Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

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Top Ten Salem newsletters you’re not getting

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

I’m kind of a newsletter junkie, but I’ve noticed that if your newsletter sucks, it just gets deleted. Here are some local ones that always get read.

Salem Cinema: Loretta’s nostalgic-looking, gentle reminder of the power of cinema is a noteworthy heads-up about the latest must-see independent films.

Tigress Books: JoAnne Kohler sometimes breaks national news with her occasional e-newsletters about happenings at her downtown shop. Her notes to her customers are frank and lovely in a way that rarely gets used in the form. Roar!

Minto Island Growers: An always satisfying menage of home recipes, insider’s info about the farm and cultural-historical information about the great stuff in their CSA baskets, the Minto Island Growers newsletter, put together by Elizabeth Miller, is a must-read for home cooks with a love of the local.

E.Z. Orchards: The farm stand newsletter is mostly product updates about what’s available at the farm’s darling store on Hazel Green and Cordon roads. But who doesn’t need a little gentle nudge to be reminded of a MIXED BERRY SHORTCAKE BIGGER THAN YOUR BABY’s HEAD.

The Salem Public Library: Sonja Somerville puts together a fantastic, multi-page pdf newsletter of events at our local library. She might illuminate the best DIY car repair books in the library’s collection or remind you about the almost daily book-related happenings there. Adult story time? Snuggle up!

Life Source Natural Foods: Don’t just eat food. Meet the people who make it! Or learn about one person’s journey through a gluten-free diet! It’s a little text-heavy, but if you’re a reader and you like food connections, check it out.

Salem Breakfast on Bikes: Exclamations! Shout it out! The man behind Breakfast on Bikes has excitement for the the lifestyle practice of biking that just bleeds off the screen. Even better? He uses ample links to make sure we will never lose our way to the Monster Cookie. Sign up by contacting: Salembikes [at] gmail.com

A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village: Quite possibly the best laid-out e-newsletter in town (color is not just for kids!), A.C. Gilbert’s flagship news vehicle is an inspiration to keep facilitating those experiences for your children. Get out of the house!

Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center: Proof every time that a city like Salem has a lot of country to explore and learn about.

Friends of Salem Saturday Market: The sheer bulk of this immensely readable newsletter is a testament to the huge and positive role the market has in this community. Also, a heads up about visiting baby goats.

Ok, so I know that mine lean heavily towards food news.

What ones have I missed?

Posted in Books, Media, New slogans for old products, Shopping, These are the people in my neighborhood, Uncategorized, Uncommon gifts | 6 Comments »

Abundant Life owners murdered

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

You may have heard that the Jondles, owners of Abundant Life Farms, were found murdered last night.

I first met the Jondles last fall when I was interested in learning about how to slaughter a chicken by hand. They also made frequent trips to Salem to sell their farm-raised, organic free-range chickens from the back of a truck.

In an age when many farmers are reluctant to allow journalists entry into their businesses for fear of media looking to expose their farming practices, they were generous, open and kind. At least in terms of their operations, they knew they had nothing to hide.

Living Culture’s Nate Rafn spent a lot of time learning about their farming practices and documented them for his show Living Culture.

From my visit, I  remember being amazed at the happy chatter of the family as it processed the chickens.

As more details of of Scott and Marilyn’s murder become public, as more people comment on the S-J website with their judgments and their hypotheses and their snarky asides, as more people think, with each new revelation that they understand more of what happened, I am reminded:

Every family is a secret world unto itself.  Every man is an abyss where you can’t see the bottom.

Posted in Media | 8 Comments »

Desperately Speaking Salem

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Come see me at the Salem Chamber of Commerce Wed. September 1 for my first public talk about blogging.

This event is hosted by the Oregon Chapter of PRSA and is geared towards public relations professionals, but it is also open to the public:

Hopefully this Emily:  Angry shot will confuse you and you won’t read this post as flagrant self-promotion… Should be a great discussion, and I’ll leave the Hulk hands at home.

Here is the official invite:

Capital Chapter members and friends: It’s time to gather the pack.

We’re back for fall with our Wednesday, Sept. 1 luncheon program at the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. Sign-up details at end.

We’re excited to introduce you to Emily Grosvenor who writes the “Desperately Seeking Salem” blog and teaches magazine writing.

TOPIC: Harnessing Authenticity: Reaching out to bloggers in an age of fractured media

Blogs hold great promise — both as a way to generate conversations in communities and as a means for communicators to spread their messages. Join us for a talk about the power of blogs and for a primer on how to navigate the tricky relationship between public relations professionals and bloggers, especially local ones.

Bio: Before moving to the Willamette Valley, magazine writer Emily Grosvenor worked as a public relations specialist for the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, D.C., studied in Germany as a Fulbright scholar of book publishing, and earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa. She keeps an award-winning, hyper-local personal blog called Desperately Seeking Salem and teaches magazine writing at the University of Oregon.

Location: Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, 1110 Commercial St. NE (corner of Commercial and Market Streets NE) in Salem.

Cost:  Program and lunch $15 for PRSA members, $20 for non-members. Program only or student price (including lunch) is $10.

We accept PayPal! Transactions can be made from our Website, under “Events”:
http://www.oregoncapitalprsa.com/

RSVP by Monday, Aug. 30, to this email. spriem@hotmail.com, with your name and title for our roster; or please call your RSVP to at 503-365-8416.

Chapter site: http://www.oregoncapitalprsa.com/

Posted in Media | No Comments »

Best of the Salem blogs, August 2010

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Sometimes, other people get there faster. They do it quicker. They say it better.

So I’m starting a new feature on DSS. Once a month, I’ll feature the best of the Salem blogs.

The BEST:

1. LOVESalem.

That’s the thought I had while reading LoveSalem’s recent post on backyard chickens. If you’ve been consuming news media, you know half a billion industrially-produced eggs have been recalled this month after an alarming salmonella outbreak. What hasn’t been reported as frequently is that controlling the environment that your own chickens live in can significantly reduce the risk of your eggs being infected with the salmonella bacteria.

If you’ve been out of the loop on Salem’s backyard chicken debate, you should know that the issue will be discussed at its own public hearing on September 20.  Don’t be an egghead. This isn’t some twee agri-fad that has temporarily captured the heart of Depression 2.0 urban homesteaders. If you believe in controlling the safety of your own food, be there.

2. Poetry and Popular Culture.

Local poet Mike Chasar has illuminated, in a simple blog post, the things that I love about Oregon. Here, everyone is an artist/barista/biker/rock-climber/inventor/farmer/mom. Or, in this case, a biking viking/master baker/ physicist. Full disclosure: I know the Biking Viking. My husband gave him his nickname. But I think we can all agree that there is nothing hotter than split personalities of talented Oregonians. I think we must drive ourselves crazy with all of our separate passions, but personally, I don’t know any other way to live.

3. Capital Taps.

Zombies. Monks. Beer. Enough said.

4. Farmer Brewing. (not actually a Salem blog…)

This blog posed the questions that has been on everybody’s mind since Gilgamesh Brewing announced plans for Salem’s — shock and awe! — first beer and cider festival of its own (and you thought what everybody wanted was a room…).  Yes… it is by now a running gag of a meme that has attached itself to Salem. Is Salem really ready for a [insert already trendy event/product/place here]? In this case, the answer is yes, by biblical proportions.

5. EatSalem.

Screw you all. I have tried to find this godforsaken waffle stand on three separate occasions in the past week. Sell me a freakin’ waffle! From the picture, it sure doesn’t look like it’s hiding in plain view. But I have yet to dip my lips in the hot pockets of these waffles, despite following this waffle stand on Twitter and setting out with it as my destination. Waffle stand, please take your cues from Woody Allen and keep showing up.

Posted in Celebrities, Food, Media, There's something about Salem | 5 Comments »

Next session of free classes at Clockworks

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Clockworks has announced its next session of free classes, including my Blogging Basics class. UPDATE! You can read the full description of classes right here: c4 September class program for web.

This class has been generating some nice discussions about the blogging form, which I’ve been happy to recount, naturally, here on this blog. It’s also been a great way to meet some already and would-be bloggers here in town.

Here are my lessons learned from the first free class (the diplomatic dance of digital capture) and the second free class (the problem with anonymity).

If you  have been to this class before, don’t bother coming unless, like Rob McGuire, you are attending to lend your vast expertise and participate in the discussion. Be forewarned, though that the presentation will be the same (with minor variations of nervousness and stuttering).

Here is some info about the class. Pop me an email at emilygrosvenor [at] gmail.com if you have any questions.

We’ll be meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday September 27. Mark your calendars! It’s open enrollment and the class has been full every time, so get there early for a good seat!

I’d also like to give a shout out to Ms. K. Williams Brown, who is giving a class on Southern Charm and Manners on Wed. September 1. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating one of Ms. Brown’s pimento cheese sandwiches, you’d know that charm is something well worth cultivating in your free time — and learning from the master.

I’m also kind of fascinated by “Writing for the Soul,” “Vegan Cooking,” and the “Be Sweet Project.” I have no idea what that means, but I try to be sweet every day and usually end up being sweet and sour, so anything that can help me strike the right balance must be good.

Here’s the full roster of classes:

Mon.  Aug 30 – 6pm – Writing For The Soul – Marcella Swatzendruber
Mon. Aug 30 – 7pm – Intro to Financial Planning – Steven Goto
Tues. Aug 31 – 6pm – Beginning Zumba – Brittany Mcbee
Tues. Aug 31 – 7pm – Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques – Randy Hartley
Tues. Aug 31 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lesson – First Half
Wed. Sept 1 – 6pm – Fitness for Everyone – Andy Bolliger
Wed Sept 1 – 7pm – Southern Charm & Manners – Kelly Williams Brown
Thurs. Sept 2 – 6pm – Intro to Balloon Sculpting – Tom White
Thurs. Sept 2 – 7pm – Beginning Yoga – Mary Collins
Thurs. Sept 2 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lesson -  Second Half

Tues. Sept 7 – 6pm – Intro to Home Gardening – Megan Crandall
Tues. Sept 7 – 7pm – Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques – Randy Hartley
Tues. Sept 7 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lesson – First Half
Wed. Sept 8 – 6pm – Artist Trading Cards: Make & Trade – Ronda Wymore
Wed. Sept 8 – 7pm – Vegan Cooking – Summer Keightley
Thurs. Sept 9 – 6pm –The Be Sweet Project– Austin Rowlader
Thurs. Sept 9 – 7pm –  How to Solve a Rubix Cube – Kelly Williams Brown
Thurs. Sept 9 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lesson – Second Half
Fri. Sept 10 – 6pm – Guitar Circle – Mandi Welch
Sat. Sept 11 – 2-5pm – Better Understanding Islam – Laurie Erikson

Mon. Sept 13 – 6pm – Intro to Financial Planning –Steven Goto
Mon. Sept 13 – 7pm – CranioSacral Therapy:  Migraines – Janette Warren
Tues. Sept 14 – 6pm – Basic Earrings – Alex Taylor
Tues . Sept 14 – 6pm – Beginning Zumba – Brittany Mcbee
Tues. Sept 14 – 7pm – Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques – Randy Hartley
Tues. Sept 14 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lesson – First Half
Wed. Sept 15 – 6pm – Fitness for Everyone – Andy Bolliger
Thurs. Sept 16 – 6pm – The Be Sweet Project – Austin Rowlader
Thurs. Sept 16 – 7pm – Beginning Yoga – Mary Collins
Thurs.  Sept 16 -  7pm – Thriller Dance Lesson – Second Half
Fri. Sept 17 – 6pm – Life Shifting – Troy Wenning
Sat. Sept 18 – 3pm – Shamanic Journeys – Leslie Grasa

Mon. Sept 20 – 6pm – Writing for the Soul – Marcella Swatzendruber
Mon. Sept 20 – 7pm – Grassroots Marketing in Salem – Ryan Rogers
Tues. Sept 21 – 6pm – Beginning Zumba – Brittany Mcbee
Tues. Sept 21 – 7pm – Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques – Randy Hartley
Tues. Sept 21 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lessons – Second Half
Wed. Sept 22 – 6pm – Artist Trading Cards: Make & Trade – Ronda Wymore
Wed. Sept 22 – 6pm – Music for Tots – Christy Hey
Thurs. Sept 23 – 6pm – Budget Event Planning – Dorri Wassom
Thurs. Sept 23 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lessons – First Half
Fri.  Sept 24 – 6pm – Guitar Circle – Mandi Welch
Sat. Sept 25 – 3-6pm – DIY Filmmaking – Jason Gould

Mon. Sept 27 – 6pm – Blogging Basics – Emily Grosvenor
Mon. Sept 27 – 7pm – CranioSacral Therapy: Pregnancy
Tues. Sept 28 – 6pm –  – Intro to Home Gardening – Megan Crandall
Tues. Sept 28 – 7pm – Fingerstyle Guitar Basics – Randy Hartley
Tues. Sept 28 – 7pm – Thriller Dance Lessons – Second Half
Wed. Sept 29 – 6pm – Fitness for Everyone – Andy Bolliger
Wed. Sept 29 – 7pm – Vegan Cooking – Summer Keightley
Thurs. Sept 30 – 7 pm – Thriller Dance Lesson – First Half
Thurs. Sept 30 – 7pm – How to Solve a Rubix Cube – Kelly Williams Brown
Thurs. Sept 30 – 7pm – Beginning Yoga – Mary Collins
Fri. Oct 1 – SPECIAL EVENT @ CLOCKWORKS!!!
Sat. Oct 2 – 3pm – DIY Kids Portrait Photography – Anati Neiffer

Posted in Celebrities, Media, These are the people in my neighborhood | 9 Comments »

Local media start-ups and the power of print

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

As I’ve said before in blogging class, we rarely get the media we want or deserve.

Blogging is, in part, a response to the fragmentation of our society and an atmosphere in which there are few exemplars of the journalistic craft around which we can rally collectively.

But I am a print junkie still.

I like the feel of newsprint in my fingers. I like the experience of stumbling upon content that doesn’t fit exactly with my worldview, and I like watching the dance of content creation that goes on in the editorial cycle of the print newsroom.

Print products dying? Well, some of them, yes. (Is not a  cruel irony that Gourmet is being revived as an app? That’s like LIFE being revived as a Twitpic!).

But the cruel reality of the national magazine industry hasn’t stopped enterprising local people like Salem’s Randy Hill from jumping into the fray.

Perhaps you have seen Mr. Hill’s new baby, Willamette Valley Life, around town. I first saw one about half a year ago at China Faith Restaurant (incidentally, my Korean friend Esther’s favorite Chinese place in Salem), but have run across it increasingly in my daily routine as distribution has gotten more defined.

WVL is looking for writers to create engaging seasonal lifestyle content about the valley, so if you’re like me, and you pride yourself on knowing what’s happening before it happens, give Mr. Hill a shout, info@willamettevalleylife.com.

As a mama who’s stuck at home a lot I’m excited about the prospect of having a regional print product that I can read digitally in the form that it appears in newsprint. It may not be paper in my fingertips, but I’m learning more and more as I engage with digital products that it is the format I respond to…

It’s a pretty ambitious project that WVL has taken on (check out that distribution map!) but I’ll be excited to see how it develops. The editorial has been improving already, as has the advertising based (I see Salem’s DeWolky shoe shop has come on board).

Good luck to them!

In other pressing media questions, just what is that distribution map telling us? Is it a green giant thumbing its nose at the coast? A verdant federalist sniffing at Astoria?

Posted in Media | 4 Comments »

Salem’s SEO expert is still my top Tweep

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Hey, how’ya doin’? You’re looking good! I’m looking the same? Well maybe…

Over a year ago I set out to discover the people in Salem who were being (passively)  ignored by the local media — people with followers, but who hadn’t yet registered on the local or regional radar.

This search culminated in a story I called “Salem’s Top Tweeps.” The grand poohbah of them all was Rob McGuire: web guru, search engine optimization, and all-around guy-in-the-know, who had 25,000 Twitter followers.

The thing about the Top Tweeps is that they were people making things happen, whose conversations on Twitter were — and still are — worth listening to.

Salem’s a small place, and I’ve gotten to know some of said Tweeps, including Rob, who has shown up at both of my free blogging classes at Clockworks Cafe and who has recently taken on a project that is near and dear to my heart: this blog.

The challenge? To find a way for me to take ads, though this is a WordPress blog, and WordPress greatly limits the capabilities of advertising.

For shame!

Say it ain’t so!

Oh no she Did-nn’ttt!

Hey, mama needs a new pair a shoes. And some fancy pants diapers in the next size up. And since I’ve been doing my freelance writing projects at home during the baby’s naps, and any blogging I do cuts into my “work” time, I need some major help in supporting the work behind this blog.

So yes, Rob has made it possible for me to take ads. But that’s only the beginning!

He slices! He dices! Look here for an explanation of why all of this is worth it in the end…

Rob McGuire has turned my blog into, as he says, “Greased Lightening.”

“Your blog is really damn snappy right now,” Rob told me this morning.

So here’s what he did, practically overnight,  in tech parlance. You might not be able to see any changes immediately to the content, but you don’t see with your eyes, you perceive with your mind (everything’s faster!).

  • Minimized, compressed and cached the code
  • Moved my site over to my own server
  • Made everything as small as possible to speed up load time for you FOR YOU!
  • Optimized images and other content for the web
  • Messed with the HT access files (yeah, I don’t know either…)

This is all part of a new package of services Rob is going to start offering his clients, who are mostly local and national business and people like me, who want to take their blogging to the next level.

Thank you, Rob.

If you’re ready to level up, I highly recommend him.

And thank you, dear reader, for indulging me in this chance to give a shout-out to a deserving friend.

Posted in Media | No Comments »

The Dude abides in Salem

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

The dude sitting next to me gets it.

He has watched The Big Lebowski 15-20 times already (his estimation) and is talking along with the movie, shouting out at the right parts, anticipating our audience cues, loving every minute of the first-ever live, interactive Big Lebowski movie spectacle.

I’m the gutter ball.  Taking a cult classic and experiencing it interactively can be fun, but for me, it’s a little awkward, since I have only seen this movie in snippets while it was playing at parties about ten years ago.

I can’t say I didn’t get the memo. When we arrived at High Street Cinema, we were handed a bag, a ticket with a rug on the back (stolen in the movie), and a handful of goodies and props to use at strategic points of the film.

  • Mustaches – to wear during any Sam Elliott scene
  • Badges – to wear when a police officer is in the shot
  • Sunglasses – to wear whenever the Dude is wearing them
  • A Rug Ticket – to hold up during the rug theft scene.
  • Bowling score cards – to hide behind and peek over during the Over the Line scene
  • Pretzels – to eat during the bar scene (yum! not enough!)
  • Bell – to ring when Walter throws the ringers from the car
  • Beaver picture – to throw into the air when Maude talks about movies
  • Leaf – to flick and dance with during the performance art scene
  • Larry’s homework – to shake during the Larry’s Living Room scene
  • Candy – to eat whenever

In all, a brilliant and inspired adventure. But I am always just a little behind –  a leaf late, a bowling score card short.

This, I think, is the challenge of taking something that is already out there in the culture (rabid fanboy obsession with The Big Lebowski) and taking it to the next step (mashing it up a la Rocky Horror Picture Show). There will always be curious people like me who go to a movie to watch a movie. The real experience starts when you have retained the kind of muscle memory necessary to interact with the film.

Throughout the movie, Culture Shock Community Project, who put on the event, had a crew of live actors performing the movie in the aisles and below the screen. I invite Ryan Rogers to explain in the comments section here how it is possible to find someone in Salem who:

1). looks like the Dude
2). has the Dude’s entire wardrobe

Word on the street is that this is just the first showing — and the first adaptation of an interactive film — to be launched in Salem. Next on the docket? The Princess Bride, which I have seen 20+ times and which I am actually in wuv with.

Wuv, twue wuv, fowever and ever…

Gotta start drop-kicking those R.O.U.S’s.

Posted in Media, Movies, There's something about Salem | 4 Comments »

Lessons learned from blogging class, vol. 2

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Every teacher will tell you that one of the boons of the profession is the vitality of the classroom.

You can have a real clunker of a class, with disinterested students and hours that feel like days, and then you can have a class that just bubbles with energy and enthusiasm.

The latter kind of class really sustains me. I leave them boiling over with might. (Then I go home and try to get to sleep when I really should have used that mojo to just keep working…)

I’ve had two of those mighty classes now at Clockworks Cafe, and that has everything to do with the excitement that people in this community have about blogging, whatever their current knowledge or abilities with the medium.

Our first free class there became an exercise in the limits pushed by the new journalism as we all struggled with the presence of one silent camera (thanks, David!).

This last one? Well, this one was all about what happens when you put your name behind what you say.

What does it mean to blog as a person and not as an anonymous entity?

One of the students in my class was interested in writing a blog to share her political views, since she had already accumulated quite a few readers of her opinions through the email list that she was serving. This student was intent on staying anonymous to protect herself from the evil whispers of her neighbors and her fellow Salemites.

My response? Don’t do it. If you can’t put your name behind what you say, then don’t say it in a forum that everybody in the world could possibly have access to (disregarding the digital divide).

I’ve paid the price for my comments in a very real way before. Months ago I made some snarky comments about the closing of the scrapbook store on Hawthorne Boulevard. I don’t hate scrapbooking per se, I just hate the idea that you have to buy a bunch of Leeza Gibbons junk to scrapbook. (For the record, I have three from my days living in Germany).

Then one day I was hanging out near the dessert case at Christo’s, holding my baby in a sling, when I was approached by a woman who pretty much told me off for being so mean.

“Those people lost their livelihood!” she said.

“It’s just an opinion,” I told her.

She was actually pretty nice about it. (Strangely, she thought she had read the comments in the local paper. That’s another lesson in blogging. If your site looks good, people might think you’re a legitimate news organization…).

But back to the idea of anonymity. What bothered me most about my student’s desire to go anonymous was her fear that her comments on her blog, if connected to her name, might affect her children and how they are received in Salem.

So my answer to her is this. If you want a blog to serve an audience of people who already know you and your opinion, sure, run an anonymous blog. But if you want a successful blog that engages people who don’t agree with you as well as the ones that do, readers who would likely refuse to have anything to do with text that might as well have been written by a random Internet troll (and this is most readers), then put your name where you mouth is.

And then be prepared to stick your foot in it.

Posted in Media, There's something about Salem | 17 Comments »

Next session of free classes at Clockworks

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Mark your calendars. Clockworks Cafe has put out its roster of classes (PDF) for its free summer session.

I’ve had a lot of interest in my blogging class — we’ll be doing the same intro to blogging at the cafe on July 12 at 6:00 p.m.

See you there!

Just to be clear, I won’t be there to walk you through the nitty gritty of working with WordPress or blogger. This class is all about engaging an audience and conceiving a successful blog project. If there is enough interest, I’ll likely be offering a four-week class on the same subject next fall (for a fee, of course).

Now that I’m done with self-promotion, time to rant. I’ve been hearing through some sources that some of these free classes have been woefully under-attended.

How under-attended?

Some classes have had zero people show up.

ZERO!

Now, you can look at this a few ways. You could blame the gorgeous sunny weather for enticing people to barbecues and late days at the pool with the kids. You could say you didn’t know — but then, if you’re reading this, you probably did. You could also guess that in the marketplace of ideas, not all of the classes are as in-demand as others.

Or, you could be as cynical and say, as we heard last night, “That place might actually be too cool to fly in Salem.”

So I’d like to suggest something. If there is something you want to learn — say, SEO, from Rob McGuire! — get in touch with the people at Clockworks and let them know where your interest lies. That way, the class offerings can be more market-driven and we can have a packed cultural center.

In other words, Blogging: Yes! Kazoos… maybe not?

Lots of expertise in Salem, but there’s no need to be an autodidact.

Posted in Media, There's something about Salem | 15 Comments »

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