Moonblogsfromsyb is the feed/blogroll of The Moon from Syb – “Howlin’ from the Otherside Joined up Social Media for Nobody… Follow via E-mail, RSS, Google+, Twitter, or if you must Facebook….”
The categories of moonblogsfromsyb are currently made up of:
A BIT OF CULTURE
Richard Godwin in the Evening Standard: Rather like Anthony Hilton on economics (see below), he manages to cut through the crap of the issues of the day very succinctly. He often has a spot on political slant, but also contributes music and film reviews and interviews for the ES magazine. Originally just his articles appeared on Moonblogsfromsyb via a Google search feed but on the funkay new Drupal powered Evening Standard site he, like all “authors” now his very own Feed
But the new feeds are a little dull without an image and for some reason they do not work in Feedburner. So for Moonblogs I have used Feed43 to create a media rich Feed and burnt it to Feedburner so you can sign up for email alerts.
Laura Craik in the Evening Standard: She used to have Mr Godwin’s gig at The Standard, and he has been able to maintain her high standards. She did go off to write for the Daily Mail – which must have been a bit of an odd fit. Thankfully, she is now back at the Standard writing the “Trendwatch” section for the ES magazine. She has a brilliantly wry view of the fashion world: “Just when you thought it simply wasn’t possible for fashion to disappear further up its own arse, it has become even more exclusive” and manages, like Mr Godwin, to get a bit political.
In the funkay new Drupal Standard, she has her very own Feed, but as above you can sign up for email alerts via a Feed43 Feed fed through Feedburner
Follow the A Bit of Culture via RSS or Email Alerts
LETS’S GET POLITICAL
Emily Ashton in the Standard: Formally the Whitehall Correspondent for the Sun no less but now she is the Senior Political Correspondent at Buzzfeed, where all staff are forced to wear an iWatch, but I think she is from the land to the north of The North so she should be able to cope. However, I think she does her best work for her column in The Standard and appropriately she now has a Feed in the funkay new Drupal Standard site, but as with with the others from The Standard or The Independent Moonblogs is being fed by a media rich Feed43 Feed and via Feedburner you can sign up for email alerts.
Of course, she has a feed already for Buzzfeed (the clue is in the name) so the odd article from that might well find its way to moonblogs via the wonder of a Feedly or Pocket tag (See below).
Adam Curtis -The Medium and the Message: a BBC blog from the filmmaker and self-proclaimed libertarian. If there is one blog worth following this is it.
Dave Hill’s Guardian profile feed: which includes his London Blog. Great stuff on regeneration in London which is in many ways is universal and unlike much of the media does not give “Mayor Jolly Good Fun” an easy ride.
Liberal Conspiracy: “the UK’s most popular left-of-centre politics blog”. A very simple but very informative blog that is a great counterweight to the mainstream media. It has become a bit dormont recently, but the odd post does appear now then.
Mark Steel in the Independent: Brilliant commentary on the absurd goings on in the political world in the UK which you don’t need to be some raving lefty to appreciate and find despairingly amusing. The feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarkSteelFeed43 now also had it’s very own blog from which you can also follow the feed by email, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter
Owen Jones in The Guardian He looks about 12 as you may have noticed with his frequent visits to TV studios, but he is very much old skool labour that is not quite the same as the mystical “Old Labour” which preceded Tony Blair. He was until recently with the Independent but has moved to the Guardian, and so he has a proper Feed
The Oldspeak Journal: “Just another voice in the progressive leftie blogosphere, railing against the powers that be. So typical, it’s tragic” A collection of news stories “OSJ” has read, and felt weren’t getting enough coverage in the “corporate media”. Hopefully, the world is not quite so messed up and doomed but the OSJ is always most interesting.
Follow Let’s Get Policial via RSS or Email Alerts
MUSIC
The Finest Kiss A Seatle based blog named after a Boo Radley track so how could you go wrong? A great place to discover guitar bands you won’t find yet, or ever on Deezer or Spotify, but probably just via Bandcamp/Soundcloud
God is in the TV “a self-described “online cultural fanzine”, which was founded five years ago by its Cardiff-based editor Bill Cummings. In the time since then Bill has built up the God is in the TV site with the aid of six sub-editors to feature the talents of approximately another 25 writers from across Britain.” And it is a brilliant guide to the wealth non-mainstream music out there as well as contributing to the music industry debates on streaming etc.
The VPME Self-described as “The filthy teddy bear on the bin wagon of music journalism”. It was brought to my attention by GIITTV, and it does cover much of the same ground but often at an early stage and Mr Pip also does a rather good podcast.
Follow the MUSIC via RSS or Email Alerts
SOCIAL MEDIA/TECH
Digital Inspiration from Amit Agarwal. A brilliant guide for all Untechs.
John Naughton in the Observer: The professor of the public understanding of technology at the Open University. He is the author of From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet. And he tends not to mince his words. Below is a couple of good examples:
“the awful moment when the public sector has to upgrade its computers is approaching inexorably. Think of it as technology’s equivalent to the Scottish referendum.”
“Facebook, on the other hand, makes nothing. It just provides an online service that, for the moment, people seem to value. But in order to make money out of those users and satisfy the denizens of Wall Street, it has to become ever more intrusive and manipulative. It’s condemned, in other words, to intrusive overstretch. Which is why, in the end, it will become a footnote in the history of the internet. Just like Microsoft, in fact. Sic transit gloria”
The Observer is part of the Guardian online, and so a Feed is not a problem.
Follow Social Media/Tech via RSS or get Email Alerts
THE ECONOMY STUPID
Anthony Hilton in the Standard: The 2014 Business Journalist of the Year at the Financial Media Awards and so now considered “news”. His articles have featured a few times in the Moon and below are a few highlights:
“In its four years, the Government has already borrowed more than Labour did in 13 years”
“Help to Buy is the major source of assistance for people seeking to buy social housing in the regions. It is making home ownership affordable to a whole slice of society which simply would not have a chance otherwise because they could never have accumulated enough deposit, but almost all of this is well outside London.”
“Until Big Bang, the problems came from dishonest people working in honest firms; today the problems are caused by honest people working in dishonest firms. The culture is rotten.”
Pre-2008 he was was warning of the unsustainable debt levels and what was happening in the City but more recently was not convinced that we had a double dip recession and the stats are finally catching up with him. He is also however not convinced that the current recovery is sustainable but it is better than nothing and though he has been scathing of dear Curious George many times his can also give credit where credit is due.
Again originally his articles were added to Moonblogs via a Google search Feed but now he does have his very own Feed, so the formally unfollowable Mr Hilton can now followed in any way possible thanks to the wonders of the like of IFTTT.
And as with the other Standard authors Mr Hilton is fed to Moonblogs via a media rich Feed43 Feed via Feedburner with Email Alerts
Hamish McRae in the Independent: Like Mr Hilton he did warn of the un-sustainability of pre-2008 and was also not convinced that we had a double dip but is also not convinced that the current recovery is very sustainable, but again thinks it is better than nothing. He is not as strident as Mr Hilton and tend to hedge his bets a bit- rather like Ms Flanders did with her BBC blog but, again as she did, he does some great analysis of the UK and worldwide economic issues.
Like the Evening Standard and because they have the same bearded owner, the Independent has now gone all Drupal funkey on us as well, and so each author has their very own Feed
But again like the Standard they are a bit dull and don’t work with Feedburner and so McRae’s articles are fed to Moonblogs with a Feed43 Feed via Feedburner with Email Alerts
Ben Chu in the Independent: Mr Chu has often stepped in to cover the Mr McRae column in the past and done a great job and now his own articles are often given a big billing in the printed copy, and his writing is becoming increasing more strident – Hiltonesque even, here is a recent headline:
“Osborne’s deficit reduction plan is more like a productivity reduction plan”
As with Mr McRae he now has his very own Feed, but Moonblogs is still fed by a Feed43 Feed with Email Alerts via Feedburner.
Follow The Economy Stupid via RSS or get Email Alerts
FEEDLY AND POCKET TAGS
I may also add the odd article from the likes of Paul Mason or Independent Voices from the likes of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown or Matthew Norman, or a tweet from Billy Bragg or Brian Moore (thanks to Digital Inspiration), via Feedly and IFTTT simply by adding a tag to an article. It can be done on just about any device, and it is pretty amazing that with these two brilliant free services* you can just so easily share an article to multiple blogs/social media. The tags will add articles to the relevant categories in moonblogsfromsyb that will then send the article on to Facebook and Twitter and even the Google+ page via Hootsuite.
*I have since found out that I can link up IFTTT and Feedly for free only because I was an early adopter, and so non-early adopters need to be signed up for a premium Feedly account. However, you can also use Pocket with IFTTT to do the same thing with any web page whether on Feedly or not, plus they have app for IOS and Android and, as ever, a great 3rd party option for Windows Phone called Poki. Plus it integrates with many other apps – such as the excellent 3rd party app for Feedly on Windows Phone – Nextgen Reader.
You can link up to the excellent Digg Reader and send articles you Digg to any other channel; the only restriction is that there is not the option to have tags as triggers. Digg also has some great Twitter integration that is superior to the free Feedly offer, but it does refresh feeds only every 4 hours rather than 2 for Feedly.
WordPress does make it easy to follow categories (see above) or get the full feed or sign up for instant e-mails or of course just follow the original blogs/feeds
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