Notes from a blogger:
The No. 1 rule of my blog is that there are no rules. I write about everything from movies I’ve seen to crazy observations that just pop into my head about Starbucks. And sometimes I’ll just write, “Had a pretty boring day today,” take a picture of myself eating cereal for dinner, and call it a night. It’s a web log, people. I’m not striving to be a great essayist, but if by chance some amazing commentary flows out of my keyboard, so be it. I don’t write my blog to entertain anyone else, especially not some uptight Esquire editor. But if an Esquire editor is crazy about my work, and wants to run a three-page spread on my hilarious reviews of horrible movies, who am I to dismiss it out of hand?
If the Old Media bigwigs ever do decide to visit my blog (http://bentiedemanntellsall.blogspot.com) they would see it doesn’t have that familiar opportunistic “look at me, look at me” feel of so many others. They’d see I’m just a small-town guy, humbly making his way in the big city, who happens to have a lot of unique and humorous outsider perspectives on that experience. For example, I got a few comments (from as far away as Boise!) on how interesting my post was about how in my hometown of Akron everyone is really laid-back, but in New York City, everyone is always on edge. I could see how these types of entries could be adapted into a syndicated column with a title like “Small Town Takes A Bite From Big Apple” that could run in a dozen papers. Though I’m not one to put myself out there and try to initiate these things, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at them either.
