What is Poppyc**k
What a loaded question I’ve posed to myself. By definition it is nonsense, but the ideas behind Project: Poppycock are a bit larger than that. This site, this blog, is the beginnings of a larger experiment in open discourse and the ongoing interpretation of the world around all of us. We have great hopes for the future of this site. We hope to gather more contributors, do more aggregate news gathering, and to continue to post original works from large essays all the way to visual punchlines like memes. There is no telling where Poppycock will end up, or how far we can push the envelope, but the contributors here love to express themselves and enjoy having a forum their voice can he heard in.
For myself, I love to write. I love the process, the misery of trying to make the reality of my words look as profound as they sound in my mind. I started as a photojournalist, but my desire to write came out of not seeing my opinion and views expressed in the world. I felt unrepresented, so I just started writing. What better place than the internet? It is, after all, the world’s digital bathroom stall and there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to carve my own gang tags in to the door.
I write about everything from oddities in the world in my LTFG, to movie recommendations, to beer recommendations; all the way to potentially offensive articles covering politics, societal struggles, and even expressing my feelings on national tragedies like 9/11 or a piece on the potential fallout from the death of Osama.
There is nothing off limits in poppycock. There is no wrong, there is no right, and there is nothing that is too taboo to be written about. Outside of outright racism, bigotry, or threats of violence, we find humor and topics for articles in anything. There has been one statement I made at the book release party for my first published work that I still think embodies the type of work we do here: “Good writing should make you uncomfortable and make you laugh; like a hemorrhoid with a sense of humor.” It seems to fit what we try to do here best.
Poppycock is not perfect. Nonsense doesn’t have an in-house editor. It is flawed, in logic and in structure, but the heart of the idea is there if you can get past a misplaced comma or two. We feel that we should not be afraid of imperfection. I think people’s fears based on not thinking they’re good enough to write precludes them from doing so. This is why articulate blowhards hog the airwaves and seem to be the only voices we hear. Now that is nonsense. On this site you will find something you like, something that makes you laugh, and something you constitutionally disagree with. Good. That’s what we were going for.
If you really want to know what floats our boat, then check out our article, Ten Guiding Principles of Proper Poppycockery. This is our outlook, our philosophy for what motivates us to do this, and what we hope can motivate you to join our collective. We are always looking for new contributors, writers, memers, journalists, or poets.
I hope to hear from you if you’re interested in joining us, if you like what we do, hate what we do, or just think you can get a spam link through the filters. Good luck with that. They are pretty good filters.
More self-promotions: We have two books available for sale on this blog as well…check them out. The profits from sales go to charity, so it is a pretty good cause. Also, to the right we have the link to joining our Facebook Fan Page if you want to stay up to date with the blog, our activities, and our giveaways we have from time to time.
Thanks for reading,
Wesley Bauman
Owner/Creator: Project: Poppyc**k
Concerning your interview of MC Lars for Disarray
Wesley,
That’s the *best* interview of MC Lars in print that I’ve read in a long while! Thank you for getting to this core of his message an being such a good interviewer!
I am a 55 year old that helps MC Lars with web site hosting and other technical issues and I do it because I believe in this artist. He’s got a lot on the ball and he’s taught me a lot about Hip Hop as well… I’ve graduated from loving Sugar Hill Gang and dismissing the genre when it all became “gansta rap”. The idea that message is key rings true to me.
My own son found trouble in life, but his best raps were messages of hope!
http://www.myspace.com/erikb1/music/songs/open-your-mind-s-eye-53719058
All my best and thanks again for being a great journalist!
–
Jon Backstrom
jon.backstrom@gmail.com
Thank you so very much for your kind words, Jon. I love what I do and I am glad that came through in this interview and I did Lars the justice he deserves. Keep reading and I hope I can continue to put out content that you enjoy. I truly appreciate the positive words and encouragement.
Hi Wes,
I’m from Tap It Brewing Company and I read the article you wrote recently in Disarray Magazine. First of all thank you for mentioning us, we do tend to get noticed especially when we bring the firetruck! We try and keep beer fun, and not so serious…which is what we feel it should be!
You mentioned that you didn’t get a chance to try our beer and find out if we could back up our marketing with good beer. I would like to change that and get you some beer ASAP. Where in Ventura are you? I can have a sales rep meet you with samples, or perhaps have some arranged for you to pick up at one of our accounts!
Let me know if your up for it!
Kind Regards,
Emily Lyon
On behalf of Wes’ best interests, I would like to accept this offer.
LOL this reply made my day. =)
Wes:
I like your stuff, but you either need to get an editor or fire the one you’ve got. The simpler the grammatical or stylistic error, the more credibility your articles lose.
It’s made all the more comically ironic that you start your “about the author” section with a quote about good writing. And — dear god I hope I’m mistaken — it looks like the quote comes from you. Quoting yourself is like standing up after you finish playing a piano sonata and applauding wildly while the audience looks on in silent horror.
I’m not necessarily saying you’re a bad writer (or interviewer, for that matter), but I could only make it through about half the Desa interview before your English-as-a-second-language grammar wore me out (and now I’m going to feel REALLY bad if English IS your second language).
Nope, I have no editor for this interview or any of my other articles. I do this because I love it, not because I am perfect. I am sorry if you were offended by errors in the interview. I will certainly go back through it and see if there is anything that is glaringly wrong. People make mistakes. I really don’t feel I am attempting to maintain any credibility in an interview where I am simply relaying as accurately as possible what the interviewee says. Though there might be some typos, I don’t think they are that egregious. You seem pretty upset, and I appreciate the criticism. No need to be rude though. You are entitled to your opinion. If you have a blog I’d love to see what you do so I can take some lessons on how to write better work. As for the quote on the author page, I thought it is a funny quote, and nowhere in my self-quote does it say good writing has perfect grammar; you’ve gotta start somewhere, and this is me just getting started. I hope to get better as I do this a few more years. That is a good point, about not quoting yourself, and I just felt it was an appropriate way to describe my writing as a general statement. I’ll change that from a quote to just a sentence. Thanks for the pointer. Looking forward to getting that link to your blog and articles you’ve written. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I will always do my best to put out the best articles I can, but I am literally just one guy who can’t sleep at night, so I make my mistakes. Thanks for your patronage in spite of my flawed works.
If quoting yourself is like playing a sonata and applauding wildly while the audience looks on in silent horror, then attacking a blogger’s grammar in the comments of his about page is like playing a sonata and then wildly jerking yourself off while the audience laughs at your pathetic limp dick.
Best part about that critique, was he couldnt make it but half way through your English is my second launge grammar interview with DESA… Um it’s DESSA. It’s like he burned himself while burning you! :)
I look forward to reading more of your posts, loved the interview with Teddy Faley.
Thank you very much. I assure you, there are plenty more coming, and plenty to go looking for deep in the annuls of the blog. We love what we do here, so it means a lot that people also like what we do.