To live and blog in L.A.
It began as any good Internet fable should -- two Internet-savvy twentysomethings who had never met face to face sit down in a coffee shop and, over a handshake, agree to develop a new idea.
In this case, the coffee shop was on Melrose Avenue; the idea was Blogging.la. Started in November by programmer Jason DeFillippo and designer Sean Bonner, both active bloggers, Blogging.la is a collective writing effort to capture the vibrant nature of Los Angeles. In the process, its hundreds of posts create a sense of community in a place that often does without.
The site does it in an understated, self-deprecating way. The FAQ file, for instance, clearly sets the vibe: “The goal of blogging.la is to create a central blah blah blah.... It’s a blog for crying out loud. Does it really need a purpose?”
Bonner and DeFillippo, both somewhat recent transplants to L.A., share an enthusiasm for the city and Web logs. They had mutual friends but hadn’t met before forming their impromptu partnership. DeFillippo, while in Pennsylvania last summer, struck on the idea of a site that would collect vignettes from “basically everyone who wanted to write about their cool experiences around town.” He contacted Bonner, who had been considering the same thing. They met last fall and got things rolling.
DeFillippo registered the web address Blogging.la. (Internet mavens will remember that historically, “.la” was meant for computer systems based in Laos, but the top-level domain is now promoted for sites with an L.A.-specific bent.) While DeFillippo programmed the system that automatically pooled contributions, Bonner worked on the design and rounded up a cadre of local online writers. The site launched at the end of November.
The early posts last December by longtime local bloggers Wil Wheaton, Chris Pirillo, Xeni Jardin and others talked about uniquely L.A. moments: the first “StormWatch” graphics of the winter on the nightly news, the confusing fliers stapled to telephone poles in Silver Lake, and the value of fresh cacti in the yard to one’s house appraisal.
Many of the bloggers on the site maintain personal blogs as well; they find, like with potato chips, that it’s hard to have just one. Bonner has four.
If you categorized each post, Blogging.la is probably one part personal observation, one part cool-event alert system and one part civic gripe session. “I’ve been trying for over a week to get my cable TV and Internet installed and have been met by nothing but incompetence and idiocy,” complained one recent post. But these are the unfiltered musings that give blogs their fresh, compelling quality -- less like publishing, more like conversation.
While blogs dot the Web -- one survey by Perseus Development Corp. estimated that 150,000 are updated at least weekly on large, hosted sites -- there are few urban group blogs. And those few are significantly less cohesive. Bloggers in other cities have contacted DeFillippo for help setting up similar sites, but he hasn’t had time.
Until you’ve read it, it’s hard to get a grip on what Blogging.la is about. One typical entry by Bill Poon begins with his description of one of the 10,500 parking attendants in Los Angeles County who often sit in lots after dark all over the Southland: “Passing by the Sam Woo’s barbecue restaurant late at night, I see the parking security man standing alone kept company by the few cars parked in the small lot. He carries a gun but I don’t know if he ever uses it. He’s an alone guy. But I don’t mean lonely -- I don’t know him that well.”
Many posts are accompanied by digital snapshots, occasionally by sound or video clips, and the site has a clean and inviting design. Across the top is a photo of a white wall and sidewalk, with a blue trash Dumpster to the side -- a sly visual comment. Some posts draw heated reactions, Bonner said, such as those on parking or driving behavior.
In the last several months, the site has grown to a total of 20 contributors, selected by Bonner and DeFillippo in a benevolent-dictator partnership carried out by instant messenger and e-mail. And the mix so far is working.
“People who wouldn’t normally read each other’s work or talk to each other have met and come together,” Bonner said, merging their styles and writing on diverse topics in a complementary way. DeFillippo originally thought they’d have a wider diversity of writers, but he says that the site is succeeding well as it is.
Would they make room for anyone else?
“Christopher Walken would be a great addition,” Bonner says.
DeFillippo knows who he’d like to avoid.
“The worst thing that could happen to this site is a studio exec is allowed to post to it someday,” he said.
Bonner has experience with getting creative types to work together. He and his wife, Caryn Coleman, own Sixspace art gallery, which they moved from Chicago to L.A., just south of downtown, two years ago. Curating an art show and stitching together blogs might seem to require similar skills, but Bonner demurred. “I guess there is a parallel,” he said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Robert Daeley, a writer and programmer who contributes to Blogging.la and several other blogs, has found themes emerging in his own posts over the months. He writes often about local history, “like those trippy electric trams that used to run between Santa Monica and Venice.”
“Due to the nature of the medium, much of [blogging.la] is ephemeral -- event announcements, etc.,” Daeley wrote via instant messenger. “But there is at once a chaos and a mellowness to the site. Reflecting, I suppose, L.A. as a whole.”
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Site specific
On Ugg boots ...
“I don’t [care] how comfortable they are, in Southern California, in 95 degree weather, no one needs to be wearing fur lined boots.”-- Sean Bonner
... and going Metro
“So we finally make it to Union Station in about a third of the time it would take to drive and pop over to the Gold Line, which is very much like a trip on the monorail at Disney World. Very sterile and robotic and on a track that’s pretty well elevated and will toss you like a third bottle of Schnapps in an earthquake.” -- Jason DeFillippo
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City of blogs
Blogging.la: Collective blog by 20 Angelenos that captures the vibrancy of the city, one observation at a time.
Art.blogging.la: The first Blogging.la spinoff, from Caryn Coleman, who had sufficient art-related postings to create a space just for those.
www.lablogs.com: A directory of local blogs; it also provides a community blog for Los Angeles-based bloggers.
www.lavoice.org: An online community of ultra-local news gatherers that encourages article-style postings sorted by topic.
www.lastories.com: A site for longer-form stories about the city; appears to be underused.
Travis Smith can be reached
