Review: Irish Blog Awards 2008

Last night I took myself and my multiple identities to the Irish Blog Awards. Managing many versions of yourself is not so easy away from a keyboard, so checking in to the Alexander Hotel was slower than it was for people who had no difficulty remembering who they had registered as.

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But before that I, every one of me, wanted alcohol to ready me for meeting almost 400 strangers. Imagine going into a room full of people who have ever commented on Twenty’s site? What would you drink?

So in the Ginger Man I had a pint of stout with a much more manageable bunch of strangers. Bock The Robber, a man I go back with maybe as much as 25, 26 hours, was leaving but not before introducing me to Sniffle and Cry.

As I entered the Alexander I spotted the Swearing Lady and it occurred to me that if she dropped the “w” she’d be the Searing Lady. But I didn’t tell her this of course, no instead I stalked her.

Remembering that I’m effectively at a convention of stalkers, and if we all stalked someone then the hotel would end up looking like New York’s Grand Central as if full of frozen people, I decided to stop and go the more conventional route of actually introducing myself.

-Hey you
-Yes?
-I’m me

The lack of recognition on Sweary’s face told me I had chosen the wrong me, so risking further blows to self-esteem I chanced another.

This worked and if you can imagine an Irish version of Elaine from Seinfeld and the way she would say “Get Outttt!!!” and push you over, I picked myself up off the carpet and into the cloud left by a loud expletive. She hasn’t dropped that “w” then, I thought.

-What are you doing here? she asked me, not unreasonably of a blog with an American city in its name.
-I live here

At a table made for stealing identities I picked up a badge with two of mine, but noticed another with the name of a friend. A real person. From the real world. Yes the person does blog, but this was a room of strangers, people who manifest themselves out of what Bock descibed as the Matrix. The real offline world was about to collide with the fantasy island of online bravery. So I stole his identity too.

The benefit of meeting some strangers the night before you meet lots of strangers is that on the big night you have friends, kind of like the way you might bring a former partner with you on a blind date in case of awkward silences. It may well have been a mass blind date of 400 people, but silences and bloggers don’t hang out in the same world, real or virtual.

The first award was for Pop Culture and I really wanted Medbh to win. Not because of the yellow slingbacks with the toes poking through, nor because of the amazing little red boots of the night before, the sort of boots you might see perched on a Christmas Tree and stuffed with Mars bars. Nope, it was because of the patriarchy.

Of course it wasn’t; it was because of a year’s worth of tremendous content. Indeed I had thought she legitimately could have been shortlisted also in the Arts & Culture category. Anyway, when Rick O’Shea opened the first golden envelope of the night he got to read out his own name. His reaction and acceptance speech was one of the most affecting of the night.

I can’t imagine the workload in organising such an event, and it all went so well which tells me that a mountain of work was done behind the scenes. In front of the scenes the community and the awards night is very lucky to have Rick, because he’s one of us and however professional he might be he also very evidently cares about what we do.

It all ticked over quite nicely, not dragged out by speeches but never feeling like it was rushed either. There were two screens, one at the stage and one half way down the room. Each category was introduced by a short video of George W Bush talking about the category. I’ll admit I cringed at first, but when I actually listened it was very well done and each clip was funny. Perhaps that’s no great surprise as the scripts were written by Twenty, but the technical side of W’s voice and the matching of the video to it, were also very well done.

My only real gripe - I blog, therefore I gripe - about the presentation was that apart from those video introductions all we got to see on the big screens was the image of the Irish Blog Awards logo. Maybe I should have volunteered to have done it, but I would have loved to have seen a screen scrape of each blog onscreen as they were read out from the nomination lists. Sometimes because of cheering you couldn’t hear a blog being read out but even when you could you may not have been able to picture the blog. I’m familiar with most of the shortlisted sites, but maybe with a visual reminder I might have realised I was familiar with even more, or at least had an instant encouragement to check out a site that looks interesting.

It seemed there were quite a lot of award winners who weren’t present to receive their awards, and to that end I wanted Primal Sneeze to win for Most Humerous Post as he had given me the ok to pick up his gong, so to speak. I even had his speech worked out. It began, Primal Sneeze CAN be with you tonight, but he isn’t…

Shane Hegarty won Best Blog by a Journalist and was a very popular choice. I had nominated him back in the day. Best Food & Drink was dominated by sites with recipes and I was disappointed that sparkling originality of Manuel’s Well Done Fillet was not the winner. Best Crafts was one of the new categories and being an artist I should have paid extra special attention, but by then I was getting nervous because the first of my categories was coming up.

My site American Hell was nominated in Best Arts & Culture, and I was genuinely thrilled for it to be in the company of a load of great arts commentary sites. And as it’s exclusively a cartoon site, one mostly about love, I was genuinely embarassed for it to be in the company of a load of great arts commentary sites.

So inside I was very excited and very nervous, which meant I really wanted to go to the jax. And my pint was almost finished.

I had my speech ready. I’d like to thank [pause] the driver of last night’s NiteLink, for making me get off the bus when I woke up, and leaving me with a 5 mile walk at 4 in the morning. It’s not a very good speech I’ll grant you, but I was still knackered from walking miles in the long grass of the median of the N4.

Anyway then in my speech I was going to apologise for stopping Sinead winning. I didn’t need to of course as for the 3rd straight year a deserved Sinead Gleeson won. Last year I voted for Sinead, but this year I nominated Daithi up in Donegal for this category as Sinead had taken a break from her Sigla Blog for several months. Back again full throttle however and in a very strong category with some great sites, I was very happy to see her win.

It was also great to meet Sinead where she confirmed that I look just like my picture, especially with that large green patch on my face.

You know people are being terribly honest about things when you end up with a draw, and two of last night’s categories resulted in a shared award. Part of me wanted somebody to just pick a winner, somehow (heck if the US Supreme Court can do it in a Presidential election…), but it was impossible not to enjoy the site of Grannymar and Grandad hobbling together up in the aisle. That was the Best Personal blog and I must admit that I would have preferred to have seen Devin win.

I didn’t pay too much attentin to the Best Political and the Best Group categories, because in recent times I’ve reduced my reading and don’t participate in much of those blogs anymore, but I find it odd after all these years that Mick Fealty’s excellent Slugger O’Toole has ~~never~~ not won one of these awards [Update] in the last 2 years [/update]

When I heard the nominations read out for Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog I realised that Primal Sneeze was in there too so I panicked as I realised the speech I had for him now had to be said as Gaeilge. Thankfully he didn’t win and with the winner not being present we were treated to some nice words by Conn on the subject of blogging in Ireland in general and as Gaeilge in particular.

For best tech blog I heard nothing but white noise as the 2nd of my categories was up next. Irish KC was in Best Designed Blog and here more than any category suffered by the lack of a visual for the nominations on the big screens. I think we all knew that the favourite was Sabrina, and she won. I congratulated her later on, not just for her site but also for her contribution to design in the wider blogosphere. Most people tend to like her graphics, but her design goes deeper than that embracing as it does the qualities of usability.

You can’t argue with a Special Recognition Award. Unless you’re a mean-spirited so and so. So I will. There were 3 of them, and clearly deserved as they were I would have been happy to see just one, and the others given in future years.

Nialler9 won again for Best Music, and talking to me afterwards he graciously acknowledged the high quality of Irish music blogs that weren’t even short-listed. I pointed out that he should have been short-listed in the Best Design category also, but he was very happy with his lot, and what blogging has done for him this last year.

Fat Mammy Cat won Best Post and not being present her prize was collected by our Celtic cousin the Hebridean Sam, ProblemChildBride who travelled all the way from California.

Twenty Major was the big winner again. 3 years in a row now, and like the other triple winner Sinead he appears to be withdrawing himself from future years. I nominated Bock in this category, and felt quite passionate about it in terms of a comparison to Twenty, so I’ll admit to being disappointed. That said it’s a fantastic accomplishment for Twenty to maintain the consistent high standard that he does. Many great blogs with big readerships just don’t sustain things for much longer than a year. He’s also, as anyone knows who has listened to the man behind the persona, a gentleman. He was very ambassadorial last night and when I introduced myself he asked how Dog-dog was doing. Actually quite a lot of strangers asked me how my internet star of a dog was doing following her trans-Atlantic flight to Ireland.

Realising oneself in your imaginery world is a very strange experience but it was truly fabulous to meet so many people I’ve been reading the toilet habits of for years. It was great to hang out with Medbh, Mr M, Bock, Sam, Devin, Manuel, Conan and also Gimme who must surely win an award himself before too long.

Immediately after the awards but before the first sups of new drinks, there was a group of us in the bar, all realising who we “really” were and admitting our love for each other, when I denounced things as a sickening LoveFest. But a couple of drinks later and a little old fashioned blog bitching creeped in.

Before then Sweary creeped in. To haul us into the foyer and the comfy couches as downstairs the room was set up for the 80s disco. I looked at this enormous sponge with cushions saying if I sit down there I’ll never get up again. And I’m not joking; it was that comfortable I chose to wet myself rather than get up to go to the jax.

Getting to meet and have great conversations with Sweary, Sniffle, The Swearing Gentleman, AL, and Annie, was a delight, even if hearing the phrase “I can’t believe you’re Irish KC” over and over was surreal to the point of me wondering if I really was Irish KC.

I missed some people, most especially Flirty, but then maybe I didn’t as the nametags really needed a much bigger font for you to have a chance of reading them, especially when worn by staggering drunks. I lost track at many times, just enjoying people without knowing who they were or why they were staggering.

I should note that I noticed I felt strongly about who won what this year. And that’s not meant as any disrespect to winners I would not have chosen. (And I’m not talking about my categories). The whole thing is a wonderful exercise is discovering new blogs and if the strongest feelings we have in the end are about winning choices then it means it’s working.

One of the things that blogging does so well is to open all sorts of doors that you otherwise wouldn’t even be aware existed. At least 3 very exciting things sprang out of last night for me. This post is already way too long so I’ll share them another time, but I think you’ll be excited by them too.

I’d love to see the Awards taken to somewhere else in Ireland, say Belfast, Limerick or Cork, or at the very least to have a big bloggers’ meet up there the night before the awards and then all travel up to dublin together. I’m saying I’d love to see it but note that I’m not for a moment offering to help organise it.

On the NiteLink home I was scared. Not because of threatening passengers. Nor because of 2 people who had also been at the awards and the potential for colliding worlds that brought. It was because I had the same driver as the night before. The unsympathetic one who, after I slept past my stop, dumped me with a 5 mile walk rather than let me stay on the bus as he took it to the garage. Why him? I asked one of myselves, as I drifted off into a dreamy bloggy sleep.

Congratulations to every one of the winners and a warm and huge thank you to Damien for letting us celebrate ourselves and each other.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under 1-eolai, Ireland, blogs. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

16 Responses to “Review: Irish Blog Awards 2008”

Sinéad responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
What a great synopsis of the night, well done you! Apologies for my umpteen pronouncements of how like your photo you are. It was great to meet you.
manuel responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Good to meet you last night as well……….how’s your head today?
Dessert « DZ-015 - The Half-Arsed Blog Of RTE 2FM’s Rick O’Shea responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
[…] http://irishkc.com/index.php/review-irish-blog-awards-2008.htm […]
blog awards 2008 | a tale of heart ache and triumph at David Maybury | Blog responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
[…] shy embarressment. Congrats again to all the winners - the full list is over on Maman Poulet and Irish KC has a run down of the night. Thanks to everyone involved - well done on a brilliant […]
Bock the Robber responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Great to meet one or two of the Eolai personae as well, and especially to discover that we all share a passion: the consumption of large quantities of Guinness’s stout. I always use that to judge the calibre of man I’ve just met, and it hasn’t failed me yet.
eolai responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Sinéad - There were so many great moments along with too many great people to document them all fully. And I found it reassuring to know I looked like me - it certainly made hooking up with strangers so much easier than it might have been.

Manuel - my head likes Guinness as much as me belly, so I’m grand thanks. To watch yourself and the other Manuel (Estimulo) meet for the 1st time was like watching Robert de Niro and Al Pacino meet in Michael Mann’s Heat.Blogging history.

Bock - It was excellent Bock. And meeting you was good too. I need to buy you a pint or two in a decent pub in Limerick.
aoife mc responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
It was really nice to meet you - I didn’t realise you were American Hell until today! I really like the doodles, they’re great.
Hope you didn’t fall asleep on the night bus!
JC Skinner responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
But what about the scandal, KC?

http://skinflicks.blogspot.com/2008/03/twenty-major-doesnt-smoke.html
eolai responds: March 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Aoife - Thanks very much, and sorry I didn’t get around earlier. At that late hour I remember the space-time continuum being somewhat kinked.

JC - your scandal sounds like the Martin McDonagh version of last night’s events. Either that I was drunk.
Conan Drumm responds: March 3rd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Thanks for the round up Eolai, as good as being there… without the hangover!
Sweary responds: March 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
Searing Lady, eh? I am blisteringly witty. Or are you just on about my rack?

Seriously though, it was wonderful to meet your good self and hear about your couch dislocated your thumb. I too was impressed by your beard. Oh, your personality too, I suppose.
eolai responds: March 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Conan - You know I rather fizzled out there writing it down - the energy being sapped from the 2nd day of debauchery. Next year I may have to go for the shorter plan. Or introduce limbering up excerises.

Sweary - Searing, I said, not Soaring. I am rather annoyed with myself that in my determination to finish a long sentence to the Swearing Gentleman that I missed out on your attempted introductions to Una.
Medbh responds: March 4th, 2008 at 6:55 am
A pleasure to meet you, Eolai.
You do totally look like a young Castro.
Now don’t be starting any revolutions.
Kieran responds: March 4th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Thanks so much for putting this all in one place! Very cool.
Shane Hegarty responds: March 4th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Sorry I didn’t get a chance to say hello. I had some daft idea I’d meet everyone - but I was very wrong. And thanks again for the nomination. It is hugely appreciated.
eolai responds: March 6th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Medbh - If I do start a revolution I think I’ll do it wearing boots like those

Kieran - Thanks Kieran though I think it needs some layout help. And congratulations!

Shane - Yes I thought I met a lot of people but using my Lenihan like mature recollection I realise it was only the cliche of a surface being scratched. I guess 400 is a big number.

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