Confirmed: We Are Bark M.'s Besties

"extraspecialbitter" (extraspecialbitter)
08/11/2016 at 12:14 • Filed to: GOOD READS

You can’t do that without knowing your audience. It’s no secret that the Jalopnik audience isn’t the same as the TTAC audience, for example — while there’s some overlap, there isn’t much. I don’t write the same way there that I do here. My TTAC writing style isn’t better or worse than my Jalopnik style, it’s just different. Just like you wouldn’t tell your mom a story in the same way that you’d tell it to your best friends , you need to customize your message so that it can be received and appreciated by your anticipated audience.

- Excerpt from “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ”, author Bark M. of TTAC

I don’t know about you guys, but that whole article sounded very mom-ish to me.

DISCUSSION (16)

For Sweden > extraspecialbitter
08/11/2016 at 12:16

Is Bark M. the same person as Jack Baruth?

StingrayJake > For Sweden
08/11/2016 at 12:21

His brother

StingrayJake > For Sweden
08/11/2016 at 12:23

Plus, Mark doesn’t come across nearly as pretentious as Jack. But I guess not everybody finds classical literature references in auto journalism articles to be pretentious.

RallyWrench > StingrayJake
08/11/2016 at 12:50

I think Jack is a great writer, but it takes some warming-up to. He’s very descriptive, and I enjoy the musical references, but a hint of “I’m better at life than you are” does pervade some of his work (e.g, “I bought another awesome guitar because I could and it’s next to me in this Lamborghini, oh and I drive a 993.”). And you know what? He has done life better than I have, but so has Peter Egan, whose writing always feels like a favorite uncle teaching you about life, no pretense. He can make incredible and life changing cars, events, or accomplishments sound as natural and attainable as going to get milk, and that’s special to me.

jasmits > RallyWrench
08/11/2016 at 12:57

I discovered TTAC before Jalopnik. Jalopnik turned out to be a better fit for me, but I still really enjoy and try to find and read Jack’s writing. He was the first automotive journalist I really connected with.

StingrayJake > RallyWrench
08/11/2016 at 12:59

I love Peter Egan. I think you’re pretty spot on that he’s just a great storyteller. There’s no embellishment, but it still feels like an adventure.

And I can handle Jack in small doses. But when he starts comparing a back-country drive to something written by Ralph Waldo Emerson (or especially a lesser known author), it starts to come across as, “Look at how well read I am.”

I’m sure as he drove that Dodge Viper into the sunset, he was truly struck by the writings of a long-dead poet and contemplated life, death and the meaning of it all.

I’ve also seen people complain that Jack can be very “American bro” at times. SniffPetrol has done some parodies that were allegedly based on Jack, but the influence seemed to be American auto journalism in general.

RallyWrench > StingrayJake
08/11/2016 at 13:10

Exactly, Egan makes things relatable.

I found Bick Skruth to be hilarious, and that was about when I started to see Jack’s name more so it fit, but US auto journalism in general has been pretty easy to parody for some time.

If I was on a backroad drive in a Viper I can’t imagine having such thoughts, it’d be more like “oh god don’t kill me not too much throttle whoa that was too much now I’m sliding ooh too much bad bad bad ok straight again hey lets do that again and oh god don’t kill me not too much throttle...”. Maybe his notes read “Kills tires”, and that got turned into a meditation on life and death later.

StingrayJake > RallyWrench
08/11/2016 at 13:18

Yeah I guess I can’t hate on Jack too much because I know I’ve read a lot of introspective pieces derived from a relatively mundane drive in a press car from other auto journos. Maybe it’s just the (not auto) journalist in me that wants facts, not personal reflections on how much your aunt meant to you.

To be fair I hate pieces that retread press releases and talk about “feeling every bit of a car’s 562 horses” when they’re probably just cruising down a packed city street and had to review said press release to get the HP numbers. I like personality to come through and I think Jalopnik does a good job of allowing this and not being tired old auto journalism, no matter how crazy (Torch) things might get.

Now I have plenty of complaints about Jalopnik, but overall I like the style and how different they treat the business.

RallyWrench > StingrayJake
08/11/2016 at 13:39

Boilerplate journalism pisses me off, I just think “I see you read the press release, neat.” Anything more involving is good, or if they actually do something unique with the car. I’m having a harder time enjoying Jalopnik with all the noise from other sites, and some writers are (much) better than others, but by and large it’s a fun site. Those damn commenters though, you know?

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > StingrayJake
08/11/2016 at 13:41

He does know how to write, and how to grab his reader with an opening paragraph:

“He was a local to Gingerman Raceway, born and raised in western Michigan near the lake. He knew the track and he knew the surface. But he underestimated the speed of the new Lotus Evora 400. Perhaps he mistook it for the previous model, the 345-horsepower Evora S that took the win against the 991-generation Porsche 911 Carrera S PDK in our May 2013 test. Or he just didn’t think that the new 400-horsepower car had the grip and the power to get to Turn 5 as quickly as it did. But he was wrong, and that mistake killed him. I was there, and I saw it happen.”

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/road-…

StingrayJake > RallyWrench
08/11/2016 at 13:51

Insufferable

StingrayJake > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
08/11/2016 at 13:53

Yeah I know he has talent. It’s a love-hate relationship.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > StingrayJake
08/11/2016 at 14:04

He’s definitely pissed me off before, too. I like him as a writer, but he seems like he could be a bit of a jerk in person. I’m guessing the same could be said about many great writers - ha! He’s been pretty hateful to DeMuro in the past, which I don’t really understand. I guess DeMuro’s brand of happy-go-lucky auto journalism offends his personal standards. I agree that, if you’re a journalist, you should make every attempt to be accurate, but there is room in the field for both the super-serious, race & engineering journalists and the writers that like cars and the culture and prefer to write about them humorously.

jimz > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
08/12/2016 at 10:49

AFAIK it partially comes from the way DeMuro seemed to “phone it in” on anything he wrote for TTAC.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > jimz
08/12/2016 at 11:13

I could see that. Never read much of his work from then.

Bark M > extraspecialbitter
08/21/2016 at 23:48

For fuck’s sake, guys. Can we just make this topic about me?