Archive for the 'Social' Category

It’s back by popular demand – Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET) and Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN) are again hosting “Wi-Fi Wednesdays” in Las Vegas. Every Wi-Fi Wednesday features free appetizers, great door prizes and the ever-popular “speed networking,” a fast, fun and effective way to connect with many different people in a short period of time.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 30 - 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, 3987 Paradise Rd., Las Vegas
COST: $10 donation at the door
RSVP: ONLINE or to Emily Somerville at Emily@NCET.org or call (775) 853-4226

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Pull the hall pass for Thursday night because there’s two great events:

• First up is a Deanne Stillman book-signing at Sundance Bookstore. Deanne’s latest book, “Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West,” was published today. The event starts at 6:30pm. Click [here] for directions to Sundance. Also, please visit: www.nvwildhorses.com to join a community dialog on this subject.
• After the booksigning, the Reno-Tahoe AIGA (that stands for American Institute for Graphic Arts) is screening Helvetica on the Nevada Museum of Art’s rooftop.

“Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West” Booksigning

Deanne had an article in the LA Times last week. Here’s an excerpt:

Wild horses aren’t free

Failure to enforce a 1971 law endangers the mustangs it was supposed to protect.

By Deanne Stillman
June 2, 2008

It’s not news that America is a cowboy nation, but it may surprise many that we are destroying the horse we rode in on.

Since the early 1970s, mustangs — wild horses — have been protected under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act, spearheaded by Velma Johnston, a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie. In 1950, she saw blood spilling out of a truck on a Nevada highway, followed it, and then witnessed injured and dying mustangs being offloaded at a slaughterhouse. She led a battle to stop the cruel roundups, resulting in the passage of federal protection signed into law by President Nixon in 1971.

Under that law, horses are to be “considered in areas where presently found as an integral part of the system of public lands.” Their management falls to agencies inside the Department of the Interior, primarily the Bureau of Land Management, which culls the herds based on the land’s grazing capacity and what’s required to sustain the wild horse population. But the government also balances the needs of horses against other uses of the range — and that means corporate cattle ranching. Today, instead of being protected, mustangs are in danger of being “managed” out of existence.

At Twelve Horses (where I’m employed) we kinda stirred up the dust on the wild horse issue and did a video podcast and created a social community to foster more dialog on the subject. Here’s the video, and if you will, please join www.nvwildhorses.com and let’s find some resolution to this issue. Our aim to get folks leveraging social media to draw the attention, air out the facts and protect our State’s brand.

Helvetica: Rooftop Film Screening Party at NMA

Thursday June 12, 7pm: Nevada Museum of Art

Join us for a rooftop screening of the acclaimed documentary Helvetica on the 51st birthday of the typeface. We will be serving birthday cake and beverages and the museum galleries will be open prior to showtime.

7pm - Food, drink and museum galleries, 8pm - Showtime

Members | Free
Student non-members | $10
Non-members | $20

Everyone is encouraged to bring a guest, free of charge.

Register [here].

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Hearts and prayers out to Serenity Burns, the daughter of Utah blogger @Phil801 and his wife Adria. Serenity has been diagnosed with and is being treated for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. I first heard of this about 15 days ago through the Utah Twittersphere that led me to Jason Alba’s blogpost and then to Phil’s blog where with great detail he has detailed their family’s challenge: help Serenity beat this disease.

(Incidentally, I was excited to see that this past weekend a good friend’s daughter graduated high school. She fought and won a battle with Leukemia when she was seven.) 

I noticed the ChipIn widget Phil had on the side and saw that it had a goal of $10,000.00. It was at ~$1,200 then and I used it to make a donation and thought that it was very easy - especially if you already have a PayPal account.

Today their ChipIn reached over $10,000 which is really awesome and I’m hoping that their goal is revised upwards 10x. While they’ve got an uphill battle to fight with medical costs, the support of the blogging community combined with yet-another great social media application - ChipIn - Serenity Burns will surely walk a high school graduation stage. Just as in the case of Leilani’s GabrielsLife.org, social media is saving lives and helping people out. How cool is that?

If you have the ability to make a donation the the Serentity ChipIn, I’d appreciate it.

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Las year, my family and many of our friends spent the Memorial Weekend participating in the filming of the Modest Mouse “Little Motel” video. Cody (then 5 yrs old) had a starring role in it. Pretty cool, huh!?

It was a long weekend of shooting and we all had an excellent time staying up all night watching Reno native writer/director Justin Francis work his magic. A Flickr slideshow is here.

A year later, Modest Mouse is playing at the Grand Sierra Resort on Tuesday 5/27 the whole Twelve Horses crew is going to support and draw attention to GabrielsLife.org. Modest Mouse is an amazing band in the first place, but this whole experience has made them even more amazing with the attention it has brought to Reno and to GabrielsLife.org.

The Backstory:

Many of you know my best friend / local attorney Matt Francis. We met on the UNR ski team back in 1988. His younger brother Justin Francis is an amazing music video producer/videographer having done music videos for artists like Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keyes, Mariah Carey, the Hives and on and on and on….they guy never stops shooting videos and commercials.

Anyway, he pitched Modest Mouse on shooting a video of their song “Little Motel” in the town he grew up in, Reno Nevada with a script he had written. He asked Cody to play a role in it. If you’ve not seen the video, now would be a good time to watch it so the rest of this blog post makes sense!

For obvious reasons, the subject of the video was difficult at best. My wife and I had our reservations about having our son play a role in such a tragic story. I mean, would you? Every time I watch this video I tear up and cry. If you made it through this video and are still dry-eyed, you’re definitely not a parent!

Leilani, Twelve Horses’ Social Marketing Manager, talked my wife and I in to letting Cody doing the video. I work closely with Leilani every day and she’s been a tremendous role model in my life. If you have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know her, then you are undoubtedly aware of the tragedy in Leilani’s life due to Hydrocephalus and the amazing leadership and courage that has led her to launch GabrielsLife.org. If you’ve never read this story or met Leilani, please take a moment to do so and sup[port this organization. Also, there’s a great story that the local newspaper did here: http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080129/LIV/801290331.

Now it’s almost a year later and I’m reading the hundreds and hundreds of comments of how deeply moved people are by this video Justin wrote.

Our family is absolutely proud of being part of a project that has reminded so many people how precious life is and how powerful connections are. Through family, friends and the online social media, tragedy, writing, creativity and friendly helping people have all had an opportunity to inspire each other. That’s cool.

If you’re in Reno Tuesday, I hope to see you at the Modest Mouse concert! We’ll all be there!

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Holland Project serves up Punk Rock Storytellers Vol. III,  7:30 tonight (April 24) at 30

Cheney Ave. in Reno. Featuring Mark Norris, Jawsh Hageman and Clint Neuerburg. All ages welcome. Don’t miss it!

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Lots of cool events coming up in the next few days… Come rain (snow) or shine, Earth Day will be celebrated at Idlewild Park this Sunday, April 20 from 10 - 5. Reno Bike Project will be running the bike valet in front of the California Building, so be sure to stop in and say hey. (Also mark your calendar for the “Bike To Work Day” breakfast on Friday, May 16 – give Noah a call at (775) 622-6954 if you have questions.) On Monday the 21^st Reno Bike Project holds its regular meeting at Susan’s office at 6. The group needs warm bodies to help out at next Saturday’s art show at Holland and Grayspace, so be sure to show up and get your assignment. Questions about the art show? Give Merrie a call at (775) 846-0664

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Hip Hop Show  - Thursday, 4/10 @ 7:30 p.m.  - Featuring Dorm Room Productions, Element, The Dangerous Minds Crew and Emic and Locus.

Hardcore Show  -  Friday, 4/11 @ 7:30 p.m.  - Featuring Old News, Blasphemous Creation, Part of the Problem, Stand Off, Deepen the Wound, Silence Surrendered.

Tickets are just $5, and proceeds from both shows benefit Rainshadow Charter High.  Studio on 4th is located at  432 East 4th Street  in Reno.

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Check out some hot local bands and support The Great Basin Food Co-op Friday, March 21. Studio on 4th (432 E. 4th St.) from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. Local music showcase will feature Sea Legs, Yavin 4, Rebel Diamonds and Missing Organs. Just $5 to get in with a big chunk of the proceeds going to the co-op.

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