Local food-cajun style

One of the things that is important to me that I don’t blog about enough is supporting local business. It’s a big part of my belief in community and faith. That doesn’t mean that I think you should buy from a terrible store if it’s local, but that we owe it to one another to try and support good businesses and entrepreneurs (man that’s a hard word to type) in our area. If supporting local business means eating cajun food, that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Nonviolent resistance and Avatar

I have recommended Avatar to many friends, and will continue to do so based on the experience of watching this technologically game changing movie. As Debra Dean Murphy and many others have pointed out, however, the story of the film lacks imagination. Look no further than this comparison of Pocahontas and Avatar to see one way in which the story has already been done. When I saw the movie, I was reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon shown below. Cameron has made a great visual experience. He missed the chance to make something even better.

Pig Radio

When stumbling through the internet last week, I ran into a blog  called the Flypaper Theory that had an entry about a Memphis radio station called the Pig (sample music autoplays at the main site). I’ve had XM for a while, but I don’t pay for the online version, so my XM experience is for when I’m driving. When I listen to XM, one of my favorite stations is the Spectrum, which has an eclectic mix of newer “adult album alternative” music as well as older songs. It’s nowhere near as eclectic as the Pig, and “96oink1″ is online. Yes, there are commercials, but I can survive them, especially online when I’m sort of half tuned in anyway.

I have to criticize their social media person: no twitter posts since August and a private facebook page that’s set up like an individual rather than a fan page, but the music is fabulous. Listen here.

more Methodist Tweets

Some more of my favorite tweets that show up in my methodist, methodism, umc search.

I have been church hopping all morning. I’m drunk of course. The Catholics hated me, but the Methodists love me!

If golden retreivers were people, I  think they would be Methodists who shop at Lands End and vacation in New England.

You can live with me.  I live in a Methodist Church.  Yeh damn cool.

My mom explaining the methodist religion: methodists are kind of like relaxed catholics. lutherans are crazy. look at your aunt.

Just got a note from Jesus inviting me to join the local Methodist church. It was addressed ‘Hello darling’. Who knew Jesus was such a fruit

Tennessee Cigar & Brew Fest

Warning: this should only be read by people who are legal drinking age, and whatever mental age allows you to not judge people who enjoy good beer.

Feel Good Friday

My video for feelgoodfriday is the video duo of Rodrigo y Gabriela on Conan, though it hurts my hands to watch them.

facebook drag and drop

Everyone is familiar with the changes on facebook, but I think some of them are pretty handy. Here’s a video that discusses the sidebar. Mari’s complaint re: temperamental can be solved by clicking More at the bottom of the list. I also like the dragging you can do in the fb chat list, and maybe it will inspire me to make my own videos in the future.

Methodist Tweets

Most people who use twitter a lot find that using an application like Tweetdeck makes usage much more manageable. You can make columns that help you find other people interested in similar topics, and organize the people you follow to keep things straight. One of the columns I use is a search which shows me when people talk about Methodism or Methodists or even the United Methodist Church, if they use the letters UMC.

I’ve learned a lot from those columns, and have saved some of the tweets that I found most hilarious. These aren’t tweets that occurred today, but they’re my favorites for the day.

Twitter is mostly public  so I suppose I could credit the people who tweeted these, but somehow it seems to make more sense to leave their twitter IDs off the posts.

1. Ummm…this chick is singing the most Methodist version of his eye is on the sparrow ever.

2. ThisWeek Deep Fried Snickers. Donut Holes. Anything from the Methodist Church eatery. (in reply to: The Lunch Ladies and myself will be doing doing a video of fair foods. Anyone have a favorite you want us to tackle?)

3. Are all these  brick churches with white steeples Methodist?  Oh wait… this is Utah….  Never mind.

4. Does anyone else think KFC’s “unthink” ad campaign & #rethinkchurch look eerily similar?

5. I just walked past a methodist church and the sermon for this week is gonna be “the realistic church” that can’t be good.

Fuzzy Fur Feet (part 2)

In July, I bought my Vibram Fivefingers shoes and have really enjoyed them. I’ve worn them for a lot of walking, even when I’m not walking just for exercise. I wore them all over the place at The Southern Festival of Books and though there was a lot of wet marble, I was comfortable, if a little more damp than I would have been in regular shoes. If you haven’t already seen these shoes, expect to see more, as well as other brands that are designed to be as closes to being barefoot as possible. Even Nike is getting in to the act. Check out the video after the break for a review of the shoe and concept.

Southern Festival of Books: the writers

Trenton Lee Stewart, Kathy Mattea, Kate DiCamillo, Silas House, and Jason Howard were the only authors my wife and I were able to see during the three days of The Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. More than 200 authors were present, but we could only be there for 1 day.  Despite what we missed, what we attended was well worth the trip.