Ginny from the Blog

If you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day in downtown Raleigh, you may want to make plans to ditch your car and ride the R-Line. The free city circulator bus is celebrating its second anniversary by turning into a “Love Bus.” But don’t worry, it’s totally PG.

All riders will receive a Valentine’s Day gift bag and the option to have their honey serenaded from local singing groups. There will also be a raffle, and I’m guessing the prizes are going to come from one of these sponsors: Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, the IMAX theatre, McDonald’s on South and Peace Streets, Revive Massage Therapy, Tir Na Nog, Triangle Food Tour, Rocky Top Hospitality and The Hibernian.

The R-Line has been a helpful addition to downtown Raleigh. It’s hard to believe it’s already been operating for two years. Riding it is a cinch. Just stand by one of those signs with a big “R” in the red circle during operating hours and wait for it to pick you up (the buses run every 10 to 15 minutes). It’s completely free, and you don’t have to be familiar with downtown Raleigh to figure out how to find your stop. The bus drivers always seem helpful and so are other riders.

And if you’re a downtown Raleighite, the R-line provides great way to hear what people think of downtown. It’s fun eavesdropping on conference goers, out-of-towners and the North Raleigh residents who venture into the city for a night on the town. It’s probably one of the best ways to get unfiltered feedback on what people think of downtown Raleigh.

I saw a side of downtown Raleigh tonight that I’ve never seen before, and chances are you haven’t either. There’s a new commercial on TV advertising this weekend’s All-Star NHL game in Raleigh, NC that makes our downtown seem a lot bigger (and more snowy) than it really is. The commercial is by the VERSUS channel.

Here’s a screengrab of the clip:

Now, if you’ve never been here, and you saw this commercial you might think the RBC Center (where the All-Star game will go down) is smack dab in the center of downtown. You might also think there are a lot more skyscrapers downtown than there really are. Certainly our tallest building, the RBC Plaza, could look small depending on the perspective of the shot, but the fact that there are other unidentifiable buildings towering over it is pretty amusing.

In reality (as we Triangle residents know), the RBC Center  is about six miles away from downtown. And the 32-story RBC Plaza, the downtown skyscraper with the 130 foot spire on top, is the tallest building in downtown Raleigh. Some of the buildings in the commercial don’t even exist in downtown Raleigh (or if they do, the producer certainly has taken some liberties with them in the shot). Here’s what Raleigh’s skyline really looks like:

Flickr photo by twbuckner

Watch the commercial for yourself (the Raleigh clip is at the 18-second mark):

I hardly think any first-time Raleigh visitors traveling here for the game even noticed this clip. And even if they did, I’m sure it probably won’t alter their perception of our city. Still, it’s interesting to see how the Versus network reshaped our skyline.

The year is 1961. The venue is Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. The music is Rock and Roll.

Raleigh historian and blogger Mike Legeros published a formal memo to the Raleigh Police Chief dated Dec. 13, 1961. It details the directions Raleigh police were to follow for the “Rock and Roll Shows at the Memorial Auditorium.”

Here are some of the dated excerpts:

7. The Auditorium Manager shall display whatever signs he feels are necessary in notifying the public that no intoxicating beverages will be permitted in the Auditorium and that no smoking in the main Auditorium will be permitted.

8. It is requested that the Promoters, along with the Auditorium Manager, and any members of the special police, shall use all efforts and knowledge available to screen out and prevent person or persons from being permitted to an event who have a known reputation of trouble making.

9. The City Council has indicated it feels this type of recreation should be continued so long as it is done in a law abiding and sensible manner. It is urged that everyone interested in these events do everything possible to see that no trouble or difficulties are encountered as far as it is physically possible.

Read the full memo on Mike’s blog.

Last week I met PostSecret founder Frank Warren. He was in Raleigh to speak at Meredith College, and I seized the chance to interview him for 30THREADS. PostSecret is a project where people send decorated postcards to Frank’s home declaring their secrets. Some are sad, some are scary and some are strange. But they’re all anonymous and mostly unique. Frank shares a selection of them on his blog PostSecret.com.

I first discovered PostSecret in book form about three years ago. I was browsing at Barnes & Noble on Hilton Head Island and spotted the book’s cool cover (hey, let’s be honest, we judge books by their covers). I sat on the floor and thumbed through the entire book. Later, my best friend told me about the website and confessed that she has even sent in some secrets. Frank tells me it receives between six to seven million hits a month.

Flash forward to Wednesday night. I walk up to the green room and stand outside awkwardly while Frank finishes a conversation. He waves me in and greets me with a firm handshake and a big smile … introduces me to his friends and then is eager to start our interview. I’m posting excerpts from our interview here:

Frank is exactly the type of person journalists love to interview. He speaks in digestable, interesting sound bytes and he actually answers your questions. He’s perceptive, down-to-earth and friendly. During the interview, I mentioned that I asked my Twitter followers if they had any questions for him and that several responded. He took the time to answer each of their questions while I recorded him on my iPhone so that I could tweet the video out back to them.

Then Frank asked if I would take his iPhone with me during the event and record him taking stage. He asked that I post the resulting video directly to his Twitter account. How cool that Frank trusted me with his phone and full access to his 199,000+ followers?! Here’s the clip, which has been viewed 3,155 times as of this writing.

The postcards, e-mails and anecdotes he shared were powerful. I found myself crying several times, and I wasn’t even premenstrual. At the end of the event, I left feeling inspired. I would definitely recommend seeing Frank speak if he ever makes it back to the Triangle again (I believe he spoke at Duke last year).

When I drive across the Boylan Street Bridge, I brake a little so I can take in the downtown Raleigh skyline. The bridge offers one of the best views of the capital city’s growing skyline, and I never get tired of it.

Last night, the BF and I packed our video camera and a tripod and headed to the bridge. We plopped ourselves down near the center and recorded the sunset for nearly two hours to use for an upcoming project.

While sitting on the bridge, several cars slowed down to take in the view. At least two drivers stopped on the bridge (one to snap a photo with his cell phone, another to let a woman in the back seat take some photos). I was glad to see that I’m not the only one who brakes for the view.

What are your favorite spots to view the Raleigh or Durham skyline? Feel free to share some of your secrets.

You know what I hate about conferences? I hate when presenters come up with creative titles for their sessions, but when you get there they just drone on and on. It’s dullsville and you’re not learning a thing. You sit there discreetly checking your watch and kicking yourself for not checking out a different session.

But there’s a free upcoming conference-esque event that promises not to fall into that trap: Ignite Raleigh.

Ignite Raleigh is billed as a “technology variety show” because it’s a two-hour event packed with quick, engaging presentations. The goal is to educate and spread ideas.

How quick? Each presenter will get five minutes to go through 20 slides.

I know what you’re thinking: “If there are 20 slides, there is NO WAY these presenters are going to stick to the five minutes they’re allotted.”

Not true. One of the coolest things about the event is the slides will change automatically, whether the presenter is ready or not. Five minutes and your time is up, get off the stage, it was nice listening to you. Buh-Bye!

How engaging? You decide. The presentations are being decided by votes. You have until July 20 to vote, and you don’t have to attend the event to cast a vote.

The topics range from “19 Reasons Why the Triangle is Better than Silicon Valley” (I’m biased on picking this one b/c my dear friend Wayne Sutton is pitching it) to “When is Green not so Green? How sustainable is your coffee?”

There are a variety of topics to choose from (not all tech related). You can see and vote on all the topics here, and you can vote on them even if you don’t plan to attend.

Ignite Raleigh is from 7 to 9 p.m., Wed. Aug. 5 at Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh. As of this writing, registration is still open. It’s free, but reserve your seat soon because I’ve been told 350 have already registered.

Need more reasons to sign up? Here are a few:

• Rhett and Link will provide entertainment. They’re the self-billed “Internetainers” who recently gained national media attention for their viral video “Black and White People Furniture.”

• News and Observer photographer Shawn Rocco (also one of my friends) will be one of the presenters. He’s the guy with the awesome cell phone photography blog that was recently featured in the New York Times.

• 30THREADS is a blog media sponsor. And since 30THREADS is run by me and is part of my day job, it would be so cool if you supported me by supporting 30THREADS by supporting IgniteRaleigh.

OK. Enough already. Now you know more about what promises to be a kickass event in a few weeks. Questions, comments, suggestions? Leave them below and I’ll get them answered.

You might remember that Subway was in Raleigh back in March to film one of its annoyingly catchy “$5 footlong” commercials. Anyone could audition for the commercial.

The commercial recently hit the airwaves and I just so happened to catch it the other night. I recorded it with my iPhone, and you can hear my cat meow at the end of it. Even so, I thought some of you might like to see it:

About 400 people went to the Raleigh Convention Center this afternoon to celebrate Michael Jackson’s life and watch his memorial service on TV.

Women seemed to dominate the the crowd. Some wore pins they purchased for $5 at the convention center, one woman was rocking a white glove (you can see her at the end of this video). I was tweeting my observations from the @MyNC Twitter account. Several of our tweeps told me CNN was streaming footage from the Raleigh Convention Center. Not sure if they meant on TV or online. Did any of you see it?

Anyway, the beginning of the local memorial featured several local acts performing songs, prompting one man behind me to say “This isn’t a talent show.”

If you’ve noticed a splash of pink in downtown Raleigh this week, it’s because of the Susan G. Komen Triangle Race for the Cure.

I drove past the Sir Walter Raleigh statue in front of the Raleigh Convention Center last week and saw a group of women wrapping a tutu around his waist. I snapped these photos of Sir Walter’s new look on Friday. The Shimmer Wall, the Capitol Building and the Governor’s Mansion are other downtown sites that are supposed to be pink this week, but I haven’t had a chance to check them out yet.

The newly-dressed statue and other pink decorations downtown are part of the “Go Pink for the Cure” celebration, which is a week-long event leading up to Saturday’s race. It’s not to late to register for the race.

I ate dinner at The Borough last night, and saw Raleigh’s new downtown circulator bus (called the “R Line”) drive past the restaurant at least four times. So we decided to climb aboard and check out the route for this new, free service.

The hybrid, electric bus service launched Friday and allows residents to take a free ride to various stops downtown.

We waited at the “R” stop for a few minutes last night, but it was quite cold. So we stepped back into the Borough and watched the stop from the door. We didn’t get out the door fast enough to catch the R bus when it made its rounds again, so we chased after it, with no luck.

On the drive home, we got a little goofy and decided to create some improv theme songs for the new bus service. For the record, we both know we’re not good singers. We strung together about six or seven possible themes, but I’ve only posted two for you. If you make it through this entire video, then you deserve a cookie.

The photos in the video were taken by Leo who runs the fabulous Raleigh Connoisseur blog.

Have you taken the R Line yet? It has recieved some positive reviews on the Raleigh Philosophical Society blog. I think the bus line will be a handy service that will help downtown Raleigh’s efforts to grow.

If you want to try your hand at creating a theme song for the R Line, feel free to send me a video clip or use the Seesmic plugin in the comments section.