61revised.com

Highway 61 (revised) has received a cease and desist order from MODOT. As of 1:30pm on April 1st, 2008, Highway 61 has only 2 days (or less than 48 hours) left to vacate the title our existing domain and title. According to the court order our intellectual property unduly interferes with the copyrights of the already existing domain of TheNewI64.org , which is MODOT’s website for the construction along that interstate highway. For those who do not know, US Highway 61 continues along part of Interstate 64 in parts of St. Charles and St. Louis Counties. We apologize for the confusion we may have caused.

We had already begun the process of transferring our host, address, and title, but things are moving really fast. You might want to save your favorite posts for yourself, because your bookmarks will no longer work. This couldn’t come at a worse time, since everyone here is crammed working on finals as well.

Anyone interested enough to continue reading from this online magazine can do so by reading 61 Revised at http://www.61revised.com . Thank you for your understanding, we promise to keep writing if you keep reading.

Only one week ago MidwestBlogs.com and STLProBloggers.com were active in organizing bloggers and their efforts to promote and control their intellectual property.  But in an e-mail sent out last evening, it turns out their own organization is about to become a relic of Saint Louis’ social blogging network and lose their own intellectual property.  According to Liz -

Goodbye so soon? Yep. Unfortunately Midwest Blogs and STLProBloggers.com
will be going dark within 24 hours of this email. The personal commitment
required to maintain and further the goal of the site proved to be just
too much for us to really do it justice at this time. So we have decided
to end this venture and thank you for all of your support in this
short-lived project. Your membership and contributions were greatly
appreciated.

A blogger meetup is still scheduled for Sat., April 19 at Atomic Cowboy.

Farewell old/new friends. We hardly knew ye…

Highway 61 stands in solidarity with our fellow Midwest bloggers.  At first we were flattered to be be kept in the good company of so many other talented writers on BlogNetNews, but after repeated attempts of our own to contact the website administrator, we understand the frustration of our comrads.  When it comes to making money by borrowing the work of others without their permission (or reimbursement), “this just ain’t right“.

So what exactly went wrong?  Rebecca has one of the best explanations I’ve read:

“The site is using bloggers to make advertising revenue for itself. The site is taking the content of blogs without their authors’ consent, permission, or even awareness. The site is refusing to acknowledge the many requests by bloggers to have their blogs removed from the site. The site is using people’s registered trademarks against their will. The site is acting under the pretense that it creates community, when all it actually does is use bloggers in order to make a buck for itself. Heads up, Mastio and crew: angry bloggers united make a formidable foe indeed.”

Kids, there’s nothing more cool than being acknowledged by someone you like, but If someone uses your blog in a way or in place that makes you feel uncomfortable, “That’s NO GOOD.” It’s your body (of work), no one has the right to use it unless you want them to.  So what do you do?  First you say “NO!”, then you get out of there.

Calling all Blogerati!  Alert the Internet!  Better yet just tell your friend Tom about the Inaugural gathering of the Social Media Club St. Louis.  With a name like that you would’ve expected to have heard about their meeting, which will take place @ Kaldi’s Coffeehouse in Kirkwood this Saturday February 23rd at 3:30PM, through one of your existing social networks already.

According to the Social Media Club home site, from which this local chapter will be established

Social Media Club is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy around the emerging area of Social Media.

So while there we the blogerati will determine tomorrow’s headlines in the New York Times, conspire to overthrow the government, and control the weather so that we might make blog posts about it.  Or we might just trade some links, friend each other on The Circuit, and make a Facebook group for our club’s chapter.  And because unlike our friends at Virtual St. Louis blog many of our readers are still below the age of wisdom (although we probably shouldn’t write about so many drinking events in that case), we’ll be encouraging our fellow media literacy advocates to keep their meetings open to the under 21 crowd while enjoying Links with our Coffee.

Gloating is not one of my talents, nor is it something I look well upon, but these circumstances negate those inhibitions. You might remember earlier last week when our blog, brimming with civic pride as it was, challenged Kansas City area blogger Chimpotle over the Gorvernor’s Cup? Following the Rams’ victory over our AFC cross-state counterparts the Chiefs, Chimpotle was obligated to fulfill his end of our bet by changing his color scheme to blue and gold.

Of course, we didn’t ask him do honor the bet this well. Complete with a post acknowledging our moral victory, our KC counterpart has decked out with site with a new logo featuring a monkey and his beloved football. We suggest you check out his handiwork today, but if not we’ve saved a couple screen caps for when his theme changes back (although I should mention that this looks better). Of course, had we lost the bet we’d be wearing Cardinals Cheifs red (in the same sense we’re “Royal retro powder blue” as is).

It should be mentioned that nary a blogger among us can be considered a pro sports fan, and yet our civic pride that drove this bet can be attested to rather well. According to OurCivicPride.com, a site that tracks regional sport rivalries and the bets exchanged between elected officials, neither Kansas City’s or St. Louis’ mayors placed bets on this year’s Governor’s Cup game (insert Special Session joke here). Instead that site had to settle on writing up about our little wager this weekend, all of which (I needn’t remind you) our winnings will be collected. And as it turns out, I’m not o bad about this gloating thing after all

We’re brimming with civic pride in anticipation of this year’s Missouri Governor’s Cup game, that annual contest between our professional football powerhouse Rams and Kansas City’s “team” - the Chiefs.  So confident are we in the greatest show on turf (do they still call the Rams that?), that we’re willing to make a public wager over the I-70 series (aka The Battle of Missouri).

Of course in order to make a cross-state blog wager, we had to find the right blog in Kansas City to take on.  Meet Chimpotle. He has a taste for O’Fallon Beer, thinks lowly of Gabriel’s fighting abilities,  and will pay us in straight cash.  He took the bait, adding that “It’s on like Donkey Kong…That baby blue could use a nice blood red paint job.”

That being said, our wager is friendly - we’ll be trading paint jobs.  Should our Rams win the Governor’s Cup game tonight, he’ll have to use our team’s colors in his blog’s theme for all of this Labor Day weekend.  And vice versa. 

Of course we’ll bring it on like we’re a land assemblage tax credit and he’s governor Matt Blunt.  Either way it’s bound for local control…(stay tuned)

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For those of you who couldn’t make it out to our Blog Party last Friday, our condolences.  We thought it’d be nice to let in on our fun with this slideshow, of which individual pictures can be inspected on a FlickR photoset.  If you have any pictures from the event yourself, might we suggest using the appropriate Flickr tag or at least adding it to the event page on Facebook?

Although I must admit that attendance was lower than expected, the blog party was a definite success.  On what turned into one of the busiest social nights of the year, we finagled just enough friends and well-wishers to eat through a couple pizzas.  Thanks everyone.

Since we first announced the Blog Party we’ve generated quite a bit of interest (or at least conversations) on the Meetup (remember those) ideas.  And we agree: a blog party should be more like a block party, celebrating the neighborhood with our neighbors.  Consider this the alpha preview, and any potential follow-up a beta release.

With a bulletin board that looks like this, no wonder this blog might fall behind in sharing the best shows, events, and nouns around town (see previous post for details).  It’s hard enough to filter through the flyers to find something worthwhile, much less stumble across the right dead-tree media.  It’s easy to understand why kids in the county don’t know what’s going on in the city, and vice versa.  To say nothing about the uselessness that MySpace has become in spite of it’s ubiquity (browsing through the same profiles with the same regularity of routine around your neighborhood).

Fortunately this medium gives us the opportunity to do something about it ourselves.  Thanks to technology we can cast the widest net, while delivering the specific content people are searching for.  For instance, if I wanted to announce an event, let’s say a Blog Party, I could publish an article, list an event others can add to their calendar, and let people invite their friends within my control.  In that same process, I have created driving directions, made a collective photo album, and helped set up the next activity.  And we can’t say enough about The Circuit, which gives us the local community connection that other Social Networks have lost.  Which helps make sure people don’t just hear about your event, but actually helping you make sure they show up for it.  Oh, and then published pieces like this are made after we find out about your concert/show/venue/store/blog/etc…

Highway 61 (revised) is not just a blog, so much as it is a community that brings attention to worthwhile people and places.  We use social bookmarks to share the news we find, pool photos that inspire us, tune each other in to good tunes, keep each other up to date on events, and put Saint Louis back on the map.  Occasionally, we publicly post articles to make sure that word is spread, but with your help it could be much more…

If you are interested in becoming a contributor/author to Highway 61 (revised), we’re interested in helping your voice be heard.  So far we’ve used our multiple contributor format share different perspectives and earn readers with regular updates.  Since you’re appearantly among that audience, you probably have a good idea what we’re about.  So if you’re still interested in becoming a contributor to our blog, please contact us either via The Circuit or myself directly @ skewgee at yahoo dot com.  And check back here soon for an announcement you’d probably expect as the first thing we’d be working on…

Yes, we know it’s back to school season (*cough*mixtape*cough*) because some of our contributors went to class and some moved in this weekend.  Others of us are looking for jobs, while some of us made student films.  But just because summer is drawing to a close doesn’t mean we won’t be your loyal bloggers, since this started with a class.  Links with your Coffee Sunday will resume, sometime shortly after we help film The Lot this Saturday (see you there).

• Won’t you be a neighbor? Subterranean Books (who just renovated their blog) raised our hopes with City Faces,  only to break our hearts and now needs to raise money.  The Urban Studio is also getting great press (and updates, finally), but needs tutors.  Brick City suggests we can help by taking a city recycling survey, which is really helping yourself.  If you can this week, give yourself (and others) a hand.
• If you missed Film Geek Friday last week (hint: there wasn’t one), it’s because our post about the Int’l Student Film Festival was more than a suggestion since that feature’s original name was Film Student Fridays.
• Actual coffee link provided via 52nd City; Mississippi Mud House, where you can use the wi-fi to read PubDef, Webster Bloggers, and all of our other friends (along with us) in the Show-Me Progress feed.
• (more…)

Although I wouldn’t want to detract from the groundbreaking work of Highway 61 contributor/resident frozen desert theoretician Gabe Bullard, I must ask: “Does anyone want coffee with their dessert?”  While we have you over for Sunday dinner tonight, we thought we share some more appetizers and pass some links your way.  In other words, here’s some more links with your coffee.

• Sure, we’ve been talking about tasty city water in our coffee_links for months now, but what about the water in your bottle?  Now in the last week we’ve learned that Aquafina is basically the same drink, confirming what we already knew.
• Further congesting our blogroll this past week - “It Is what It Is” (aka f0xyr0xy) blog is now CourtneyWatson.net, we laughed along with STL Rising, and waited for an update to STLFlimWire.
• We weren’t alone in updating our blogroll either - Commonspace introduced us to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra blog, and 52nd City shone light unto mp3 blog YourStandardLife.com .
• You might be interested in learning about the unique blues music history of our namesake.  That had us updating our About page while singing the St. Louis Blues once again for Bessie.
• (more…)