On Monday afternoon I became aware that the deadline for the Best NWT Blogs was Tuesday and not Christmas Eve as it was last year.

(Please see here re: last year’s coverage —- contrary to Jason’s post, I was familiar with the NWT Blog Awards)
http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2008-12/dec24_08xma-arts.html

I was preparing Wednesday’s Yellowknifer arts section and felt I should acknowledge the efforts and activities of the blog community, though I clearly missed the chance to give readers a heads-up before polls close. (If I and my colleagues were not so busy I would have asked the online people to post a link ASAP). My mistake. I regret it. It’s a busy time of year and stuff slips, you know?

I consulted the Best NWT Blogs website and found a prominently displayed contact number. I called it, believing I would reach Megan – whose blog I follow loyally every week.

http://www.snowcoveredhills.com/

Rather, Jason answered. He informed me that he is responsible for a blog called the Gay White North – but insisted that better folk to speak with would be the main organizers – Megan, who I recall him saying was in Los Angeles… or Los Vegas… or Los Alamos or some other place south of 60… or Kyle – who is responsible for a blog I’d heard of but never encountered before called Yk Online – which I mistook at the time for the online version of Yk Trader – or some variation thereof – because of my blog ignorance.

Rather than hang up and call Kyle about his site, I asked Jason about his indy blog because I was interested and felt my readers would be, too. I won’t tell you what he said about it, except that it sounded really cool. And it is! Check it out.

http://thegaywhitenorth.blogspot.com/

I’ve always been keen to write about LBGT issues…

http://www.brokenpencil.com/reviews/reviews.php?reviewid=2251

http://www.rabble.ca/news/hate-crimes-put-vote

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/canadian_news/2003/09/27/antihate_l.html

http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/advocacy/elsie_wayne.htm

http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2009-03/mar11_09rev-arts.html

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=03/09/24/1860097

…so naturally I was interested to dedicate a page of the arts section to a review of the site so people could visit it and the other NWT blogs during their free time over the holidays.

It seemed that Jason felt comfortable with me reviewing his blog in the paper after I asked him for permission. I told him if I didn’t enjoy the site I wouldn’t review it.

Later in the afternoon I called Kyle to ask about the awards from his perspective as an organizer – because Jason had chosen not to go on record. Kyle told me about the Best NWT Blogs and I quoted him in a short article – to inform people about the blogging community’s energy and activities – and to encourage readers to link on the website. I ended the interview, as I always do, by asking something like:

“Is there anything that wasn’t mentioned that should be said?”
or
“Is there anything else you wanted to add?”

Or something like that – which is how I end my interviews.

Kyle said “no.”

And then I invited Kyle to call me in the new year to do something on his blog and he seemed keen.

After listening to folks play guitar at the drop-in shelter in the late afternoon I finished this article:

http://www.nnsl.com/arts/stories/dec22_09fid-arts.html

And then I ran out of time before deadline to properly read and review Gay White North – so I decided I would run a review of it in the new year, instead. I hope Jason is still open to letting me do that.

And the next morning someone showed me this:

http://www.snowcoveredhills.com/?p=4266

and then this:

http://www.kylewith.com/2009/12/clarification-of-the-issue/

…and then the Twitters (which I don’t have access to because I don’t Tweet)

…etc. etc.

All I wanted was to inform readers before the holidays that the blog community is active and doing fun stuff – what Jason calls a “fluff” piece.

Then, I learned about Gay White North and expressed interest in focusing on it on a whim – and eschewed encouragement to review Yk Online because it had advertising and was, I thought, akin to Yk Trader and Coffee News. It’s not quite like that I subsequently discovered.

But, I was not intending to set out to prepare a blog review that afternoon at all, anyway – I just wanted to review Gay White North because it sounded cool and unique and I thought I could make time to complete it. I ran out of time.

I’ll be happy to review, interview or acknowledge anyone doing anything artistic or entertaining in 2010. Just drop me a note and we’ll do that.

Hope you enjoy Wednesday’s Yker!

So did Kyle. He got quite a few comments. Even the reporter in question responded.

http://www.kylewith.com/2009/12/clarification-of-the-issue/

Kyle also posted this today:

http://www.kylewith.com/2009/12/where-we-are-at/

I certainly hope that “traditional media” works with “new media” for the greater good. I guess time will tell.