Think of This Post as "Bell Bottom Blues"

A couple of decades ago, I was reading a publication put out by the National Lampoon when I was struck by something that has remained with me all this time. I don't even remember if it was a regular issue of the magazine or some kind of special one-shot, but the conceit was that the publication was serving as an anthology of old newspaper and magazine articles; the most memorable was a report/review, dating back to 1975, of a new late-night comedy program on NBC.

The reporter was heavily dismayed by what he saw as the excessive preparation put in by the performers of what would soon be called Saturday Night Live. Here's the part I remember distinctly from this writer, disgusted that supposed hipsters would actually be rehearsing comedy, and I'm pretty sure this is a verbatim quote: "Comedy's got to come tumbling from the soul, like a Clapton solo. Lenny, man!" Those are words to live by, for sure -- the part about tumbling from the soul, not the part about "Lenny, man!" -- although I have never really had the opportunity to live by them.

But it seems to me that blogging, if done properly, would fit into those parameters: heartfelt, idiosyncratic, semi-planned, gushing forth from the depths of one's being (as well as an excuse to steal lines from 25-year-old issues of National Lampoon). Both in practice and in theory, that seems what blogging ought to aspire to. You, the reader, will know that I've truly gotten the hang of this when you read a post of mine that seems to come tumbling from the soul, like a Clapton solo.

Lenny, man!