My favorite blog for my current town, Northampton, is Tommy Devine's Online Journal.
It's my old standby, though I admit I don't spend a lot of time seeking out other newer ones. I was also a fan of The Northamptonist, but he has since moved to New York City and that blog is more or less now deceased.
What I love about this blog is that it is both personal and political. There is always something fun in every post, he uses a mix of videos and pictures. He uses both found videos and his own original videos.
I don't like blogs that talk too much about families and kids... and where Tommy doesn't have kids, that rarely comes up. The content is more about interesting or controversial things happening in the community.
He has a great eye for noticing things around me that I never do. I often go to his site to find ideas for longer stories for classes or the Collegian.
The blog is especially interesting lately as Tommy has moved about a few times between Northampton and Amherst, and in his daily travels he passes through both towns. This is similar to how I live my life commuting to school in Amherst from Northampton so all of his content is of great interest to me.
Most recently I liked his entry where he mentions how a local bookstore is going out of business. I didn't know till I read his blog.
The internet has made it difficult to impossible to run an old fashioned bookstore at a profit. The same thing is happening to record stores. What book or record store, however large their selection, can match the size and price of the internet? In the case of the Jeffery Amherst however, it also didn't help that the owner is 79 years old. He offered the business for sale at a low price, but no one wanted to climb aboard a sinking ship.
He links out a lot and the posts are always fun to read.
I also love that he makes his identity known and as a result I have met him in person. I see him around quite often and it's pretty great that I actually know the person who's local blog I like the most.
