Blogging BR buildings

• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jun 11, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:15 a.m.

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Colleen Kane came to live in Baton Rouge the way a lot of people do.

Her significant other got into grad school.

Kane’s boyfriend, now fiancé, had a reason to be in Red Stick. Kane, a freelance writer who’s worked on magazines in New York, had time on her hands.

“That first semester was like boot camp for Tom,” Kane said.  “I was by myself a lot. I wanted to like it here, but I wasn’t adapting well.”

Kane started a blog called “Abandoned Baton Rouge,” indulging a thing she has for empty, ramshackle houses and commercial buildings that are between occupants — long between occupants.

The blog has made her sort of a celebrity or bete noir to readers who disagree with her seat-of-the-pants observations. Google “Abandoned Baton Rouge.” Read Kane’s blog at http://www.colleenkane.com/.

“I know a few bloggers who blog about your blog and how so far removed you are from how you perceive yourself  to be,” reads one comment. Continuing: “You have been given an opportunity to live somewhere known ALMOST SOLELY for its culture and you’ve yet to immerse yourself in very much of it. Instead, you watch gimmicky s—- on TV about the supposed land right outside your door. I find that so hardcore incredulous.”

The advice to watch less television and get out more was prompted by Kane’s observation that Southerners have a yen for “crazy fried food” such as chicken-fried bacon.

“I’m thinking out loud when I blog,” said Kane. “Or speculating. I have no frame of reference. My favorite part are the stories.” She means the stories readers tell her about the pictures of buildings she posts.

On a hot June morning, Kane, 34, pedaled up to a Perkins Road coffee shop on a 1970s, electric green,  Schwinn bicycle for a face-to-face.

Kane grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers in journalism and worked in bars and restaurants in Ireland and other places before getting jobs on a succession of magazines in New York including BUST  and Playgirl.

“After 9/11, everyone had these really heavy feelings,” Kane said. “Like, what am I doing with my life. I felt that way. I needed to do something that was more important to me.”

Blogging is NOT the important thing Kane had in mind. She freelances for print and Web magazines and is working on a novel. Her blog has, however, taken on a life of its own.