Our New Year’s resolution is to fill our pages, Web site with your ideas

It’s a brand new year and here at The Entertainer, we’re ready to party like it’s 2009.

Web overhaul

In case you haven’t already noticed, our Web designer Travis Clark just redesigned our Web site and added a host of useful features that you can find by going to www.gazettetimes.com or www.democratherald.com and clicking on the link to “Entertainment.”

There, you’ll have access to our weekly cover stories and columns, as well as live feeds of music and entertainment news from The Associated Press. In addition, you can also easily surf current film reviews and movie showtimes and check out the TV listings for any hour of the day.

At the bottom of the page there are both Entertainer and AP videos that you can play at the click of a button, as well as links to our podcast page (www.gazettetimes.com/gt_to_go) and staff blogs.

In our “What’s Happening” section we post extended versions of all the calendars you can find weekly in the printed version of The Entertainer. And anyone can submit items to our live Local Events Calendar by simply clicking the tab to “Submit Event.”

New features

You may have already noticed something new in this edition of The Entertainer. In 2009, we’re launching a comprehensive mid-valley restaurant guide on our Web site, starting with four reviews in print ths week (see pages 3, 8 and 9).

The section, which were calling “Entertainer’s Cheap Eats” will have new reviews added weekly — with a focus on finding fare that is both delicious and afforable.

Readers will be able to comment on the reviews online. To nominate a local restaurant for a review e-mail your suggestion to the address at the end of this column.

In addition to the restaurant directory, we’re adding a page listing local bands and performers to our Web site called “Mid-valley Band Space.” To be added to the list, local groups have two options: they can either send their contact information and Web site address via e-mail or add themselves as a friend on our Myspace page (www.myspace.com/

entertaineronmyspace). All bands listed on the Myspace page will automatically be included.

On “Band Space” we will be featuring weekly videos of local bands performing live. We invite submissions of short digital videos to that we can use on the page. Leave a DVD for The Entertainer at the front desk of the Gazette-Times or Democrat-Herald or e-mail us the embed code for your video.

Finally, we’ll be recognizing local artists and crafters on a monthly basis with short profiles in the Entertainer. To nominate yourself or another local artist send an e-mail with the artist’s name, artistic medium or craft and contact information, so we ca n follow up.

Network with us

Friends on the Entertainer’s growing Myspace and Facebook pages get weekly event updates and can take part in online discussions that shape The Entertainer’s content. In addition, you’ll find a gallery of past covers and photos, links to local bands, videos and our blogs.

To join the entertainer on Myspace, see www.myspace.com/entertaineronmyspace. To join our Facebook group, login to Facebook and search groups for “The Entertainer, Gazette-Times.”

To contact Entertainer editor Nancy Raskauskas, e-mail nancy.raskauskas@lee.net or call 758-9542.