Dominic Sayers

For an idle moment

Graham Linehan has been blogging since at least July. How come nobody told me about it?

Lesser-known blogs

There is another lesser-known blog I want to write about, but the latest post has started a train of research that I haven't finished following up yet. I have a day job... I note that Fimoculous has published a list of 30 lesser-known blogs that he recommends. I have added this list to my del.icio.us links with a tag of NewTailBlog. Which leads me to the suggestion that, if you are following Confused of Calcutta's idea of tagging your "minor" blog recommendations with the NewTailBlog tag, you should also link to them in del.icio.us (or your favourite link aggregator) with the same tag. I have done so with my two recommendations so far.

A blog I recommend

My next NewTailBlog is City of Sound. With a Technorati rank of 10,725 it's not exactly obscure but I think it deserves some additional recognition outside its milieu. The author, Dan Hill, is one of the clever people behind the BBC's reinvention of itself as a (free) digital media provider. In his blog he talks about architecture, design, music and general stuff he's interested in. To me it seems like he puts a bit more effort into his posts than most people (me for instance :-)), they are usually well-constructed and slightly longer than the average blog. His recent post about binge-watching of DVD box sets is worth reading in its entirety, especially the little gem in his last sentence.

Frequently-updated sites I recommend because they don't get the attention they deserve

That's a long-winded way of saying "obscure blogs I read", but in fact many of the feeds I consume come from sites that aren't strictly blogs. It's a matter of complete indifference to me how the content is produced. If it has a feed and I am interested in getting the new stuff then I add it to my aggregator. What's a blog? Don't care. So, Confused of Calcutta has suggested that people who do blog should recommend other sites that don't get the attention they deserve. If you are interested in some good reading that is outside the Technorati A-list then check out my blog roll. All these sites have passed my personal litmus test of quality, and I shrink from including A-listers because they don't really need my link and I'm not a sheep kind of person. More of a goat really. I'll start with ones that I read just for enjoyment. Here's one: Emma Kennedy (feed). A slightly obscure but rapidly emerging British actress and writer with a handful of TV appearances to her name. She's had a tough year in her personal life but her career is taking off so it's an interesting read. But mostly read it for the episodes featuring Hysterical Mum Brenda and Welsh Dad Tony. The first NewTailBlog!