Ancient Web: Monkey Boy Kept a 1998 Musician's Web Diary

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

In October 1998, the proprietor of Monkey Boy had a simple explanation for why his website had not been updated: too much real life, too many stories, and apparently several friends demanding to know where the next installment was.

Visit the Monkey Boy homepage

The surviving “a muse” diary is dated October 12, 1998. Its opening promises expandable photo galleries, asks for fan mail, and tells readers they can subscribe to email updates by sending a particular phrase to an address at the domain. This was before a social network offered a follow button for everything.

The author's voice is deliberately playful, full of digressions, sudden exclamations, and parenthetical jokes. But the material is grounded in recognizable events, especially performances with the British Columbia band Roots Roundup.

One passage contrasts a big university show at the University of British Columbia's fall barbecue, with a proper stage and soundcheck, against a concert excursion to Quesnel Forks, a former gold-rush town reached by a punishing dirt road. A lesser website might have simply posted tour dates. Monkey Boy tells the story of wondering whether a ghost town has an audience, or indeed a bar.

Personal web pages were their own magazines

The diary swings from the realities of concert monitors to a review of Terry Gilliam films. It links an MP3 recording of the Roots Roundup song “Screamin',” accompanied by a warning that its roughly three-megabyte size is a serious download. In 1998, that warning was useful information.

It also preserves evidence of how web communities recognized each other before large social platforms. Friends from a site called GiggleCam promoted Monkey Boy, supplied a friendly description, and listed an ICQ number along with the website and email address. Another writer, WebDiva, praised the site's stories, kite-flying photographs, and musical interests.

The small 2000 homepage announces new galleries and “the same old Amuse,” with a 1998 copyright for the graphics and code. It looks almost absurdly spare now, but the diary behind it is substantial.

The appeal lies in how little separation there is between subjects. Playing music, following cinema, flying kites, keeping friendships, and figuring out a homepage all belonged to the same personal corner of the Web. No content strategy required.

Read the October 1998 “a muse” installment.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.