Tagged again: Thinking Bloggers

Tata, who writes the delicious and funny Poor Impulse Control, has tagged me with a blogmeme: "Thinking Bloggers." About Enrevanche, Tata was kind enough to say:

Barry thinks about things I don't or they wouldn't cross my path. His cat is a humble rock star. I read Enrevanche about once a week. If I skip it, I feel like I misplaced my car keys.

And once you read it, you feel like you misplaced your antipsychotic medication, no doubt (if I'm doing my job right.)

Anyway, here's how this meme works:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

To avoid the appearance of (b)logrolling, Poor Impulse Control (Tata's blog) is not on my list, but I will say that I check in at her place at least a few times a week. She can make you laugh, make you cry, spur you to rage or provoke contemplation--the raw, confessional stuff she wrote during her father's last days was absolutely heartbreaking. Day to day, though, she's just one of the funniest, smartest people in the blogosphere. And although our politics appear to be very different, I think we would have a huge time over a big plate of food and several glasses of wine.

OK. Here's the list, in alphabetical order, of Blogs That Make Barry Think:

1. Chapomatic. One of my oldest friends in the world also writes one of the best blogs out there; reading his stuff convinced me to start blogging. Take Chap's advice about music as if you were Moses on the mountaintop taking dictation straight from God.
   
   
2. Cobb. A self-described conservative and Black nationalist with a serious love for funk and a deep structural knowledge of information technology.
   
   
3. Don Surber. Don writes editorials and columns for the Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail, and for years he blogged at Blogspot. He recently began blogging for his employer, and Don's take on the news is always worth reading.
   
   
4. Music and Cats. Musings on architecture, recipes, and loads of beautiful photography, much but not all of which involves kittycats.
   
   
5. Sisu. Sissy Willis comes from a different part of the conservative tradition than I do, but her political posts are always closely reasoned and well argued, and her sublime naturalist instincts and visual aesthetic sense are always refreshing to encounter online. Plus, the woman loves to cook. #1 on the list of bloggers I've never met in person that I'd like to throw a dinner party with.

(Two graphics-oriented blogs that deserve honorable mention: Chowderhead Bazoo and Indexed.)

Always listen to Chap when he recommends a record

Chap points us to a new record worth listening to: Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black":

Winehouse is spending some time working her tone, shifting from insistent to tentative in a phrase, singing back back behind the beat where she can get away with it. “Me And Mr. Jones” has been stuck in my head for about too long now–she credits the Ronettes and the Specials on the record and here it makes sense–if you add in the Andrews Sisters doing “Mister Sandman” in the backup singing. Worth a listen.

Chapomatic » Back To Black

Oh lord, y'all. I've been listening to this disc since it arrived.

If Queen Latifah stayed up three nights straight listening to Billie Holliday records and then decided to front a 60s girl group, it might sound something like this... it's absolutely irresistible. Amy Winehouse is part of the British neosoul revival; if you think that all there is to that is Joss Stone, you really, really need to listen to this recording.

If there were any justice in the world, Chap could make a nice six-figure salary curating record collections for people. I've known him for over twenty years now, and in all that time he has given me exactly one bum steer musically (an unfortunate experience with an industrial/noise record, never to be repeated.)