Placeblogs are sometimes called "hyperlocal sites" because some of them focus on news events and items that cover a particular neighborhood in great detail -- and in particular, places that might be too physically small or sparsely populated to attract much traditional media coverage. Because of this, many people have associated them with the term "citizen journalism," or journalism done by non-journalists.

Placeblogs, however, are about something broader than news alone. They're about the lived experience of a place. That experience may be news, or it may simply be about that part of our lives that isn't news but creates the texture of our daily lives: our commute, where we eat, conversations with our neighbors, the irritations and delights of living in a particular place among particular people. However, when news happens in a community, placeblogs often cover those events in unique and nontraditional ways, and provide a community watercooler to discuss those events.

Placeblogs spring from a fiercely non-generic America that's not about big-box retailers or the type of polarizing discussion about politics, culture, and the economy that's the product of journalism that happens at the 30,000 foot level. Often, they are a delightful and vivid look at cities, towns, and neighborhoods from an insider's point of view. Collecting this list -- and getting to know these places via the authentic, quirky, and funny voices of their placeblogs -- has been a wonderful experience. I hope that you'll enjoy this way of getting to know America at sidewalk level as much as I have.

Placeblogger

Lightning 100's Team Green is once again the sponsor and organizer of the seventh annual Nashville Earth Day Festival at Centennial Park! This year's theme is Local Living for Global Change - It All Starts with ME! We will have interactive entertainment, live music, healthy food, and over 100 environmental organizations. Music from Raul Malo, Jen Foster, Sam & Ruby, JYPSI and more. For more details on Earth Day.

Nashville's Earth Day Festival

Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Apr 23, 2008 7:30 pm (Wednesday)
Ryman Auditorium
116 Fifth Avenue N
Nashville, Tennessee 37219

Elvis Costello & The Imposters @ Ryman Auditorium

It all began 30 years ago, Ben & Jerry scooped up free ice cream all day to thank the community for supporting them in their first year. Now it's an annual tradition at many of our scoop shops around the world.

Apr. 29th 12pm-8pm is Free Cone Day @ B&J...

FYI If your in Nashville for sure!

Free Cone Day

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) called Army Military Affiliate
Radio System (MARS) into action as tornados swept across the Southeastern United
States February 5-6. According to Army MARS Chief Stuart Carter, "For the
first time as far back as we can remember, a state government called for MARS
deployment in response to an actual emergency. The resulting teamwork and use of
Army MARS Winlink capability gave TEMA its only e-mail link during President
Bush's visit to the storm-stricken area." At least 70 messages were sent
during the state operation ranging from casualty figure updates and signal
reports to staff rosters and photos.

TEMA's Chief of Communications David Wolfe, WA4VVX (MARS call sign AAR4CY),
said, "Although there was no commercial power at the deployment site,
TEMA's communications infrastructure was fully operational. Both the VHF high
band and 800 MHz repeater systems had good coverage for voice command and
control. Our shortage was Internet connectivity, and our unmet needs were e-mail
and the ability to send pictures. MARS Winlink provided exactly what was not
available by any other means."

Carter said that this event illustrates the importance of detailed preparation
and training that has taken place during realistic disaster response exercises
over the past several years. "In the case of Tennessee, the story goes back
a year and a half. Steve Waterman, K4CJX (MARS call sign AAA9AC) began working
with Wolfe in late 2006, preparing for just such a deployment. At the time, Army
MARS was just beginning to adopt the Winlink 2000 radio e-mail network system,
and with the assistance of the then-Tennessee State Director Paul Drothler, WO4U
(MARS call sign AAV4DJ), Army MARS had just signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with TEMA. This MOU just served to strengthen an already strong relationship
between TEMA and Army MARS. Wolfe led TEMA staffers who were already hams to
becoming MARS members and to become qualified MARS Winlink 2000 operators. The
rest of Wolfe's team soon obtained their Amateur Radio and Army MARS
licenses."

The next step, according to Carter, was joint training for TEMA staff and
Tennessee Army MARS members. Some was classroom training followed up with
extensive field training. The culmination of the field training was TNCAT07, a
massive exercise that included the Central United States Earthquake Consortium
(CUSEC), an eight-state alert consortium along the New Madrid fault line. This
exercise also included the participation by ARRL Amateur Emergency Radio Service
(ARES), Civil Air Patrol and other EmComm services that clearly demonstrated
interoperability between TEMA, Tennessee Army MARS, the Amateur Radio community
and other municipal communications services.

"To make a long story short," Carter said, "we now have seen a
demonstration of seamless collaboration between Army MARS and one of our
supported agencies under 'Real World' emergency conditions. This was the first
Army MARS deployment since the Katrina/Rita disasters two years ago.
Successfully meeting the challenge involved deployment readiness on the part of
our members, and it required total Winlink 2000 mobility. First of all came the
building of relationships with existing and potential customers, and then came
meticulous training of state and federal staffers, and frequent exercising at
home and in the field. With this pattern of established collaboration between
our customers and MARS members, we enter the new era of Army MARS Emergency
communications support."

TENNESSEE AGENCY CALLS ARMY MARS INTO ACTION

The Master of Liberal Arts and Science program, Vanderbilt University’s prime educational outreach program to the Nashville community, is attracting record numbers of students and expanding course offerings.

This summer a MLAS class in religious architecture has been visiting sanctuaries across Middle Tennessee. Upcoming courses include Music, Gender and Sexuality, James Bond and Popular Culture and Southern Literature. Three certificate curriculums have been initiated, in ethics, creative arts and history.

“Last spring we had about 80 students among six courses,” said Martin Rapisarda, associate dean in the College of Arts and Science. “That’s a record number of courses offered in any one semester, and a record number of students in any one semester for the program.”

The growth indicates expanding interest in Nashville in the benefits of lifelong learning.

The MLAS program puts top Vanderbilt faculty in the classroom with adults who wish to continue their education at the graduate level but are constrained by the demands of career and family. Typically, students in the program take one course per semester which meets one evening a week.

The program costs $2,151 for each three-hour course, or half the regular Vanderbilt rate for graduate courses. Vanderbilt employees get a discount that cuts tuition to $645 per class.

The courses are rigorous, with term papers and research expected of the students.

“If this were merely a coffee klatch, it would certainly not be a Vanderbilt University graduate degree program, and I wouldn’t be able to interest our faculty in taking part,” Rapisarda said. “I tell students to expect to work hard and to spend at least 10-12 hours a week preparing for class.”

Rapisarda has added two required core seminars to the now 30-hour program, one to help ease students back into the rigors of the classroom and designed to be taken as the first class in the program. The Capstone Seminar, the last class in the program, encourages students to apply skills learned in the other classes to an extended study of a particular interest culminating in a thesis, work of art or other final project.

“We’ve seen incredible growth,” Rapisarda said. “Right now, we’ve got faculty lined up until Spring 2009 to teach in the program. This audience of motivated adult learners has proved to be a popular experience for our faculty.”

"James Bond and Popular Culture " ... Hell Yea! :) Now that is a class I would love to take... :)

Vanderbilt : Master of Liberal Arts and Science program

The following imagery was taken on October 26th.

San Diego 2007 Wildfires

The ARRL 2007 National Convention, to be held in conjunction with the Huntsville Hamfest August 18-19 in Huntsville, Alabama, is getting closer by the second. Along with the many convention activities, an exciting forums schedule is being planned. This is your chance to learn about contesting, emergency communications such as D-STAR, public service, education and many technical issues.

Along with the presentations on the ARRL Stage in the ARRL EXPO area, the ARRL will also be presenting forums at the Hamfest. ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, will be moderating the ARRL Membership Forum. Come and learn more about the issues shaping Amateur Radio today. Meet ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, and other ARRL officials and staff. All are welcome!

ARRL Education Services Manager Debra Johnson, K1DMJ, will lead the two-part ARRL Education Forum. Part 1 is an overview of the ARRL's new Education Services Department. Topics will include the new ARRL mission statement on education, new licensing materials, enrichment courses and an update on ARRL outreach activities through the Education & Technology Program and Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). Part 2 consists of a discussion about ARRL educational and instructional resources and ideas. What do you need? More educational kits? A better Web site resource center? An on-line collaboration site for instructors? More on-line courses? Instructors, teachers, on-line course mentors and others are all encouraged to participate.

ARRL Membership Manager Katie Breen, W1KRB will lead a virtual ARRL Headquarters tour. Amateur Radio entered a new era this year, and licensing changes have rekindled enthusiasm among many newcomers and inactive hams. Breen will lead you through a tour of ARRL's national Headquarters. Along the way, she will share stories of ARRL special event activities aimed at encouraging on-air activity among new and newly active hams, including real-time Web blogs and videos, Hello-Live! and the W1AW HF Open House.

ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, will talk about ARES and the Media - How to get attention for our best stories. Emergencies often gain the attention of newspapers and television media, and yet the good works of volunteers in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service are often overlooked. Our best stories are never heard by the public. This ARRL forum will discuss ways to help your public service activities capture the attention of the media.

ARRL DXCC Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, and ARRL Web/Software Development Manager Jon Bloom, KE3Z, will discuss DXCC and ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW). Do you enjoy the lure of DX (long-distance radio operating)? The pinnacle of DXing success is the ARRL DX Century Club, or DXCC award. Find out everything you've ever wanted to know about the DXCC program and ARRL's Web-based Logbook of the World (LoTW).

The Huntsville Hamfest's preliminary forums schedule is posted on the hamfests Web site.

ARRLWeb: The 2007 ARRL National Convention (Huntsville, AL)

A Channel 4 viewer’s complaint about a towing company brought that company and its history into focus recently.

On May 18, the judge revoked City Towing's license for good.

Good! They have done this to me before. Here is what gets my goat. PMC (might have been sold recently) is now booting cars which I think is even worse than a tow-in company. Because now there is no legitimate way to tell if you have paid and someone booted your car. You are now at the mercy of someone who could be a low-down ass hat.

Investigation Reveals Towing Company's History

If you don't remember Karma from when it was on Second Avenue, that's OK. Because now owner Terri Sanford has given Karma a second life in East Nashville — and no one is happier about it than Terri herself. "This is what I'm supposed to be doing," she says.

We agree.

Wow! Good to see that someone is making Nashville work for them... again.... :)

Storefront: Karma