Blog is as Blog Does

This is a strange post.

Thanks to a recent post by blogroll member and semi-absent neighbor Jenny W. Nelson, I finally took time to peruse a blog called the Nie Nie Dialogues. The blog in and of itself is a widely covered and highly read bit of inspiration for a very large online subculture of blogging moms. Sadly, the site leapt into general public knowledge when the publisher- LDS Arizonian Stephanie Nielson survived a horrific August 08 plane crash with her husband– but not without suffering severe burns on over 80% of her body.  I’m not sure where to go from there, as her situation is the specific culmination of my general nightmares– one that has, on the surface, inevitably changed the way she looks and lives. Of course, based on her previous blog posts, this event will metamorphose into nothing short of a positive, affirming and optimistic life opportunity.

On reading, it’s easy to see why Nie Nie Dialogues gained so much popularity. In fact, it totally made me dedicate a  stuffy and dissertational post to it right here.

Why?

The blog is sheer suburban fairy tale. Not in the modern sense of ascribing the moniker as a jaded jab at wishful thinking/unattainably, but in the truly wistful way she shares her life with others. IE- In the Nie Nie blog, her husband, Christian, isn’t referred to by name– he’s her “sweetheart”– a Beatrix Potteresquely named “Mr. Nielson”. Photos are imbued with stylistically ethereal whimsy via blurs, angles, amped contrast while overlaid with “type writer” fonts– each post creating a digital storybook.  Even paragraphs and text are laid out to conform to a freestyling tale of tea parties and romantic countryside adventure– and the format proves it. It’s simply taken the cold, coded rules of Blogger’s programming and molded it to fit a particular life and creative perspective- not the other way around.

And I gotta admit. It’s both charming and inspiring. It’s light on long paragraphs or staid structure. Just bite-sized morsels of text wrapped in adjective, warm pictures and eye-catching, digital scrapbook styling.

Funny enough, since the inception of Vintonville, I’d had inklings of creating more of a destination via story-like structure to the posts instead of just writing them. After all, thick posts full of words = intimidating, while snappy pictures are infinitely more catchy. It’s just I’ve got this writing crutch– I can, so I do. It definitely takes less time for me to spill words than work all our pics over in post-production. Of course, now that I’ve seen and commented about the Nie Nie Dialogues, I’ll just come off  like I’m aping the site… but without all the flowers and birdies. And as a dude.

So I dunno, in the coming weeks and months I may try my hand at a little more fanciful/visual story-telling instead of long-winded story-telling. The mundane can be made kinda magical like that.

We’ll see how it goes.