Rattlesnake is about "getting hot & bothered about hip-shaking bellydance tunes, desi beats, garage punk – and #olsx."

The idea of shimmying and shaking my booty was firmly established from the first time I read 'Rattlesnake'. Fellow blogger and Penny Blacker, Sarah Maybank, has lot of passion for the music she writes about and it is infectious. Her blog also boasts one of the most comprehensive sidebar lists to other blogs and websites I have ever seen.

www.rattlesnake66.wordpress.com is my Blog of the Month.


FIONA: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

SARAH: I'm a freelance sub-editor and frustrated bellydancer! I never really found a class I could get to in London due to my working hours so I content myself with practising in my bedroom. I love anything that gets me busting out a few hip drops, from traditional Egyptian music to stuff I hear on the Bobby Friction show on the Asian Network to the White Stripes - I've done a wicked choreography to 'Fell in Love with a Girl'.

FIONA: Why did you set up 'Rattlesnake'?

SARAH: I was hopeless at downloading music so it actually started off as a place I could cut and paste URLs of songs I liked dancing to so I could listen to them again. Then in June this year, I saw a burlesque/bellydance show I really enjoyed and wrote a review of it. I think that's when 'Rattlesnake' started as a 'real' site.

FIONA: Do you only feature music you like?

SARAH: I only feature music that gets me go going around the room. 'Rattlesnake' is all about stuff that makes you want to dance, but that isn't mainstream dance music. A fair bit of it has a Middle Eastern or Asian element in terms of rhythm or melody but not necessarily - Willy Moon's last track was one of my most recent favourites.

At the moment the site has three main elements - Asian/desi beats; bellydance-inspired music and garage punk-type stuff. I'd like to expand to Latin and Afro-Caribbean music too but I don't have the time.

FIONA: How do you interact with your readers?

SARAH: I have a Twitter account, @rattlesnake66, plus through the comments section of the site.

FIONA: What's the best thing about blogging?

SARAH: Venting your love for music that you're into. Meeting the people who make it, and sensing their passion. Trying to help to spread the word.

FIONA: What's the worst thing?

SARAH: Nothing so far - but that's probably because I haven't been doing it for long enough!

FIONA: Why should PB readers check out 'Rattlesnake'?

SARAH: Because it's a big fat, goodtime musical melting pot!

FIONA; Thank you.