I knew this column might create a little controversy…because being a role model for your kids pisses some people off. Sigh.

In the much more fun than working out category, I’m helping run a beer naming contest for Asheville Brewing Company on my other blog. Other WNC Brews News here.

Kids running through Splashville in front of Asheville’s City Hall. Slippery fun.

Makes this mom nervous. Just saying.

What’s happening in your worlds? Other than heat.

This Friday night is the geekiest party of the year–Spookypalooza–a costumed conclave of WNC’s bloggers, tweeters, and Facebookers. And I need a witch hat.

We have an awards ceremony too. If you want to vote (for me, maybe?), today’s your last chance. Vote here.

Then come to the party at the Phil Mechanic Building. And although this poster says Blog Awards at 10 p.m., I think they’ll happen earlier. For those of us who are old and need to go home early.

P.S. I’ll be selling ad space–on my heinie–$20 per cheek.

We are community. That, for me, was proven on Sunday, August 30, at
Asheville’s inaugural TEDx event at the Orange Peel.

While the speakers, performers and TED videos inspired, motivated, and
stretched our brains (more on them in a minute), the true message of
the evening was twofold: we are community and Asheville’s a great
place to call home. In fact, the theme of the evening was Home.

And after only about four months of frenzied preparation, a large
number of folks who call Asheville home came together to learn, to
enjoy, but mostly to have fun.

I’ve attended many heady, intellectual lecture-type presentations.
Never before have I been to one where so many people were alternating
among whooping, hollering, standing while clapping vigorously, and
listening closely. There was an electric energy in the room that was
more cellular than electronic (surprising given that most of what we
paid the venue probably will go to cover their electricity bill).

Jennifer Saylor, official host of TEDx Asheville, e-mailed and spoke
to us volunteers about magic in the weeks before the big night. And
magic happened—through a combination of hard work, perseverance,
intellectual capital and luck.

There were moments that were less than smooth—having to turn so many
people away was unfortunate (our marketing was too good); speaker Dee
Eggers had to restart her talk when her pocket mic failed; those of us
who were live tweeting and blogging and streaming and simulcasting put
some serious pressure on the venue’s bandwidth capacity.

But these were minor hiccups in an otherwise smooth, well-paced evening.

(Full disclosure: I’m on the TEDx Asheville volunteer committee and
live with speaker Drew Jones (legally). I also write for sponsor
Mountain Xpress. Just telling you that I’m not exactly objective).

Here’s what stood out for me during the evening (mostly great, some
OK, some less than stellar):

The Forty Fingers and a Missing Tooth juggling troupe were a fabulous
opener. Their silliness and enthusiasm set a fun tone for the night. I
want them to come to my next birthday party.

Emcee Daniel Crabtree aka Sneaky McFly also helped set a light tone
through magic tricks and his quick mind. Emcee Josh Batenhorst was
thoughtful but, in my opinion, not as entertaining as Crabtree.

The 3-D geodome that speaker David McConville used to talk about the
universe was mesmerizing. When McConville gets excited about his
subject matter, he gives this endearing little giggle. I’m still not
sure what dark matter is, but I heard the message that: “We’re serious
cosmic babies.”

Absolutely adore Joachim de Posada’s “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet”
videotaped TED talk. Short, smart, and you can’t go wrong with videos
of cute 4-year-olds.

The two music acts were both good, though I would have separated them
in the program instead of having them back-to-back. I like the
Theremin and electric music from Chris Tanfield and Dave Hamilton, but
they played for a bit too long. A little Theremin goes a long way.
Shane Perlowin and August Hoerr truly caught my attention when they
stepped it up a notch and showed us what a funky instrument the
accordion can be.

Drew Jones inspired through hope: “Is anyone else tired of hearing the
story that we’re destroying ourselves?” His presentation on the global
climate deal fired up the crowd. While it was a feather in the night’s
cap to have a video from Bill McKibben before Jones’ talk, McKibben on
tape was a downer. Plus the sound quality was crackly (minor
techno-glitch).

Dee Eggers getting misty about saving big-brained dolphins and tiny
pollinators moved me. She was the only speaker who went over on time,
and thus, she didn’t have as powerful of a conclusion as she could
have. But otherwise, she rocked.

Robert Zimmerman’s talk about the opportunity of unmet needs was
interesting, but he moved and talked so quickly that I’m not sure I
followed him as well as I would have liked. During his talk, I
tweeted, “Who’s the bigger spaz? Jones or Zimmerman.” I’m thinking
Zimmerman won that award for the night. I really liked his personal
photo slideshow, though, and how he used that to punctuate his points.

Glenis Redmond, as always, rocked the room with her spoken word
poetry. This was the ten minutes of the evening when you could hear a
pin drop in the crowded room. No one got up to get a beer while
Redmond was onstage.

Caroline Yongue had great subject matter: death, the ultimate life
experience. But she clearly was the least experienced speaker. Also, I
liked the idea of her having a supposedly dead person lying on stage,
but she never explained the purpose of the prop, which was
disconcerting (maybe it was the elephant in the room?).
Jill Bolte Taylor’s videotaped TED talk is amazing. If you missed it,
it’s well worth watching on-line.

Finally, having local band Stephanie’s Id on-stage, singing, with the
audience, a TED-inspired new song, was mind-blowing. Stephanie puts it
all out there fearlessly. She embodied the spirit of the evening with
her energy and grace.

Overall, the night rocked. It was a little long for a school night,
says this mom of elementary school-aged children, but it was worth
losing sleep over.

Thanks to my community and my home of Asheville for giving this gift to me.

Let’s do it again.

Go here for more information.

Forget print journalism and crazy newsweeklies going all digital.

Here’s my plan:

“Big news here in Edgy land. This is my final Edgy Mama column. I’m traveling a new career path, one that other Ashevillians have taken, though I’ll be the first female to dip my big toe into the vat o’ hops.

Yes, I’m going to open another brewery in Asheville–number 6 or 7, depending on when certain in-the-works breweries put the barley to the pedal.

Why another brewery?  Because I’m a craft beer addict with nothing better to do than quaff brewskis and watch my waistline expand to Rush Limbagh proportions. But what about raising the kidlings, you ask? That, my friends, is the piece de resistance – the Edgy Mama Brew Pub will be the kid-friendliest brewery in America.

Those 21-and-under are welcome, but not to quaff the adult beverages. Here’s the plan: I’ll be building a basement play area for kids and a giant rubber-walled playpen for the rug rats (care provided by thirsty UNCA students-bartering’s a great thing!). All walls will be painted with blackboard paint for our budding graffiti artists. The “play” basement will have Spongebob Squarepants on continuous repeat. The play pen will feature Teletubbies DVDs. No stoners allowed in the playpens, unless they’re willing to change diapers.

I’ve got engineers working on a plan to burn the diapers in a newfangled E. coli-filtering contraption and use the heat to power the pizza ovens. The ultimate in recycling.

I’ve been researching brew recipes, and I’ve come up with formulations for an Edgy IPA, Parental Angst Porter, Shut It Stout, and Anger Management Amber Ale.”

Read the rest here.

I’m not sure what this means for my column.

Excerpt from publisher Jeff Fobes’ on-line letter:

“The Mountain Xpress, Asheville, N.C.’s, alternative newsweekly, took a remarkable step on Wednesday, ending its 14-year run as a print publication (today’s issue is our last), suspending its regular online news reports and converting its entire news operation to Twitter dispatches from staff and trusted community journalists.

Here at Mountain Xpress, we find ourselves facing unprecedented change. Like many of you, we’re battling a contracting economy that’s forcing us to work smarter, faster, smaller. Meanwhile, digital tools offering new ways of engaging readers seem to land in our inboxes daily. And the astonishing growth and spread of mobile users and social networking capabilities is delivering new news faster than we can even begin to figure out what the old news was.

In other words, news outlets no longer control the flow of information. Quite simply, the tools have left the building.

But that doesn’t mean we’re throwing in the virtual towel. We at Xpress feel strongly that there’s still an important role for journalists in this society. And as a truth-seeking filter, an ever-vigilant watchdog and a community meeting place for diverse thoughts and ideas, we wholeheartedly believe that the newspaper will continue to play a crucial role in our democracy, even if it no longer offers either “news” or “paper” in the conventional sense.

Things are changing, and Xpress has decided not only to embrace that change but to charge ahead in a manner befitting the creativity and edge that make Asheville the continually shifting center point it undoubtedly is.

Accordingly, we here unveil the new Mountain Xpress: the nation’s first “Twaper” (Twitter-powered newspaper). After much thought and internal debate, we have decided to vault the obstacles of conflict and debate in a single, electric leap of faith. From now on, Xpress will be all Twitter, all the time, exclusively featuring the microblogging bursts of the diverse and emphatic folks who collectively make up this community.”

(Here’s video of Wild and Bryan Freeborn from this morning’s Today Show, 3/13/09).

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Asheville Girl Scout Wild Freeborn, who, via a YouTube video and some social media savvy, was trying to sell enough boxes of Girl Scout cookies to send her entire troop to GS camp for a week.

I bought 4 boxes from Wild, who told me she ended up selling around 700 total boxes, all to folks in the Asheville area (not enough to send the entire troop to camp, but still impressive). Despite her initiative and business aptitude, the Girl Scouts’ national organization made Wild remove the YouTube video, as they have an archaic rule about not selling on-line (which in truth, Wild wasn’t. No $ went over the Internets).

Two days ago, Newsweek published a story about Wild, which garnered hundreds of comments. Today Wild and her dad, Bryan Freeborn, are heading up to NYC to make an appearance on The Today Show.

Congrats to Wild for trying, inadvertantly, to drag the Girl Scouts into the 21st century. Sometimes, kids really do have the best ideas.

Here I am talking about my friend Michael, local fotog extraordinaire. Go here to vote for Michael–send him around the world to photograph walls and the people who live and work near them!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m completely pro public breastfeeding, and yet, this controversy is starting to feel icky. Don’t people have something better to spend their time on?