[META] Four new blogroll links

• Writer Jamie Bradburn, a person known for excellent essays exploring the history of Toronto at Torontoist and elsewhere, writes about his goals for new content at his WordPress blog. (Bringing old material from the missed The Grid would be great.)
• The Island Review is a blog that brings together interesting links about islands. This post, a map depicting the forms of the different minor islands around Great Britain, is fun, is a good start.
• TVO journalist Steve Paikin’s blog is a great source for information on politics in Ontario. This post takes a look at the first meeting of the new NDP provincial caucus.
• Author Patricia C. Wrede has a nice blog focusing on writing fiction, as with this post concentrating on well-intended advice that can wreck stories.

[META] Eight new news sources

It’s time to add new links and news sources to my blogroll, ones reflecting my interests.

• CityLab is a great news source looking at different urban phenomena within individual cities and uniting cities. CityLab hosts Sam Weber’s article looking at the many problems facing North Korean defectors as they try to assimilate into ultra-sophisticated Seoul.
• The Conversation CA hosts Stephen Scherer’s article explaining the importance of sequencing the genomes of Canadian animals.
• The Discourse is a new Canadian media start-up promising in-depth coverage on Canadian issues. Before the recent Ontario election, they started a hashtag, #GTADiscourse, to see what people in the GTA underserved by the media were concerned about.
• The Guardian Cities takes a look at urban issues around the world. I liked this Mireille Silcoff article explaining the import of 1 July to the inhabitants of Montréal: It’s moving day!
• Steve Benjamins hosts Village, a new subscriber-only newsletter focusing on Toronto. I liked this article about a Seaton Village beekeeper, here.
• The venerable hard-left Canadian news site Rabble has plenty of thought-provoking articles, like Barâa Arar’s essay explaining their fear of what a Doug Ford government in Ontario might do.
• American queer magazine Them has plenty of great articles. I liked this one confirming that Tessa Thompson, Valkyrie in Thor and Janelle Monáe’s rumoured girlfriend, is out as bi.
• Toronto website and discussion forum Urban Toronto reports on a massive mural set to grace the Parkside Student Residences at Jarvis and Carlton.

[META] Blogroll expansion

I think that, after this expansion, I’ll stop for a good long while. My blogroll is already long enough, and much more would make it unmanageable (more unamanageable?). That said, four blogs deserve mention.

• Architectuul. the blog is associated with Architectuul, an open-source blog on architecture and architectural theory. The most recent post takes a look at totalitarian structures of power, from Nazi Germany to Romania to North Korea.
• Drew Ex Machina is the blog of Andrew LePage, a physicist who concentrates on exoplanets and vintage space missions. His latest post examines the lunar mission of Surveyor 7.
• The Finger Post is the photo-heavy travel-heavy blog of David Finger. His most recent post describes a visit to the city of Cebu, in the Philippines.
• Marshall’s Musings is the blog of Toronto-based urbanist Sean Marshall. His most recent post maps the new ward boundaries of Toronto.

Yes, I know that traditional blogging is dying. It may be more appropriate to say that it is irreversibly fragmented. Some blogged have headed towards the short snappy sharing of links on photos enabled by (among other platforms) Twitter and Instagram, some migrating to places like Medium where long-form content has a home, and still others have simply dropped out in favour of fora in gates ecosystems like Facebook. Things happen.

All that said, what blogs–or other accounts–do you still read? Are there writers on Medium, or elsewhere, that you like? What about Twitter or Instagram accounts of note?

Please, discuss. Share your perspectives in the comments.

[META] On the latest two blogs on the blogroll

• I’ve added Sean CW Korsgaard’s Korsgaard’s Commentary, a blog focusing on cultural reviews. In one interesting recent post, Korsgaard makes the case for the excellence of the 1999 film The Mummy.
• Toronto writer and critic Drew Rowsome also has his own blog. He has recently shared his shortlist of picks for the Toronto Fringe festival.

[META] On the latest blogroll expansion

I’ve added two blogs this morning, one old and one new.

• Aziz Poonawalla’s City of Brass, a blog dealing with Islam and minority issues, is newly added. His most recent post there, drawing from the Chicago Dyke March Jewish flag event to that intersectionality is too limited a concept, makes an interesting argument.
• LGBTQ-themed blog Unicorn Booty is a group blog that covers many queer issues. I would recommend one recent post reporting on the erasure of the nature of the Pulse massacre in Orlando by Trump (and others).

[META] Some blogroll additions

Two links are being added.

• To the news section, I’m adding the Canadian news website National Observer, which has interesting longer articles analyzing Canadian events. Of their recent articles, I would recommend Lorimer Shenher’s “LGBTQ officers need to pick the right target”, which argues that LGBTQ police officers should step back and consider the import of the police, as an organization, to many queer people.
• To the blog section, I’m adding Strange Company, a great blog that assembles links of interesting and odd things around the world, in the past and present, and takes the occasional longer look at particular events. This link, examining the history of one Reverend Griffiths who was something of a ghostbuster in 19th century Wales, is a good example of the latter category of post.

[META] More blogroll and news links

The start of a new year is a good time to add links to my blogroll, bloggish and otherwise.

• At the news end, Vice and Global News are now news sources I’ll be following.
• Four blogs are going to appear on my blogroll: Toronto queer writer Michael Lyons’ appropriately-named blog Michael Lyons Writes; group blog Roads and Kingdoms; engaging Alabama history blog Huntsvillain; and, missing persons blog Charley Ross.

Enjoy!

[META] Blogroll expansion!

Only two this time.

• Anglican priest, SF/fantasy fan, and former Torontonian Rachel Kessler blogs at Rev Rachel Rambles. Most recently she has blogged about Room, examining it as a metaphor for growing up.
• The Fifteenth is the blog of former Livejournaler Steve Roby, containing short reviews of books, television, and other forms of pop culture. I liked his review of a book on David Bowie that concentrated on the post-Scary Monsters period of his career.

[META] Another blogroll update

Two bloggers, three blogs.

• Ottawa-based writer ‘Nathan Smith’s Apostrophen examined the life of a gay fiction writer in the nation’s capital. His recent post looking at how much he earns, from the perspective of what he could afford to eat with it, speaks about the economics of fiction writing.
• New York City-based writer Philip Turner has two blogs, Honourary Canadian describing his life as an expat and The Great Grey Bridge looking at his take on New York City. His recent photo post from the shores of the Hudson River is beautiful.

Two bloggers, three blogs.

• Ottawa-based writer ‘Nathan Smith’s Apostrophen examined the life of a gay fiction writer in the nation’s capital. His recent post looking at how much he earns, from the perspective of what he could afford to eat with it, speaks about the economics of fiction writing.
• New York City-based writer Philip Turner has two blogs, Honourary Canadian describing his life as an expat and The Great Grey Bridge looking at his take on New York City. His recent photo post from the shores of the Hudson River is beautiful.