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Posts Tagged “Blogs”

secrets revealed

Who Didn't Buy Gridskipper from Gawker Media

Hey, it's Gridskipper's last day at the parent company! Who knows what will happen at our shiny new home. I, for one, will be bowing out of my relatively specious remaining duties, and for all we know, Adam's housecat will be in charge after sundown. But there's been lots of speculation — OK, some occasional speculation — regarding who or what might have tried to pry Gridskipper out of Gawker Media's warm, supple, sticky tentacles. Here's the exclusive behind-the-chiffarobe report on what really went down in Nick Denton's smoke-filled lavatory. More »

3:59 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Chris Mohney
2,098 views, 10 comments

Latest by AcidReign:     This was my first contact with the Gawker Empire, too. I came in on the Mohney train, of course. I hope this isn't one of those feeds that goes dark, next week! more »

regrets

An Apology to Joe Sharkey

Some travel blogs are all attitude and no original research, seemingly typed by hung-over media manqués whose idea of reporting is to tumble out of bed late each morning and desperately scan the newspapers for items to make sarcastic comments about.
Thus spake New York Times business travel columnist Joe Sharkey back in 2006. This anti-blog broadside was delivered less than a month after I made impish sport of Sharkey for one of the NYT's clumsier attempts to slap online video on every subject, no matter how dull. But that wasn't Joe's fault, and in the aforelinked article, he calls out a few sites he likes even while slaggin' blogs in general. Sharkey notes that both his personal site and his attic are perpetually under construction, and "don't hold your breath waiting for my own blog to go up. The attic comes first, I am reliably informed." Well, how's that attic coming? Let's check Sharkey's blog. More »

9:27 AM on Fri Apr 18 2008
By Chris Mohney
159 views, 3 comments

Latest by DeltaPurser: Going back a month, there are a grand total of 5 (yes, five) comments on his blog... Makes you wonder how many people actually read his RIVETING blog. more »

manifesto

10 Reasons Why Your Travel Blog Sucks

Travel blogs are one of the most common blog types . . . right behind high school sex fantasy diaries. And one would think travel blogs would be insanely popular, given that most everyone travels to some degree. But just like travel writing in general, there's a huge gulf between the number of people who travel and the number of people who care to read about travel. Even Gridskipper, a veritable colossus of travel blog traffic, is easily outmatched by blogs about cat pictures, salad recipes, or, say, knitting. On top of this handicap, the sad truth is that many, many travel blogs (amateur and professional alike) are shit. They wouldn't be readworthy if their subject concerned daily giveaways of gold bars. Fortunately, the reasons why travel blogs suck are very easy — often painfully easy — to comprehend. More »

3:29 PM on Fri Apr 4 2008
By Chris Mohney
1,816 views, 4 comments

Latest by GOKOR: Meh, I suffer from several of these items, the bad part is, I actually have stories to tell. Like going to Puerto Rico and a friend and I accidentally brought a prostitute to our room. After we kicked her out, we more »

Cuban authorities have blocked access to one of the country's most popular blogs, "Generacion Y." Yoani Sanchez, the blogger behind it, could no longer visit her website, which garnered 1.2 million hits last month, as of Monday of this week. Sanchez, a 32-year-old philology graduate, has continued to blog about her daily life in Cuba and its economic hardships and political constraints on the blog via alternative portholes, saying "there is no censorship that can stop people who are determined to access the Internet." [ZD Net]

1 comment

complaints

Why You Should Love the TSA Blog

Bloggers are gluttons for self-congratulation and petty ingratitude. Many remarked on the recent maneuver by our despised Transportation Security Administration to establish a somewhat freewheeling blog, though tagged with a clunker of a name ("Evolution of Security"). Now, bloggers are falling all over themselves with glee for having pointed out a foolish TSA screening process taking place at some airports, then wringing a blog apology from the TSA. Except it wasn't an apology, but a surprisingly forthright admission of a mistake. And even that gets mocked, ridiculed, and somehow also considered further proof of the TSA's incompetence. Bloggers! I'm here to tell you: Hang up thy swords, stow thy muskets, and relax. The TSA blog is the best thing to happen to American air travel since the noise-canceling headphone. More »

2:00 PM on Thu Feb 7 2008
By Chris Mohney
7,371 views, 5 comments

Latest by sommerk: I think TSA is incredibly brave for opening up lines of communication with the general public like it has! We can only hope it makes a difference in the way we're treated when flying to our favorite vacation spot. more »

interviews

Debriefer: FourFour's Rich Juzwiak

If you aren't reading FourFour, you're missing out on the magic that is Rich Juzwiak's world. His Mogwai-inspired cat Winston, Tyra Banks, and obscure but perfect pop-culture references dwell hand in hand with knitted-together montages, mix tapes, and photoshopped British worms. In addition to his home base, Rich also does the deeds on VH1's Celebreality.

We're going to imprison you in the city of your choice for the rest of your natural life. You can do anything you want there, but you must stay in that city forever. Where would you choose?
Where I am! New York. More »

12:40 PM on Fri Feb 1 2008
By Brittany Bellgardt
725 views, Comment

miami

Miami Tycoon Sues Real Estate Blogger for $25 Million

Watch out, Curbed! Miami developer Tibor Hollo has sued "simple, humble blogger" Lucas Lechuga for $25 million last week, a maneuver that also got Lechuga fired from his realtor's job. More »

8:40 AM on Tue Jan 29 2008
By Chris Mohney
368 views, Comment

Voting is now open on the 2008 Bloggies weblog award dingus. Of course, no travel blog category yet again — FASCIST PIGS! — but, ahem, if you're into this sort of thing, lots of other Gawker Media blogs got nominated all over the place. Go vote for them. Polls close at 10 p.m. EST on January 31.

Comment

new york

New York Blogger Bars

Did you die a little inside when you read that headline? Good, then the rest of this shouldn't hurt a bit. We're discussing bars popular with New York blogger types as drinking establishments — not places such people go to actually blog. One can cull a bit of history from this article in last year's Observer, and even more current selections are already fading from relevance. Bloggers be fickle. This list is neither comprehensive nor fair, as bloggers will drink most anywhere really, and the taint of blog can adhere to a place after just one signature blogger-heavy night. And don't blame me for the Lower East Side concentration ... the world is thus. Feel free to dispute, revise, or expand in the comments or tipline. More »

10:00 AM on Tue Jan 22 2008
By Chris Mohney
6,336 views, 10 comments

Latest by Justin D: I want to go to Loreley just to run into that chick in the picture above! more »

The folks over at the Guardian's travel blog have a great Tokyo blog roundup — a sampling of recommendations from the city's best bloggers (including our man Jean Snow). Suggestions cover sake, art, food, shopping, hotels, and all the high-tech wackiness Tokyo is known for. [Guardian]

Comment

announcements

And I, For One, Welcome Our New Sci-Fi Blog Overlords

After gestating for eons in Gawker Media's distended chest cavity, science fiction blog io9 has burst forth in a shower of viscera and pageviews. Check out the mission statement, the regular spoiler alerts, comics nerdery, and dots. More to come, puny human.

12:00 PM on Wed Jan 2 2008
By Chris Mohney
43 views, Comment

interviews

Debriefer: Dlisted's Michael K

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the blog is truly the new weapon of choice. Michael K, creator and writer of Dlisted—one of the web's most popular and unforgiving gossip-blogs—is able to take on the ridiculous and give it a twist of the wit. You may be shocked and addicted, but as his site warns, be very afraid. More »

12:40 PM on Fri Oct 12 2007
By Brittany Bellgardt
17,720 views, 14 comments

advertising

Virgin America Recruits Blog-Nerd Supergroup

Bowing down before the mighty power of Blog, sometime local sponsor Virgin America dragooned a cadre of popular tech bloggers to staff up its latest cartoon advertising initiative. The "Virgin Americans" — please, withhold your guffaws, churlish types — feature appearances by Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin, Cory Doctrow, David Pescovitz, and Mark Frauenfelder; Engadget's Pete Rojas; and Diggnation's Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose. No travel bloggers in sight, since they're such a surly and unattractive lot. At least Rojas gets a line in the latest spot. More »

9:15 AM on Tue Oct 9 2007
By Chris Mohney
162 views, 3 comments

Latest by BoHan: Pray the flight crew stocked plenty of free peanuts. It could get ugly up there. more »

obey

We Explain What's Cool

Our pal Benji Lanyado at the Guardian asked myself and Amanda to rate a handful of travel blogs/sites in a "cool off." We got into the preposterous nature of the enterprise, which you can read here. They cut some of the meanness from our submissions (apparently "one legged man in an ass kicking contest" doesn't translate idiomatically), and they led with a stock photo of some nice bikiniblogging. At least I got to defend Arthur Frommer's honor. More »

12:20 PM on Thu Aug 23 2007
By Chris Mohney
195 views, Comment

miami

Menupages South Florida Foodblog

The erstwhile foodies at Menupages have launched another blog, this one focusing on Miami and South Florida as a companion for their menu listings on the same area. Anything that features a Cheetoh-eatin' crab is off to a promising start. More »

12:00 PM on Thu Aug 2 2007
By Chris Mohney
427 views, Comment

los angeles

La Taco Blog

Your recommended lunchtime browsing is La Taco (or is it LA Taco? or just Taco, like Prince?), a great blog that combines the not so disparate Los Angeles lifestyle choices of street art and taco truck patronage. Lots of intrepid fieldwork reviewing various super-cheap taco truck delicacies, plus lush photos of great graffiti and the occasional inspirational tattoo. More »

12:40 PM on Wed Jul 25 2007
By Chris Mohney
428 views, 1 comment

blogs

Things Not to Try Before You Die

We've traveled enough to know that some attractions, no matter how well-loved, suck. Pisa, for example. The Leaning Tower is just a poorly built little stub. And the rest of the town is a mess of traffic and tchotchke shacks. And yet we went, which makes me angry whenever I think about those hours that I'll never have again. Thankfully we have folks like Ben Groundwater at the Sydney Morning Herald's travel blog. He's been to the dullest, most mind-numbingly trite places, and he's here to warn you off. More »

10:40 AM on Thu Jul 12 2007
By imount
686 views, 1 comment

Latest by travelina: What a relief to know I don't have to do these things! Now I can die in peace. more »