The Big List of Culture Blogs

Art/Visual Arts

• Absolute Arts.com Art Blog: A stable of versed bloggers who look at a spectrum of art-related themes.
• Alec Soth: Photographica, miscellanea, et cetera.
• Art.Blogging.La: An art blog started by Caryn Coleman that discusses and promotes the vital art scene in LA.
• ArtByUs.com: An eclectic and international art news site.
• Art Forum: A good look at the art event and social scene. Somewhat for insiders.
• Art Law Blog: Title kind of sums it up.
• Art News Blog: The blog digs up new stories, reviews, guides, and articles found online and shares them each day. Stories have an international focus with an emphasis on the visual arts.
• Art World Salon:Looks at the fast-paced transformations taking place in the global art world. Frequently looks at the economic side of things.
• Conscientious: A weblog about fine-art photography (and more).
• Contemporary Pulitzer: An art blog put together jointly by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.
• Cronaca: A compilation of news concerning art, archeology, history, and whatever else catches the chronicler’s eye, with the odd bit of opinion and commentary thrown in.
• Edward Winkleman: Art, politics, gossip and tough love from a NYC arts dealer. You’ll find this site listed on many-a-blogroll.
• Eye Level: A blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, it uses the museum’s collection as a touchstone and is dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture. Surprisingly, one of the few blogs to come out of the museum world.
• Fallon and Rosof’s Artblog: Art reviews, deep thoughts, and gossip from Philadelphia and beyond.
• Gallery Hopper: A guide to the best of fine art photography, galleries and events in New York City and beyond.
• Grammar Police: A well-regard art blog that Wonkette summarizes as “local art fag par excellence.“
• Gravestmor: A widely-cited architecture blog coming out of Australia.
• Guardian Art & Architecture Blog: A British take on the arts world. One of the few blogs cited here from the mainstream press.
• Life Without Buildings: News and notes from an architecture weblog with a penchant for giant statues and postmodern culture.
• Looking Around: A blog by Richard Lacayo, who writes about books, art and architecture at TIME Magazine.
• Magnum Photos: A multi-author, aesthetically well designed photography blog.
• Modern Art Notes:Voila, Tyler Green’s blog about modern and contemporary art. The Wall Street Journal has called MAN “the most influential of all visual-arts blogs.”
• Pleiady – Thoughts for a New Generation: A blog on the Art of Now.
• smARThistory: General Musings about using technology to teach with images by two art historians, Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Often features links to worthwhile art history podcasts.
• The Art History Newsletter: If there are academics among us, this is for you.
• The Art Life: Features a lengthy art site blogroll. Look down the right hand side and you’ll see what I mean.

Books/Literature

• Blog of a Book Slut: Bookslut’s editor-in-chief, Jessa Crispin, provides links and commentary for those who love to read. The popular related website includes feature stories, author interviews, reviews, columns about book-related content, etc.
• BookDaddy: It’s your source for intelligent book blather. The stated mission of the site is to “ponder print media, literacy & publishing. Anything on wood pulp, pixels or stone is up for discussion.”
• Books, Inq: This blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at a book-review editor’s world. In this case, the book review editor is Frank Wilson, of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• Book World: What you get here is one woman’s attempt to read what’s worth reading and say something about it along the way.
• Chekhov’s Mistress: An oft-cited literature blog written by Bud Parr, a book lover who also runs a network of literary blogs called MetaxuCafe.
• Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: Sarah Weinman puts together here “a respected resource for commentary on crime and mystery fiction.”
• Critical Mass: Offering commentary on literary criticism, publishing, and writing, this blog is written by the Board of Directors of the non-profit that issues the yearly National Book Critics Circle Awards.
• Eve’s Alexandria: A nicely balanced multi-person literary blog coming out of the UK.
• Laurable’s Poetry Weblog: A poetry weblog that specializes in connecting readers with audio of poets reading their work.
• Maud Newton: A widely-read blog that specializes in publishing & writing industry news, plus occasional literary links, amusements, politics, and rants.
• Moorish Girl: A well regarded book and literature blog written by Laila Lalami, author of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits.
• Rake’s Progress: Named by The Guardian as one of the 10 best book blogs.
• ReadySteadyBlog: Run by Mark Thwaite, this is an “independent book review website … devoted to reviewing the very best books in literary fiction, poetry, history and philosophy.”
• Slate Books: Even though technically not a blog, it should be on your reading list.
• So Many Books: Given the tagline ‘the agony and the ecstasy of a reading life,” here’s a lauded blog that takes you into the reading world of Stephanie Hollmichel.
• The Elegant Variation: A well-reviewed and respected book blog that tends to give special attention to the LA literary scene. Features a really extensive blogroll that’s worth picking through.
• The Guardian Book Blog: It’s not exactly your average independent book blog, but it’s got valuable content and it’s worth your time.
• The Kenyon Review Blog: If you’re a writer, you surely know The Kenyon Review, and you should also get to know their blog.
• The Litblog Co-Op: A useful blog that unites the “leading literary weblogs for the purpose of drawing attention to the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses, struggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace.”
• This Space: A literary blog written by Stephen Mitchelmore, a blogger who Ready Steady Book deems “the finest writer we have in the literary blogosphere.”
• Words Without Borders Blog: This weblog is the online complement to Words Without Borders: The Online Magazine for International Literature. And, yes, as you’d expect, it’s a literature blog with an international focus.

Music

• Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise: A blog by the music critic of the one and only New Yorker magazine.
• All About Jazz Bloglist: What you get here is not so much a blog, but, even better, a meta-list of jazz blogs. This should keep jazz aficionados busy for some time.
• Arjan Writes: A well-reviewed blog that looks at pop-alternative music. Features album reviews, interviews and free downloads of demo tracks and new releases, plus videos from new bands.
• ArtsBeat: A blog put out by reporters and critics from The New York Times. Includes reporting from arts events from around the world, including recent reports from the festival at Coachella and the New Orleans Jazzand Heritage Festival.
• Blogcritics Music: A community of writers and readers from around the globe musing about music.
• Brooklyn Vegan: An “NYC-centric mostly-music blog that focuses on reporting international news, live show reviews, pictures, tour dates, gossip, tips, MP3’s, videos, and just about anything else a music fan could want.”
• Chicago Classical Music: A Chicago-focused blog for classical music enthusiasts.
• Coolfer: A blog that “focuses more on the music industry than on specific bands.” Want to know about music stories in the news? Then look here.
• David Gilmour: You know him from Pink Floyd. Check out his personal blog.
• David’s Journal: Along similar lines, this blog is put out by David Byrne, heady head of the Talking Heads.
• Feast of Music: A journey through the music of New York (and occasionally other places). Emphasis is on classical music.
• Glorious Noise: An online music magazine featuring essays and stories about how rock and roll can change your life.
• Gorilla vs. Bear: Recommended by Nothing But Green Lights. See below.
• Guardian Music Blog: An eclectic blog put together by The Guardian in the UK.
• I Guess I’m Floating: Music and music news of the rock ‘n roll variety.
• Ionarts: A D.C.-based arts blog with a marked emphasis on classical music.
• Largehearted Boy: A “music blog featuring daily free and legal music downloads as well asnews from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture.”
• Live Music Blog: Nothing like a title that pretty much summarizes it all. Yes, this is a blog about live music.
• Marathon Packs: Writes about and lets you listen to interesting songs.
• Moby’s Journal: Here again another not-entirely-musical blog by a music celeb — Moby.
• Motel De Moka: A daily blog posting eclectic playlists, including indie rock, acoustics and ambient.
• Music for Robots: An acclaimed mp3 blog that features diverse music. All music is posted with the permission of the artist and/or label.
• My Old Kentucky Blog: What’s new and hot in indie rock, pop, folk and hip-hop.
• Nothing But Green Lights: A UK-based mp3 blog that keeps track of indie, electro, folk & pop, all from the UK. The site only posts tracks that the internet is giving away for free, or ones that have been granted permission.
• NYC Opera Fanatic: A blog for the opera lover (a term, however unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to me).
• Ryan’s Smashing Life: A New England music blog coming out of Boston.
• Sandow: “Is classical music dying? That’s a big topic, and a blog seems like a perfect way to attack it.” That’s how critic, Greg Sandow, describes his blog.
• Stereogum: A popular gossipy blog about the indie music scene. The site often posts mp3s of new music, plus offers record reviews, announces tour dates, and covers music festivals.
• The Modern Age: A highly touted blog about “about music, pop culture, the Strokes, puppies, JackWhite, and cute boys.” Brought to you by Miss Modernage.
• Twangville: Covering “twang-infused music with an alternative slant.” Alt-Country, Americana, Indie, Rock, Folk & Blues.
• Vulpes Libris: “Vulpes Libris: A multi-national pack of bookfoxes blogging, reviewing and chatting about books and book matters. Participation welcome.”
• Your Home For Soul: As you can tell, it’s a blog for soul fans.

Movies

• Alternative Film Guide: A nice resource for anyone who wants to go beyond mainstream movies.
• Cahiers du cinéma: This is not exactly a blog. Rather it’s the site for the very influential French film magazine founded in 1951. If you read French, definitely give it a look.
• Cinecultist: This cinema blog comes straight to you from the East Village in NYC, and it’s put together mainly by Karen Wilson, a freelance writer and editor with a film background.
• Cinema Minima: A news blog for movie makers that digests information about movie making, acting, distribution, and film festivals.
• Cinema Strikes Back: The site covers movies worldwide with news, reviews, interviews and film festival reports. It also offers advanced looks at upcoming movies and DVDs. Has a particular focus on genre, cult and foreign films.
• Cinemarati: Created by the The Web Alliance for Film Commentary, this blog brings together onlinefilm critics for serious, and seriously fun, discussion about film, and also counters the notion that “anyone with a modem can be a critic.”
• Cinematical: Part of the Weblogs, Inc. network, Cinematical keeps tabs on what’s new in film.
• Clip Joint: Put out by the Guardian, this blog presents a roundup of top cinema-related clips on the internet.
• Cynthia Rockwell’s Waiting Room: A site that you’ll find listed on many A-list film blogs.
• Dave Kehr.com: When not blogging, Dave writes “Critic’s Choice: New DVDs,” a column that appears in The New York Times and is archived here.
• Deadline Hollywood Daily: Published by LA Weekly, this blog is written by journalist Nikki Finke, who writes about the business, politics and culture of the infotainment industry.
• Drifting: David Lowery discourses here on film, at least most of the time.
• Film Experience Blog: What you get here are cinematic musings from Nathaniel R with frequent dips into pop culture miscellania.
• Flickhead: Keeping it reel!
• Green Cine Daily: GreenCine Daily is primarily written by GC Editor David Hudson. A nice comprehensive blog.
• Hell on Frisco Bay: The journal of a cinephile haunting the remaining movie houses of the San Francisco Bay Area.
• If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger: Cultural observations by Tom Sutpen, Stephen Cooke and Richard Gibson.
• Like Anna Karina’s Sweater: A film and culture blog with a focus on non-mainstream topics, written by a professional screenwriter and a part-time misanthrope.
• Lost in Negative Space: For provocative film criticism with an underdog bite. Written by Peter Gelderblom.
• Masters of Cinema: Five bloggers from three different countries bring pertinent information together in one placefor aficionados of World Cinema.
• Movie City Indie: Independent movies, independent thinking by Ray Pride.
• Not Coming to a Theater Near You: A site with a bias towards older, often unpopular, and sometimes unknown films that merit a second look.
• Notes from the Underdog: On writing, screenwriting, films, music, and the political landscape.
• Scanners: A film blog written by Jim Emerson, a Seattle-based writer and film critic, who is also the founding editor-in-chief of RogerEbert.com.
• Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: Hard to summarize this one (as the title kind of demonstrates). Better just to see it instead.