Blogging about blogging is still a sin...

... but I am going to do it anyway.

We used to have a whole personal blog ecology. And by "we" I mean all of us native or immigrant digital citizens, as well as the nerds in the comicsweblogosphere, and even more specifically my own personal community of peeps, to wit:

That ain't even all of them - it seemed like everyone blogged, at least for a while. And each blog was different, presenting not only its creator's experiences and opinions in its content, but also manifesting their cultural touchstones and artistic taste and design sensibility in its very layout. Every morning we could cycle through our bookmarks and see who had posted, moving from one unique voice/experience/preoccupation/obsession to another.

We all know what happened -- Bookface, Tweetybird, and the almighty Insta have taken over the social media landscape, and even setting aside the ads and sponsored posts and robots and endlessly reposted memes, we are all squeezed into little homogenized boxes, with only a banner and icon and maybe a screen name to represent our quirkiness, if anyone ever even goes to our actual "home page", which they usually don't. We're all just mircobloggers on an endless feed, popping up and being swept away by the current, like rubber ducks in the rapids.The heyday of the great, idiosyncratic personal blog was over.

I still blog; that is self-evident; but my posts are announced on Twitter by a robot and I manually cross-post to Instagram to make sure my legions dozens of followers get the message, because no one is cycling though blog bookmarks each morning anymore. Sometimes it feels like shouting down a well, but I persist.

And instead of just wailing and gnashing about all this, I'd like to point to two stalwart bogs that have roots back in the glory days and still continue on, their continued existence defying the conventional wisdom I just put forth.

The Luna Park Gazette: The personal log of Rob Lenihan, a pal since sixth grade, which has been published pretty much once a week since January 2005. In his trademark telegraph style, Rob explores current events, pop culture, and politics, but mostly his own inner struggles, challenges, and successes. Relentlessly honest, sometimes painful, and always witty.

Blogging by Cinema Light:  Jim Wilson, who I just realized has been a friend for two-thirds of my life, has been running this blog since January 2014, but it is the follow-up to his Let's Not Talk about Movies blog, which I know was running in early 2008, at least. If you just want a "two-thumbs-up" movie review, this is not the blog for you; but if you want critical film analysis, deep dives into cinema theory, and explications of classic movie scenes, there's no better place. No extra charge for the clever wordplay.

So, they may be two of the few stars remaining in the previously bright constellation of blogs, but they shine no less bright for that, and you should check them out.

And think about (re)starting your own!