Bloggers storming the media castle. Full-size.

I
generally don’t like talking about blogs and blogging. But lately there
have been some interesting developments here. The first and most
obvious thing is that blogging is booming in Slovenia. The number of Slovenian
blogs (or "slobs," for short) has doubled since June.
We’ve gone from 125 to 249. If this number continues to double every six
months, there will be more than two million bloggers by 2012. And if Domen keeps up his pace, half of them will be his.

Some other developments:

1) Delo Blogs: The leading Slovenian newspaper, Delo, has started offering a free blogging service.
Interestingly, they’ve decided to fold it into their own domain at
delo.si. There seems to be a lot of potential for mischief this way,
no? For example, I could quickly set up a blog, pick the name of a
known Delo journalist, write something crazy,
then circulate it to everyone I know saying: "Look at what’s in
Delo!!!" Perhaps some people would figure it out, but I’m willing to
guess that many would not. (Keep in mind that there are only 250 blogs
in the entire country, so anyone who tells you that "blogging is
booming in Slovenia" is, quite frankly, an imbecile.) Either way, I tested it out and found it quite easy to use. A big up to Delo!

2) Rozina: Billing itself as the Gnezdo tihe revolucije
"the nest of the quiet revolution," this is the collective blogging
home of several local celebrities. I don’t know exactly what kind of
revolution they’re planning, but so far it seems to be like the Revolutions of 1848
– "the turning point in history that failed to turn." The majority of
the rozina blogs have been fallow since August/September, leaving the two most-active members, Marko CrnkoviÄ? (alias crni) and gang-leader Jonas, to pick up the slack.

3)
The New Generation: Some great stuff has been coming along and I quickly
want to mention some of them. * Firstly, Slepo Crevo (alias the real slim crni)
is a mirror opposite of this site: The adventures of a Slovene in the
United States, written in Slovene. It’s finger-lickin’ good, even if he
does insult sacred American cultural institutions like Taco Bell and
KFC. * Second on the list: La Poulette,
a Slovene working in Brussels who is quickly becoming a favorite of
mine. If you like your blogs a bit risque and aren’t afraid of catching
avian influenza, go check out the chicken. * Thirdly, the Slovenia Diary,
a blog by an English oboist at the Slovenian Philharmonic. I’m a
classical music nutcase, so I’m hoping there will be some
behind-the-scenes posts as well. * Also new: Illyrian Gazette,
which joins the sparse ranks of blogs dedicated to the Balkans, with
some occasional hot Slovenia action as well. * Ill-advised,
although not very new, also deserves some applause for providing long,
thoughtful book reviews. * And, finally, a very warm welcome to Rok
Kajzer (a Delo correspondent in Zagreb) for his ultra-cool ZagreBlog. Don’t miss it!

I may have forgotten
some. If you’ve found anything good lately, let me know!