The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival starts today. Jazz Fest runs the last weekend of April and first weekend of May, and we’re excitedly looking forward to being there for the second weekend. I didn’t expect to like Jazz Fest. Several years ago when our friend, Rachel, invited us to join her in a large rental house for the…
While thousands of music fans watched bands and ate good food in the rain at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, just a few blocks away, Launch Fest gathered a couple hundred entrepreneurs for talks about how to score investors and how NOLA can develop its tech-savvy talent pool. I got fired up by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the…
Earlier this week I blogged about one theme I heard in digital marketing conversations at South by Southwest Interactive — authenticity — but the panel that really rocked me was about serendipity: Serendipity is a fuzzy concept that has a powerful effect on our lives. More than blind luck, it’s the product of lots of passion, insight, or proximity. As…
My husband and I haven’t missed a Jazz Fest since Katrina and we lived in New Orleans for three months in 2011, so we often get requests from friends about what to do. I’ve compiled an ever-expanding list to share when someone asks. These are my NOLA tips — I welcome your additions, questions or objections: In general, New Orleans…
Late in the summer, I finally made it through an aging copy of Psychology Today in a magazine stack next to the bed. I kept that magazine since 2010 because its cover promoted an article on making your own luck, though I can’t begin to explain why it took me two years to read a well-written piece on a topic…
We recently wrapped up season two of “Friday Night Lights,” having only completed season one a few weeks ago. That’s the benefit of watching a TV series on Netflix — when you find something you love, you can go on a bender, watching several episodes in a sitting. I’d heard about “Friday Night Lights,” but figured a show about high…
I’d never heard of St. Vitus’ Dance until I read an ABC News story recently about its anniversary: St. Vitus’ Dance, back in 1374, groups of people — sometimes thousands at a time — started dancing uncontrollably. It continued for days, and in some cases, weeks and months. Some people reportedly danced until they collapsed from exhaustion or even death,…
Yesterday I asked you to tell me what you’re grateful for — you could win PRIZES! To get you thinking, here’s a sampling of some posts I’ve written in the past about things I’m grateful for: kitchen gadgets including our mandoline, automatic coffee maker and the SodaStream seltzer maker farmers markets New Orleans Jazz Fest And if you’d like a…
Preservation Hall Jazz Band plays New York tonight and I’m such a geeky fan girl that I’m going even though I think I’ve seen them five times already this year. Traditional jazz is my soul music. It never fails to make me happy. Whether I am covered in mud on a rainy day at New Orleans Jazz Fest or packed…
Today I’m kicking off a new occasional series on writers — how and why they write, what inspires them and how they overcome challenges like writer’s block and rejection. Since I wrote a guest post for Lara earlier this week, it seems only appropriate that she would lead off the new project. On deck are Jim Tobin, who won the…
I’ll be at SXSW for a few more days, probably spending more time talking about blogging and social media than actually having time to do it myself. So much like the TV networks used to let you catch up on your favorite shows with summer reruns, here are some greatest hits of Newvine Growing to entertain you until I’m back…
Leading up to Thanksgiving, each day I will blog about what I’m doing to be more grateful. I invite you to join me in a Month of Thanksgiving, and to share your thoughts, observations, suggestions and ideas. Day 27: Giving thanks for my friends Yesterday I gave thanks for my hubby, John Tebeau, my best friend. I’m also grateful for…
