Ink for blogging.la*

The Los Angeles group blog started in November by programmer Jason DeFillippo and designer Sean Bonner gets a nice feature (sub. required) in today's LAT Weekend Calendar.

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.

Travis Smith, who used to run the online operation at Variety, freelanced the piece to the LAT.

* Next day update: Bonner follows up with a rant telling flacks and marketers to stop bothering them with pitches: We don't give a shit how cool you think your band/project/event/gizmo is, we're not writing about it. Please stop sending us press releases and hype filled e-mail. This site is about things WE think are cool, not things you are paid to think are cool and there for [sic] want to talk us into writing about...P.S. Go to hell.