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Scott Martelle has the cover piece in the Weekend Calendar section on local blogs: "In an odd synchronicity, as the pervasiveness of the Internet and mass media homogenizes mass culture, blogs have become small independent voices, like blades of grass poking up through cracks in cement. They are gasps for air and identity in a city known from the outside as lacking a discernible sense of place." A University of New Hampshire professor serves as the talking head: "L.A. people, like most people, hunger for interaction and community and are relying more heavily on the blogosphere than those who live in places where other forms of interaction are more readily available." Bunch of bloggers from the LA Observed blogroll are mentioned in the story and accompanying box, plus a few that aren't here (yet.)
Navigation quirk: You won't find the story if you go to the Times website and click on today's Weekend Calendar section.
* The cover photo is of Heathervescent. Cathy Seipp has a bad reaction to the story. Response also at blogging.la and Franklin Avenue. 4:15 pm