Our blog is like, the antithesis of this t-shirt. Promise.
It’s been a year since we revamped our site, and since then we’ve run a ton of great stories that haven’t appeared in your inbox. If you only know us as an email, these are a few of the excellent features on our blog:
Today, we published the winning essay of our first essay contest. The theme was “Journeys” and BB guest editor Orli Van Mourik selected “Here There Be Monsters” by Helena Fitzgerald, who won us over with her evocative style and her thoughtful observations about her spur-of-the-moment trip to Barcelona. We’ll be running these contests regularly; check out our latest call for submissions here.
Every Tuesday, music blogger Liza Eckert gives us her picks for live music in Brooklyn. This week, a music summit featuring Ted Leo and an Amanda Palmer show (and post-Irene Vermont benefit) at Brooklyn Bowl made her “Don’t Miss” list.
Brendan Spiegel regularly files Neighborhood Food Showdowns on our blog. For each, he pits two local restaurants or food vendors that serve similar fare against each other, and deems one the champion. See where he stands on Boerum Hill’s best Montreal bagel, Clinton Hill’s best taco, Smorgasburg’s best frozen banana, and Fort Greene’s best grilled cheese. Next, he’ll be comparing two Pan-Asian cafes on Vanderbilt Ave. in Prospect Heights–the new Sunburnt Cafe vs. Chuko, just down the block. (If you’ve got any other recommendations for Brendan, send them on!)
Colleen Kane is another awesome contributor who writes a column called Brooklyn 2.0. The name is shorthand for her sharp, cheeky perspective on Brooklyn a second time around, after a brief stint in Baton Rouge. Her recent story about surviving a hurricane in Louisiana put our Irene hysteria in check, and in her latest column she pokes fun at our local paper.
BB Songs is another blog-only feature. Every month or so, we offer an exclusive mp3 of a song recorded by a Brooklyn band at Nadim Issa’s studio, Let ‘Em In Music. We kicked off the series with Alina Simone’s cover of “Oops I Did It Again,” and Sarah Lynn Knowles of Storychord curated a string of great acts including Motel Motel and Ava Luna. Now, Laura Leebove is heading up BB Songs, but with a twist. Each artist who records a song for us also cooks with Laura, and gives her a recipe inspired by the song for her blog, Eating the Beats. Last month, The Shondes covered Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” and gave Laura a homemade Pop-Tarts recipe. Later this month, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper will share their version of “All I Really Want to Do,” and a recipe for a strange sandwich involving baked apples and coleslaw.
We’re introducing columns all the time–if you’ve got a yen to write about something on a weekly or biweekly basis, give us a shout. We’d love to hear your ideas. Booklyn, a column about Brooklyn authors by Michael Sauter is the newest, but is soon to lose that distinction to a comedy column by writer Lon Koontz. (We haven’t named it yet, anyone got suggestions?) We also regularly expand on our emails like we did in this week’s Right Rides, and delve deeper into Tip Sheet events, like last week’s post Nuit Blanche Lights up the Greenpoint Night.
Here at BB one of our mantras is, “Don’t be annoying.” We know that as much as you love us, you also get a ton of email. That’s why we only invite ourselves into your inboxes three or four times a week (and for those who prefer BB in a feed reader, you can always subscribe to our RSS here). But there’s just so much awesome stuff to write about in Brooklyn, and beyond, that our stories, contests, observations and commentary has overflowed onto our blog. If it’s not on your radar, it should be.
