This is what?

My guess – it’s kind of an existentialist statement. I am not an existentialist, but I do think they are kind of cool. The line is from the Deer Hunter. I am not a deer hunter, but I think it’s a great film.

The title This Is This also comes from my inability to describe what it is that this site was when I started it in 2004. It’s just some of … what it is.

It’s a “thing” thing. It’s specifically haphazard and haphazardly specific. It’s a website just like millions of others and the more I try to make it sound unique, the more ordinary it seems. This site is just what it is, hence the title.

Robert de Niro’s character says it to John Cazale’s character as he holds up a bullet: “Stanley, see this? This is this. This ain’t something else. This is this. From now on, you’re on your own. ” The line is put across with purpose but is essentially meaningless, alot like this weblog.

I wrote a song called This is This, so in a way my weblog now has its own theme tune. How cheesy is that? Maybe eons from now this blog could play the song as the page loads.

Footnotes
John Cazale’s character ’s reply, by the way, is “This is this…what kind of faggot bullshit is that?” If anyone wants to create an anti-Cliff Jones weblog, that would be a good title. I should tell you now, I am not gay, and I do not approve of the word “faggot”, but in the context of the film, it sounds OK as a derogatory term in a discussion between two blue-collar Italian-American hunters from Pittsburg. Also, eons these days are about a month and a half.