Friday, February 29, 2008

The Week At Mtn. Xpress

Brian Postelle is always hooking up the local bloggers over at Mountain X, so I thought we'd return the favor.

The Keep Asheville Weird contingent lost a major landmark in west Asheville. Gotta pay your taxes. Zen put pictures at the Mtn. X forum.

The Medford miasma is going to be fascinating right through the primary season. Cecil Bothwell's candidacy will benefit from his role in bringing Medford down.

Alli Marshall reads as much as my wife, but Alli writes a lot more reviews.

Jon Elliston asks the peanutty forum gallery,
"Over at mountainx.com, there’s been some vigorous discussion this week about the desireability of hiring a firm from out of town to coordinate Asheville’s new Downtown Master Plan. More than a few locals have expressed disdain for “outsiders” moving here.

Which begs the question, who are your favorite “outsiders” who have come to call WNC home? And why?"


The best answer so far is "Carl Sandburg".

Thanks Mtn. X for helping to promote Community Media!

one ought consider if one aren't booked: nice dance stuff

Mountainx article re local dance event
Of particular interest will be the butoh performance Friday evening. If you do not know what that is, well, it cannot be described by such as me. From wikipedia: "typically involves playful and grotesque imagery often performed in white-body makeup but there is no set style. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends."

I witnessed butoh first @ Fringe Fest, and the Legacy Butoh troupe is a do-not-miss. Unless you like easy entertainment. In that case, rent "When Harry Met Sally" and be shut of it. Otherwise, get ready.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Cheeksters!



Hi all, I just wanted to let everyone know about the most fantabulous band in Asheville that just so happens to be playing a show tomorrow night at The Rocket Club in West Asheville, The Cheeksters. They play a wonderful mix of contemporary rock and bright, sunshiny British pop.

If you want to read more about them, or want to download an MP3 to see what all the fuss is about, check out my blog, So Much for Tact.

Hope to see you all there. Be sure to say hey.

Constitutional Property to Constitutional People





UNCA Office of Multi-cultural Studies, Mission Hospital, Buncombe County Dept of Social Services, and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce is hosting a 2 day Math Summit at UNCA.

Tonight, Dr. Robert Parris Moses was the key speaker, to a packed house of students, faculty, community members, and local students and educators. A quiet speaker, who was unfraid to pause at length, he commanded the attention of the audience, giving a history of the US constitutional process through the eyes of the disenfranchised, our movement from Constitutional property to Constitutional People, and ended with an appeal for a national conversation to start on the importance of amending the US Constitution to include eductional as a national citizens' right, not just the right of a state citizen.

"the strongest argument for doing it is its doable..."

Dr. Moses was a key voter registration organizer in Mississippi and field secretary for SNCC during the Civil Rights era. In 1982 he founded the Algebra Project, "an organization devoted to improving minority education in math."

The evening was a powerful delight...


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I tried to post this last night just after the event but Blogger was down...

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Mumpower: Bicycle plan is a delusion

Welcome New Asheville Bloggers



Art by Rebecca Tolk, Photographer


Whew! Things are rocketing along here in Asheville's digital realm, please check out these new folks and their bloggy goodness:
zenscription
"my day-to-day journal full of boring stuff, half-thoughts and gaseous ramblings."

The Artful Parent
"The Intersection of Art and Parenting"

Asheville GOP Precinct 15
"What's going on with the GOP in West Asheville's Precinct 15."

Unofficially Asheville
"Life and music in Asheville, NC."

Kids Movies, Reviewed for Adults
"Dedicated to the parents and other adults forced to sit through countless hours of children's "entertainment," adults who are crying out for their voices to be heard: Please give us something decent to watch for God's sake! By Coffeezilla"

a mUSE yourself
"everyday ramblings. side walk chatter."

Dancewater
"I pledge allegiance to the earth, and all the life which it supports, one planet, in our care, irreplaceable, with sustenance and respect for all."

Hendersonville Epicurean
"Hendersonville, NC restaurant reviews - keeping it local"


New Artists

J & N Master Carpentry
Historic Restoration

Hazen Hunter Photography
"photographer-artist-photojournalist"
Hazen Hunter Blog
"photographer-artist-photojournalist"

Maw Bear
"Artist: Kimberly Webber Young"
The Daily Growl
"Artist: Kimberly Webber Young's Blog"

Please send us an email if you are a local blogger or artist, and we will get you linked up!



Art by Rebecca Tolk, Photographer

Monday, February 25, 2008

Tuesday, Feb. 26: Dine Out for Homeless Pets

Do you like 12 Bones, Tupelo Honey, Usual Suspects, Old Europe, Doc Chey's, Sunnyside Cafe, Jack of the Wood, Urban Burrito or Zambra?

These are just a few of the WNC bars and eateries donating part of Tuesday's proceeds to Dine to Be Kind, a fundraiser that lets WNC people pig out to help homeless pets.

Over 50 restaurants in Asheville, Weaverville and Black Mountain invite customers to support spay/neuter programs in WNC through dining out at a participating restaurant during Dine to Be Kind. A percentage of Tuesday's profits goes to the spay/neuter programs of the Animal Compassion Network, WNC's largest no-kill rescue organization.

Takeout counts too during Dine to Be Kind, as does breakfast and lunch at certain spots.

Here's the list of participating restaurants.

Read more about Dine to Be Kind here.

Dine to Be Kind
* Tuesday, Feb. 26
* participating restaurants
* eat good food & support local business; restaurants give a percentage to local pet rescue programs

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Be a part of Faces of Asheville

unfocused portrait of jen bowen the portrait gal
Here's a portrait of the talented Jenny Bowen who is currently on a project to get a good cross section of Asheville people's portraits in a project called "Faces of Asheville". The truth is you probably already know about it but have been avoiding it or just sent out a single email and didn't go to the site and register with a day and time. Please if you have the time, do this - it's a worthwhile project. And it'll end at the end of March!

Asheville Tourism Promos



That's Ian of The Rib Tips doing the fiddling and singing!





The ironic tagline for all three slick promos is "Unscripted". I like the first one, mainly because the Rib Tips are featured, but also because I like anything that instills a sense of possibility rather than a sense of repression or fear. I like the idea of folks getting nekkid and swinging into a river that's featured in the second one. But the third one is a strange Nickelodeonesque, Do the Dew nonsense. But all in all I imagine it's money well spent leading folks to our Tourism website.

Your thoughts?

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Introducing...

two new local blogs:

chicken inwind & hillfoot adrift (local poet, WPVM DJ, and former cattlerustler, Stephen Kirbach)


Chummoth's Hill (local dramatist, Astro's Fan, and raconteur, Devin Walsh)


please welcome them by partaking in their offered variety of blogpossibility.

thank you, end transmission.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Dancing Lady

West Asheville is full of wonderful art in the most surprising places.



Free Pizza

Blue Mountain Pizza in Weaverville has generously donated $20 gift certificates for me to give away each month this year on MyWeaverville.com. Full contest details and the entry form can be found at www.myweaverville.com/contests.

Patton Avenue, Asheville




Photography by Big Al

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Postelle On Bellamy

Great article in today's Mtn. X about our Mayor. Go read it.

Lunar Eclipse Over Asheville Tonight

Total lunar eclipse tonight...


Partial eclipse start time: 8:43 p.m.
Total eclipse start time: 10:01 p.m.
Total eclipse ends: 10:51 p.m.
Partial eclipse ends: 12:09 a.m.

The best watching, which depending on conditions might include the moon turning spooky orange-red, will be during the total eclipse period, from 10:01 to 10:51. All times given are local.

This is the last total lunar eclipse visible over Asheville until December 2010.

Cross your fingers for a clear night with no rain...

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Twlight of the Neighborhood: Asheville East End



Beginning in February, Pack Memorial Library will celebrate African-American History Month with an exhibit of photographs from the Andrea Clark Photography Collection. The exhibition will feature 50 photographs taken in the East End neighborhood of Asheville in the early 1970s.

In addition to the exhibition, photographer Andrea Clark will speak at Pack Memorial Library on Sunday, February 24 at 2:30pm. A reception and “front porch discussion” of the changes in the East End neighborhood will follow.


Davidson Street at intersection with Eagle Street, Stephens-Lee High School in the background

Andrea’s grandfather James Miller was a black brick mason and contractor whose construction company built many Asheville churches, homes and public buildings. Andrea grew up in Massachusetts and came to Asheville as a young woman in the late 1960s. The segregated black community she saw in the East End neighborhood amazed her, and she began taking photographs. Her subjects, accepting her as one of their own, allowed her to look directly into their faces and homes. The result is a compelling visual history of an often ignored segment of Asheville’s past.



The 1970s were a time of great change in Asheville. Attempting to integrate institutions and improve living conditions in the black community, the city of Asheville began an ambitious program of urban renewal. Hundreds of buildings on and around Valley and Southside streets were removed, and residents of that area were scattered across the city. Sadly, along with deteriorating structures, the black citizens of Asheville also lost beloved neighborhood schools, black-owned businesses and a strong sense of community. Andrea Clark’s powerful images document that lost African-American community, preserving a place and way of life that no longer exists.


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For more information, call Pack Library at 250-4700 or email library@buncombecounty.org.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Community Media Kickstart Evolution



{painting, "Crossroads", by Asheville's Eliza Hafer}

Ten of us got together for today's Community Media Strategy Session. Held at the well-heeled and charitably donated Board Room at Pack Place, the two-hour meeting was energized by the focus and creativity of all who attended. Ash, Marty, Zen, Jon, Matt, Johnny, James, Bill, Gordon, and an unlinkable fellow named Chris Lowry all contributed to a consensus driven prioritization process for our nascent Community Media (CM).

Click here to see the agenda we used.

After introductions, a review of the CM survey, and some tasty snacks, we broke into small groups. Each group brainstormed ideas then narrowed their ideas to three top priorities. From those were chosen the top three that folks could agree to address first. We agreed that all the ideas were good, it was simply a matter of where to begin.

Before you read any further, please take this four question survey that asks about your priorities for Community Media. Beware, there are spoilers ahead.

Take the survey.

Here come the spoilers.

Better stop scrolling down unless you've taken the survey.

Last warning...



{Collage, "Eclectic Garden", by Asheville's Niki Bonnett}

The process produced the following three ideas that we're going to put into action:

1. Cross Promotion among and between media:

Everyone likes to see that others are promoting their site/program/show/art/photos/writing, and more of an emphasis can be put on ensuring that everyone is helping everyone else get attention. We can do this initially by linking more often to local community media sources, especially across mediums (e.g. A URTV show with a bloggers' roundtable; promoting WPVM programs on blogs). The ten people who attended are going to put this into practice more and more, and we're going to encourage everyone to link to other CM more often too. Get to linking! Let's cross promote the bejeesus out each other.

2. Community Media Wiki:

While everyone agreed that we need multiple "hubs", the group also agreed that creating one centralized site would be a great resource. Rather than build some massive thing that has to be administered, how about a wiki? With a wiki, purveyors of community media could list their own site by genre or medium. James from TalkAsheville.com had a couple of ideas about this and wants your input about the following styles:

phpcow.com
articlelive.com
Some sort of Digg clone or Wiki clone

3. Media swarms:

A media swarm is a periodic, focused, sustained effort for a lot of various perspectives/media to look at one subject area. CM could, for instance, choose to focus on transparency in government, panhandling, underground theater, or Felicity's sock drawer. Media swarms bring a lot of attention to one area, building that bigger megaphone we discussed at the first Community Media gathering. They build community and they raise people's awareness of our media. Take the survey to tell us what kinds of subjects you'd like to see media swarmed.

--------

We hope to have the next Strategy Session at URTV studios next month. Take the survey to tell your preferences for times/days.

This was a very productive and inspiring process, and I'm looking forward to watching it grow. Please promote the Community Media evolution and invite everyone who's doing CM to join us with their ideas and energy. Anyone can email me at scrutinyhooligans AT yahoo Dot CoM to get on our CM mailing list. This is not the BlogAsheville mailing list. It's different. If you want on it, you have to tell me.

See y'all at the next one. Thanks for a real good time.

Community media meeting



A group of about 10 local bloggers and folks interested in building a strong community media got together this afternoon to brainstorm. The group came up with a host of ideas that will be put forth in survey form for everyone to weigh in on. Here's a rough little 90-second video aimed at boiling everything down.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

The 2008 State of Black Asheville




The Scrutiny Hooligans and Asheville on the Ground are live blogging this event!


Check out Uptown Ruler's post at Scrutiny Hooligans

and

Mariahsage's post at Asheville on the Ground

Thursday, February 14, 2008

It's On: Community Media Strategy Session This Sunday


{pic from Community Media In Transition}

We've had 22 respondents to the Community Media Survey. The responses are fascinating, and I'll have them printed out for everyone to read. They provide a rough sketch of our diversity and commonalities. As a coagulating group of independent people, we'll have a lot of listening and a lot of consensus building to do.

The Community Media Strategy Session will take place in The Boardroom at Pack Place from 1pm - 3:30pm. I'm annoyingly punctual, so expect to start at one sharp. Parking may be tricky, so allow time for it. A thousand bloggy thanks to Heather Nelson at Pack Place for so charitably offering the space.

Zen volunteered to bring some fruit. What are you bringing? Tell me in the comments.

Here's directions and info.

Some things you indicated in the survey that you want for the session are (in order of importance):

- A round of introductions
- A "You've Gone On Too Long" Buzzer
- Small Group Breakouts
Consensus Model Decision Making (tie)
- Snacks and Drinks

Here's a proposed agenda. Consider it a work in progress, waiting for your input:

12:45 - eating some snacks, hanging out.
1 - Round of introductions (Who are you, what's your media, what do you want out of this session)
1:30 - Review of Survey results
1:45 - BREAK
2 - Break out into smaller groups to create a list of priorities and ideas. Narrow these into the small group's top three priorities/ideas.
2:30 - Return to big group. One person from each group presents priorities.
2:40 - Consensus build the big group's top three priorities
3:10 - Create Action Plan
3:30 - Adjourn

Thanks to everyone who's responded to the survey. If you're planning on coming to the session, please complete the survey.

I'm looking forward to meeting you all and getting something started.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Did You Take The Survey?

Hi everyone,

Thanks to the sixteen folks who completed the Community Media Strategy Session pre-meeting survey. I'm using this survey as something of an RSVP count, so I'm excited to see you all this Sunday at 1pm. I'm still hunting a venue. The west Asheville library is closed that day. I'm hunting a couple of spots down. I'll announce the location later this week and send it on to the email list.

Also - Are there any preferences for moderator? If not, I'm taking it on.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Kids' Workshops: Super Saturdays at UNCA


(Image: 2002 Super Saturday participants)

Parents take note:

This spring UNCA offers a six-week series of educational weekend workshops for gifted/creative/highly motivated area kids and teens. Super Saturdays are for students in grades 3-8, and include programs in web design, martial arts, physics, math, fiber arts, model rocketry... All kinds of cool, kid-friendly stuff.

Registration ends Feb. 22 (Feb. 15 for scholarship recipients), and classes are held in March and April at UNCA. Tuition is $65, and need-based scholarships are available.

I'm a (38-year-old) UNCA student, and I volunteered at a Super Saturday chemistry program awhile back. We played with liquid nitrogen, and the kids had an absolute ball. Considering how much fun *I* had, the kids must have experienced something unforgettable.

I note that "Math Discoveries" is being taught by one of the college's best professors, the unfortunately named Dr. Patrick Bahls. (I also note that being made to think at an early age that a college campus is a welcoming, fun and exciting place might be a VERY good thing.)

Read more about UNCA's Super Saturdays here.

Spring 2008 course descriptions here.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Dem Chips is Good

It's a week late, but the All-Star Democratic Party Chili Cook-Off went well, but we went mostly to support our candidates with presence and money ($10 tickets and we also bid on some auction items), and to try out their chili.

While the chili was as varied as the opinions, the real winner of the day was the donkey chips to spoon it up!

Reserved by Derek Olson



Photograph by Derek Olson

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Just To Make Sure Y'all See It

Shad posted the excellent looking Flood Reading Series overtop the Community Media Strategy Session post, and I wanted to make sure all of you who are interested get a chance to see the post, take the survey, and nominate a moderator.

Scroll down or Click here to see the post!

Flood Reading Series

Coming Soon:


This February 24th at 1:00 p.m. the Flood Gallery (109 Roberts
Street) is honored to host a reading of these four writers:

Tamiko Murray, a UNC-A graduate, raised in Chicago and Los Angeles has
called Asheville her home for twelve years. A 2007 Asheville Arts
Council grant recipient, Murray writes commentaries for the Mountain
Xpress and her short stories have been published both locally and
nationally. She presently teaches creative writing through a grant
from Arts to People.

Lori Horvitz' short stories, poetry, and personal essays have appeared
in ournals and anthologies including The Southeast Review, The Salt
River Review, Hotel Amerika, The Coe Review, Thirteenth Moon, The
Mochila Review, Calyx, and Quarter After Eight. She was awarded
writing fellowships from Fundación Valparaiso, The Ragdale Foundation,
Yaddo, Cottages at Hedgebrook, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts,
and Blue Mountain Center. She is an Associate Professor of Literature
and Language at UNC- Asheville.

Joanna Knowles is a Creative Writing Major at the UNC-Asheville, where
she received the 2007-2008 Topp/Grillot scholarship for poetry. She
has lived in the Asheville area for 18 years Two of her poems are
published in the current edition of the Nantahala Review and she has
published poems and essays in the Mountain Xpress and Rapid River.

Alfred A. Knopf published Katherine Min's novel, SECONDHAND WORLD, in
October 2006. In May 2007, she was the finalist for the PEN/Bingham
Award for "an exceptionally talented writer whose debut work
represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great
promise." Min's stories have appeared in TriQuarterly, Ploughshares,
The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, Confrontation, River Styx,
and Glimmer Train. One of her stories, "Courting a Monk", was included
in The Pushcart Book of Short Stories, a collection of the best
Pushcart Prize stories of the last twenty-five years. Another story,
"Eyelids", was listed as a "Distinguished Story" in The Best American
Short Stories of 1997; and "The Brick" was performed at the Getty
Museum in L.A., for National Public Radio's Selected Shorts program in
1999. Min received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1992,
and New Hampshire Arts Council Fellowships in 1995 & 2004. She
teaches creative writing and literature at the UNC-Asheville.


Please join us for our first reading of the 2008 calendar year.


Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
The Flood Gallery Fine Art Center is a non-profit arts organization
dedicated to promoting the arts in Asheville through the exhibition of
established and emerging artists from all over the world. Through
artist-residency programs, public events and workshops, and
educational activities, Flood Gallery seeks to make art a vital and
important part of life in Asheville. The Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
is a membership organization. You can find out more by visiting the
website at http://www.floodgallery.org

Community Media Strategy Session 2/17

Hi everybody,

I emailed everyone who attended the Community Media Party at Rocket Club last weekend and chose the date and time that the majority said they were willing/able to attend. I'm sorry if this date and time excludes anyone, but know that it will not be the last meeting. Further, please take the survey previous to the Strategy Session, so all of you (plus the folks who haven't yet attended) can get your two cents in.

The Community Media Strategy Session will take place on Sunday, February 17th from 1pm - 3:30pm. I think we'll be at the West Asheville Library, but I haven't yet nailed the room down. Come back later this week to confirm the location.

I'm very excited to get together and formulate a common, actionable agenda. With our disparate media and intentions, it's going to be an exercise in give, take, and creative problem solving. Please bring your brains.

At this time, we're accepting nominations for a Strategy Session Moderator. Anyone can be nominated, though whether that person accepts will be up to them. We'll need someone who knows how to run a tight meeting, make sure everyone gets heard, synthesize ideas and information, and move us towards a common agenda. Leave your nominations in the comments.

Click Here To Take The Survey And Help Us Gather Information For The Strategy Session!

If you want to be included on the Community Media email list, please shoot me an email at scrutinyhooligans AT yahoo Do T cOm.

Thanks everybody!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Johnny's Inhaler at Westville Pub


Now that I live above Orbits in West Asheville I get to check out a lot more bands at Westville Pub than I used to. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear my buddy Jor Sutton's band was playing last weekend.

Everyone was having such a good time that I wished somebody would have been recording it. On that note I ran upstairs grabbed my CoolPix and came down and shot a video of one song. Check it out.

(Note: The pic is one I took of them at LAAFF in 2006)

R.I.P. Eugene Ochsenreiter

AC-T:
Former Asheville mayor Eugene C. Ochsenreiter, a civic leader in business and sports in the city for more than a half century, died Tuesday at age 89.

Ochsenreiter served as mayor from 1975-77 and was on City Council for more than six years (1971-77).

He also founded the WNC Sports Hall of Fame (and was enshrined in 1988) and helped found the Mountain Amateur Athletic Club, which has conducted the WNC Sports Awards Banquet for 49 years.

Asheville's Swingin' Mardi Party





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x-posted from A Year In Asheville

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The Last Great Delta Bluesman Visits Asheville

Through dumb luck and quirky circumstances, I found myself virtually alone with the 94-year-old Pinetop Perkins, the last of the great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen, at the soundcheck of his recent Asheville appearance at The Garage at Biltmore. Besides myself (and my wife), only the band members, sound guy, and the club owners were inside The Garage at the time. It was one of those rare moments that send chills down your spine—an eerie sense that this really can’t be happening but it is.

For most of the soundcheck Pinetop sat quietly in the seats near us, dressed up and clutching a cane, as he watched the band tune up. After a few minutes, Pinetop slowly walked the few feet to the stage, frail at 94, and was helped to his piano, where he graciously played his classic Down in Mississippi.

Even though frail, his voice was excellent, and his impossibly long fingers still smoothly moved across the keys. I’d forgotten what a truly great Chicago blues band could sound like. There is a huge difference between this level and lesser talents.

The highlights of the show were hearing him sing his theme song, They Call Me Pinetop Perkins, and a show-stopping version of Got My Mojo Workin'.

At 94, Pinetop's voice and piano work are still amazingly strong. Even so, it was like watching history, and knowing, certainly, that there would never be another opportunity to see a pre-war Delta Blues Master perform live again, which made the evening a little bittersweet for this life-long fan of the Blues.

x-posted from ephemera.

Be A Front-Pager For BlogAsheville

In the early days of BlogAsheville the rule was, "Once you've come out to a BlogAsheville face-to-face gathering, and we've determined you're not criminally insane, you can have posting privileges at BA". Then we started having a lot of people come out to face-to-face gatherings and telling folks, "Just contact Uptown Ruler, and he'll send you an invitation".

Now we're getting it together to democratize the front-page even more. As of today, anyone with a blog on the blogroll can be a BlogAsheville frontpager. You just have to email Admin at blogasheville@hotmail DOT To the CoM and agree to follow a few simple rules:

-) BlogAsheville is not a political blog. Any opinion pieces with a political bent need to stay at your home blog. We're an inclusive community. If you've got informational stuff about the Libertarian Party meeting or the Wiccan sleepover at Lady Passion's house, you can certainly post that. Just leave your advocacy hat on the hatrack.

-) We'd like no more than 3 posts per day to keep the thing readable. That's not been a problem around here of late, but if a lot of you get involved, then we'll have to keep an eye on it. Pay attention before you post.

-) Admin has the right to edit your posts. It's never happened, but if there's a problem Admin can step in to correct it.

I think that's it for the rules. Are there some I missed?

Anyway - email Admin today if you want your front page privilege. You can use it to cross-post from your home blog and steer traffic there, or use it to create Asheville-centric content just for our community. Yes, you can!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

BlogAsheville, MAIN, WPVM, and URTV event

Hi y'all. Sorry I had to cut out before the last drink was drunk, but this nasty cold has got my head feeling heavier than Carl Mumpower's moral compass. I'm posting this here to tell everyone to go to Cecil Bothwell's blog to read his liveblogging of the event.

I put together an email list of attendees, and I'll send y'all something soon about the future. We've agreed that something terribly organized will happen next. We'll come together to have a focused session on building a common, executable agenda within the next four weeks. It was very exciting meeting folks from all these various media who are passionately pursuing their goals. It was another great milestone in the evolution of BlogAsheville and in the growing community media sector.

We are stronger together.

Go read Cecil's post! Comment here, there, or everywhere about your impressions, ideas, and hopes for the future...

Happy Groundhog Day!

Friday, February 01, 2008

Ashvegas leaves daily newspaper for Mountain X

Cross-posted from Ashvegas:

ASHEVILLE - Long-time Asheville Citizen-Times reporter and editor Jason Sandford announced today that he has resigned his job at the daily newspaper and will take his talents to the weekly Mountain Xpress in a move that has media mavens buzzing.



"I had a great run at the Citizen-Times and have many friends there. I'll miss them," Sandford said. "It was just time for me to move on, and Mountain Xpress offered me a great opportunity I just couldn't pass up."



"I also didn't want to be the last rat off a sinking ship," joked Sandford, who noted the massive changes rocking the beleaguered newspaper industry as it struggles to come to grips with the digital age of information delivery. He also noted C-T parent company Gannett's report today that fourth-quarter earnings were down a whopping 31 percent.



Reaction from Sandford's colleagues has been streaming in all afternoon. Columnist and reporter John Boyle said he knew something was up.



"Sandford's been growing his hair long for about six months, but I thought it was just a midlife crisis thing. I offered to let him borrow my thong and my deerskin drum, but he said he was fine. I knew that was bullshit," Boyle said. "I hope he has fun with those granola-eaters across the street."


Read the rest at Ashvegas. See you Saturday at the community media meet-up.