Blogwatch

My good friend Leon has been bitten by the self-publishing bug and started his own online ramblings - though, being too good for Blogger, he's chosen to write a journal on the messageboard of his website. Check it out.

Also unearthed over the past week or so have been another couple of Portsmouth / Southsea based blogs: Drumfan and Expecting To Fly. OK so the latter blog is named after a Bluetones song, but its creator Pete writes about SWSL's favourite things so don't hold it against him. Plus, he's a fan of The Delgados - a sufficient criterion for liking anyone in my book.

Best blog posting of the week? It's just too close to call - but it simply has to be either Invisible Stranger's recording of a conversation between a stranger and the Stranger himself in an internet cafe (a reminder about how strange blogging can seem to an "outsider", and a cautionary tale about the perils of blogging in public), or Agnes of This Is Not An Exit on weird shopping.

Elsewhere: 80s music has been a popular topic - New Romanticism on The Yes / No Interlude and Tears For Fears on Wisdom Goof (I have a sneaking fondness for Tears For Fears, but I'm putting it down to my being a child of the 80s and thus lacking the necessary distance and critical faculties to be able to dislike them - at least that's my excuse...), while Vodkabird has been celebrating Smiths Day; Ian Penman has some strong words about the demise of Channel 4 as an "alternative" TV station; and Dullblog has been featured in the New York Times.