Recently in Weblogs Category

So, one of the first big pieces of Brooklyn news that I picked up on was that Brooklyn Record has been shuttered and disappeared from the web. This made me sad, as it did many blog-readers, and it made me wonder if the Brooklyn blog boom isn't in a bit of a downturn, if that initial boom (was it two, three years ago) has started to settle. It's entirely possible I'm basing this on my own decrease of attention to my blog, which is mostly based on a more demanding day job. Thoughts?

• Firemen at unopened Leo's Corner ... again [Esthetic/Aesthetic]
• Where to find NYC condoms in Clinton Hill [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Update on that new wine bar at Union and Hoyt [Brooklyn Record]
• Free McCarren Park concerts are back in 'o7 [Brooklyn Vegan]
• Second Brooklyn blogfest at Stone House [OTBKB]

Also, Zombie Hit is having an Oscar party tonight with free pizza and two large screens for optimal viewing. Expect a competitive Oscar pool.

Dennis (of ABL:Radio podcast fame) gives me a hard time when I don't post for a day or two; he's a true blog slave driver. But, at least I don't do what Gothamist does and post a photo of broccoli romanesco one day after ABL posts a very similar photo. Sure, I'm happy they read the site, but give a little credit! So, to give a little credit where credit is due, I present a list entitled

Fun Blog Posts in Brooklyn

• Super-cute El Gato del Dia posts [via 423Smith]
• Cutest kid in Brooklyn causes trouble [ABrooklynLad]
• When buttons go bad [BadButtons]
• Neckface gets his own Vans [via Brooklyn Ramblings]
• Gowanus' Brooklyn Casket company looking into Queens [BKRecord]
• Fab Halloween cat statue (and a question about NYEve) [Callalillie]
• Spooky Greenwood Cemetery shots [DopeontheSlope]
• Romantic Brooklyn street art [Sunset Parker]
• More talk of trollies in Brooklyn [Gowanus Lounge]
• Cut and Paste competition on Saturday [Until Monday]
• Motivation for the burnt-out blogger? [Zeebahtronic]

This next post violates two rules: It comes dangerously close to self promotion and it is not about Brooklyn. It is in fact about Manhattan, and about one of the most vainglorious Manhattan events, Fashion Week, or Olympus Fashion Week if you believe in things like the Wrigley Smuckers Jiffy-Lube Staples 3M Sports Complex Center. This fashion blog of which I speak, Fashion Geek, to be precise, is written by a good friend and colleague. AND it's super funny. Where else would you read about the latest fashion and get a Tolkien joke thrown in? Good stuff. Read it. Often. Like every day.

In honor of summer, we'll be going a bit light for the next week, but don't totally tune out, we have some gems lined up :)

Typepad started to melt down, but it is now back. If you are an avid enough reader (of course you are), you might have noticed things disappearing, reappearing or being generally unavailable. This appears to be fixed and we return now to our regularly scheduled programming.

Went to hear a reading by Julie Powell of the Julie/Julia Project blog last night at KGB Bar, which chronicled her attempts at cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one day at a time for an entire year. Back in the day, when my innocent little cyberspace self first started at an internet company (well past that period of time when people were making money and well into that period where people were losing it), my new coworkers began sending me time-wasting edifying links to various sites that would surely improve my understanding of the Web and its function across a range of diverse and utterly wholesome subject matters. Having spent the previous two and a half years slaving away at grad school (I still remember the first time a fellow grad student suggested I use Google for an academic-related search--how quaint), reading snarky commentary about the minutea of other people's lives was at once refreshing and yet somehow strangely familiar. As a result of those happy, time-wasting IMs, The Julie/Julia project became favorite daily reading material around the office, especially amongst those who were attempting to create some semblance of modern domesticity at home. While this was not me, reading her blog sticks in my memory as a moment where the internet reached across its techy divide and became a place where ordinary people could star in their own public--and often very amusing--dramas. I was hooked.   So congrats to Julie for getting her book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, published even if the NYTimes doesn't love it (I haven't read the book yet, so I can't say if it's awesome or underwhelming). I also saw Amanda Hesser, who was there reading from her book Cooking for Mr. Latte. As is often the case, she was not what I expected.

Julie also has a new blog.
 

Totally blog-geek: Find out what your blog is worth here (or see what someone else's is worth). I have no idea how they figure this--traffic?--but it's fun.

D: If your blog were a child, it'd be dead.
E: That's why we don't have children.

No, I didn't die of Nobu-related food poisoning. (If anything Nobu might bore you to death food-wise, but I don't think it'd kill you.) I guess I've gotten a wee bit lazy. There, I've said it, bloggers are by nature lazy, and some of them make up for this by linking to a bunch of other people's links and saying nice or funny or sarcastic things about them. Others pretend their blogs don't exist for a day or two or five, and then jump right back into the fray. <<plunge>>

That said, even though I'm loving our Brooklyn backyard and am desperately searching for a reasonably priced copper fire pit so I can stay out there until mid-November, I have to hand it to Cityrag, a neat-o mobile home and a piece of land overlooking the Catskills isn't the worst thing in the world. Cityrag, can I come hang out with you on the weekends? Where's Buddy?

Kitten War: kind of like hot or not, only with kittens (thanks for sending, Becky). Speaking of hotornot, it's been ages since I've checked it out. But it's still going, and the pictures are just as scary as ever.