We don’t know about you, but we spend a lot more of our day perusing the Internet than we’d ever admit to the boss. Every year, the online world becomes more fascinating, more flashy, more better than working.
These days, it’s the blogs that have the biggest slice of our rather scattered attention span. Part diary, part journalism, blogs can have a readership of anywhere from one to millions. At this second, there are literally hundreds of your co-workers, neighbors, friends, relatives and/or classmates writing on or thinking about writing on their blogs, which can cover topics ranging from horticulture to the scandalously skanky.
There are a number of blogs we’ve found to be more useful, enlightening and/or entertaining than others in the Arkansas blogosphere. Here, in no particular order, is a short list of our faves.
The Arkansas Blog, www.arktimes.com. First and foremost in our hearts is the online mouthpiece of everyone’s favorite plucky little weekly, the Arkansas Times. Administered and edited by Max Brantley, who has summoned up his daily-newspaper chops, the Times blog is updated with a regularity that borders on religion, and features all the latest news on Arkansas politics and culture (replete with regular scoops that beat even the big daily to the punch).
Matilda’s Advice and Rants, www.matildaintherock.blogspot.com. A plugged-in, insightful, often hilariously funny look at life in Little Rock and (particularly) North Little Rock. Or, as the anonymous Matilda puts it: “Satire and Facts As Seen By Three Old Broads, a Pissed Off Navy Guy and a Nutty ‘Colonel’ of some sort.”
Arkansas TV News Watch, http://arkansastvnewswatch.blogspot.com. A scoop-heavy look at hiring, firing and trends in the television news business. Obviously the work of a very well connected insider, the blog regularly breaks news on developments in the Little Rock, Shreveport and Northwest Arkansasnews markets.
Arkansas Tonight, www.arkansastonight.com. Once the blog of Northwest Arkansas veteran newscaster Don Elkins, Arkansas Tonight continues to go after the local and national news with an NWA slant. According to Christopher Seligman, who runs the blog, plans are to expand Arkansas Tonight into an “all-around news site” in the coming year. To that end, they’ve recently taking on a movie and entertainment reviewer.
Lynch at Large, http://lynchatlarge.wordpress.com. The blog of larger-than-life radio, TV and newspaper personality Pat Lynch, who has been a fixture in the Little Rock media world for over two decades, features Lynch’s comments on sports, food, politics, culture, local news, and his always-entertaining personal life.
The Slophouse, http://nwanews.com/blogs/slophouse/. Blogs by people who want to talk about the Razorbacks are the kudzu of the Arkansas blogging world. Everybody and his brother wants to put in their electronic two cents worth on the Hogs. Frankly, it can get a little overwhelming. There are a few blogs that stand above the fray, and one of them is the Slophouse. Run by the staff of www.wholehogsports.com, it’s a welcome bit of sanity in an insane online world.
The Localist Blog, http://localistonline.blogspot.com. The kids are all right, and the proof is this lively, hipper-than-thou look at Little Rock culture, music and the arts. Run as a kind of online alternative weekly — it’s the electronic widow of the oft-mourned paper-and-ink Localist — the Localist Blog is the place to go if you’re a young whipper-snapper looking for well-written, up-to-the-minute info on the latest to-dos around central Arkansas.
