Hey, Kids..let's put on a Salon!

Eeee. Keckler has apparently suggested to Edge that a salon be started, and Edge is warm to the idea. Flattered though I may be to be mentioned as a participant, I will admit to viewing the endeavor with a jaundiced eye. Not that I wouldn't welcome some witty banter over cocktail weiners and Brooklyn Lager, and not that I don't think that there would be a lot to talk about. Indeed, if it were a pot luck dinner, I'd be fixing the Famous Baked Pineapple and heading south on the turnpike.

But historically, salons were were revolution was bred. They were the clandestine meetings of the minority opposition to the dominant and oppressive ruling class. They came together not on a lark, but in desperation. Anyway, for those that endured, that was the case. Lots and lots of people over the years have decided that they had way too much time on their hands and invited their brainy buddies over for a nice cuppa Lapsang Su Chong, but these tend to be short lived.

As a counter, I would suggest a communal blog. A blog could be set up on Blogger, and the name and the password distributed to... well... whomever we all think should get it. I'd recommend that the net be cast rather wide. The more the merrier. But, the rules for posting (and I would say we appoint a strict moderator) be that the subject matter be any aspect of kink/bdsm/leather or whatever, and that each entry must be at least 100 words and not more than 250 words. That would ensure that entries are considered, and not just the blah-blah-blah that (ahem.) Singletails is sometimes prone to. Sometimes. Rarely.

Admittedly, this is a fallback position. My first option would be a small press magazine. But, I fear that the small press magazine has gone the way of the mimeograph. So I'd put forward a blog as the way to go.

My hesitation here is that there really isn't that much to say about kink/leather/bdsm, and that eventually, someone will say shit just to be provacative. But given the group that Edge lists, I can't imagine what you would need to say to be provacative in that assemblage.

But of course, I'd be thrilled--like I said--to fix an aluminum baking pan of Baked Pineapple and head south on the turnpike for dinner and conversation.

Okay. I'll admit it. I am dizzy with the idea. If this were the 1920s, I'd be reading Joyce aloud. If it were the 1930s, I'd be a Communist. In the '50s, I'd be a Beat. In the 1960s, it would be SDS. In the '70s, I'd be in a Consciousness Raising group. I spent as much of the '80s as I could folloiwng obscure punk bands and going to hear them play in burned out warehouses in West Philadelphia. I was an AIDS activist in the first half of the '90s. I love love love getting together with brainy people and talking about shit. Especially if there's liquor involved. That's what I'm absolutely positively not going to find in Bucks County.

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