Boxing Day for Daria

It pains me to inform you that today is National Catfish Day, for no reason whatsoever, but it is also a special day for Daria fans.

Nine years ago this evening, "Boxing Daria" premiered on MTV. That was a good episode. Lots of fanfic sprang from this one evocative tale. Commentary on the story may be found here and here. The biggest complaint about it was the lack of humor; Daria had turned into a coming-of-age drama though it started out as a pointed comedy. People loved it or didn't. I guess it depends on what you see in the inkblot. (I see a Balrog who has dropped two valentines and is very sad about that.)

Today is also the 106th anniversary of the birth of English writer Eric Arthur Blair, better known to the world as George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. Daria was highly familiar with both texts, as she references the former in "Psycho Therapy" and took a copy of the latter to Camp Grizzly when she was younger (but had it taken away by her mother).

Speaking of 1984, Mr. DeMartino has a special thought from the Sick, Sad Life Planner. What a guy.

If you for some reason are curious to see what was being blogged about here one year ago, click here and find out. I'm trying not to repeat too much of what I've done before, and I especially want to start adding new screen caps and images (and sound bites) when possible.

I DIDN'T DO IT DEPARTMENT: I just noticed that the "Radio by Daria" button at left, which opens a screen to Last.fm's alternative rock station for your late 1990s listening pleasure, is actually called "Alternative radio Tag Rock" at the website. I honest to gosh had nothing to do with that happening. It sure wasn't called that a few months ago. Weird.

I kind of wish I could set up a Mystik Spiral Radio button, but I want to get more viewers, not less of them.

SPECIAL EXTRA IMPORTANT NOTE: In case anyone would like to take and use any of the MTV derived images or sound bites found on this blog for nonprofit fannish purposes, be my guest. I would be nuts to make any sort of claim on them, since they ARE after all owned by MTV. You need a pic for a blog, or a sound bite for your website, go for it. Just take 'em, don't even ask. If MTV tells me to knock it off, I will, but until then have fun. This is a fandom, not a doctor! Uh, mmm, I don't think that McCoyism worked, sorry.

PPMB

• An Affair to Remember, Please God Let Me Forget, by Kangaballs (preview): "What did you just say?" Daria asked Jane to repeat what she had mumbled over morning coffee. She was never quite the morning person and Daria wanted to be absolutely sure she heard her right.
• Formula Savvy, by Ajar (COMPLETE!): This marks the one year anniversary of The Event, so I suppose I should take stock of what has happened in the past year. Mack, Kevin, Jane and I have managed to eke out enough food through farming to live on. I suppose we should be lucky that we still used the old lead-lined refrigerator from my Dad's army days and that they had just gone to the grocery store earlier that day so that we had lots of seeds that were viable for planting.
• Unnamed story (Scenes No Daria Fanfic Should Have: TGIF), by Betting on Delusions (COMPLETE!): "My fear is that my son will never understand me!" "Jake! We don't have a son." "Oh. Heh, right."

Radio by Daria

The "Radio by Daria" button on the old (and even current) MTV sites for Daria once linked to a website called Radio Sonicnet (radio.sonicnet.com) that no longer operates. At left is a recovered webpage from an older version of the site, and at right is a page from the early 2000s version.

Radio Sonicnet played online radio stations for almost every musical taste. One channel (see at left) was for MTV music. This was "Radio by Daria," with the implication that any music on late 1990s MTV was the kind of music Daria liked.

The Radio Sonicnet website is gone, and the "Radio by Daria" buttons now link to nothing but error messages. However, any alternative rock station online will do in a pinch.


LATE ADD: MTV.com now has its own online radio, and has for some time. Duh.

Trentisms, Part One

Well, here are a couple of unusual button graphics rescued from certain doom by the WayBack Machine. These came from Trent's Mystik Spiral webpage on the year 2000 edition of MTV's Daria website. Both graphics look like they could be improved with a visit to Irfanview or the like. "Reburb.com" is supposed to be a special website where groups like Mystik Spiral could post their music for the world to hear. Does anyone at all remember this stuff?

More images and text to come. By the way, I think I've also figured out what Radio by Daria (a.k.a. Radio Daria or Daria Radio) was.

Odds & Ends & Ruth

In response to a request from a column reader, here are two pictures of Ruth Morgendorffer, one showing she is the same height as Daria. You decide which side is Ruth's best side. Both photos came from "Jake of Hearts."

I want to ask if anyone knows where I can find good counters to put on this page to record hits. Heaven knows if anyone ever comes here, I never would. A free counter that counts individual hits and another that records unique visitors only would be good. Thank you for your help!

Anyone know anything about "Radio by Daria" on the MTV site? See one of the past entries about this.

More suggestions for old sites on the WayBack Machine are always welcome. Anyone find anything interesting?

Peace out.

MTV's Daria Radio: What Was That?

Does anyone remember what "Radio by Daria" was like, from the MTV Daria site? What kind of music did it play, did it have commercials, did Daria talk, etc.? The button won't do anything now, of course, except play a little message that the station is unavailable. What the deal was with it when it did work?

Please feel free to post here and enlighten me. Thanks!