It has been nearly two years since Eggplante first launched. Who would have guessed that a blog started just to inform my brother of the happenings at E3 2009 (yep, oh-nine) would become a much wider-breadth music, award show, video game review site? I certainly thought that Eggplante would become the same as any other blog I’d run: a couple of posts, maybe a dozen, but it’ll fade. It’ll expire.
Well, not this veggie-blog. In fact, to quote Master Chief, “I think we’re just getting started.”
So here it is. Eggplante 2.0!
You have already noticed the massive overhaul. What was once a three column layout now has a much stronger emphasis on the photos we’ve been taking, not to mention the overall more graphical approach to the site’s layout and design. Bugs are still being tinkered around with, and things are certainly going to change over the coming weeks and months, but for the most part, the new Eggplante is ready to go! So what can you expect? Tons. Here are just a few things:
- More frequent updates. You may have already noticed that updates have been coming through more often. That’s because we’ve scheduled to attend more shows, more events, take more photographs, and do more interviews. This is going to certainly ramp up over the coming months – March is set to be huge, and May through July are always massive. We can’t wait.
- More music. Lately, the posts have been tons of game reviews. And truth be told, we love gaming, so it fits. We’re good friends with the folks at Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, and they do a great job of providing us with plenty of review fodder. But Eggplante got known for its unique concert photography and show reviews, and that’s what you’ll see more of as time goes on.
- Larger images. This one isn’t really new, actually. We’ve been planning for larger images with smaller watermarks since mid-2010. In fact, we’ve got some of the largest images of any blog on the web – the shortest side measures 1024 pixels or more! We hate those sites that call themselves photo blogs and then come to the table with 600 x 400 photos. We’re doubling it.
- Twitter, Facebook, Email. These three things aren’t brand new, but boy could they be used much more often. So, with every post that goes up, Twitter and Facebook will automatically update. Contest notifications will happen via these two sites as well, so that everyone knows about the chance to win some awesome stuff! And, to top it all off, we’ve got a dedicated email address for any questions or comments: [email protected]. So email me! I love hearing from people!
And those are the four biggest things you can expect from Eggplante, and they’re all starting right now. And as a little hint as to what you can expect in terms of events we’re going to be covering this year:
- E3 2011 – what would Eggplante be without our yearly trip to Los Angeles?
- The Junos – our first time attending this event, here’s to all our Canadian talent!
- MMVAs 2011 – again, third year’s a charm – Much Music, here we come!
- CMW – Canadian Music Week started it all off for us, so we’re going back to pay tribute
Of course, you can also expect tons of concerts and interviews. Think Down With Webster, Shania Twain, Good Charlotte, Classified, Ke$ha, and our yearly show of Video Games Live. Eggplante is back in a very big way.
The Chief was right. We are just getting started.