Juliet Martinez (www.julietmartinez.com) is rocking. Literally. From foot to foot. It could be to pacify the newborn, Julia, strapped to her chest. But more likely it’s anxiousness–she’s the first reader in tonight’s performance.
“Boy, this is really nerve-racking,” she says as an introduction before launching into a memoir about her adolescent obsession with Duran Duran.
The crowd of young, artsy adults stuffed into every inch of this art gallery above Uncle Fun, 1338 W. Belmont Ave., has come to hear writers, such as Martinez, read their blogs, short for Web logs–online diaries that range from Duran Duran silliness to revelatory soul searching.
The Self Publishers Events Council of Chicago (SPEC), which organizes readings for independent writers, hosts the event. “Reading someone’s blog is a window into their life,” says SPEC’s Aaron Lorence, who estimates that Chicago is home to 100 bloggers. “You get to know these people through their thoughts and words.”
“Blogs are a way to communicate. They’re an outlet,” adds Evanston’s Lauriean Davis (www.shastamacnasty.com), who has come to read selections from her blogs and to support her peers. “They allow your diary to be exposed to people.”
The dozen writers who read passages from their blogs seem to be in competition to out-expose one another. Memoirs about angst, alcohol and awkwardness abound. It’s a BYOB event with self-deprecation on tap. A frequent topic tonight is sex.
“This won’t be too bad,” says Davis. “But you might want to cover some ears. Some of my blogs are . . . raunchy.” She goes on to discuss her fake hair and natural derriere.
When a blog reading works, it’s like great stand-up comedy or gripping drama. The writers/readers, with their intensely personal tone, develop an immediate bond with the audience that makes their jokes funnier, their words weightier. Mimi Smartypants (http://smartypants.diaryland.com), who has written a blog since 1999 and is soon to be published in book form, reads a funny, fabricated piece about breaking her arm during sex.
“Blogs are the opposite of generic. With a personal Web site there is an actual person behind it,” says Smartypants, who declines to give her actual name.
But this familiarity also weighs down the bad readings. Some of the blogs feel like unsolicited conversations with strangers–blathering and boring, revealing too much without finding a point. Tonight, that doesn’t happen too often.
“There is something special about a literary reading with known talents,” say SPEC’s Kate Sandler. They may not be famous, but the readers tonight are known within the blog community. These writers include Jeremy Bushnell (www.imaginaryyear.com/raccoon), who describes his Wicker Park neighbors as “dogs . . . mean ones that walk upright.” Alex Golub (http://alex.golub.name) likens Chicago winters to flagrant fouls from an angry, Shaquille O’Neal god.
And David Elfving (www.greasyskillet.org) reads a passage about his use of antidepressants: “Paxil has made our life far more livable. To be honest, it’s helped us more than we thought possible.” When he finishes, one audience member snaps her fingers in approval.
These are digital beatniks, using the Internet, rather than the page, as a public diary to silently communicate with others.
“Blogs are cathartic for the writers,” says SPEC’s Brent Ritzel. With some blogs attracting tens of thousands of visitors each day and events like this one packing a gallery, they’re obviously appealing to their audience, whether in the vastness of cyberspace or a cramped room on the North Side.
The writers, of course, subsequently described the evening in their blogs. As Jason Pettus (www.geocities.com/jpettus. geo/) summed it up: “It was, in fact, much more lively, entertaining and just plain dirty than an evening of bloggers reading from their work has any right to be.”
