diff --git a/_config.yml b/_config.yml
index 677657189..bc76bfffe 100644
--- a/_config.yml
+++ b/_config.yml
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ markdown: rdiscount
 rdiscount:
     extensions: [smart]
 url: http://beets.radbox.org
+permalink: /blog/:title.html
diff --git a/_layouts/main.html b/_layouts/main.html
index 5c52417cc..8a637e430 100644
--- a/_layouts/main.html
+++ b/_layouts/main.html
@@ -1,16 +1,25 @@
 <!DOCTYPE html>
 <html>
     <head>
-        <title>beets: {{ page.shorttitle }}</title>
+        <title>
+            beets:
+            {% if page.shorttitle %}
+                {{ page.shorttitle }}
+            {% else %}
+                {{ page.title }}
+            {% endif %}
+        </title>
         <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
-        <link rel="stylesheet" href="bootstrap.min.css">
-        <link rel="stylesheet" href="bootstrap-responsive.min.css">
-        <link rel="stylesheet" href="beets.css">
+        <link rel="stylesheet" href="/bootstrap.min.css">
+        <link rel="stylesheet" href="/bootstrap-responsive.min.css">
+        <link rel="stylesheet" href="/beets.css">
         {% if page.section == 'main' %}
         <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
         <script type="text/javascript" src="beets.js"></script>
         {% endif %}
 
+        <link rel="alternate" href="/blog/atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml">
+
         <!-- Flattr button code -->
         <script type="text/javascript">
             (function() {
@@ -53,7 +62,11 @@
                 {% else %}
                 <div class="span12" id="header">
                     <h1>
+                        {% if page.section == 'blog' %}
+                        The beets blog: {{ page.title }}.
+                        {% else %}
                         {{ page.title }}
+                        {% endif %}
                     </h1>
                 </div>
                 {% endif %}
@@ -81,20 +94,23 @@
 <section>
 <h3>Project</h3>
 <ul>
-    <li><a href="http://github.com/sampsyo/beets">beets on github</a></li>
-    <li><a href="http://bitbucket.org/adrian/beets">beets on bitbucket</a></li>
+    <li>
+        <a href="http://github.com/sampsyo/beets">github</a>,
+        <a href="http://bitbucket.org/adrian/beets">bitbucket</a>
+    </li>
     <li><a href="http://beets.readthedocs.org/">documentation</a></li>
     <li><a href="http://code.google.com/p/beets/issues/list">bug tracker</a></li>
     <li><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/beets-users">mailing
         list</a></li>
+    <li><a href="/blog/">blog</a>, <a href="/blog/atom.xml">atom</a></li>
     <li><a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/beets">#beets on
         freenode</a></li>
 </ul>
 </section>
 <section>
 {% if page.section == 'main' %}
-<h3>News</h3>
-<ul id="twitterStatus">
+<h3><a href="http://twitter.com/b33ts">News</a></h3>
+<ul id="twitterStatus" class="newslist">
 </ul>
 {% endif %}
 <p id="twitterFollow">
@@ -102,10 +118,24 @@
 </p>
 </section>
 <section>
+<h3><a href="/blog/">Blog</a></h3>
+<ul id="blogSidebar" class="newslist">
+{% for post in site.posts limit:3 %}
+<li>
+    <span class="date">{{ post.date | date: '%B %e' }}</span>
+    <a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a>
+</li>
+{% endfor %}
+</ul>
+<p id="tease">
+    <a href="/blog/">all posts&hellip;</a>
+</p>
+</section>
+<section>
 <h3>Contact</h3>
 <p>
     Email <a href="mailto:adrian@radbox.org">Adrian Sampson</a> with comments, questions, and fan mail.
-    You can <a href="{{ site.url }}/donate.html">donate with PayPal or Amazon</a>,
+    You can <a href="/donate.html">donate with PayPal or Amazon</a>,
     but please consider a donation to
     <a href="http://www.publicampaign.org/donate">Public
         Campaign</a> instead.
diff --git a/_posts/2012-08-01-new-blog.md b/_posts/2012-08-01-new-blog.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..99b535d0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_posts/2012-08-01-new-blog.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+title: beets has a new blog
+layout: main
+section: blog
+---
+Test post.
diff --git a/beets.css b/beets.css
index 1b24c5a0c..57020a25b 100644
--- a/beets.css
+++ b/beets.css
@@ -28,6 +28,13 @@
     text-align: center;
 }
 
+#sidebar h3 a {
+    color: inherit;
+}
+#sidebar h3 a:hover {
+    text-decoration: none;
+}
+
 li {
     color: inherit;
 }
@@ -39,18 +46,18 @@ ul, ol {
     margin-top: 1em;
 }
 
-#twitterStatus {
+.newslist {
     margin-bottom: 0;
 }
-#twitterStatus, #twitterStatus li {
+.newslist, .newslist li {
     margin-left: 0;
     padding-left: 0;
     list-style: none;
 }
-#twitterStatus li {
+.newslist li {
     margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 }
-#twitterStatus .date {
+.newslist .date {
     font-weight: bold;
     font-size: small;
     display: block;
diff --git a/blog/index.md b/blog/index.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..edcfe6507
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+layout: main
+title: The beets blog.
+section: blogindex
+shorttitle: blog
+---
+This is the weblog for [beets][], an open-source music management system by
+[Adrian Sampson][]. It consists of announcements about the project, guides to
+doing fancy stuff with beets, and technical articles about Python and
+music-related development.
+
+[Subscribe to the feed.][sub] You should also follow
+[@b33ts](http://twitter.com/b33ts) on Twitter, where smaller project updates
+are posted more frequently.
+
+[beets]: http://beets.radbox.org/
+[Adrian Sampson]: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/asampson/
+[sub]: {{ site.url }}/blog/atom.xml
+
+{% for post in site.posts %}
+* {{ post.date | date: '%B %e, %Y' }}: <a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a>.
+{% endfor %}
