Consuming Louisville has gone through a few surface changes over the past week. Some new paint, a new icon here and there, etc. But under the hood Consuming Louisville has gone through a serious overhaul. 

Don't forget that Festivus is tomorrow. I can't recall any grievances I have to air so I think I'll go see Avatar to celebrate the holiday. 

That's right boys and girls Hanukkah starts tonight at sundown. That means it can only be time for one thing: Bridget Kaelin's Brilliant Dreidel's Day Out

Happy Hanukkah!

The house negotiations are over and a closing date has been set. Whew! That means that the spending moratorium is going to be so strict until the end of December it's not even funny. I mean seriously, I made a budget with charts and graphs and everything and you just don't want to know how little the part of the pie chart for "remaining funds post closing" is. That brings me to an offer I received. The general manager of a restaurant that I've never been to sent me a very nice email asking if I'd like a free meal at said restaurant. The person (damn, subterfuge without pronouns is hard!) understands how expensive house buying and moving is and since I can't afford to be eating out anywhere until at least January they offered a free meal. If I want to write about the restaurant on Consuming Louisville post-free meal great, if not that's ok too.

So, dear Consuming Louisville community, I ask you: is this ok? If I accept the free meal and like the restaurant I will write about it. If I don't like about it I won't write about it because you know I don't like to do negative reviews. I will be completely upfront if I write about the restaurant and tell you very honestly "this restaurant gave me a free meal." With that information will you be able to trust what I write? I promise you that I'll give my absolutely honest opinion. Your trust in and respect for Consuming Louisville is very important to me so if you think this is unethical or sketchy in anyway please let me know. If the community opposes it I won't do it, simple as that.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Love,
Michelle

To those joining me in observing Yom Kippur: may your fast be easy and meaningful. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Consuming Louisville was voted "Best Local Entertainment Blog" in the 2009 LEO Readers' Choice awards. Consuming Louisville also received second place in the "Best Local Website" category. I am completely honored and so grateful for all the love and support Consuming Louisville has received during its two and a half years of existence. The community has embraced Consuming Louisville so warmly it humbles me.

I'll certainly say that it doesn't suck to win an award like this, it's kind of awesome in fact and it just inspires me to make Consuming Louisville be even more kick ass in the future.

Love,
Michelle

May your new year be sweet, joy filled, overflowing with love and meaningful.

Love,
Michelle

1. My friend Patrica said to me "Being able to say, "I made a mistake. I am fixing that mistake." is the grown-up thing to do."

2. Sometimes even when you go into a situation with the absolute best of intentions it doesn't work. Sometimes even when do your absolute best to make it work it still doesn't work.

That's two different ways of saying that I am unemployed. Yesterday I chose to leave the employ of the company I'd been (sort of) working for over the past few months. I'm going to take a few days to lick my wounds and drink a little too much bourbon. After that I'll be looking for new work. Consulting projects, speaking gigs, writing projects would be awesome. A day job that would actually let me do good work that impacts the Louisville community in positive ways would be even better.

While I'm looking for work I'll get to focus more time and energy on Consuming Louisville again so that's good news. I'll have time to do some features that I've been wanting to do (including one on Street Moda) and do more neighborhood tours.

Love,
Michelle

It's my birthday. I'm 33 years old today. For my birthday this year I gave myself the gift of acknowledged gratitude. By that I mean I spent some time thinking about good things in my life and came up with a list of 33 things I'm very grateful for. One of those things is you.

An entry high on my gratitude list is this: "Consuming Louisville Readers."

For the over two years that Consuming Louisville has been in existence the site and the lucky woman who runs it (um, that would be me) have received an incredible amount of support, kindness and love from the community. I am more grateful for all the love and support than I can possibly say.  So while today is "happy birthday to me" day it's really a day for me to say thank you to you for supporting Consuming Louisville. You are so very appreciated, thank you.

As I've done in years past I'm encouraging you to support the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk. I'll be walking with the University of Louisville Department of Geriatrics team and it would be super swell if you'd sponsor me. Or sponsor someone else. Or join a team and walk yourself. Any and all support of this great event for an organization doing really important work would be very much appreciated.

Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk
Saturday September 12, 2009

First I'd like to thank Commonwealth Bank for advertising on Consuming Louisville. Second, I'd like to tell you, my glorious Consuming Louisville readers, about the contest Commonwealth Bank is currently running.

Apparently they know how awesome Louisville is and want to help you have an awesome staycation here over Labor Day weekend including a stay at 21c.  How do you enter to win? By telling them how awesome you think Louisville is. That's a contest I can support.

The rest of the details:

How to enter:

• Visit cbandt.com or any of Commonwealth Bank's 15 area locations
• Tell us what you love most about the Louisville area
• Recruit your family and friends to vote for your entry online
• The entry that receives the most votes by August 21st wins a choice of two Grand Prizes
• The entry that receives the second-most votes by August 21st wins the Grand Prize not selected by the first-place winner
• No entries will be accepted via US Mail
• A maximum of three (3) entries per person per day is permitted
• All entries become the property of CB&T
• CB&T is not responsible for illegible entries

Grand Prizes
Reservations will be made over Labor Day weekend or another weekend that is agreeable to 21C Hotel and the winners.

Prize 1: The Spa Package

•  2-night stay at 21C Hotel for two people
• $100 credit to Proof on Main
•  $50 gift certificate to Varanese restaurant
•  2 massages at Calospa day spa
•  A limousine to and from dinner and the spa

Prize 2: The Family Package

• 2-night stay at 21C Hotel for a family of four
• $100 gift certificate to Bristol Café
• $100 gift certificate to Hard Rock Café
• 4 tickets to the Louisville Zoo
• 4 tickets to the Louisville Bats game (including the opportunity to throw out the first pitch)
•  4 tickets a local museum of choice

Eligibility

• Must be a legal resident of Kentucky or Indiana
• Must be over the age of 18 at time of entry
• Employees, officers, directors, agents, representatives and their immediate families (parents, children, siblings, spouse and each of their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) of CB&T or anyone connected with the prizes, advertising, web development, production or distribution of this contest are not eligible to enter or be awarded a prize
•  CB&T has the right to refuse idea entry if it contains inappropriate language as deemed by CB&T officials

When I started my new job I kind of got to come up with a job title that I liked and fits my new responsibilities. Potential titles I considered included:

• minister of information
• chief information officer
• communications zealot
• militant customer service advocate
• head storyteller
• chief digital communications educator
• communications geek
• social media nerd
  

All of those speak to parts of what I do but none of them seemed to really tell the big pictures story. So with a great big hat tip to Leah Jones I eventually settled on Digital Communications Evangelist as my official job title. For real, it's what's on my business cards.

Block5*, the company I'm working for, is a new company. It's grown out of a merger between some of the smart minds behind a traditional advertising agency and some of the smart minds at an innovative mobile communications firm. It's kind of like "you got your chocolate in my peanut butter" except it's "you've combined your creative storytelling with my geekery."

So what on earth does a Digital Communications Evangelist at Block5 do all day? I'm not going to lie to you, it's kind of a dream job. No one day is exactly like the previous one, each day brings a new set of challenges and a new set of fun things to do. A lot of what I'm doing is the same as what I was doing before as an independent consultant. Namely I help organizations and companies figure out how to communicate on the internet. I help them understand the tools and technologies but also the best practices and the differences between traditional one-way marketing messages and two way conversations that are the hallmark of social media. I still give seminars and lectures on social media, social media tools and other communications topics and I still do one on one training sessions. I brainstorm and I blog, I strategize and I educate. I'm also a passionate advocate for embracing digital culture and elevating the digital skills of everyone I encounter, yes even you.

So that's what I do at Block5. I like to think of myself as a kind of bridge between the creative storytelling and technical sides of the company. On one side we have brilliant designers who create beautiful, functional websites, mobile sites and print campaigns. On the other side we have crazy smart developers creating apps for iPhones and other mobile devices, innovative applications for QR technologies, building custom social media tools for clients and developing what I think is going to be an incredible platform for helping companies and organizations communicate better and more easily. It's that platform that got me on board with Block5 by the way. I can't wait until I can tell you all about it. We'll hopefully be demoing part of it at the SMC Louisville/Social Media Club block party in a couple weeks.

And that's the scoop on what I'm up to right now.

*Yes, the Block5 website is complete devoid of content at the moment but that's part of the reason they hired me. You can trust that situation will be rectified with the quickness.

You have perhaps noticed a decrease in the number of posts on Consuming Louisville lately. As I've mentioned on Twitter I recently took a new job. Yep, me, with a day job. Shocking, I know. It's been a while since I've had a day job (I've been freelancing for quite some time) so figuring out the balance  between the new job, family life and personal projects like Consuming Louisville is a new challenge that I'm undertaking. It will take me a little while but I'm confident I can do it.

On most weekdays for the past two years I've had 3 posts up on Consuming Louisville. While Consuming Louisville is definitely not going anyway, that rate of posting will probably change. I'm going to shoot for getting in the swing of two posts a day on a regular basis and bumping up to three posts when I can.

Consuming Louisville is not going anyway, it's a great love of mine and I can't imagine not doing it. I really adore all the people I've met through Consuming Louisville and I simply love telling you about so much great stuff here in our city. Though posting will be slightly less I've got some really great contests and giveaways coming up for you soon as well as some cool features and hopefully some kick ass entries in the Big Ideas for Making Louisville better series.

I sincerely thank you for reading Consuming Louisville and hope you'll continue to do so in the future and support me during this transition time. I'm really excited about my new job and the company I'm working for. I'll do a separate post telling you about that soon but for now I just wanted to explain the slightly erratic posting schedule.

Fondly,
Michelle

Unlike when I went to Seattle last year it rained almost the entire time I was in Chicago. So I don't have a ton of great Chicago shots to share with you but I do want to share a couple photos and briefly tell you about some great meals I ate and adventures I had.

First I need to say thank you to the proprietress of Poise.cc. She's a friend of a friend who gave me great information about restaurants, shops and getting around on public transportation. Thanks are also due to Louisville native @karae who is now a Chicago dweller who also gave me great Chicago advice.

I confess to you that I am committing the great sin of leaving town during Derby week. But it's not my fault! B has a work related conference to attend in Chicago and I'm tagging along. I'll also be doing some work while I'm there but I fear posting at Consuming Louisville will be light this week and I just wanted to give you advanced notice about it.

Love,
Michelle

1. As you know I'm incredibly excited that Jefferson Memorial Forest won $5,000 in the Nature Valley contest. JFM totally won because you are so great and voted. I'd really love to continue the goodness by having a Consuming Louisville volunteer day at Jefferson Memorial Forest. We've done good by helping them receive the $5,000 and I think it'd be great to do even more good by getting our hands dirty and doing some volunteer work.

If I can get a total of 10 people to comment indicating solid interest (4 people already commented on the other post so really only 6 of you have to step up here) I'll do everything I can to arrange a Consuming Louisville day with Metro Louisville Parks. I'll also try to see if I can't get prizes or something for volunteers because volunteering + prizes = extreme awesomeness.

2. I'm bouncing around the idea of starting a Nerd Bookclub. What makes a Nerd Bookclub different from all the other bookclubs? Well for starters it would focus on non-fiction books. Books that ostensibly make us a little bit smarter than we were before we read them. Think philosophy, science, theology, history, sociology, anthropology. Passionate discussion and debate about the books and the topics contained within them would be highly encouraged at our Nerd Bookclub.

I'm not saying we'd never read a novel but it would be rare. I'm just really interested in reading stuff that educates and challenges me and would love to assemble a group of like-minded people to chat about books and other good things that make us think.

If you're interested in the Nerd Bookclub idea either leave a comment letting me know or send an email. I would anticipate the club meeting roughly once a month. Probably in an evening but if we could get 5 or 6 people to meet once a month for a long lunch and discussion that would be a cool option as well.

1. Sometimes restaurants have vegetarian menus that they don't give out unless you ask for them. I find this deeply perplexing and I wonder if I've been missing out on lots of great vegetarian menus because I didn't know (or as a friend said "wasn't aggressive enough to ask") to ask for the special vegetarian menu.

2. El Mundo is closed for spring break. We ended up at Aztecas across the street. Pretty good Mexican food, pretty good Margaritas (they have two for one Margaritas and $1 tequila shots on Mondays) and really excellent porch and patio seating. Absolutely perfect to sit outside there on a great spring day munching chips and salsa.

3. Community comes in many forms. It supports you, comforts you and also challenges you. With community comes rights and rewards but also responsibilities. All of this is a way of saying I'm probably going to go back to Breadworks again soon. Oh it will never be the same old comfortable place for me and that's ok, it's not like I owned the place. As a couple commenters on the infamous thread suggested and several emailers echoed we're all human and we all have bad days and bad moments.

4. I need a new car radio but don't want to go to a big box shop to get it. Do you have a recommendation for a local shop? Thanks

One of the things people tell me I'm good at and I also enjoy doing is connecting people. Many times people will say "I want to learn more about X" or "I want to start project Y" and then ask if I know who they should talk to. Pretty regularly I do know who they should talk to and I make introductions. This has led to jobs for people, friendships, working relationships, all kinds of goodness. I am very happy to make these kind of introductions. I like playing some small part in helping people find work or new friendships or grow their projects.

Now I'm asking you to play a similar role. I am actively looking for gigs, or perhaps even a day job. While I absolutely love Consuming Louisville and the work I put into the site the money it has made from advertising over the past two years is, well, paltry to say the least. To put it another way Consuming Louisville does not pay the bills, not even like, one bill. While I love doing it and a large number of you seem to enjoy reading it this does not necessarily translate into a viable business model.

I've been doing social media consulting projects, writing gigs and photography gigs for a long while now. Recently I've been doing a good deal of lecturing, presenting and education on social media topics. I'm open to short term and long term projects in any of these areas. I am not necessarily in the market for a 9-5 day job but I'm certainly willing to hear about any openings. I know the reality of the current job market so I'm keeping every option open.

I'm asking for your help in a few different ways

1. If your organization has need for a web savvy writer or photographer on a per project basis please get in touch.

2. If you or your organization wants to learn more about social media in general, specific social media tools or how social media can potentially benefit your organization please get in touch.

3. Consider advertising on Consuming Louisville. The audience is smart, local and interested in supporting local businesses.

4. Please pass my name and info to anyone who might have any of the above needs.

Thank you,
Michelle

Ricky at Dressed in Value suggested that I implement gravatars here on Consuming Louisville. First things first, what's a gravatar?

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?

Essentially it's that little picture beside comments that represents the commenter.

I like Ricky and he's a smart web guy so I decided to take his suggestion. The way I have it implemented on Consuming Louisville is pretty simple. If you have a gravatar it will show up beside your comment, if you don't the fleur de lis with the bite chomped out from the Consuming Louisville logo will show up instead. I've only allowed "G" rated gravatars to be used on Consuming Louisville so if your gravatar has a rating other than that it won't show up.

Thanks again to Ricky for the suggestion.

This past weekend we celebrated B's birthday with an absolutely fantastic dinner at The Mayan Cafe and, if possible, an even more fantastic cake from pastry chef extraordinaire Marsha Lynch.

The staff at The Mayan Cafe were extremely flexible and helpful to our large party. We were as semi-rowdy as old, square people can get and we even asked for a whole bunch of separate checks. They took it all in stride and made sure everyone in our party had a great time. They also made sure the food for the vegans in our party was just as good as the food the rest of us were enjoying.

I cannot thank the entire staff of The Mayan Cafe enough. I like to make a big deal out of birthdays (you know I celebrate the entire month of July as my birthday jubilee right?) so the big birthday dinner for my beloved is a very big event. Mayan Cafe completed knocked it out of the park and I totally think you should take your beloved there for a special occasion very soon. Tell them I sent you.

Concerning the cake, well B said it best "Marsha is a goddess." B also declared it the best cake ever. I mean first of all look at it. How gorgeous is that? Second, the taste was absolutely unparalleled. I mean that and I've eaten a lot of cake in my life.

Marsha in case you don't know, is the pastry chef at Cafe Lou Lou. She is planning to go into business soon for herself but is still able to take custom cake and dessert orders as a side line.  You can contact her through facebook, at mlynch36@insightbb.com, or by phone at 502-742-8376 or 502-608-0317.

I highly recommend Marsha for all your cake and cupcake needs. We've already got orders with her for celebration cakes for a very important event for me in April and the birthday jubilee in July. I've got to have my orders in early. I can't risk letting you people swarm her with requests and get her all booked up and too busy to take my orders. But if you've any sense toward glorious baked goods at all you will call Marsha to order your next special cake/cupcake/custom creation.

Thanks again to both Marsha and The Mayan Cafe for making B's birthday so special. I really appreciate it.

A dear friend from Los Angeles came to visit a couple weeks ago. She actually came to spend her birthday weekend with us and we had a lovely, lovely time. I thought I'd share with you some of the culinary highlights of her trip. Why? Well, as the title suggests, to show you how exactly I put my money where my mouth is. I talk about supporting independent shops and restaurants and I gush over places that are great but I want to say specifically "when I wanted to show my friend a really awesome time in Louisville this is how I did it."

Friday
She arrived in town Friday afternoon. I showed her around the Highlands a little bit, including a trip to Breadworks for coffee and tea.

For dinner we went to Proof. We had a fantastic meal. From B's roasted beet salad (beets still taste like dirt to me by the way) to the butternut squash risotto to the warm vanilla pudding cake everything was absolutely brilliant. Should I mention the capri martini I had? Fine, I had two and they were delicious. Service was fantastic, food was delicious and the current exhibits at 21c certainly gave us lots to think about.

Saturday
We slept in a little bit and knew there would be a long wait at our breakfast destination. So we swung by Nord's to pick up "first breakfast." It's a good thing we did because the wait at Toast was an hour. With apple fritter and buttercream doughnuts in our bellies we were able to stand the wait for bread pudding pancakes.

We then headed to the Maker's Mark Distillery. We ate dinner at home that evening before heading to see Amelie thanks to Midnights at the Baxter. Post-show was yummy, yummy breakfast food at Twig and Leaf.

Sunday
Ramsi's brunch buffet was the perfect option after a late night. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little something for everyone.

Shopping was on the agenda for Sunday afternoon. We hit The Makery, Old Town Liquors, and WHY Louisville. Aftewards we had pizza and a calzone delivered from Cafe Lou Lou at the Loop.

And that's the way we spent the weekend eating our way through Louisville.

I want to wish you a very peaceful and joyous end to 2008 and beginning to 2009. As years often do, this one surprised me and delighted me in many ways and challenged and disappointed me in others. I don't yet know what I hope for in 2009 beyond a few basics (add more good to the world than I take, be kinder and more generous, read 45 books). I'm going to take a few days to think about that though.

I thank each of you for reading and supporting Consuming Louisville this year. Writing Consuming Louisville is a deep joy in my life and I hope I can continue to do it and do it well for a long time to come. I'm not whining here but I do want to share that sometimes it feels like so a great deal of work for a rather small return. But then I'll get an email about the awesome time someone had at an event they found out about on Consuming Louisville and I get completely and totally re-energized and recharged. Or a business owner will tell me that people have found them because of Consuming Louisville and it will totally make my day because it makes me feel like I'm doing something good here. Doing good work does the spirit good.

So thank you not only for reading but also for the very kind emails and comments you send. Thanks also for supporting the local businesses and events that I write about. Our local businesses add so much to our community and they deserve our support.

I'll be taking a few days off between now and New Year's. If I find something really great to write about I'll spring back up but it's entirely possible I might not post again until 2009 has arrived. That's why I wanted to write you today and say thank you for your support and wish you a safe, peaceful and joy filled transition from fall to winter* and from 2008 to 2009.

*I know solstice was a couple days ago but surely you'll grant me poetic license won't you?

Charge t-shirt image courtesy of Simple Bits

I debated long and hard about collecting any sort of demographic data about Consuming Louisville's readership but have decided to do so now. The reason I debated so much is that pretty much the only reason to collect such data is to help attract, keep and work with advertisers. Much of my internal debate over collecting this data was whether or not that was a legitimate reason to ask you, the kind readers of Consuming Louisville, to share some information about yourselves. I have finally come to the conclusion that yes, it is a legitimate reason because a steady stream of non-offensive, non-intrusive advertising on this site would allow me to devote more time to Consuming Louisville and improve the site. Spending more time on Consuming Louisville in order to create better content and make it more of an asset for Louisville is a very important goal of mine. I hope you'll think it's an important goal as well.

The way I'm attempting to collect data is through a pretty painless survey. Random readers will see an option over in the sidebar to participate or if you'd like to participate and didn't see the invitation you can follow this link. The survey is completely anonymous and completely optional but you will have my very sincere gratitude if you participate. It should take 5 minutes or less and isn't too intrusive.

Again, the survey is absolutely anonymous and completing it is totally optional but I will really appreciate and be grateful to any of you who do choose to participate in it.

Thank you,
Michelle

A great big heartfelt and sincere thank you to everyone who voted for Consuming Louisville in the LEO Readers Choice awards. Consuming Louisville came in second place in the best local entertainment blog category. First place went to LEO's own website so I feel pretty good about being number 2.

Also thanks to LEO's editors for acknowledging Consuming Louisville and several other local blogs that are expanding the media here in Louisville and who are doing really good things for our community.

Again, thank you so very much. I sincerely appreciate all the support Louisville has shown me and Consuming Louisville over the past year and a half or so. Hopefully the future will bring even more great stuff for Louisville and Consuming Louisville will be here to tell you all about it.

Michelle

As you may have noticed Consuming Louisville hasn't been running along its normal schedule this week. I have a serious family situation going on right now that is very much the focus of my time and energy. I do not know when this situation will be resolved so the publishing schedule may be sporadic for the next few weeks. I will try to maintain some semblance of a normal publishing schedule but my apologies in advance if I fail at this endeavor.

Michelle

Um hi. It's me, your humble host. As evidenced by my dedication to this blog I very much dig both social media and Louisville. I've been combining those two loves on this blog and in other projects for a while now but hadn't made any "official" announcements or anything of the sort. I've just quietly and happily been working on some social media projects based in and centered around Louisville.

I'm announcing it here now because I'm ready to focus on more social media projects and it only make sense to share that information here. So allow me to present the new incarnation of On a path media. I've got a lot of social media experience and knowledge and I'm ready to teach you, your company, your non-profit, or even your boss all that I know. There's lots and lots and lots more info over at the On a path media site so please read until your heart is content. If you have any questions at all please let me know. I would absolutely love to work with you to address your social media needs.

Now endeth the self promotion. I promise not to stoop to such shameless often.

On a pretty regular basis I get emails from folks who are either moving to Louisville or who have just moved to Louisville asking for advice or suggestions about where to eat, where to see movies, where to get cars worked on, etc. So I've been thinking about putting together some "New to Louisville Guides." I'm thinking one general administrative guide with info about drivers licenses, LG&E, library info, etc. I know all that info is available elsewhere online but it's not always easy to find and I think it'd be nice to have all that info together in one place.

I'm also thinking that guides for specific areas of interest might be useful. Something like New to Louisville Guide: Foodie, New to Louisville Guide: Music Fan, New to Louisville Guide: Art Lover, etc. Before I do the work putting these together though I'd like to solicit a little feedback to see if you all think these would be useful and also if you have suggestions for specific guides I should put together. Based on all the sweets I've been eating lately I should probably do a New to Louisville Guide: Sweet Tooth Edition but whatever, what do you think?

Thank you very much to the one person who donated to support the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk while I was away. You have my very sincere thanks and gratitude.

A very good time was had in Seattle. Several of my friends who live on the West Coast made the trip to Seattle as well so there was lots of time spent with friends, lots of good conversation and lots of good food eaten in addition to the normal tourist activities. Unfortunately B and I both brought nasty summer colds home with us so my brain is fuzzy and I'm on cold medication. So forgive any long, meandering stream of consciousness thoughts I might share.

So this is the last post before I head to Seattle. Don't leave the refrigerator door open and keep your feet off the coffee table while I'm gone please.

If you find yourself missing me while I'm gone perhaps you'll considering making a donation to support the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk. The walk isn't until September but I have ambitious fundraising goals this year so I've already put a button in the sidebar and I'm mentioning it to you now. This is the one big fundraising event I participate in each year and the only one I beg shamelessly and often for donations for. You have my deep and sincere thanks and appreciation for any support of this event.

Fondly,
Michelle

As I mentioned last week I'm flying out on Saturday, as an aside thanks very much Michael for acknowledging my fear of flying and encouraging me to drink to cope with it, I very much appreciate it. Anyway, I leave on Saturday and will be gone for most of next week. Since I'm preparing for the trip posting may be light this week and I won't be posting at all next week while I'm gone. Apparently you aren't supposed to work on "vacation." Even if you love your work. That's what they tell me anyway.

I'll be back to the normal schedule on Monday June 23. Miss me terribly cause I'll be missing you.

Michelle

Well actually it turns one on Sunday but hopefully you'll forgive me for celebrating the birthday a couple days early.

On April 6, 2007 I said

After four years in Indianapolis I'm returning home to the city I love. I couldn't be more excited. Louisville is in my heart and my blood and I can't wait to get back home.

During my exodus to the north I developed a site called Consuming Indy. My reasons for starting the site were purely selfish: I wanted to convince myself to love Indianapolis. I started combing the city for cool restaurants and shops, cultural events, art openings, independent businesses, all the things I enjoyed in Louisville. I thought if I could dive into Indianapolis and find enough things to fill Consuming Indy with then I'd grow to love Indianapolis and not be quite so homesick for Louisville. While Consuming Indy grew to be a site I was proud to run it never helped me love Indianapolis. Indy just never fit me. Why on earth did I stay there so long then? Job commitments. My partner was doing a medical residency in Indianapolis so we were committed to being there four years. Now that her job commitment is ending we're very lucky and happy that B has found a great job back in Louisville. So we're house hunting in the Highlands and are just excited beyond belief that we'll be settled into our new Louisville life by summer.

As soon as we started finalizing plans to move back to Louisville I knew that I wanted to bring Consuming Louisville to life. Since I love Louisville so much the impetus is obviously not the same as it was for Consuming Indy. In fact it's pretty much just the opposite. There is so much amazing art, culture, independent businesses, and just all around cool stuff happening in Louisville I just want to help get the word about all of it out. I want to be part of the great vibe the city has and I want Consuming Louisville to be an asset for the community at large.

I've worked hard to make Consuming Louisville that asset for the community I described and I hope that at least on some level I've succeeded. I have more plans and ideas for the site and hope its second year is even better than its first year. I can't sincerely thank enough the people who have read, subscribed to, linked to, sent tips to and supported Consuming Louisville in anyway. I really appreciate all the support you've given me and the site. This is a passion project for me and it really makes a difference to know that people enjoy it or find it helpful.

P.S. Metro Mapper just turned two. Spring is apparently when thoughts turn to new web ventures in Louisville. Happy birthday Metro Mapper! 

I absolutely love running this site and try very hard to keep it full of interesting, useful information. I spend quite a bit of time digging up information, writing, dreaming up and producing original content for the site and thinking of ways to make it better. This I do because I love Louisville and sincerely want Consuming Louisville to be an asset for the city. I want to help people find cool things to do, great restaurants to eat at and great art to buy among other things.

All of that is a preface to saying that the Google AdSense ads I run on the site are doing ok for me in terms of offsetting some of the costs (both actual and time spent) of the site I'd really love to get rid of them. No, I'm not looking to ditch ads completely. What I am looking to do is replace the current ones with ads from local businesses or national companies that are specifically focusing on Louisville or the region. To put another way: I'd like the ads I'm running to actually be of interest to the audience. If the ads are of greater potential interest to the audience then they're much more useful to both the audience and the advertiser.

So if you have a local business or artistic venture I'd like to urge you to consider advertising on Consuming Louisville. The rates are reasonable, the audience intelligent (just look, you're reading it) and geographically targeted.

Thanks for your consideration,
Michelle

Hopefully you've noticed the new logo around here. If not take a moment and cast your eyes upwards. There you'll see the brilliant and creative work of John Wurth of Hatch Creative. Despite having what was I'm sure an absolute brat of a client John did fantastic work within my crazy parameters and needs.

I wanted to keep an iconic reference to Louisville, the fleur de lis, but wanted it to stand out a bit amongst the sea of fleur de lis icons and graphics that float around Louisville. John suggested playing off the Consuming in Consuming Louisville. I thought that was a great idea. So the finished logo you see is a beautiful fleur de lis that's had a bite taken out of it, literally part of the Louisville icon has been consumed. There are even a few crumbs thrown in for good measure.

I love the concept and love the finished logo, I hope you do as well. I can't possibly thank John enough for all his thought and work on the logo. He was really great to work with and I highly recommend Hatch Creative for any design needs you might have. Just in case Consuming Louisville's new logo isn't enough to convince you of John's brilliance you should also know that he's the genius mind behind those great Derby City Roller Girls posters (Love Hurts and Open Skate are my favorites).

I hope you enjoyed the nearly every weekday posting of One Thing I Love About Louisville during the month of January. I very much did. Finding out new and interesting things people love about Louisville was terribly interesting to me, so much so that I really want to continue the series. Not, everyday but weekly if possible, if not, then monthly. So if you or anyone you know would like to participate please let me know. In the meantime look forward to a new "One Thing I Love About Louisville" next Monday February 11, 2008 from Shelly Zegart. 

Look, I'm not going to lie. I think you should show your beloved how much she or he means to you every single day. I think you should kick up the romance frequently, not just one day in February when everyone else is doing the same thing. That being said I know that Valentine's Day is very important and special for lots of couples so I'll be passing along info about any cool Valentine's events (including special dinners) that I get and adding them to this post.

• White Castle is offering its yearly Valentine's evening of romance. This year they've even got a take out package specially for those who want their White Castle romance in a little more private setting.
• Sweet Surrender is putting together a special Chocolate is for Lovers Gift Box that includes all kind of delectable items sure to warm your beloved's heart.
• Proof on Main is offering up a four-course prix fixe costing $50-$65, depending on choice on entrée. The highlight of this menu definitely looks to be the "chocolate three-way."
• Park Place is offering up a special amorously inclined meal that includes a lobster bisque, truffle "mac and cheese", Rock lobster tail with lobster risotto and a tasting of signature desserts among other decadent choices.
• The Valentine's Day night hike and romantic retreat at Jefferson Memorial Forest sounds just lovely. Highly recommended.
• It's not just for Valentine's Day but Morton's 4 Course Special is a great deal for surf and turf lovers
• You and your beloved can make ceramic goblets together at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft's workshop with Suzy Hatcher
• Hit Graeter's on Valentine's Day to get a free a sundae for yourself when you buy one for your sweetie.
  
• Primo has a nice special Valentine's Day menu that is $45 per person
• Avalon has a special for Valentine's Day that not only includes excellent sounding food (including a vegetarian entree selection) but also the option of having a gift from Luna Boutique wrapped and waiting at your table for companion.
  

  
  

You know that when I'm not toiling away on Consuming Louisville in my cave I'm a photographer right?

When I showed my partner a print of this photograph she said "I love this because it reminds me of how I feel driving downtown early in the morning when the streets aren't crowded yet. It's like the day and the city are full of possibility." We'll ignore that this scene was at sunset instead of sunrise but other than that we'll go with her sentiment. Louisville is a city full of possibility so I called this image Possibility City. 

Many of the One Thing I Love About Louisville essays we've seen thus far have echoed that sentiment and many of the ones I've yet to publish do as well. People here believe anything is possible, that in this great city anything can be accomplished. So it pains me that the so called Possibility City campaign, put together by, I think Greater Louisville Inc., doesn't really tell any stories about how great Louisville is or how it really is a city full of possibilities. It's possible I'm too critical of the campaign but I want everyone to know how great Louisville is and how it's a unique and creative place. I just don't think the Possibilty City website conveys that information at all.

So consider this piece a tiny little effort to influence the conversation. Perhaps if someone Googles "Possibilty City" they'll stumble here as well as possibilitycity.com. When they get here they'll see an image that shows our beautiful downtown and lots of information about the great city of Louisville.

I'd love to hear if you agree that Louisville is a city of possibilities and if so why. I'd also love to hear what you think of the "official" possibility city campaign.

Prints of the image Possibilty City are available for purchase. Please contact me for more information.

When I explain Consuming Louisville to people the most frequent question I get asked is “where should I eat?” This comes both from Louisville newcomers and from those who have been here a while (and sometimes even forever). Food, it seems, is the great uniter. We all love to eat. Lucky for us there is an incredible amount of good food to be had here in Louisville.

Perhaps it’s because I eat out on a very regular basis and have several favorite restaurants I sometimes forget that every one of my (and your) favorite haunts is still an undiscovered gem for someone else. Columbus "discovered" the continent we're living on and the people who were already living here. You get to discover The Irish Rover or Come Back Inn or Mayan Cafe or Impellizeri's or Twig and Leaf or Le Gallo Ross or any of countless other restaurants you haven't tried  or maybe haven't even heard of yet. So I'm going to be writing about restaurants more.

My love of Louisville is pretty apparent (*cough* I run a website called Consuming Louisville). I'm far from alone though in loving this place. I've lived in other cities where the most frequent responses to questions like "how do you like here?" are things like "it's ok" or "it's not so ad" or even flat out "this place sucks." Occasionally you'd get an "I love it here" sprinkled in but those were few and far between. In Louisville the love to hate ratios are exactly reversed. For every "Louisville is ok" I hear five "I love Louisville!" or "Louisville is great!" declarations.

All these feelings of goodwill toward Louisville got me thinking. My list of reasons for loving Louisville is long enough to stretch down Bardstown Road from Douglass Loop to Highland Avenue but why do other people love it? I wondered why other people are in love with this city. So I asked.

I made a list of smart, interesting, engaged people and I asked them to tell me one thing they love about Louisville. I asked politicians, musicians, artists, business owners, ad people, bloggers, moguls, community leaders and people from all walks of life. A fair number totally ignored my polite questions. I'll try not to hold it against them though because many other kick ass people not only said yes but proceeded to give amazing, interesting answers.

I cannot wait to share these answers and share I will. Starting tomorrow Consuming Louisville will be presenting a series titled "One Thing I Love About Louisville." I've got many "One Things" lined up to publish with more coming still coming in. If you'd like to contribute a "One Thing I Love About Louisville" drop me a line.

I'm so very excited about this series. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.  Each one of us who loves Louisville  probably has a different reason for loving our city. Some of these reasons overlap, some are completely unique but all of them are interesting. I think we can all enjoy learning about other people's reasons for loving the city and we may even find some brand new reasons to add to our own personal "why I love Louisville" lists.

I've made my list of things I'm thankful for this year and being back in Louisville and running Consuming Louisville are near the top of that list. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to be a cheerleader for Louisville at large and for all the great things going on, great places to eat and drink, amazing independent businesses, artists and musicians that make this city unique and wonderful.

In the past few months Consuming Louisville has seen some nice growth in terms of visitor numbers and community support. Thank you for that. Thank you for visiting. Thank you for saying "yeah I've heard of Consuming Louisville. Cool site." Thank you for being part of our great city and giving me so much to write about.

It's my sincere hope that Consuming Louisville continues to grow. Yes, naturally I hope it attracts more visitors and gains popularity but more importantly I hope it grows into an even better, more enjoyable and useful site. If you have any requests or suggestions for making Consuming Louisville better please do let me know.

With that I wish you all a very safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Warmly,
Michelle Jones
Editor, Consuming Louisville

While doing some shopping on East Market this weekend I stumbled into the Vadis Turner exhibit at Gallery NuLu. Such a lucky find because this is a great exhibit that I hadn't heard a single thing about even though it opened October 5.

It's these kind of things that make me even more passionate about Consuming Louisville. Great, great things are going on in Louisville everyday but so many of us don't read the Courier (or are disappointed by what the Courier does and doesn't give coverage to) or wade through LEO or Velocity so we miss great events that those print publications cover. The flyer walls of coffee shops in the Highlands are great places for finding out about events but most days you just want to get your cappuccino and get out the door. Keeping up with online calendars of events? Arduous at best.

That's why Consuming Louisville is here: to help you quickly and easily find good things going on in town, good places to eat and good places to shop without spending your time poring over print or online publications.

The Vadis Turner exhibit is a very good thing going on in Louisville. People interested in any of the following should run, not walk to see the exhibit before it closes November 21: modern art, feminism, cultural criticism, mixed media works, kitsch, discussions on and artistic response to gender roles, fun art, fun art made of interesting objects.

Turner uses materials that make up the reality of womens lives, the flotsam and jetsam of every day. Twist ties, sponges, pantyhose, cotton balls, matchsticks, cellophane these are the sugar and spice that Turner uses for her box of chocolates. Office memo pads, calendar pages and take-out restaurant menus are quilted into testaments of the workday or sculpted into full-size gowns. Tabloids compete with works of fiction in other quilts and bobby pins explode into an installation. The works of Vadis Turner will make you smile in easy recognition, yet cringe at the ordinariness of it all.

- Description from another exhibition of Turner's work

That's a wedding cake made of tampons in the image there, just in case you missed that. Be sure not to miss the Sweet and Low gown at the very beginning of the exhibit. It's one of my favorite pieces.

In case you missed it yesterday the New York Times had a nice travel piece about our region called, naturally, Bourbon & Bluegrass.

If you're not reading this in an RSS reader you'll notice a different look around here. Not earthshaking different but different still. If something looks broken, doesn't work as you expect it to or just gives you pause please do let me know: info AT consuminglouisville.com. Thanks.

I think 37 Flood is a great blog. It covers live shows by local bands, touring bands coming through town, record releases, benefits, clubs, etc. The blogger who runs it loves music and bands and gives attention and support to both. It's an asset to the music community here in Louisville. So why in the world would a local band have this local blogger kicked out of their show?

I was escorted out just as VHS or Beta took the stage and directed not to bring my camera back in. I was told that the band didn't allow photography unless you have a press pass.**

The bassist has been blogging about their tour and they have an active MySpace page. I point that out to say they're not some old school band with no idea about social media. In other words they should know better. They should know that they have nothing to fear and lots to gain from supportive fans who want to photograph and write about their shows. Or in words that I and others have said oh so many times before "Photography is not a crime."

There was a VHS or Beta billboard across the street from Ear X Tacy. Every time I passed it I thought "I'm going to pick up the new VHS or Beta record." I hadn't done it yet but fully planned to do so. Not any more. I'm a photographer and social media advocate. If you don't want bloggers and amateur photographers documenting your shows then I don't think I need to spend my money on your records.

ETA: I just don't understand what benefit the band gets from banning photography.

** I'll leave the door open here for the possibility that the fault actually lies with the club and not the band. Maybe the security guy was overzealous and thought that if he said it was on the band's request it would go down easier. If that is the case I will happily acknowledge it.

Socializing and Networking for Freelancers

OK technically no one will be getting a free lunch. Instead we'll all be nice coffee shop patrons who buy lattes and cappuccinos and such. But I thought putting free lunch in the title would lure you in. Forgive me that dramatic license.

I am a freelance photographer, web and computer geek, writer, artist and all around creative professional. I love working for myself and working from home but sometimes I crave a little social interaction, and that vibe you get from working around and near other creative people. So I'm trying to kick start a community of freelancers, consultants, artists and other independents who have an interest in socializing, organically networking, brainstorming, idea bouncing and just all around participating in a community that's designed to support and encourage people who make a living (or are trying to make a living) doing what they love.

Ideally this group would meet once or twice a month at a coffee shop to hang out, get to know each other, work independently, work collaboratively, bounce ideas off each other, brainstorm projects, get feedback, gossip, goof off or some combination of all those.

I've tentatively planned the first meeting to be at Quills Coffee & Books on Kentucky Street near Barret Avenue Tuesday morning, August 28 and I'm inviting you to come. Please email me if you're interested in coming, info@consuminglouisville.com. If there is some interest in this fledging group but the date and time needs to be changed that's ok, that's why I've listed the date as tentative.

Thanks,
Michelle

After four years in Indianapolis I'm returning home to the city I love. I couldn't be more excited. Louisville is in my heart and my blood and I can't wait to get back home.

During my exodus to the north I developed a site called Consuming Indy. My reasons for starting the site were purely selfish: I wanted to convince myself to love Indianapolis. I started combing the city for cool restaurants and shops, cultural events, art openings, independent businesses, all the things I enjoyed in Louisville. I thought if I could dive into Indianapolis and find enough things to fill Consuming Indy with then I'd grow to love Indianapolis and not be quite so homesick for Louisville. While Consuming Indy grew to be a site I was proud to run it never helped me love Indianapolis. Indy just never fit me. Why on earth did I stay there so long then? Job commitments. My partner was doing a medical residency in Indianapolis so we were committed to being there four years. Now that her job commitment is ending we're very lucky and happy that B has found a great job back in Louisville. So we're house hunting in the Highlands and are just excited beyond belief that we'll be settled into our new Louisville life by summer.

As soon as we starting finalizing plans to move back to Louisville I knew that I wanted to bring Consuming Louisville to life. Since I love Louisville so much the impetus is obviously not the same as it was for Consuming Indy. In fact it's pretty much just the opposite. There is so much amazing art, culture, independent businesses, and just all around cool stuff happening in Louisville I just want to help get the word about all of it out. I want to be part of the great vibe the city has and I want Consuming Louisville to be an asset for the community at large. So feel free to send press releases, concert notices, save the date announcements, etc to info@consuminglouisville.com. Consuming Louisville is interested in local artists, independent businesses, cultural events, restaurants, charity, social events, the list goes on and on and on. If it's cool, happening in Louisville or involves Louisville people please let us know about.