Have you noticed how the bee has influenced web slang?  E.g. "buzz" and "hives" are found all over the place.  We've joined in with this bee thing.  Hopped on the buzz-train.  I love the word and the sound.  So productive and warm.  Now that I'm thinking about it I realize the sound of buzzing bees is similar to the sound of my computer...

Last year, two (2) bee swarms landed on our tree in the front yard - one flew off and the other had to be removed.  The bee removers came with a vacuum apparatus and sucked them up into a hive-shaped canister.  It looked benign enough but I was afraid to ask about the fate of the bees.  Imagined them going to a hive field way out in central California and didn't want to hear otherwise.

The web can be sort of like that - sucks you in and there you live happily ever after, buzzing along in this hive of endless chambers.  Begs the question: who's the queen?

Back to blogbuzz.  Here's what it is and how it came about:

We wanted to have blogs and not just links but actually a way to read them right here.  Like the morning newspaper.

So we culled through loads of art sites and catalogued art blogs.  Then Catherine, our techie, wrote a program to read the feeds, index them every day, and display them in order of most recent entries.  This became our blogbuzz.  You can find it on our menu bar under "buzz."

Some blogs only allow headlines to show; others have problems with images.  So it can be hit and miss.  But all of them are linkable.  I'm sure there are many we have missed at this point.

The other feature Catherine created out of this database is what we call "mentions."  You will find this towards the bottom on an exhibition or event page.  Essentially, any mention in the blogs of an artist, show or venue gets displayed.  It is sort of cool especially when the hive is truly buzzing about someone or something. 

I love our blogbuzz.  I scroll through most days, read things that catch my eye, wish there were more art blogs.  I wonder how much there is to be said about art and look forward to the artslant community blogs.

And if you have a blog about art and want it in our buzz, drop a line. 

- georgia