Blogging It Up

Time to share some new sites I've encountered -- either via friends, long-lost friends or Franklin Avenue readers who turn out to have some pretty cool blogs of their own.

:: Greg Spring -- a former co-worker of mine (at Electronic Media) who's now a producer/exec at Pie Town Prods. (the folks behind many of our guilty TV pleasures, including "Design on a Dime" and "$40 a Day with Rachael Ray") -- tweaks the religious right at Holier Than Thou: When the Religious Right Goes Wrong.

From his mission statement: Holier Than Thou is your weekly quiz to see just how well you’ve been keeping up with what the Religious Right is really up to. These questions (and their answers) should make you laugh, cry, cringe, pound the table, and maybe even send you screaming to your car, where you’ll turn on the engine and make sure that garage door is shut real tight. But they should also remind us that there is little good in these self-professed Good Christians, and little that is right with the Religious Right.



And Greg has had plenty of material to work with recently -- for example, just about everything that has been coming out of Pat Robertson's mouth...

:: One of the cool things to come out of Franklin Avenue has been hearing from long-lost friends who stumbled across the site -- such as Andrew Ross, who I'd lost contact with almost 10 years ago! Back in the day, Andrew and his then-b.f. David were huge into music, and helped inspire me to build my massive CD collection.

These days, Andrew's into food as well -- and is behind (with his partner Dan) the excellent New York-based food blog NYC Nosh.



Above, some lobster rolls from his recent stop at the U.S. Open. I inevitably get hungry whenever I visit their site.

:: Finally, one of my new favorite sites: City planner Mitch Glaser is behind Paradox Unbound, where he muses on buildings, shopping malls and other interesting tidbits on our society (as told from a Los Angeles perspective).

Not only does Mitch point out the impact of Federated's purchase of the May Co., for example, but he offers up a detailed and exhaustive look at the history of the companies in Los Angeles and what it might mean for consumers.



With several Robinsons-May locations shuttering over the next year, Mitch also looks at several chains that might take advantage of the empty real estate and move into the region, including Fresno-based Gottschalk's and Little Rock-based Dillards.