Welcome to Big Apple Blog Festival (BABF), a representative roundup of this week’s posts by NYC bloggers.

• Stereogum suggests that you keep your iPod volume turned down … “Keep it at an hour a day, at 60% of max volume, at most, if you don’t want to end up wearing a hearing aid to your 30th birthday party.” …
• Frost Street is supporting Kathy Mayers in the “Gourmet Survivor Competition, a foodblog-community fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.” … organized by The Amateur Groumet …
• Amy Blair went to vote … “On Tuesday, I went to go vote in the New York City Democratic Primary. The lady at the table for my election district asked me my name and I clearly told her ‘Amy Blair.’ ‘Amy Blair,’ she responded, ‘that’s an easy one to remember.’” … after looking at every page in the A-L book, the poll worker then started to go through the M-Z book … “I let her know that she wasn’t going to find me in the M-Z book, as my last name starts with the letter ‘B,’ and the books are alphabetized by last name. ‘Oh really?’ she asked. ‘Alphabetized by last name?’ She then found my name in the book and thanked me for my help. She hadn’t realized that’s how it worked until then. The polls, by the way, had been open for thirteen hours at that point.” … Ai yi yi yi yi ….
• A Guy In New York posted his weekly “This Week in Reviews (TWIR)” …
• gothamist reports that “The Taxi and Limousine Commission thinks that summons issued to cabdrivers for rudeness dropped 26% because of 311, since it’s much easier for NYers to call up and complain about bad behavior. Well, here’s Gothamist theory for the better mood: The taxi fare hike!” … “Taxi Drivers Were Nicer This Year” …
• jew school says that even if you’re not sure if you know Dave Brubeck’s music … you do …
• mister snitch! has some good posts this week … including … Googles’s launch of blog search (and check out the link at the bottom, “Glad you asked.”) … and he links to a CNN story about an inventor who makes fuel out of dead cats … :-O … Loco and Luca will NOT end up in our tank … “Amazing sidewalk chalk art” … check it out, it looks amazing …
• modern fabulosity doesn’t understand why our link to him comes first in a Google Blogs search for “modern fabulosity” … neither do we … but congratulations again on reaching 100,000 page views! …
• Stay Free! Daily, in “Doctors fight online critics” … writes that medical groups are upset about doctor ranking sites like RateMDs …
• A Brooklyn Life gives her sister advice about how close she can park a car near a fire hydrant … a commenter gives the “3-sidewalk squares” rule … count “the number of concrete sidewalk squares between you and the hydrant — if there are three full ones, you should be safe.” … sounds right to us …
• A small victory has lists … “Foods that are ok for pizza toppings” … and “Foods that are NOT pizza toppings” …
• NewYorkology and Corante New York look at the NYT’s “36 Hours” story on … Brooklyn …
• MadKane has composed a “A Baysider’s Ode To Queens” … and has lots of limericks and New York humor on her site …
• As I Please writes that “L.A. Times bests N.Y. Times” … “At least in its coverage of Lafayette, Louisiana.” …
• CaiLun.info shows a book and box set in … “Blue: Coptic with Case” …
• The Politicker in “Brown vs. Rasiej” … states that “One of the interesting down-ballot outcomes of this race was a reminder of what a low-tech slog city politics really is.” …
• A Stitch in Haste in “Sacré Château!” … says “White Castle doesn’t count” when it comes to a recent EU/US deal governing the transatlantic wine trade .. that requires: “From 2008 US vineyards will no longer be able to boast that a wine hails from a château unless they can prove its grapes are grown within sight of a castle.” … what about King Friday’s castle? …
• The Corsair writes that the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, has … “the dreamiest hair” …
• Amy’s New York Notebook links to the Helvetica vs. Arial death match …
• a picture BY me has a photo titled … “Surf Grand Central” …
• On Probation is leaving NYC and says … “I can’t think of anything I’m gonna miss about NYC. Period.” … happy trails to you …
• Englishman in New York went to the Russia! exhibition at the Guggenheim museum and got a great pic of a dancer …
• The Citizen Journal reports … “At least one case of poison ivy confirmed in New York City; Officials on Alert” …
• Cake Or Death? is very excited about the new Gillette 5-bladed razor …
• Express Train has a photo … “Pacific Street Brooklyn ~ waiting for the M/R ~ 8:30am”
• A VC asks, “Is Bill Gates the Cat with Nine Lives?” … examines the first three lives … and wonders if Vista (previously Longhorn) will be the fourth …
• Asymmetrical Information has a succinct post about what “Little House on the Prairie” can teach us about Structural Unemployment …
• Corante New York points to Paragraph … “An incubator for bloggers” … don’t forget Village Quill …
• Manolo’s Shoe Blog has roundup of Fashion Week … “Fashion Week: Bland is the New Black” …
• The Corsair also has a “Fashion Week Wrap Up” …

Listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.
If you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF … or you have a NYC blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF … send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail … see you next week …