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A year later.
By Kristen | October 17, 2007
As of this week, this blog is one year old — only I don’t really feel much like celebrating.
Recently, my husband and I were on the Upper West Side and he saw an ad for some upcoming food festival. He asked me if I knew what it was. “Ugh, I don’t know,” I said.
And then, before I knew it, it came out:
“I’m so sick of food.”
And really, I am.
I’ve stopped reading other people’s food blogs. Let me preface what I’m about to say by adding I do still like some of you, but goddamn, I am sick to death of my fellow food bloggers. Good god, what a bunch of pompous jackasses some of them are. Shut the fuck up already and just eat; I’m begging you.
But more than that, I’m tired of having a food blog.
I’m tired of doing the rounds of other stupid food blogs, thinking up funny, witty, thoughtful comments to post as a way to shunt some traffic to my own site.
I’m tired of trying to get decent photos of what I cook, of thinking maybe I should cook this recipe earlier in the day while there’s still good light in the kitchen.
And more importantly, I’m just tired of writing about food. Trying to come up with new, non-clichéd ways to describe the tastes, textures, smells of food is exhausting. Lately, I can’t even even write a grocery list without feeling a little irritated.
And so, I find myself at a crossroads.
Keep writing about food — what you’ve all come to expect — or, if not, what then?
Topics: Not Gezellig! |
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October 17th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
pompous, yes. That’s an issue in the food-blogging community, people are SO FRIGGIN POMPOUS. I had a bit of a break with the food-blogosphere because of that at one point, and only came back after I’d severely pared down the list of blogs I watch.
Maybe you just need a break? Could you work on something else for a while, and then see if you’re finding yourself interested in food again? Maybe in that time you’ll find something else you really love.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Your blog, your life, your decision.
Speaking only for myself, I post my recipes (and really, everything else) as a repository for later. Example, I meet new people, they’re interested in, say, wine, and I say “check out my web site and read my wine articles.” It’s good material for the next time we talk. I have zero interest in trying to be the [you name it] expert.
FWIW I don’t think of you/this blog in terms of being an expert. I just find the blog/you interesting anyway and follow along.
And I totally get what you’re saying about food blogs. I have unsubscribed from most if not all wine and food blogs, excepting this one and a few others.
My suggestion, ignore at will, is to share more about yourself - interests, gezellig-ness, etc, and not concern yourself with trying to compete against other blogs, etc. If you’re not feeling the need, I understand.
October 17th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I understand the motivation behind single-theme blogs, though I don’t share it. I’d rather blog about the stuff that interests me and things that catch my eye. Some people will like it, others won’t, but at least it will reflect me and my observations.
So perhaps just blog about things that you like at the moment.
October 17th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
(Hey, hi, Eth! Good to see you here!)
I just wrote to a friend last night that the blogging wave seems to be cresting on the shores of apathy. Most everyone I know who was so fervently into blogging a year or two ago is just burned out by it now. Maybe it’s the self-imposed pressure to keep entertaining people. What’s up with that? We don’t really owe anyone anything. Cuz, hell, sistah, most of them ain’t blogging and entertaining us!
I started a baking blog last holiday season and I’ve barely posted to it in the ensuing year. There’s just only so much I want to say about baking, and there’s only so much baking I do in the baking off-season.
Luckily, my main blog is predicated on me being a writer and a singer. Crafty, eh? Writing. Gives me the leeway to write about anything that piques my interest. You could do the same.
Yes, we come for the food, but we stay for the writing. Write whatever moves you.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Do you knit anymore? I miss your old blog.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Maybe you should switch gears and blog about the comings and goings of hipsters in Manhattan. When I worked in Union Square, my co-worker and I would go to lunch and try to count hipsters. Extra points for ironic t-shirts.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Oh do I understand your pain.
Do what you will, but whatever you do, do it with style and grace. I believe you’ll never have a problem with that.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I have this love/hate relationship with food bloggers. I mean, some of them seem to be pretty neat, with nice photos and all that, but a lot of them? COME ON PEOPLE! I wonder if they do anything else with their lives other than show others just how knowledgeable they are about food, and just how retarded other people are. Jeez…
Maybe this is just a phase. Don’t think of it so much as a NEED to write about food all the time. Why not write about some other stuff and take a break?
October 18th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Kristen–Happy anniversary. I’m just a couple/few weeks behind you anniversarywise and have to admit I occasionally have burn-out moments. But I’m still having fun too. For me, the problem tends to be more the deadline pressure of posting every week than actually burning out on the subject matter. It helps that I have a couple of sidebars to my blog that let me discuss music and whatever else crosses my mind. Of course, those impose their own deadline pressures too.
Selfishly speaking, I’d say keep writing. I love to read you. It doesn’t matter if it’s food or not. Just write about life—in New York, as a parent, as a lover of [insert passions here]. You have the luxury of a non-foodie blog name—make the most of it and have fun again.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Hey. It’s been a while since I’ve commented; seems the end of summer and it’s segue into autumn caught me, not so much by-surprise, but certainly unprepared. I’m so busy, sometimes a week goes by between checking the blogs I read.
(So what, right? I’ll get to the point, even if I seem to be categorically incapable writing less than several hundred words any time I comment.)
For example, the number of food-related posts that have appeared since last I checked my feed-aggregator is 583. In a week, or slightly less. Five. Hundred. Eighty. Three. Like I have time to read each and every post. I mean, I read fast, maybe even VERY fast, but six hundred posts is insane. And that’s just in the food realm - I have a pretty wide range of interests.
(As an aside, because there has to be a digression, or it wouldn’t be a comment from me, note that I am employed full-time, have my own “supplementary” business from home and am working on a thesis project - so I really am crazed…but back to the point…)
Out of those nearly six hundred “foodie” posts, the first one I checked was…you guessed it…gezillig-girl. Why, you may ask? Not because you write about food, but because your style, your “turns of phrase,”, or manner, or ummm, your je ne sais quoi, if you will, makes me gezellig.
My advice, for what it’s worth: Write when you want, about what you want; write for yourself (for me, writing is cathartic, regardless of who may or may not read it)…those of us who enjoy “reading you” (what a strange term that is) will read regardless of your subject: food, life, the joys of living in NYC (living in Northern California, I have to say I am insanely jealous…just kidding, but I DO love New York), whatever.
My hope: That you keep blogging and find your “gezelligish-ness” (God, I love English and the ability to co-opt and create words at a writer’s whim) once again!
Finally, thanks for the last year!
October 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Your blog and Kate’s at Accidental Hedonist are the only two blogs, food or otherwise, that I faithfully read.
I like that you’re not all serious and pretentious about food, and that you seem as willing to share the bad with the good (one particular instance is in the photos…I absolutely *love* the one that’s captioned “about this time I started saying ‘fuck’ a lot”). You’re an “everyman’s” foodie. I’m a transplanted resident of a small town in rural Georgia, yet I don’t feel intimidated when I read your blog.
I’ve also enjoyed the new focus on a “greener” way of life, as we are in the process of becoming more conscious of such things.
For what it’s worth, I agree with Beth’s comment above.
Happy anniversary!
October 19th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Happy Anniversary! I’m sorry to hear that blog ennui has got you down. So many bloggers go through that. I hope you don’t shutter this place and hibernate. And, to be honest, I don’t really read because it’s a food blog.
I’d be happy to hear about kid-raising, knitting WIPs, the weather, mental health, music, television, wry observations about the world through your very stylish glasses/eyes. Just about anything.
It was a drag clicking over here just about every day (RSS, blog feeds in general, are just too much pressure for me) to see that you hadn’t posted.
Keep it up if you want. Say goodbye if you don’t.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Hey there is more to “gezellig” than food! Let us know how you’re making your life more gezellig in other ways. I miss your writing when you don’t do it, and it’s a nice community here, no snarky stuff like on lots of other blogs.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Write about whatever you feel like and see where the writing takes you?
I discovered you because you were a food blog but I come here to read what you write, not necessarily to read what you write about food. Reading the other comments, it appears that a lot of your readers feel the same way.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
god, thanks for this post! ever since i came back from vacation (35+ days no blogging), it’s been hard to get back into the spirit of things. i hate the marketing aspects that seem to have taken over the food blog world and i’m starting to get bummed out a bit. “shut up and just eat”…indeed. i enjoy reading your blog, so i’m sure whatever you do, will be great.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
i hate the marketing aspects that seem to have taken over the food blog world and i’m starting to get bummed out a bit.
I gotta come in and say, amen to THAT. I’m really tired of the one-upmanship, the sense that everyone thinks they’re the next M.F.K. Fisher, just waiting for a book deal.