Anything event Chocopalooza has to be a good time right? This event, which finds The Comfy Cow and Cellar Door Chocolates teaming up for a good cause certainly sounds like it’s going to be a fantastic evening.

he Comfy Cow is joining Cellar Door Chocolates in hosting the 2nd Annual CHOCOpalooza. The annual event to benefit Make-A-Wish and Boy’s and Girl’s Haven will be held Saturday evening, February 11th between 6 and 10 pm. at the Frankfort Ave. location of The Comfy Cow. There will be 11 different and udderly unique chocolate ice creams for your sampling pleasure as well as a variety of Cellar Door’s amazing Chocolate Truffles, fudge, peanut butter cups, and the like. Interactive ‘Chocolate Stations’ will be positioned throughout the store, such as a chocolate crepe station; a make your own chocolate cotton candy station; dip your own chocolate covered banana station; etc. There will be live music, magic acts, face painting, and door prizes.

People, they’re having a chocolate crepe station! They love us, they really love us and want us to be happy.

Heather is the Chief Tea Officer of Rooibee Red Tea, a brand of organic, naturally caffeine-free Rooibos tea, available in seven flavors and made right here in Louisville. The company has chosen Louisville as its national headquarters and will remain here, even as it continues to gain national distribution. Heather hails originally from London, OH and has lived in Richmond, KY, Jacksonville, FL, Birmingham, AL and Nashville, TN. She and her husband have made Louisville their home for the long haul. Her husband, Steven, is a pediatric opthamologist in Louisville. They have two children, ages 7 and 5.

The one thing I love about Louisville is that I’m not from here, and no one has ever asked me where I went to high school.

At this week’s Let Them Tweet Cake event one of the fabulous folks in attendance (hi Christine!) told us about how the organization she works for, Apple Patch, is using technology to help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She specifically told us about how they’re using iPads in their new Autism Center. The story of how much of an impact iPad use has had on one young man really struck me.

In just a little over two weeks’ time a client that is nonverbal and has never been able to communicate his wants and feelings easily can now use the iPad to tell people he is happy, sad, hungry, tired, cold and many other things. His parents are so overwhelmed with joy that he can now express emotion with a click of his finger.

Wow! I mean, just wow. Those of us who love technology know what a powerful tool it can be but even still I find I’m amazed at this story. After Christine told us about the young man she said the one problem with this situation is that they only have three iPads at their center and they’re pretty much always in use. This means the young man from the story can’t ever take an iPad home with him. That means this tool he’s now using to communicate his emotions to other people can’t go with him home at night or on weekends or holidays, etc. That broke my heart a little bit and before I could stop myself I said that I was sure the community could pull together the funds to buy an iPad that will be available for this young man to take home with him.

So Apple Patch has arranged a specific fund to buy two more iPads so there will be one more in their general rotation and one more for the non-verbal young man to take home with him.

One of the iPads that will hopefully come from this fundraiser will be dedicated to that client to be a take home item. He will be allowed to take it home with him to help he communicate with his parents and other around him. His family is unable to purchase an iPad for him at it would mean a world of difference in his life to have one at home.

I really, really hope we can come together and make this a successful fundraiser. This is chance to pitch in a few dollars to make a concrete difference in someone’s life.

We have some pretty cool conferences that happen in Louisville. There’s IdeaFestival, Derby City Comic Con, ConGlomeration just to name a few. Now there is a new conference in town, this one focusing on small business. Called Small Business Shamen, the conference seeks to educate and inspire small business folks across the board, not restricted to one industry.

Our audience is anyone who believes in the power of small business and the local economy as an agent of change in the world. From landscapers to tech startups, artists to attorneys. The Small Business Shamen series will be education and food for thought in a complete array of business necessities, inspiration to brass tacks.

The inaugural conference takes place April 4, 2012 at the Ice House on Main Street. Scheduled speakers for the event include Chris Brogan, Mayor Fischer, Mike Mays, Peggy Noe Stevens, JK McKnight and Jason Clark.

Early registration for the conference is open now and runs $125 for the one-day event (includes lunch).

I had lunch at Havana Rumba the other day and while there I noticed that the empty restaurant spot in the shopping center (it had an Iraqi restaurant for a while and an Indian restaurant before that) had new coming soon signs. The signs said the Charim Korean Restaurant will be opening soon.

I’m a bit ashamed to admit that my knowledge of Korean food pretty much begins with Korean barbecue and ends with kimchi so I’ll be excited to expand my Korean food horizons when this place opens. Yes, I know there are a couple other Korean restaurants in town already but this one is within my well traveled routes so I’m pretty sure I’ll try this one soon after it opens.

The Louisville Free Public Library is starting a new monthly series of events called “Your Social [Media] Life.” They describe the program as a “lively monthly gathering and discussion forum for social media enthusiasts and professionals who are interested in delving deeper into the field’s special topics and new developments.

Um, I guess I fall into that group since I’m one of the speakers for the first event in this series next Wednesday night, February 1, at 6PM. The general topic for this first event is “personal social media policies.” Like I said I’ll be on the panel of speakers with a few other people including one of my favorite people Ashlee Clark Thompson! So if you’re interested in social media topics (particularly how to balance that whole work/personal thing on Twitter/Facebook, etc) or just want to see how much of a dork I am in person I encourage you to come down to the main branch of the library next Wednesday evening at 6PM.

I confess that before I was asked to post about this I didn’t even know we had a professional arena soccer league team in Louisville. Now I know we do and I think it’s pretty cool that they’re encouraging folks to bring donations for Dare to Care to their matches and specifically peanut butter next Friday February 3, 2012.

The Louisville Lightning Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) Team is partnering with the YUM! Brands to battle hunger benefiting Dare to Care Food Bank and host a white-out themed soccer game on Friday, February 3, at Mockingbird Valley Sports Complex against the Ohio Vortex.

The Louisville Lightning Players have picked a Protein Pick of the Week to encourage canned good donations for every home game. Lightning fans are encouraged to bring a jar of Peanut Butter to the white-out game to receive 20% off $10 tickets purchased at the door on game night.

Friday February 3, 2012
7:30PM

Mockingbird Valley Sports Complex
3000 Mellwood Ave
Louisville, KY 40207

The latest issue of my favorite magazine, Garden and Gun, alerted me that in March the Paul Paletti gallery will have an exhibit of photography by Kentucky native Shelby Lee Adams. The show will feature works from “Salt and Truth” the new book by Adams.

Salt & Truth is the fourth book from American photographer Shelby Lee Adams [1950-present]. This collection of 80 new photographs, taken over the past eight years, continues a project the artist has been working on now for over 30 years. Together these powerful images of the hollow dwellers of eastern Kentucky, represent a singular access to a world that is historically not very trusting of outsiders, by a photographer who is widely recognized as a master of the medium.

The show is going to open during the March first Friday Trolley Hop on March 3 and Adams will be at the gallery from 5PM-9PM that evening. The show will run until the end of May. The New York Times has a great slideshow of photos and text from “Salt and Truth” that you should check out.

Paul Paletti Gallery
713 E Market Street
Louisville, KY 40202

John King lives in the Highlands with his wife, cat, and hopefully a dog soon. He works for the University of Louisville and is a PhD student. He is an avid runner, homebrewer, craft beer nerd, and also has many other hobbies which his wife tolerates. His blog can be found at http://kentuckybrewreview.wordpress.com or on Twitter @kingofkentucky.

Wanting to get away from my Illinois roots, I came to Louisville in 2005 for graduate school, left for a year for a school counseling gig, and promptly returned because I missed the city too damn much. Often times, before I moved back, I’d daydream about sitting outside Heine Brothers drinking coffee, when in all honesty I didn’t even like coffee at the time. I missed the riverfront, the skyline, and the Highlands. I missed everything about the city, except perhaps the ever-constant squabbles regarding Louisville and Kentucky basketball.

It’s honestly hard to explain why I love the city so much and how the city keeps bringing me back. I am still amazed at how I convinced (see also: begged, pleaded, grovelled) my wife to move from Boston, MA to Louisville. She’ll admit it herself: the city contrasted with all predictions and stereotypes her East Coast attitude held. When the question comes up (at least weekly) of when we are moving back to the East Coast, with each answer, her voice has less certainty than the time before. Louisville is getting to her, too. It’s working.

There is a significant difference between what I enjoy and what I love about Louisville. I enjoy the fact that baristas at Highland Coffee know my name and that on Fridays I get whipped cream, while the rest of the week I don’t. I enjoy being able to drink a New Albanian or Against the Grain beer and can text back and forth with the brewer about my thoughts on it. I enjoy running at 5:30 a.m. on an empty Bardstown Road and being one of the rare few who get to enjoy the smell of freshly baked snicker doodle cookies from Kizoto. I enjoy my Highlands neighborhood and the diversity it brings to the community and my ever-changing view of the world.
But most of all, I enjoy the fact that all these things culminate into one simple word that makes me smile everyday: home.

But, to be fair, the absolute one thing I love about Louisville is the parks. Frederick Olmsted knew what the heck he was doing way back when. Most don’t know it, and I have difficulty saying this because I want it all to myself at times, but Louisville has the largest urban forest in the United States just sitting in its backyard. Yep, that’s right, Jefferson Memorial Forest. It is absolutely beautiful during the fall. There are times I believe everyone in Louisville is going to be at Cherokee Park when we get that first really warm day in the spring. Everybody seems to break out of his or her winter funk on that 2.4 hilly escape. I often lose myself on the trails of Cherokee and Seneca because for a second, I feel less in a city and more in a forest. If you never have, and I suggest you do, go to Iroquois Park sometime and check out the spectacular view of the city. You’ll thank me later.

The parks are what brought me back. They have a kind of magnetism unlike anything else. They are a gift we often look past, drive through, or forget about, but always remain a significant part of Louisville. If it weren’t for the Olmsted Parks Conservancy and its volunteers, I would not be able to say the one thing I love about Louisville is its parks.

In celebration of the opening of Alter Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea, 21c is hosting a special dinner with the artist this Saturday night, January 28, 2012. $85 gets you a 3 course meal from Proof and dinner with the artist.

$85 is a little pricey so it’s cool that Anthony Goicolea will be giving a talk before the dinner that is absolutely free and open to the public.

The exhibition is organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Telfair Museums in collaboration with 21c Museum. It has shown already at both of those museums, but we are expanding it considerably for the exhibition here at 21c to include 20 works not shown at NCMA and 5 that were not shown in Savannah including two early works from 2011/2012 and three of the artist’s most recent large-scale drawings from the 2011 Pathetic Fallacy series. The exhibition (running January 27 to July 15) will fill all of the gallery spaces at 21c and 37 of the 62 works in the exhibition belong to 21c; 21c Museum owns the largest collection of Goicolea works in the U.S.

Artist Talk: 6pm | Atrium Gallery | Free and open to the public
Artist Dinner: 7pm | $85 for three-course dinner, provided by Proof on Main

Space is limited so RSVP to Megan at
mbreier@21cHotels.com or 502.217.6374 today!
A credit card will be required to hold reservation