Blogroll Keepers #5

A few more newish-to-me blogs and newsletters I’ve been enjoying enough to add to my blogroll (see previously):

• Atlas Minor by James A. Reeves, “a writer, teacher, and designer” in New York. He’s writing one brief post a day in 2020, each with a photo and a piece of music and they’re beautiful, thoughtful pieces. I’ve just noticed he also has a newsletter, although I’m not sure what the overlap is, if any, with the blog.

• Garbage Day, a newsletter by Ryan Broderick (currently on a break), billed as “a weekly reminder that, actually, being online is still pretty fun!” I once felt that I knew what was happening online, in some vague, broad sense, but, no. Garbage Day’s recounting of the latest memes and events are usually 95% new to me, and a glorious reminder of how much crazy and weird things are happening out there.

  (Related, I’m always glad that the B3ta newsletter is still going, another reminder that however much the internet might be full of normal people doing dull normal activities, there is still a lot of old-fashioned stupid nonsense happening.)

• Live Laugh Blog the personal blog of Jenn Schiffer, whose newsletter I also get, is good entertaining fun. See, for example, the post shocking: cursed woman makes cursed spaghetti and “meatballs”.

• Perils of the Overworld, a weekly newsletter by Robin Sloan, tracking “the production of a narrative video game, intended for a broad audience”. It’s deeper and more interesting than that might sound if you’re not into games, and well written.

• Vittles, a newsletter about food which I’m way behind on reading but that’s no reflection on its interestingness. I had to stumble across its Patreon to actually find anything about it. I find its structure and layout confusing. I assume there’s a logic to its numbering system (7.2, 7.3, 5.8, 2.15, 7.4…) but I’ve yet to discern it. Each email is introduced by someone anonymous, and I assume this is Jonathan Nunn, whose name appears nowhere, but who was mentioned by Chris (which is where I heard about Vittles). That introduction is also formatted as a blockquote which only added to the initial confusion… “Oh, is this email written by two people…? Is one of them ‘hosting’ it and introducing the other, or is this a quote… who is this?” Anyway, despite all that, lovely broad writing about food and culture and stuff.