I have grievances to air, my fellow Gentlepersons. Being it this far for the restofus from Festivus -- I will focus away from said pet peeves to instead shed light on what it is I attempt to do & how to avoid falling prey myself to my own bugaboos. Although a brief subcontext c/should be set:
Staying in your lane. "The phrase is using a driving metaphor. On a road there are lanes. To stay in lane means you do not move to the left or right to switch lanes, but you keep going straight. Abstractly the meaning can apply to anything and simply means keep doing what you have been doing."
- www.english.stackexchange.com
What's all this mean? Perhaps it will be clear as I continue to meander along my mainly merry way with the aforementioned look-see within. Speaking as KAPLOWITZ MEDIA and not as Kap, I will define my lane as such: the coverage of premium tobacco. This includes ~five (~5) years here of cigar-centric infotainment (reviews, news, interviews, views) and the forthcoming inclusion of pipes & pipe tobacco in keeping with that parenthetical category list.
Cigar-CENTRIC? You may ask, and should... yes. Infotainment? Yes. 'Centric' meaning centered around. It is not a laser focus I offer, but a solid core focus nonetheless. A good 90% is the goal. I have had and have other sub-focuses: boxing, baseball, horse racing, advice (both in&outside of my focus), etiquette (both in&outside of my focus), Three Stooges, and most likely more. Meaning I have covered in #KM these subjects in their own stand-alone postings.
So I am here to throw myself at the mercy of the court I myself have assembled, in a way. The mercy I feel coming to me, however, is that I have strayed from my lane in an over-all minuscule manner. I have strayed, too, to better infotain. "Infotainment also called soft news, is a type of media, usually television, that provides a combination of information and entertainment." - Wikipedia
I have NEVER posited myself as a pundit of any deep worth in my superfluous content. (Although I do cling to my self-ordained amateur historian title re: The Three Stooges. I never put myself out as a defining beacon of 'weighing in.' If I have come across thusly -- I apologize 1,000 times. Although I am fairly certain I ain't.
Much of my dipping out of my lane is to provide you Gentlepersons with a calculated look into me. Me, flexing my 'voice.' From www.SimpleWriting.org - "The personality telling the story or providing information in an article is the writer's main voice." So ya see, it's me, showing my ass. It is NOT me, playing at 'expert.' In closing, me.
Perhaps it is a fine line. Perhaps I am hard on (giggity) others in the Cigar Media who seemingly install themselves as experts in lanes not their/our own. If that is the case, I can offer at most lettuce say 500 apologies.
But I do-so like showing my ass to you, Gentlepersons. I like to think that you by now know a bit about me -- enough to understand, at least, why you don't much care for me. I have (again w/ a good dose of calculation) shared with you the death of my son, the dissolution of my marriage... and through a thick layer of schtick, my Jewishness and all the stereotypical being a cheapskate & neurotic that entails.
Yet, there are things that never will find mention here at #KM. I (in both the me & we editorial sense) will never discuss politics or religion (beyond Yiddish schtick). Too, I will share no hugs. That last sentence will not be delved into more -- it's a vibe, a vague aesthetic of meh. Part of the #leastmode parcel. 'Nuff
All this having been said, I do understand why others reach out into other lanes. I mean, I'm no dummy... although that really and truly and even I daresay greatly -- does depend on who ya ask. Ours is a niche market. A small, small niche. being as it is, we must make concerted efforts to pull in audiences from outside its sphere. I suppose.
Did you know I get emails from non-smokers who read my reviews as 'stories?' Ain't that a kick in the pants? The field of premium tobacco geeks is a sloth-slow growing one, at best -- and one must grow or die. So we look to coffee & hooch connoisseurs -- our not distant brethren. We look to those seeking luxury & alpha male lifestyles. We can shoot the other way and grab at sports fans and folks who like to say "snowflake." We put out tentacles. This is mandated. It just-so-happens I tend to pull from different sources than some/most. Probably because I come from a different direction...
"Me? I was once a chef and another time a professional wrestler. I am a published writer, both on-line and on-paper, of genres ranging from Pulp to Pome." - Me, re: Kaplowitz
The thing is this and here is the rub... I was speaking to 'someone' recently and that 'someone' made this point: if you were doing a blog about cheeseburgers -- reviewing cheeseburgers from different diners/restaurants -- think of the millions of more views you'd get. See? Premium tobacco is, to say the very least, not mainstream. Maybe we in the cigar media just need to be OK with that. I am. I mean I'd hate to have to wear a disguise to be left alone on my Family Dollar shopping trips.
& what's more & what's final: in small niches such as this, we are constantly reaching up. Up to coffee, up to hooch. Up to what have ya. I feel this lowers us, and unnecessarily-so. Back to my incognito joke of the previous paragraph, if you want that life, you won't find it here. Maybe blog about celebrities or million-dollar baseball contracts -- let THAT be your 'centric.'
I am reminded of a line in a sadly over-looked sitcom, Wings. A cast member is waxing poetic about how insignificant the vast cosmos might make one feel. "Not when I shine my shoes." replies another.
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