Why do we do it!?

There are a plethora of vintage blogs out there on the information boulevard. The ones I enjoy,and this includes not just vintage blogs are those where the author’s character shines through the text. Effectively the best blogs are diaries, I really don’t like the PR/Sales pages masquerading as blogs. You can see through them in a nanosecond and it is disappointing how many of these faux blogs get recognition, especially when you can see the PR  media rewarding it’s own and thinking the idiot public don’t cotton on. That’s why it is nice to see sites such as Diary of a Vintage Girl, Retro Chick and Katie Chutzpah  , because behind everyone of them is a distinct personality. If blogs are essentially egotistical you want the egos behind them to be interesting. I’m happy with commercial bloggers if they are supporting some kind of customer community or rewarding loyal interest, it is just those tedious ‘this is really great!’ (I’m not flogging it, really I’m not) sites that peeve me. The only one’s that peeve me more are those ‘pictures of people on the streets looking kool’ ones. Sheesh!

Community blogs are good too, my favourite is Retro to Go, trawling through the retail world looking for cool things so I don’t have to. I get the impression that the bods behind this know what they are talking about unlike some. I would also like to say that I like the very occasional blogger as much as the prolific one, one interesting post in two months is great.  I do sometimes wonder if the cartoon below applies to me!  For some follower numbers are a competitive thing. I am surprised and grateful any one follows this blog (thank you!) but would probably persevere even if only 20 people bothered although I appreciate it and wish I had more time to communicate with people who make contact in this way. I write to feel in some small spare moments, and I type quickly so for me this is a time-filler as much as anything else.

Where is this blog coming from though? It is not technically ‘vintage’ in the popular sense. I am not part of the new retro scene, it appeared like a magic beanstalk when I was abroad. Before going and in the eighties I knew the same group of  people; re-enactors, jive fans, rockabillies, Goths and the willfully eccentric who now get pigeonholed generally in this nebulous amorphous vintage thing. Some are annoyed by this and you can see it in the anti-burlesque feeling that seems to be circulating.

I’d like to say I am coming at it from the grumpy forty-something Londoner on the loose direction and cannot make any claims to charm, particular erudition or style. I do however know the bits of the city I know very well. This can be a source of annoyance, if only to myself. It is nice when people discover things and share them, but not when they rave they have discovered somewhere that has been known to Londoners forever. It isn’t intentional, it’s the way journalism tends to be now: new, new, new.  I like the old, old, old. Boring farts like me remember how much Francis Bacon smelt, , that Norman in the Coach could sometimes be quite nice and which stool in which pub a famous serial killer used to favour.  People like me must  sometimes be tedious, the 'yawn, been there, did it before you and did it better' brigade.  But to be fair you natural get really irked to read some fellow blogger describing a wonderful 'vintage' place that you personally know has been utterly ruined, in a recent refurb or listing a useless list of ‘vintage’ events and suggesting even crappier shops.  Of course it is all relative, my shit is someone else’s treasure. But still you want to twat them sometimes, but don’t  verbally or otherwise because there is really no excuse for rudeness and an opinion is an opinion. But nontheless...grrrr!

What Redlegs aspires to...

Mind you I am old fashioned and like nice chatty friendly people, anywhere, dressed in any way and anyone like that will get a Redlegs thumbs up even if they are all wearing Abercrombie and Fitch. But I like places, restaurants and bars with character and pfizz. They don’t need to be clean or glamorous. I like old baggishness in men and women (a state of mind rather than an age) and a touch of bad behaviour. I just hope to connect with this kind of person. My aversion is to shiny young unquestioning minds (not peeps) perhaps because I used to be a teacher and hated dealing with that kind of child. I preferred the ones who made fart noises and giggled. That probably sums up my approach to life: live it with fart noises and giggles, and if possible nice shoesies, a bottle of rum and an accommodating person on your arm.

More often he reality...

I’d like to know what motivates other bloggers to blurb on blogs? Is it wanting to meet people, a time-filler, to help their business or to hone their writing skills? Why do people read blogs? I am nosy.. I want to know!