There Will Be Cupcakes

This Friday, August 27, we kick off the Poly-Performance Series at The Easy Chair Coffee Shop for Fall, 2010.  Megan Moriarty and Katherine Sullivan wasted no time relaunching this popular event which drew the largest audiences and most diverse performers of any open-mic type event ever held at The Easy Chair Coffee Shop.

You’re invited to bring your “stuff.”  We’re looking for people who would like to read/perform:

1 to 5 poems
up to 5 pages of a short story
1 to 3 songs (original or cover)
up to 5 minutes of some other type of creative endeavor

We cannot promise we won’t be attacked by zombies before it is over, but we promise there will be cupcakes.

Mark your calendar and be sure you don’t miss the best little music festival on the Bluegrass Trail. This blurb from NewportFest.com best describes the event:

“Eleven years later after the initial party, Newport Fest has grown into a small festival occurring every Labor Day weekend hosting several hundred patrons, a dozen local and regional bands, and an unsurpassed grassroots effort dedicated to music and community.”

We’ve witnessed the effort that goes into this show on the part of the musicians, the volunteers and Half Acre Promotions and Newport Fest is the best way to close out the summer for fans of local music.  Camping is available and nourishment from Old Virginia Smokehouse and The Easy Chair Coffee Shop will surely keep you fortified to dance into the night.

Mountain Legend Express (video above) is just part of a great lineup.  For band schedule and complete event info go to NewportFest.com.  Facebook users can RSVP at the event page: Newport Fest 11.  Hope to see you there!

The Giving Tree

The Henderson Lawn Sycamore comes down today in Blacksburg. If you have a photo or a favorite story of time spent under and around this beautiful tree, please post in comments or contact us (dispatches at blacksburgreads dot com). Perhaps you will plant a tree to memorialize the day. Maybe you’ll find a copy of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and read it. Whatever your thoughts on this sad occasion, we’d like to hear them.

A Gift for the Village Trailer from Tom Landon on Vimeo.

Today (July 12th) from 3pm to 9pm we will begin an experiment in an independent working community at the Easy Chair Coffee Shop.

Coworking is a movement that has been growing around the country and world for the last 5 or so years.  The basic premise is to unite telecommuters, entrepreneurs, freelancers, students, and any other person who primarily works from home or a coffee shop through co-locating for work.  The resulting environment serves to increase productivity, provide opportunities for collaboration, and foster an organic creation of products and services that benefit the surrounding community.

Each space is independent and operate in a variety of ways.  Some spaces cater to writers, some look more like business incubators, and still others look like an inventors dream with work benches and tools everywhere.  Despite the independence there is a thriving community of space owners and members online at the Coworking Google group, Coworking Wiki, and through in-person meetings during conferences such as SxSW.

In Blacksburg we are trying to provide space for our diverse community of location independent workers to come together, encourage and collaborate with each other.  We hope you will join us!

You can follow our story and learn how to get involved by visiting the Blacksburg Coworking Blog.

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With a surge of backers over the past weekend, Seneca Haynes’ film is gaining momentum toward full funding.  More importantly, it is happening with the grass roots type of support he set out to gather: many small pledges from a wide group of people across the community.  With only two weeks to go it will be a challenge.  The film crew left this morning for Harrisonburg and Broadway to film coffee roaster Troy Lucas in his “habitat.”  A Facebook event page has been created and video updates will be posted to the Kickstarter page.

In March we asked you to consider supporting Seneca Haynes’ Kickstarter Project and many answered the call. Thank you!  Because we are optimistic to a fault, we don’t see the remaining funds as unattainable.  We will be successful because our backers are baristas, artists, coffee roasters, coffee lovers and people who care about DIY sustainability and community.

Blustery confidence aside, this is an All or Nothing deal.  The project hits its target, or Seneca goes back to making stop-motion animated epics starring Micronauts.  We made that up.  You can pledge to that project after we get back from Brasil.

When we first sat down to discuss this film, Mr. Haynes was emphatic about it being community-driven from the first shot to the final cut.  Rather than big backers, he wanted a collective of small donors.  Kickstarter is the perfect launch platform.  We need you to clear us for takeoff.  Pledge what you can, and invite your friends to match your pledge.  We need a little momentum and we have time to pull it off.

Navigate to Seneca’s pitch video by clicking the roaster image above.  See one of the farms we will visit by clicking here.

Go to the Group Facebook Page to RSVP!