Blog Holiday

I will not be posting during the month of July.

The Comments feature will be closed down, & re-opened on August 1st.

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I will be looking at blogs very occasionally.

For critical commentary on journalism & culture I'll be reading Bill Wyman's Hitsville blog.

For new music I always check out Dave Allen's Pampelmoose blog, because it has loads of great mp3s.

For new ideas in mash-up culture I go to TradeMark at the Evolution Control Committee.

For careful thinking about literature, culture & politics, The Weekly Rader is always worth a visit.

For cultural/political thinking that often surprises me I read Afrogeek, partly because I love the way that guy writes. (Last night he promised he would do a post on Roland Barthes: The Fluffer. IOW: eggheadish dating games. You just know you have to read that one.)

For a different take on popular culture, I like to consider the ideas at The Worst Horse, too.

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However, like some of you, I continue to question the value of blogging & I often worry about the direction we are headed in these days.

Over at the Atlantic, Nicholas Carr has asked Is Google Making Us Stupid?

At Slate, Michael Agger recently wondered if on-line reading is turning us into Lazy Bastards.

DeAnna Tibbs at her blog has questioned the notion/value of virtual community.

And at this blog, in an interview, Nicholas Garnham posed some hard questions about new media.

This is important food for thought. Blogging should be used to critique blogging. Media critics must not lose their heads, just because there are new toys to play with.

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July is going to be all about books for me, the reading of them & I do hope the writing of one, with the provisional title GOD OF ZEPPELIN.

When POP returns we will be posting the following:

* Now That We Have Pop Music Why Do We Still Need Poetry?
In Verse Form! (Thanks Ayize!)

* Zep & the dharma

* Why Adam Phillips Is Important For Cultural Studies

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See you in August.

-- Andrew Goodwin

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