Spovangelist Wins Best Blogger in the Inlander “Best of” Reader Poll
March 20, 2009 
12 Comments
It’s nice to come back from vacation and be greeted with community recognition. This award means more coming from you, so thanks for sharing the Spovangelist with the general public. Also, congratulations to Spokane food blogs From The Back Kitchen and Taste Everything Once for their outstanding work. With David Blaine on the production side and Remi Olsen on the consumer side, Spokane’s local food culture is alive and well and will continue to grow.
Before 2009 there was no “Best Local Blogger” category. The inclusion of blogging in “Best of” coincides nicely with the Inlander’s transition to online voting, and confirms the important role of blogging in civic dialog. (Last year there were no categories for Best Neighborhood, Best Public Park, and Best Grassroots Advocacy Group, among many others. We like to think that these additions had something to do with our role as a squeaky wheel in “Best of” 2008. Kudos to the Inlander for acting on public input and asking for more.)
Given the relative obscurity of the Spokane blogosphere among our population overall, “Best Local Blogger” effectively means “Most Visible Local Blogger” in a public input poll. Were the category “Best Local Blog” we’d have bet on Down to Earth NW for their widespread notoriety, backed by the marketing guns over at the Spokesman-Review. Given that the blogging award was for the blogger and not the blog, we think it bears mention that Remi Olsen runs several local websites including a projects page, horror movie reviews, a Twitter-style comments feed, and the Spokane Food Blog.
While we’re flattered that the Inlander sees us as a needed “slap in the face,” we think of ourselves as more of a “pinch on the cheek”. The Spovangelist is successful because people are interested in how to propel Spokane towards its fullest potential. This endeavor is much more than a catchy theme (notice how we’re right next to Best Spiritual Leader?) some idle titillation and occasionally punchy one-liners. It is the mission of this blog to explore that elusive something about our city, our culture and our place that mystifies and gives hope. It is up to us to collectively define “the good life” and to find new ways of living it together.
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Congrats and good on you! What a shame there’s still snow on the ground. Coming back from vacation would’ve been that much nicer.
Nice Job! I will second your statement about Bart and Paul’s DTE they are great bloggers. And a mention to Editor, Revised, if the blog was updated more frequently it has great content written by a Spokane resident, aong with many of the blogs listed on your Friends in Spokane blog roll. Interested to see how your trip to South America has inspired your views of Spokane.
Congratulations Mariah!
Nice work! You totally deserve it. You have my vote for next year too!
Congratulations! I’m also interested to hear how your trip south influenced your view of Spokane…
Thanks for the kind words Spovangelist – and congratulations.
Does anyone else think this award should have been named after Metro(Spokane)?
At any rate – it’s been extremely rewarding to be part of the growing Spokane blogosphere and why I’m here I’d like to give a mention to 2 of my other favorite blogs in Spokane.
Shallow Cogitations – http://www.shallowcogitations.com/
Cycling Spokane – http://cyclingspokane.blogspot.com/
CONGRATS!!!! We voted for you!!!!! It was nice to see that you won, and don’t sell yourself short, you deserve it!
congrats on the Inlander write-up!
We are blessed to have you here in Spokane
Hey Blog Girl!
Congrats on your best blogger nod from the Inlander.
You rule!
From the only Spokane blogger who blogged his way onto Anderson Cooper 360 for his Sarah Palin blog post trickery, congrats. I wish Spokane had a more vibrant blogging community but maybe one day we will. Hope you get a Inlanderlanche.
Congrats! I moved here not long ago, and your blog was the first one I found. Thanks for all the good stuff you have on here…
Congrats from CORSAIR!
We’re glad that people are working towards making Spokane as awesome as possible!