TEDxAsheville Needs YOU!

TEDxAsheville, a locally organized small-scale TED-licensed event, is coming August 30!

Put on by a grassroots cast of characters from HATCHFest, BlogAsheville and Social Media Club Asheville, it's a WNC-focused nonprofit undertaking that NEEDS YOUR HELP.

Help us out and you're guaranteed a seat at the hottest nerdiest show in town -- and as it's a free show with a fabulous lineup including bell hooks, SEATS. WILL. GO. FAST!

Here's what we need. Who wants to be part of the team?

• graphic designers
• livebloggers
• bloggers
• Twitterers
  
• poster putter-uppers (downtown, N Avl, W Avl)
• setup and takedown help
• event planners
• sponsors
• anyone who wants to help
  

Anyone with time to commit and a headful of good ideas is welcome and invited to join us. We are Asheville people creating a fun, cool event with the chance to put Asheville speakers and performers on a global stage -- come join us!

For more info, send email to TEDxAVL @ gmail dot you-know-what. The next organizers' meeting is Monday, August 3 at 6 p.m. Send email for more details.

Come on out and be part of the fun!

Follow us on Twitter
Check us out on Facebook

This event is not being organized by the TED conferences — this is an independently organized TED event.

Green Generation

Tour of Asheville's Edible Parks, 9-3 Sat.

From a press release :

Professor Barkslip's Tour of Asheville's Three Edible Parks
Saturday, August 1st 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Professor T. Bud Barkslip will be leading a tour of the 3 edible parks in town:

The Flint-Magnolia Park in Montford

The Montford Rec Center

Stephens-Lee Edible Park

The parks are looking good for the most part because of a few diligent volunteers, but it could use a boost from our greater community. Come learn about tiger swallowtails and paw paw trees, plant a butterfly garden that will support them, and eat the Asian pears, early summer apples, mulberries, and cornelian cherries that are ready and delicious. It's high summer and high time to celebrate the truly fine things in life like good food from the Earth and friends and community!

Working tour begins at the park located at the corner of Flint and Magnolia streets in Montford at 9:00 sharp. We will go to the Montford rec center around 10:00 until around 12:00 located at the corner of Chestnut and Pearson st. in Montford, and then over to Stephens-Lee rec center to have lunch and enjoy the park there. If you have any questions or ideas please contact me by phone @ 713 2424.

MAP Launches New Site Thursday with Wine & Snacks

From a press release from the Media Arts Project, a non-profit media arts community and professional development organization. Wine, snacks and a chance to sign up for the new site and create your own profile. Get your images, video clips and MP3’s ready to post!

Everyone is invited to celebrate the reincarnation of themap.org over food and drinks!

When: Thursday, July 23 at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Flood Gallery in the Phil Mechanic Studios in Asheville.

JULY 14, 2009 - ASHEVILLE, NC - The Media Arts Project (MAP) announces an event to celebrate the launch of its new website and online member directory, Thursday, July 23, at 5:30pm at the Flood Gallery in Asheville. Funded by the Asheville HUB, the new directory will foster the development of Western North Carolina's creative economy by promoting the region's diverse and accomplished talent base and providing a resource for WNC media arts professionals to collaborate and connect, both with one another and with opportunities for work. The July 23 event will showcase the site and its capabilities to the region's artistic and professional communities.

In the new directory, MAP members will upload their portfolios to profile pages that specifically list their skills, experience and availability. Artists can communicate through blog posts and forums, and promote events through the site's calendar. The site also includes functionality for demand-side members, businesses in search of media talent for specific objectives. A demand-side member might be a filmmaker on location in WNC who needs a boom operator, a growing company in need of a designer to build a corporate identity, or a journalist who wants to create podcasts of her work and add them to her website. Through the MAP directory, demand-side members anywhere in the world can access the dynamic community of accomplished media arts professionals in WNC.

"I see the new site as a virtual media arts center, a place where people connect, share work, inspire one another and showcase their work to potential clients" said Gillian Coats, Media Arts Project Board Chairman. "The new map.org creates a platform for growth for media artists in the creative community and the creative economy of the region as a whole."

The directory was created by BugLogic, an Asheville-based web technology company that specializes in designing and managing community web solutions. BugLogic's projects include Drawger.com, an online community for illustrators that has become the network hub for illustration, with an average of 10,000 visitors per day - a number that spikes to over 100,000 when the site is featured in influential media like the New York Times, Juxtapoz, and BoingBoing.net. Another BugLogic community is illoz.com, a portfolio site that connects illustrators with art buyers in much the same way the new MAP website will function. Art buyers have viewed over 3,000,000 images on the site in its two years of operation.

"What I've learned with these projects are all applied to the new MAP member site," said BugLogic founder Robert Zimmerman, an accomplished illustrator and founding member of the Media Arts Project. "Drawger and illoz both operate as social networks for the membership and they love this aspect of it, but the real goal and the realised end result was a better business for everyone involved."

The launch event takes place at the Flood Gallery in the Phil Mechanic Studios, at 109 Roberts Street in Asheville. The event begins at 5:30pm, and Zimmerman will present the site at 6:15, followed by a performance by local VJ Megan McKissack. After Zimmerman's presentation, attendees can register for the site and artists can build their own profiles by uploading media that they bring on portable drives, using computers donated by Charlotte Street Computers. Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be provided by The Wine Guy and 28806 Catering. Peak Definition will film the event. For details on the event and further information on the site, contact the Media Arts Project at info@themap.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

July 22 "Whaledreamers" Doc Supports Local Activist's Dream

From a press release:

WHALEDREAMERS documentary to be shown at Fine Arts Theatre, July 22, at 7pm.

"Indigenous wisdom has never been more relevant for humanity than now" - Julian Lennon

(Asheville, NC) Local artist and activist Katie Kasben will be traveling to Australia in August to begin researching the possibility of a cultural exchange program between Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans. While there she will attend the GARMA Festival in the Northern Territory of Australia, which is a festival of traditional Aboriginal culture.

To raise local awareness of Aboriginal issues as well as the future exchange program Kasben hopes to accomplish, the documentary WHALEDREAMERS, produced by Julian Lennon, will be shown at the Fine Arts Theatre on July 22, at 7pm.

Trailer: http://www.montereymedia.com/independent/whaledreamers_trailer.html

The ancient sound of the yidaki (didjeridu) is a call to all people to come together in unity, for the sharing of knowledge and culture, and to learn from and listen to one another. Local musicians will be on hand to play this sacred instrument and hopefully inspire our community of Asheville to learn from ancient peoples on the other side of our planet. This event is free to the public, but a suggested donation of $10 will defray film costs.

To keep the Asheville community involved, Kasben will be posting updates on her blog during the trip to Australia, culminating in a future discussion in Asheville later this year. The blog address is www.katiekasben.blogspot.com

For information about the GARMA festival:

www.garma.telstra.com

For information about the documentary WHALEDREAMERS:

www.whaledreamers.com

Leading Innovation: Implementing Effective 1:1 Learning Technology Programs

I'm sitting, listening to David Warlick at The William and Ida Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina, talk about technology and innovation in the classroom. Wow! If you are an educator, I highly recommend checking out The Landmark Project as well as David Warlick.com.

This is all a part of the 1:1 Laptop Intiative for the state of North Carolina; a very exciting program which makes technology available to students in classrooms all over our fine state.

Just a side note: David spoke at Asheville High School about 5 years ago, during which he mentioned his book about blogging in the classroom. At the time, I was teaching students how to blog using blogger, and it was refreshing to learn that other folks were pushing the technology envelope with students!

Flat out, check him out!

Thank you, David!

Vortex Cabaret July 15th

The next Vortex Cabaret is happening July 15th. It will feature the comedy rantings of Sister Discordia, and the avant garde music of Forrest, the avant garde puppetry of Madison, and the good ol' fashioned burlesque of Theatre de Fetiche.
The Vortex Cabaret is a series of live variety shows, staged at the Boiler Room on 11 Grove Street. They feature the most interesting performers in Asheville, with acts ranging from musicians, to belly-dancers, to comedians, or performance artists, to poets, to puppeteers, to burlesque artists, and more. It is a show that must be seen to believed.
The Vortex Cabaret is a production of Pleasure Saucer Productions. Please visit the Pleasure Saucer for more information.

Transfigurations!

Friends, I want you to know, if you don't already, about what our friends at Harvest Records are doing this summer. Its big. Really really big. I'm so proud of them. Listen up:
(from a recent press release from Harvest):

*Transfigurations 2009: Celebrating five years of Harvest Records*

*3 days of your music in the mountains of Asheville, NC August 13th-15th*

Asheville, NC--Harvest Records celebrates five groundbreaking years as one
of America’s best independent record stores with Transfigurations--an
intimate first time music festival outside the norm of large, multi-stage
summer festivals in Asheville, NC. Transfigurations is bringing together
an incredible lineup of independent artists from all over the country August
13-15th including Akron/Family, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Books, Budos Band,
Circulatory System, Mount Eerie, Espers, War on Drugs, Brightblack Morning
Light, Kurt Vile, Ice Cream, Jonathan Kane, Coathangers, Villages, and Steve
Gunn. In addition to live music Transfigurations will present a panel
discussion and films from three record label heads who, through their own
unique methods, are at the forefront of documenting musics, new and old,
from the United States & around the world.



Transfigurations is a down-home gathering consisting of three venues (550
capacity or less) with virtually no overlap of artist performance. The
gathering is a culmination of co-owners Matt Schnable and Mark Capon sharing
a mutual love for creating a space dedicated to the discovery of music in a
supportive community. “Transfigurations brings together the spirits of the
musicians that we have brought to this city, the artists who have displayed
on our walls, the sounds people have found in our shop and the togetherness
that we have attempted to breathe into the community...hour by hour, day by
day," says Capon.



Over the last five years Harvest Records has brought new and old musicians
to Asheville as well as fresh ideas and an inclusive attitude. Through hard
work and a do-it-yourself business style, Harvest Records gained Honorable
Mention in Spin Magazines America’s Best Indy Record Stores in 2009 with, “a
savvy selection to rival any big-city shop, in a comfortably sleepy mountain
town.” Harvest has also been awarded “Best Music Store” in Western North
Carolina for the past four years by the Mountain Xpress readers’ poll.



Harvest Records has filled an important niche in Asheville, in the
southeast, and among record stores. “You may have been in a small,
independent record store, but we feel Harvest Records is unique and we want
everyone who walks through the door to have a satisfying exchange and an
inclusive experience,” says co-owner Matt Schnable. “That fresh perspective
has kept us going every day, and that same attitude of sharing a love of
music and creativity is what we are bringing to Transfigurations.”



Tickets are on sale now--Regular weekend passes ("Regafigurations") are
limited, and special weekend passes ("Megafigurations" ) are extremely
limited, so hurry!



For more information, please visit
http://www.harvest-records.com/transfigurations.php
or contact:
Matt Schnable or Mark Capon
828-258-2999 or transfigurationsasheville@gmail.com