You have been kind enough to seek out my on-line endeavor, howfreshisthisguy.com, a website that I began recently in a simple-minded, if amiable, attempt to aggregate in one place the many sites out there which have begun, in my opinion, to constitute a new genre. In sites of this new genus, a "guy" presents himself (or, perhaps, another "guy") to the world, in a manner that seems guileless and honest, and one cannot help but describe him as "fresh". I am not naive about the problemacy of "authenticity," but I think you know what I am talking about. Often, the "guy" is a man.

The concept for this site is cute and clever, like many things on the World Wide Web. Like the very sites which it aggregates, it is the sort of thing you might send to your friends, to entertain them during work. Perhaps you might visit howfreshisthisguy.com periodically, for a quick laugh.

If the site only ever achieves this level of recognition (provided I ever spend the time to build it properly), it will be successful, indeed. But what more can it accomplish? Am I ashamed to admit that I am more ambitious?

No, I am not.

A quick laugh is fine. I am glad to provide people with a quick laugh; they need it. But perhaps howfreshisthisguy.com can provide something they need even more -- a quick think.

The first (and often, the only) thing that viewers think when they visit howfreshisthisguy.com is that the site is about mockery, that I am laughing at these "guys," that they are to be seen as ridiculous. I would be a liar if I were to deny that mockery was a part of what I was doing. A big part. But there is more to it than that -- there must be. There is something truly admirable about a "guy" who puts his photo and his thoughts on the World Wide Web, the most powerful technology for the distribution of unflattering photos with pointedly unself-conscious captions ever created in human history, a "guy" who stares down the behemoth of this new medium and leaves upon it the imprimatur of his own idiosyncrasy, the oddness of his particular existence, the unmistakable mark of his freshness!

For howfreshisthisguy.com to truly succeed, it will need to provide its users with their laugh, while somehow, at the same time, prompting the users to question that laugh. The very terms of the site must always be understood to be in flux, in play. What constitutes a "guy," and what are the characteristics of "freshness," and what does it mean to ask the very loaded question "How Fresh Is This Guy?"

Friend, what I ask of you is to help articulate the ideology of this site, because I feel that with your help, we might illuminate the enormous hunk of cheese at whose smallest corner I am, alone, only able to nibble. I am asking you to contribute your thoughts On Freshness, your reactions to the ideas presented here and on howfreshisthisguy.com, either in the form of a traditional essay, or else in whatever form you feel expresses the conflict and ambiguity at play here (and elsewhere on the Internet), whether it be an anecdote, a sestina, a pub song, a soccer chant, what have you. Even the briefest comment, a sound-bite, a haiku.

Come on, you must have some kind of reaction... What is so "fresh" about Erich Honecker, who presided over the brutal police-state in the former German Democratic Republic? Can his undeniable sartorial élan make us overlook his complicity in the violence and repression of the Stasi? Without getting too deeply into the whole "aestheticization of politics vs. politicization of aesthetics" question, we might also ask why Nick Nolte is there, as well. Why, indeed?

Look, you've got to help me, because I am fervently hoping that by incorporating introspection and self-critique into it, I might somehow salvage this project of mine from its destiny as a mean-spirited, puerile novelty site, much as I fervently hope that by personally practicing introspection and self-critique, I might somehow elevate my own life from its almost inevitable banality and meaninglessness. So clearly I have a lot invested in this principle!

What's in it for you? If we play our cards right, howfreshisthisguy.com could become the unlikely standard-bearer of a new intellectual revolution, the 'Tel Quel,' 'Cahiers du Cinema,' or 'Sinn und Form' of on-line dilletantism! And you'll be right there, on the ground floor! Immortality, I tell you!

I expect your submissions shortly. You may send them to howfresh@howfreshisthisguy.com

Thank you,
I. Ron Blanco
How Fresh Is This Guy, Ltd.