Sure was a lot of words...seems like it'd be really useful to see ALL Nerve personal ads printed on paper and then arranged in a huge grid on a big wall at eye level, so as to get a complete image of the infinite range of amazing humans who have voluntarily submitted their best/worst nearly all for the identical purpose of finding someone(s) like/unlike themselves with whom to do what they fantasize doing every day all day since puberty and are not able/about to give up.
What makes Nerve personals better is that there cannot possibly be any doubt of why someone volunteers for the site, so most of the coy avoidance on the central matter at hand (until further notice) is automatically undone. Most of the snotty profiles are a mile wide and an inch deep, but so many self-portraits are innocent and honest, if only they will be taken as such. The twain meet. The success, therefore, of the feature is that it is a fair and equitable chance for those who have not located the same opportunities in person, yet.
Or so it seems.
--BLU
10/15 |
A stupid conversation between stupid people.
--TtG
09/22 |
Rufus, you're patronizing, ugh.
--jr
09/01 |
ff, you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. if you'd like to take your trust fund and donate to the nerve and nervepersonals cause that would be great. yeah, i didn't think so. you think nerve exists as a public service to keep you happy? what a dope.
--nmf
08/31 |
Interesting interview. Nerve, once again, comes off far too defensive sounding... Personal ads have too much baggage to ever be cool. The perspective offered by these guys, as much as it reflects the status-changing effects of art, should be seen as a step in the right direction.
--ch
08/27 |
YOU GUTLESS BASTARDS SOLD OUT! YOU TOOK A COOL THING--NERVE PERSONALS--AND SOLD IT OUT TO SPRINGSTREET NETWORKS WHO ARE CLEANING IT UP AND KICKING PEOPLE OFF AND MAINSTREAMING IT TO MAKE MORE CASH. SELL-OUTS!
--ff
08/16 |
I wanted to read the ad mentioned in the article for "babyinajar" but when I clicked on the link, I was taken to a page that said it had been taken down or hidden. anyway you can reproduce it somewhere here for those of us who didn't get to see it the first time around?
--PC
08/13 |
with regard to all your preceptions of advertizing, check out the video "the ad and the ego" which uses advertizing's techniques to show how advertizing manipulates. hint: if you think that you've figured out advertizing by thinking: "i'm not going to buy (X) item because i saw/heard an ad for it" you're furthest from the truth. what advertizing has come to sell is an imaginary, "ideal" way of life--you are not using enough cleansing products on yr face, you need this breath freshener, why can't my life be like these people whose lives are being taped for television? etc. the only valid criticism of nerve personals (in my eyes) is the virtual nature of it all--since when were you able to read someone's body language/smell their smell (under the perfume/cologne?)/look them in the eye/hear their vocal inflections in an IG session?
you will all be like me: tassle (parody/honesty)
--wde
08/13 |
I think these artists don't deserve to fuc
--aa
08/13 |
Uh, oh. I stumbled upon a circle jerk about dating. Boys, boys, boys! You ain't gonna get no sex and lovin' if you're talking to yerselvs 'bout existensialist artistic shit that DO NOT MATTER NO HOW! Save it for AdBusters.
You should be writing good ads (spelling and humor count!), slap up some decent photos NOT taken in your bathroom mirror or your messy bedroom, and get busy. Life's short, and you're missing out.
--AK
08/12 |
finally!, is what i have to say. i haven't looked at any of the afe_ ads yet, but it's nice to bring the art of personal ads to the light. tooting own horn: i was introduced to nerve.com in '98 [pre-credit days] and haven't stopped yet. i think nerve gains further than salon or any other 'intellectual sexuality' website out there. [granted, the adverts are slowly consuming the artistry.] since day one i've used the ads as an exchange [with sex, dating, love coming second], asking to trade stories with people as a sort of art work. i did this simply because online personals became sort of a new genre in '98 [which have since come to dry up our alt weekly newspaper monies since most net personals are free, or cheaper]. more and more people began spending time in front of their 'puters and less time doing the routine bar pick-up. the stories started out eerily lonely - mostly from men stranded in their terrified solitude. and gradually the responses have grown more artsy as more artists are finding the medium, and finding it as intriguing, if not moreso, than hitting up chicks in bars. i started as lolita75 [still there] and then found beauhunk and was intrigued by his integration of story into questionaire. i replied with story_101 and have kept changing it since. yes, it is still one of the many ways to meet people [lucky mark of afe_], but you HAVE to be able to poke fun at personals. not only is the IDEA of becoming attracted to someone through words alone a silly reality [not much different than falling for a car to the tune of iggy pop], they're becoming more and more mundane as all walks of life start toying with them. personals in a newspaper to personals online - i won't even look twice if there isn't some deviation to the standard 'i'm 6'0, 190lbs, i like walks on the beach, sunsets, and read all the snobby political books you'd like to think i do.' throw a little mocking artistry into yours and i know that you've got a sense of humor, have taken some good drugs, are creative, and that can all add up to a damn fine lay.
--lola
08/12 |
This is all tired old hat.
Check out FUCKBOY.
This profile has been up long before the AFE boys started this artistic cyber-wankfest.
--M
--M
08/12 |
i would just like to interject to clarify that "lust for life" was actually written by david bowie...and made famous by iggy pop. so who's indy rock now, baby? BOO-YAH!
--FU
08/12 |
odd that waffleboy and GW below didn't seem to get this this interview was hiking the art-babblers on their own petard ... read a little closer ladies and gentlemen.
--ydb
08/12 |
Well I quite like the article although I think you will all have problems getting laid if you don't freshen up your act. Speaking of problems getting laid, its been a while. Hence the necessary plug in here of my personal nickname which is freakydemon. Oh artsy girls, hipster girls, so long as they are girls, are all welcome.
--AAa
08/12 |
oh my god, i can't believe i read this pile.
Rufus do you need extra work, because you could have spent your time better moping the break room floor?
the whole discussion of "art" within nerve and its personals is so moronic its mind boggling.
using the Iggy Pop as an example...
One needs to realize that the advertising industry is becoming better and better at its job. Moreover, as we all age (20 and 30 somethings), we should realize that those who are incharge of marketing are our peers, our contemporaries.
Its only natural we start hearing music we all listened to. Music that made us feel we were special, that we were unique, that we were somehow outside the mainstream, when in fact we weren't.
Just like these god damn personals on never. Hipster chicks and "artist-dudes" can all suck one, because they can be just as boring as the nimrods on yahoo.
-waffleboy
--
08/12 |
This was pure and utter "pyschobabble" from a bunch of dilettantes more consumed with making sure they are deemed different than with trying to make sense.
Navel gazing is best done in the privacy of one's own home ... or loft overlooking some trendy art district while the smoke clove cigarettes or whatever is cool with the beret-wearing crowd these days.
Get over yourselves.
Or you're never going to get laid.
--GW
08/12 |
art project: good idea, not so good execution;
interview: odd idea, good execution.
experimentation is good.
--sw
08/12 |
I just want to say that I happen to use my artwork on my personal, I am a photographer who uses his own body in all his imagery. My personal can be found as tattooedinbrkln. I was discussing the idea of creating images for personals as an art project
--kp
08/12 |
ahhh the clash of art and commerce ... a defense of the art of commerce ... and is we see in your personals site, they can coincide ... it takes all kinds ... funny stuff.
--mt
08/12 |
where do you disgruntled whiners come from ? has the sour economy soured your puss ? wake up on the wrong side of the bed ? this interview is clearly poking fun at artistic pretension ... go buy yourself a candybar, sit and but plug, or do whatever it takes to lighten up ... if enough of you whiners wish hard enough, there really won't be any cool sites anymore ... long live Nerve ...
--mke
08/12 |
This article reminds me of that Dali canvas of the self-eating masturbating monstrosity folding in on itself. What was it now? The Great Masturbator? This is a vapid article about a vapid project seeking some sort of self-aggrandizing rationalization for the simple fact this whole site has gone to hell in the last year. Nothing here is sexy any more. Nothing here is smart. This couldn't be less interesting if it tried.
--AJ
08/12 |
it's the best dating site on the internet, and that was an amusing interview ... keep up the good work guys.
--swr
08/12 |
I first stumbled upon nerve.com long before it became as expensive as it is today, long before it became as popular as it is now. It was love at first site. The site its self was dedicated to artist much like myself who were open minded, sexual, sensual, honest and intelligent. The site has lost a bit to the power struggle that the charging money has brought, but this site is not garbage. The personal ads on this site were once full of witty comments and battle of the mind repitwar. It’s true that this has died down a bit. But could it be that the artist aren’t as true as the used to be. Some of them like trendy music and feast in the delight that our once misunderstood ways have become the for front notion in our society. I think the people in AFE are wonderful, but frightened. They think of personal ads as they were 5 years ago, for the losers who couldn’t find a real date. When in all reality they are just like the local pub or coffee shop, an enlarged over simplified place to meet people that you might actually find interest in (a place to meet those you might not get the chance to meet otherwise). Nerve.com, as they do serve a very specific type of person is a great place to meet that variety we are all intrigued by. Yes there are phonies on the site and yes it has become a bit trendy, but doesn’t that come with time and art anyways. We complain about the over anxious readers who think its cool to see and be seen on this site and don’t look in the mirror and see our selves as the ones who spread the word of nerve and made this site and its personals what it is today. All in all if we don’t like what it has become here, the site or the personals, we should look back at our selves after all, they still write it because we still read it. –RITsurvivor ( yes its just a personal ad)
--AH
08/12 |
Maybe they didn't get dates because their ads showed no imagination. I don't know about you but I'm not interested in dating boring guys (I'd just as soon date that baby in a jar). I wonder what would happen if they did get a date where in the process do they tell the girl that they were "using her for art" i think they forgot that you're not supposed to bore your audience. It's sad really because it had great potential to be really entertaining.
--SL
08/12 |
I think this is possibly the most stupid article ever to grace the Nerve web site. How could the douchebag who wrote this shit be the CEO???? No wonder this site is pure garbage now!
--sm
08/12 |
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