Another Blog on the Web, Part II

...we don't need no validation...we don't need no xml...

Here's a new way to lose your job: write a blog. Amid the sob stories here from people who should have thought twice and blogged once are some of those nifty statistics we all thrive on: 8 million adult Americans have blogged, and 32 million Americans read blogs.

In other words, everybody's doing it. It's a latter-day Macarena. You're not cool if you don't Blog. Can I call you sometime? Not until I get an RSS feed and a PageRank of 6? I guess you do need your standards.

Everybody's doing it is the worst marketing philosophy out there. Someday I'll sit down and really complain about message overload and how it's wrecking everyone's day, but for now, I want to focus on the bandwagon approach to marketing.

I performed last night at a club in Cambridge called the All Asia. (Call to ask about karaoke. They'll tell you they don't have it.) It's one of those joints where you can't see through the windows because they're covered in flyers hued across the Staples copy center colored paper rainbow, proclaiming the imminent arrival of bands for the next month.

Everybody tries to scream out from their meager 8 1/2 by 11 piece of window. As a result, nobody does. The more outrageous the artwork gets, the more it succumbs to Dadaist reality. Like a downtown wall covered in graffiti it becomes harsh and ugly, repellant even as it tries to invite.

Why volunteer to be part of that noise? Because everybody's doing it. Never mind that those flyers seldom put a person in a seat. Everybody's doing it.

Wouldn't it be better to do something else, to break away from the clutter and find some new way to reach the audience?

Can't be bothered with that question. I've got to make another flyer.