Next session of free classes at Clockworks

August 24th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

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 »

Who you callin’ a broad, Downtown Grocery?!

August 23rd, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

I don’t know about you, but when I’m sick as a dog I strap my baby in a stroller and wander deliriously through downtown Salem.

I get it in my head that I need to drop $25 on hardback literary fiction RIGHT NOW and I set about looking for a copy of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad, hailed in numerous reviews as the best rock novel ever written.

(No dice).

Then I spend the whole afternoon poking around Salem stores as my temperature rockets to 102 degrees and discover some secret slices of Salem that I was often too harried, too distracted, or too busy, to notice.

Discovery number one: Downtown Grocery.

New to you? No. It’s been around since early May, when it opened to much small-town state capital fanfare — read: a few blog posts, a Statesman Journal article, and a rush of murmur that heralded it as the Thing Downtown Has Been Missing.

I don’t know about that.

What I do know is that the Downtown Grocery carries some awesome middle-eastern and European products and offers the kind of other-world-in-your-own-backyard shopping experience that I haven’t really had since I was living on Mt. Pleasant Street in the El Salvadorean district of our nation’s capital.

If you are one of those people that can’t recognize a cardamom seed pod by its face, then you are in luck. The staff at Downtown Grocery can help you sort your spices in a way that is oh-so-satisfying for the home cook with a curious streak.

I’ve heard from friends who are obssessed with the store’s sandwich counter — and its gooey, layered baklava — but have yet to hear from anyone who goes out of their way to buy some of the other packaged, processed stuff that lines the aisles.

Unless you’re talking about fava beans.

If you read this blog, you know that I’ve become wildly enamored of these little green guys after first working with them in California last year and then discovering at my produce paradise at E.Z. Orchards.

Sadly, favas don’t last forevah.

But now I have something akin to that in the canned broad beans (you cheeky Brits!) available for purchase at downtown grocery. No, they don’t have that fresh, green, plucked from the Matrix snap that fresh favas have. But creamed together with some tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon, it makes a nice hummus.

Don’t forget that you still need to remove the fava bean from the pod before blending!

This one’s for you, Amber. Now you can eat your favas without thinking about Anthony Hopkins.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has been supporting DSS’s advertisers this month. We have raised $75 so far to help feed hungry kids. And the month’s not yet over!

Posted in Food, Shopping | 7 Comments »

DSS teaming up with Marion-Polk Foodshare

August 19th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor


Before I had my baby boy late last year, I was a regular at the Table of Plenty, a Marion-Polk Foodshare distribution site in south Salem.

Once a month, I was helping the site’s customers navigate the system by serving as a personal shopper.

Sadly, I can’t get down there anymore. My son’s schedule and his own mess calls prohibit me from the 4-7 p.m. shift.

But hunger is an issue that is near to my heart. And hungry children? I can tell you that if you saw the faces of the families at Table of Plenty you’d wish you could do something, too.

Well, now we both can.

You might have noticed that I started taking ads on this blog last week.

I know my readers — a few hundred a day at last count! — care about Salem. And so, I will be donating the proceeds from all of the advertising from this blog to the Marion-Polk Foodshare for this entire month.

You Can also Show Your Face Downtown September 1

Hungry kids have trouble learning.

On First Wednesday, September 1, Go Downtown Salem and the Salem Assistance League are sponsoring a big back-to-school celebration during which they will be collecting school supplies, giving out information, and supplying other resources to Salem-Keizer students.

Because hungry children often have a very difficult time at school (learning problems, behavioral problems, health issues) Women Ending Hunger and Marion-Polk Food Share would like to call attention to the fact that we have a huge number of children who are probably going to school hungry by creating a visual image for the community of just what that number looks like.

The two groups are asking all friends and supporters of the fight to end hunger to join us in what they are calling a FOOD FOR THOUGHT STAND-IN:  a long, long line of volunteers holding empty plates from the steps of the State Capitol through eight blocks of downtown Salem, from 5:00 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday, September 1.

They estimate that they will need a minimum of 370 people to cover the distance, each representing 100 children — but they welcome many more.

Join us — for info contact Kat at the Foodshare at 503.581.3855 x322.

Posted in Food, There's something about Salem | 2 Comments »

Spice girl

August 18th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor


I’m a terrible wife. No, an awful wife. No, the worst wife ever.

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and all my husband got was this stinking blog post (late at that).

In the meantime, what did he gift me but the spice rack that I’ve been wanting for about 10 years. (And you thought the fourth anniversary was fruits and flowers…)

Still bowling me over with his handiwork and vision after all these years, he created this under-the-cabinet spice rack using all of the old Earth’s Best baby food jars that I’ve been accumulating the past few months.

How will I ever tell our baby that I chose his nutrition based on the lines and form of this baby brand jar? In this case, Gerber just wouldn’t do.

It’s everything I needed in my light-flooded, raspberry-Yoplait-colored Barbie dream kitchen. And it’s just like us: a little utilitarian, a little upcycled, a little parsimonious, a little homage to getting by farther on what we already have.

I will make it up to Adam. But this time, I’ll let him watch me creating his gift for two weeks so that his heart, too, may be stunned into a similar inaction.

He wouldn’t admit it to you, but this gift of love is really an attempt to impose his world order on me in my own space. Otherwise, my spices would be a tumbling circus family of marjoram and garlic salt in an already overflowing cabinet.

The other sneaky thing? More spices = more originality = more creativity = more food for him. That cheeky monkey!

And so, I’ve been working my way through Modern Vegetarian cookbook, which I’ve charitably given back to the Salem Public Library on time. And the process has forced me to find out where in this town of secret places and impossible-to-find products you find spices fit for my glorious rack.

Stay tuned for Desperately Seeking Spices!

Posted in Food, Shopping, Uncommon gifts | 13 Comments »

Salem creatives turning it up

August 16th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

This has been the summer of many things. A summer of coconut ice cream obsessions. A summer of day’s without dishes (my favorite). A summer of creative production despite all of the distractions.

I’m seeing it all over town and in my conversations with Salem’s creative folk.

Salem’s very own Stephanie Lenox, poet and new mama has put together the brand-new issue of Blood Orange Review, a highly respected online literary journal, in-between her darling baby’s naps and working for A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village. It includes, among other strange, curious and beautiful things, an essay on roadkill that is something like a piece I once wrote after trailing around with the dude who picks it off Iowa highways for a living.

Hey, just cause I’m a mama doesn’t mean I can’t be interested in roadkill.

There is also a sweet poem about bees.

Will Bragg, all-around man-about-town these days, has opened up a downtown studio. He’s been photographing the people who work around him. Sure, this might seem like a routine and ordinary project, but look at this gorgeous woman who owns Glance Glasses! Hair, commence greyness!

All kinds of jealous of his recent photo shoot with Grand Duchy, Frank Black’s new project (you’ll remember they played their first show here in April of 2009).

Congrats to Will, for getting what all of us want. You know, a room of our own.

Jessica Ramey of Northwest Nest, a hero to mothers all who aspire to raise their kids and create their art at the same time (the impossibility of achieving flow — ask me about it sometime), launched a Salem Zine project that you may have heard about here, and here.

One quibble about the article about Jessica. She’s not one woman behind the trend in Salem. In this case, she IS the trend.

You can download her Salem zine here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pooped from having just typed what other people are doing. But what about you? Have you managed to create something glorious in the scant idle hours of summer?

Posted in Books, Capital Shots, Celebrities, You are what you read | 6 Comments »

Local media start-ups and the power of print

August 14th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

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 »

Good news for the movement against Keep Salem Lame

August 12th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

This is a page I ripped from a recent issue of the phenomenally compelling GOOD magazine, which is quickly becoming my go-to place for all things urban and green (I’ve got the green thing down, it’s the urban I am missing…)

Keep Salem Lame? More like: Keep San Antonio Lame! That city even has a Facebook group devoting to all things lame in San Antonio.

What does Salem have?

It doesn’t even have credit to the phrase. That’s good news, since the city’s perceived lameness has clearly not transcended the state’s borders.

What should we Keep Salem?

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Salem’s Tea Party Bookshop now Tigress Books

August 10th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

In my previous life, I studied the book market — so it’s been thrilling and fascinating to watch JoAnne Kohler build an independent bookstore here in Salem from the ground up.

And at a time when indie bookstores are out like the gout!

She’s taken a downtown space and made it a cultural center of sorts for Salem progressives, and has ensured that we always have a physical space to turn to when we need a meticulously stocked, hand-curated selection of contemporary fiction.

Ms. Kohler knows her stuff. She used to work for Borders, and was recommending The Help long before the mainstream media caught on.

But she ran into a stumbling block when the name of her bookstore, Tea Party Bookshop, became synonymous with — wait for it! — the exact opposite ideology her store generally supports (it has a New Age section as well as a large selection of Green books).

Um… time to rebrand!

Ms. Kohler stuck it out and braved the readers looking for Glenn Beck tomes for a while, but has decided to rename her store Tigress Books: Wildly Independent! Her new logo is out and replaces the previous one, which featured a clipper ship intended to invoke the spirit of American independence (and buying locally).

So don’t throw out your tea, cuddle up with a tiger.

Or read some Anais Nin.

Roar!

Posted in Books | No Comments »

Salem’s SEO expert is still my top Tweep

August 9th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

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

August 8th, 2010 by Emily Grosvenor

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 »

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