Etc Is?

January 22, 2007 3:23 AM | Simon Carless

We're not vain enough to claim that GSW is the 'best' of game weblogs, but we do know we go off the beaten track, and cover a lot of alternative material that other game blogs don't touch. So, we got to thinking - what are the GSW equivalents in other media? Here are a couple we can suggest:

- In film, TwitchFilm is absolutely a favorite for offbeat, generally foreign (Japanese, Korean, Eastern European, Russian) film tips, though it also includes some of the U.S. indie flicks and even a good selection of UK-specific comedy news at times. If you want to know about major Malaysian film releases for 2007 (pictured!), for example, Twitch is your site. Most enjoyable.

- In comics, a site we're totally in lurve with is Dirk Deppey's Journalista, the official news weblog of The Comics Journal. Oddly, it just operates on one absolutely gigantic daily post, but it covers everything from the indies to the big guys, with plenty of detail for foreign comics scenes, manga, archival pieces, obscurity, and a lot more - plus some fun invective at times. Plenty of erudition here.

- In music - oddly enough, we don't really subscribe to the RSS feeds of many major music sites, but it sounds like Stereogum probably has the right blend of tastemaking and lack of excessive music snobbery to make it the kind of site that isn't afraid to wander out there, somewhere. Oo, they have info on the latest Chemical Bros experimental track, for starters. Must... set up... feed.

Anyhow, you may disagree with these picks! You may also know other genres of creative endeavor (for example - books, television, theater, music video, spoon playing) which also have blogs covering them in slightly alternative ways! If you do either of the above, please post in the comments, and if we get enough good suggestions, we'll do another post with a 'recommended' list. It's like having a twin town in another country, sorta?

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6 Comments

For movies it would be definitely www.kutsite.com for me. Not really a blog it doesn't even have RRS. It's a Belgium site so everything is writen in Dutch. Not that they cover every movie but there reviews are usually on point.

For music I usually don't read blogs rather go to last.fm and listen to what the player comes up with. Once in a while I check www.hiphopmusic.com I really like the vlog they just start doing but like the title says it only covers one genre.

For books, I most often go to the public library and see what I come up with, sometimes I go to boeken.vpro.nl. Again not really a blog and also in writen Dutch. It might not be of great use to you, then again I'm sure I'm not the only Dutch guy here reading this blog.

Cruds | January 22, 2007 4:58 AM

"Flog," the "Fantagraphics "Blog,"" posts interesting comics stuff sometimes http://www.fantagraphics.com/blog/
"The Comics Reporter" joins "Journalista" as the best daily comics news source I know of:
http://www.comicsreporter.com/
If you also check the Comics Journal message board once in a while, you'll probably be covered on anything major going on: http://tcj.com/messboard/

For movies:
http://www.comingsoon.net and its sister site http://www.superherohype.com update early and reliably.

Similarly: Garth Franklin's http://www.darkhorizons.com/ (just stay away from the editorials)

There are other general movie sites I check, even though they have serious problems
Harry Knowles' http://www.aintitcool.com/ is revolting and frequently innacurate. Clint Morris' http://www.moviehole.net is better, but not by much; lately, it's come to resemble what Knowles does more and more.

For horror movie news, there's the trio of http://www.fangoria.com/ , http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/ , http://www.dreadcentral.com/ .
You will want to cautiously evaluate anything posted on the latter two, but I've gotten enough real information there that I don't discount them.

DVD release news: http://www.davisdvd.com/ , http://www.thedigitalbits.com/

One more for movies: http://www.boxofficemojo.com is the best website for box office news, though they've been slipping a little lately.

While I'm on the subject: if you're following an upcoming film, don't believe what you read about it in its imdb entry. That site relies on user-submitted updates, yet they seem to do little actual fact-checking and they're locking more and more of their content behind a paid subscription. The site is self-destructing in slow motion right now.

jc | January 22, 2007 10:56 AM

Great list, JC! I am amused by your description of AICN, also.

simonc | January 22, 2007 1:24 PM

For the webcomics fans out there, I've found Comixpedia to have some interesting stuff. http://comixpedia.com/ I suppose it might be considered the "mainstream" webcomics news site, but it's not exactly a mainstream artform yet.

And it goes without saying that Slashdot is a fine resource. I stick to the gaming news mostly, but there's something there for geeks of every ilk. slashdot.org

Joel | January 22, 2007 10:59 PM

The Buddyhead mp3 blog (http://buddyhead.typepad.com/) allows you to download the music they're ranting about, which is all I could ask for in a music blog.

Swimmy | January 23, 2007 9:20 AM

My guide to the treacherously banal yet occasionally rewarding depths of pop culture is the Onion A.V. Club (http://www.avclub.com/), which includes three staff blogs of vague demarcation (they really ought to just combine it into one). Like the rest of the wonderful site, it's written from the perspective of several smart people who love good art, good trash, and everything in between. In fact, the blogs mostly seem to serve as an extension of the magazine, a catch-all for random news and personal musings that don't fit into the magazine's review/feature format. I recommend the whole site, really; even the crossword puzzle matches the tone, with 19th-century poetry up alongside the latest dirty words.

A similar blog focused solely on film is nerve.com's The ScreenGrab (http://www.thescreengrab.com/), which has lots of snippets of news on independent movies as well as snide reviews of trailers and reader-submitted Worst Moviegoing Experiences.

Shih Tzu | January 23, 2007 11:54 AM