seventeen degrees in a november forest
That’s OK Raymz. I’ve got no problem being mentioned in any article with you. I’m kinda flattered and I’m a big fan, but you already know that. I’m a little disappointed, but not surprised at the tone of the article though. To me it’s just another illustration how out of step mainstream print is. The hoity toity tone they take: how they imply that their writing is more important than your writing, and their need to marginalize you and your followers is so hackneyed. It’s also interesting that they have to give you context by dropping mine and Matt G’s names! I’m a Globe reader, 42 years old, and been around. I love all kinds of grown-up things, and I’m pretty well read and informed – but even I felt like I was dealing with close minded parents or teachers while reading this article. The beauty of Raymi The Minx is how immersed, how involved I can get in the writing – whether you’re talking about bacon martini’s, japanese jewellery, or rabid Twilight fans. The Globe missed that, and they missed it cause they’re not in on it. The only way in, is to discover it. To your thousands of followers, Raymi The Minx has something that the Globe and other mainstream print media are losing by the hour and desperately trying cling to, especially with articles like today’s: Connection With Their Readers. Not tokenism, or trendwatching, but true emotional and intellectual relevance. That’s why you are the success story that you are, Raymi. Yee Haw!!!! Keep it Comin…..
Subject: hey beautiful
I heard from Luc about you and Fil breaking up. And I just read some stuff on yer blog. This is the first I hear about the article and, although I haven’t read it, it sounds like a piece of shit. I’ve always known you were something special since that first night we really hung out. This city is full of jealous assholes and I’m so sick of who it promotes/disses. You do have a gift; he’s f-n wrong and has no business pronouncing on that.
I’d like to visit you. I’ve got a car.
Love,
Melodie
Dear Editor…
I have taken huge offense to some of the content of the article: “Love in the time of bloggeria”, specifically the quote from Hal Niedzviecki -“She’s very much the epitome of the committed, addicted blogger – no real gift to speak of, besides this intense need for attention. And she thrives on it.”
Lauren White (aka “Raymi The Minx”) is a fabulously talented writer, and her style is hers, and hers alone. Not to mention the accolades her writing has received, she is one of the most celebrated bloggers in Canada for a reason, not only because her blog receives more hits then many others, but because people actually care about her. Her writing makes people want to know her, she has become many readers online friend, crush, fantasy. She opens up her heart and mind and exposes it like no other writer i have ever encountered.
It’s unfortunate that Hal appears to be jealous of her talent and her readership, and it saddens me immensely to see that quote in print. It is very spiteful and rude.
-HKD
i’ll sound my mouth off regarding the globe “piece” later, or tomorrow. everyone knows how media works, now while i wasn’t to anticipate this particular slant, i was nervous and ready for something. dunno. it’s good and it’s bad. i’m certainly not the only one benefiting from all this attention so it would be nice if that person who keeps harassing me, who has overstepped boundaries MANY a time with me over the years and i have patiently tolerated it, it would be wonderful if they ceased ever contacting me, talking about me, or considering i even exist anymore lest i call their parole officer tomorrow. also, why you feel the need to defend someone who hasn’t wanted a thing to do with you for a long time now, is beyond me.
that aside, this is the life that i have chosen for myself. you may have chosen an easier, simpler one, a quiet one, a desk job one, i don’t know because i don’t know you and i don’t ever presume to. i have chosen to focus my life on living and being and sharing. and so fucking what. i gambled. i keep at it, and i keep going until i can go no longer. i don’t have a boss telling me what to do everyday or how to do it. am i proud of myself? yes. do i hate myself? daily. am i sick of myself? yes. am i bored by this? yes.
Hey Raymi,
I have been quietly following your blog for the past two years, whether I liked it or not. I came upon you accidentally through numerous blog links, and I instantly fell in love with your photographs, your fashion sense and your lifestyle. Even when I decided some of your comments were too harsh or crass, and I tried to boycott reading your blog, I was pulled back in without choice. I guess in retrospect, your persona of bluntness mixed with sweet is exactly what I really like about you.
You don’t sugar coat, you don’t pretend, and your exactly who you are, even when it’s a total contradiction. I think thats pretty damn awesome. Sometimes, I even find myself saying “What would Raymi do?” or “That is totally Raymi”. I have been thinking of sending you a note for some time, and now is as good a time as any. I look forward to what your new life will bring to your blog, and I know you will be fine. I applaud you for making a decision that many can’t, and never do. Thanks for giving me something awesome to read while I am online, thanks for the fashion inspiration, thanks for the laughs. Good luck in everything you do, and never stop writing!
PS: Although Phil may not be entirely missed, I will be missing Cid.
-L
people tell me all the time that this is really easy what i do. oh it is? makes me laugh. when i talk about dieting someone with the poorest physique having the audacity to tell me my plan will not work. it’s like that. i do this because i love it and it’s the longest relationship that i have ever had and i can depend on it. do i expect everyone to be cool about it? never ever. i haven’t had the courtesy to. you lose friends. your friends lose friends even. true colours become revealed.
here’s an email i just sent (edited out the personal bits)
hey always nice to hear from you i think of you fondly in a fond i dunno, way.
sorry about yer grandma, mine took a spill once down some nasty steps, concrete. bah.
im on the fence as per how i feel about the globe piece i sort of knew he was going this way but then it was said to me that they were going to make me out to be the paris hilton of canada, not only perez, what?
true colours come out when things end, when breakups happen. it’s amazing i feel woken up to so many brand new things. (about people)
suburban fall is how she goes. from one ‘saugan to another, represent.
dont be a stranger
Just read abt @raymitheminx in the Globe. A portrait of Toronto’s most famous diarist. Shes more than just Alice. She’s the looking glass 2.about 14 hours ago from TweetDeck
@abc4
@raymitheminx critics are dicks by occupation. but denouncing art is extra dicky.
Well, first, I think there is a little jealousy on display here. The writer of the article works for a medium that is losing readers; Raymi and Phil are both working in mediums that continue to attract readers. So there is that.
The snide use of a quote, by another writer, to suggest Raymi is a vapid one-dimensional attention seeker, without a “gift” overlooks this:
Raymi has succeeded in developing a readership and maintaining a readership were literally hundreds of thousands have failed. That alone speaks to a number of gifts. Is she self-serving? Sure. So am I, and so are you. That’s human nature. Human nature is something Raymi has a keen eye for, another reason she is well read.
Finally, I would hazard this: Raymi and Phil are both representative of a twenty-something tribe, and that tribe happens to enjoy a certain angsty something or other. I’m certain the demographic that follows their blogging follows them for that reason; they describe aspects of that angsty twenties passage really well.
If anyone would like to use this comment as an example of how not to properly use semi colons and colons, feel free.
Johnny Maudlin
Hahah, awesome.
All great stuff Raymi. Tyler has nailed it. Look, I don’t want to alarm you (unduly)but in addition to capturing chemtrails amongst the photos on a previous post, I am afraid I must inform you you were sitting inside a crop circle in the first picture of this post. Have you woken around 3AM, recently, to find you are floating about three feet above your bed? Kind of heading toward an open window? Lock the windows please.
Raymi
A coupla things: I have been hanging out here, it’s been an interesting exercise in relating and communicating, but I’m aware of being a comments hog, as well as an old guy at a young folk’s venue, so I’ll make myself scarce. These offerings don’t need to be published, by the way, they are just moments of neuron activity, inspired (in part) by the happenings your way.
When John Lennon left the Beatles, circa 1969-70, in an interview with Rolling Stone, he lamented; “The press are always trying to beat me into being Paul McCartney or Englebird Humperdinck…”
Lennon was essentially declaring his person hood. Here is a link for one part of a sixteen part interview he did, on what turned out to be the last day of his life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFleCyvA-Yo&feature=related
He sounded SO alive, so glad to be alive, so…I cannot find a better word…alive. He talked about all of his life’s experiences, with a great deal of affection, the good, the bad, the regrettable.
Later that evening, on the way home from a recording session, some lost son of a bitch shot him six times in the back.
Lennon’s legacy to my generation was this: imagine. Live your life. Be yourself and find some peace, add to some peace in this world. Sometimes people, when we try and get intimacy, seem to be beating each other into being some other way. That’s just the struggle for intimacy.We get better at it, but never perfect the art.
But sometimes people will REALLY try and beat you into being something other than who you are: at your essence.
Those people are to be resisted. They are, according to a great poem, “vexations to the spirit…” I don’t know you or Phil (or Cid) other than in this strange, yet legitimate cyber fashion, this electronic pathway that exists and doesn’t exist. I like you both, wish you both well. Love yourself, say hello to the occasional old lonely person, be good to animals, you’ll be alright…
Peace and out (as you snapper whippers are want to say…)
Johnny Maudlin
Sha boo yeah!
i love all these new posts not being about bars and craphole music venues…much nicer to see you in the woods, active and creative
People still think I am the twenty something vibe. lol No seriously they do.
You didn’t break up did you? I am so sorry if you did. Breaking up sucks. But I will love you both still cuz you are both good eggs.
OK SORRY GUYS, saying “twenty-somethings are angsty” is ghey; wasn’t there “angst” like fifty years ago??? Didn’t the Existentialists invent that? In France or something? Anyway, those people, they’re all older than us anyway, Raymi. (I say that only because I’m in the last few months of my twenties and feeling bitter about it, also Fil was like totes old, right??? In his thirties? Like my boyfriend?? CRADLE ROBBERS!!!) ANYWAY, OLD PEOPLE ARE OLD and they remember what it sounds like to use a 2.400-baud modem to log on to the internet.
Oh god…I just heard the sound of my own doom just now. Yup. I’m done.
Dude, most of the time you don’t give a shit what people say so why do you care now? I don’t think the article was even all that negative and it sounded like the writer was down with you. Did you just think he was going to praise your every word and give you accolades for your writing? Writer’s are critical and everyone is entitled to their opinions. Your readership is affirmation that people like your blog so who gives a fuck what one dude has to say. I was surprised you did – kinda uncool.
Re-comment! “If you are pissing people off, you know you are doing something right.” -John Lydon
Apparently I piss people off too, at least make them dinks for no reason ha ha. You just need to be happy with who you are and what you do. Screw everyone else.
fuckin globe. was in this hotel a few weeks ago and a globe wound up at the doorstep of the room i was like, hey nice touch! free newspaper. fineprint of the bill charges you for it “upon acceptance” or some’m and i was like EVER CHEAP.
anecdotal evidence that they suck.
I finally write something worth quoting and it’s butchered! “the internet can do something profane with itself”, Ha! Every curse word I use is thought out and completely necessary!
Seriously, I think its time for you to do a Post Secret recap session again.
That is all.
Cheers,
Mike
jane, i feel like you very much misinterpreted my reaction to this piece. i am totally fine with chris (the journalist) and taking advantage of stupid quotes are the flame wars great blog’s foundations are built upon.
mike – postsecret hasn’t been inspiring me much at all lately.
I’m a rabbit in your headlights. Such a good song… a great video. The guy keeps taking the hits, until the very end, he gets fed up and shows his power. Very revealing. You will be fine, Raymi. My advice? Step away for a minute. Decompress, and get back on the horse.
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I just watched this video…I have NO idea how I missed it?
Also I blogged it…but that really doesn’t mean anything except that maybe two people will see it and I can watch it whenever I want because it is AWESOME.