Lately In The Lankanosphere.....

After some time since I've even felt like writing one of these things have started to pick up in the Lankanosphere, that Kottu world we all know and love. Many of our favourite Sri Lankan bloggers have been mysteriously quiet and seemingly replaced by a bunch of wannabes, all trying their best to be controversial and getting lots of positive comments from anonymous readers.

'tis a weird phenomenon this, though I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a phenomenon that isn't weird. I reckon most of us get negative, downright nasty and bitchy comments from people who hide behind anonymity, then we get intelligent and eloquent ones, though often disagreeing with our opinions, from people who are prepared to give their identity, even it's their blogging identity.

A select few blogs seem to get nice comments, those that agree with their opinions and offer words of praise from anons. Why on earth is this? I really can't figure it out.

But in the space of the last week some of the old favourites have kicked out a few little gems. My intention is to tell you about the ones I've spotted, read and liked. This could be a damn long post, one of those ones that you'll get quite bored with, perhaps not even making it to the end. I apologise for that, but needs must and whatnot.

The first and most eye catching post has been this one by the Gyppo, G12 or simply The Temptress as she probably should be known from now on. The furore surrounding the issue has even spread over to Groundviews, where only the most serious things are to be found. Support for G12's views has sprung up all over the place and, according to the recipient of our Gyppo's letter, support isn't the only thing that may have sprung up.

The serious message in these things is actually about people taking responsibility for their actions, not blaming their behaviours on the way someone is dressed/looked at them/blinked in the sunlight etc. On the other hand if "temptation" in young boys and priests means that they'll rush home, lock their bedroom door and do some serious monkey spanking then that's quite normal isn't it?

Both the Sachs have been chucking stuff out into the blogospheric world. Firstly JapSach has celebrated the milestone of getting 10,000 hits so congratulations to him over in the land of the rising sun. On the subject of blogoversaries (copyright Cerno 2008) Kalusudda has also hit the one year mark with his blog and many have wished him on this auspicious occasion. He's off sailing at the moment and the members of the Lankanosphere are holding our collective breath waiting for his safe return.

The cynical Sach has been bravely battling exams, illness and road closures. There's barely anything I can add to that except a get well soon or a good luck. Or both. I guess the biggest incentive for her to get better is the thought that the Poet fellow might come over and nurse her if she gets any worse, with his "special" thermometer.

Java's back with a little postlet on the subject of decriminalising marijuana, a genuinely interesting topic. There are few people who would present a case that a bit of a smoke now and again will actually do a person any long term harm whatsoever, but I do wonder if many can put forward a reasonable argument that enjoying it doesn't increase the temptation in people to try harder and harmful drugs. Either way it's good to see Mr Jones back with his idiosyncratic and stimulating words.

TMS became TMTMS for a while but has returned after Special Agent Cerno put out an APB. It seems she was holed up in Unawatuna, or Oonerwartooner, as it's correctly prounounced. She's more poetic and mysterious than ever before and can be seen in a play all about marriage, sexuality and love you know.

Lady Divine, her with the biggest blog roll ever (check it out) wrote a simple one line, one sentence post that got a bit of attention. It made me think, all about perception, different views and perspectives I guess. The comments made it clear that her blog is one of the most followed and popular in the Lankanosphere. We all love to know what's happen in the Divine life.

Cerno created one of his mini masterpieces, in which he cleverly uses acronyms and brain power to produce something that makes the average reader pause and wonder if it's true, before realising that it's about as fact based as a salesperson's weekly report. You can spell "weekly" as "weakly" if you want there, it's the same thing really.

Indi tells us in a quickie that there's this forthcoming lecture on Ravana and Ramayana. This PDF thing, published by Perera Hussein looks to be a good idea. I've found, whenever I'm due to hit the motherland, that there's a distinct lack of readily accessible information about forthcoming events in the metropolis. However, a whole lecture on Ravana, nice bloke and great writer though he is, seems a bit excessive. These days he hardly ever writes in his blog. And I can't find this Ramayana one even listed on Kottu.

I stumbled upon this newish blog, one that's all about attracting people to Sri Lanka. It's been around for some months from the looks of things but hasn't been updated very often. I really do hope that whoever writes it can get the momentum up and keep it going as it has the potential to do some very good things. I've chucked a link to it from my blog and will keep my fingers crossed, except when I'm drumming.

In a comment that I didn't publish because it contained so much insulting crap I was accused of being the writer of the blog. It's actually quite a compliment to have to defend myself against that kind of accusation but honestly, it's not me. So there. With knobs on.

This particular post about Barefoot caught my attention. It's also caused a few arguments on the old issue of Barefoot being for people who have money or are the Colombo elite and therefore not for the general people of Sri Lanka. This one, over at My Space (aka SOB), is one of the posts. My opinion on the matter is that the Foot can hardly be described as a place frequented by all and sundry but it's definitely become an instrinsic part of Colombo's cityscape. Which shops, institutions, or activities in any society or country are actually enjoyed by all anyway? Probably just sport and music in most, Tesco in the UK of course, but they don't have jazz on a Sunday afternoon.

In a visualt styley I must direct you to Sebastian Posingis' eye catching latest batch of photographs. The one called Sri Lankan Hills, a picture of, erm, Sri Lankan Hills, is only aptly described by one word; absofuckinglutelyfanfuckingtastic. I've spent far too much time staring at it, at the incredible array of shades and the timelessness of it. I bet he's got a really expensive camera. Maybe even one of those ones with lenses that come off and a built in flash. Yes, he really is that good.

And really lastly Kottu now has the top ten posts for the week displayed insted of the top five.

I think this is good news. I just don't know why.

Have a spiffing week all.

RD