Ay, There's the RUB...

UPDATE: as of 2014 these site are almost all defunct. Most are still accessible, although RUB is not. I've left this post up for the curious.

   There is a bookmark I've had for as long as I've been blogging. I'm not proud of it, nor am I ashamed. "Recently Updated Blogs" shows the last ten minutes of new posts as monitored by Blogger- usually several thousand. It is a torrent of undigested and unfiltered muck and dreck from the blogosphere. Full of porn-sites and hucksters, families, fools and failures, it links to almost every sort of human expression and even touches downright incoherence at times.

   Still, when my brain-functions are minimal (comfortably numb) this internet equivalent of TV channel-surfing has its rewards. When I started this mess in April of 2004, RUB was a strange and wild place. Teenage anorexics, mad scientists, poets and dreamers, all liberated by the blogging explosion. I found many brilliant blogs on the site then; some of whom continue to be my favorites, while others I discovered burned brightly for a short time and then faded out.

   I don't visit RUB very often now, I'm afraid that its golden age is over. Yet, I still find a "nugget" now and then as I sift through the gravel.

Recent links found via RUB:

Mariah Carey Is My Kurt Cobain, a mixed-media art site, in Spanish, NSFW!

Pinky Diablo and his Singing Grubworm, outsider art from the Dallas-based Pinky.

Overheard in New York, commercial site, pretty slick, some entries are hilarious.

Dull Tool Dim Bulb (Winkel), arcane Americana, sometimes quite charming.

Vintage Pulchritude, thematically presented antique nudes, NSFW!

Some of my long time faves first discovered on RUB:

Big Mouth Strikes Again, Glasweigan tech and culture writer Gary. Since 2004

Comica, fine writer and occasional contributor to FITK. Since 2004

Reshma Sanyal, also a contributor, her blog is private now, although you can still find her delicious cooking blog. Many of her posts have been reprinted here. 2004-2008

Sharon Spotbottom, comic stick-figure, hopefully only on sabbatical, Sharon was nothing if she is anything. 2006-2008

If Charlie Parker Were A Gunslinger, There'd Be A Whole Lot Of Dead Copycats, photo-impressionistic history of popular culture. Since 2004

There have been many more, of course, but I'm not a link pack-rat. I've been on other people's computers who have had THOUSANDS of book-marks! Outside of my long-term favorites, I have no qualms about letting a site go. If it is any good, I'll probably run into it again, the modern Internet is far bigger than I could ever fully explore.

Or care to.