[Note: this article was published on the now-defunct New York Blade web site. I have reposted it here for posterity.]
For New York’s gay blogging elite, it’s more than just a phase
Bradford Shellhammer has a few choice words about the state of the blogosphere. First, he says, the current glut of new blogs means trouble for readers: There are too many options and few worth reading. What’s worse, everybody who has something to peddle now has a blog.
But don’t expect too much nostalgia from Shellhammer, a New York blog star whose juicy online dispatches date back to 2000, about the good old days before hype hit the blogosphere.
After all, Shellhammer is one of the power bloggers hyping the launch of Queerty.com, a new journal of all things gay that started up Sept. 6. Assuming the editor’s helm seems like a perfect fit for Shellhammer, one of the “original” gay bloggers whose personal site, bradfordshellhammer.com, boasts a lively blend of daily dirt and bite-sized interviews with the city’s queer glitterati.
By now the blogging boom has become old hat — especially in gay circles. From the role bloggers played in exposing Jeff Gannon’s seedy past to teenager Zach Stark’s online cries for help, queer readers have tuned into blogs in a big way.
For Sreenath Sreenivasan, head of the new media program at the Columbia School of Journalism, the trend makes a lot of sense.
“Blogs are having the most impact on niche communities and niche topics,” Sreenivasan says. “That is where gay and lesbian bloggers come in. Blogs do well when they have a targeted audience. The mainstream media cannot cover everything. It has all kinds of economic and traditional barriers that keep it from covering everything.”
Queerty, which is the offspring of David Hauslaib’s celeb site Jossip.com, offers an opinionated blend of lifestyle blurbs aimed at gay readers.
“The only blog out now even close to it is Andy Towle’s and I adore his,” Shellhammer says, referring to Towleroad.com. “But this one is going to carry some similar tones as Andy with less politics and more design, fashion, travel and grooming. Which is my background.”
Just like Paris
With all the buzz, it might be easy to think blogs are ready to take over the world. Sreenivasan warns not to drink the Kool-Aid just yet.
“They are also over-hyped,” he says. “It isn’t like a million people are reading blogs.”
And though exact numbers are harder to nail down, it’s arguable that few blogs are making money. Commercial ventures like Queerty, Gothamist or Wonkette are the exception and not the rule. Most blogs remain the channel of choice for unrestrained navel-gazing — with the kind of self-indulgent writing that only a mother could love.
This is not to say there’s no value in such personal sites. For Toby Halliwell, a D.C. blogger by way of Staten Island, the world of blogging helped him find his voice in the real world.
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| Longtime bloggers Bradford Shellhammer (above) and Toby Halliwell (below) keep readers plugged in with their catty observations on modern gay life. |
“When I was a senior in high school, I was deeply closeted and very much into the whole online scene,” says Halliwell, whose catty observations appear at vividblurry.com. “But the Internet was the only place where I felt comfortable being gay. And so for me, blogging was a perfect fit. It let me connect with other people like me, and it gave a voice to things that I could never bring myself to say to someone’s face.”
Such public honesty can come with a price. Just ask Zach Stark. The blog world was blazing this summer about the Tennessee teen who wrote about coming out to his parents and their decision to send him to a Christian conversion camp. The 16-year-old boy suddenly turned into a cause after he penned thoughts that would have once remained hidden in a personal diary.
Gay bloggers have grown accustomed to the medium’s unusual blend of anonymous outlet and public forum. It’s the kind of crossroads that can make a meta-celebrity out of a reluctant high schooler or create an awkward situation when a blogger gets spotted by a fan.
“I remember the first time someone recognized me from my blog,” Halliwell says. “I was at a bar and I felt like Paris Hilton.”
Blogs on stage
Andy Towle started blogging to keep in touch with friends. But his Towleroad site slowly transformed into a site where readers could find a brew of pop culture and hard news — sort of like a magazine. Towle, by the way, is a former editor of Genre.
“Originally, its purpose was simply to be a place where I could share photos and writing with family and friends, and over the past few years it has evolved into more of a magazine,” Towle says.
His site isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Dan Rhatigan, a Brooklyn blogger who has been journaling online since 1998, says he’s watched the medium itself evolve.
“The culture within blogging has shifted a lot over the years,” he says. “It has gone from a weird micro-culture to something that is now so widespread.” For Rhatigan, blogging has changed from more than mere pastime into a genuine way of life. In January 2004, he teamed up with fellow bloggers Chris Hampton and Andy Horwitz to create the WYSIWYG Talent Show, a monthly showcase that features bloggers reading in front of an audience at P.S. 122.
“This is the longest running single project I have been become involved with,” Rhatigan says of his blog,
ultrasparky.org. “It is mostly there for me and I have no reason to stop.”
Neither does Bradford Shellhammer, especially now that his years of blogging have segued into an actual paying gig.
“Before every freaking queen in the world got a blog, bloggers fell into two categories: cool people and connectors, who embraced technology early on,” Shellhammer says. “The others were freaks, dorks and scary people unable to make friends in traditional ways. Both these categories still exist.” Anyone who has blogged longer than four years, he says, probably falls into one of those two camps.
Judging from the first few days of Queerty’s content, with topics ranging from Katrina to colon cancer, you might say its editor could find his way in either category. Above all, the mash-up of pop culture and news carries with it a winking edge and sharp wit — attitude you’re not likely to find on the sort of sites Shellhammer slams.
“Blogs, before anything else, are fun,” he says. “They allow people to create. And I think that’s a wonderful thing. Just don’t expect me to read the crap.”