Au revoir, Workshops (for now at least)

They may not have always been fun foryou, but the workshops have been productive and useful from where I sit. Not only are you learning how to talk intelligently and insightfully about popular criticism and discourse. You're also learning to be better readers of (and so writers about) the everyday world around you.

Patrick's blog mourns the long, slow decline of the indie music world in Ft. Myers. As Katie noted, there's a certain missed-the-party feel to all this, but it seems like maybe that's part of the point in the end?

Rita is, as her title promises, dabbling ... a lil bit of this, lil bit of that sort of thing. At times it feels a bit unfocused, not because dabbling is bad, but because the Florida angle sometimes seems like a stretch (can't people outside of Florida pick up pennies?). But as you noted today, Rita has an off-the-top-of-my-head style that pulls you in by seeming to sweep you up in a conversation that feels like it's been going on for a long time. Which is a good thing, in this case.

Richelle is perfecting a kind of hip-Miss Manners approach to authoritative lessons on style, in this case fashion, often painfully honest but never in bad taste (I do wonder if the blog title could be a bit pithier, though, in keeping with the writing style).

I was skeptical that a blog as wide-open and amorphously defined as Katy's would work, but she's pulling it off in most cases (plus I feel like I'm getting hipper by the post ... or, at any rate, I'm now officially trying to find a use for "yoinked" in my vocabulary).

Michelle seems to be discovering a niche within a much-blogged about topic. And maybe you're right that she needs some cheaper ways to go green, but I really do like those clocks.

Monica is wormholing her way through reality tv, a heroic effort given its ubiquity. I often felt a bit lost, but then I avoid RT at all costs (ok, except for that Bravo interior designer show and Kathy Griffin, whose personal website is really crummily designed, though perhaps that's an intentional reinforcement of the D-list idea?). Anyway, I've really enjoyed learning more about things like Grandma on the Gauntlet, and I don't know who wouldn't be entertained reading about people who are willing to be televised looking like this. I'm not sure I'll ever be any cooler for knowing about this dimension of pop culture (or using yoinked for that matter), but it's much more enjoyable for some of us to read about all this than sit through it on television.

So there's another use for blogging: performing a public service.

See you Thursday, portfolios in hand.