Pleasure Principled

Revealingly Articulate Idol Worship

I’m now entering my fifth year of blogging. Before this site, I’ve had two versions of Cult of Pop and four versions of American Wota. As time passed, I became notorious for being a binge-and-purge blogger: dead quiet for several months, then re-appear with the latest revised version of the blog - new theme, new regular features, new commitment to sticking around for a long time - followed by a flurry of activity, only to disappear again in a month or two.

One of the reasons I start over so much is because I often become quickly dissatisfied with the previous version - the theme bored me, the approach to writing didn’t work somehow, or I’d have a new idea which simply “demanded” starting over from scratch.  I’m always convinced the next formulation will be the one that last and hits the sweet spot I’m looking for. If this makes me sound like a recovering addict, maybe there’s some truth in that.

What I haven’t done - and maybe I should, starting  now - is to embrace the fact that I’m restless and simply like to change things whenever I can find a reason to do so. A blog isn’t a marriage, and a website isn’t a child you have to nurture and grow into maturity. There are benefits to sticking around, sure, but there’s no mandate or moral responsibility.

So here we are at the start of a new adventure, if we can call it that. I have a nifty new name to riff upon, the way Cult of Pop led to Feed of Pop, and American Wota to Intl Wota, WotaTalk, and [REDACTED]. I  have a slightly new theme, though actually it’s just  a variation of AW 4.0’s Futurosity.

And I have a new approach: this will be my blog, of course, but I’ll be asking favorite writers in our community to contribute as guest bloggers every week. (With just a little filthy lucre to grease the wheels.) In my more hopeful, delusional moments, I envision this site becoming a writer’s showcase, where some of the best and brightest in our J-blogging community get a chance to dazzle us even more.

And also, I must confess, these guest bloggers are a way to shame me into writing more often and of a higher quality. I don’t mind being outshined by the writers I’ve contacted, though I hope to at least make a good showing of it when they do.

But returning to the big question: will this blog last? I don’t know. I think the deck is stacked against it, actually.

After all, I’ve got other obligations - family, work, freelance writing of my own. The ideas I’d been wanting to write about and the stories I wanted to tell may grow stale from months upon years of neglect, and thus abandoned like barely-used luggage. I could also realize that the money I’m spending for guest bloggers could be better spent on buying myself more DVDs and photobooks of teenage girls in bikinis. And of course, there’s the advice of Neil Young to always consider.

So I’m not going to promise that this’ll see three months, let alone a half year or even a full year. However, while I’m still doing this, I’ll make it as interesting and engaging as possible. 

While we’re still fresh and new, I want to give a special thanks to the three contributors - Go, Justin Isis, and MorningBerryz - who agreed to submit articles before this site even debuted. They more than guarantee that we start off on the right foot, and I already have a good deal to live up to.

Also, thanks to the admins of Intl Wota - pengie, broomhead, and maiZe - as well as the editors and contributors, who’ve taken over the reins of that site from me and who hopefully will never have to deal with my interference again. It may sound weird, but I do find it deeply satisfying to have seen the IW community grow and develop to the point where I can walk away and let it take its own direction. (So there you have it - the joys of sticking around to grow a site into something meaningful, followed by the joy of running away and leaving it in better, more steady hands.)

Last but not least, I should thank my family for being, as always, infinitely patient.

Now without further ado, let’s get the Pleasure Principled deadpool rolling…