Ken Layne: Hello former colleague, may I briefly interview you in Real Time about the most significant political development of the decade, the Blingee?
Alex Pareene: YES of course.
KL: Hooray! Okay now I will make up these questions. Umm … let’s see, you first discovered the Blingee, is that right? And when was that, maybe ’07?
Pareene: I am going back into my extensive GChat archives and it looks like I first began annoying all of my friends with Blingees back in June of 2007
KL: hahahah, “the summer of love”
KL: Before this discovery, it seems the Blingee was pretty much limited to fat single teen moms putting hip-hop regalia on their bastard infants, is that about right?
Pareene: yes it was basically giving baby maddysynne a cartoon glock, and maybe adding some glitter hearts to your 3/4 profile myspace picture
KL: and we ruined it all, for politics
Pareene: hah, yes
Pareene: it was a fine example of found internet art and now it is whatever it is, i guess peggy noonan’s official portrait, forever
KL: it seems like something we shouldn’t talk about too much, to avoid some kind of “douglas rushkoff bemoaning the commercialization of lolcats” or some such horseshit, but is there a kind of magical story that just NEEDS the blingee?
(and yes, Peggy Noonan doesn’t even EXIST anymore, outside of that blingee)
KL: also as a last question before i try to toast up some soggy deli-tray leftover xmas party sandwiches for lunch, WHAT IS YR FAVORITE/THE GREATEST BLINGEE (of the decade)
KL: and this is, really, the only appropriate answer: total silence
Pareene: haa
sorry i was trying to find the actual blingees i invented, in 2007, and honestly who can actually navigate blog archives they are basically useless
KL: yeah the whole Information Architecture leaves a little to be desired, esp. when you have editors who aggressively “tag” things in useless fucking ways
i bet gawker.com does not let you do THAT anymore
KL: (you probably also still get paid regularly)
Pareene: those were the days when we were making everything a Mad Magazine style “dept.,” because who would ever need to actually try to find something mean written about drunk prep school retards on a message board posted on an ostensible Political Blog, ever again? but yes — the peggy noonan blingee is our generation’s finest achievement, basically.
KL: it’s so sincere! i cannot remember which one of us made that one
KL: basically wonkette was exactly like Andy Warhol’s “Factory” then, in 2007
Pareene: Ah, look, I found one, and so this is my favorite. http://wonkette.com/272751/farewell-tony-blair
KL: oh jesus that is horrifying, i had forgotten it. what a scouch
Pareene: Blingee.com is a hundred percent more revolutionary and important than Twitter, basically. Decade internet things wise, i would rank it number two, between Google Wave and racism.
KL: you can expect a reasoned rebuttal from anil dash, for that!
ok i am going to post this, and some blingees. it’s my “year ender” decade post, for today
KL: i am kind of sad about still writing for an (ex)Gawker blog as the new decade begins. fucking blogs are so 2004
Pareene: Hah. I should probably write some lists for my Gawker blog, too.
KL: yr supposed to do one for The Awl, too (for free). i did one and it is kind of an unintentional ripoff of yr true/slant gimmick, which i guess you’ve abandoned?
allright i’m going to eat, happy xmas!
Pareene: Merry Christmas, i think i shall compose a list called DECADE OF FURRIES http://wonkette.com/241563/cpac-in-review
