Readers of this space from a few months back may recall a post about another Right Up Your Alley blog, which predates this one by some four months. However given that the other blog is based half-way around the world in Singapore, at the time I reasoned there was room for the both of us.
That logic has now been extrapolated by a young turk in Vancouver, who this past Canada Day - July 1, 2008, usurped my good name for his own blog - Right Up Your Alley - Vancouver's Gay Blog!
Now, manners aside, I can't imagine this apparently good-natured young blogger is likely to give it up easily.
Strike one: My wife says that the phrase "right up your alley" has some caché (whatever the hell that is) for the other guy's blog.
Strike two: The new blog appears to be an important element of Xtra West's online product, Xtra.ca. So much apparent commitment, but without so much as a little research or a friendly heads up? They haven't phoned! They haven't written! I'm not just frustrated, I'm hurt!
Strike three: Sean Horlor (below right) - the bright young author of the interloper blog - would probably never consider doing a solid for some straight-arrow, conservative-leaning, heartlands-blogging, media-loving, not-a-journalist he's never even met.
As you can well imagine, my concern is the confusion our two blogs could create for our visitors. I blog at least once a year about the Interior music scene. How would that help out a brother counting down to a parade on Beach Avenue in the West End? And what about the readers who want to share their stories about John Mayer's wonderfully non-offensive blend of blues-rock musings. This is obviously the right place to do that. But what if they end up over there instead?
It's more than just confusing! Two BC-based Right Up Your Alley blogs jostlin' up against each other? It ain't natural!
I know I can reason with this guy, I just need to understand his motivation! Let's have a closer look at Mr. Horlor's profile blogger profile:
Modeling eh? Maybe Mr. Horny Hornor Horlor and I do have something in common after all.
Back in the day, a chance encounter at Expo 86 (where I worked as a host at the BC Pavilion) with Princess Diana led me to a lucrative engagement on the European fashion circuit. But I really got my career on after a weekend of debauchery in Manhattan, during which I stumbled upon Stanislavski, then ate a roast pig while building on his genius to create the miracle of Method Modeling.
Fashionistas of the day will recall how the "fleshy" look came to dominate cosmopolitan runways in the late eighties; that was all me. But as the look caught on with middle America, I continued to pioneer modern modeling at a furious pace. The image above is the only known photograph to document my ground-breaking fusion of the proven and the avant-garde, capturing a pose that balanced the delicate decadence of "fleshy blossom" with the stark new reality of my piercing "teal iron" gaze.
As it turned out the fashion industry was too moribund to follow my lead. Instead I ambled off the runway to cruel catcalls while resolving to turn my back on the industry that spurned me. Shortly thereafter I found my way back home and retired to a life of sweat-pant obscurity here in Kamloops.
Some years later incidentally, after a thoroughly well-deserved but completely
avoidable affair with pasty heroin chic, the fashion industry was rescued from itself when a new (albeit lesser) talent lifted what should have become my signature expression, and built his career upon it. Go figure.
Anyways, maybe there is some common ground here. But I must confess, my back is already up; just as my look was stolen back in the day, the name of my blog is being stolen now. What further invasion should a body endure?
To share your thoughts about creative genius, amble-offs, runways, the European circuit, parades, John Mayer, xtra.ca, Sean Horlor, gay blogs, teal iron, male models, Method Modeling, or anything else about this post with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers, just click on "Comments" (below).
