All stories about "Urbs"

Next in our series of interviews with winners of the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards is the winner of the "World's Best Architecture Blog" category. BLDGBLOG is one of our favorite discoveries brought to our attention by the Urbs, and the site certainly deserves its growing audience. Keen!

Name: Geoff Manaugh

Blog: BLDGBLOG

Age: 29

Favorite street food: Falafel. Double espresso. Baklava. Spanakopita. Water.

Most humiliating urban experience: Getting in a loud and rather lengthy argument with my wife, while walking in front of the Four Seasons, about whether or not a tissue that was blowing around on the sidewalk in front of us had just come out of my jeans pocket. (It had).

Celebrity whose sex tape you'd most like to post as an online exclusive: Ronald Reagan’s corpse.

In the third installment of our series of interviews with laureates from the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards, we now feature the ultra-fine We Make Money Not Art, winner of World's Best Urban Arts Blog. As WMMNA is one of our old-skool original gangsta blog favorites, this makes us particularly happy. So, let's to it.

Name: Régine Debatty

Blog: http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

Age: 34

Birthplace: Verviers, Belgium

Favorite street food: I'm one of those fussy macro-bio, dairy-free, no-wheat-please maniacs. But I love flapjacks.

Most humiliating urban experience: I was in Dakar and lovely pretty girls kept trying to sell me dreadful necklaces. Whenever I refused to buy something, they would tell me how poor they were, that if they didn't sell anything they'd be beaten, die of starvation, wouldn't be able to buy medicines for their kids. Everyone else seemed to cope with the situation. I couldn't. I cried in the streets and spent the rest of my stay in Senegal reading crime stories by the pool at the hotel.

By the by, voting is open at last for the 2006 Bloggies. Lots of quality talent up for awards in the various categories, including many fine winners and nominees from the 2005 Urbs -- not to mention several kids-made-good from the Gawker Media home team. Not enough love for yours truly to make the rolls, but let's be honest, that might be a quality-control issue. Get over there and vote your brains out anyway. If you squint, "Joshua Micah Marshall" kind of looks like "Gridskipper."

Sixth Annual Weblog Awards [Official site]

Previously: Gridskipper Interview: This Is What We Do Now, Gridskipper Interview: Losanjealous, Secret Dubai Blog, Buck’s Fishing & Camping Photo Fracas, New Metblogs Born

Continuing our series of interviews with winners from the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards, here we have a communiqué from This Is What We Do Now, which fought it out for World's Best Urban Blog.

Name: Larry

Blog: This Is What We Do Now

Age: 24

Birthplace: Manhattan

Favorite street food: ABC gum.

Most humiliating urban experience: I got pistol-whipped by a guy in an Uncle Pennybags costume on Avenue D once. Afterwards we went to Odessa for some scrambled eggs, and I stole his monocle. A few hours later he died because he forgot he was allergic to dairy.

Celebrity whose sex tape you'd most like to post as an online exclusive: Raphael nailing April O'Neill.

Here begins a potentially very short-lived series of voluntary interviews with those people and creatures who won in various categories on the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards. In this installment, we elevate the tone with Losanjealous, winner of Best Los Angeles Blog. No warranty about questions or answers is express or implied.

Name: La Verne Casagrande

Blog: losanjealous.com

Birthplace: Los Angeles

Favorite street food: Pussy (heh heh heh heh heh heh) -- just kidding, Chateaubriand.

Most humiliating urban experience: Being called a blogger.

Celebrity whose sex tape you'd most like to post as an online exclusive: The Danny DeVito/Rhea Perlman/Brian Dennehy Three Way.

Having just concluded our own big-azz awards season, it behooves me to mention the grandaddy of blog awards, the 2006 Weblog Awards nee Bloggies, are now accepting nominations. I think it would capital to nominate some of the Urbs winners or Urbs nominees for the Bloggies, since the latter are so comprehensive that there's lots of rooms to spotlight newcomers -- especially in all the international categories. And of course, should you choose to nominate Gridskipper, I'd be happy to give you a foot rub. Get in line! Though note we'd likely have to be nominated in the "Best Topical Weblog" ghetto, since there's no travel or urban category. I don't think we're really "Best Teen Weblog" material, unless you count the occasional cleavage shot or four-letter word. Regardless, go forth and nominate. Voting begins Friday, January 20.

Sixth Annual Weblog Awards [Official site]

Previously: Tastes Like “Fury Fused with Fear”, Gawker Invades Vegas, Phnomenon Cambodian Foodblog, Hooker Handouts Translated, In Paris Now

Responding to the artblogs nominated and competing for the recently concluded Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards, a reader writes:

Great blog. Love the list, and most of the winners. But when it comes to urban art blogs, I think you guys really missed many of the best gay ones out there, such as [not actually gay despite the name] Art Fag City, Modern Art Notes [nominated, but didn't make the finals, and also not gay -- ed.], the [likely non-gay] Douglas Kelley Show List, and Edwinkleman. I think these two are straight, but no one is perfect: The View from the Edge of the Universe and Gallery Hopper. Both written by the same NYC guy: Bloggy and ArtCal. [Also note James Wagner's blog.] And then there's always mine, which is still very much a work in progress: Modern Art Obsession.

Previously: The Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards Winners, The Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards Final Nominations, Paris to Sydney in 365 Days, FPPinternational Colombia Blog, L.A. Letter: Rose Bowl Beaver Crawl

After much blood, thunder, and earnest blegging, the 2005 Urbs contest has finally run its course. Sincere thanks to all the blogs and blog readers who participated, and it's been great to find out about lot of sites that had previously flown under (or over) the Gridskipper radar. Hearty congratulations to the winners in all categories, celebrated below for your delectation. Final vote tallies may be found after the jump.

World's Best Urban Architecture Blog
BLDGBLOG

World's Best Urban Food Blog
Chez Pim

World's Best Urban Nightlife Blog
Flaneur

World's Best Urban Music Blog
Brooklyn Vegan

World's Best Urban Arts Blog
We Make Money Not Art

World's Best Urban Sex Blog
The Great Cock Hunt

World's Best Gay Urban Blog
Towleroad

World's Hottest Urban Blogger
Annie Mole [London Underground Tube Diary]

Best New York Blog
Overheard in New York

Best Los Angeles Blog
Losanjealous

World's Best Urban Photoblog
The Beloved Universe

World's Most Inane Urban Blog Post
The Best Thing I've Read Today [You Can't Make It Up]

World's Best Urban Blog
This Is What We Do Now

Our much-loved The Urbs competition is ending at the stroke of midnight EST on Monday, December 26. So over this weekend as you sit down to your holiday meal, remember to take time away from the dinner table/dancefloor/barstool to vote. We've got virtual ties in the World's Best Urban Sex Blog, World's Hottest Urban Blogger and World's Best Urban Photoblog categories.

The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26. One week left; one week left.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. For other queries, consult the Urbs FAQ.

As we head towards the inevitable conclusion of The Urbs, it's high drama time. There's some neck and neck racing in the nightclub blog department. Music blogging has a second place contender who just might make it. Competition in the sex blog department? Yup. And the world's hottest urban blogger? We've got a tie, people. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26. One week left; one week left.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. For other queries, consult the Urbs FAQ.

Lots of interesting movement going on in the polls this week. A huge surge from one candidate has turned the race for best urban sex blog into a scorcher, as it were. And the best urban gay blog category, formerly a shutout, has flipped back into the realm of too close to call. Other tightening races include music blog, arts blog, New York blog, Los Angeles blog, and world's best blog. Only 11 days left. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. For other queries, consult the Urbs FAQ.

Most of the standings remain stable in the middle of Week 2, though a few leaders are pulling away (such as in the urban food blog category) while others are seeing reinvigorated challengers (as in the urban gay blog category). Still others remain tooth-and-nail, such as hottest urban blogger, New York, and world's best. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. For other queries, consult the Urbs FAQ.

Margins of defeat and victory remain relatively stable as we head into the second week of Urbs voting, though a few front-runners are pulling away. Percentages may remain steady, but the actual number of votes separating contenders may increase to nigh-insurmountable levels. Interesting to observe which categories have drawn the most attention; arts blog and photoblog have drawn relatively few total votes, while the most attention by far has fixed upon the sex blog category. No surprise really, as who wants to sleep with art geeks? Nevertheless, there's plenty of time to turn the race around and still go home with the prom queen. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store.

Lots of evolving races underway. Some have clear favorites and strong contenders, like the architecture, music, arts, LA, photoblog, and world's best urban blog categories. Others are turning into routs, like sex blog, gay blog, and most inane post. And others are too close to call this early, like food, nightlife, hottest blogger, and New York. But there's two weeks left in the voting, so there's plenty of room for shifts in the totals. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store.

A few races are shaping up nicely, while others are looking like early blowouts. Plenty of time to remedy that, though. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store.

Now that voting's well underway for the Urbs, I've had the liberty to observe responses, entertain comments, questions, and suggestions, and update my enemies list. Which is really my "friends" list, as far as they know. Still, in the pell-mell rush to get the awards up and running in time to finish by the end of the year, I did make a few adjustments as the contest got underway. It would have certainly been much more efficient to begin exactly this way, but hindsight's 20/20. For clarity's sake, here were the three adjustments made after the contest began.

A category for "World's Best Gay Urban Blog" was added. This was a straightforward mistake on my part, as it was originally included in my category list. Once the omission was pointed out, I immediately ran it into the nomination lineup, pointing out the addition in that day's nomination update.

Sexblo.gs was disqualified, then requalified. This happened when I received nominations for sexblo.gs and shortly thereafter queerfilter. I entered these in the daily update, then received a nomination for another site which was an obvious spam blog. This caused me to reconsider whether sexblo.gs and queerfilter should be eligible, since they function as feed aggregators rather than more typical blogs. So, I disqualified them. However, subsequent discussion showed that sexblo.gs, at least, has its aggregation guided by human choice, and it also publishes original content as well. Ergo I added it back to the nomination list for World's Best Urban Sex Blog.

The nomination deadline was moved up from midnight EST on Wednesday, December 7, to midnight EST on Friday, December 2. This was a purely defensive maneuver. I'm the first to admit that I underestimated the tidal wave of responses, and after processing about 1,500 nominations, I was fried. In retrospect, this was where I should have called in the interns. So I have trouble delegating, so sue me.

Now then, a paraphrased Q&A about the contest after the jump.

One of the side benefits of the Urbs nomination process was that it brought many, many blogs to my attention that I'd only vaguely heard about, or never heard about. Several will be added to the feedmix for the Gridskipper Guide to the Web as well as my own reading rotation. However, there has been a painful side to the Urbs, in addition to the outright physical and mental anguish of tallying all the results. No, what hurts most is the spiritual pain of seeing blogs I really like not make it into the voting stage. Next time, there will be an arbitrary "Editor's Choice" smorgasbord category for blogs I feel are unjustly overlooked. In the meantime, there are fortunately other contests out there that give worthy blogs more chances for righteous exposure. For example, check out the 2005 Food Blog Awards at Accidental Hedonist, which should allow more thorough and varied foodblog coverage than could be managed with the Urbs. Go there, nominate, and vote, especially if your favorites didn't make the final round for the Urbs. Also not the generic Weblog Awards, which recognizes tons of sites in quite a few categories -- thanks for not nominating Gridskipper, you ungrateful wretches.

2005 Food Blog Awards!! [Accidental Hedonist]
2005 Weblog Awards [Official site]

Previously: New Cityblogs Alert, Nobody Media Blitz, The Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards Voting Begins, L.A. Discovers the Blogging, International Xmas

At last! After the jump, may I present the official finalists for The Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards. I can't tell you how pleased I am to turn this over to the automated portion of our show, so by all means, get out the vote. Each category contains the top six blogs which gained the most nominations; a few categories have seven or eight blogs in the running, as a means of resolving ties in the highest nomination ranks. The polls will remain open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store.

Phew! Hundreds of emails and thousands of nominations later, nominations for the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards are officially closed. Everything's been counted and sorted, and the voting will begin presently, after I chug a celebratory pitcher of mojitos. Check back repeatedly and obsessively -- VERY SOON! -- to find out who made the cut and to begin voting for your faves. In the public interest, the complete, final list of nominated sites follows after the jump.

Still tabulting Urbs nominations for the final tally, so please hold. Your blog-reading is important to us, and will be served in the order received. Ultimate nomination list to follow today, with voting to begin shortly thereafter. Posting will be light until then.

And so, the end of the nomination phase looms. I've been swamped by your collective enthusiasm, and I've only barely caught up with nominations received up to sometime this morning. All will be tabulated and accounted for though, I assure you -- up until tonight's nomination deadline of midnight EST. After that, you're cut off! Sorry I couldn't include every blog brother and sister in this update, but for transparency's sake, I'll publish a final nomination list before voting begins on Monday, December 5.

Keep two things mind. One, note the nomination category or categories for the blogs you nominate. And two, this is the nomination phase, not final voting. After nominations close on Friday, the field will narrow to those blogs receiving the highest number of nominations, and actual voting will begin Monday, December 5. Be sure to come back then and throughout December to see if your nominations made the cut, and to vote for final winners in all categories.

Remember, you can nominate the same blog in several categories, and you can nominate several blogs in the same category. You can even nominate your own blog. And even if a blog you like has already been nominated, it's worth your time to nominate that blog again -- only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Friday, December 2.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. Review nominees after the jump.

Much progress, as all categories have good meaty meat on their bones. Surprising upsets may be in store before we even get to the voting, as young and hungry blogs mobilize their nominating fan bases. You have been warned, ye laconic laurel-resting Caesars of the ubranoblogosphere. Note also that deadlines have been moved up, so time is short.

Keep two things mind. One, note the nomination category or categories for the blogs you nominate. And two, this is the nomination phase, not final voting. After nominations close on Friday, the field will narrow to those blogs receiving the highest number of nominations, and actual voting will begin Monday, December 5. Be sure to come back then and throughout December to see if your nominations made the cut, and to vote for final winners in all categories.

Remember, you can nominate the same blog in several categories, and you can nominate several blogs in the same category. You can even nominate your own blog. And even if a blog you like has already been nominated, it's worth your time to nominate that blog again -- only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Friday, December 2.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. Review nominees after the jump.

Just because we do things real street around here, we're not going to extend the deadline like other contest poseurs. In actuality, this maneuver is executed purely in self-defense. Readers have been quite generous with their nominations, such that most categories are amply filled out or even full to bursting. A certain element of commendable frivolity has arisen as well, which, while entertaining for all concerned, eats up considerable collation time. The tabulation servants in the root cellar are expiring far more quickly than is usual, even for this time of year when the seasonal ague claims the enfeebled.

Therefore: The nomination deadline is heretofore reset to midnight EST on Friday, December 3. Those who made the cut will be announced when voting begins on Monday, December 5, with the polls remaining open until midnight EST on Monday, December 26. That is all. Return to your labors.

In addition to new nominations, we're seeing lots of supporting nominations, which is good -- hierarchies and horse races are starting to shape up. Could still use more nominations for "World's Most Inane Blog Post" -- c'mon, how easy is that? Oddly, "Best Los Angeles Blog" is also still a little thin. En garde, West Coasters.

UPDATE: Email fixed finally, and several more blogs nominated. Note to nominators: "inane" is not a good thing.

Keep two things mind. One, note the nomination category or categories for the blogs you nominate. And two, this is the nomination phase, not final voting. After nominations close next week, the field will narrow to those blogs receiving the highest number of nominations, and actual voting will begin Friday, December 9. Be sure to come back then and throughout December to see if your nominations made the cut, and to vote for final winners in all categories. In the meantime, let's get back to the nomination frenzy.

Remember, you can nominate the same blog in several categories, and you can nominate several blogs in the same category. You can even nominate your own blog. And even if a blog you like has already been nominated, it's worth your time to nominate that blog again -- only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Wednesday, December 7.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. See the burgeoning list of nominees after the jump.

Ooofff ... well, I asked for more nominations, and that's what I got. The list of candidates roughly doubled in 24 hours, but keep 'em comin'. I can take it! Keep two things mind. One, note the nomination category or categories for the blogs you nominate. And two, this is the nomination phase, not final voting. After nominations close next week, the field will narrow to those blogs receiving the highest number of nominations, and actual voting will begin Friday, December 9. Be sure to come back then and throughout December to see if your nominations made the cut, and to vote for final winners in all categories. In the meantime, let's get back to the nomination frenzy.

Remember, you can nominate the same blog in several categories, and you can nominate several blogs in the same category. You can even nominate your own blog. And even if a blog you like has already been nominated, it's worth your time to nominate that blog again -- only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Wednesday, December 7.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. See the burgeoning list of nominees after the jump.

The weekend produced a flood of new and supporting nominations for the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards. (Note that all-aggregation sites like sexblo.gs and queerfilter.com have been ruled ineligible; nominated blogs must contain some element of original content.) Most categories are getting nicely fleshed out, but the number of potential nominations is unlimited. Remember, you can nominate the same blog in several categories, and you can nominate several blogs in the same category. You can even nominate your own blog. And even if a blog you like has already been nominated, it's worth your time to nominate that blog again -- only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Wednesday, December 7.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. See the burgeoning list of nominees after the jump.

Nominations proceed apace for the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards, but we need more, more, more. See below for the current list of nominees. Some categories remain thinly populated or empty; throw in your picks immediately. Remember, you can nominate the same blog in several categories, and you can nominate several blogs in the same category. You can even nominate your own blog. And even if a blog you like has already been nominated, it's worth your time to nominate it again -- only those top blogs with the most total nominations will make it into actual voting. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Wednesday, December 7.

I'd also like to point out a new category -- World's Best Gay Urban Blog -- left out previously due to an oversight on my part. No really, we love the gays 'round here.

Participants agree to our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest guidelines. Check here for explanations of categories. Winners in the first 12 categories get free Gridskipper schwag; the winner of World's Best Urban Blog gets $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store.

Below is the list of current nominees. Below that is a blank list of categories for easy copy-and-pasting. Fill it in and leave your nominations in the comments below, or email to tips@gridskipper.com.

World’s Best Urban Architecture Blog
BLDGBLOG
gravestmor
terra non firma
Tropolism

World’s Best Urban Food Blog
chez pim
Chubby Hubby
Eating L.A.
Gastropoda
noodlepie

World’s Best Urban Nightlife Blog
Cheapskatin' LA
LA.comfidential
style council
Paris is well worth a Mass ... R.I.P.

World’s Best Urban Music Blog
arjanwrites
Boudist
brooklynvegan

World’s Best Urban Arts Blog
we make money not art

World’s Best Urban Sex Blog
[No nominees yet -- send yours now!]

World’s Best Gay Urban Blog
Proceed at your own risk
Queerty
towleroad
vividblurry

World’s Hottest Urban Blogger
Pim Techamuanvivit [chez pim]
TMFTML [The Minor Fall, The Major Lift]

Best New York Blog
Gothamist
Lindsayism
Overheard in New York

Best Los Angeles Blog
Decadent West
Franlin Avenue
LA.comfidential
L.A. Observed
LAist

World’s Best Urban Photoblog
rion.nu

World’s Most Inane Urban Blog Post
Wanna Get Nailed? [Queerty]

World’s Best Urban Blog
chez pim
Pestiside
Tale of Two Cities
towleroad
vividblurry

Now that you know who's in the running, copy and paste the blank category list below and send in your nominations, either in the comments below or via email to tips@gridskipper.com.

World’s Best Urban Architecture Blog -

World’s Best Urban Food Blog -

World’s Best Urban Nightlife Blog -

World’s Best Urban Music Blog -

World’s Best Urban Arts Blog -

World’s Best Urban Sex Blog -

World’s Best Gay Urban Blog -

World’s Hottest Urban Blogger -

Best New York Blog -

Best Los Angeles Blog -

World’s Best Urban Photoblog -

World’s Most Inane Urban Blog Post -

World’s Best Urban Blog -

Gather round, chillun. I'm happy to announce a shiny new Gridskipper contest to close out the year. The Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards are designed to celebrate the absolute elite of the world's urban blogs. The awards will be entirely determined by you, the wise and discriminating Gridskipper reader. First, we'll go through a nomination phase to pick the contestants; see below for categories. Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST on Wednesday, December 7. After that, those sites receiving the most nominations will be collected and re-presented in the form of an online poll to choose the winners. And I should mention -- there are prizes. Winners in the first 11 categories will get their pick of books, DVDs, and other detritus sent in to Gridskipper for review. However, the winner of the grandest category -- World's Best Urban Blog -- will win $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store. Nervous yet? You betcha. Note that participants agree to stringently abide by our standard contest rules, as well as the Urbs contest rules and guidelines. Thank you for our cooperation.

Now, to the nominations. Below you'll find a list of categories with brief explanations. Below that, the category names are reproduced for easy copy-and-pasting. Fill out your nominations for each category and either post it in the comments on this post or email to tips@gridskipper.com. You may (and in fact are encouraged to) nominate multiple sites in each category and/or nominate the same site for multiple categories. You may also nominate your own site or sites you contribute to. Check the guidelines for help on what qualifies as an urban blog. Note that Gawker Media sites (including Gridskipper) and those sites affiliated with current Gawker Media employees are not eligible for nomination, nor are sites run by anyone who currently contributes regularly to a Gawker Media site, with one exception (see below). Nomination updates will be frequently posted to keep you abreast of who's in the running. Questions or comments about the contest may be addressed to tips@gridskipper.com.

The Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards
Nomination Categories

World’s Best Urban Architecture Blog - Blogs that cover the buildings and architecture of cities, either with text or photos or both.

World’s Best Urban Food Blog - City eating, be it restaurants, street food, cooking, or anything in between.

World’s Best Urban Nightlife Blog - Going out in the city. Bars, clubs, lounges, shows, and so on.

World’s Best Urban Music Blog - Concerts, bands, reviews, MP3s, live music, the works.

World’s Best Urban Arts Blog - Museums, galleries, design, graffiti, and anything related.

World’s Best Urban Sex Blog - Dirty in the city. Who's doing what to whom, and for how much.

World’s Hottest Urban Blogger - You know, the one you keep stalking at those panels and launch parties. Or wished you lived near enough to stalk.

Best New York Blog - Because there's so damn many of them, one must be the best, right?

Best Los Angeles Blog - Ditto above, since LA's blog scene is equally lively.

World’s Best Urban Photoblog - Who takes the prettiest city pics?

World’s Most Inane Urban Blog Post - City blogs may inspire, but they can also motivate posts about the most quotidian, mundane, or tedious subjects. For example, see this Gridskipper post about waffles -- talk about phoning it in. This is the one category allowing nominations from sites belonging to Gawker Media or their runnin' dogs.

World’s Best Urban Blog - Here it is. All the marbles. The winner gets $500 at iTunes. Can you even handle that much jamming? Let's hope so. Bring it, etc.

Now that you understand the categories, here they are again for an easy copy-and-paste. Fill 'em out with your nominations and post the comments below, or email to tips@gridskipper.com.

World’s Best Urban Architecture Blog -

World’s Best Urban Food Blog -

World’s Best Urban Nightlife Blog -

World’s Best Urban Music Blog -

World’s Best Urban Arts Blog -

World’s Best Urban Sex Blog -

World’s Hottest Urban Blogger -

Best New York Blog -

Best Los Angeles Blog -

World’s Best Urban Photoblog -

World’s Most Inane Urban Blog Post -

World’s Best Urban Blog -

By participating in the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards, you agree to our standard contest rules. With that out of the way, here's how the Urbs Awards roll:

Gridskipper readers nominate urban blog sites in Gridskipper post comments or via email to tips@gridskipper.com. For our purposes, an urban blog is a regularly updated blog site with over half of its content focused on a city, cities in general, city living, urban lifestyles, urban travel, or something of the sort. We're willing to entertain nominations on the edge of urbanity, so feel free to send in sites you think might qualify. Obviously, though, it must be a blog, and on this point we will be more exacting. If you're not sure if a particular site is a blog, it probably isn't. If you don't know what a blog is, read this. Note that all-aggregation sites like sexblo.gs and queerfilter.com have been ruled inelegible; nominated blogs must contain some percentage of original content. Lastly, blog sites must be either in English or in a language easily translatable by Babelfish.

Readers may nominate multiple sites for the same category. The same site may be nominated in multiple categories. Urban bloggers may nominate their own sites or sites they contribute to as well. Sites must be nominated individually and by site name, including the URL (website address) to be safe. Entire networks or families of blogs may not be nominated just by naming the network or family (though you can nominate them all if you type and send their individual site names and URLs). Blogs publishing regular contributions by anyone currently affiliated with Gawker Media are not eligible (with the exception of "World's Most Inane Urban Blog Post").

The nomination period will close at midnight EST on Friday, December 3.

On Monday, December 5, the top nomination-getters in each category will be collated and released in the form of an online poll. Readers will then vote to choose the winners in each category.

The voting period will close at midnight on Monday, December 26, 2005. Since results for the online poll are continuously tabulated, winners will be immediately obvious. However, a general wrapup and congratulations will follow soon after voting ends, as well as the awarding of prizes.

That's right, there are prizes. Winners in the first 11 categories will each get to choose something from the Gridskipper swag bag, i.e. the pile of books and DVDs and other merch sent in for reviews. Each winner will take their pick from the pile in the order they respond, until all winners are satisfied (optimistically speaking). However, that's not the end of it. The winning site in the biggest category, World's Best Urban Blog, will receive $500 in credit with the iTunes Music Store, to be used or divvied up however those in charge of the winning site deem appropriate.

Interpretation and enforcement of all rules and guidelines for the Urbs: 2005 Urban Blogging Awards is handled entirely at the discretion of the Gridskipper site editor. Questions or comments may be directed to tips@gridksipper.com.