The Home You Ain't Got

c/p @ ScruHoo:

Here's the short film we showed at the Extrava. Lots of you couldn't attend, and some of you who were there couldn't hear too well. We raised a cool thousand for AHOPE. Enjoy the film:

George "The" Bastard Says...

George has a great writeup of the Extrava over at his place. Here's an excerpt:

Jennifer Saylor kept touching my arm. If she has good luck from this, I could be the next Blarney Stone

Xty called me attractive and charming, so she must have been completely wasted

Gordon at one point put a traffic cone on his head and wouldn't take it off - maybe there are auditions for "Pirates of Penzance" somewhere

Reverend Johnny had to leave to go play a show with his band, but he didn't know when or where. I hope they just set up somewhere random and played until they were thrown out

I bumped into a guy named Clay (who works at the recording studio where I took my "Davinci Teabag") photo at different parties on Friday and Saturday. Weird.

Sorry to everyone I drunk dialled... especially those I drunk-dialled more than once

Julie had to leave way too early, but had some great stories of how single girls react at the last stop of the Brews Cruise, which makes me want to go on one

I think I killed any possibility of original George "the" Bastard material ever being published by Mountain Xpress, though I did see Ashevegas in the flesh, really I did

In my next life I will be Short Street Cakes fork-boy

If I do a double act, it will be George "the" Bastard and Carlos "the" Mexican

Matt Howard goes into a robotic trance if you ask him when his show is on and reels off a promo. He will then go straight back into interviewer mode

I don't know if Edgy Mama was trying to get in to or out of that t-shirt, but she succeeded

BlogAsheville 2008 Award Winners

Slowly, friends. Slowly. The echoes of that party are going to reverberate between my ears for a long time. I'm sure all you bloggers will be linking your party wrapups in the comments, so I'm just going to leave you with the results. Congrats to all the winners.


Best Craft Blog
Crankypants


Most Likely To Make Money By Blogging
My Life In Cake


Least Likely to Make Money By Blogging
So Much For Tact


Blogger I'd Most Like to Have a Beer With
My Life In Cake


Least Likely to Care About Traffic
Hillbilly White Trash


Most Likely to Make You Laugh Out Loud
The Hangover Journals


Best Art/Photos
Zenography



Best Food Blog
My Life In Cake


Blogger You'd Most Like To See Naked
A Girl Who Wears Glasses


Biggest Slacker - TIE
So Much For Tact and UNC Student


Best Design
Scrutiny Hooligans


Best Local Happenings
Ashvegas


Best Political
Scrutiny Hooligans


Best Blog Beginning With the Word "The"
The Hangover Journals


Makes Me Feel Happiest
My Life In Cake


Most Inspirational
Beyond Meds


Most In Need Of a Redesign
Thunder Pig


Most Likely To Have New Material
Ashvegas


Best New Blog
A Husband Wanted


Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
Kelby Carr


Best Writing
Edgy Mama


Best Overall
Ashvegas

Uptown Edit: added mini-buttons to the award post. Award winners you can find larger size pictures of these sidebar buttons at Jennifer Saylor's Flickr page! Btw, please welcome Saylor, the newest member of the BlogAsheville Admin team.

'Twas The Night Before...

Oh Lordy, it's finally here! Extravablogiversapaloozathon 2008, the third annual revelation of the blogtastic talent in and around our mountain metropolis. In 24 hours folks will begin to fill The Courtyard. AHOPE, a bastion of compassion and aid, will rake in the loot ($10 minimum suggested donation) to support their myriad programs helping the homeless. Bloggers of every shape and size, stripe and sizzle will drink to the health of our online community.

The votes for the BlogAsheville Awards have been tabulated and are securely locked in my messenger bag. Lots of surprises.

Remember if you won an award last year to bring a prize this year! If you won two awards, bring two prizes, etc.

We will also be raffling off some byootiful Day In The Life Of Asheville prints with the proceeds also going to AHOPE.

Here's hoping Petulant Rumblings wears another pair of striking shoes, Errington Thompson brings enough pens for everyone, Uptown Ruler can stay awake past dark, our farther flung rural bloggerati make the trip into town, and all of you noobs debut.

We'll have cold beer, hot coffee, and BYOB. We'll have foodstuffs from The Colorful Palate and Laurey's Catering. We'll have music from Tennessee Hollow, the If You Wannas, and DJ Swiftboat. We'll have VJing from Megan at the Media Arts Project. All of our sponsorin' peoples will be there to Blog Chere the magic.

But most importantly it'll be hot blogger on blogger action all night long. I'm looking forward to meeting so many of you. Bring your dancing shoes and your drinking legs, because it's going to be the bloggiest, bashiest festivus ever.

Updated Ecotrips

Hey y'all,

I was under the wrong impression regarding Ecotrips. While they're going to make a vehicle available to take folks home from the party, there will be a charge for your ride. Budget for anywhere between $3 for near downtown for $20 if you're way out on the far side of West Asheville.

I misunderstood what Ecotrips offered. This isn't a change on their part. By making the vehicles available, we can be sure city folks get a ride home. Plus they're kicking in a hundred bones towards the catering.

Anyway, they still love ya!

Voting Closes Tonight

Voting for the 2008 BlogAsheville Awards closes tonight at 11:59pm

Vote now or vote never.

Ecotrips Will Take You Home

If you've been wondering how you'll manage to drink your share of beer at the Extrava and still find your way home, know that Ecotrips has donated its services to pour you into your driveway at the end of the night. In addition to having donated $100 towards food from The Colorful Palate, Ecotrips will be running people home if they live within a couple of miles of downtown, so take the City Bus to the party safe in the knowledge that you'll have an excellent Ecotrips ride home. (Don't worry if you live further out, we'll have plenty of fun taxi info for you, too) Here's more about Ecotrips from Extravasponsor, Russell Keith:

"I would like to introduce to you an innovative business concept that I have launched in our beloved City of Asheville. Ecotrips is an emission-free, electric shuttle service for the downtown area of Asheville. We have two cars in operation offering an environmentally-friendly alternative transportation. The nature of the cars allow passengers to feel less separated from the ambience of our friendly city.

The environmentally friendly nature of the business should help spotlight Asheville as a city of progressiveness and social conscience. I intend to work actively in the business community to promote the overall economic health of the area.

Hoping to introduce myself to you, I'm also seeking your ideas, your endorsement, and your support of this endeavor."

Ecotrips loves you, BlogAsheville. Love them back.

Extravatransportation

Hey everyone, just a reminder that Ecotrips will be shuttling folks home from the Extrava this weekend. If you live within about two miles of city center, they can get you home. Think West Asheville as far as Lucky Otter, North Asheville as far as UNCA, South Asheville as far as I-240, and East Asheville as far as the mall. Take the bus downtown (or whatever) secure in the knowledge that you'll be gliding in electric style later.

Voting closes on Thursday

Only a few more days left to vote in the BlogAsheville Awards. Go check out the nominees, then go vote. Or just go vote, but you'll feel the same way you did at your polling place in May when you realized there was an election for Commissioner of Insurance. Voting closes Thursday at 11:59pm.

If you haven't mentioned the voting at your blogs, please drop the Awards some love. At last check, we've had 521 different people voting. Amazing!

In Case You Hadn't Heard

Detail from "View of Asheville, North Carolina, 1850"
by Robert Scott Duncanson

This year's festivities will take place in the Courtyard between Lexington Ave. and Carolina Lane behind Top Floor Studios. The party starts this coming Saturday at 6PM with the Awards beginning at 8PM sharp. The event will be a fundraiser for the outstanding AHOPE, which provides services for the homeless here in Asheville. BlogAsheville is requesting a donation of $10 per person but we hope that those who are able, will give generously. We look forward to seeing you there.

Extravablogisponsor - Short Street Cakes

One of our Extravablogiversapaloozathon sponsors is a twice-nominated blogger. My Life In Cake is nominated for "Best Food" and "Most Likely to Make Money". Jodi bakes the most delicious goodies and is going to rock dessert for the entire party. She writes:

"Short Street Cakes is a local, mama-owned Asheville cakery specializing in lovingly hand-crafted, all-natural, Southern-style cupcakes, celebration cakes and wedding cakes. Short Street Cakes is a proud member of the BlogAsheville community, through owner Jodi Rhoden's love of blogging about her cakey exploits at My Life in Cake. Short Street Cakes supports BlogAsheville and the spirit of art, craft, local economy and community it fosters, and are proud to be providing the cakey goodness for the 3rd annual BlogAsheville Extravablogiverseapaloozathon!"

Blogger hooking it up!

VOTE IN THE 2008 BLOGASHEVILLE AWARDS!!

Sparkdog - Better Findability and Food!

There are eleven different local businesses who came forward to sponsor our Extrava this year. Between now and party day, I'll be posting messages from them. Check out their sites and services. They love you.

"Thanks, Gordon, for the invitation to write about sponsoring the Extravablogiversapaloozathon! After reading about the event here on Blog Asheville, I thought, wow, I'd love to sponsor that.

I run Sparkdog Better Findability, a local web marketing agency. My firm helps small and medium sized businesses dominate their markets by getting more out of their web sites. I use the recently coined term "findability" to describe what we do. Findability means helping people find your web site, helping them get what they want on your site, and helping them return again and again. I like the term. It goes deeper than phrases commonly used by the business owners I speak with, who often talk about web design and search engine optimization. Our services amount to a long range marketing plan for the web and they include things like search engine optimization, link building, web statistics analysis, conversion rate optimization and careful attention to return on investment.

But really we solve problems with the same tools bloggers use - an active mind, good words, and the Internet. In that way I consider bloggers to be kindred spirits, communicators who place a little piece of themselves out there in an effort to make the world just a little bit better, one post at a time.

Thank you, Asheville bloggers, for that effort and best wishes in all your endeavors.

I also thought it would be cool to give something away to help Asheville bloggers. I wrote a checklist for blog SEO in the hope that it can help each of you meet your personal goals for your blogs. Click here, on blog search engine optimization checklist, and download your copy."

Clark Mackey
Owner
Sparkdog Better Findability"

Seriously, check out the checklist that Clark made. It WILL increase your traffic. Not that you care about traffic or anything. Clark donated $250 towards food for the party.

A Word From Our Sponsors

There are eleven different local businesses who came forward to sponsor our Extrava this year. Between now and party day, I'll be posting messages from them. Check out their sites and services. They love you.

"The Asheville blogging community is the voice of our community - a voice that represents fresh ideas and solutions for our community's improvement. InsideDesign is supporting the blogging community through events like Extravablogiversapaloozathon and providing expert web design services to up-and-coming bloggers. If you want to be a part of this voice, we're here to help.

Learn More at www.insidedesign.info"

The above was written by sponsor Eric Sopp - He's getting us two kegs of Highlands for the party.

Voting For 2008 BlogAsheville Awards is Open!

You've seen the nominees. You've emailed me to ask when the hell I'd get the voting up. Now it's time to cast your ballot for the superlative bloggers of BlogAsheville in our annual awards.

Ty Hallock over at Top Floor Studios has put together a nifty voting mechanism for us. All you do is click the link, cast your votes, enter your email address, and wa-la. Get it right the first time, because there's no going back. You may want to review the nominees before you click over.

To ensure the integrity of the voting, I'll be able to see IP addresses and emails for each voter. I won't share any of this information with anyone - unless someone is redonkulous enough to try to stuff the ballot box. Then I'll trumpet it from the damn mountaintops.

Please cross-post the voting link on all of your blogs.

Good luck everyone, and get to voting!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE 2008 BLOGASHEVILLE AWARDS

BlogAsheville Awards Nominations

We'll open the BlogAsheville awards voting sometime next week. Have a look at the blogs that y'all thought were the creamiest of the crop for 2008.

For last year's winners click here. For 2006 winners click here. Remember that if you won an award last year, bring a prize to the Extrava for award winners this year.

Best Craft Blog
Jennifer Saylor
Crankypants
Crocheting in Asheville
Quiltbaby
Stitch'n'Bitch
Kyle Carpenter
All Knit and No Sheep

Most Likely to Make Money by Blogging
Trapdoor into Dinosaur Pit
Ashvegas
Scrutiny Hooligans
My Life In Cake
Where's The Outrage?
Edgy Mama
Don Mak (formerly Makoviney)

Least Likely to Make Money by Blogging
Arratik
So Much For Tact
A Girl Named Boo
Modern Peasant
Nice Marmot

Blogger I'd Most Like to Have a Beer With
Zenscription/Zenography
Gordon at Scrutiny Hooligans
Asheville Beer Blog
Easy Bake Coven
What the Hell?
Stoplight Haiku

Least Likely to Care About Traffic
So Much For Tact
Moonmeadow Farm
GIS Memories
Stoplight Haiku
Zenscription
Hillbilly White Trash

Most Likely to Make You Laugh Out Loud
The Hangover Journals
So Much For Tact
George "The" Bastard
Ephemera
Edgy Mama

Best Art/Photos
Day in the Life of Asheville
Through the Fears
Zenography
Aaron Tucker
Ashvegas
A Dark Topography
Lowell Allen's Serial Photo
Blue Ridge Dreams

Best Food
Running Gags
Christine Kane
She Who Eats
My Life In Cake

Blogger you'd most like to see naked
Jason Bugg of So Much For Tact
Charm of the Highway Strip
Thunder Pig
Gordon Smith of Scrutiny Hooligans
Shad Marsh of Nice Marmot
A Girl Who Wears Glasses

Biggest Slacker
UNC Student
BlogAsheville Admin
Jason Bugg of So Much For Tact
Mountain Circus Arts... Blog
stupidmommy
Domestic Bliss

Best Design
SkippyHaHa
Scrutiny Hooligans
Easy Bake Coven
Ashvegas
Liminal Screeds
Quilt Baby
Outside Clyde

Best Local Happenings
Ashvegas
So Much For Tact
Asheville On The Ground
My Weaverville
BlogAsheville

Best Political
Scrutiny Hooligans
So Much For Tact
Bothwell's Blog
Randallt
Asheville On The Ground

Best Blog Beginning with the word "The"
The Avant Garden
The Ashevillein
The Hangover Journals

Makes Me Feel Happiest
Revenge of the Word Nerd (formerly Virtual Inanity)
So Much For Tact
A Year in Asheville
Christine Kane
Heartsprout
Scrutiny Hooligans
A Girl Named Boo
Petulant Rumblings
Zenscription

Most Inspirational
Beyond Meds (formerly Bipolar Blast)
Randallt
BlogAsheville
Scrutiny Hooligans
Zenography
George "The" Bastard
Stoplight Haiku
Outside Clyde

Most in Need of a Redesign
BlogAsheville
Randallt
So Much For Tact
Josh Rosenberg
Call Me Lightning
Thunder Pig
The Hangover Journals

Most Likely to Have New Material
Ashvegas
So Much For Tact
A Girl Who Wears Glasses
Scrutiny Hooligans

Best New Blog (created in the last 12 months)
Husband Wanted
Ami's Anecdotes
Barefoot Mama
A Year in Asheville
Crocheting in Asheville
A Dark Topography
Recovering Iowan
Hendersonville Epicurean
Reduce Footprints
Ami's Anecdotes
City Pfarm Girl
Kid Friendly Asheville
Distort The Info

Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
Asheville Beer Blog
So Much For Tact
Mountain Mama
The Hangover Journals
Ptak Science Books
Jennifer Saylor
Arratik
Recovering Iowan
Reduce Footprints
eatbees blog
Outside Clyde
Kelby Carr
Distort The Info

Best Writing
Edgy Mama
Charm of the Highway Strip
Blue Ridge Blue Collar Girl
Jennifer Saylor
Mountain Mama
So Much For Tact
Ephemera
The Asheville Dilettante
1000 Black Lines
The Hangover Journals
Outside Clyde
Distort The Info

Best Overall
Ashvegas
So Much For Tact
The Hangover Journals
Jennifer Saylor
The Asheville Dilettante
Scrutiny Hooligans
Outside Clyde
Distort The Info

Oh Yeah, It's Coming

Project Connect

Homelessness in Asheville is an ongoing problem, but there are a great number of service providers doing their level best to help. As part of BlogAsheville's Extravablogiversapaloozathon benefit for AHOPE, a Homeward Bound program, I'm spreading the word about an important event this Friday. Amy Sawyer, the City of Asheville's Homelessness Initiative Director, asked me to let folks know that they are still seeking volunteers for this Friday's Project Connect.

AC-T:

The third annual Project Connect, an event to link homeless people with resources, is set for Friday at the First Baptist Church, 5 Oak St. The event begins at 8:30 a.m. with a short ceremony and runs until 2 p.m.

The homeless or anyone at risk of homelessness is welcome to attend. More than 40 service providers will be on hand to offer housing referrals, mental-health service referrals, health-care referrals, legal support and disability services.

Volunteers for this event don't have to have any experience working with homeless people. They'll have coordinators to guide them. If you've been looking for a non-political way to help your fellow Americans, this is a great way to do so

Amy Sawyer

Office: (828) 259-5851

Email: asawyer@ashevillenc.gov

{c/p @ ScruHoo}

Last Chance to Nominate Your Faves

Nominations for the BlogAsheville Awards close on Friday at 1:34pm

Click here to add your nominations to the list, and thanks to all of you who have either left your picks in the comment thread there or emailed them to me.

Click here to check out the Extravablogiversapaloozathon Announcement.

Click here to RSVP for the big party.

Myths Vs. Facts on Homelessness in Asheville

Since this year's Extravablogiversapaloozathon is also a benefit for AHOPE - the Homeward Bound homeless shelter/program here in town, I'll be dropping y'all some tasty bites about the homelessness problem and what folks in Asheville are doing about it. This clip comes from Amy Sawyer, Director of the Homelessness Initiative for the City of Asheville.

Perception vs. Reality

Homeless people not only suffer from the hardship of their condition, but also must deal with the alienation and discrimination brought about by the myths and stereotypes about homelessness. What follows are some of the myths and the realities about homelessness.

Myth: Homeless people are a fixed population who are usually homeless for long periods of time.

Fact: The homeless population is quite diverse relative to their length of homelessness and the number of times they cycle in and out of homelessness. Research  indicates that 40% of homeless people have been homeless less than six months, and that 70% of homeless people have been homeless less than two years.

Myth: Homeless people are mostly single men.

Fact: Families constitute a large and growing percentage of the homeless population. A recent study found that families comprise 38% of the urban homeless population. Other research has found that homeless families comprise the majority of homeless people in rural areas.

Myth: Homeless people don't work and get most of their money from public assistance programs.

Fact: Many homeless people are among the working poor, and a relatively small percentage of them receive government assistance. A nationwide study in 1987 found that only 20% of 1,704 homeless people received public assistance. A study done in Chicago found that 39% of the homeless people interviewed had worked for some time during the previous month.

Myth: They're to blame for being homeless.

Fact: Most homeless people are victims. Some have suffered from child abuse or violence. Nearly one quarter are children. Many have lost their jobs.

Myth: They are dangerous and they break the law.

Fact: In general, the homeless are among the least threatening group in our society and are more likely to be victims of crime. Although they are more likely to commit non-violent and non-destructive crimes, they are less likely to commit crimes against person or property.

Myth: Charitable groups will take care of the homeless.

Fact: The growth of homelessness has far exceeded the capacity of charitable groups. Homelessness is a societal problem that requires a partnership between private charities and the government, with active public support.

Count Me In

It's that time again kids! So, do your do, pull out your finery and come on out for our biggest, brashest, bawdiest, blogfest yet. Click comment(s) below and let us know that you and yours plan to join with the rest of the ultra-creative local blogarati as we rock the Appalachians.

It has been brought to my attention that while creating graphics and promotional materials over the past three years supporting BlogAsheville's annual extravablogiversapaloozathon, that I have used two different spellings for the name of the event. While it's true that some of the ads use the more traditional blogi and others use the bloga alternate, this is simply representative of the evolving nature of language. According to the most recent complete Oxford English Dictionary, extravablogiversaloozathon was indeed the original spelling but extravablogaversapaloozathon came into common usage at nearly the same time and is listed as a common and perfectly acceptable alternate spelling. So there!