I know only heartache can come from this. I get my hopes up, tremblingly extend my trust, develop confidence over time, and then… it’s gone again. Where I looked for a light respite from the trials and stresses of modern life, there is only the brute word, “Hiatus,” evocative of hernias.

Yet hope persists. And so I share the link with you — Anthony Sacramone’s brilliant Strange Herring blog is back.

For now.

In case any of you live in the Huntington, West Virginia area, be advised that I’ll be interviewed on the Tom Roten Show, on WVHU, AM 800, on Thursday, January 20, 8:35 a.m. The subject, of course, will be West Oversea.

What follows, I’m afraid, is pretty Twin Cities Inside Radio-Ball. But an era is semi-passing for local conservatism, and I want to mark it with a post.

The talk radio station I generally listen to is WWTC, AM 1280, “The Patriot,” a fine station affiliated with the Salem Broadcasting Network. It doesn’t have much of a signal, but for urban dwellers like me it fills a need.

We also have some pretty good bloggers in these parts. Among them are Power Line (famous for helping to blow Dan Rather out of the water over the forged George W. Bush National Guard documents), Fraters Libertas, and Shot In the Dark. Salem talk show host Hugh Hewitt started referring to them as The Northern Alliance of Blogs (a play on the name of the coalition of Afghan militias helping America at the time), and it was his idea for them to do a weekly show on WWTC. Continue reading The last of the First Team →

David Sessions of Patrol, having given us ten writers in Christian media whom he considers unworthy, provides a list of 14 worthy writers for our consideration: Ross Douthat, David Gibson, Matthew Lee Anderson, James K.A. Smith, David Bentley Hart, and others. (link defunct)

Pay attention. Or don’t. This part is background, and really not all that important. And I probably remember parts of it wrong.

Once upon a time, there was a blog called Libertas, run by a conservative movie producer named Jason Apuzzo, and his wife Govindini (it actually still exists, or exists again). It was an entertaining blog on the movie business, and attracted lively discussions in comments. When Jason and Govindini went on hiatus for a while, they turned it over to a commenter (and fellow movie maker) named John Nolte. It became even more popular and interesting under John. Then the Apuzzos came back, there was some kind of unpleasantness, and John moved to his own blog, called Dirty Harry’s Place, and took most of the fun with him. Libertas languished.

Co-bloggers and commenters at Dirty Harry’s Place were three guys who called themselves Rufus T. Firefly, Floyd R. Turbo, and Charles Foster Kane. There was a great synergy at that blog, and it was a delight to read.

Then Andrew Breitbart invited John Nolte to head up his new Big Hollywood blog. Rufus, Floyd, and Charles spun off a new blog of their own, movie-oriented but eclectic, called Threedonia. I hang out there quite a bit, because it’s kind of like Duck Soup every day, and they’ve added my books to their Amazon selection.

Meanwhile, Big Hollywood is a blog I also read quite a bit, but it’s history has been… strange. I won’t speculate on the dynamics between John Nolte and his co-writers, but Big Hollywood isn’t nearly as much fun as Dirty Harry’s Place was, and some of the best writers he started out with are no longer in evidence. My own impression is that Dirty Harry’s Place was a blog for people who loved movies, while Big Hollywood is (mostly, not entirely) a blog for people who hate Hollywood liberals.

I told you all that so I could tell you this.

The chief writer I miss at Big Hollywood is Robert J. Avrech, who wrote with great sensitivity and knowledge about Hollywood history, especially its (frequently—often purposely) neglected Jewish heritage.

But Robert Avrech has his own blog, Seraphic Secret, and I recommend it. Often it deals with Jewish matters that don’t compel me much, but nobody writes about old Hollywood like Avrech. If, like me, you find old Hollywood fascinating, I recommend it.

Jane Friedman talks about the value of social media and how its critics want it to sell books or merchandise without personal investment.