as I live a few more questions

Miguel Talks About Plain Layne

Chuck Olsen of blogumentary has posted a video clip (MOV file, Quicktime, 11MB) of Miguel, a Portuguese documentary videographer and photographer who was one of the people who lived in Plain Layne's comment box. If you're new to the whole Plain Layne hoax story, here's a good summary of what happened by Mercury News reporter Michael Bazeley (he even included a couple of quotes from me in his article). You can also check out my archive of Plain Layne posts, including some video of me talking about the hoax.

I don't bother visiting Odin Soli's new Plain Layne site anymore; I don't do online fiction (I prefer the dead-tree version). Pei Ling (a.k.a. peebrain) has a very good summary of what happened when Odin went into spin-doctor mode and posted a Plain Layne FAQ, please go read it. She perfectly sums up why Odin's in the shit-house with so many of us.

Plain Layne Hoax Mix: You're So Vain, and She's Kinda Freaky

I wasn't able to use everybody's suggestions, but if you click on "AILTQ On The Air" (right above the calendar in the left-hand coluimn), the mix is up! Enjoy :-)

I don't know you anymore
I don't recognize this place
The picture frames have changed
And so has your name
We don't talk much anymore
We keep running from the pain
But what I wouldn't give to see your face again

Music to Commemorate the Plain Layne Hoax

Well, it's time to rotate the tunes on AILTQ On The Air, and I'd like to follow up on an idea we discussed earlier: a set of music with a Plain Layne/Odin Soli theme.

(For those of you who have *no* idea what I am talking about, here's a good summary of what happened by Mercury News reporter Michael Bazeley. You can also check out my Plain Layne posts. Definitely, the strangest thing I have ever been part of, in my decade on the Internet.)

I've already got the first two tracks figured out:

1. "Who's That Girl?" - Eurythmics
2. "Would I Lie To You, Honey?" - Eurythmics ;-)

Any others? We're already had a number of good suggestions, but I might need to obtain a copy from those of you with more obscure tune suggestions :-) feel free to submit your choices!

So, who's in?? *EVIL GRIN*

Plain Layne FAQ

Q: What do you think of the new Plain Layne FAQ?
A: No comment. No, wait...       Yes. No comment.

(with thanks to Ryan Rhodes for the heads-up)

Fa�ade

"Odin, I'm sorry but I'm not going to continue with this pretense. I'd much rather hear you talking about yourself and your *real* life rather than see you reinhabit the fa�ade.

You'll probably delete this but hey, such is life."

And O.K., I lied... so sue me.

Beer Tent

Blogging via BlackBerry from Tarp City, just finished a delightful two-hour chat with Frances at the beer tent, where we laughed ourselves silly and drank a toast to Plain Layne :-) ... Thanks Frances, it was such a hoot!

(Photo left: Beer Tent, Winnipeg Folk Fest, Sunset on the final day)

Back Down To A Dull Roar

Well, as you can see by my visitor stats, it's been an... interesting month. (In case you were wondering, the 17th and the 28th were the two days when I temporarily redirected the plainlayne/sedalina traffic to this blog.) Traffic seems to be settling back down to a dull roar. After reading this Wired News article, I'm kinda glad that I don't have 1,100 visitors a day, every day...

Your Fifteen Minutes Are Up

Well, I see Odin Soli has set up a new site for his Plain Layne writings. This is the final mention I plan to make about Plain Layne or Odin Soli on this blog, by the way. Like most of the former commenters on Plain Layne, I simply don't care anymore.

I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along
(My Immortal, Evanescence)

FINAL Redirect to Plain Layne Blogroll and FAQ

The new redirect page is now up, and all plainlayne/sedalina traffic now lands up there instead of here. Thanks to Gudy for a little last-minute HTML advice to help me get it looking the way it is supposed to. I think it's most fitting that the redirect page provides a copy of Plain Layne's blogroll, links to the blogs of almost all her commenters.

However, the FAQ part still needs to be written; anybody wish to volunteer further questions and/or answers to the Plain Layne file?

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.: A good overview of the detective work done by the spontaneous smart mob of PL commenters, plus an interview with Odin Soli himself. (Source: Sorgatz, R. 'Girl, Interrupted', citypages.com, June 29, 2004)

Odin Soli and the Plain Layne Blog Photos

I was very surprised when my phone rang at work, and Odin Soli was on the line! (I shouldn't have been; last week, when he emailed and said he wanted to talk both to me and to Kevin Skomsvold of nadablog, I did give him both my home and work telephone numbers).

He asked me to pass on this clarification:

Odin Soli did NOT have permission from any of the people whose photographs he used in the Plain Layne blog. Therefore, if you use these photographs, you do so at your own risk.

(Oh boy, are you in trouble, Odin. If I were the woman whose photos you "borrowed" for Layne Johnson, you'd be hamburger by now.)

And then he asked if I could transfer the plainlayne and sedalina domain names back to him, and this time, I put my foot down. ENOUGH ALREADY.

ENOUGH. Even we people-pleaser types have our limits. Odin discarded the domain names the first time, and then, after I had bought them and offered them back to him, he refused them. I set them up originally to point to the re-created Plain Layne Archive, and after the archive was taken down at Odin's request, I redirected plainlayne/sedalina traffic to his Emitter site, and then he asked me to point them away from him.

And now he wants them back   after all this rigamarole?!? Nuh-uh. No way. I bought them, I'm keeping them and once it's ready, I'm pointing them to a stable redirect page and they're staying put!

UPDATE June 29th: It turns out (according to his wife, who has commented on this blogpost) that Odin only wanted the domain names temporarily, in order to be able to execute a deletion of any of his Plain Layne work still left in Google cache. When we spoke on the telephone, I misunderstood what he was asking me to do, and therefore I do apologize for my mistake. Odin, I'm sorry. Mea culpa.

Oh, and the next time I offer to "help", could someone please, please just take me aside and bitch-slap some sense into me? Thank you.