Andi McDaniel wrote about PowderKeg Live! for The Line (a new online pub in the Mpls.St.Paul area).
Great story, with help from great photos by Bill Kelley. Geoff Herbach, Dave Salmela, and myself talk shop and try to act hipster by wearing 70s clothing and glasses.
PowderKeg Live! is on summer hiatus as Dave and fellow PowderKegger Jenny Adams are about to have a baby, and Geoff Herbach and I have been busy setting up a satellite shop in Mankato (Herbach begins teaching creative writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato, in the fall.)
But don't turn your radios off just yet, friends.
I'm working on ATA World—the magazine of the American Taekwondo Association—all summer. ATA is the largest martial arts organization in the U.S. It's devoted to strong, healthy families. (Hey! Me too!) I recently returned from Little Rock, Arkansas, where I was covering the World Championships and learning all about the organization. The pictures is me standing before the competition floor, where black belts ages seven to seventy competed for the title of World Champion in various divisions. Absolutely awesome.
One of the most dynamic things about ATA is the introduction of ATA-Xtreme and Creative events. These bring in elements of gymnastics to traditional martial arts. It's fantastic to watch, and requires extreme athleticism and confidence of body and mind to do. The kid who stars as The Last Airbender is a perfect example of what ATA is seeking with its Xtreme and Creative divisions. The star of that movie—Noah Ringer—is an ATA student. Hear/see him as a student of Taekwondo on ATA's YouTube Channel, MyATA.
ATA World magazine is not online, but actor/stuntman/martial artist Mike Moh has one of the recent covers and features in the "News" section of his website. (It features him!)
Arkansas is a beautiful city, btw. (Stay at the Peabody, and get a room on the river side, if you can, it's gorgeous!) And ATA World is a fabulous publication to work on. Strength, family, health, and mind:body:spirit connection—who can argue that? Especially if you've been taekwondo family ever since Master Chou Troung of Minnesota Family Taekwondo told your little boys it was okay to kick other people. (When wearing the proper equipment, of course.)
I recently reviewed the debut novel from Kira Henehan. Surreal, funny, weird. Not for everyone, but kinda for me, which was excellent. My opening: "Imagine that avant-garde minimalist Samuel Beckett and British experimentalist Jeanette Winterson had a baby, which was then raised by detective novelist Raymond Chandler and space-campy bombshell Barbarella." If you like that stuff, you'll like the book.
The title, if you haven't noticed, is a misread of the lyrics to "Mandy" by Barry Manilow. FYI, actual lyrics: Oh, Mandy/You Came and You Gave without Taking.
The book comes from independent Milkweed Press (it won the Milkweed National Prize for Fiction).
Milkweed is in my city ("ci-tay") of Minneapolis. Holla.
I'm gonna shout out about a New York Times mention. A travel story about Northeast Minneapolis? Believe it: It's right here, with our own PowderKeg Live! and Modern Café mentioned. Hey Big City—come on over and see us sometime. We'll fix you up a free brat, and make a nice show for you, too.
I've been working at Delta Sky again. This month, assigning and editing a feature package on Pittsburgh (in coordination with good people from Allegheny Conference on Community Development). Previously I've written higher education packages, such as the one on page 117 of this issue (the one with Melissa Etheridge on the cover), and done a little light copyediting.
Just delighted to be a part of such a wonderfully executed evening. Chris Koza and Rogue Valley were stellar, and (as this review points out) so was Larissa Anderson's production at the Fitzgerald Theater for 89.3 The Current.
Geoff Herbach and I wrote and performed a linked set of fictitious love letters detailing how our wanderlust has torn our charters' love apart. You can see us in the far corner, between the gorgeous Joanna James and the talented Sam Totten, keeping company with the hottest smarties in our city.
Photo by Ben Clark for the City Pages.
I'm a regular photographer this year at Powderhorn 365, a daily photographric documentary website devoted to capturing the Powderhorn neighborhood (where I live part-time). Catch my photos there every Monday.
In July of 2009 I began a project with Meredith Publishing called TravelMeredith.com. This blog/direct marketing hybrid website is focused on travel deals and news for women and families. The concept was for me to voice a daily blog and a monthly e-newsletter as a fun, hip, traveling momma. (Wow. What a stretch.)
I've had a great time developing and growing this project, and I kind of hope it lasts forever. Enterprising and owning new products/publications/voices tops my list of Very Favorite Job Tasks. (JuiceBox, PowderKeg Live!, and songwriting all fall into the same "creative origination" category.) I feel like I gave birth to new person with it.
And I've had a great experience working with my old college buddy, Matt Snyder, who leads a lot of fabulous projects at Meredith, though corresponding across states via email makes it really hard for us to eat half-price pizza at The Airliner in Iowa City after work. *sad face*
For the past year, I've been voicing collateral for Creative Kidstuff. Happi Olson over there is a genius mom and business person. Some of the things I've done for them lately:
• T-shirt tag lines. Check out the staff's t-shirts next time you're in a store. I wrote it.
• Postcard and in-store display copy. Everything they do is so witty and fun. It's a delight to come up with entertaining ways to reach dedicated, smart parents.
• Summer Sale catalog, 2009 and Holiday catalog, 2009. That Holiday catalog is one the most beautiful catalogs I've ever worked on. I'll try to get a copy up here soon.
As a client, Creative Kidstuff is one of my faves. We're both trying to keep all you parents out there entertained and satisfied as you go about making great future grownups out of your kids. Stay strong, mommas and poppas. Shop locally.
Talking obnoxiously about songwriting again at Lightsey Darst's series The Works at Bryant Lake Bowl, again with the fabulous Chris Koza. (He's got four albums coming out at once, under a new identity—Rogue Valley—and I'll be performing at his big party at the Fitzgerald on April 10. Listen here.) This time, we added singer-songwriters Mary Everest and Brian Laidlaw to our crew. Most important lessons: Unlike poetry, pop songs need to be clearly understood immediately. And you can't sing consonants.
