March 9, 2003
you got burned, dude
It’s always a curious experience when we see our heroes shredded to pieces. Maybe it was when the Dell guy got busted for possession, or when Cher’s wig was stolen, or when your He-Man action figure went horribly disfigured at the whims of your dog.
I just found a blog called I Don’t Hate James Lileks. The name is a bit of a misnomer. The blog ran hot for two days in January and then went dead, but it’s quite a collection of brutal commentary on Lileks’ day-to-day Bleats. The straight dope? Lileks is mean-spirited, self-absorbed, unoriginal and imitative.
No wonder I like him.
I have to agree with Stan from the IDHJL site:
Imagine being at a cocktail party listening to a delightful storyteller who has a fine command of the English language pass along anecdotes of his daily life, peppered with sparkling wit and good humor. In the middle of all this, the speaker slowly begins crapping his pants as if it were the most normal thing in the world, all the while continuing on with his tales.
The look that would appear on your face in that situation is similar to the one I get whenever Lileks strays away from pleasant trivialities like quaint postcards and old matchbook covers that he’s collected. It’s painfully obvious that he’s sorely out of his element [discussing politics].