightful
My Marrakesh - a blog which I only discovered yesterday, via my, erm, comments box.
(Shut. Up.)In "Best European", it comes as no great surprise to see
My Significant Other Is A Silly Sausage popping up for the 50th year running. Oh, the
ennui. As Annie Lennox was to the Brits, so Zoe Twat is to the Bloggies. Wouldn't be the same without, etc etc.
Ah, but look at this! What a turn-up! Joining last year's winner
Girly One Track in the "Best British/Irish" category, what do we find but that inseparable pair of subversive scallywags: Andre of A Beautiful Revolution ("
Woe Is Me, I Am All Alone, Like An Empty Drinks Can Tossed Into The Gutter, Now I Know How Joan Of Arc Felt, That Will Be 73 Comments Please Thank You Oh When Will This Misery End"), and Unreliable Witness of An Unreliable Witness ("
Oh How I Loathe And Despise The Very Concept Of So-Called Blogging Awards Continued Page 94 Everybody Please Nominate Me Thank You.") The game's up, boys!
Pausing only to cup our hands to our mouths at the stultifying predictability of the "Best American" section, to wonder how the hell
Pitchfork qualifies as a weblog in any meaningful sense of the word, and to sigh with dismay at what the "Best GLBT" category tells us about the state of the Queer Nation in 2007 (I'll leave Joe. My. God. to
go into more detail on that one)...
...we skip merrily on to "Best Writing", where we find the awfully well-written
Pandemian (I knew her when she was a Green Fairy) jostling for position with the splendid (even though I haven't read it in yonks,
mea culpa)
Waiter Rant.
And finally, making his second consecutive appearance in "Lifetime Achievement", we have darling Peter from
Naked Blog, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Dooce, Fark, Slashdot and Wil Wheaton. Life begins at sixty!
If you feel the need to offer your condolences in the face of the
scandalous snub that has been meted out to Troubled Diva (nearly
one million page views and counting!), then my box is always open.
(In our business, we call this "drumming up trade".)
Update: Er, wow. I've just had it confirmed (Twitter private messaging, I salute you) that TD did in fact make the long-list for "Lifetime Achievement". That's totally awesome, and as much as I could possibly wish for, and
greatly appreciated. Many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to vote.
Labels: blogawards, blogs, cliquey, ego
The steady trickle of hits that I have been receiving from a password-protected "panelist" page on the
2007 Bloggies site can only mean two things. Firstly, that the judges are working through the "long-lists" (typically between 20 and 30 sites in each category, if memory serves correctly), and voting on which sites should make it through to the shortlists. Secondly, that Troubled Diva has made it onto one of the long-lists, most probably in the World's Best Poof category.
At the risk of sounding complacent and blasé, this doesn't come as a huge surprise, but for one very simple reason: unlike the majority of "gay" weblogs, the readers of Troubled Diva are mostly straight. Thus, when it comes to making nominations in the World's Best Poof category, they are more likely to think of TD. It's a cute enough little loophole, but not one to which any great measure of ego-stroking self-importance should be attached.
In any case, as anyone inside our cosy little loop would tell you, this year's Bloggies have been overshadowed by two
vastly more important blogging award shebangs: the
First Annual Insignificant Awards (who announced their winner yesterday), and the
Second Annual Swampy Awards, which came out on Monday.
Now, since last year's "Swampy" (for Best British Blog; pictured left) constitutes the
only accolade I have won since picking up the school Scripture prize in 1974 (always the chuffing bridesmaid, story of me life), you can imagine my horror at discovering that this year, I have been deposed by some upstart newcomer called
Little Red Boat.
Well now. If that Anna Pickard thinks I'm going to graciously hand over my tiara without an unseemly scuffle, she's got another think coming. Frankly, she's going to have to prise it out of my jealous little fingers with a sharp instrument.
I'M STILL BIG!
IT'S JUST BLOGGING THAT GOT BIGGER!
I AM READY FOR MY HYPERLINK, MISTER KOTTKE!Sorry. Just trying to maintain some Brand Consistency here.
(But sincere thanks to everyone who nominated. I'm no Ungrateful Diva.)Labels: blogawards, blogs, community, ego, linkage, meta
