The good ones have honesty, brevity and wit. I'm looking for somebody who is trying to share something real, not just trying hard to come off as "interesting," "literate," "artistic" or "cool." Somebody who actually has something different to say, not just trying to make the same thing sound different.
When I write something from the first person, I usually have something to say, a topic to discuss or a point to make. I don't write that much first-person material, but when I do, it is because I feel that I actually have an individual perspective. Maybe being a writer for a living brings it down to this real practical, almost mundane level. When I read a personal site, I'm looking for this same type of discretion
I like no-bullshit personal sites that go light on the graphics. There are like one or two people out there who are legitimate "artists" who are using HTML and the Web as a medium.
The rest of the people who are trying to express themselves with
images or design should take up photography or painting. Heavy
graphics and bells and whistles either distract from actual content
or hide the fact that there is no content there.
News people have to read as much as they can on the subject and talk to as many experts as possible. Which is a basic journalism concept. Get the background!
Connect the readers with these experts and ask informed questions that allow the experts to express themselves in an easy-to-understand way. I'm not the most technically competent person, but I try hard and if I still don't know what I'm talking about, I find people who do and quote them!
Many writers rely heavily on reprocessed press releases and PR
people as "sources," which offers the reader nothing.
That was from back in the day (1996) when I was a full-time Web designer. I did a site for this organization that provides services (mainly a huge tent, some Macs on an ISDN line and a bar) to the American film community on-site in Cannes. The guy who was supposed to go broke his leg or something. The details of how I was picked as his replacement are fuzzy.
It was definitely a great trip. At cool as Cannes sounds, its
basically just a conference for the film industry. So think of
a huge computer conference, but replace the geeks with swarmy
film types. The south of France is real nice, though. I checked
out the Picasso museum in Antibes.
This is a very hard question. While I relate closer to musicians like Lester Young, Monk and Mingus, who have incredibly dark sides to their art and personalities, I think I would say Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy Gillespie was a great musician who helped invent an entire genre of jazz music, be-bop. He was a great composer and bandleader. Like Louis Armstrong (who is not in the photo), he was an amazing entertainer who loved to please an audience but did not ever sacrifice his musical message or rely just on his image to please the audience.
He had the image of this smiling guy with big cheeks, but he could always play his ass off.
I appreciate hip hop and classical, but not as much as jazz. The Invisible Skratch Picklz do for the turntable what Charlie Parker did for the saxophone.
When it comes down to it, the famous jazz people (Miles, Ella, Monk, Duke, Trane) are incredible musicians and artists. They had style and interesting personas, but in jazz that alone doesn't cut it. You can't say that about most contemporary pop and rock music.
The combination of amazing playing, the deep intelligence found
in improvisation and the honest soul that surrounds it all makes
it the most stimulating of any music I have found.
I quit working full-time as a Web designer intending to be freelance for a while -- freelance anything, Web or writing. The magazines were the ones that gave me the most freedom, flexibility and respect, which I value over money.
I'm interested in the Web and still work on my own sites because I get pleasure from them and I think they are good, no-nonsense sites, without the interference and insincerity of advertising.
I couldn't say I really respected the things I was getting paid to build. I'm not the kind of person you would find working at a J Crew store folding shirts or designing the store layout or signs, so I'm not going to get into designing or building their site. And when you work your way above being the builder you get to be an online version of the "mar-com" or advertising sales person, which I'm not interested in.
When it comes down to it I'm not a designer, computer programmer,
mark-up boy, or even an editor; I'm a writer.
Copyright 1998, Thomas L. Mangan
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