The Next Blog Thing?

On Friday, I successfully completed another National Blog Posting Month. (And I took Saturday off in celebration.) Although I didn’t find a “theme” to unify the entire month, hopefully the individual weeks of Random Play All, Top 5, Snapshots, and of course “Slacks of the Seventies” did the job. I still have more t-shirts to write about as well.

Currently, I am desperately searching for some sort of long-term, all-inclusive blogging project to tackle next.

When searching for inspiration, and not finding it, you get frustrated at how damn uncreative you are, and curse at bloggers who have stumbled upon a great idea. It’s a feeling akin to hitting bruise over and over, or spending a Saturday night buzzed in front of your computer while Googling all the assholes you knew in high school and college, and discovering they are published authors, CEOs, or dentists. (Why can’t I for once find an old classmate in a sex offender registry or listed in a police blotter arrested for meth possession, and photographed with half their teeth missing?)

I need an idea, a hook, a gimmick.

Something like Julie Powell’s Julie/Julia Project, where she cooked every dish in Mastering The Art of French Cooking, and blogged about it. (It became a book, and a soon-to-be film.) Or, A.J. Jacobs’ projects to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica (documented in the book The Know-It-All), or live an entire year according to the bible code (his new book, The Year of Living Biblically).

It doesn’t even need to be something so grand as Powell’s and Jacobs’ projects. I don’t need a book deal, just a reason to keep writing and blogging regularly, and a definite beginning and end. I’m looking for my own "30 Days" experience, or complete artistic oeuvre to consume.

Here are some great blog/life projects from others that I sincerely admire and am not envious of at all, because these people actually have talent:

• Pop Songs 07: Matthew Perpetua is writing about every R.E.M. song (all the album tracks, and most of the major non-album tracks)


• The Criterion Contraption: Matthew Dessem is watching and writing about every DVD produced by The Criterion Collection.


• On the AV Club blog, Nathan Rabin spent the year writing about 100 box office bombs in the feature My Year of Flops. Keith Phipps is reading and reviewing every book in a box of vintage SF, crime, and mystery novels he purchased in The Box of Paperback Books Club.


• A man called Winter, aka Rafael Antonio Lozano, attempted to visit every single Starbucks in the world. Starbucks Everywhere is his blog, and the project was documented in the film Starbucking.


• I’ve mentioned it many times before, but I’ve always admired John Freyer’s All My Life For Sale project from a few years back, where he sold all the contents of his apartment on eBay, and then set out on a cross-country trip to visit the people who purchased the objects.

Since I haven’t been successful in finding a project, I may just have to wait until one finds me. I suppose I could participate in the 365 Days group on Flickr, and post a self-portrait every day for a year. But I’m way too reserved for something like that. To accomplish that project, you need a certain level of vanity and a “look at meeeee!!!” personality that I just do not have, nor will ever have, nor want.

And I don’t think my co-workers would really appreciate me not showering or washing for six weeks like Brit Nicky Taylor, whose experience was documented in How Dirty Can I Get?

I don’t want to read the complete works of Shakespeare, or Remembrance of Things Past, or anything else that feels like a school assignment. The project shouldn’t become a chore. Documenting attempts at regular exercise don’t count either. There have already been photography exhibits by people who took photos of their poop for a year as well (ewwww).

And while it certainly sounds delicious, I don’t think I’ll be using my roommate’s suggestion of eating the Manager’s Special donut at Dunkin’ Donuts every day for a year.

I’ve got a few ideas kicking around, but they are mostly derivative of other established projects, and I’m not too excited about any of them. So perhaps I’ll just wait for the “big idea” to sneak up on me.

I just hope it happens soon.