Sites of wonder

The walkaround of blogs I read regularly, as promised:

First, read SuperFiancee's blog. It's awesome. She writes better than I do, she's funnier than I am, and her life is way more interesting than mine is. See why I love her? I get all this and don't have to do any work. You can too, if not quite as much, just by reading her blog. (Tammy says I'm biased, but all you guys know I'm not, and that this is an absolutely accurate representation of her blog.)

I also like Mike Norton's blog. I like the mix of fan geek stuff I'm interested in, like comics and HeroClix and movies and like that. But right now, he's got this goddam David Bowie post featuring a graphic of an eye and it's just freaking me out. And I wish he'd roll that sucker down off the page. But he won't. He won't. He lives to torment me.

Still, I enjoy his blog and y'all should too.

Old college pal Opus also has her own blog. She also writes better than I do, which I guess says something about my taste in women, and in our generally subliterate culture, would go far to explain why I've spent so much of my life in splendrid solitude. (Happy I am to no longer be in such a state.) So read Opus' blog. I command it.

My buddy Nate has a blog, too. He's always worth reading. Sometimes, as in this particular entry, he's frickin' brilliant. Check it out.

Tony Collett's blog is a heapin' helpin' o' geekiness, and coming from me, that's a high compliment indeed. I've never been able to figure out how to register on Tony's blog so I can leave comments, or I would, damn it, I would. But perhaps that's why he has it set up that way. (Only kidding.) Anyway. Go over there. Read his stuff. Leave a comment. Send me money. (Just in case I have the power of long distance mind control, or something.)

Mark Gibson's blog is a heapin' helpin' o' geekiness, and coming from me, that's a high compl... wait. I've done this already. Okay, it's... it's... it's not very French! Yeah! And he's got a frog. So, go read it. Or, just send me money. Wait, let's compromise. Read Mark's blog AND send me money. Yeah. I like that.

Mountain of Judgment. What can I say about Mountain of Judgement? It's an awfully cool blog, that's what. Comics, politics, and I asked them to link to me, and they did it! They don't update very often, though.

Okay. That's all the folks on de blog roll, over on your right. Most of the above blogs are run by personal friends; one (Mountain of Judgement) isn't, but, like I said, they linked to me, so they get a plug.

Now we're getting into blogs I recommend, that I read often if not everyday, even though most of them won't link to me, refuse to post about my blog or my magnificence in general, and rarely or never even acknowledge me when I leave comments on their blogs, sneering, arrogant snots that they are. They are haughty -- haughty, I say -- and fuck them eternally for it, but, still, these are all excellently written blogs, and many of them are hilariously funny, and quite informative, and you should read them every day, while bearing in mind that the writers of these blogs are foredoomed to hell for the grievous sin of not kissing my ass enough. And I am not jealous of them. I am NOT. Oh, go soak your head.

Anyway, here's Kung Fu Monkey. It's written by John Rogers, who has scripted some bad movies (CATWOMAN, THE CORE) and written a lot of TV scripts and is currently writing BLUE BEETLE for DC and who is a very very funny and even somewhat wise human being, in addition to being an utterly unrepentant smart ass. I enjoy his blog enormously, despite the occasional whiff of smarmy "Hi, I get to write geek shows on TV and geek movies and even a comic book, ain't I just the shit" attitude I get from his stuff, which generally makes me want to drown him in a toilet. He's well worth reading, but be warned: his comment threads drip with sycophancy, and he's become accustomed to having his ass kissed there. If you have any self respect, it's probably best to just lurk. But Rogers is very much worth reading; just not so much fun to try and talk to.

How To Write Screenplays. Badly. is just fucking hilarious. Go there. Now.

Talking Points Memo - Josh Marshall's indispensable poli-blog. I go here first for an overview of everything that has developed on the political scene overnight. Marshall and his co-bloggers write lucid, well reasoned, beautifully cogent and always well annotated material. Probably the leader in left wing blog journalists I'm aware of. Check him out.

Billmon - the best political blogger on the 'net right now, at least, as far as I can see. Not as comprehensive as Talking Points Memo, but what he does write is indispensable.

Unclaimed Territory - Glenn Greenwald has a very pedantic, slightly ponderous writing style, but he's a smart, savvy guy who gets linked to a lot by other serious poli-bloggers. He knows what he's talking about, and he himself links to a lot of different blogs all over the political spectrum. Again ::sigh:: he tends to treat me in his comment threads like I just took a crap in the middle of his broadloom, but his stuff is still always worth reading.

Clusterfuck Nation - James Howard Kunstler's blog, updated every Monday and a must read for me as soon as I get to work at the start of every week. Kunstler loathes everything about our American cash-mad consumerism-crazed commercially corrupted culture, and he spends a lot of time very visibly dry washing his hands together in impatient exultation about the imminent crash of industrial civilization, which he regards as inevitable because he's the Self Anointed Mad Prophet of the Peak Oil Apocalypse. He pretty obviously cannot wait for our debased, corrupt, diseased and disturbed social and economic structure to fall over dead and start rotting, and palpably looks forward to a future where everybody has to raise their own food in the dust to be found on their windowsills or some such shit. Despite all this, though, he's a terrific writer and makes some extremely cogent, if frightening, points. I have no real idea if his reasoning or his horrific predictions about our impending doom are correct, but on the other hand, it's not like I can afford to lay in a gigantic generator, an underground fuel tank, and ten years supply of hard rations for 5 people, either. So all I can do is enjoy his always articulate prose and hope to fuck he's dead wrong about nearly everything.

Rigorous Intuition - Jeff Wells' 'cautiously pessimistic' occult/conspiracy blog; the kind of thing my buddy the Late Great Jeff Webb would write, if he were a better writer and, you know, still alive. I love this blog, but will freely admit, much of the material here has profoundly fucked with my head. So if you enjoy your reality tunnel and don't want anyone setting off conceptual landmines between your ears, stay away from this blog. If you're curious about what might really be happening all around you, though, you could do worse than spend some time here. I especially recommend (if you truly want to be totally freaked out) the section of his link bar titled The Military-Occult Complex, ritual abuse/mind control, and "High Weirdness" . Not that everything else over there isn't worth reading, but the truly fucked up shit is all right there.

Okay. The following couple of blogs all have a kinda general writing style in common. All these guys are fabulous writers who basically take the same approach to blogging as Bruce Campbell does to Armies of Darkness. With a chainsaw. These guys are abusive bloggers; they don't type so much as they pummel the living crap out of their keyboards, leaving bruises and bloodsmears all over the Internet. They are vicious, they are mean, they are nasty, they are snide, they are spiteful and unpleasant and insulting and trollish and I wish to God I could write as well as any of them. But they're a lot of fun to read, even if they do ignore my damn comments, the fuckers. The hateful, hateful fuckers.

By Neddie Jingo! Brilliantly written stuff, usually about music, sometimes about politics, occasionally just about the fact that he needs a frickin' hip replacement and doesn't want to get one. Read it, don't read it, whatever.

The Poor Man - O, the legendary Master of Snark. If piranhas could type, they'd write this blog. Usually about politics, occasionally about really hilarious shit he found on U-tube, and often about kittens. Which I gather he actually eats. Raw. Still, funny stuff.

Alicublog - a guy named Roy Edroso flings shit like a monkey in a cage here, but he does it with brilliant style and panache and I wish to God I could write as well as he does. Occasionally he diverges from crucifying James Lileks, or various other right wing dimbulbs, and goes on and on and on about literature or fine art or fucking baseball or something else equally retarded and coma inducing, but, for the most part, he's nearly always worth the time.

Who is IOZ? IOZ is a gay libertarian blogger who is very nearly the equal of The Poor Man or Roy Edroso at alicublog for vicious, razor wielding snark. I like his blog and posted about half a dozen comments to it when I first found it; he ignored every single one except for noting that he was going to steal the phrase 'crypto-Victorian' from me. Theft is indeed the sincerest form of flattery when one is a writer, so I have to give him props for that. And for being a fabulous, funny, nasty as hell writer his damn self. Check him out. And if you get the chance, kick him in the nuts a few times for me.

James Wolcott writes for Vanity Fair, and blogs about politics, theater, and TV. What I've discovered is, if there's a good TV show out there, Wolcott hates it and will happily piss in my corn flakes about it at the first opportunity. But he's a fabulous writer, and certainly belongs amongst the snarkmeisters listed above. I go to his blog to use his extensive blog roll as much as for any other reason, since he doesn't update often.

There may be a few blogs I've left out -- I used to read Bobby Lightfoot regularly, for example, but no so much lately, since I pointed out to him that my post on the Alito confirmation was way funnier than some fucking thing on By Neddie Jingo! that he said was the funniest post of the year, and he agreed with me, but only in MY comment threads, which no one is going to read, and did not correct his heresy on HIS blog, the fucker -- and a few others I read regularly but don't recommend (like Ragnell's) because, you know, I only read them when I want to blog about utter stupidity and need fodder.

But, for the most part, this, and the WizKids site, are pretty much what I spend my time on every day between calls.

Now you know.