Modern Love

The "Random Things" link at the right is actually a link to "Chapel Perilous," an octopus-obsessed, toe-sock-selling, loose group of dog fanciers, conspiracy buffs, and sci-fi weenies. And, for a period there, maybe from 2004-06, it was a damn fine site. Photos of hot chicks in striped toe socks...mmm, toe socks.

Not only that, but the site sifted the interwebs for fun and interesting things to see and do, and I appreciated that, because if it did then I didn't have to. Plus, added bonus! most of the contributors were open to, if not outright professors of, all manner of oddball theories about everything from human evolution to mind control and back again, looped upon itself, iterations innumerable. That shit is fun, light, and challenging when it's being discussed by smart folks who aren't embarrassed about broaching such lowbrow topics. In short, Chapel Perilous was for a short time a very nice place to visit, and a hint, I thought, of what fun the internet could have been.

Apparently, though, it's gone through the ringer lately. Archives have been lost, comments have been lost, contributors have fallen by the wayside. Now it's due to shut down and, maybe, re-launch as something else.

One of the nice things about blogging, that you don't really get with the political blogs or "real" discourse, is the sense that the person who made the posts was trying to put themself into each one. A blog, consequently, isn't a diary but it's not quite a memoir, either. As an art form, the blog involves the reader just enough to elicit attachment without establishing familiarity--or at least it did in this case--and that leaves the reader perpetually on the edge of his seat. When one loses the desire to titillate his unknown audience, it is time to retire. I think I am moving, inexorably, in that direction, too; maybe due to deficient attention-span, maybe because the form becomes exhausted.