I am proudly accepting a Premio Dardos award, bestowed upon this blog by Brian Doan at Bubblegum Aesthetics. Of course, after he said nice things about me and my blog, I promptly stopped posting for several weeks... But as the title says, tap, tap, no takebacks.
Here's the deal:
The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.
There are rules, however:
1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.
2) Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.
First things first. I owe a word or two about Bubblegum Aesthetics. I had heard rumors that some young cinema studies prof was writing a blog and that it's color scheme included pink. I was intrigued. I didn't, however, check it out until he shot me an email introducing himself. After reading his stuff, I and the Wilder Voice staff decided that we wanted him to be our faculty submitter. It was a good choice.
The thing about Aesthetics is that its posts--especially those about TV, movies, and culture-at-large--are the kind that you star in Google Reader, hoping to come up with some kind of great response. Instead, you end up digesting them and feel bad that you'll never come up with that level of insight. Then you remember that he's a cinema studies professor and feel marginally better.
Onto the awards. I will not be giving awards to any blogs that have more than 150 subscribers on GReader. Why? Ezra Klein and Glenn Greenwald have enough awards. And, frankly, the big blogs are where I go for clinical analysis and facts; small blogs are where I go for fun, enjoyable reading. That said, the awards:
FOR BEST CULTURAL-POLITICAL BLOG
Rustbelt Intellectual
In a way, this is almost more of a magazine than a blog: polished writing, full sentences, narrative arcs. It's essentially what you want when you open up a magazine. The advantage here: you can post comments--to which they respond. Also, it's free.
FOR BEST FOREIGN AFFAIRS BLOG
Max Strasser's Next Year In
If you are like me and generally find foreign affairs writing dull and depressing, then this blog is the one for you. It combines insight and that brand of Oberlin wit I know so well. There are few who could get away with combining serious analysis with pictures of semi-obscure celebrities. This one does it.
FOR BEST PERSONAL BLOG
Alice Ollstein's blog at Oberlin Blogs
There might be a conflict of interest here. I am, after all, a blogger at Oberlin Blogs myself. Nevertheless, Ollstein's stuff about her experiences with immigration are insightful and often heart-stopping. It's not necessarily the most upbeat reading out there, but it's razor sharp.
FOR BEST MUSIC BLOG
The Umbilical Chord
I'm not going to lie, my music knowledge--especially for a student at a hipster haven like Oberlin--is woefully incomplete. Fortunately for me, The Umbilical Chord is here to help. Not only was it founded by a friend and fellow Oberliner, it's got a fresh to death layout, crystal writing, and an excellent lists of talking points for when I'm thrown into conversations about contemporary pop music with people who know what the hell they're talking about.
FOR BLOG WITH THE MOST CAJONES
It's Only A Theory
It takes some cajones, I think, to blog about Philosophy of Science, but that's what this group blog does. It's a newbie, but I already get excited when I see a new post from there pop up in my GReader. Of course, the people who blog there are, by-and-large, serious academics, so I haven't brought myself to actually comment there. But, it's a sign of the growth of the medium (blogging, that is), that one can find a way to make it a perfect fit for discussions about PhiSci.
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