Brags About Blogs

I subscribe to more than a few blogs. You probably do, too. But even though you probably read every single blog to which you subscribe, are there a few that you sorta-extra look forward to?

Well, me, too. So I thought I’d mention them here and now in case you’re looking for something fresh to read. If I subscribe to your blog and don’t mention it here, please don’t take it personally — I’m glad to read you and look forward to you as well. But the blogs I’m about to mention have just a little extra fairy dust sprinkled on them, which might make them worth your while as well. (And I’ll bet a lot of my readers don’t put me at the top of their blog reading lists, either.)

Anyway, here are some extra-special blogs you might want to seek out. Click on each blog’s name to link to it.

By Ken Levine. Levine is a former TV and movie writer with some pretty heavy-duty credits to his name (“M*A*S*H,” “Cheers,” “Frasier”). He is also is a former radio DJ and L.A. sports announcer. Just those subjects give him some generous anecdotes to write about. He also shares his opinions on movies and TV shows, the show-biz industry, and life in general, and he does it as entertainingly as he wrote for television. I just love his stuff.

News from ME. Mark Evanier is another show-biz gadly with a little of everything to his credit. He wrote for “Welcome Back, Kotter” and other ’70s TV shows, including Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and now does the syndicated TV version of the “Garfield” comic strip. Like Ken Levine, Evanier has tons of fascinating show-biz stories and opinions to share.

Travalanche. Written by “Trav S.D.,” who covers classic movies, TV shows, and (forgive me, Trav) a lot of offbeat New York stage stuff that I’ll never see because I live in Florida. (He had a hand in the recent NYC revival of I’ll Say She Is, the Broadway revue that catapulted The Marx Brothers to fame.) It’s all presented in a very lively, loving style, and it probably doesn’t hurt that he has much of the same tastes in pop culture as I do.

Tralfaz and Yowp. These blogs are written by the same person (who doesn’t go by his real name, so why post it here?) and are devoted to classic cartoons — respectively, theatrical and Hanna-Barbera. He posts a lot of fascinating animation history and drawings, and I never would have guessed that Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear cartoons were worthy of such scholarly attention until this blogger made it so.

Silent-ology and Movies Silently. I used to be quite full of myself for knowing so much more about silent movies than the film buffs with whom I conversed. Compared to what these two bloggers know, my knowledge of silent film could be lodged comfortably on the head of a pin. Silent-ology is written by Lea Stans, a woman in her mid-twenties, and Movies Silently by Fritzi Kramer. I mention Lea’s age only because I’ve read silent-film authors who aren’t as comprehensive as Lea is, and Fritzi is similarly encyclopedic. And their writing is anything but dry — their love of the silent era shines through in everything they post.

BNoirDetour. Written by Salome, this blog is devoted exclusively to film noir, and as a film professor, Salome knows her stuff. She also hosts a “Live Tweet” on Twitter.com every Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST in which she presents a noir movie for Twitter members to enjoy and comment on. I regard her as my noir Roger Ebert.

Hope this gives you a starting point for something new to read this weekend!