For all that I'm attempting to be earnest here, I'd be the first to admit that a blog is bullshit.
This, for instance, is my 700th post. Or is it? Because I have always deleted posts and reposted old posts and added posts months after the fact (not to mention posts I have written then never posted) this is not the 700th time I've sat down at my desk and written something that's appeared here. Yet this is, for all intents and purposes, my 700th post.
The purpose of the Pop Culture Institute has always been to enlighten and to entertain. 'Enlightertainment' I guess you could call it if, like me, you're one of those annoying people who likes to mash together two words like some meme-crazed neologist.
But another purpose has always been to make this blog a sort of perpetual calendar of Pop Culture. The Bonnie & Clyde post appearing below as well as "Happy Birthday Joan Collins" will, in all likelihood, appear on this blog on this date next year and the year after that. I may change the text or the photo, I may even add another "On This Day" or another birthday, if I can find a format that's pleasing to me, but there you have it.
This will mean that next year I may have the luxury to write fewer posts, but more in-depth ones. I know, I know... Depth? In a blog? It's crazy to even suggest it, I know, but there you have it.
As an expression of my personality, the Pop Culture Institute functions brilliantly. It is smart right up to the point where it's expected to be smart, at which point it becomes a twit. Just when you think you can't take anymore boasting and pomposity - BAM! - there's a bit of self-loathing. Just like... Uh... Someone or other.
I've always believed that Pop Culture is the People's History. Having read more history books than I care (or dare) to count, I can tell you that history is alot of dry old facts about politicians and generals, and is of no interest to anyone other than historians. It's no wonder most people have little sense of their history.
Pop Culture, on the other hand - so shallow, so easily denigrated - has been and always will be endlessly fascinating, because it is about people. True, sometimes those people will be politicians and generals, but they're just as likely to be housewives or pop stars or criminals too.
I've come pretty far, given that it's only my 700th post. I've often contemplated giving up, but I just can't bring myself to do it. In trying to create something unique and durable (or at least as durable as alot of pixels can be) I've built something I love more than anything else I've ever done. I only hope I feel as upbeat after my 7000th post as I do right now.
Thanks for reading.
It's not such an awfully long way from the Cambridge Footlights to Buckingham Palace, especially if you're Hugh Laurie.