DFW Renaissance » Fort Worth Blogs

INKOGNEGRO goes out on a limb again … “Women have become more like men than they were ever intended … “ he says. To read the whole post about African American gender relations …

Technology Old and New

LOG CABIN VILLAGE BLOG has a long piece on how Texans kept cool before air conditioning, something I wonder every year ….MATTHEW J. STEVENS/GADGET VIRTUOSO BLOG – Matt talks about the implications of the introducation ofChrome OS – it’s an operating system that will compete with Microsoft’s Windows … is this a good thing? He says maybe not …

PR & Advertising

NEXT COMMUNICATIONS – Richie Escovedo’s PR blog turns one and gives reflections and goals … and finally, THE RANCH BLOG gives us a strange beer ad which seems to show beer filling up the back window of a taxi

Fort Worth on the Web for Wednesday — Part I

the Editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:13:46 +0000

I’ve been working on this but didn’t finish my entire blogroll, which is now 29 blogs long. So here’s about the first half …

Local News:

Broadway Baptist Church has been tossed out of the Southern Baptist Convention for being “too lenient” about homosexuals, though what exactly they did to be “too lenient” isn’t made clear anywhere I can find … Because of the issue, the church’s youth group, which had planned to go to Appalachia to do service work for the needy, was uninvited to the project and had to find a different mission project … The U.S.’s Ten fastest growing cities include Fort Worth, according to Nicole’s DFW Real Estate Blog … On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York, a fight between Fort Worth Police officers and patrons of a gay bar, the Rainbow Room, left one man in intensive care … two weeks later the Dallas Morning News does a wrap up … Kevin at 5kssandcabernets doesn’t think Steve McNair’s death-by-infidelity should negate everything good he ever did …

Culture:

Art and Seek covers the Amon Carter museum’s recent acquisition of a set of rare North American Indian photographs … Eleiva in Notes from Chronotopia reviews “How to Have Style” an inspirational makeover book by designer Isaac Mizrahi… she also contributed a long meditative piece on the phenomenon of the Vanity Licence Plate …

Social, Advertising and other Media

Carol at the Balcom Ad Agency blog begins a quick discussion of advertising’s paradigm shift since the 90’s …

New Blog Notes:

I’m noting a couple new Fort Worth blogs. Fifty miles to Coffee is the blog of photographer and painter Mark Scantling. He explains what he’s up to … Another local blog: Mist Photography puts up a few shots of a pretty wedding last week which took place at St. Elizabeeth Ann Seton Church and Colonial Country Club

Education:

Eva-Marie at the Extra Credit Education Blog talks of wind-farm projects sponsored by institutions of higher education … Also from Extra Credit, Southwest High School students made a video about repairs needed at the campus, entered in a contest to win money for upgrades, and posted the video on YouTube:

Fort Worth on the Web for Tuesday

the Editor — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:25:13 +0000

Arts and Leisure:

Amon Carter Blog has noted an Italian study that says yes, looking at beautiful things does make you feel better.

Trey at the Balcom Ad Agency blog points out that in terms of fashion sense, Crocs are the new fanny packs and Emily says that like me, she likes to get in the car and drive with a friend.

Culture and Food:

Kevin Buchanan gives us a new Fortworthology feature, Excellent Near Southside Story in new Weekly by Dan McGraw, pinging on the story in the Fort Worth weekly of the same name.

Local chef Tim Love of Lonesome Dove restaurant appeared on Top Chef Masters, according to Fort Worth Hole in the Wall, but did not win. But, the blogger says, we will still appreciate you and your work.

Our Veggie Oil Road Trip Blog (which apparently is written by a married couple driving across the U.S. in a 95′ Suburban conversition that runs on used vegetable oil from restaurant kitchens) stopped by for egg rolls and oil at Vin Bihn in Haltom City … they also reviewed Fort Worth’s famous vegan eatery, the Spiral Diner.

Eleiva has blogged on the one-time shellfish peasant food Paella and reflects on how this once-inexpensive dish became a luxury, with links to relevant blogs on the topic.

Rob at How to Make Coffee reviews Starbuck’s Komodo Dragon blend –even more powerful than their usual semi-burnt coffee, apparently (all right, the semi-burnt discription is mine, not Rob’s) –and he also has a recipe for using coffee to fight cellulite.

Dallas Voices:

Bike Friendly Oak Cliff interviews Fort Worth City Planner Dan Koski on Fort Worth’s new bike transit plans. Lewp’s Weblog wrote up the events at the Fort Worth Herd’s ten year celebration last weekend.

Economy:

Desperate home sellers are offering coupons – for as much as $1 million off — on local real estate. This comes from Austin at Fort Worth Real Estate blog.

Politics, etc:

Texas Vox has a story on Fort Worth-based citizen opposition to building two new nuclear reactors at Comanche Peak … In the blogs vs. print media debate, The Whited Supulcher points out how slow conventional media was to pick up the story of unrest in Iran.

Dallas Photoworks has done some more of his signature creative photography, this time visiting the Dallas arboretum.

Education:

In the Extra Credit Blog, Arlington public schools get good news on their TAKS results, upping the number of schools rated “exemplary” and “recognized.”

Social Media:

Richie Escovedo writes about how to twitter for school districts and by extension other public organizations.

Fort Worth on the Web for Thursday

the Editor — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:12:07 +0000

Congratulations to Lydia Ondrusek of Richardson, Texas, who won the drawing of a lovely sterling necklace from Fort Worth’s Silversmyth jewelry workshop. Now on to our weekly roundup of the best in blogging on Fort Worth:

Arts & Leisure
Amon Carter museum recommends a walking tour of the outside art in the cultural district, complete with a link to a map of the tour. Log Cabin Village blog has a video of the completion of the Howard Cabin. Fort Worth Modern blog has a nice post on “Conjoined” the large outdoor sculpture of two trees blowing into each other visible from the street on the lawn of the museum facing University Drive …

Fort Worth Hole in the Wall talks about planned restaurant “Gradys” and what a North Texas menu consists of. … Rob at How to Make Coffee has a report on worldwide coffee consumption …

Kevin at Fortworthology takes a walk through a brand new bungalow in the Fairmont District by Joe Frank Homes … According to the Joe Frank website, “JPF Homes Inc. intends to build a neighborhood of bungalow style houses centered around a landscaped commons area to promote community interaction.” Julie at Silversmyth visited a casting facility which is producing newly-designed sterling silver rings for sale through her website and at arts fairs … Kevin at 5ks and Cabernets found a barber who cuts black hair in Austin …

Business
Richie Escovedo spent a significant amount of time at the Dallas Inbound Marketing Summit May 27-28, and no small about of time on his blog, covering various breakout sessions and posting the videos.

This week we add the Balcom ad agency blog to our list. I’ll include three of their posts to get “caught up” with recent offerings. “My blackberry is my brain,” writes Emily. Chip says that the new open sourced Google Wave, which I’ve never heard of, is a web-based app which will change the way we use computers to communicate. And, although it’s technically past the last week, I wanted to include Kayla’s post on the importance of teaching music in schools.

Politics
Fort Worth Can Do talks about a new SMU report which says natural gas extraction in the Barnett Shale will significantly increase air pollution. … Austin at Fort Worth Real Estate is still miffed about the money being spent on the new post office when so much office space is vacant these days.

National Blogs Talking about Fort Worth

Frank Reed, who is actually from North Carolina, spent two days at the Dallas Inbound Marketing Seminar and wrote “Internet Marketing, Texas Style” for Biznology. On the subject of rail transit for DFW, Fare Enough blog asks from Austin, Texas, “would a public/private partnership for DFW rail be a good or bad thing? This is in response to a story on Metro Rail magazine noting “Dallas, Fort Worth exploring Public/Private Partnership for rail expansion” And in the area of local history we find out from NPR where General Worth, whom our town was named after, was buried. It seems New York City is the answer. Should we ask for him back?

Fiinally … got something that bothers you or interests you about Fort Worth? A burning idea for a guest blog?Let me know at editor (a) fwrenaissance.com.

Why do famous bloggers get all those freebies? Is it because they’re just like us?

the Editor — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:14:55 +0000

Is the modern market really fixated on “Everyman?” And is that why Chris Brogan is getting all the cool freebies for his blog?

Brogan recently claimed that “I am the new everyman” and that this fact gets him blog trials and freebees. I had to go to work this morning, so I didn’t have time to take issue with this when it first came out, but I’m going to now.

First premise: that marketing is now just looking to the “everyman” image. Marketing to everyman goes pretty far back. Who can forget the plethora of beer commercials and car ads we grew up with? Remember “Baseball, Apple Pie and Chevrolet?” They’ve been searching for Everyman for generations — this is not a new deal.

Second, I don’t really think of Chris as Everyman. He’s obviously quite unusual. From my distant vantage point he appears to be a kind of new world order social media jetsetter, a guy who’s followed by 70,000 people on Twitter and who can show up at any town in the U.S., tweet that he’d like company for dinner, and immediately see some instant friends. He doesn’t go to blogging conferences, he presents at them. He promotes others, yes, but all the while, he is himself at the center of the storm, the axel around which his social media circle revolves, not just another spoke.

Chris, you are a social media celebrity, not Everyman. The reason people send you things to try out for your blog is:

a. Readership. That includes numbers and demographics. How many of what kind of readers you get when a product is written about on your blog.

b. Writing skill. Association with good writing is always worthwhile for product promotion. And finally a word you like to use:

c. ROI. Return on investment, for non-marketing readers. Sending you a free item to look at for the blog is hugely, hugely cheaper than hiring a PR firm and buying ad space. Especially when you remember that the company gets its product at cost, not at retail.

No, they are not sending you stuff because you’re Everyman. However, your innocent stance about your own stature is somewhat ingenuous … kindof simpleminded … maybe a little Everymanish. But that’s it, the rest of what I’ve seen of you is unique and sophisticated. Go with it.