Dear Jackie Robinson

Dear Jackie Robinson (DJR) is no stranger to OnCommon. The first time we featured this two-time Whitman Savoy Award winner was back when those of here at OnCommon were just getting our feet wet with our premier release. At that time, however, DJR was only a few months old and was being penned by the likes of 'Lizzie.' Now in its second year of existence, 'Lizzie' is out, 'Beth' is in, and DJR is presented in a new and creative format: "The very slowly growing archives."

"Here's the deal," Beth (a.k.a. Lizzie, a.k.a. Xeney) tells us, "I have a new journal, and I've removed the DJR archives. I'm adding them back, one or two days at a time. Some links might not work; I'm doing this on a whim and I haven't had time to think very much about it."

Dear Jackie Robinson dates back to November 2, 1997 and continues for approximately nine months until its cessation in late August 1998. Entries tend to focus on life of Beth, a "ranting, raving...ex-punk lawyer," living in "a dry-rotted fourplex (in Central California) with seven other wacky gen-xers and their pets. Just like in the movies." There's a lot of talk about her three cats (Benny, Sally & Rudy), her significant other, Jeremy (aka. Sidney, aka. Aaron), and her downstairs neighbors, Christine and Jack, who she doesn't like much at all. All in all, the writings are as hilarious as they are madcapped. This is a definite first run read we wouldn't want you to miss, so check it out.

And when you're through reading there, there's more of Beth at...

If you see her, say hello

Beth's second go around, If you see her, say hello, picked up where Dear Jackie Robinson left off back in late August of '98. "It was originally hidden so that people I knew in real life couldn't read it and nag me about how I'm messing up my life," Beth recounts. "As it turned out, complete strangers were very willing to nag me instead, so I gave up," and made it public. And a good thing for us, Beth. For a while there we were beginning to have withdrawals.

Be that as it may, we found the new and improved layout a lot more appealing. It's unmistakably brighter as is the writing. Moreover, readers of If you see her will find much of the same off center prose that was typical at DJR as well as additional sidebars (such as the 'Garden Report') displayed in a javascript 'popup.' There's also a new section for those occasional offbeat rants dubbed 'On the Side.' But you don't a javascript capable browser you say? Not to worry, If you see her is Lynx friendly with a 'Links for Lynx' link at the bottom of every entry that posts a sidebar.

Likewise, readers don't even need to bookmark DJR because if you're in the habit of reading her entries daily she'll let you know when she's posted another entry as there will be another sidebar called 'A Year Ago' where she takes you back to...well, 'A Year Ago.' So that way readers can get a double dose of Beth on the days where she posted entries a year ago in DJR.

Altogether, we found If you see her, say hello to be a excellent second generation journal and it has been and will always be a favorite read of ours. We hope you check it out as we're certain you'll become a fan of Beth's also.

Open Book

Our next journalist is a more solemn man who's now in the third generation of his journal, Justinalia 2.3. However, when we first found this sublime work of art several months ago he was still working on his first version, Open Book. Almost immediately we found ourselves delighted with the unmistakably intelligent witty caricature depicted throughout.

Justin Johnson, the artist behind Open Book, is a verbose philosopher who spent many evenings sitting down over cigarettes, and a pitcher of Boreal Red, writing entries for Open Book, "in this tacky, tacky bar (called the Copacabana), with bad 'taste-the-islands' murals on the walls, miniature surfboards hanging from the ceiling, and a concrete palm tree in the middle of the room." (The dedication to literature must've been there to have suffered such an environment).

Such paltry issues aside, Justin describes the art of writing for Open Book as a method of meditation for him. In fact, he depicts "such concern for the worldliness of writing" that he prefers writing with a fountain pen. Sure, "it's much easier to use a Bic," Justin tells us. "But writing with a fountain pen demands something of you, that you pay attention to the pressure of your hand, the direction of the stroke, the flow of the ink. Add to that a deeply embedded habit of writing neatly, and writing itself becomes a consuming activity, even before the words come into my head. I credit this with making me a better author: because so much effort is involved in simply getting the words on the page, I take the time to form my sentences in my head." And it shows in the exceptional quality of the writings that makes up Open Book.

And Open Book is where we began our journey to know the man behind the tales. For that reason, we recommend that anyone that interested in the prose posted by Justin begin here and work forward. Justin's writings are sporadic throughout all three of his versions so new readers shouldn't fear that they might fall behind as they attempt to catch up.

Moreover, we also like to recommend that readers take it easy when reading any of the Justinalia journals for they're is best relished like fine chocolate: a little at a time. Otherwise, you might find them a little too rich at first. Besides, it's more suitable that way and we're convinced that once you start getting to know Justin that you won't want to rush the experience.

And if you do... well, there's more where that came from in Justinalia 2.0.

Justinalia 2.0

We're told almost as soon as we open up Justinalia 2.0 that "what's different in this second generation of what I can only call a continual attempt at a personal presence on the web, is that I'm making a greater attempt to separate what I write, to segregate the essays from the minutia." Now we're not sure exactly what Justin is attempting to say here, however we like to think that the author is always right (especially when it comes to their own journals). However, the biggest difference we noticed right off the bat (besides the title change) was that Justinalia 2.0 is a much more easily navigable site that eliminated the need for frames, so it's viewable by readers using browsers of all sorts. Moreover, the simplified color scheme gives a more simplistic feel that we personally felt was easier to read (thought, this may not be true of everyone; after all personal preferences are...well, personal).

But readers needn't worry about Justin having changed his writing style any in Justinalia 2.0. We found the very same capricious content throughout it as we did in Open Book. There's a little more subject matter that can be found regarding just 'who' the author is in the side column. However, there's no grand changes to the style that we could find that might have otherwise ruined the whimsical burlesque that we've come to expect of the Justinalia trilogy.

Justinalia 2.3

The most recent version of the life and times of Justin Johnson is Justinalia 2.3. The two versions in-between (2.1 & 2.2) were diminutive technical changes that weren't worth us commenting on (in addition to the fact that they no longer exist on the web). However, this third generation design completely changes the way Justinalia is laid out, as it takes on a frames format once again. Justin informs us that that he "intend(s) to recode all my journal entries into this format, which is more flexible either in this frameset or standalone, and is a bit more principled as HTML and site design go."

This new format was about the only real change that was evident to us. The only other alteration worth mentioning is that the material in the side columns of Justinalia 2.0 wasn't brought forward, so readers insistent on reading back to front won't have the added information about 'who' Justin is and will eventually have to go back to one of the earlier versions to find this out. This is one of the reasons we suggest starting with Open Book and moving forward.

Ultimately, Justinalia 2.3 is 2.0 in frames. Now, personally speaking, we're not big fans of frames so there's little we can cheer about regarding the new layout, however, the content is what we come here for, so we tend forgive little annoyances like this.

Still, though, we would not hesitate a moment to recommend any of the Justinalia trio to anyone who's looking for a savvy journal with intelligence and character.

We'll finish this edition of OnCommon by noting that there are myriad of creative columnists out there and oftentimes they're only a nom de plume to us. So, the next time you're out surfing the 'net for good journal we'd like to suggest starting your journey here at OnCommon. And if you've examined our selections for the week and are looking for more, why not check out our Diary Registry. You'll finds dozens more listed there.

Next:

With Valentines Day just around the corner, the staff at OnCommon is looking for diarists whose journals contain a number of references to a significant other (positive ones preferably). The mushier the better (after all, this is a lovers holiday, don't you know?). So if there's any suggestions that you might have then please feel free to send us the URL using the submit button above. Please include your name (and URL of your homepage if you have one) along with any submitted entries in order to receive credit.

And remember to tune in a couple weeks from now, because at OnCommon only 'The Neighbor' knows.