A year ago, a young Crimewave reader by the name of Chuck, and his friends, headed off to Los Angeles in hopes of making their way into the film industry. And, at my suggestion, they started a blog so that we could all watch their progress. Now, almost a year later, I think it’s safe to say that the Caliblog project is a bust. Lawsuits and physical violence are being threatened. Websites have been hacked, stolen, and stolen back. In a nutshell, the whole thing’s a fucking mess, and it really makes me sad… OK, the following links should fill you in on the details.

First, here are my thoughts upon their setting out from Michigan.

After a few promising months, things then took a turn for the worse when Chuck opted out of the project without telling anyone, and headed back to Michigan, by way of Europe.

Here’s how his roommates reacted to his sneaking out.

After that, things seemed to go pretty smoothly, until Chuck, not being promptly paid for a car that he’d sold to Billy, hacked into Caliblog and took the site down.

Now, the Caliblog site is back up and running again, and they’re pissed at Chuck.

Chuck, meanwhile, has a new site of his own, called ChuckGuide, where he’s talking about his car, the threats that have been made against him, and everything else. (See the Dec 11 entry.) (UPDATE: Chuck has since removed this post.)

And that, my friends, is how a website implodes.

My hope is that they’re just doing this for publicity, but I suspect that’s not the case… Whatever’s going on, my hope is that they can somehow all get through it without filing suit, throwing punches or casting any more aspersions.