There’s a slew of blogs filed under B to take care of this week. The first of which is Ben Fong-Torres’s blog. The former Stone editor, author and scribe has chosen The Red Room site to host his blog where one can read his musings, catch audio and video clips and have access to related links, including ones to his published works.
Recent entries include musings on how one of his supposedly limited edition autographed books (with Ray Manzarek) from a smaller book shop in the Bay Area wound up at a Barnes & Noble bargain bin. And his ventures into karaoke, one which led him to the Dick Clark produced, “Your Big Break” in 2000, where contestants dressed as the song’s originators. Take that, Zimmy.

Up next is BerlinBites, expatriate and NPR correspondant, Ed Ward’s blog, which has since switched to City on a Hill (Ward in France) his “Blog From Montpellier, France. Food, Wine, Travel, and, Unavoidably, the French”, upon his move to Montpelier earlier this spring. B2 is kept on our sidebar since its terribly interesting and leads the reader right to the latest City on a Hill entry.
Of his move, Ed candidly writes, “Berlin, it seems, is a place which doesn’t seem to hold people: even a large percentage of the Germans I’ve known over the years have moved on, unable to achieve what they wanted to do in the negative atmosphere the place exudes. Berlin is broke. Berlin is huge. Berlin is ugly. Individuals can try to spend a part of their energy in resisting that, or they can move on. I made my choice.”
Hmm… not the panacea of marzipan and cross-dressing that Lou Reed painted. But what didn’t kill either of them sent one to South France where he writes so descriptively of the place that the reader feels as if they are there. The vivid visuals don’t hurt, either. Sacre bleu, Ed.

And lastly, but certainly not leastly, budscorner lets you, the reader, in on the mind of music writer and former A&R man, Bud Scoppa. Here you can read selections of his mid-year playlist to his thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Scoppa even treats you to some exclusive interviews, like he did earlier this spring with guitar empresario, M. Ward.

These veteran music writers have definitely evolved and branched out in terms of music and subjects, so visiting them is always worthwhile.