Thursday, January 31, 2008

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!!!

Top Ten Blogs

I read all the blogs listed on the sidebar at leat every few days or so, but these are the ten I turn to first, and look the most forward to reading every day:

10. About Last Night - Postings on theater, music, books, and dance by critic Terry Teachout and two co-bloggers
The best "high culture" arts blog I have found. Opinionated but not obnoxious and insightful. I find that I tend to skip the posts not by Terry Teachout, but then they tend to be more literature-focused, and more often than not on literature I'm unfamiliar with.

9. Something Old, Something New - Posts on classic TV, classical music, and classic animation by a Canadian critic
Jamie Weinman is one of the most astute and insightful pop culture writers out there. I find myself wishing I knew more about some of the topics he writes about at length (opera, conductors) so that I could enjoy those posts as well.

8. Comics Curmudgeon - Lovingly mocking looks at daily comic strips by
Always good for a laugh. I do wish that there were more comics featured every day, as many he focuses on are not ones I read. (I understand at the same time that the proprietor might well do so if he were getting paid to and therefore had the time to.)

7. The House Next Door - A potpuorri of film and TV reviews, commentary, adn news lorded over by ex-Star-Ledger TV critics Matt Zoller Seitz.
While the in-depth discussions can sometimes get over my head, and while the films and dilmmakers discussed are often obscure to me, I still check in regularly, because when I can take part in the conversation, it's some of teh most stimulating, engaging stuff around.

6. Tom the Dog - Aggressively opinionated but fun pop culture commentary and reviews by a fan.
Tom is snarky and sincere in just the right proportions, but since his move to Austin posting has dropped to alarming rates.

5. Pop Watch - Entertainment Weekly's house blog, updated many times daily with reactions and insights into the day's pop culture happenings.
Reads like it's put togetehr well-connected, well-compensated fans, not corporate mouthpieces.

4. Electronic Cerebrectomy - Oft-grumpy and very opinionated looks at movies, animation, music, TV, and the pop/celebrity news.
I can sometimes find the stridentness of his opinions, and, truth be told, his solipism, off-putting, but the sheer volume and intelligence behins his posts never faisl to come through.

3. Byzantium's Shores - Musings on film, TV, books, music, and life in general by Jaquander, an overalled Buffalonian.
Best Star Wars writing on the Web, and a great knack for weaving the personal in with all of the culture stuff.

2. A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago - A panel of pop culture fans, many of them, lawyers, post daily on pop culture news and material.
Uniformly witty, insightful, and fun, and with tastes that match up nicely with mine. Best comments community of all thesites I read.

1. What's Alan Watching? - Star-Ledger TV critic Alan Sepinwall's indispensible blog of all things TV, with running episode-by-episode postings on more series than is really healthy (for him).
Great comments section and copious posts about pretty much all of my favorite TV shows. My favorite Lost spot on the Web.

Until Whenever

1 comment:

Kelly Sedinger said...

Funny -- I read your Blog #3 there, and I think, "Geez, that guy needs to get himself a life."