Overheard in New York: a cool blog that's a good example for Oakland

I figured I'd save video-blogging for Monday and just cyber-walk over to New York to see what was happening in the blogsphere there. Being in Georgia for about a third of the year gives me a weird national perspective that I bring to my Oakland and Bay Area blogging and vice versa. (Also there's just more coin in national video-blogging.) But also I have something like eight city blogs so I have to pay attention to what's happening in those towns anyway; eventually I wind up looking at the whole damn country.

Just to keep on my toes I typed NY blogs, found a blog directory called NYCbloggers.com , then meandered into Noisiest Passenger, which recommended a blog called Overheard In New York.

A random guy, listening..

Much of the blogging in Oakland and San Francisco leans toward the art scene or the politics arena (except the sports blogs, which do just that). Nothing wrong with that but in New York the blogging tends to be more about crap that happens in urban life. Much like some of my video-blogs like the Angry Cab Driver, but in text. Such is Overheard In New York.

Overheard In New York is just that: a blog consisting of what the blogger actually heard someone say, somewhere in in New York. I would think the rule is the saying had to actually happen, and I think it would make a better video-blog, but its entertaining. No, the sayings are not about other people, so defamation is not a concern.

Here's a taste of what's there:

Teenage boy: We should go hang out in Park Slope.
Teenage girl: No, we shouldn't. The yuppies will run us over with their strollers.


--Long Island City


Overheard by: Sunny

And...

Girl to friend: What's the difference between penguins and puffins?
Friend: Well, for one thing, puffins are birds.


--Central Park Zoo, Penguin/Puffins Exhibit

And..

Drunk girl to another: There's like 7 miles of cock out there and I can't even get 7 inches.


Friend: I'd be happy with 4 inches.


--Chaos Club

Or...

Little boy: Mommy, mommy!
Mom: What?
Little boy: Can I please have this? (holds up Transformers toy)
Mom, laughing: Yeah, the tooth fairy's gonna have to come a lot more for you to afford that.


--Target

And...

Girl: Yeah, like I mean, I would definitely say that I was in the best shape of my life when I had my eating disorder.
Guy, after long pause: Uhhhhh... at least you're honest!


--Fordham University


Overheard by: Rachel

You get the idea.

It's a good example of how bloggers in Oakland and San Francisco can better represent what happened around them rather than what they chose to look at. It's said that there are 178 bloggers in Oakland alone but to me it seems like there are only 10 or 15 at best who are active. Then within that group there's a few that have a narrow set of interests, then exhibit a kind of clique approach, writing about the same topics and identical perspectives weekly.

Because they have a small, but loyal readership that talks to each other, that group thinks their blog set is more widely read than in reality. In all, it makes for a rather boring mix of text and almost no video. We as a collective can do better at showing Oakland and San Francisco as they really are.

As for me, the International scene's getting more and more interesting. Now if I can only link all of them effectively I'll have a better Zennie62.com