Newy-ville!! Soft Publishing of New Look

Mama's never been known for her patience. I just had a great meeting today with John Wurth of Hatch Creative. Thanks to John and his recession-friendly pricing, Mama has a brand new logo. Or as I told him, "It's not a NEW logo. It's a LOGO!!"

I was going to try to hold out for another week-- our blog birthday is May 27-- before debuting the new look, but I couldn't help but rush home and futz around with stuff and now that I have it just like I want it....

So, whaddaya think??? Isn't she PURTY? I just love, love, love the logo. And I just loved, loved, loved working with John at Hatch. Bless his little heart, I wrote him a letter that was basically caveman-ese: "Me want acorn. Me want cute. Me want retro-ish. Me want perky. Me want cheap." And viola!!! A cute, retro-ish, perky acorn with way more character than I ever envisioned. Heavens to Betsy, I'm pleased. (I'm doing a little happy dance in my chair right now).

So, early happy birthday to Lou!! We'll be a-tweakin' over the next week, but enjoy the new look now.

And Hatch's "Pay What You Feel" pricing lasts only til July 1st, so hop on it! According to their site: "From now until July 1st, we’re letting you tell us what you are willing to spend on our services, whether it be redesigning your website, creating a new brochure, designing a print ad, product photography, or setting your company up on Facebook or Twitter." Love them, love them, love them!! Good Loueyvillagers!

Speaking of Local Artists: Hound Dog Press Moved

Someday when I am rich and famous, I will have Hound Dog Press create business cards for Loueyville.  This is not a passing whim.  I first mentioned this deep desire back in December 08.  And that was before I had the amazing John Wurth at Hatch create my lovely Loueyville acorn logo-- a logo that totally screams "Letterpress me!!."  (Okay, that sounds a little nightmareish, actually.)

Anyway, turns out Hound Dog Press recently moved from its Mellwood Center location.  Where did they go?  Where do you think they went?  Where all the cool kids are these days-- Market Street!    

I'm so excited to see so much happening in Nulu.  I love this city.  That is all.  

Wednesday Morning Randomness: Bats, Beer, Music, etc.

I have had such a wonderful summer. I'm so sorry to have it wind down. Mama needs to win the lottery or sell her novel for a bazillion dollars. I'm damned good at the "lady of leisure" thing. Anytime I see someone Tweet or Facebook about "being bored" I want to shout: BORED? Bored? In a world with the internet and ten zillion tv stations and movie theaters and this great city we live in, and let's not forget BOOKS! Books! I don't think I've been bored since the mid-90's. And until I am too old to move or grow blind (it could happen-- my eyesight has gotten worse just about every year since age three), I don't ever anticipate being bored again.  Modernity rocks.

But, despite the fact that I had a marvelous time at Nerd Camp, I am so super happy to be home. And I'm trying to cram in as much "summer fun" into the next week as possible.  Despite the fact that I don't always see all of my friends on a monthly basis, being away from them for a month was kinda hard. And Twitter, of course, makes it possible to see all of the fun they were having without me.  Even though I expressly told them not to have any fun without me.  Damned friends.

Anyway, I have lots of catching up to do, so here's a randomness post for you.  Sorry for some of the "old news" in here. It's all new to me!

• Finally, the old Potstickers location across from Papalino's is getting a new tenant.  It's going to be a cupcake bakery.  Wish I liked sweets, but good on you, cupcakers. You know what I do like? Red velvet cake. If they have a red velvet cupcake, I'm all over that.
  
• The Holy Grale is now open 7 days a week. That instantly improves my quality of life.
  
• As does the re-opening of the Barret Bar under new management.  Roommate and I went there a couple of times before I left for Nerd Camp. The food is great-- worlds better than the old "frozen chicken patty" days.  Roommate had a bbq slider that was delish. Beers are a bit pricey, but pool is still cheap.  And they still have that lovely patio.
  
• Speaking of Holy Grale, I went there yesterday for their first Monday opening ever with the lovely and talented Erin Keane and her lovely and talented mister.  Ms. Erin, one of our city's finest writers, is now writing for Salon.com (among other places). Her article on Roseanne Barr's potential White House bid not only got at Twitter mention from Roseanne herself, but is probably my favorite article she's ever written.
  
• And speaking of my awesome friends (now I feel like I'm name-dropping), I went to Clifton's Pizza tonight to see the always fantastic Alex Wright play with Danny Flannigan, who is also wonderful.  When I found myself singing along to some of Alex's tunes, I realized that I have officially become a "groupie." He said it was okay if I declared myself the president of his fan club, so there you have it.  Alex's CD comes out soon, and he's playing next Thursday with Dewey Kincaid at Zazzo's.  Also, I'm told his CD cover was designed by the marvelous John Wurth who also designed my little acorn logo.
  
• In case you missed it via Twitter, while I was in Connecticut visiting Mama Lou, I hijacked her car for the evening and drove an hour to see our Louisville Bats play the Pawtucket Red Sox, by myself.  It was a gorgeous, glorious evening and a stellar game of baseball that turned into an ugly, ugly, uglyuglyugly loss for our Bats.  Here's the thing, I am clearly one of the Bats' biggest fans, so why is it that every request I've made to them to cover them for this blog has been totally ignored?  Even the person who tweets for the Bats ignores me.  Last year I even asked to interview the person who maintains the field at Slugger Field, and they ignored my request.  It's starting to sting a little, I'll be honest.
  
• And yeah, I know people get all kinds of snarky about people and businesses asking that you vote for them in the LEO Readers' Poll.  I get it.  But I'm going to ask anyway.  I know I'm not the "best blog" in Louisville.  Hands down that honor belongs to Consuming Louisville.  But some day, I would like to be a runner-up.  So, yes, I'm asking for you to vote for me.  Michelle will be fine. ;)
  
• Finally, one thing I've missed this summer is the James Stewart Marathon at the Palace Theater.  This weekend is my favorite Jimmy Stewart movie, "Rear Window."  I used to be a huge Audrey Hepburn fan-- still am, really-- but that was back when I was thin as a rail and totally fey and aspired to be just like her.  Nowadays when I think of classic beauty, I think of Grace Kelley.  Just so ineffably perfect.  

That's the randomness for today.  So happy to be home!  Louisville, I've missed you something awful.

Happy blogaversary to me! Loueyville turns 6 years old.

It's been six years since I started blogging in Louisville (May 29 was the official blogaversary).

My first post were about the Bats, BirdZirk! and the opening day of the Creation Museum outside of Cincy (the latter remains one of my favorite posts despite the epic levels of snark involved).

It's been four years since the birth of my logo. John Wurth at Hatch Creative made it. I told him I wanted something retro-y, happy, with an acorn and a fleur de lis.

My tag line is: "Neither here, nor there" because I am from the North and spent most of my adult life in the South and Louisville is... neither here, nor there.

The acorn? There are all kinds of reasons behind that.

My last name is Chipman, frequently, lovingly bastardized to Chipmunk. Chipmunks eat?

I lived in New England and New Orleans and oak trees are ubiquitous throughout.

And when I was a wee lass, I discovered that the Vanderbilts had a special affinity for the saying "Great Oaks from Tiny Acorns grow." I, myself, am not a particularly big person. I come from humble means. The aspirational message behind that aphorism felt particularly meaningful to me.

I don't "do" analytics, and I have never tried to sell ads. I've never been compensated for or charged for posts.

This has always been a labor of love.

That doesn't mean that it's not without significant rewards.

In 2011, I gave a speech at the Louisville Free Public Library called "Social Media Is Social" and it outlined just what blogging and tweeting had brought to my life.

90% of my friends in Louisville met me through the blog or twitter. Media passes afforded to me because of my blog have allowed me to do probably thousands of dollars worth of activities. I got my first Louisville print media job with The Louisville Paper because of my blog. And I am now employed full time as an online journalist at Insider Louisville, in part because of the work that I did with Loueyville.

There are close to 750 posts on this blog. Thank you to every single one of you who's read even one of these posts. You've changed my life.

I know things have slowed to a trickle here since I started working at Insider Louisville. I hope you've followed me there– 80% of the stories I cover for IL are stories I would have covered for Loueyville. It's a dream to be paid for what I've been doing for six years for free. And I am grateful for all the Insider folks for this opportunity.

I'll continue to do my best to fill in the cracks in my reporting for IL here.

Happy sixth anniversary to Loueyville! And thank you for your continued support.