Aine Chambers on MySpace

Oh my God!  Thanks to LTA listener Judas Trainwreck who informs us that the incomparable Aine Chambers seems to not to vanished after all.  Her old site, SligoZone, now directs you to somewhere very special:

Aine's MySpace Page

Aine Chambers Closes Down Sligozone

It's a sad day Dear Listeners.

The incomparable Aine Chambers has shut down Slizgozone.

Restores My Faith in the Internet

Is Aine for Real?

Aine Chambers Interviewed

Letter to America - Chapter 27 - Love and Art

After being alerted by LTA listener Aorund Par that Sligozone was offline I contacted Aine.  She told me that after 10 years (!) she's had enough and is ready to "enjoy the web as a surfer only".

I'm sure you'll agree with me that the end of Sligozone will leave the Irish Blogosphere a poorer place - here's hoping that she'll put an archive of the site online - and maybe we can pressure Damien Mulley to make her Queen of the 2nd Annual Irish Blog Awards! , (or least give her some sort of life-time achievement award? I mean how many others do we know in Ireland that have been doing this for 10 years?).

We miss you already Aine.

Letter to America - A Future Foretold

Oh Sweet Mystery of Life, It's Letter to America - A Future Foretold!

In which Wayne Ordinary American gets a special call, Phil inquires after Aine Chambers, Keith Law takes you to the River of Love, Martha makes a decision and Jett Loe has a premonition of death.

All this and more on your Irish Northern Irish "I Live My Life As A Novel So You Don't Have To" Podcast.

Letter to America - Love and Art

Oh, Take Me to the River, It's Letter to America - Love and Art!

In which Jett Loe is besotted with Aine Chambers, Wayne Ordinary American has some competition, 'Letter to America' and Fustar share something in common, Vin Diesel won't take advantage of the drunken ladies, a cigar is smoked at Kelly's, Keith is made guest of honour, we visit the fine folks at Sample, Hugh Mulholland speaks frankly, music is once again supplied by Mr. Valentine, we like Life's a Bastard, Johnny Cash is emulated and we brave the streets of Belfast on St. Patrick's Day.

All this and more on your Irish Northern Irish "I Live My Life as a Novel So You Don't Have To" Podcast.

Aine Chambers Interviewed

Visitors to this site will know how fond we are of the incomparable Aine Chambers:

Aine Chambers - Part 1

Aine Chambers - Part 2

Aine was kind enough to grant us an interview today for this weekend's upcoming podcast.  After all the speculation about Aine and her motives it was great to actually speak to her.  Tune in this Saturday to find out what we talked about.

Oh, and she's got a very special St. Patrick's Day message for all of you:

Aine's St. Patrick Day's Greeting (WMV 1.5MB)

UPDATE - March 26th, 2006:  The Aine Chambers interview can be found on this podcast.

Is Aine For Real?

Have been getting some interesting emails after posting this:

Restores My Faith in the Internet

The emails reflect the growing consensus that the Aine Chambers Silgozone site may be an elaborate hoax; more specifically a viral ad campaign for an as yet unnamed product.

Often, one's initial reaction when first viewing Sligozone is that it must be professionally put together; so coherent and consistent it is in its pastiche of Internet tropes both in design and content.

I must confess this was my initial reaction when viewing the site, but I made the intellectual decision to have faith in Aine, (the name itself can be seen as a giveaway - Aine is, after all, the name of an Irish Goddess of Fertility and a Fairy Queen).

We're in a very interesting time Dear Listener, when in this Internet mediated world we are both exposed, in the sense that our privacy is evaporating, (often by choice as in Letter to America), yet in counter-point we have the tools inexpensively available to create false personas and situations with ease.

Stay tuned as we explore the ramifications of both this reality of fakeness and the propensity in our world to now disbelieve the real.

Restores My Faith in the Internet

Wow!  Thanks to Damien Mulley for alerting all of us here to the most amazing Irish website ever:  Aine Chamber's Sligozone!

Now, even though it may not qualify as a blog, this is the website that should be the grand winner at the awards on Saturday Night.

There's a huge amount of info packed into Aine's website - giving you all the things you need to know when visiting Sligo - a place I must admit I knew very little about but now intend to visit.  Not only is the site full of general tourist information it's packed with video!

Aine on Google Video

In the photo below Aine is such a bad-ass she can wear a short skirt even in the freezing cold!

I've been trying to find some more information about Aine on the web and found some sites that link to her; frankly have been disappointed that some people are 'taking the piss' out of her site - I think it's great that the Internet allows us to inexpensively create this material and show it to the world. 

So head over to Sligozone and let Aine know what a great job she's doing!