What’s Up in the Neighborhood, December 30 2023

Good morning, blog readers, and as you know, this is the day of the week when I step back and showcase the great works of my fellow bloggers and photographers, all of whom are part of this blog’s blogroll. 

But if you’re new to my blog, or aren’t sure why I do this every Saturday … let me tell you a story.

Back in ancient times, my blog was carried as part of the online edition of the Albany Times Union newspaper. And they wanted to showcase their blog talent – both independent and staff – by, once a day, reprinting part of a blog in their print edition. This was a nice little perk – the paper would showcase our work to encourage people to check out the online features. I mean, it was the only perk the TU provided. They certainly didn’t PAY the community bloggers.

But in 2013, the TU made a big change. They dropped the daily print feature to showcase one staff blogger and one staff blogger only. Which really, really sucked. It was essentially saying to us that we weren’t as important as the staff writers. We were essentially dismissed as “reader-bloggers,” a clunky portmanteau of suggesting that “we can read and we can blog.” Ugh.

It was at that point that I said to myself, “Well, if the TU isn’t interested in showcasing our work … then I’ll do it myself.” 

Where’s the TU’s “Best of Our Blogs”?

So at that point, I began “Ten for Thursday,” where I showcased ten community bloggers and their work. And I kept this peaceful protest up for as long as possible. ”As long as possible” was for ten months.

But eventually the TU restored the blog showcase to the print edition. 

Best of Our TU Community Blogs, March 20, 2014: Ten for Thursday

A few months later, I revived the “Ten for Thursday” feature, because the TU operated their back-patting “Best of the Capital Region” survey and stopped including local bloggers as voting options. The choices were either for staff bloggers or for independent non-TU-affiliated blogs. Which again felt like a kick in the cojones. 

So I fired up the category in September 2014. 

Best of our TU Community Blogs, September 18, 2014: Ten for Thursday

When I left the TU in 2017, I resolved to keep the Thursday recap alive. So I modified it to be a “7 and 7 on Thursday” feature, where I would promote seven TU community blogs on the portal, and seven independent blogs. Heck, one TU community blogger was kind enough to re-purpose my showcase into a small run on his TU page. We all work together on this. 

Then, the fantastic local blog All Over Albany shut down operations. They did a blog recap on Wednesdays (called “What’s Up in the Neighborhood”), and I grabbed as many of their blogging links as I could and added them to my page. Eventually I moved the blog recap to Saturdays, where it is today. And I kept the “What’s Up in the Neighborhood” name from All Over Albany to continue its legacy.

Over time, I’ve added some great blogs from all over the world. I’ve also taken a few off the page that haven’t been updated in a very long time. There’s some former TU community bloggers on the portal, there’s some writers from my college years, and some people whose work I discovered and liked so much that I felt you should see them as well. 

Okay. Now that you have the origin story … let’s get to the recap, shall we?

• BLOGS FOR TASTE
  • Bill Dowd’s “Notes on Napkins,” “North Country Chili Cook-Off seeks participants.“
• BLOGS FOR HEALTH
  • The Sustain.Able.Future blog, “23.December.23 (final palindrome day of the year… & an epic evening for Roegn.).“
• BLOGS FOR THE SCREEN
  • G. Jack Urso’s “Aeolus 13 Umbra” blog, “Hot Hero Sandwich – Off-Stage with Cast Member Paul O’Keefe.“
  • Silvia Lilly’s “DelSo” blog, “The Richness of Poor Things.“
  • Jacob Gilbert’s “The Land of Whatever,” “This is how you preserve a classic: The Jack Benny Hour (1966).“
  • J. Eric Smith’s blog, “Hey Oscar 2023…“
  • The B&S About Movies blog, “Amityville Frankenstein (2023).“
• BLOGS FOR THE IMAGE
  • The Cawston Greenway blog, “Cold Moon.“
  • Marc Beebe’s “Wandering Words,” “Blue Velvet Sky.“
  • The Lonerist photo blog, “Nation.“
  • The Resurrected Camera blog, “Rocks and Trees.“
  • Tim Jeffers’ “Vintage Lens,” “Forged.“
• BLOGS FOR CONSCIENCE
  • Thomas Slatin’s blog, “We Simplify our Journey to Make it Understandable.“
  • The WritergurlNY blog, “I’m Still a Democrat.“
  • Audley Stephenson’s “Best Audacious Life,” “Holly Porter.“
• BLOGS FOR THE WORD
  • Lauren Hilger in the Pine Hills Review, “We, too, will be quaint figures of the past.“
  • Alexis Ryder’s “Stories I’ve Never Told,” “The Reading Ruction.“
  • The Phoenix Desertsong blog, “Ask for Advice, Get Money Twice.“
  • The Venn Librarian blog, “Minor Musings.“
• BLOGS FOR LIFESTYLE
  • Alan Ilagan’s blog, “The Funk and the Finding.“
  • The Capital District Fun blog, “Merry Christmas!“
  • Richard Lakin’s blog, “Festive Greetings.“
  • Sara Flower Kjeldsen’s blog, “Happy Holidays!“
  • Roger Green’s “Ramblin’ with Roger,” “Lydster: a family tradition.“
  • The Bedlam Farm Journal, “Photo Journal. Maria’s Finest Hour: Building a New Gulley Bridge to the Deep Woods. She did it All By Herself.“

Have a great weekend, everybody – see you all in 2024!