February 15, 2005

The Great Bloglove of 2005 (aka The Great Blogf0ck of 2005 p2)
by Liza Sabater

The hearts were decorated.
The kisses were smacked.
The dinner served.
The flowers smelled.
The cake snacked.

Now that everything is quiet here in the homefront, I am taking a moment to send my love to all out there in the blogosphere who make my days a little less drab.

You thought I was blowing this one off, didn't you?

I've been thinking long and hard about how to write this second list. Part of me wanted to just make another list. The truth is, the people that appear here today have a special place in my Reality-based heart. Some of them I knew before blogging. Two of them I knew of virtually but did not meet until last year. Others I have met because of blogging. Some I've never met and only had a chance to blog-in-arms, exchange link love or amuse with snark and comments.

Lifetime Bloglove Award for being the most important social nodes in my blogosphere.

WYSIWYG Talent Show
It's by bloggers, for bloggers. Love you Chris, Andy and Dan and the rest of the WYSIWYG crew for giving me a reson to hang-out the first Tuesday of each month. It's because of you I get to listen read and even make friends with the best and the brightest of the New York City blogosphere. Many of them are the babes that blog:

I wanna see your hottpants again!
GirlyNYC used to put out her Hottpants blog. HOW I MISS IT! My motto in college was "For love, smokes, books and panties". It was great to find a kindred spirit in three of those departments. She once in a while posts at Gothamist Food, but it was her eye for knickers and thongs that I most cherished. Will edible panties be next?

Samba and pornography in a cup
Lusty Lady and The Brazilian Muse consistently make me break my wheatless diet with their love of cupcakes. Damn them! Muse is the master baker. Lusty is the ennabler. There has never been an event in which these sirens have not appeared with cupcakes and porn. If theirs is the way to hell, well, for the ganache and the erotica I am more than happy to follow.

The uber-Snark
People better watch out for Ms. Standard Deviance. She truly mocks the world --and with a vengeance. Check out her posts about the BlogCo's like GawkerMedia, Weblogs and now MediaBistro. She's smart, she's got a mouth and lots of snark to spare. Nice as hell in person but with a razor sharp wit. I'm just waiting for someone to cross her. It'll make for great blogmedy.

The WEPA Nena award goes to
AlexisT has a ¡qué se joda! boricua attitude I find incredibly refreshing. She makes me look like a straight laced matron with her brash sense of humor.

Another food pornographer
As much as I would like to read Laren at her blog, I am too busy drooling over her offerings of food porn at Gothamist. She is the food editor and the one responsible for my matutine salivary incontinence.

The promoter in training
I can't wait for Ms Nichelle to become a full-fledged events promoter. I swear, the woman has it in her. She's got an eye for stand-up comediennes with her Chicks 'n Giggles shows. She can throw together a party without batting an eye. Knows her music --what with those blog titlesof hers. And she is the one responsible for bringing into my blogosphere, through links, clicks and coincidences, the likes of Prometheus 6, Afro Netizen, Negrophile and Avery Tooley of Stereo describes my scenario.

Lifetime Bloglove Award to GOTHAMIST
Thanks Jen and Jake for publishing the most important website for NYC. Yup! It's not www.nyc.gov where you've got to go for what's happening in the Big Apple. It's your damn addictive blog. Thanks to you and the crew I get to dream of pandas, drool over food porn and look at this rainy and drab city with saffron-gated eyes.

Through GOTHAMIST I've met many people but the one that "sticks out" the most, not for being a blogger but for ennabling the best guilty treat of the blogosphere is Nick Denton. Nick, I know you're gonna find this one through Technorati, so I might as well put it out there to the world : I AM ADDICTED TO DEFAMER. I have no idea what it is about that blog that just sucks me in. And yes Nick, I do read at least once a week your other blogs; but it's Defamer that sucks 5, 10, 20 minutes of my life every day. Damn you!

Lifetime Bloglove Award to Six Apart
I have been known to criticize them, but you've got to hand it to Ben, Mena, Joi and Anil for creating the standard for all blog tools to come. Nope, it wasn't Blogger, it was MovableType and TypePad that made the blogosphere explode. And it's thanks to their tools I have met a lot of my blogospheric confreres.

And this blog is powered by Movable Type still. Why? Because it's good. Am I upgrading? Maybe. I did buy the new version but have not had the courage to do the upgrade --am afraid the thing will explode. But this here blogware is good, really good --that's why it hurt so much to learn it so well in order to bid it adieu. I have a real problem breaking up, so our blogware relationship might linger just a little longer.

Who's the best blogger of them all? Well, since I've been banned from all SixApart events, I'm gonna come clean : Sorry Joi, I really like Anil better. There, I said it.

Last but not least, a Lifetime Bloglove Award has to go to the ultimate power-blogger :
Christian Crumlish.

Xian publishes not one or two but seven blogs PLUS he writes for Personal Democracy Forum, keeps a diary at DailyKos and is spread around the web through mailing lists, wikis, social networking sites --you name it. In Xian's hands, the web is a very human technology because it is about people connecting, communicating and sharing. He even wrote a book about this way of socializing. Thanks to Xian, I have read, collaborated, or even met the likes of :

Filchyboy
Rayne Today
Markos Moulitzos-Zuniga and the world of DailyKos
Chris Bowers, James Armstrong & the world of MyDD
TalkLeft
Pandagon
Atrios

Who else is on my list?

Before there were blogs, there was the New York City Net [Art] Mafia: Three of my favorite bloggers are friends from that crew. Not only do I know TWhid, with the occasional snark of M. River and Joy Garnett of NewsGrist, but I actually like their art. A lot. Joy blogged here during the elections and I hope we can do it again. Or maybe it's TWhid's turn now?

Yo T.

The
blog
happens
here.

I also knew of Clay Shirky (truly blogging at Many-to-Many) and his work on social technology before blogging. Molly I had the joy to read on some e-lists (I think it was either WWW or 7-11) a loooong time ago and more recently through her books. And before I knew of blogs, CSS and web standards, I knew of Zeldman and his secret stash of icons. I just could not live without my Andy Warhol'con.

And someone who I have been also reading a lot lately, Jason Calacanis, I knew of through his Silicon Alley Reporter. JFC in a chicken basket! Jason is an effing 1000 gorilla blogging. Standard Deviance has called on his groove, but I really appreciate his candid writing. Go Jason!

Then there is Jonah Peretti and the original crew of Reblog. And through an event sponsored by Rhizome, one of the 2 NYC nodes of the net art world, I met James Wagner and Barry Hoggard.

The new media world of NYC is really, really small. Or so it seems.

Of course, my main connection to them, and for that matter to Xian, is my main squeeze, Mr. Potatoland, who has been quietly blogging about Art, Java and OpenGL for about six months now. This took him a while to warm to but thanks to his blogging, he's been able to crack some wicked code and, let me tell you all software art lovers out there, wait until you see his latest stuff. KK3 just rocks. If Jackson Pollock killed painting, thanks to OpenJGL and Napier it's been resurrected. Can't wait for the show!

Last but not least, this here blog has either brought to me these fine blogospecimens or made me stumble upon them and, quite frankly, I am happy it has been so :

He is either already in Tijuana or still in transit. El Oso is one of the most interesting and smartest people I have ever met. Go read his whole blog, NOW! This is one young'un that makes my heart swell with joy. And it says something either about me or the blogosphere : It's either I am really immature or the blogosphere just crashes age, sex, ethnicity and race barriers and makes us cut through the bullshit much faster.

Nick Lewis is not only Bushwhacking Through the Information Jungle. I've actually been checking in on his art blogging and, of course, checking in on the ever growing The Progressive Blog Alliance.

And these two, alone, bring me about 20 more blogs I want to read. It's just insane.

So here it is people. The Great Bloglove.

It's done.

Now back to our irregularly scheduled blogfucking.

Who's next?

Posted by Liza Sabater in Blogeratti, Blogs, New York City, Social Networks
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