January 05, 2005

The great blogfuck of 2005, or Part 1 of my long list of picks from the blogosphere
by Liza Sabater

There is no better way to start the year than with some love and a good dose of lust. On the blogosphere there is one way to express both --through an all out blogfucking orgy.

Some of these blogs I read on a daily basis; others at least once a week. Some of these bloggers I have know for years online and off; others I've met and have even become friends with thanks to the blogosphere. Other bloggers I have never met but have been kind enough to blog on this here site; while I have collaborated in group blogs with people I have only known through their writing.

What follows is a list of the first 60 blogs and writers that captured my attention during 2004. I am sure many more will come (heh) in 2005. They are ranked by whim and not importance.

We will never forget


1. Uppity-Negro.com: In Memoriam
   Thanks to his sister Valerie, Aaron is still with use through his words and wit. Long Live Uppity Negro.
2. Big Blogger Mexico
   The now defunct group blog was a photo based "reality show" of a group of 20-somethings living in Mexico City.


3. WEBLOG DE UNA MUJER GORDA
   An amazing novela experiment created by Hernan Casciari, one of the founders of Bitacoras.com | El portal de los weblogs en espanol con alojamiento gratuito

Best Failed Attempts


4. Michael Moore's Blog and
   
5. Turning the Tide(Noam Chomsky's Blog)
   Proving that some good writers make bad bloggers.
6. socialblow
   A seemingly defunct blog about the use and abuse of cocaine. Like watching a car crash, it just made me slow down and wonder.

Following the zeitgeist
The following are not blogs per se. Feeds are incredibly important part of my daily reads. I don't read the newspaper while sipping coffee. I fire up Lola and skim through Sage, my Firefox RSS ennabler.

7. Feedster
   Being the shallow human being that I am, I keep an eye on the people that link to me through Feedster and Technorati, but more so through Feedster because TECHNORATI HAS NO FEEDS! David Sifry what's up with that? Anyhow, I also use it for all manner of folksonomical readings. Just keep a feed for The Matrix, Lord of the Rings or any fantasy movie trilogy of your choosing and you'll see and read what I mean. What's up with LiveJournalers who love LOTR? Some of those people are spooky.
8. blogdex - the weblog diffusion index
   is not the best but is certainly the oldest and most authoritative blog indexer of its kind. It is definitely the first RSS I scan in the morning.
9. blogsnow: current news
   It has two feeds, one for US blogs and another for "elsewhere", mostly European blogs. I hope the extend their offerings to other parts of the world because you can see a definite difference between what is being blogged in the two regions.
10. del.icio.us and
11. Flickr!
    You know why I love folksonomies and social tagging? The delicious and Flickr RSS feeds are online equivalent of town squares. You get to hear a bit about what everybody is talking about. Like with my name. I keep a Flicker RSS for Liza because I have this morbid curiosity about what other Liza's look like. Well, check out this bitch. Can you believe her bony ass?
12. Netflix
    Another example of the town square effect, but with movies. It's eye-opening what becomes a hit at Netflix vis-a-vis what's a hit at the theaters.

Celebrity Bloggers worth reading
These busy, successful people prove that they have what other busy, successful people who don't blog have ---commitment to sharing. To hell with copyright when you are an infinite font of words and wisdom. And to hell with having it be perfect and polished. Blogging is primarily about immediate communication, not about publishing in the traditional sense. But most importantly, about sharing. Immediate sharing and not the kind that you have to pay $6.95 to read it.

13. William Gibson
14. Margaret Cho BLOG
    
15. James Wolcott

The one blogger who consistently moves me


16. BarlowFriendz: A Tale of the Uh-Oh's: Amelia Takes A Fall
    I've dancemobbed with John Perry Barlow here in NYC --so more than broken bread, we've broken the law. I have to say that I am amazed at how candid John is --what you read is what you get. That's exactly how he speaks. And he does it in such a heartfelt way that ... well ... always moves me. Even brings a tear to my eye.

Best breakout blog


17. 43 Folders
    Proving that content is king, Merlin's new blog about productivity broke into the Technorati 100 just a few months after it debuted and it's stayed there. As Anil pointed out, the Getting Things Done meme was waiting to explode and 43 folders was the detonator. I read the blog once a week but given how many more projects are coming my way this year, I'll have to make it part of my morning read.

Cabinets of Curiosities


18. BoingBoing
    Pornography, animé and copyleft. What more can you ask for?
19. MetaFilter
    My all time favorite "all things" blog; the community has definitely learned to speak the visual MeFi language with the way the link to sources on a post making it true to it's recursive tag-line : More addictive than crack.
20. Eyebeam's Reblog
    The little curatorial experiment that could.
21. Eros Blog: The Sex Blog -- By Bacchus --and Aphrodite!
    The best cabinet of sexual curiosities, way better than Fleshbot because it does not feel like a long winded promo site for the porn industry. It is truly a blog about all things sexual.

The Ying and Yang of Celebrity Blogs
Do I really need to explain these two?


22. Good Plastic Surgery and,
23. Awful Plastic Surgery

Best Blog by a fictional celebrity


24. HULK'S DIARY THAT IS ON THE INTERNET
    Hulk smash! Hulk bash! Hulk blog!

My all-time favorite list blog


25. Another from Merlin : Merlin's 5ives
    With titles like Five stage names I'd consider if I ever became a singing drag queen, Five subject lines from recent spams that would also make good titles for Guided by Voices songs and Five descriptions that arose while boot shopping with Madeline on Monday, how can you not love the list blog to end all list blogs?

Some industry blogs


26. :: PORNBLOGRAPHY - Daily Grind ::
    Probably the most honest, truthful and funny industry blog EVER!
27. Adrants
    This site is amazing because it has the right balance of information, humor and tawdriness that makes it the best about what's happening in the business of advertising.
28. Many-to-Many
    You cannot be in the business of blogs, web development and design and not read Many2Many. This is the biggest and most influential node in the social software world with the likes of
29. danah boyd of apophenia,
30. David Weinberger of Joho The Blog,
31. Liz Lawley of mamamusings,
32. Ross Mayfield,
33. and the webniscient Clay Shirky.

Because Women Rule the Blogosphere


34. Shelley Power of Burningbird
    I don't know you, but I love it when Shelley picks a fight. OK, that's not right. Shelley does not pick fights, but she definitely is none to hold back when someone has to call on certain bloggers that want to turn the blogosphere into another boys network. A true sheroe, she is a techgoddess, poet, photographer and damn good gardener; she is the most lucis chauvinist slayer I have read in all my feminist years.
35. Heather B. Armstrong of dooce
    When it comes to the comedy of life as a breeder, Heather is the ultimate stand-up blogger. She dares to write about the lunacy of maternity and motherhood in the most irreverent possible way she can find. She always makes me laugh out loud.
36. Dru Blood - I believe in the inherent goodness of all beings
    I have a candle lit for Dru. She is the only blogger I know who is a homeschooling mom with 2 boys of about the same age as mine; but who is waaaaaaay more hipper than me. I mean, have you've seen her music picks? For all that, she is a true inspiration. Dru rocks.
37. Becky S. of Good Grief!
    Check out Good Grief!: The life of Jesus in Christmas lights. This is the reason why I make it a point to drop at this blog more than once in a while. And yes, although I love her twisted sense of humor --she always makes me laugh out loud-- I am going to have to bitch-slap and take her out over Viggo Mortensen. Honey, he's mine.
38. mamamusings
    Liz is known as a technologist and academic but her most riveting writing happens when she let's those at the keyboard and types away about love, life and overcoming addiction. It's been an amazing journey to read this past year.
39. Molly
    Ahh! By Golly, Miss Molly. You are the one responsible for my unhealthy obsession over the pleasures and pains of Cascading Style Sheets and web standards.
40. overeducated and underemployed
    For her hilariously unhealthy obsession with everything Dick Cheney.
41. Rox Populi
    I became hooked with Rox's blogging with two things : Her Rox Populi : Write Your Own Caption offerings and her Deity of the Week. Nothing like reminding us of the sheroe in all of us.

The News, Filtered
These are the blogs I go to for my news. Mind you, I do read the papers as well; usually at the end of the day. What these blogs do for me is exactly what I have put in the title --they filter, alert me to news that may have escaped my attention.

42. DailyKos
43. Atrios' Eschaton
44. TalkLeft
45. Blogging of the President
46. MyDD
47. Jeff Jarvis' Buzzmachine
48. Personal Democracy Forum
49. Latino Pundit
50. Oliver Willis
51. Prometheus
52. Pandagon
53. AmericaBlog
54. IsThatLegal?
55. The Volokh Conspiracy -
56. Jim Gilliam
57. Marginal Revolution
58. Hit and Run
59. Electablog* U.S. Ambassador to Cyberspace
60. Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

Posted by Liza Sabater in Activism, Advertising, Blogs, Culture, Entertainment, Feminism, Humor, Latino, Politics, Pop Culture, Review
Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1) | Technorati Cosmos







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Found inJanuary 5, 2005 09:54 AM




Say it loud, say it proud!

1

Comment by: David Sifry at January 5, 2005 02:57 AM

Thanks for the comment, good post! BTW, you may be happy to hear that Technorati has just launched Keyword Watchlists, you can see how they work over at my blog, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000267.html

This is in addition to RSS-based cosmos watchlists as well.

Enjoy!

Dave

 

2

Comment by: Becky S at January 5, 2005 10:06 PM

Thanks for the mention--I'm honored!

P.S. Bitch-slap away. I'm secure in my relationship with Viggo.

 

3

Comment by: drublood at January 14, 2005 02:22 PM

You are so sweet. And you made this post on my birthday!

 

C'mon baby, don't be shy

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