WordCamp Louisville 2012

Scott Hack, who participated in StartUp Weekend Louisville with me, was kind enough to point me to info about WordCamp Louisville-- All day on October 13 at the Holiday Inn Louisville East1325 South Hurstbourne Parkway. 

I'm a Blogger user, and even on Blogger, I am very conservative with what I do. But WordPress is used for all kinds of web development (even, I am told, our CityAnchor site... isn't it sad that I don't know for sure?). 

From the WordCamp website:

WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress, the free and open source personal publishing software that powers over 25 million sites on the web.... WordCamps are attended by people ranging from blogging newbies to professional WordPress developers and consultants, and usually combine scheduled programming with unconference sessions and other activities.

The schedule is packed and looks great for people with short attention spans:

• 8 to 8:45 Check in, Network, meet fellow attendees and nosh on a light breakfast.
• 8:45 to 9AM Opening Remarks from Organizer and message from Jason Clark with VIA Studio
• 9:10 to 9:45AM – WordPress and E-commerce ( Johnathan Davis )
• 9:50 to 10:25AM – Foundation of Plugins and Themes ( Tammy Hart )
• 10:30 to 11:00 – Deploying WordPress ( Jason McCreary and Nick Temple )
• 11:05 to 11:35 – Frameworks and Child Themes ( Bill Rice )
• 11:40 to 12:15 – How not to suck as a freelancer ( Drew Poland )
• 12:15 to 1:15 LUNCH
• 1:20 to 1:55 – WordPress Security ( Juston Jones )
• 2:00 to 2:30 – WordPress Mobile ( Hal Bugriss )
• 2:35 to 3:05 – 24 Ways to Make WordPress FAST ( Jason McCreary )
• 3:10 to 3:45 – The State of HTML5 ( Wesley Reitz )
• 3:50 to to 4:25 – bbPress : Plugin development done right ( Pippin Williamson )
• 4:30 to 5:00 –
• 5:00 to 5:10 – Wrap up!
• 5:30 to ???? – After party at TBD

I'll be working at Flea Off Market with my Louisville, Not Kentucky peeps, otherwise I'd go. It's only $20, and as Scott says, "like most conferences, material between sessions and networking are just as valuable..."

At risk of sounding like a broken record and being "that person" in the Louisville Tech/Start-up scene... I have to point out... eleven fantastic speakers/presenters... but only ONE woman. 

For more information, visit: http://2012.louisville.wordcamp.org/

CityAnchor Wins Startup Weekend Louisville

So last week, I told you about Startup Weekend, the first event of its kind here in Louisville.

I've been a little slow in getting this out on the blog because (a) I was so exhausted after the event that I spent Monday on the couch with my sick Guy watching a Wire: Season One marathon (b) I've been so busy promoting CityAnchor that I haven't had the chance to write about it on my own damned blog and (c) I will be covering IdeaFestival for WFPL this week, and I need to bang out a bunch of work before I can go and be smart for a couple of days.

The news in a nutshell: I was on the winning team for Startup Weekend.

I was the only woman at the 40+ person event.

Our team was the smallest team.

We were the only team to launch with a live product: a local arts, culture, and food blog aggregator.

We were the only team to launch having earned revenue.

The team: Dave Durand, the designer, is the CEO of Forest Giant. Shane Logsdon is a back end web developer with Blackstone Media and a freelancer. Ukiah Smith is a front end web developer for Power Creative and owner of Faction42, a company that creates websites. And me, of course... doing project management and networking.

But rather than reinvent the wheel, I direct you to the three articles I wrote for Insider Louisville:

Day One: The Woman-Problem

Day Two: Dream Team

Day Three: My wild weekend

Our story also got picked up by Business First, our local business newspaper.  Here's an example of why I adore my team so much... This story references Dave as being the "team leader" and doesn't mention the rest of us at all. At Startupapalooza, where CityAnchor managed to field a booth even though we'd only existed as a company for a couple of days, Dave brought up the article and said, "I am not the leader, and I hate that he did that. I'm sorry guys."

We're going full speed ahead with the venture. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter (@CityAnchor), like us on facebook, and visit the beta website at cityanchor.co.

Kertis Creative Creates Videos About Katrina

Just a few days after the press release about this post landed in my inbox, Hurricane Isaac took aim at the Gulf Coast. So I decided to sit on it a little while.

While Isaac caused some problems in my former hometown of New Orleans and total devastation in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, it was no Katrina. Although, really... how do you gauge this stuff? Many people whose houses withstood Katrina lost everything in Isaac. The people in Plaquemines Parish would disagree that Isaac was "no Katrina."

I'm not going to pontificate on this stuff. If you read my blog, you probably know that I moved to Louisville in July 2006 after having lived in Louisiana for 9ish years. I considered New Orleans my "forever home" and was devastated when my school couldn't hire me back as a full-time teacher. I survived what I now think of as the "Treme Season One" period in New Orleans-- moved back to the city the October after Katrina and lived there until I relocated to Louisville to teach at the Louisville Collegiate School.

I have strong opinions and strong feelings about Katrina, and Isaac tore me up.

And so did this video that local documentarians Stephen Kertis and Brett Marshalls created for the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.

I normally hate reprinting press releases, but this one is super good:

Seven years since Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast with devastating wind and flooding, low-wealth and minority communities in coastal Mississippi continue to struggle with rebuilding their neighborhoods. 

The nation’s attention has turned elsewhere, but innovative social justice groups in the region are continuing to fight to make sure these residents receive the same opportunities as their neighbors.

“I think that most of America has forgotten the extent of the damage that was done along the Gulf Coast,” said William Stallworth, the Executive Director of Hope Community Development Agency in Biloxi, Mississippi. Unfortunately national attention and resources continue to dry up. So, how do you solve this dilemma? “One family at a time,” says Stallworth. 

The FEMA trailers are mostly gone, but there are still more than 17,000 families in need of assistance. Some need affordable housing that is close to employment centers, shopping and hospitals. Others need help securing repair funds for their homes, that seven years later, still bear the scars of Katrina.

“These programs are not currently solving the needs of thousands of underserved, invisible, and increasingly desperate residents who want to build back their homes where they live. These citizens deserve better treatment than they currently have received,” said Reilly Morse, a policy director at the Mississippi Center for Justice in Biloxi.

Morse notes that low-wealth and minority communities in Gulfport and Biloxi have not received sufficient help in rebuilding, particularly when compared with what residents in wealthier neighborhoods have received. These residents are hamstrung by legacy zoning laws, red tape and a belief that enough time has passed since the storm to absolve funders of further assistance. In many cases, residents have just given up, tired of fighting for what we all want: a place to call home.

Social justice organizations such as the Hope CDA and the Mississippi Center for Justice play a critical role in keeping the recovery front and center long after the storm has passed. They have the commitment and knowledge to push for change, and they also have the trust of the communities they serve.

“Experts determined, in the early days after Katrina, that it would take 15 years for the Gulf Coast area to recover,” said Stallworth. “This is proving to be a very good estimate; while it is my belief that we are a little ahead of the curve, we still have a long way to go.”

For these groups to be successful, they need long-term investment in their programs and missions, not just from the Gulf Coast, but also from elsewhere in the United States. Funders, including the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation--whose mission is to move people and places out of poverty-- have been important to these social-justice organizations in the Gulf Coast.

When I lived in New Orleans, my go-to weekend vacation destinations were Biloxi and Bay St. Louis, both of which were nearly leveled by Katrina. So this video speaks to a happy place for me. A place where I used to go to escape the sweltering summer heat of New Orleans. A place where I could sit on the beach and read a book and pretend I was with my family on the beaches of New England.

Kertis Creative, the local force behind this video, is responsible for some of the most beautiful photography and videography coming out of this town, including the combined efforts of Kertis Creative and Michelle Jones of Consuming Louisville called Secondhand Stories. This video for the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation made me proud and made me cry.

Please share this video with others and donate to the causes as you see fit.  I met with Stephen Kertis shortly after this press release was sent to me, and he is the nicest guy imaginable. Good cause. Good people. Gorgeous video. A trifecta of reasons you should care.

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!

NETSocial 2.0 Returns Tuesday 8/21

I have long professed my love of Twitter. It changed my life. Vastly improved it. Put me in touch with an amazing group of locals who share my loves and interests. They've become my "real life" friends, and my circle is ever-growing.

It also put me in touch with amazing people whom I probably would never have met under other circumstances. People who have become like family.

To whit: Richard Meadows, my Twitter Godfather. If you don't know @kycoffeeguy, you should. He's been a good friend and a big cheerleader for me. And he seems to have his fingers in a lot of fabulous puddings lately. So when he promotes an event, I am pretty sure it will be great. Unfortunately I can't make it (Ronnie Millsaps), but I'll let Richard's words explain what NETSocial 2.0 is.

Tuesday August 21 - 6:30 PM
Hometown Pizza - 4041 Preston Highway, Louisville, KY 40213
www.hometownpizza.com to look over their menu
They have a full bar and Falls City on draft.
FACEBOOK: http://goo.gl/e5rqn
RSVP - message on facebook or e-mail rmeadows@gmail.com

NETSocials were started in the late 1990's and ran until the mid 2000's. Now it is time to pick them back up and get even more people involved in having some good food and using your technology to its fullest. The idea behind NETSocials was to meet other geeks and nerds, everyday computer users and new people, out side of work for some sustenance and cross pollinate ideas to make your user experience better. The reason to bring them back is there are so many more people now using technology who need that informal help. Get a simple question answered or show off an Easter Egg.

This is a BYOD and order your own food meeting. Bring a web site address to share with everyone. Bring you questions and there will be someone there who can answer it or point you in the right direction. Call up a friend and invite them to come with you.

New Venture: Chipman Creative

A few months ago, I decided to make a giant leap... one without a safety net. I decided to leave my 13+ year teaching career and try something new. I loved teaching. I still love teaching. But I have so many, many passions. I figured it was about time to see if I could turn some of those other passions into something... bigger.

I've been a writer ever since I was a child. In high school, I wrote my first novel-- forever lost in the great Macintosh Crash of '96. In college, I wrote melancholy poetry (who didn't?) but was chosen to study with the late, great, wicked Kenneth Koch all four years, so I must have had "something." I majored in English at Columbia, and I got my Master's in English from the University of New Orleans. I'd completed close to half of my credits for an MFA in Fiction at UNO, when the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina blew me to Louisville.

As a teacher, my passion was working with students on their writing. In my extracurricular life, writing has been my constant. I've been to countless writing workshops, retreats, and residencies. And as a result of being a teacher and student of writing for so very long, I've become a crack editor, proofreader, and writing coach.

I've parlayed those skills into freelance writing and editing work over the past decade-plus, but in a very spotty, haphazard way. Shortly after college, I ghost-wrote a YA horror novel that was published by Harper Collins (thankfully, long out of print). I edited a self-help book written by a businessman/race car driver. For years, I was the go-to editor for an annual $52million+ government grant application by a financial company in New Orleans. I've been writing freelance for The Louisville Paper off and on since the paper's inception.

When I took my giant leap, I knew part of that leap had to be finding some way to make this passion I have for writing and working with writers something more concrete.

So, welcome to the world, Chipman Creative, my new writing/editing/social media freelance business.

Storytelling has always been an integral part of my life. And I believe, passionately, that storytelling is becoming more and more integral to the decisions we make as consumers and to the way we market as businesses and brands.

When I talk to someone who has eaten at Harvest for the first time, usually the first thing they mention is what they thought of the meal. But what everyone talks about after that-- without fail-- are the gorgeous photos on the walls of the farmers who supply the raw ingredients of their meal. They talk about the giant map that tells them from which farm various ingredients are sourced. I have no ties to Harvest-- this is just an unveiled compliment. Harvest is doing it right. They're telling a fantastic story. And it's a story that builds loyalty and confidence.

I follow the blogs and tweets of my favorite businesses and brands. My loyalty soars when they tell me a good story or give me good, usable information. My heart sinks when their blogs or tweets are trite, ineffective, irrelevant, or full of errors.

In addition to standard writing and editing services, Chipman Creative offers ghost-blogging and ghost-tweeting subscriptions. I want to help you tell your story. Every business has a story to tell, whether you're a store, a restaurant, a lawyer, or a dentist. A well-written and researched blog or twitter feed can be an invaluable marketing tool.

If you follow this blog, you've been following my story and my brand... some of you for years. I hope you'll check out Chipman Creative and think of me when you have writing/editing/proofreading/social media needs.

Email me at lou [at] loueyville.com if you would like to see a rate sheet or my resume.

I'm super excited about this new venture. I look forward to working with you.

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/

Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau 2012-13 Marketing Highlights

You know what is pretty much the best thing in the world to a blogger? Going to a city-wide function, sitting down next to a random stranger, telling him you're a blogger, and having him say, "I read My Loueyville every morning! You're Melissa!"

Best. Feeling. Ever. (Hi Ron!!)

Today I attended the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau's 2012-2013 Marketing Plan roll-out shin-dig. I'm pretty easy to pump up (especially when it involves anything Louisville), but I have to say both our mayor and the LCVB President, Jim Wood, got me pretty damned pumped for stuff that's been going on and WILL go on in the city.

One of the things I really loved was how many times Jim Wood brought up the importance of writers and bloggers in his speech. Not just because I'm a blogger, and I'm currently on the job market looking for the perfect writing gig, but because it's nice to hear creative folks get the credit that they're due. Twice, Wood brought up the IdeaFestival blogger meet-up that Michelle Jones and I were involved in last year.

Mayor Fischer highlighted some of the great things on our horizons here in Louisville...

The opening of the Big 4 Pedestrian Bridge, which should (?) be in early 2013 (and which, Fischer predicted, would be THE place to propose in Louisville).

The Michter's and Heaven Hill distilleries opening downtown next summer (think about it... two brand new "adult" tourist attractions opening right in time for summer travel season) will really establish us as "the Gateway to Bourbon Country."

The continued expansion of the Urban Bourbon Trail.

The 2014 100th Anniversary of the Belle Of Louisville, which will be marked, in part, buy a huge steamboat meet-up on the Ohio (that means lots of steamboats and a lot of steamboat nerds-- they exist!).

The expanded outdoorsy opportunities thanks to the 21century Parks Program and the growing Louisville Loop.

So exciting!

#FACETIME: Tweet-up on 2/23

I just passed up my three year anniversary on Twitter. I wasn't an early-adopter, by any means, but I didn't drag my butt too long after realizing how it could effect my life. And I've spent the better part of those three years as a Twitter evangelist.

Twitter has changed my life.

Can I get an "AMEN"?

Yeah, yeah I know how ridiculous that must sound to you people who won't even touch the Tweetybox. And it probably sounds ridiculous to even those of you who have.

But Twitter is a tool. And it turned out that it was just the tool that this socially-awkward introvert needed to connect to people with similar interests and make friends.

Skeptical? I laid it all out in my 600th post, the transcript of a speech I gave at the Louisville Public Library Technology Boot Camp. Read it here.

One of the first Big Events in my Twitter life was a Valentine's Day tweet-up at Ramsi's in 2009.  I was sweetie-less, living in a hotel, recovering from chemo, working on getting my hair to grow back.  And instead of wallowing in all that on that Valentine's Day night, I accepted a tweet-up invite to meet some people I'd chatted with on Twitter. I don't know how many people came out that night (if I remember correctly, it also served as a cast party for a Pandora show), but it was there that I met "in real life" some people who have gone on to become my closest friends in the city.

Tweet-ups happen all the time.  Sometimes even on ice.  But next week, we've got a tweet-up with its very own POSTER. This is the big time, folks.

Thursday, Feb 23 @ 6pm
Against the Grain Brewery
Tweet @AlexPorter82 or @TommySpalding if you have any questions.

I'll be there (see the little acorn on the poster?). Hope to get some #FACETIME with you, too!

Pinterest: Pins from Louisville

If you've ever stopped to think, "Gee, I just don't have enough Loueyville in my life these days"-- you're in luck!

Now, in addition to following Chatty Cathy... I mean Lou... on Twitter (@loueyville) and on Facebook (search for: Louey Ville) and reading her articles for The Louisville Paper and reading this blog, you can now follow Loueyville on Pinterest.

I'm still getting the hang of this Pinterest thing (SO. MUCH. WEDDING STUFF.), so grant me a little grace for a while.  But more than half of my "boards" are Louisville-centric.  Boards include:

• Stuff to Do in Louisville
• New Places in Louisville
• Louisville Restaurant News
• Louisville Products
• Images of Louisville
• Recipes Easy Enough For Me
• Crafts I'll Never Make
• Things I Just Love

You can follow me, or you can choose to just pick a board or two and follow it. But this is where you'll find stuff that I think is great in Louisville but that might not make it on the blog. 

Loueyville, "neither here, nor there"... but somehow still everywhere... 

Good News Everyone, Michelle Did It!

Congratulations to one of my favorite Louisvillagers, my sister-in-blogging, and all around do-gooder Ms. Michelle Jones for busting her Kickstarter goal for the "Menu and Hours" project. She's already pushed past her initial goal of $6000 and the iPhone app has been funded. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to earn pledges past the $8000 point so she will start development on the Android app as well.

This is why I love Louisville. Michelle has done SO much for this community. She truly is the quintessential Awesome Louisvillager.  And when the time came for this community to give back to her, to tell her how much we trust and appreciate her, we stepped up to the plate. I look at the list of people who have pledged to this project, and I am enthralled to see SO many familiar names.

We love you, Michelle! And we're so excited that this app will soon be available to us and will be one more thing that makes Louisville great!

Power 2 Give: Support the Arts this Holiday Season

I admit, I have a knee-jerk bias against just about anything that subs numbers/letters for words (unless it's the title of a Prince song).  But, I'll squash that sentiment for the rest of this post because I do love this opportunity to support the arts.

Power 2 Give (see, I just had to go back and delete "to" and replace it with "2"... sorry, squashing) works kind of like Kickstarter or Donors Choose.  It lists projects that need funding in the local arts and sciences, and you can choose which ones you would like to contribute to.  Or more precisely, from their website:

A project of the Arts & Science Council (ASC), power2give.org empowers you to give directly to local arts, science and history projects you are passionate about. Nonprofit organizations post projects that are in need of funding. You help bring them to life with a gift.

What I like most about this website for this holiday season is that you can purchase gift cards in $25 denominations so that your friends, employees, family, Secret Santa recipient, etc can choose the project that they want to support.  

Many of the projects are also supported by matching gifts from local and national sources. Some organizations have opted to eschew matching gifts from corporations, which is also cool. 

I admit that I have a wee bit of a personal bias involved in this recommendation (No I'm not going to tell you what it is. I'm a woman of mystery.), but if you're not sure which organization to support, you can't go wrong with Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble.  Get those actors some damned pants!

Mobile Journalism: November 14

As someone who has tried (and failed and resorted to just tweeting) to live blog from a number of events (Bonnaroo, Idea Festival, HullabaLOU), I was very interested when this press release popped up in my email box. The Louisville Pro Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists will be hosting Chip Mahaney, Director of Digital Content for EM Scripps Company on November 14 at 7pm. Maheney will be speaking on "Mobile Journalism"-- reporting from the field with tools and technology designed for reporting and posting on the go--  at the Interactive Media Lab 124 N. First Street. The event is free and open to the public.

A snippet from Maheney's bio:


[Maheney] directs content initiatives for Scripps' 10 television stations. His mission is to grow the company's audience through better online journalism and social media. Chip is a former local TV news director and manager, working for companies such as FOX, Gannett and Raycom, in markets that include Dallas-Fort Worth, Richmond, Austin and Oklahoma City. He has 30 years' experience covering local news, sports and extreme weather, and leading newsroom changes through better technology and workflow.


For more information: http://www.spjlouisville.com/

600th Post: Social Media is SOCIAL

So, I've been trying to figure out something special to do for my 600th post.  But I realized that just about everything I'd want to say in my 600th post, I already said in my Technology Boot Camp speech at the Louisville Public Library earlier this month. Why reinvent the wheel, right?  So here in its almost-entirety is the speech that I gave: (WARNING: Personal stuff lies ahead...)

If the job of Official Spokesperson for Social Media ever opens up, I think I’d have a pretty good crack at the job. It’s not that I do social media particularly well; it’s that I couldn’t be a bigger fan. This may sound like hyperbole, but it’s 100% true: social media is responsible for 90% of what’s really good in my life right now. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

On Twitter we use hashtags to add nuance to the 140 character messages we type. Like #fail, means that you acknowledge that what you just said paints you in a bad light. Or #tmi, means that you know that what you tweeted constitutes Too Much Information.

Another hashtag is #humblebrag.  That means you know that the accomplishment that you just tweeted about sounds like bragging, but that you understand how lucky you are.

So I’m going to hashtag this next little bit: #humblebrag

Over the past two months or so, I’ve been able to do the following things courtesy of my blogging and tweeting habits:

1. I attended all three days of IdeaFestival with an all-access media pass.
2. I’ve had two contests on my blog: one to give away a family four-pack of tickets to Max & Ruby Live and one to give away two all-access passes for the Louisville International Film Festival.
3. I’ve seen Sense & Sensibility, Tom Sawyer, and Dracula at Actors.
4. I was invited by the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau to be one of two local bloggers at a dinner for national media at the Chef’s table at the English Grill at the Brown.
5. I’ve put together a group of readers of my blog to volunteer at the Louisville Public Media fund drive next week.
6. I’ve been asked to be a staff writer for a new local print newspaper and am working on my third article for them.
7. I’ve had a couple really nice dates with a really nice guy.
8. And perhaps my favorite... after reading my blog post about Rosanne Cash’s upcoming appearance at the KY Authors Forum, the director of the forum contacted me and said she liked the post so much she wanted me to be her guest at the $100 per person VIP dinner for Rosanne Cash, one of my heroes.

Granted this has been an unusual month. But a remarkable one too.

But when it boils down to it, both my blogging habit and my Twitter habit were born out of adversity.

I started blogging on September 2, 2005.  I’d been living in New Orleans for eight years, and on September 2, 2005, I was stranded in Florida with no idea if my home was destroyed, no idea if all of my friends had gotten out of the city before Katrina. I was sick of fielding phone calls and emails from concerned friends and family from all over the country-- and of repeating the same sorry story of fear and sadness and uncertainty. So I started a blog called “Displaced,” and I told everyone I knew that they could check up on me by going to the blog. That way I only had to tell each story once. It was a blog of necessity, but it became a chronicle of my life first as a Katrina evacuee, then as one of the first wave of people to return to the city after the storm, then as someone who lost her footing a bit, and finally as one of the many people who were forced to move elsewhere-- in my case Louisville-- ten months after Katrina.

Displaced consists of a little over 100 blog posts. And no joke, every time I have ever gone back to try to re-read all of those posts, I break down and stop after maybe 20. There are posts I haven’t read since I posted them six years ago. But I am so grateful that they exist.

But, as I said, I moved to Louisville under duress. I didn’t know anything about the city, and I didn’t know a single person here. And I was miserable. So my second blog, My Loueyville, the blog that got me invited to speak to you today, was likewise started as a response to adversity. One day, I decided that I was tired of being miserable, and that I had to make a concerted effort to find things I loved about this city. I started a blog that would celebrate the culture and character of Louisville.

My first blog post was about how much I love going to Bats games.

I’ve since written close to 600 posts, but for a good 200 of those I was blogging just for myself. It was only maybe three years ago that people started reading My Loueyville in earnest. My first indication of this was when Actors Theatre contacted me and asked if I wanted media passes for a show. I’ve been a theatre geek since high school, so I’d been blogging about a lot of theatre productions. Someone in the PR office of Actors took notice and looked me up. Since then I’ve racked up media passes.  Broadway Across America, Churchill Downs Entertainment, Walden, Actors. For more than a year, my blog was one of three featured blogs on the Possibility City website.

All of this was an unintended consequence of a lonely, sad woman starting a blog that she hoped would help change her mind about where she was living. And of course, it worked. I’m madly in love with Louisville. I consider myself one of the biggest cheerleaders for this city. And because of this blog, not only did I come to see the city through new eyes, but I’ve been given the opportunity to see more and do more than I would have been able to afford on a teacher’s budget.

But blogging isn’t the only social media that’s changed my life.

The blog helped change the “sad” part of this “lonely, sad woman’s” situation. It was Twitter that changed the “lonely” part. And again, my twitter habit was also born of adversity.

2008 was not a good year for me. In May, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. On September 14, while I was napping on my couch, recovering from a particularly brutal round of chemo, Hurricane Ike ripped through the city and toppled a 30’ tree onto my house, crushing it. I was fine, but I was faced with 8 months of living in a hotel while I waited for my house to be rebuilt.

If I wasn’t lonely before-- and I was-- I became desperately lonely while living in the Residence Inn downtown. There’s no loneliness like hotel loneliness. And one day, I got an email from another local blogger whom I’d never met-- Michelle from Consuming Louisville. She was writing as a response to a fan letter I'd written her, and at the end of the email, she asked if I was on Twitter. I wasn’t. I was a frequent Facebook user, and I saw Twitter as a frivolous waste of time. But because of her, I signed up and basically copied the list of people she followed.

And I started making friends.

The difference between Twitter and Facebook is this: on Facebook, you follow people you already know. High school friends, college friends, work friends. These people are or have been your friends at some point-- that’s why you follow them. On Twitter, there’s no obligation. When you follow someone, they don’t have to confirm you or follow you back. So you tend to follow people who say interesting things. And people who say interesting things on Twitter tend to be interesting people in real life. You’re most likely never going to make a new friend on Facebook-- I never have. But making new friends is kind of what Twitter is all about.

Six months after I joined Twitter, maybe less, I had a group of friends here in Louisville. That group has grown and continues to grow. And today I can say that my friends are the best, most diverse, interesting group of people I’ve known in my life. If you had told little nerdy high school me that in her thirties her social life would be as remarkable and important as it is now, she would have said you were crazy. And out of all the wonderful friends I have in Louisville, I only knew two of them before Twitter and the blog.

I’m not a computer geek. But blogger and twitter are so easy, and when things were tough for me, they my life easier. When I had cancer, I started a private blog for my family and friends called Girls Gone Bad where I posted about my surgeries and treatments. When my best friend moved to Australia while I was recovering from chemo, I started a private blog just for him called Watch My Hair Grow where I posted a picture of myself every week, so he could see how quickly I was going from bald to not-bald.

Social Media is called Social Media for a reason. It’s not about hiding behind a computer screen and interacting with the world. It’s about reaching out into the world, making connections, and finding people and places where you belong.

Happy #Geeksgiving! GO #teamtoothpaste

When I've been able to sneak a peek at the Twitters today, I am LOVING seeing the power of social media at work in Louisville.

On the very slim chance you read my blog and not Consuming Louisville... today is #Geeksgiving in Louisville.  And local computer and social media geeks have been invited by our mayor to participate in a day of on- and off-line service.

Michelle over at Consuming Louisville has been cheerleading a toothpaste drive for the Home of the Innocents. Help her out! Help them out! It's such an easy way to give. And if toothpaste isn't your thing (gosh, I hope it's everyone's thing), there are other items listed on the Home of the Innocents Amazon Wishlist.

Follow #Geeksgiving with the hashtag on Twitter and @michellej for more news on the toothpaste drive!  Go #teamtoothpaste!

(I'm honestly not sure there's a competition involved. I'm not able to check my Twitters all that often at the Meatspace Workplace. But if @michelle is #teamtoothpaste, then so am I.)

Louisville Library Technology Boot Camp

Yes, I know I'm a teacher and that means I stand in front of a group of people four times a day every workday and speak. I don't think twice about it. Ever. Not even on the first day of school. But that doesn't mean that I don't share most people's greatest fear: speaking in public.

But tomorrow, I will be speaking in public at the Main Branch of the Louisville Public Library. The LFPL is launching their Technology Boot Camp with an event featuring local bloggers, and I am honored to be included in that group.

From their press release:

Technology Boot Camp is a free, self-guided program delivered online. Participants access the Technology Boot Camp website from a computer with Internet connection at home, work, or any Library location. Each week the program website will feature a different topic: blogging, cloud computing, social media, photo sharing, and more. Easy-to-understand explanations build knowledge and fun hands-on exercises apply new skills. A series of classes at library branches will offer extra support, if needed.

The speakers tomorrow include:

10:30 - 10:45 a.m.                 Ashlee Clark11 - 11:15 a.m.                      Linda Park11:15 - 11:30 a.m.                 Melissa Chipman11:30 - 11:45 a.m.                 Mike Slaton11:45 - 12 p.m.                      Deborah Boyer

So if you know someone who needs a little technology TLC (I'm imagining that YOU don't, seeing that you're reading this blog) send them our way!

IdeaFestival 2011: It's a Wrap

It may very well take me a week to finish my recap of this year's IdeaFestival. I told myself I'd just write a couple of words about each presenter, but a half hour into the post, I've only touched on two.

So in the meantime, I'll leave you with this, my highlight of the weekend. The folks at the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted a dinner at the Brown Hotel's English Grille Chef's Table for out-of-town media. Five courses prepared by Chef Laurent Geroli, bourbon, wine, great conversation. Picture includes: Michelle Jones of Consuming Louisville, Baratunde Thurston of The Onion et al, Max Linsky of Longform.org, Ellen McGirt of Fast Company Magazine, Chef Laurent, CC Chapman, author & entrepreneur.

The evening ended with me leading the group mentioned above (minus Michelle) down to the Seelbach Hotel (where we passed DJ Pauly D on the way in). There, they generously treated me to Pappy Van Winkle 23 while we poked around the Rathskeller.

Thank you so much to the LVCB and Chef Laurent for being such great ambassadors for the city. (And thanks too for the personalized "Official Bourbon Taster" chef's jacket!) I spent a lot of time with out-of-towners this weekend, and to a person they absolutely LOVED Louisville. Good job, city!

PS. I had no idea that the Chef's Table existed, but it does! And you can have dinner there too. Check out the link above for the English Grille. Chef Laurent is a charming host.

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.

A Few of My Favorite Things: 2010

I swear I wrote the bulk of this post on 12/31/10... I just kind of got overwhelmed and gave up.  But here it is, a day (or 4) late and a dollar short, I'm sure... my "End of Year Post."

I don't have the attention span for making "Top Ten" lists.  I'm also not otaku enough (to use a term recently brought to light by Patton Oswald in his controversial Wired article) to be able to make a masterful list.  I couldn't name my top ten anything without scraping the barrel for the last three or four.  So instead, I give you my "highlights" post-- the best of everything this year, big or small, local or personal, noteworthy or silly.

I'd be remiss if I didn't start out with the fact that 2010 was a relatively drama-free year for me (granted, there's still 21+hrs left).  I'd started to get a little too comfortable with the fact that I had become something of a crisis magnet.  Just in the past couple of years, I've had cancer, had my house destroyed by Hurricane Ike... if we go back as far as 2005, we've got Katrina and job loss and heartbreak and a move to a city I knew nothing about.  2010 was basically a piece of cake.  I had a surgery in February.  I had pneumonia this past fall.  A couple of deaths wrecked me.  Otherwise, we're good here at Casa Lou.  It wasn't a banner year, but it wasn't scary or deeply sad or traumatic. That's a win.

It's been a great year for Loueyville.  Man, I love this blog and the doors-- personal and "professional"-- it's opened for me.  I've said it before, and I will say it again, I'm sure: 80% of my life in Louisville-- the friends I've made and the cool ass things I've done are thanks to this blog and to my Twitter presence.  Although I didn't make any really close friends, I had a great time meeting one blog-follower/Twitter-friend each week during my Lenten Promise.  And I plan to repeat that promise again this year.  The blog/Twitter helped me take people I didn't know to shows at Actors Theater and the Kentucky Center.  It also allowed me to have my first ticket contest and treat two great couples to the Cirque Dreams Holidaze show at the Palace this winter.  I LOVE that Loueyville is featured on the home page of the Possibility City website; it makes me so proud.  This little labor of love is a huge blessing in my life, and it's been a highlight of 2010 to keep plugging away at it.

Speaking of the blog, I have to admit that perhaps the best thing that I have done in service to the blog is cover the HullabaLOU Festival at Churchill Downs.  I know the event lost a Bieberload of money, and I am so sorry that it will not be coming back next year (read my posts re: why I think they were wrong to throw in the towel), but I had a damned fine time at HullabaLOU.  Great performances, sometimes from unexpected talent.  Not to mention the fact that it was the first time that I felt like I was "big girl press" = free tickets, parking passes, buffets, access to performers (though I was too shy to pipe up during the press conferences).  A milestone, indeed.  And a good time in general.

That being said, I can't underestimate the impact that having press passes to all of the Humana Festival plays had on me. I was thrilled beyond thrilled to attend every single play during the Humana Festival run.  And actually, I've hit every Actors play this year save A Christmas Story, which I caught last year.  We are so lucky to have Actors.  I am insanely lucky to have people at Actors who view my blog as honest-to-goodness "press."  Likewise the Broadway Across America folks at the Kentucky Theater.  Who on God's green earth would have thought one of my theater highlights for the year would have been Legally Blonde?! But it was! So. Hugely. Fun.

I moved to my neighborhood, the Original Highlands, because it seemed like the best 'hood in the city.  And lo and behold, this place gets better every year.  Sure we lose a place or two (Barret Bar, I'm thinking of you!) but we gain so much more.  Papalino's and the Holy Grale have vastly improved my quality of life this year.

My New Year's wish for 2011 = Original Highland's Neighborhood Association, please back the eff off of great places like the Grale and the Monkey Wrench and let 'em have their 4am licenses.  It's embarrassing to put the brakes on quality businesses like these.

As I said, I can't do "top ten" lists, but I can tell you some of my favorites.

• Music-wise: My favorite album of 2010 is Trombone Shorty's Backatown.  Seriously, I dare you to listen to the first 60-seconds of the CD and NOT want to boogie. Im-possible!  Also: Cee-Lo Green's Ladykillers.  His "F++k You" is the song of the year, in my opinion.  
• Movie-wise: I see a lot of movies, and I know my tastes are strange.  But no movie really tweaked me this year.  Not one. Honestly, I think the best movie I saw in 2010 is How to Train Your Dragon.    
• TV-wise: I'm still madly in love with Modern Family and Parenthood.  But you can't ever go wrong with watching an episode of Castle or the Closer.  I have to admit, for the 2010 season, I'm just loving the heck out of Raising Grace.  Man, I miss LOST something awful.

Overall, 2010 was a pretty good year.  I'm not particularly sad to see it go, but I had a lot of great times. My Louisville family of friends is full of spectacularly smart, funny, nerdy people (yeah, I'm looking at you!), and I've enjoyed their company heaps this year.

Bonus favorite pop culture thing: The Man of My 2010 is Craig Ferguson. He's friends with the Mythbusters, he hosted Shark Week, and he put on a hell of a live show in Cincy this year.  He has a robot sidekick, for godssake!  You can have all the Team Coco you want; I am firmly in the camp of Team @CraigyFerg.  

And Bonus bonus favorite pop culture thing:  Nothing had made me smile and laugh as hard this year as Craig Ferguson's "Secretariat" schtick.  It never gets old.  Add a little Kristen Bell or Neil Patrick Harris to the mix, and it's sublime.  Watch here.  

Happy New Year, Louisvillagers.  Love you guys.  

xxoo Lou

Ho Ho Holiday Stuff! Happy Snow Day!

Happy snow day, y'all!  Been sitting in a coffee shop for the better part of the day, and it's so adorable seeing moms and dads coming in with little ones off of school... playing cards and board games, having long post-snowman-building hot cocoas.

But, I still have more of the Scrooge than the Spirit in me right now.  This despite watching a marathon of Christmas specials in my pjs last night:  Muppets Christmas Carol, Shrek the Halls, the Family Guy Christmas (ugh), and something involving a baby reindeer who was abandoned by his asshole Santa-pulling reindeer dad, ends abandoning his own mother, and by the end decides that his "real" dad is a flying squirrel.  You can't make this shit up, kids.  

Anyway, I'm working on filling my ho ho ho gas tank.  Tonight I'm headed out to see Kalightoscope at the Galt House.  The Galt House et al have been hyping this holiday event since last Christmas, and I'm pretty jazzed to see what it ends up looking like. If somehow you've missed the major advertising push behind this, Kalightoscope is, according to the website:

... a landscape of larger-than-life, lighted holiday sculptures inspired by ancient Chinese art. Made of sheer, painted fabrics, each towering sculpture is enhanced by light, color and an imaginative setting. Some even reach 24 feet high!

Santa’s Midnight Flight over the World, Toyland and the breathtaking Nativity are just some of the twelve areas designed to awe and delight. Holiday music, aromas and little surprises make it an unforgettable experience for anybody. And it's all inside a temperature controlled, 16,000 square foot pavilion.

There's also a dinner show and special overnight Galt House packages available.  At the very least, the Galt House bar is always a spectacle during the holidays with the real candy gingerbread house that's bigger than my first NYC apartment and the beautiful Santa display.

This is my fifth holiday season in Louisville.  I find that so hard to believe.  But what's even more hard to believe is that there are so many local holiday traditions that I am just now getting around to.  This Halloween was my first Dracula at Actors Theater.  And while last year, I did see A Christmas Story, this was the first year that I went to see the more traditional A Christmas Carol.  Despite the fact that I spent the Christmas season of 2008 living a block away from Slugger Field, this was the first year that I went to the Festival of Trees.

A Christmas Carol is totally worth working into your schedule in the next couple of weeks.  After seeing the show, I immediately tweeted that, corny though it sounds, watching the play made me feel all warm and Christmasy.  (It didn't last: no fault of Actors Theatre).  There's a lovely trailer for the play at Actors' Theatre's YouTube page; watch it, and you'll want to go.  Unfortunately, I left my Playbill at home otherwise I'd cite particular performances, but the most stunning change (so I've heard...  as I said, first time for me) was the casting of an aerialist to play the Ghost of Christmas Past.  Beautiful.  Oh and hey, somehow Actors landed Stephen Colbert to play Cratchitt.  (I kid.  But seriously.  I did a double take.)

This week is going to be a crazy one.  Somehow I need (perhaps "want" is a better word) to work in seeing Barefoot in the Park at Actors and The Looking Glass Wars at Alley Theater.  Tonight is Kalightoscope.  Tomorrow is Let them Tweet Cake.  And I'd really like to get a Christmas tree in time to enjoy a little of its piney goodness before I leave.  Oh and shopping and shipping and packing and...

Ho ho ho!  Stay warm, Louisville!