Cleveland Blogger Prizes

So remember a certain contest that was run just over a month ago here on this blog?

Yeah, me to too. Well I announced a winner and it was buried in a blog about how awesome my child was, because this IS my blog and yes, I am the narcissist, so it's all about me me me.

So for a refresher, I was giving away a C.L.E. Clothing Co. t-shirt as a price for guessing the Addy's birth time without going over. So many of you chimed in, and 1 of you won.

Kasey Crabtree. A winner. She won the much coveted C.L.E. Clothing Co. t-shirt. As a bonus she was able to come over and meet the baby. Kasey, the clairvoyant she is, was able to guess to within 6 minutes of the correct time. 6 minutes. You know out of 1440 minutes in the day, she picked that particular minute. I couldn't believe someone could get it that close. When I was talking with her, she said, "I saw sixes, nines, threes, and so that's how I got it."

It was amazing and she won a great prize. Way to go Kasey, and for those of you on Twitter, go follow her, she has some great Tweets. She gives good Tweet, as LauraBlue would say.

So that being said, I have given out my first prize, and I look forward to hooking up with C.L.E. Clothing Co. on a future giveaway, but I have also won some stuff out there in Blog Land.

My very very very first prize comes from a very popular Cleveland Blogger Alexa over at Cleveland's a Plum. She was recently voted best blogger in Cleveland by the readers of Cleveland Magazine. She is so popular the C.L.E. Clothing Co. even made a shirt for her. She had a pow wow at her place to give these things away. The contest was genius and check it out so you can see how I won such a fracking awesome shirt.

Now that you are back, the Cleveland Food Scene has recently gotten a TON of attention. More specifically the Greenhouse Tavern. Named one of the 10 best restaurants in the country by Bon Apetite Magazine, and Chef/Owner Johnathon Sawyer was voted best Chef in Cleveland by Cleveland Scene, his wife Amelia runs a pretty fantastic blog as well as running their home lives. This couple is the dynamic duo. Amelia a.k.a Chef's Widow was selected by the Gap to be a Gap Brand Enthusiast and so they shipped her a ton of jeans and other giveaway things, along with a video camera and said, "Give our shit away".

Give it away she did. Check out how SHE gave it away, and how she got her readers [me] involved.

Well a few days ago I got my prize in the mail and off to the Gap I went. A coupon for free Jeans is amazing considering I can't afford much right now, so a coupon worth basically $55.00 is amazing, and the new Gap Jeans I got as a result are also amazing.

In closing I want to thank all of you who entered my contest, and I also want to thank Cleveland's a Plum and Chef's Widow for making me look good, and also did for free.

[Rocking Cleveland's a Plum and Chef's Widow Prizes]

I've been away.....

Before you get all mad, I had a good reasons to be away for so long. I have been losing focus.

Since last Wednesday, I have been hyped. We have a date for the arrival of baby. Between last Wednesday until tomorrow, 1 week later, my wife could have gone into labor at any time. With every vibration of my 2 BlackBerrys I sat on the edge. Was this going to be the phone call, text, instant message that will mark the arrival of labor pains, or a goodbye to my wife's water. All of these things would warrant my immediate departure from work.

These things never came. My mind was elsewhere at work. My sales goals are untouched. Out of the huge goal I have sitting in front of me, I have barely made a dent in them. I haven't tried. My mind was pre-occupied. Understandably, but it doesn't help. It was on Friday when I butted heads with a manager I usually have a good relationship with. That's when I really freaked out. It was 4 days into the month, I had almost all zeros on the board when he looked at me and said, "you are better than this". He had a look of disgust on his face. His #1 sales guy, was in the crapper. I have lost focus. My drive was gone. My ambition was gone. I was ready to see my new child.

My managers are pretty understanding. They didn't hassle me too much, so I unplugged from the blog, I unplugged from twitter [not cutting myself from that too much, but reduced my input], and unplugged from full time Facebooking. I needed to focus on my family and career choice.

This is the reason for me being a recluse from my blog.

I have a ton on my brain as a result. I am in the process of scheduling out some posts because I'm pretty sure I will not have time to do blogging for the rest of the week.

While I was away, some great things happened. I won some stuff and got fan mail.

What I won:
Not sure if you remember, but I won a Cleveland's a Plum t-shirt from Alexa from Cleveland's a Plum. I am forever grateful for this! Thanks again Alexa.

But there is something going on in the blog world that 2 bloggers from Cleveland were recipients of. Brand About Town selected 2 of my favorite Cleveland bloggers to be Gap Brand Enthusiasts. That basically means they get a bunch of free shit from Gap and get to throw a party to give it all away. Sometimes they send you so much stuff, that the awesome bloggers they are get to give stuff away to their readers who didn't get invited to the party.

For a long time I have been following Chef's Widow, who is the wife of Cleveland chef Jonathon Sawyer of the Greenhouse Tavern. Her blog has become one of my stops in my daily routine blog reading. Her adventures of moving have been hilarious, and her insight of what her husband's success in the culinary world by being named Bon Appetite's top 10 Restaurants in America. When she got her free stuff from Gap to give away, she threw a party for her restaurant. She gave all the stuff to her staff. She thanked them for being there for her.

So when she had a ton of left overs, she gave it away to us, the readers.

I am glad to say that I won!! I won a pair of Gap Jeans! First a t-shirt, now some jeans. How awesome!

So thank you Chef's Widow can't wait to try them on!

Don't worry, I will get photos of my Cleveland blogger prize pack!

What I got from a Fan:
Well a good friend of mine who is NOT a fan of blogs, but IS a fan of my podcast recently visited me at my day job. He walked in and gave me a package. I quickly opened it and out came a t-shirt.

George is the drummer of a Cleveland metal band Morality Check. They will be making an appearance on the podcast soon. George and I go way back. He went to high school with my older brother and he and I have stayed in touch throughout the years. I have been to his house many a night rocking to Guitar Hero with a bunch of other friends. My avatar is awesome.

So when I saw George that day in my store handing me a package with a t-shirt, I was interested as to what would be on the shirt. He often makes fun of me for blogging as much as I do, but not in a malicious way, just in jest.

I laughed when I saw the shirt.
How awesome is that?! Thanks George! Can't wait to have the band on my show!

If you haven't already, make sure you get your times in for tomorrow's side bet on the baby pool. Make sure you read the comments and see what everyone else has said! Also, if you would like to stay updated, I will be twittering I'm sure during the labor. Follow me on Twitter to keep in the loop.

Season 2 Episode 3 Announcement

There has been a buzz around my next podcast. I said yesterday that it was going to be huge, and for a podcaster who hosts his podcast out of his living room, this next episode is going to be HUGE!

First let me tell you the Rest of the Story. [May you rest in peace Paul Harvey]

Up until August 3rd, my blog/podcast was a proverbial nobody. I had only 33 loyal followers. I wasn't looking for anything larger than what I was able to grow myself. I used Twitter and Facebook to 'market' my blog, but other than the occasional links I got from other bloggers, it was just a word of mouth operation over here.

A few months back I was able to get out to an Ohio Sky show with my buddy Julie. As a happy coincidence, it was a dual show at the Beachland Ballroom, and a folk-pop artist called Adam Taylor was playing. I sat at the back of the room, just taking in the music, and Julie was around snapping photos with her analog 35mm camera. [what is it about friends of mine named Julie, and their obsession with photos? It must be the name.] I was impressed with Adam. His sound was original, fresh, and it made you tap your feet. It was an intimate show. I picked up some of his drop cards from a makeshift merch table at the back of the house, and I looked him up with my Blackberry.

I wanted to have this kid on my podcast. I learned that he was on his way to Summerfest in WI and Cleveland was the first stop on his tour. I really wanted him on my podcast at this point. I grabbed his e-mail from his website and punched out an e-mail all the while sitting at the back of the room.

It wasn't for a few weeks later than Adam e-mailed me back. By that time I had already played his stuff on the podcast, to great reviews, and he was delighted. He said that when he came through Cleveland, he would definitely stop by the podcast and do a show. That was in July.

August 3rd I got a tweet message from Adam Taylor. He was going to be in town on August 16th. That is also the same day Blogger decided that I should be the Blog of Note. With increased traffic and a ton more visitors than I have ever seen, I decided to try and find a venue for this I wanted to share this spotlight with MY city. I wanted Cleveland to come along for the ride too. I didn't know a single person in the Cleveland bar scene. I mean I knew Alexa from Cleveland's a Plum, but that's about it, but then that is when it hit me. I have been exchanging tweets and links back and forth with Joe Harvey from Local Food Service. I asked him for help.

Joe went a little further. He e-mailed my request to several friends of his, and then posted a news post on his website calling for restaurants to help me. I thought it was an exercise in futility. My e-mail box had been silent with news. I sent an e-mail out to Adam Taylor and my crew and said that we would just have the podcast at the Couch Potato Studios, also known as my living room. That was the plan.

Then Joe Harvey sent me an e-mail at 4:53pm on Monday August 10th. The Cleveland Barley House said yes. They said that we could monopolize their restaurant to do our podcast. Adam Taylor was now going to play a venue that was larger than my living room.

So 7pm on August 16, 2009 at the Cleveland Barley House, the Throwing Quarters Podcast brings you Adam Taylor live and in person. It's a free show and I want you there to make this podcast special. Adam Taylor is going to play a live set then we are going to sit down and talk to him after the set.

This is by far the largest under taking I have ever done. It may seem small to some, but to me this is huge. If we are lucky, Adam Taylor will bring stuff to giveaway, so stay tuned for that!

I couldn't have done it without the help of Joe Harvey at Local Food Service and his colleague Joe Arico. Thank you again to the Cleveland Barley House for opening your doors to this small Cleveland blog/podcast.

Throwing Quarters blog/podcast w/ guest Adam Taylor
Barley House Cleveland
1261 W. 6th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113

All that is missing is you and your friends! Be there! Make make sure you drink heavily. They are letting us do the show there for free!

Let the new Season Begin!

Well, after a ton of work, and very stressful moments, Season 2 of the Throwing Podcast is now upon us.

As you can see, some things have changed on the blog. The look has been updated thanks to my lovely wife and her amazing skills of taking my vision and making it a reality. I couldn't have asked for a better logo and header images. Please leave some comments so she knows she is totally awesome!

Next, we have a packed show. We have 3 different bands on the show today.

The first artist is Adam Taylor. I blogged about him not too long ago, and now you can hear his music. The title of the track is called 'Painting the Leprosy (Untitled)'. Folk-pop has made a resurgence, and he is one of the fresh new voices.

The second artist Auralis. A band from right here in Cleveland, Ohio, I first heard about them through Allan Fee's Twitter page when he tweeted about this band at a private party he attended. I heard their first track and was shocked that I haven't heard of them before. They have a great sound!

The last artist is Ryan Humbert from Canton, Ohio. My guest mentioned this guy on during our over the phone interview, and once I started listening, I had to put him on the show!

Now, onto the special guest.

Her name is Alexa and she writes a blog called, Cleveland's a Plum. She writes about Cleveland and she has got to be one of the most fun people to talk to. Full of energy [and Uzzo, she's Greek] we called her and we let the insanity ensue. She is tapped into the Cleveland food scene and also the social scene here in Cleveland, and I was so glad we were able to get her on the show. Check out her blog, and I do suggest to make regualr visits to her blog, because it's funny, fresh, and fun.

This podcast has become a labor love, and I hope you enjoy.

Mobile readers can click here to get it on their Blackberry's or download the stitcher application for your Blackberry or iPhone here and search their podcasts for 'Throwing Quarters' and you can get it there.


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