Smart people talking about stupid things

I've already posted some of my favorite individual posts from Kissing Suzy Kolber and Fametracker, but I wanted to share two more sites along those lines: Pajiba and Television Without Pity.

Pajiba describes itself at "Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People." It used to be all movies, with an occasional TV column, but though it's still film-oriented, now it includes a couple celeb-blog links, and occasional current affairs column, etc. Television Without Pity (TWoP), is all television recaps, all the time, and also has excellent, well-organized forums (read: trolls are an endangered species).

All these sites are written by smartypantses with just enough motivation to rant on completely irrelevent topics. While bloggers like Perez Hilton (no, I will not give that pathetic trollop a link) make me want to set a junior high school on fire (thanks, Fitzy!), KSK, TWoP, et al are like the great friends who gossiped with you, and you didn't feel guilty because you knew you could theoretically talk with them about John Updikes latest novel, but that would be boring. It's guilty pleasure without any of that pesky guilt!

I don't think it's any coincidence that the TWoP and Fametracker site designs are by Glark, and that both feature contributions from Sars and Wing Chun. They are friends with Pamie, whom I also recommend, in addition to these sites:

• McSweeney's - articles in a sort of New Yorker parody
  
• Neatorama and Boing Boing - random (but well edited) assortment of great Internet finds
  
• Lifehacker - a Gawker Media blog with lots of tips, hacks, downloads, etc. to make your life easier
  
• Salon, Radar, and Slate - with varying levels of satire, online magazines covering a variety of current affairs, arts/entertainment, and feature stories
  
• Stereogum - music (and associated news and commentary) that doesn't suck
  
• Snarkmarket and Damn Hell Ass Kings - like Salon, Radar, and Slate, but more bloggy, less magazine-y
  
• Signal vs. Noise - a design and usability blog by 37signals
  
• 50 books - "One Woman. One Year. Countless Distractions."
  
• Go Fug Yourself - hilarious celebrity fashion site, "because fugly is the new pretty"
  
• Who In the What Now? - a daily word association blog