Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The 2008 Blogging Awards - Best Written Blog

The frenetic frenzy of fabulous err, Sri Lankan blogging awards continues like one of Murali's finest, gathering pace and swerving all over the show with the only certainty being the fact that it will probably all end in tears. Maybe.

This morning we have the award for the best written blog, an award for which there are candidates galore. The Sri Lankan blogosphere is blessed with fellows and girls who write for a living who, as if they don't do enough of it in their day job, then go out and write their blog in their free time. Fucking weirdos if you ask me, but fucking weirdos who never fail to write interesting, poignant and poetic words and posts.

Would I want one of these creative types to write the copy for an advert for my Company? Hell no, but do I read their blogs and wish I had their gift for the written whatsername? Absofuckinglutely. Last year's winner was Java for his magical place and wonderful ruminations, but as he's already been a guest judge once we've got a newish one along, Mr Viceunversa himself.

I suppose there are some who'll think it's unfair that this award is based on the English language. Yes, it is unfair but I'll give you my two very good reasons. The first one is that I don't speak or read Sinhala or Tamil so the beauty of the written word in either of those languages would be lost on me.

The second is that, on both my computers, Sinhala and Tamil appear as little itsy bitsy noughts and crosses boards. This is a bummer, unless there's a Sinhala or Tamil blogger out there who is writing specifically about noughts and crosses, in which case I think the blog is fantastic and deserves an award anyway. Perhaps some kind of board game would be nice.

Let's get this show on the road and present the nominations:

1. Drama Queen / The Madcatwoman for Hissyfits. Ok. I'll tell you now that she's not going to win this or she'll get all big headed and boastful and I'll be accused of having favourites, even though she is one of my favourites. From now on I think she should be referred to as the award winning DQ. You know her and where to find her by now.

2. Sach for The Cynical One. She's a real journalist and writes real things, articles and the like. She talks us through her life, her adventures with a boyfriend and his weiner and her numerous piercings. There are serious bits in there too. When she's old and famous I'll stroll around saying things like "I knew her when she was young and famous."

3. Indi for Indi.ca. I have a lot of admiration for Mr Ca. He's developed a way of writing, on his blog at least, that is identifiably his way. Mistakes, he's made a few... It's a kind of outpouring of his mind onto the keyboard. If I did the same thing you'd just see a stream of swear words and nudey pictures but Indi does it in a way that makes the reader feel as if they've casually strolled into the inner workings of his brain and are looking at how his ideas and thoughts develop, rather than listening to the end result.

4. Brandon Ingram for the Black Lullaby. Brandon would be the runaway winner for the dodgiest hairstyle in the blogosphere if there was such an award but it's his blog that gets the attention today. I'm running out of metaphors, similes and superlatives, particularly ironic as this is the best written blog award, but this blog is another that takes us through the writer's trials, tribulations and journeys. You get the feeling that he's telling us everything, every detail of his life. He puts it across in poignant and poetic language and hardly ever uses really big words. He even uses Italian words, ones that aren't pasta dishes, every now and again.

5. David Blacker for the Blacklight Arrow. Not only has the man got more tattoos than Edinburgh, not only can he kill a herd of Elephants with one glance from a different continent, not only can he build an AK 47 from bits of coconut husk and a ball of string but he can also write a bit. Check out this post for an example of his ability, the writing ability not the gun making one. He lives with his parents too. I like that in a man.

So there we have the nominees.

I am pleased to announce that this year's best written blog award goes to.....


David Blacker for the Blacklight Arrow. With no time wasting I'll pass things over to DD for his words of nicety.

"The best written blog – the Blacklight Arrow – David Blackers Blog. He says "It's a blog. Stuff I wanna say. That's about it." Knowing this Blacker bloke well and loving him like one of my own I am surprised to see the rapid disappearance of his divine intentions of being gods gift to womankind. Through his writing, he displays rare compassion seen in a human, a passion for life, and most of all he's humble in the knowledge he writes well. A distinction rarely seen in Sri Lanka – Humbleness I mean.

I am also happy to add that I am proud of David's achievement. Among his many good characteristics, he is one man among very few to have in one's corner. A truly loyal friend who can rumble as well as anyone in the WWE, and shoot a Heckler Koch machine gun equally well or better than most blokes in MI6. Well-done Davy."

There's nothing much I can add, except to say that the speech is a little bit girly.

Many congratulations Mr Blacker.

RD

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, DD, you forgot 'faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound'. But thanks, DD & RD, and yeah, that speech was a bit fluffy.

Anonymous said...

wow, it feels great just being nominated... :) thank you RD and congratulations to the winner...

ps. ok so i used to change the color of my hair a lot but just so you know, it's staying long and black, at least for now :)

Anonymous said...

Great choice. His is a blog I really enjoy reading, no matter what the topic of conversation is. And whether I agree or not, he always presents interesting observations in a very frank manner. And he's always funny.

Bimmy said...

Congratulation to David!

PS: Great sexy tag cloud. Can I have it too? Or is it not public domain?

ViceUnVersa said...

I love the speech, thought it was one of my betters. Concise, Crisp, filled with clarity.

Figure's what I know eh? To make matters worse; I love you Davy!

Wait...

Good morning!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Electra, I like your stuff too. Don't always agree, but still, your writing's great.

Rukman said...

Congrats Blacker!

RD - I think you deserve an award as well. Your writing's getting funnier by the day! Keep up the good work man.

Anonymous said...

Thanks all. BTW, I don't write for a living -- I'm just an art director.

Unknown said...

well.... what can i say .... it's all about exchanging ideas.... cuz if i didnt have my blog right now.. i would simply explode my self with all frustration in life .... thank god for my blog... where i can share all my feelings... i mean good or bad with everyone... so its nice to have a blogging award sort of thing... :D

by the way RD i have a question... why do most of the bloggers go Anonymously... is it somthing to do with fear... i mean the fear of getting caught for what thery have posted on thier blogs... cuz most of the blogs in SL seems to be that way.... cuz what i feel is if you could go on your own identity it gives you more responsible and some sort of identity for being your self... just a suggestion.. so what are your thoughts about it?

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Bimal - If you do a search on my blog for "moving tag cloud" you should be able to find a post where I gave the link to it. It's a public domain thing so no problesm there.

Brandix - Now do you believe me?

DD - Thanks again. Good morning to you too........you big girl!

DB - And so modest too!

Nifraz (and all) - thanks for reading and the comment.

As for the anonymity question, well, I started under the tag of RD because I didn't some specific people to read it and because I had no idea I'd gain a few readers. It was just an experiment to see what would happen.

Now I think I'm like many of the so called anonymous bloggers in that more or less everyone knows my name anyway and I make little effort to protect my identity. I suppose the only thing is that, if you were to google my real name, you probably wouldn't find my blog.

That's my view on it today!

Sachini said...

yay my second nomination. i shall persevere and maybe like kate winslet, I will win it after my fifth nomination. yup, I just compared the RD Awards to the Globes ;)and i'm willing to exchange the boyfriend and his weiner in return for an award next year. what say you?

Anonymous said...

yes yes i believe you... he he he :)

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Sach - You can keep the chap and his weiner but bung me about 100 Rs and that should guarantee you an award.

ViceUnVersa said...

BTW; It just occurred to me that I am being labeled 'girly' by two grown men who live with their parents. Bit much eh!
Tosh bosh...
:)

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

DD - I'd leave it, or we'll tell our Mums of you.

Amila Salgado said...

Congrats David!
Good pick.

Darwin said...

Congrats David. I wonder if you'd care to honour us with your storytelling abilities with the whole pervy-uncle-and-fluffy-the-sheep storyline. What say you, fancy doing a part?

Anonymous said...

Congrats David - well deserved. Nice choice DD - and good observation about the mummy's boys!!

Anonymous said...

Darwin -- the pervy WHAT??????

Anonymous said...

Wow, all those writers! It would have been hard to decide. Yes I like Davids writing and what he writes about. Learned a few pointers from him!

Rukman said...

Can we have a 'Comic Relief' category and give the award to our resident 'libertarian'?