Mission Mission » blogging

KQED Visits Needles + Pens, Reviews Some Zines, Dismisses Blogs as Less Special

Allan Hough — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:20:29 +0000

KQED just published The Needles & Pens Twenty-Three Dollar Adventure, in which writer Suzanne Kleid asks the question, “If I wanted to get 4 or 5 great zines, and spend about twenty bucks, what should I get?” The helpful staff hooks her up with some good stuff, and she sets about picking it apart.

Now I love Needles + Pens, and I spend $20 there often, and I’m glad they’ve gotten this good press. But after reviewing her haul, Kleid concludes:

Blogs are a dime a dozen. They require very little financial investment on the part of the creator, and none at all on the part of the reader. It takes a bigger, more special burst of inspiration to make a physical object out of your life experience.

Ouch. I mean, maybe she sees it that way because she blogs for big corporate media entities like KQED and McSweeney’s. But you can’t tell me that some zine is better than WHATIMSEEING because somebody stapled some papers together and Plug1 didn’t.

Don’t want to end on a negative note though… What great titles have you guys come across at N+P? (I tend to love everything by that Please Let Me Help guy, Titty City for the articles, and I hear good things about StreetWorthy.)

Needles + Pens on Myspace (for bulletin updates like “Hey KQED wrote about us”).

Identicons now in Mission Mission Comments Section

Allan Hough — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:42:09 +0000

Gravatar has made some new options available to WordPress.com users. Matt Mullenweg hypes one of them on the WordPress.com Blog:

I would highly recommend trying out Identicons, which are a cool math-based image idea created by Don Park that’s unique to the commenter, so even if someone doesn’t have an avatar yet they have a consistent (and handsome) image next to their name when they comment.

We tried them, and they look good. Do you like yours? (Via Gravatar Blog)

Link to comments section depicted in above image, or click image to enlarge.

Mission Mission and Ritual Roasters

Allan Hough — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:00:21 +0000

The other day I mentioned how Mission Mission is getting a lot of traffic these days, and someone responded that half of it probably comes from people at Ritual Roasters. I don’t drink coffee, so the fuss surrounding Ritual is kind of lost on me. Consequently, this remark didn’t really register.

Then last night Brittney Gilbert at Eye on Blogs published this photo (credited to hotlead) of the shop’s somewhat funny “Please, No Blogging in line” sign, which got me thinking again. Link.

So, readers, do tell. Are half of you at Ritual?

Previous Mission Mission Ritual mention here.

Valencia Construction Post Climbs to #61 on WordPress.com's Top Posts

Allan Hough — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:22:07 +0000

Just this morning I saw Matt Mullenweg at the Web 2.0 Expo talking about recent exponential growth at WordPress, and then look, just this morning Mission Mission makes it onto WordPress.com’s Blogs of the Day Top Posts for the first time. Exponential growth all around! Good work, Becca.

Original post: Construction Camp on V-Street

Jojoblog Recruits Mission Mission’s Allan

Allan Hough — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:28:45 +0000

jonathan richman @ the makeout room, originally uploaded by k4rl.

Jojoblog administrator RB loved my Volvo movie, asked me to join the team, I said hells yeah, and they gave me full admin power without batting an eye. In my mind, Jonathan Richman goes hand in hand with the Mission, thanks to dozens of shows (see photo), and of course the campaign. So I’m thrilled to be contributing to the foremost Jonathan fan resource on the web.