On the web

Reborn on the BaRou

Seizing her former New York’s fascination with truncated neighborhood designates (think SoHo and NoLita), blogger Colleen Kane’s debut post from the Red Stick simultaneously detailed the first impressions of—gasp—an outsider, and gave it a new nickname: BaRou.

In the fall Kane followed her fiance, who enrolled in LSU’s landscape architecture graduate program, to the city. Her blog, BaRou is the New Bklyn, chronicled one New Jersey native’s blunt introduction to all things Louisianan: the good, the bad and the confounding. Simultaneously, her photos on Abandoned Baton Rouge played out like 225’s “Ugly Awards” with less finger-wagging and more youthful awe.

“It’s been a coping mechanism for being in new surroundings,” she says. “But it took on a life of its own when everyone started noticing the blog, and not necessarily approving of it.”

Some thought Kane’s observations were refreshing—even cute. The rest got hacked off. One early blog railed against bad drivers and inconsistent mail service. Kane titled it “Baton Rouge: Retarded or just slow?” Criticism of her criticism came as a small shock. “Some of the cool, smart kids said, ‘We feel the same way, but we’re allowed to say it and you’re not,’” she admits. “I was naďve about that because in New York you can say anything you want and nobody cares.”

Kane is a contributing writer for Bust and Plenty and is writing her first novel, a work-in-progress she likens to a Bill Bryson travelogue. OK, but if BaRou is the new Brooklyn, surely it will make an appearance, right? “Probably,” she says with a giggle. “It’ll make its way in there at some point.” colleenkane.com

February downloads

“Drive On, Driver.” If you ever eavesdropped on the “cool” music your older brother or sister listened to, this might bring back memories. On top of birthing Jesus & Mary Chain-worthy beams of magnanimous dissonance on blatantly titled new effort Distortion, The Magnetic Fields go all Phil Spector on us with this dollop of heart-tuggin’ ditty bop called “Drive On, Driver,” a tune whose wounded earnestness shimmers brightly through the surrounding buzz. It’s a standout track on a pretty standout record, even though it sounds like it’s blaring through your bedroom wall.

Mitchell Report: Steroids in Baseball. Turns out many of the alleged users in baseball’s Mitchell Report are less obviously guilty than the guys whose heads swelled to three times their normal size. Enter this phrase and this phrase exactly for black20.com’s uproarious and expertly delivered send-up of rampant steroid abuse in (and around) the sport. Rumors swirled for years about “8-Bit Reggie Jackson,” but if you’re not doubled over by “Chester Copperpot” you may not have a soul. (This clip is rated R for language).