If you ever want to point a finger at the person to blame for my getting into blogging, it would not be incorrect to point it at Ken Layne.

Layne was one of the first and best journalist-bloggers, starting in something like 1999. (I’ve known Ken since the early 1990s when he was a reporter at another small daily in San Diego County and played in a band with my high school chum and roommate.)

Click that link above and you’ll find a blog. But not his old blog. Either by accident or design, all of his old posts have disappeared from the blogosphere. In other words, you can’t read his brilliant posts about crows and religious politics. Now, Layne posts something ocassionally, and occassionally I read it.

He’s one of the best damn writers I know, and he should blog more.

At least AOL was smart enough to give him a column.

Thanks to Ken, I met Matt Welch, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, now returning to Reason Magazine, and already getting promo from the Washington Post. Matt also has a book out. Rumor has it Matt has some new music coming out, too. If you can’t wait, there’s always Ken Layne and the Corvids.