For the Birds

In yesterday’s post (HERE), I introduced a website entitled “Dickinson’s Birds, A Listening Machine” via a tongue-in-cheek comparison to the sitcom “Portlandia,” a show described as “a hyper-specific, cringe-inducing, yet affectionate feedback loop that exaggerates artisanal obsessions.”  In the post I shared examples from two of the site’s pages, some from the “hyper-specific” poem archive which covers “230 poems, represented by 350 manuscript versions, composed by Dickinson and marked by the presence of birds,” and some from the corresponding bird archive with pages and audio files which cross-reference the poems. I also stated that today I would share some of the site’s Portlandia-esque features, the very aspects for which I good-humoredly dubbed the project “Birdlandia.”

When one clicks on the “hamburger icon” on the site’s homepage, five options appear:  Dedication, Project Overview, Navigation, Colophon, and Sources.  

I have to admit, the first thought that popped into my head was, “What the heck is ‘colophon’?”  I was not familiar with the term, so let’s start there.

A colophon is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as an "imprint" (the place of publication, the publisher, ISBN and the date of publication).  On the “Birds” site, it turns out to be a list of “who we are,” a list of those involved in developing and creating the project.  Prior to listing their names, though, there is a statement that sounds a bit too much like dialogue straight out of “Portlandia”:  

Next, I clicked on the site’s “Dedication,” made to the passenger pigeon," followed by a “Land + Sky” acknowledgement:

Please don’t misunderstand.  I love the site and the work it presents.  But the grandiloquent discourse here seems straight out of “Portlandia,” and I suspect that the hyper-earnestness and drawn-out tangents of the statement, as heartfelt as it may be, may come across to many as hyper-progressive, pretentious, and/or passively confrontational. Or maybe just confounding?

Let's move on, shall we?

There's a LOT to read on the "Project Overview" (HERE) and "Navigation"  (HERE) pages, so I'll let you explore most of that on your own. I'll just share a couple of select passages.  First, here is the introductory paragraph on the "Project Overview" page:

Here is passage from the "Navigation" page:

The "Sources" page is pretty straight forward -- but there is a great deal of info there!  LOL -- I copied the info, pasted it into a Word doc, and created a 41 page record with close to 7,000 words. 

Of course, I’m being playful about all of this.  I really do love this site and appreciate all the work the muses put into it (yes, on the “Sources” page, the contributors are dubbed “muses”). But let me shift gears here for a minute and change the channel, so to speak, from “Portlandia” to the “Frasier.”

There is a scene from the opening episode of the third season of “Frasier” when Kate Costas, played by Mercedes Ruehl, takes over as KACL's station manager.  Frasier’s producer, Roz, says that she’s been working the office grapevine, and she’s learned their new boss is “like this psycho perfectionist. Everyone at her last station was scared to death of her.” However, when Frasier first meets Costas, she complements his show. “I love what you're doing," she says.

Frasier responds, “Really?  Well, thank you very much!  I like to think of my show as a haven for the tempest-tossed in the maelstrom of everyday life.”

Costas, with a startled expression, responds, “Wow.  You really talk that way.”

So about those muses who assembled the “listening machine” that is “Dickinson’s Birds” – I wonder if they really talk that way.