Thursday Randomness: What have I been up to?

Is it the middle of October already? My goodness. Time really flies when you're having fun.

And, gentle readers, I am having so much fun these days!

Sure, money is way tight, and I am still struggling with what to do about my lack of insurance. But if you zapped those two stressors from my life (anyone? anyone?), I'd be fool happy.

I'm totally crazy about my new freelancing life. I have the best readers (that's YOU!). My friends never cease to amaze me. And The Guy and I just passed the one year of dating mark, and I couldn't be more in love.

So, what else have I been up to? 

• Tomorrow marks the end of my second week of employment at Insider Louisville. Depending on who you talk to, I'm either the "Deputy Director of Content" or the "Associate Managing Editor." I'm not really hung up on titles; whatever you want to call me, I'm having a hell of a good time. I've been helping out around the joint, writing 2-5 articles a day, working on vetting freelancers and much more. We're still moving into our new office in NuLu, and every morning when I drive to work I have to pinch myself. Ever since my job hunt began, I've had a superficial goal of either working downtown or in NuLu, and here I am with my own desk, an endless supply of good coffee, and a job that I can't wait to go to when I wake up. My bosses respect me. I feel like I add a lot to the organization. And I'm getting paid to do cool stuff and write about it. My fingers and toes are crossed that this turns into a full-time gig with benefits someday soon. (And my fingers and toes are crossed that I continue to be this happy with this job).
• For the past six weeks or so, I've been working part time as a "Twitter Specialist" for 520 East Brands. Shane is a dream to work for, and I'm thrilled to be the "twitter voice" for many beloved local and national brands. I knew one day my Twitter addiction would pay off!
• Chipman Creative was hired two months ago to "ghost blog" for local real estate agent, WordCamp maestro, and fellow Start-Up Weekend attendee, Scott Hack. We did the true "ghost" thing for a little while, but over the past few weeks, we've started to put my name on the posts. So if you're looking for more of my posts, follow Scott's blog. And obviously, if you have any real estate needs, you should contact Finish Line Realty. Scott is awesome.
• Last Saturday, my Louisville, Not Kentucky co-host Linda and I worked a booth at the Flea off Market. We signed people up for our mailing list and interviewed people for Episode 7 and beyond. We met lots of listeners and even got to interview the Mayor. It was a beautiful day, and we're looking forward to doing it again in November.
• Tuesday, a group of Loueyville readers and friends volunteered to answer phones at the NPOTM, Louisville Public Media fund drive. Thanks to Kara, Dawn, Bethany, Stephanie, Stephen, Ashlee, and Linda for coming along. We ate lots of pizza and talked to some great LPM supporters on the phone.

So now, besides this blog, my twitter, my facebook, and my pinterest, you can now catch me on Insider Louisville, the Finish Line Realty blog, Louisville Not Kentucky, and as the voice of brands you know and love on Twitter. 

Hope you all have had an excellent fall so far! Thank you for your support!

Louisville, Not Kentucky at Flea Off Market

One of my favorite monthly events in the city is the Flea Off Market-- an open air market in NULU that runs from 10am til 6pm almost all year 'round.

Last Flea, I bumped into Linda, my podcasting partner, and we both decided that Louisville, Not Kentucky ought to do something at the next market.

So this Saturday (10/13), you can visit the Louisville, Not Kentucky booth at the Flea Off Market. There we'll be:

• Doing live interviews with Flea-goers for future podcasts.
• Interviewing some of the booth owners for an upcoming podcast.
• Accepting pitches for future podcast segments.
• Collecting adult-beverage drink recipes.
• Signing people up for our new mailing list.
• Taking pre-orders for Louisville, Not Kentucky t-shirts ($15).

So come visit us! Bring us your favorite drink recipe-- you can drop it off, or fill out a recipe card at the booth. We might mix up your drink for one of our "What are we drinking tonight?" segments-- and of course, we'll credit you. 

Bring us your pitches for story ideas-- what would you like us to cover in future podcasts? We might be able to interview you right on the spot! 

Sign up for our mailing list, so you'll never miss the latest Louisville, Not Kentucky podcast news. 

Thank you so much to Flea Off Market for providing us with the booth space. Thanks in advance to Christine (of the Cyclocross) for loaning us a shade tent and to Bobbi (Kyle's mum) for loaning us a table.  

And thanks once again to Kyle Ware for providing us with our gorgeous logo art and all of our design needs. If you're looking for an artist or designer, you can't go wrong with Kyle. And you'll definitely want a tshirt with his awesome logo design! Linda & I will be wearing sample shirts at the Flea, but if you're interested in pre-ordering one, sight-unseen, email me at Lou (at) loueyville.com.

We're so excited to meet you! Drop on by! 

Episode 6 is now available. All episodes are available for download on iTunes. 

Episode 4: Louisville, Not Kentucky

Good mamas don't play favorites. But I am not a good mama. This episode of LOUISVILLE, NOT KENTUCKY is my favorite, thus far.

Linda and I talked about the Jug Band Jubilee, one of my favorite events in the city. We talked about the Tyler Park Jazz Festival. And Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble was gracious enough to let us give away two tickets to their new show: TIME FLIES  (You need to follow us @LouNotKY on Twitter and then tweet us to win-- enter by 9/10! We hope you'll "like" us on Facebook too!). We also jibber-jabbered about Louisvillagers on Reality TV-- go #TeamGunnar!

But the highlight of Episode 4 was our guest podcaster, Scott Kirkpatrick (aka Bro. Stephen) a local musician and a bartender at Rye.  Scott was such a great interview that our podcast ran 20 MINUTES over its usual run-time. We talked about his life and what brought him to Louisville and about narcolepsy (which he suffers from) and his guilty-pleasure music.

If you can't listen to the whole podcast, you need to listen starting at 40:00, where Scott plays a beautiful new song based on LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, one of my favorite books.  "Contagion" is lovely and will give you chills.

Scott brought two drinks for us to try during the "What are we drinking?" segment-- a drink that's on the menu at Rye called the Schnitzelberg and another off-menu drink called the "Alma Lesch" named after a folk artist featured prominently in the KY Museum of Arts & Crafts, downtown.

Scott was the best first guest we could have hoped for-- chatty and sweet and already a LOUISVILLE, NOT KENTUCKY listener.

Hope you enjoy this supersized episode of LOUISVILLE, NOT KENTUCKY.

Episode 3 of Louisville, Not Kentucky is up!

Look what we can do, Louisville!

Episode 3 of the "Louisville, Not Kentucky" podcast hosted by Linda Golden and me is now up on our Tumblr & on SoundCloud.  

In it we discuss:

• The Flea Off Market
• Louisville Mead
• The Derby Clock (aka the Louisville Clock) dedication
• Actors Theatre's upcoming Romeo & Juliet
• Idea Festival University
• Scientific research on how to be happier... really.

And most importantly, the last five minutes were recorded live at the Kentucky State Fair.  The two of us and Awesome Louisvillager, Gabe Bullard,  spent eight hours traipsing around the fair... let me tell you, we did the fair right! So much fun. A conversation with Freddie Farm Bureau that gets into legalese. Sounds of the Nerveless Nocks stunt show. Linda checks out the biggest veggies. A show-stopper from the Civil War musical. Gabe & Linda brave eating fried Girl Scout cookies! And the world's loudest rooster (not really, that's hyperbole).

We have so much fun. We probably edited out 5 minutes of just us laughing at each other. Looking forward to Episode 4!

Louisville, Not Kentucky-- Episode 2!

Oh goodness, people, Linda Golden and I have so much fun recording and editing the "Louisville, Not Kentucky" podcast... We laugh like crazy ladies. CRAZY. LADIES. I daresay we cackle.

And at some point, we're going to be savvy enough to save our outtakes. Outtakes Episode One would be the two of us just saying "ummmm" for, like, a whole twenty-minute podcast. Outtakes Episode Two would be titled "Linda Sounding Bored With What Melissa Is Talking About." I don't think she's actually bored, but you should hear the way she says "okaaaay" sometimes. Outtakes Episode Three would be "Melissa Stutters Until She Can Find The Word She's Looking For." Fan-freaking-tastic.

In some ways, podcast editing is made of awesome... you get to take your crummy-sounding jibberjabber and make it sound beautifully polished. Like Photoshopping a picture of yourself in a bathing suit.  In some ways, though, it reinforces your ingrained insecurities. Do I really sound like that? (Actually, one of the odd revelations I've had via podcasting is that my recorded voice sounds almost exactly like my cousin Beth's voice. Genetics? Whackadoo!)

I can't thank y'all enough for listening to Episode One. Being out and about around town these past couple of weeks has been crazy weird. Meeting utter strangers who've listened to the podcast?? So fantastic and odd.

If Episode Two of the "Louisville, Not Kentucky" podcast sounds a little rougher and-- let's face it-- sillier than Episode One, I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of our guest bartender for our "What Are We Drinking?" segment. Awesome Louisvillager, WFPL's Gabe Bullard (and Mr. Linda Golden) pours a mighty Tom Collins. Yep, you can definitely hear us descend into goofiness as the podcast progresses. Who knew that the band name "Jukebox the Ghost" could be such a tongue-twister??

In Episode Two you'll hear: an extended (pre-Tom Collins loopiness) tangent about me, Tom Jones, and a Samoan prince; about duck slides (and chick incubators) at the Kentucky State Fair; my report about the World Championship Dainty Contest; more about GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES from Theatre [502]; a Shark Week correction; upcoming calendar info about The Moth and HMS Pinafore at the Iroquois Amphitheater... and more.

Louisville, Not Kentucky-- We have a Podcast, People!

For better part of a year, Linda Golden of LJ Golden-- Just Exploring blog fame-- has been chatting me up about starting a podcast. And for the better part of a year, I've been enthusiastically "HELL YES"-ing her to death.

I love this woman to pieces (and if you keep track of my personal life, I love her so much that, last March, I married her to Awesome Louisvillager, WFPL's Gabe Bullard). And Linda is responsible for some of the best conversations and adventures I have, on a regular basis.

So Linda and I are super happy to announce our new podcast, "Louisville, Not Kentucky"-- episode 1 is now online and is 25 minutes of silliness, cheap booze, Louisville culture, and upcoming events.

In this episode, we discuss: LaBoy LeFemme drag show at The Connection, swimming at Lakeside Pool (courtesy of Awesome Louisvillager Brigid Kaelin), sweet tea lemonade booze, Costumes & Cocktails at Actors Theatre, our first viewing of BIG BROTHER season 14 featuring Louisville's own Wil Heuser, the fact that Linda has never seen ROMANCING THE STONE (WHAT??) and much much more.

The learning curve with this whole podcasting thing has been a little steep, and last Friday we spent SIX hours whittling down 35 minutes of tape to the lean, mean 25 minutes we have now. Next time hopefully it will go faster, but whoa, did we have a lot of fun. I honestly think a (highly-edited) documentary of the two of us cackling like crazy ladies would be even more entertaining than the podcast itself (I say highly-edited because those moments of cackling were interspersed with looooong moments of us staring slack-jawed at Audacity wondering what to do next).

We couldn't have done this without a little help from our friends. Thanks to Gabe Bullard for the crash course in recording and editing. Loads of love to Kyle Ware-- aka The Guy-- for creating our adorable logo. And sending mad love to Ms. Hazel Miller who, in 1982, recorded the song "Look What We Can Do," which we used as our intro music. No joke, when Linda and I realized that the last 8 seconds of this song was the PERFECT theme music, I thought I was going to explode from pure joy. I challenge you to listen to the whole two-minute song, and NOT want to clap/dance/jiggle/your-expression-of-glee-of-choice.  I, personally, think that Linda and I need to take a bio picture for the podcast of the two of us jumping in the air and pumping our fists, inspired by the last 8 seconds of that song.

Right now the plan is to have a new episode every two weeks. Once we get better/faster at editing, it may be more often.

Spread the word, people. This is basically MY LOUEYVILLE in a podcast. Do you have ideas about events and institutions we should cover? Want to provide us with a beverage for our "What are we drinking?" segment?  Want to be our sugar daddy/mama? Tweet us at @LouNotKY or email me at lou [at] loueyville.com.

So proud. Go listen, kids. Link to the podcast here: http://louisvillenotky.tumblr.com/