One might not realize this because of my infrequency of posting, but I spend a lot of my day reading the Internet. I can’t help it really, it calls to me like that extra slice of pizza peaking out from under the box lid. Oh yes, my RSS reader is heavy with the weight of 500 pieces of saucy pie.

And so it was, this morning, whilst I was perusing the “comics” section of my reader when I read in the FLOG about a new blog.

“Hmm,” I thought and Clicky Click Click there I was at the latest Seattle-based blog.

Hulk #208 was different. I like the idea of Hulk becoming Bruce Banner again and living like a normal person. It’s a nice change from all of that violence with different villains coming and attacking Hulk.
That was the extent of my first letter published in a “real” comic book, real meaning Marvel, sometimes DC. Anything else was fairly contemptible to the thirteen year-old connoisseur of the form I considered myself to be, back in those halcyon days of the mid 1970s. I was a “true believer”, a pocket money-offering pilgrim to the mighty Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation.

Go. Read the whole thing. Then tell me if these three posts he’s written are any indication that this guy could claim WSB’s Blarch Badness crown in 2009.

Mid Beacon Hill tried to concede gracefully when the Hood polls were taken over by Diebold. But would we let her? Noooo. Instead we forced her to stay in the race AND submit to an interview by me - drunk and obnoxious spice metroblogger. Why? Because we like her and because we think she’s doing good work. Since J is also extremely nice, she complied with only the slightest hint of arm twisting. Let’s jump right in, shall we…

How many minds are behind Mid Beacon Hill?

Just me.

Are you completely anonymous?

At this point, I’m only nominally anonymous.

When and what got you started in this tawdry blogging business?

A year ago I was doing a lot of gardening and wine drinking and neighborhood picture taking, and I happened to come across a blog by this guy in San Francisco who was doing the same. I loved how his drunken little photo essays captured his love of, and his ambivalence about, the neighborhood where he’d settled down. First I became an obsessive commenter on his blog, and then I decided I had to totally rip it off.
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I had a quick chat with Justin Carder about Capitol Hill Seattle, a front runner in this year’s Blarch Badness tournament.

MB: When did you start CHS?
Shortly after we received the magic beans in January 2006. We moved to Capitol Hill on the edge of a richie rich neighborhood and said jeez, better start a neighborhood blog so we can get some respect from these people and they stop asking us to wash their boats. The rest is history.

MB: How many contributors?
Two. Me and my poor darling wife who has to suffer through my criticism and advice for her every post. Not sure why she continues to participate, really. She might move and get her own neighborhood blog. We’re trying to work through it.

MB: What’s your mission statement? (Why does this blog exist?)
I’ve stated our goals thusly:
1. Get to know our new neighborhood
2. Write about the good stuff in hopes that more good stuff will happen
3. Sometimes write about the bad stuff in hopes that less bad stuff will happen
4. Learn about how the Internet is put together and how people interact with it
5. Make it all last

But that only tells part of the story.
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Without a doubt my favorite local blog (well, besides this one) is Vintage Seattle. Jess Cliffe has created a wonderful look at Seattle’s history in illustrated form. Every new post has something wonderful in it and I love being able to look back at old Seattle from when I was a kid and even further back to long, long before any of us living here now were even born.

Jess is really excited to be part of the Blarch Badness and was gracious enough to answer a few basic questions for me:

MB: What was your impetus for starting up Vintage Seattle?
JC: I’ve been a little obsessed with some of the older architecture in Seattle for quite a while, but I didn’t really know anyone who was interested in discussing it with me. I was constantly boring my friends. As a regular blog reader, I thought a blog would be a pretty natural outlet to find like-minded people who appreciate this stuff who could come together and discuss. I had run websites in the past (mostly gaming sites - I’m a game designer for a living), so I had some experience on the technical side.

MB: Are you from Seattle?
JC: I’m from Seattle in that I consider Seattle “my home.” I was not born in Seattle, though. In fact, I grew up in about 11 different states and never really had much of a grounding. A lot of people scoff when they find out that I’m not a native, but I just chalk it up to the fact that this is the first place I’ve felt at home. Having grown up mostly in suburbs and never in a home more than 20 years old, I’ve come to really appreciate the history Seattle has. It’s something I never knew as a kid growing up and as a result, it’s something I cherish now and approach with a sense of wonder.

MB: Where do you find your content?
JC: All over! Libraries, Ebay, just walking around with my camera, talking to folks who’ve been around for a long time - wherever I can. The problem is that it gets expensive, since I have to procure a lot of it from auctions, rubbish sales, shoppes, etc. I’ve spent far too much money on the blog, but I enjoy it so that’s ok. I have had a number of readers submitting content lately and that’s great. Pushing the community driven content is something I want to do. Someone just recently sent me a late 1800’s photograph of their great-grandfather (who went on to become a supreme court judge) as a kid climbing a light pole on Pike Street, and I just about died. It was beautiful.

MB: Do you have a regular posting schedule?
JC: I try to post every night. When my girlfriend falls asleep at about 11pm - I sneak off to my computer and stay up into the wee hours of the night looking for interesting things to scan and post about. The problem is that sometimes I have to post tons of photographs and I end up staying awake late and show up like a zombie at work the next day. Good thing I work in the gaming industry where 10am is considered “early.” I try to post every day since when I read blogs, I check for updates every day - I’m just obsessive like that. And I try not to post more than that or with overly long posts, because I feel like keeping things succinct and digestible is important.

MB: What types of posts do you think your readers are most interested in?
JC: Well, my stat tracking software tells me that they’re most interested in multi-million dollar houses with great historical architecture. Luckily I am too - so it all works out. I also have a habit of posting tons of images of 1970’s era powder blue uniformed Mariners players, which my stats tell me no one cares about but me!

MB: Do you have a specific audience of readers in mind for your blog?
JC: Anyone who appreciates Seattle’s history and character, or whoever will listen

So, the selection committee has met for the last few days trying to decide who is in and who is out of the tournament. There was the usual yelling, fighting, chair-throwing, and occasional moments of harmony. But finally, late last night, the committee emerged from their pizza-and-beer-induced stupor to put in my hands the lineup for this year’s Blarch Badness.
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photo by marksobba [flickr]

While war is still waging in the Blarch Badness Final it might be unethical of me to pimp one of the competing blogs — but I’m going to regardless. If you have a problem with that, watch out for a trident to the heart.

Lookout Landing’s Jeff Sullivan is the [way less nerdy] John Clayton of Mariners baseball. With spring training in full swing and Opening Day just a few weeks away, it’s definitely time for even the most casual of baseball fans to prepare for a long, dark, horribly depressing M’s season (thank you, Bill Bavasi!). In that spirit, I highly recommend listening to a very informative and insightful interview Jeff recently gave to Big League Baseball Report [blbr]. In it he recaps the wretched Mariners off-season (where art thee, Doyle!?) and their prospects for success in 2007. I’ll offer this hint: A certain member of Venezuela’s royal family needs to have a great year for the M’s to stand a chance.

Confidential to Jeff: Contrary to what you think, you absolutely did not sound like a douchebag [LL].

And then there were eight. Or about to be, anyway. And this week, we’ll pick the Final Four. Are you exciting? Tingling with anticipation? Then you should really see your doctor about getting your medication adjusted.

WEST SEATTLE REGIONAL
Regional Finals
February 20
#1 Chris Pirillo vs #3 Seattle Daily Photo
Neither Chris nor Kim have even been challenged, so now, as those English footie commentators would say, a lot will be asked of each of them. On one side, the ubergeek of Seattle (now that Bob Scoble has left town) who has not done a lick of campaigning. On the other side, Seattle’s premier photoblogger who has done nothing but flog this contest.

So, choose one. But choose wisely. You don’t want to piss off anyone with a camera or a website now, would you?

And remember, voting is still open in the second round of other regionals: U District, Capitol Hill, Ballard. Tomorrow, the Capitol Hill Regional finals.

We close out Round Two with the U District Regional, which goes on Friday, the day of the week I’m most tired. So I end up writing pithier comments. Given my penchant for Faulkneresque 100 word monster sentences, this is probably the day to ask me to write something for you that’s under 500 words and over 4 sentences.

U DISTRICT REGIONAL
Regional Semifinals
February 16
#1 Not Martha vs #4 USS Mariner
Someone paged Megan earlier this week, and her readers showed up. She had more votes than the entire Capitol Hill regional. And now, she has USS Mariner — and its vast collection of Mariner fans and scalliwags — in her sights. But knowing Derek, he probably doesn’t give a rat patootie about this contest. Unless, of course, I mention his new book, The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball, which you should pre-order a copy of today.

#2 Horse’s Ass vs #6 izzlepfaff
Capitol Hill Seattle played with fire. And they got burned. Bad. And hoisted on their own petard. And let’s assume there’s another military cliche here, because I’ve run out of them. Now it’s Goldie vs. Skot. Liberals vs. humorists. But aren’t most humorists liberals?

And here are links to the other three regionals: West Seattle, Capitol Hill, Ballard.

Next week, the Regional Finals. We’re getting closer to wherever the fictional finals site would be. The Space Needle? Elephant Super Wash? Dick’s?

The Ballard bracket is effectively busted. My $20 was on Defective Yeti going all the way, but that’s money wasted. Strangely, this is going the way my March Madness picks usually go — with my national champ pick going out in the round of 32.

But on to Round Two.

BALLARD REGIONAL
Regional Semifinals
February 15
#4 Electrolicious vs #8 West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog won going away in the biggest upset so far. Can they get past Ariel’s wedding-addled minions? Will they continue to annoy me with The Question? Signs point to yes… on both counts.

#6 BlatherWatch vs #7 #!/usr/bin/girl
The rumors of Zannah’s demise were greatly exaggerated, as her readers came through in a big way. Meanwhile, BlatherWatch comes through to meet her.

Tomorrow, Round Two wraps up with the U District regional. Reminder, you can still vote in the Capitol Hill and West Seattle Regionals.