Upside My Head (Pay Attention Now)
March 30, 2011 by Sara · Leave a Comment
Upside My Head (Pay Attention Now) blogger Ann Freeman is a 54-year-old artist, connector and wannabe DJ. She is also a mother, grandmother and “queer girl extraordinaire.” She is a white girl in a brown family and a mostly brown community of friends. As a result, her life crosses a lot of interesting intersections. At Upside My Head (Pay Attention Now), this Minneapolis resident writes about and discusses race, age, sexuality, politics, culture, life, art, music, motherhood, grandmotherhood and more. Pretty much anything goes when Ann starts typing.
What specifically drew you to blogging?
I was interested in exploring the medium as a way to engage in conversation about a variety of issues in which I have been interested over time. I like that it is easy to create attractive pages and provide words, photos, audio, or video, and links to related content. I launched my blog on a whim one night. I was at the computer with headphones on and some great music playing (Ruthie Foster, if I recall correctly) and I just went to Blogger and made it. I didn’t research the best blogging platform, didn’t really have a plan for content, or even the name (which I changed after a year, this link tells that story: Upside My Head (Pay Attention Now)). I just made it and went from there. Very reflective of my personal style. I do public relations for a living and having a personal blog is a terrific outlet for my own writing and opinions – and for my creative and wonky passions and interests.
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to creating new content? How do you overcome it?
I am not particularly disciplined to post regularly. I vacillate between three and 10 posts a month. I’d like to be more consistent. I am a morning person with a day job, so it’s hard to get inspired to blog at night. I am more prolific if I get on the computer before work with a good cup of coffee. It helps to be thinking about subjects for a while so once I sit down to write I can kind of knock them out. I allow myself to do short easy blogs as well as longer, more thoughtful pieces to help with productivity as well as keep in interesting mix of subject matter rolling. I also try when I am inspired about something to drop everything and write. I may need to go back in later to edit, research, and finish, but at least I get the essence down when it is in my heart.
What is the most rewarding aspect of maintaining Upside My Head?
Once every 20 posts or so the magic happens. I write something and it resonates enough with people that it gets shared and lots of visits, and most important, comments. I have a small blog with a small but loyal following so when a post breaks out of that it’s exciting. I feel like I’ve made connections. The post that comes to mind that has had the biggest impact is “I don’t know my Somali neighbors.” The comment thread is far more interesting that the post itself and it was read by and shared among many Somali and other East African folks. A cross cultural conversation emerged, and best of all, I made a couple of new friends from the Somali/East African community.
What is one thing you hope your readers learn/understand from reading your blog?
My blog covers a variety of topics. I have the good fortune to live a life that exists on the intersections of many different communities. I have developed a perspective over the years that is specific to life on the intersections. I hope that readers are sometimes able to see things from a different point of view because of that, or to see parts of themselves reflected in my posts. I am a community-builder at heart and this blog is at its essence, a celebration of community.
Bloggers often draw inspiration from each other. What other blogs do you enjoy reading? Who are your favorite local Twin Cities bloggers?
One of my biggest inspirations is Erica Mauter who has been a long-time Twin Cities blogger. She is probably best know for fresh.mn, but is present all over the Web. She has a page that lists where you can find her. She is a friend, and someone who I learn from all the time.
Other blogs and bloggers who inspire me include Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture, Jack & Jill Politics, anything by Baratunde Thurston, This Week in Blackness, The Bilerico Project, Pam’s House Blend – Front Page, Tim Wise (on white privilege), Bao Phi, and TSUNAMEE. The bloggers are from all over the country and blog on a variety of topics, but most involve lively conversation on current events. I have not reached out to meet and connect with more local bloggers and would like to do that. I have the good fortune to be one of the bloggers that is part of MinnPost’s Minnesota Blog Cabin. The content for the daily Blog Cabin post is drawn from a large pool of local bloggers so I have learned a lot more about who is out there in our community, but have not yet built relationships.
What do you love the most about living in the Twin Cities and why?
I live in South Minneapolis and cannot think of a better place to live as a queer woman, to have been a white parent raising two children of color (I’m now a grandma!), an arts lover, a bicycler, rollerblader, and a water lover. We have great people here. It is way too white here, but I am privileged to call a very diverse group of fabulous people my community of friends. This winter was brutal, but the other three seasons are divine and the reward for enduring all that darkness and cold. I love the politics of Minnesota. At one point we had we had the completely eccentric Jesse Ventura serving as governor, and our senators were the late great progressive Paul Wellstone and the very conservative Rod Grams. Where else does that happen? And the grassroots activism here is ever inspiring.
What aspect of Spring in Minnesota are you most looking forward too?
I have been to almost every May Day parade and celebration for the last 30 years. It’s completely a rite of passage for me. I took my kids there when they were babies. I take my granddaughter now. It’s on our annual list of “adventures with Grandma.” I like having roots like that, a deeply felt sense of place, of community, and of home.
GirlmeetsGeek
March 22, 2011 by Sara · 2 Comments
Minneapolis resident Kate-Madonna Hindes publishes the GirlmeetsGeek blog. She is an industry leader, national author and speaker on emotional integrity and authenticity in online media. Columns she writes are regularly published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Women of HR, Brazen Careerist and JobDig. Her some of her speaking and writing credits include bookings at the Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationship Academy, 2010 WordcampMSP, Social Media Breakfast in Imation Headquarters, 2009 Cervical Cancer Conference. A few of her recent on-air appearances were with WCCO and International Radio Station, GirlTalkRadio, and WomeninBusinessRadio.
Your blog has been around for about three years. How has it evolved since you first started blogging?
I’ve actually been blogging close to 15 years. My first years, was through a platform at AOL. Then it moved over to LiveJournal and I had a following with a few other friends. Livejournal gave me the ability to really explore writing the personal and internal emotions that helped me to transform to who I am today. After deliberation, about 3 and a half years ago, I decided to move parts of the journal over, and start www.girlmeetsgeek.com. It started out as a journal to why I wasn’t married and ended as an internal look into myself, business and passion. I think GirlmeetsGeek is the culmination of who I was, what I was passionate about and how I was living it out loud.
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to creating new content? How do you overcome it?
I don’t write, unless I feel something in my fingertips telling me to. I find, that when I let my passion take control, my writing is far better than if I allow myself to blankly type words. I never blog about my daily life, only about moments that matter most. I don’t want to ‘water down’ my writing with mediocrity and I’m too busy to worry about blogging daily. I have other posts I can pull from if my focus is on business, or I have too many deadlines that week. What keeps my writing, ‘fresh’ and ‘unique,’ is the emotion behind it. I always taken on submissions, (I believe GirlmeetsGeek should be a place of words, not just MY words,) so other writers are always welcome. I have always found that good writers are open to the influences around them. I’m a news junkie and I write a lot of my pieces on Social Justice and giving voice to the oppressed. GirlmeetsGeek has become an emotional platform for the forgotten, the passionate and the unvocalized.
People blog for different reasons. What is the most rewarding aspect of maintaining the Girl Meets Geek blog?
I write, because it’s in my blood. I don’t believe in the word, “Blog.” I’m a writer. I’m not a ‘blogger.” I think by using the terms, ‘blog,’ or ‘blogger,’ we limit ourselves. I’m convinced if you cut me open, letters and punctuation would flow from my veins. You could say I blog, because I feel best when my thoughts form into words, hit my keyboard screen and I can read them back and think, “YES.” GirlmeetsGeek is for me, only- it always has been. You’ll notice, there’s no ads on my site and I’m not involved in any communities. I wanted to establish something different for GirlmeetsGeek. I wanted the words, the emotion and the quality to speak for itself, but only because I wanted to put authentic words out there. At the end of the day, the site is for my daughter and I. I want her to see a woman who overcame tremendous odds to grow as a human being and create the world she wanted.
What is one thing you hope your readers learn/understand from reading it?
I hope whomever visits, realizes that we all have greatness in them. I started writing stories when I was in the First Grade. I knew from a young age, that words were my currency to the world. We all have gifts, and they only resonate with others if we put passion and purpose behind those gifts. David Brauer from MinnPost once told me, “Dream Responsibly.” I’ve taken that to heart. GirlmeetsGeek is my Responsible Dream. Our lives are only measured by what we DO with them, not what we WANT out of them. I hope GirlmeetsGeek inspires others to take action and create the future they want.
Bloggers often draw inspiration from each other. What other blogs do you enjoy reading? Who are your favorite local Twin Cities bloggers?
My google reader currently has thousands of new posts in it. I desperately need to catch up on my reading. Since I’m a news junkie, sites I read daily include: Minnpost.com; Minnesota Independent, Minnesota Public Radio and my daily dose of Women of HR. I also like to check out the bloggers highlighted on the Twin Cities Spark!
What do you love the most about living in the Twin Cities and why?
I love the community that Minneapolis and St. Paul offers. It’s not the restaurants, (though wonderful,) the shopping, or the sights- it’s the people. Minnesota truly has the kindest and closest-knit people I’ve ever met. I’m a ‘lifer’ here. I don’t think I’ll ever leave.
What aspect of Spring in Minnesota are you most looking forward too?
I’m looking forward to seeing the sunshine through my daughter’s hair. There’s been a moment every year, where Ava and I are on the grass outside and I look at her, and she’s smiling and her hair is nothing but GOLD. There’s something about the glisten, the warmth and the together-time of summer; skirts and high heels. I’m a winter-lover, through and through, but there are adventures in the summer that I can’t conquer when it’s -20 outside. I love hitting up local farmer’s markets, Como Zoo and traveling up to Lake Superior. My summes have been defined by the memories of years before. Hopefully this summer is no different!
Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas
March 1, 2011 by Sara · Leave a Comment
Twin Cities resident Paul Schmelzer is a busy guy. He is the editor of the Minnesota Independent, managing editor of the American Independent News Network, former editor of the Walker Art Center blogs, creator of Signifier, signed, a former editor at Adbusters, and contributor to Artforum.com, Cabinet, Raw Vision, Utne and others. And he still manages to run his own blog, Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas. Though the blog started in 2003 as a way of establishing a practice of daily writing and research, it has since evolved into a forum where he to explores the place where politics and art, activism and media intersect.
What specifically drew you to blogging?
I started blogging in January of 2003 simply because I wanted a more regular writing practice, and one not tied to a job. By exploring my own interests and voice, without a paycheck tied to it or an editor to look it over, was liberating. Also, I was pretty pissed off at George W. Bush, so I did a lot of venting in the early days.
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to creating new content? How do you overcome it?
My schedule’s my biggest barrier. With a day job that runs 50 hours a week or more, it’s hard finding time to explore my interests and do the kind of thoughtful posts I’d like. Lately I’ve been working to overcome it simply by doing content of any kind — my “Bits” linkdump posts of art- and activism-related items I find in the course of a day.
You have a page that shows what other people have said about Eyeteeth. How would YOU describe Eyeteeth to someone who has never read it?
A quirky yet smart look at the intersection of art and social change. Rather than a dour scholarly or art historical art blog, I like being an evangelist to bring politically minded people deeper into art or art people into civic engagement and politics. Eyeteeth is the gateway drug between art and social change! To that end, I like to throw in humorous or slightly out-of-left field content as well as smart writing about aesthetics, critical theory or art exhibitions. But be prepared for some deadly earnest material as well. While I love some of the posts I’ve done — a video of Broken Crow doing a huge mural on the side of Shuga Records in Northeast Minneapolis or my account of the Miss Rockaway Armada launching its flotilla of found-object rafts on the Minneapolis riverfront — I also like when art can help us confront some grim realities of modern life. In this category: an interview I did awhile back with Izabella Demavlys, a former fashion photographer who started doing portraits of Pakistani women whose faces had been burned with acid by men. Grisly, hard to look at, and for me, utterly important.
What is one thing you hope your readers learn/understand from reading Eyeteeth?
We have options. Philippe Vergne, who used to be the chief curator at the Walker Art Center when I worked there, once told me that (I’m paraphrasing) art is the production of endless alternatives. I’d like people to take that away: that we have creative autonomy to live engaged, interested, interesting lives of our choosing, instead of conforming to some version that hinges on what we buy or what our parents, churches or politicians suggest for us. I got my start writing when I was studying abroad in college. I started interviewing residents of houseboats in Little Venice, an area on the canals in West London, and realized later that I really enjoyed bearing witness to all the ways we can live in this worlds — in houseboats, as vagabonds, as artists, as firmly rooted midwesterners who have a hell of a lot of fun living our lives.
Bloggers often draw inspiration from each other. What other blogs do you enjoy reading? Who are your favorite local Twin Cities bloggers?
Probably my favorite Twin Cities blog is that of ROLU, Rosenlof/Lucas, a landscape architecture firm. Matt Olson has a very specific interest — radical architecture, contemporary art and design — but his blog is always intriguing and has a lot of depth; I think it’s as good as most of the national art blogs I read. I was founding editor of the Walker Art Center blogs, so they still have a place in my heart, especially Off-Center, where some of the more interesting content has appeared. (I just wish they’d post more!) And I like my friend Ed Kohler’s site The Deets and Taylor Carik’s eclectic enterprises, Mediation, Flak Radio and Secrets of the City. In addition, there are tons of local Tumblr blogs that I read: Utne, The Opie, Urban Foodie, Stuff About Minneapolis…. Too many to list, really.
What do you love the most about living here in the Twin Cities Metro Area and why?
I love biking in Minneapolis. We suffer through these godawful winters, but the promise of biking under the Hennepin Avenue bridge or down to the Hexagon or around that big loop down Kennilworth to the Greenway across the Sabo bridge and back up to the riverfront by the Guthrie… amazing. I also like the fantastic beer, the great bike makers (Surly, Salsa, Handsome), the Stone Arch Bridge, the amazing art and music venues (big and small), the occasional weird impromptu art finds (this guerrilla “Struggle” sign on the bridge between Boom Island and Nicollet Island is the perfect example), and the good, interesting, creative, relatively no-nonsense people I seem to encounter every day. Finally, I love the hearty stock here: Events like the Powderhorn Art Sled Rally, the Art Shanty Project, and the Blizzard Pub Crawls (the one in Northeast during the December blizzard ended up at the 1029 on Marshall, where an older African American guy in snowblowing coveralls was singing a Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow duet with a young white woman in sweats and mukluks), remind me that there’s a unique breed that calls this place home.
2011 is still young yet. Do you have any big plans for your blog in the New Year?
Nothing all that special, but so much that I’m looking forward to: A huge garden in the back yard, biking to Sea Salt and Summer Music & Movies, more cooking, music, writing, etc. I also want to figure out how to build or find a bike trailer for hauling my new dog, Finn, on my sojourns. Blog-wise, I’m hoping to do more local content, more multimedia (videos) and more critical writing about art. I tend to feel like we’re in an Age of Enthusiasm: everybody wants to share the great stuff they find — which is partly how I got started — but few want to do the tough work of calling out the not-so-awesome. Maybe that’s the next step for me.
