All Blogs Go To Heaven Part XV (and T-Shirt of The Week)

More bloggity bloggity...

I've been visiting old comic blogs to see what's still alive and where everybody went. Some are still going, some are dead dead dead and some have evolved into a Big Deal.

I've been using Comicblogupdates (CBU) and Update-A-Tron (UAT) to facilitate this project. (Quite a few of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the provided link is just defunct)

CBU

Dollar Bin Blues - moved to Blogger in 2011 but by early 2012 it ended. Jamie Rosen is still on Twitter occasionally.

Cover Date Chronology - Chrono Nomo II

Comics Comics - I was positive I'd covered this one. But looking back, I guess I hadn't. Weird. It feels like I did. Anyway, this site was a big one for me. Check out this Murderers Row of contributors:
EDITORS
T. Hodler
Dan Nadel
Frank Santoro

CONTRIBUTORS
Dash Shaw
Jason T. Miles
Jeet Heer
Joe McCulloch
Nicole Rudick

About seven years ago, most of this crew took over the Comics Journal online. I will check to see where each of these fine comic folk are now, later.

The Want List - In 2007-08 Foldedsoup blogged and blogged and blogged some more. The blogging started drying up by 2009. Marriage fatally struck this blog down on 1/1/11.

Twilight Guardian - I really enjoyed Troy Hickman's Common Grounds back in 2004. This blog was devoted to his next project, Twilight Guardian. TG came out in 2011. Really not sure what Troy's up to now, though he does have Twitter.



UAT

According To Me - Christopher Priest moved his blog over to Wordpress. Believe it or not, he's still somewhat active on it.

Looking To The Stars - "Starman" has been blogging nearly every day for nearly a decade, but he's now at My Geeky Geeky Ways. Each post (either TV recaps or comic reviews) are lengthy and detailed. So far in this project, I've come across very few blogs with this quantity of content. Good job.

When Fangirls Attack - WFA was a big deal back in the mid-oughts. By August of 2011, it just stopped.

Random Longbox - TomO reviewed random comics from his big ol' comic collection, and blogged about until 2011.

Nedor A Day/Ragmop/Boxburning - These are three separate blogs. All lived briefly and then died in 2011, about the time Facebook started to grow exponentially and consume the world.

Oh yeah, this too...

T-Shirt of The Week

It made me giggle.

Have a weekend.

No one needs to read about my thoughts on Anthony Bourdain, but here they are anyway

Let me try to explain my feelings about the sudden death of Anthony Bourdain.

I spent a decade in the restaurant industry, at all levels - dishwasher, cook, server, bartender, manager. I worked in pubs, chain joints, all-night breakfast troughs, a fancy place or two.

I loved/hated it for all the reasons one does - late nights, tax-free cash, shitty managers, insane owners, random hook-ups, long-term friendships, good food, free booze, access to drugs and parties and places most never see, for it is where the night people roam.

I discovered Kitchen Confidential in 2000. I was in transition from working in pro baseball to something new. Not sure what the "new" was yet, but I was kinda/sorta certain I was going in the right direction.

The business I started in 2000 imploded in September 2001, when my business partner, having lost friends due to the 9/11 attacks, bugged out and vanished. I had to do something to keep the lights on so I returned to the industry which sustained me through my twenties.

I read Kitchen Confidential and immediately recognized the voice. It was me, kinda, though I never dabbled in the hard(er) stuff and hadn't been to the Cape (yet). At the time, I began to work on a new life, an ideal life, and through a series of serendipitous circumstances I may describe at a later date, the ideal began to become a tangible, real thing. And I once again freed myself from living on tips.

I may have pursued my chosen path anyway, and after seeing his new show, A Cook's Tour, I had no fear of moving, of keeping the ground under me fluid and changing. It wasn't just a TV show that pushed me towards parts unknown (yes, that's intentional). It was the action itself. A self-perpetuating machine, seeing it set in motion by dudes like Tony, and realizing I already owned one of my own. I just hadn't really figured out how to turn it on to full power. I was certain I could survive and thrive on my own, with full Ownership of my present.

I was confident, driven, happy, optimistic. I owned It. Still am and do, by the way.

He seemed to own It too, moving from one network to another, improving his situation with each new deal. CNN gave him total control. Ownership.

I don't know Depression. I can't comprehend that kind of darkness. I don't understand the depths of despair one must feel to make that ultimate decision. I haven't a clue as to why one would leave behind that life, really any life, so full of love and adventure and success.

He, as many others have, inspired me to do things that may have never even occurred to me were possible.

I guess he no longer found it possible.

I'll never understand. And I am selfishly mad. And very very sad for those left behind that were infinitely closer to him.

I don't know how to end this, so I'll end it by imploring all 17 of you who'll read this to help those that need it, including yourself.

Just take care of each other, please.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Call 1-800-273-8255

T-shirt of the week

New thing announcement...

I'm going to highlight a t-shirt every week, chosen by it's connection to something I love. Could be food, booze, TV, comics, sports, obscure/defunct corporate logos, anything really.

I was just reading an article about barbecuing pork featuring Chris Lilly, the pitmaster at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, a Decatur, Alabama institution I have had the honor of visiting a while ago.

I like this shirt

I receive NO compensation for highlighting this product. If this link results in a mad rush to buy apparel from Big Bob, and Big Bob realizes I am the Bringer of Apparel Revenue, and wants to share his new found bounty with your humble reporter, I won't say no. And I'll let you know if he does. Cuz that'd be cool.