Here's the second batch of Blogroll profiles. I apologize for the delay; I have lots of blogs that start with "B" for some reason.
Blog: Baseball Crank
Blogger: The Baseball Crank
Location: Unkown
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: The Crank, despite his name, is not a baseball-only blog; it mixes in right-leaning political commentary with all the baseball.
Best. Post. Ever.: A look at why the political Blogosphere has more influenced by baseball writer Bill James than by perhaps anyone else.
Blog: BatGirl.com
Blogger: Team Batgirl (led by Anne “BatGirl” Ursu)
Location: Minnesota
Have I Met Her? No
Why She’s On the ‘Roll: A Twins blogger with “less stats, more sass,” BatGirl is also uniformly hilarious, making excellent use of Photoshop and, more famously, Lego-vision.
Best. Post. Ever.: When the Twins were blacked out locally during the first month of the season, Bat-Girl provided Twins fans with re-enactments, such as this one, with Legos standing in for players. She later did the same on a local TV news show.
Blog: Beats & Rants
Blogger: Trent Fitzgerald
Location: Brooklyn
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: Sometime Village Voice music writer Trent covers music trends and other fun stuff, up to and including the cameltoe.
Best. Post. Ever.: A justifiably excited preview of last year’s Outkast album.
Blog: Belligerent Albino
Blogger: Victor Varnado
Location: LA
Have I Met Him? Yes
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: The musings of a comedian/actor who is generally considered America’s foremost African-American albino entertainer. Years ago, I used to see Victor perform improv in Minneapolis.
Best. Post. Ever.: Victor shares, nearly unedited, a script from the late, lamented TV show “The Secret Diary of Desmond Phieffer.”
Blog: BenKepple.com
Blogger: Benjamin Kepple
Location: New Hampshire
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: Ben, an actual newspaper reporter in Manchester, New Hampshire, had a front-row seat for that state’s primary, an event most bloggers won’t even go within miles of. Freed on his blog from the shackles of objective reporting, Ben looks at both politics and pop culture from a delightfully detached perspective.
Best. Post. Ever.: A response to something I wrote about women keeping their maiden names after marriage.
Blog: Best Week Ever Blog
Blogger: Various Artists
Location: Various
Have I Met Them? I’ve watched them.
Why Their On the ‘Roll: The Corsair, Daniel Radosh, and the other commentators bring the same snarky sensibility to the Blogosphere that its VH1 companion series does on TV.
Best. Post. Ever.: A comparison of the new Iraqi government to "Animal House."
Blog: Big Red’s Man Barn
Blogger: Jordan
Location: LA
Have I Met Him? Yes
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: A young, generally successful screenwriter in Hollywood, Jordan’s blog first caught my attention two years ago with his series of “succubus” stories- tales of his various nightmarish relationships and breakups that are both hilarious and familiar to us all, and we’ve since become real-life friends. And the title of the blog isn’t nearly as gay as it sounds.
Best. Post. Ever.: It’s gotta be the original succubus story.
Blog: Big Stupid Tommy
Blogger: Tommy
Location: Tennessee
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: A lover of movies and the Cubs (two things I’m partial to), Tommy's a fun read who always does really well on my periodic movie quote quizzes.
Best. Post. Ever.: This look at the misplaced, post-Columbine/9-11 "vigilance" educators aim at kids, using the example of a principal who "went apeshit" over an "un-American" poem a student wrote.
Blog: The Bleat
Blogger: James Lileks
Location: Minnesota
Have I Met Him? I wish.
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: The man who intersperses sweet tales of his toddler daughter “Nat” with appreciations of trash pop culture and fire-breathing denunciations of terrorists and the Left, Lileks may have the highest “on-base percentage” of any blogger. And on top of that, he’s a Minnesotan, who writes for the paper I grew up reading, the Star Tribune.
Best. Post. Ever.: There are so many to choose from, but I’ve gotta go with his brilliant first-anniversary-of-9/11 post.
Blog: Bloviating Inanities
Blogger: Bill Cimino, and Friends
Location: Norfolk, VA
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: Possibly the most consistently funny blogger out there, consisting largely of years-old drinking stories and Bill and his commenters tossing insults at one another.
Best. Post. Ever.: Last St. Patrick's Day, Bill was overthrown in a "coup d'etat" by the co-bloggers, who spent the entire day posting while getting progressively more drunk all the while. Read the March archives and scroll down to the 17th; it's some of the funniest stuff you'll ever see.
Blog: Boi From Troy
Blogger: Boi From Troy
Location: LA
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: A Californian gay Republican, Boi tosses in savvy political commentary with Wonkette-worthy cattiness. Some excellent Washingtonienne stuff back then as well.
Best. Post. Ever.: His timetable for a "Dump Cheney Rollout Strategy."
Blog: The Bonnasus
Blogger: Daniel Geffen
Location: New York
Have I Met Him? No
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: A grad student who, unlike most bloggers, actually knows politics and doesn’t just pretend to, Daniel’s greatest moment of blog fame came when he first noticed the similarities between George W. Bush and “The Sopranos”’ Little Carmine, an idea later ripped off by Entertainment Weekly, among others.
Best. Post. Ever.: The Carmine Comparison
Blog: Buzzmachine
Blogger: Jeff Jarvis
Location: New Jersey
Have I Met Him? Yes
Why He’s On the ‘Roll: A journalist, entrepreneur, and media maven, Jeff probably knows more about the business and cultural aspects of blogging than anyone else. He ran a seminar on “Blogging as Business” that was the most well-attended event at the recent BloggerCon at Harvard. He’s an expert on everything from Iranian politics to Howard Stern, and loathes Michael Moore as much as I do but is still voting for Kerry. Oh yea, and he also founded one of my favorite magazines, Entertainment Weekly.
Best. Post. Ever.: It has to be his 9/11 story, one of the Blogosphere’s best.
awwww dude!!!!
I'm in prague right now. more later