CultureSurfer.com mentioned on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" last week
May 13, 2008
I'd like to thank Neal Conan for reading the following e-mail that I sent on the air in response to a program about exaggerating. And when I say "slightly," I mean slightly. LOL

I exaggerate ever so slightly when people ask how many visitors I get on my web site, CultureSurfer.com (I round the numbers up). Many web masters exaggerate like crazy, especially about how many hits they get. And they don't bother to tell people the number of hits on a site does NOT represent the number of visitors.

Sent by Naomi Silver | 3:18 PM ET | 05-08-2008

I am now a super hero-lol
May 7, 2008
Amir from Tehran (aka Night Wolf), has adopted six of us Opera.com women from around the world and made us his "angels." This extremely talented young graphic artist has immortalized us in an amazing poster that he has been working on for the past several weeks (I'm on the bottom right with my love bird, Delia, on my shoulder). Poor Amir had to put up with our demands for what we wanted for clothes, hair styles, measurements (if you will), etc. I LOVE these types of projects that connect people from around the worldl. A huge hug goes out to Amir! Click here to see Night Wolf's blog and more of his amazing artwork.

Amir, aka Night Wolf, graphic artist

CultureSurfer named "Member of the Week" on MyOpera.com
May 2, 2008
Click to check out my blog on MyOpera.com.


I woke up this morning, edited a fashion video that will be on CultureSurfer Monday morning, & for some unknown reason headed right back to bed for a very sound late morning nap.

When I woke up & checked my Opera messages, I was shocked and tremendously happy to see Matt's message saying congratulations for being MOTW. How cool!!!

I never thought it would happen but am really amazed and happy that it has. And I am honored to count numerous MOTW such as Richard, Loku, Matt and Karen among my Opera friends. (Sorry if I forgot anyone.) I've found Opera to be not only helpful for promoting CultureSurfer but also a great place to pull content from around the world and, more than anything, a great place to meet really wonderful people.

CultureSurfer.com is an extremely lonely & difficult venture that I have taken on. Without the support, encouragement, and input I've gotten from Opera friends for CultureSurfer, I would have not gotten nearly this far with the site.

Shake, rattle, and roll: Our very own earthquake!!!
April 18, 2008
Talk about being jolted out of your sleep! People in St. Louis are sleepy today. Most of us woke up bright (actually it was still dark) and early at about 4:40 am to an EARTHQUAKE????? Are we really living in the Midwest, or is this just California without the beautiful ocean and mountains? Toto and Dorothy thought THEY were lost!

Growing up in St. Louis, we were all taught that St. Louis sits near the New Madrid fault line that starts somewhere southwest of here across several states, into Illinois. But that doesn't mean we really expect anything to ever happen. We're in the tornado zone, not the earthquake zone. A few years ago some dude predicted a major earthquake for this area. People went nuts buying earthquake insurance, etc. Nothing happened.

We experienced our first earthquake almost 20 years ago when Jeff & I were on vacation in Quebec City. Quebec is another place you wouldn't imagine earthquakes happening. That time, it was at about 6pm or so, we were in a hotel, so Jeff thought I had put a few coins in one of those automatic massage beds. I think electricity or gas was out in part of the city, one woman was killed because the traffic lights went out, & we remember having a heck of a time finding a restaurant that was serving food that night. What we found amusing about the quake was that on tv the reporter said "La terre a shake." That's the French past tense use of the English verb "to shake." How Quebecois!

There is not much damage to report here. Jeff immediately looked outside & spotted a bunny sitting in the middle of the street, completely frozen & freaked out. We checked on Delia & she was utterly unfazed. I am wondering how all of the animals in the zoo are faring. One local reporter said the birds were chirping like crazy right before the quake hit. Well, we all know animals are smarter than we are.

The news is reporting the quake lasted 20 seconds. And there may have been a second wave. I can tell you that in our dimension of reality, we had plenty of time to have a conversation that went something like this: "What the BLEEP???!!!....The windows are shaking like crazy...and so is the bed!! BLEEP!!!! I think it's an BLEEP-ing earthquake." (Yes, the BLEEP-ING is to be expected when woken up out of a sound sleep to an earthquake, something so bizarre in this area that only being abducted by aliens in the middle of the night would be more surprising.)

With all of the shaking, we are hoping our brick house, from 1925, hasn't started growing any additional cracks in the foundation. There is only one photo showing up on the national news of one building in Louisville, Kentucky that was somewhat damaged. No deaths to report so far, which is good. It's kind of humorous watching both the local and national news because although this is a very rare occurrence, there isn't much to talk about. The epicenter was 131 miles east of St. Louis in some small Illinois town whose name I can't recall where they speak with a Southern drawl.

They can't even decide the magnitude of the quake. Let's see, was it 5.2 or 5.4? :rolleyes: And I am hearing conflicting reports as to where the quake was felt, from Missouri & Kentucky, up to Chicago (Jeff heard skyscrapers were shaking) to Wisconsin & possibly Ohio.

Naomi, the Human Pin Cushion
April 11, 2008
Dr. Ginger (Dr. Xinsheng Jiang),
the woman who keeps CultureSurfer's founder going and going and going...

I may have told some of you that I rely on acupuncture twice/month to keep my body & mind in one piece. According to my acupuncturist, the more than 10 years I have regularly been having acupuncture done is part of the reason I look a bit younger than my :yikes: 43 years. She told me this morning, after having just treated one of her 94 year-old patients, that she'd try to get me to 94!! Ginger has noticed a very youthful appearance with several of her regular patients, so I am thinking acupuncture should be marketed as a beauty treatment that keeps you healthy. Cheaper than injecting poison into your face & healthier. :lol:

Last night,Dr. Ginger, was featured on St. Louis tv. Here's the link:
http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?aid=73763&bw=

New Slideshows on Culturesurfer.com



Remember, I'm always looking for great photos from around the world.
Enjoy.


Buy A .tv Domain and Support the Island of Tuvalu
April 4, 2008
CultureSurfer.com is hosted by GoDaddy. I am basically happy with their service, other than having to deal with their not so user-friendly web site & having to look at Danica Patrick's photo day in and day out every time I log in to check my CultureSurfer e-mail. Their customer support boys are very nice & really do try to help.

So I called yesterday because we realized we'd better add CultureSurfer.tv to the other domains we now own to prevent squatters---sorry, I meant "domain resellers"--from snatching it and causing problems for us. But I was surprised when customer support boy rattled off the total for my purchase. I asked why it was so expensive. And he told me that Tuvalu OWNS the .tv domain. He jokingly said I could at least take solace in the fact that I was supporting a third-world country. lol Read on...

tv
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.tv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the island nation of Tuvalu. Except for reserved names like .com.tv, .net.tv, .org.tv and others, any person in the world can register a .tv domain for a fee. In 2000, Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv" for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period.[1] (READ FURTHER ABOUT HOW THIS FELL THROUGH, SO WHO IS GETTING THE CASH NOW???) The Tuvalu government receives a quarterly payment of US$1 million for use of the top-level domain. The domain name is popular, and thus economically valuable, because it is an abbreviation of the word 'television' (other similar ccTLDs are .fm, .am, .cd, and .dj). The domain is currently operated by dotTV, a VeriSign company. The Tuvalu government owns twenty percent of the company.

For a brief period after its creation, all domain names with the letters "AOL" in sequence even with completely random characters before and/or after it were blocked from being registered to prevent misidentification with AOL.

On December 14, 2006, VeriSign announced an alliance with Demand Media, run by ex-MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt to market the .tv Top Level Domain Name (TLD) as the preferred web address for rich media content.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tv

Tuvalu (IPA: [t:u:'valu]), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji...

Tuvalu is a constitutional monarchy and Commonwealth Realm, with Queen Elizabeth II recognised as Queen of Tuvalu....

Tuvalu has almost no natural resources, and its main form of income consists of foreign aid...In 1998, Tuvalu began deriving revenue from use of its area code for "900" lines and from the sale of its ".tv" Internet domain name. In 2000, Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv" for $50 million in royalties. However, the Canadian entrepreneur who negotiated the deal, Jason Chapnik, was unable to raise the $50 million in the contracted time period, and the contract eventually fell into other hands...
The island population has more than doubled since 1980 and was estimated to reach 11,810 in July 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu

Want to know more about the Tuvalu Islands? (Notice it's a .com, not a .tv)
http://www.tuvaluislands.com/

St. Louis Fashion Week-mini post
April 1, 2008
Sorry to have taken so long to post about Fashion Week, but I am still exhausted & have been working like crazy.

So to whet your appetites, here are two pics that Jeff took of me with 2 of the 10 or so designers that I interviewed. Fashion shows remind me of political campaigns from the standpoint of frenetic energy, so the still camera pretty much went by the wayside as we tried to just get the interviews filmed so we could get home and go to bed. On Thursdsay night, there were THIRTEEN designers, so the show ran from 9-1 in the morning. Jeff filmed the entire night (he deserves a medal for that) & I took notes on each and every designer during the show & then promptly forgot just about everything I had just seen.

Rochelle Rodriguez, a designer out of LA who designs very feminine, flowing dresses for women who actually have curves.
A video of Rochelle's designs and her interview are on CultureSurfer.com on the Fashion Page under PROJECT DESIGN.
Rochelle's site

Designer Shay Wilson, creator of Kinetix Clothing (known for very cool graphic t-shirts). He's hot (used to be a model), hip (told me the term "urban" is out and "street" is in-lol),creative and WAY outside the box, very sweet, and the son of a minister (or preacher, can't remember the correct term). He is not Asian (Yes, I asked).
Shay's site



More blogging on fashion week to come when I get caught up with my work. And when I wake up. Saint Louis Fashion Week site

YouTube Break Out Artist David Sides
March 24, 2008
Last Wednesday, two friends and I met for coffee. We decided to meet at a new coffee place called The Grind, which is owned by my friend, Hugo. Hugo and I talked for a while about CultureSurfer, The Grind and Hugo's lounge behind The Grind, called Sol Lounge. He looked at me and asked me if I knew who David Sides was. I didn't. He told me David had more than one million views on some of his YouTube videos. I didn't believe him. And then I saw the numbers for myself.

I hate to risk overuse of the word "phenomenon", but that's what David is. There are incredible numbers of extremely talented musicians on YouTube, but their videos aren't receiving millions of views like David's. These musicians have music videos that have been professionally produced, and they will never see such high numbers. So what is it about this guy?

David has somehow tapped into something we want, something we need. It hit me the minute I watched his video "Apologize." I almost cried. And I had the same response the second time I watched the video. David plays with incredible emotion that would be palpable to just about anyone. Apparently, millions of us need something to help us express some of the passion, sadness,longing,love that you feel when you hear him play.

It's mesmerizing to watch him play in person. Most of the time, his eyes are closed and he throws his entire essence into his playing. He is in another world. And he's only 23. And relatively untrained. He holds a degree in musicology, but he began to teach himself how to play when he was 10 & has received very little formal training.

So far, David's fame is pretty much restricted to YouTube. But I can't imagine it will remain so for much longer.

Watch David's interview & music video on CultureSurfer.com.

Super-cool, hip-hop, rock star David


Sensitive, sweet, intense David

Indie Singer Ellee Ven (as in the number 11)
March 19 , 2008


I had the most fantastic evening last night. I got to interview and have some great chick-chat (my poor husband!)) with Miss Ellee Ven for about an hour last night. I adore this woman.

Let me tell you about Ellee. I met her last September here in St. Louis at the first annual indie Play Stl Music Festival. I was really impressed by her voice, the unique sound of her music, her musicians, her stage presence, her vibrancy, her modesty, & how warm & sweet she was. We spoke very briefly but kept in contact.

And last night, she was back in town.

Ellee's music is totally cool, original, intense, pop, indie, all mixed together. I really can't explain it. She calls it "groovetonics." Her voice is unique, full, strong, smooth. Oh, and I can't avoid talking about her looks. She's stunning. And not in that Barbie-doll clone look that is so pervasive in American culture. She's got a very cool ethnic look, sexy, has classy/funky taste in clothes, and can look totally glam or very earthy. Take a look at her site and you'll see what I mean.

Not only does Ellee give an amazing performance, but she also runs her own record company, Hot Sauce Records (see t-shirt I'm wearing in the pic). This is a woman who has taken control of her career, working all of the business angles in addition to writing songs & performing. How cool is that?

Ellee splits her time between LA & Kentucky, with a healthy dose of touring thrown in there.

Her video "You Can Buy Me", won Video Of The Year at the South Bay Music Awards last fall. Ellee also won best electro-pop artist at the LA music awards. This woman has a major future in music. I can't wait to see what happens for her.

Ellee's interview, as well as an interview with her band, with be on CultureSurfer.com on Monday.

Romanian artist Daniel Balanescu on CultureSurfer.com
March 17 , 2008


The newest video on CultureSurfer.com is an example of what cool things can come of hooking up with people on MyOpera. Daniel sent me a message on March 9th, saying he liked my answer to "What would you do if you were a superheroe?" on my profile, which is "Get rid of all of the idiots who are in charge of the world." It makes sense that he liked this answer, considering what Romania has had to contend with.

I wrote Daniel, as I do pretty much everyone from outside of the US asking if he had any video. Since I could see from Daniel's blog that he was an artist, I specifically requested a video of his art. He said he didn't have anything but as I requested would put together some still photos of his art along with some music of his choosing.

About 15 messages over 2 days & some editing (thanks to my husband, Jeff), the beautiful "Metro Tickets Underground Project" video is now on CultureSurfer.com.

I just love the fact that technology allowed this to happen. I now have a wonderful video for my site as well as a new friend. I am hoping for more such collaborations the future.


Just for fun...
March 13 , 2008
I know I've been falling behind in my blogging, so here's a pic to keep you entertained.

This week's videos
February 20, 2008
Lay Down Your Guns-By St. Louis heavy metal band St.Luniverse. The guys who shoots these videos does excellent production work & films for several local metal bands.

Writer/Director Russ Marleau (and the trailer of his film, "The Curiosity of Chance"). We filmed this interview at midnight because I wanted to watch the movie before doing the interview. I really like Russ, nice guy, & the movie is fun.

Nia & How Does It Feel?-More of the Kwanzaa Celebration in December at the Saint Louis Art Museum. I love the message of power in these videos.

Bring Em Out & The Wizard of Oz- Both of these videos were shot in Erbil, Iraq last summer as part of the Unity Academy, a program put on by American Voices. The little Iraqi kids in The Wizard video are incredibly adorable & it's fun to watch their director as well.

Keaton & Renaldo in Circus Harmony-Keaton's mom runs the Circus Day organization. They are about to show a documentary of their circus work with Arabs & Israelis together in a circus.I love this organization because they are all about multiculturalism & bridging differences. All of the kids in these circus videos are teenagers, by the way.

CultureSurfer.com redesign
February 14, 2008
Hope you like the more sleek, simplified design. Please notice that the horizontal & vertical menus have been switched. Due to popular demand, I got rid of the green. Apparenly, it was making some people squeamish. Let me know what you think of the newest (I'm sure they will be more!) CultureSurfer.com. Happy Surfing!

Cool new stuff on CultureSurfer.com
February 6, 2008

Photos from Off The Wall At City Hall
With Art Dimensions, a totally cool non-profit arts organization in St. Louis. I love the fact that they do work with kids.
http://culturesurfer.com/Pics/ArtDimensions12-07/index.htm

Symbols of Kwanzaa & Ngoma Na Andamono (drum call & procession)
I went looking for a Kwanzaa celebration to film. Why? Because I knew nothing about Kwanzaa and, as I keep saying, I'm extremely curious. I found this Kwanzaa Celebration at the Saint Louis Art Museum & ended up filming an hour of videos. The whole performance was great, with drumming by the Moja Moyo and dancing by Spirit of Angela. Keep in mind that although all of the drumming and dance are traditional African music & dance, all of the participants are from right here in the St. Louis area. Apparently, much of the interest in these traditional African arts comes from late choreographer Katherine Dunham's Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, located in the St. Louis area. More videos from this great performance coming throughout February & March on CultureSurfer.com.

Occult Spy
I found St. Louis dj Leon Lamont on the Critical Mass list-serve & found this short film he had made. I think it's really creative, unique, funny, a little creepy, etc. Enjoy!

"My Land? Your Land?…", a play
This piece was written & performed by teenagers from the city of St. Louis. This performance was part of the Democracy Now exhibit last summer at the Regional Arts Commission, curated by Michael Crane. The play was produced by STL Artworks & that Uppity Theatre Co. I was really moved by the message of the play, the fact that kids had come up with this content, & thought the performance by "grandma" was a blast.

John Rozelle, abstract artist
John is one of the four artists featured in the Saint Louis Art Museum's "African Abstraction: St. Louis Connections" exhibit. John is not only a talented artist and a nice guy, but he is an imposing figure. The second I saw him, I knew I'd be craning my neck to look at him during the interview. (And yes, I was wearing boots with heels.) I thought John looked very cool in his black clothes, cowboy hat, shades, & earring. And I must not forget to mention that is travels to various African cultures have strongly influenced him, from the standpoints of African art as well as societies run by people with black skin.

January 26, 2008
Why Interviewing Is A Total Rush
I just knocked off three interviews this morning at the Saint Louis Art Museum. These were not any run of the mill interviews because SLAM (the Saint Louis Art Museum) is one of the most admired institutions in St. Louis.

My interviews were with: the curator of American art, Andrew Walker; African-American abstract artist John Rozelle; African-American abstract artist Phillip Hampton.

So I find myself at this highly esteemed institution, where I have gone since I was a tiny, tiny, kid, & I am about to interview a curator. And two artists. Mind you, I know nothing about what a curator does. I know nothing about abstract art. Except that a curator curates art & abstract art is hard to figure out because it's abstract. Was I a bit stressed & nervous this morning? Absolutely.

Yet I feel that I am completely in my element when I am in situations like this. I love "cramming" before interviews, trying to read a little about my interview subject, their art (or whatever they do) and trying like crazy to remember everyone’s' names & titles. All of that happens before I even get to the interview.

Once I'm there, it's time to take notes if there's a talk, concert, whatever, so I get a few ideas of what to ask. Then, I have to quickly review the names, titles, and the questions I've just written down. Then, I step in front of the camera. That's where the real fun begins.

I shook like a leaf my first 4 months in front of the camera. I had to keep asking myself WHY I persisted in doing something that terrified me. But I'm happy I persevered. I love being in front of the camera. This is not because I love to see myself on film. I am so happy the video player on CultureSurfer is small & have so much sympathy for people who are on HDTV.

But it's so much fun to make a connection (as quickly as possible) with my interview subject, hopefully put him or her at ease (I can completely understand why people loathe media-many reporters are really nasty!), and come up with one really thought-provoking, unique, or funny question per interview, usually at the very end. I know I've got a good interview when I ask that final question & get a slight smile or actually get the response "No one has ever asked me that before." But then there are so many elements that are out of my control.

Like background noise. The gallery at the art museum was full of people talking this morning. And I mean it was loud. I had to ignore it. I've had water pour down on my head during an interview. Ignored it. I've had friends walk by & wave at me during interviews. I ignore it. Doors slam. I ignore the noise. I like to boast that if there were an earthquake during an interview, I'd keep going. (Hope I never get the chance to find out.) All of this is nerve-wracking, but it's the challenge to stay focused that I like.

And even if everything is going great, I have to watch my interview subject to make sure he/she isn't moving out of frame (this has happened), check to make sure the microphone switch is actually on (I've lost interivews due to the mic being off), keep track of the time, focus on what the person is saying, all while trying to come up with a new question if the person just answered a question I was going to ask, or just trying to remember what the next question was. And there are times when I totally, utterly blank out on the next question. I am not religious, but this is a time when I pray. And it works. Always. Even though sometimes it takes what seems like hours for the question to come back, it always comes back. So why do I love doing this?

I get to meet all kinds of fascinating, inspiring, talented, amazing people from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, that I'd not otherwise have the excuse to meet. My only regret about interviewing is that I'd like to spend more time with just about every person I meet. But then again, I do have my own life to lead.

CultureSurfer and "social networking"
January 14, 2008
I have reluctantly entered into the game/addiction/trend of social networking due to everyone telling me it would lead more people to CultureSurfer.com. Well, I have to admit that people were right & I am definitely seeing an increase in the number of visitors on CultureSurfer. Some of the musicians, artists, athletes I've featured on CultureSurfer are on my MySpace page and my Facebook page.

You may have noticed the CULTURESURFER LIVE UPDATES box on the homepage of CultureSurfer. The postings you see in this box are the postings that I am typing into my Twitter page & they also show up on my MySpace & Facebook pages. Sometimes, my posts are just to update everyone as to what I am currently doing on the site & sometimes I am chatting with someone on Twitter. If you want to see who I am following & who is following me on Twitter, as well as the whole conversation (if you can call it that; postings are limited to 140 characters each), just click on the Twitter link in the CULTURESURFER LIVE UPDATES box. There are people on Twitter from around the world (I am noticing lots of postings in English, Spanish, German, & Japanese) & the people who use this site are really interesting- a lot of tech people, artists, writers, intellectuals. Check out CultureSurfer on Twitter but I am warning you, it is seriously addictive!

Get updates about new CultureSurfer videos from Google Alerts
Register (it's free and it's easy) to get e-mail updates from Google Alerts when there is a new video uploaded to Culture Surfer.com

What have we filmed recently?
Kwanzaa
I went in search of a Kwanzaa celebration to film since I knew absolutely nothing about it & found a fantastic Kwanzaa celebration at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Among a lot of great performances we shot, there is a video of some very young kids (we're talking about 3 years old) performing a traditional African dance. These little kids were fantastic! These videos are really beautiful to look at & I can't wait to share them with you.The videos should be on the site by the end of January through February on the African-American Culture page & the Dance & Music pages
Capoeira
I was really interested when I found out that Ciliea, owner of Belas Artes, would be having a capoeira performance at her holiday celebration. The performers were incredible (I still don't get how they do that without killing each other or having heart attacks from that level of physical exertion)). They took the time to give me a great interview so I could ask about this form of martial arts/dance/music that I knew nothing about.The 2 videos should be online this week.
Improv comedy
My husband (and videographer) loves to do improv as a hobby, so I recently filmed a night of improv put on by the wonderful Bill Chott of The Improv Trick. The videos should be online at the end of this month & in February.
Three Kings Celebration
Again, this was another cultural celebration about which I knew nothing, so I really wanted to film it. The Puerto Rican Society of St. Louis holds this celebration every year on the 12th day of Christmas. It was a lot of fun & I particularly loved filming the kids. A huge thanks to Maria-Teresa Maldonado, former president of the society for getting the word out that these videos are on CultureSurfer.

What do we plan to film next?
This month and thoughout February, there is the St. Louis Public Library's Black HIstory month performances & we plan to film some of those.
We'll start the February off with an "Indie Valentine" show put on my Craft Mafia that is basically an anti-Valentine celebration. Sounds goofy & like a lot of fun.
There will also be a very interesting Bosnian exhibit at Webster University showcasing Bosnian artists from the US and Bosnia

January 2, 2008
Happy New Year!
Wow, I knew it had been a while since I had blogged but I hadn't realized just how long it had been! I want to wish each of you a very Happy & Healthy 2008! We can only hope each passing year finds the world in a better situation. Please continue to spread the word about CultureSurfer.com. E-mail people, blog about it, & mention it on list-serves. We want 2008 to be an awesome year for the site & we can only do it with your help.

The Jena Six Videos
CultureSurfer has been extremely fortunate to be given exclusive footage from the protest in Jena, Louisiana that took place in September of 2007. We've been hard at work editing the approximately 2 hours of footage shot & will be uploading these videos through February. Please take some time to watch these videos as we believe they are important to the understanding of the current racial climate in the United States. The Jena Six videos are on both the African-American and Political pages of the site.

Punk Music from Bosnia and Hip-hop from Iraq
It is extremely important for us all to understand that even when a country is at war or has been through a war, culture continues to thrive.It was an eye-opener for me to find out that Bosnia has a thriving punk music scene & that Kurds in Iraq were into hip-hop!

How did I get ahold of the Bosnian punk videos? I saw a movie called "Punk's Not Dead" (trailer & interview with director Susan Donner on the Cinema page of CultureSurfer). In the movie, there were video clips of punk bands from around the world. I started asking Bosnian friends in St. Louis if anyone here knew anyone back in Bosnia who was in a punk band. Well, it turns out Denis of Plato Cafe (beautiful cafe with delicious food, by the way!) knew of two punk bands back in Bosnia. I contacted them through MySpace & the rest is history.

And what about the hip-hop from Iraq? I inadvertently found out about the American Voices Project at a meeting about the Bosnian community where I heard that someone connected with the St. Louis Symphony had been to Iraq & there was a blog about it on the symphony web site. We met so I could look at Marc's videos & photos from his trip to Iraq (photos coming soon on CultureSurfer) & Marc told me he had gone to Iraq with an organization called the American Voices Project. I contacted the head of that organization, who has generously shared some of his content with CultureSurfer.

December 9, 2007
The Priority Boxes Project
You may have watched the video about Nicaraguan-born artist Franck de Las Mercedes and his priority boxes which he sends around the world, painted with his abstract art & containing messages of peace, justice, etc. Franck was nice enough to send me one of his boxes (green of course, to match CultureSurfer, and containing world peace). Make sure to check out The Priority Boxes video if you haven't already.

December 3, 2007
Accouncing three new pages on CultureSurfer.com
Check out our newest additions: African Culture, African-American Culture, and Politics. Enjoy!

November 27, 2007
A great blog to visit
You may want to visit a blog being run by a friend and neighbor of mine, Richard Keeling, a native of Britain and long-time St. Louis resident. Richar's blog is funny, intellectually stimulating, way outside the box, and his photos are absolutely spectacular. Check it out here.

November 26, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!!
I'd like to send out a belated and groggy "Happy Thanksgiving" to all of you fellow Americans out there, whether in the US or abroad. We all ate way more than we should have & no one wants to even look at a turkey for the next few months (Sorry, but I had to include this pic because turkeys are just so weird-looking.) That means it must be time to get back to work. Until the next round of holidays, that is.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I noticed that the number of visitors jumped noticeably this past Thursday. This can only mean that you Americans out there were either taking refuge in CultureSurfer to escape from your relatives, or you were showing the site to relatives and friends. Either way, glad to know we could help ease your way through the holiday.

More than 40 countries on CultureSurfer.com
This means we now have people coming online from over 20% of the world's countries. That makes us very happy. Thanks for spreading the word. To see an updated list of countries where our visitors come from, click here.

The African Culture page... coming soon
We recently attended an African Thanksgiving celebration put on to benefit ARIS, a local St. Louis non-profit helping African refugees and immigrants. It was a fantastic night, full of wonderful food, dance, music, and people from around Africa, the US, & other parts of the world. Of course we shot lots of video of the event, enough to create an African Culture page. Look for the page to come online in early December.

November 20, 2007
To see an updated list of countries where our visitors come from, click here. Our most recent addtions are Greece, Kuwait, and Singapore, bringing our total number of countries to 33.

November 15, 2007
Submit your videos to CultureSurfer.com
You can now submit videos for consideration to CultureSurfer.com. No registration is required. It's SO easy. The banner below is all over the site, so just click on it & follow the directions. I hope to see some great videos coming in from around the world.



Keep spreading the word
A big welcome to 2 more members of CultureSurfer's growing global family, Israel and Poland.

Congratulations to ElleeVen!!!
Ellee's video "YOU CAN BUY ME" directed by Eric Zimmerman and Dan Bigelow won VIDEO OF THE YEAR at The South Bay Music Awards.

The St. Louis International Film Festival
Web Mistress by Day, Movie Watcher by Night
It's been a busy week for us at the AT&T 16th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival. It all started a week ago with opening night at the Tivoli Theater (Click here to check out Pete Conrad's short film about the theater if you haven't already). What a party! There was music from the 16 year-old St. Louis native & blues prodigy Marquise Knox.We were then treated to a screeening of "Honeydripper," a new film by director John Sayles & producer Maggie Renzi starring Danny Glover. Finally, the night wrapped up with LA Weekly film editor Scott Foundas conducting a post-screening Q&A with Sayles and Renzi. Can't wait to hit the closing night party this Sunday at Mandarin.

CultureSurfer Interviews from the St. Louis International Film Festival
All of these interviews and movie trailers will be on the CINEMA/THEATER page of CultureSurfer.com over the next few months:

-Q&A session with Director John Sayles & producer Maggie Renzi, "Honeydripper"
-Gary Clark, Jr., actor in "Honeydripper"
-St. Louis blues prodigy Marquise Knox
-Susan Dynner, documentary "Punk's Not Dead"
-Russ Marlow, "Curiosity of Chance" (filmed in Belgium)
-Jamie Travis, shorts: "The Saddest Boy In The World," "Why The Anderson Children Didn't Come To Dinner," "Patterns" (trilogy)
-Veneuzelan director Alberto Alvero, "Cyrano Fernandez" (filmed in Venezuela)
-Chris Bowman, "American Fork"
-St. Louis director Wyatt Weed, "Shadowland" (not part of the film festival but scheduled to open early 2008)

November 8, 2007
Vote for Elleeven...
Check out Ellee's video YOU CAN BUY ME, which has been nominated for VIDEO OF THE YEAR and INDEPENDENT CD OF THE YEAR at the South Bay Music Awards. Ellee has also been nominated for POP ARTIST OF THE YEAR. The South Bay Music Awards will be on Saturday November 10th and she'll be performing there. To vote for Ellee, click here.

Check out Ellee's site here for a schedule of her upcoming performances, more about her, & cool stuff to buy.

November 4, 2007
CultureSurfer.com is two months old!
We are happy to report that we've reached our goal of 2,000+ visitors for the month of October, our second month online. That's double the number of visitors we had our first month. We can't wait to see how many more new surfers we pick up in the month of November and see new countries on the list.

Thanks to all of our visitors for speading the word all over the world! We now have visitors from 30 different countries. That means people from 15% of the countries on Earth have visited this site. Wow, talk about going global!

CultureSurfer's Global Family of Visitors
1. United States
2. Sweden
3. Germany
4. Canada
5. Switzerland
6. Britain
7. Mexico
8. Italy
9. Taiwan
10. India
11. Brazil
12. Netherlands
13. France
14. Laos
15. Spain
16. Egypt
17. Japan
18. Austria
19. Australia
20. Ukraine
21. Argentina
22. Hungary
23. Ireland
24. Norway
25. Senegal
26. Malaysia
27. Czech Republic
28. Russia
29. Chile
30. Nigeria

(List is in order of most to least number of visitors as of November 4, 2007)

New Pages on CultureSurfer.com...
Bosnian Culture page
St. Louis boasts the largest Bosnian population outside of Bosnia, with approximately 50,000 Bosnians living in and around the city. That means lots of Bosnian content will be coming to CultureSurfer.com.
Cinema/Theater Page
We love our movies & our actors, so check this page frequently for new content.
Sports Page (formerly the Cycling page)
We've added boxing to our cycling videos on our new Sports Page. Why? After soccer (football), boxing and cycling are two of the more international sports we could think of. We've got plans to cover soccer starting in the summer of 2008. And not to worry cyclists, there are more cycling videos to come to get you through the long winter.

October 22, 2007
Welcome to CultureSurfer Version 2.0
Notice something new about the site? We've made several changes:

1) The Horizontal Menu We've broken the site into more pages so you can watch videos under specific topics.
2) VIDEO INDEX- Can't find what you're looking for? Click on the Video Index button on the vertical left-hand menu & scroll through the titles & descriptions of every single video on the site. When you find what you want, just click on the link that will take you right to the video you want to watch.
3) Style Makeover We've gone a bit more minimalist, so the focus is on videos & photos.
4) Video players-The videos no longer play automatically when you launch the page. This gives you the option to play whatever you want.
5) NEW VIDEOS Lineup- You'll find this new lineup on the homepage of the site. Every new video that goes on the site will remain on this lineup for the current week the video is uploaded. This way, it's easy to keep up with what's new on the site.
6) TOP 10 VIDEOS Lineup- You'll also find this new lineup on the homepage of the site.

E-mail me to let me know what you think of the changes.



Welcome visitors from the Netherlands, Ireland, Egypt, Laos, and Croatia and a long-overdue welcome to the Germans, Austrians, Australians, and last but not least the Brits!

October 15, 2007
Asian Videos on CultureSurfer.com
Welcome visitors from Taiwan and Japan! It's great to get visitors from even more Asian countries on the site. In fact, there will soon be an Asian Culture page on CultureSurfer.com. We've got several Chinese videos online already (see MUSIC and DANCE) & next month you'll be able to watch the videos from the ROC (Taiwan) National Day Celebration. I'll be interviewing a local Chinese poet this week & you'll see his interview in November as well. If you haven't already seen the Japanese & Filipino dance videos from the Festival of Nations, check them out.

Any Fashionistas Out There?

Do You Miss "Sex And The City"? I know I'm not the only one feeling deprived of that weekly yummy eye candy with all of those amazing shoes and clothes. Yes, I know the movie is coming out but they can include only so much fashion into one 90-minute movie. So to satisfy my love of fashion, I am bringing fashion to CultureSurfer.com. We've got videos coming online from two local St. Louis fashion shows, and you'll see that St. Louis has some incredibly talented designers. You'll see the new FASHION video lineup next week.



October 11, 2007
Bienvenue to our visitors from Luxembourg! We spent about a week travelling around your beautiful country visiting castles & absolutely fell in love with Luxembourg City. You guys make some of the best fries in Europe.



October 9, 2007
I'd like to send out a big Välkommen and thanks for visiting to all of you in Stockholm, Sweden. Over 12% of our visitors are coming from Sweden. Hmmm... maybe we'll have to get my favorite furniture store in the world, Ikea, as a sponsor at some point. lol

We had a very busy weekend filming for CultureSufer.com. We filmed two events, The Big Read and the ROC (Taiwanese) National Day Celebration. I'm not even sure yet how many videos we shot at these two events, but there are two interviews I wanted to tell you about from The Big Read...

The Big Read

Then, I got to interview a woman who was one of my idols when I was a kid, Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill. I had been hoping that she would be as cute and as sweet as we all imagine & she was even more so. She radiates a really natural, vibrant beauty & energy. What's surprising is that she's just written a book called "A Skating Life' in which she talks about her life, including her battle with depression. Dorothy is not afraid to show her vulnerabilty & it is evident that her honesty is appreciated by her fans. As you can see from the photo, I had a blast talking to her & found her to be one of the most gracious & down to earth celebrities I have met so far. This was a bit of an out of body moment for me since I never would have imagined having the opportunity to meet her. Dorothy, thank you!! Look for Dorothy's interview under LITERATURE this month.

Vote for Ellee!!!
If you've been watching some of our rock videos, you've seen a few of Ellee Ven's videos (more coming) including Ellee's video YOU CAN BUY ME, which has been nominated for VIDEO OF THE YEAR and INDEPENDENT CD OF THE YEAR for the South Bay Music Awards. Ellee has also been nominated for POP ARTIST OF THE YEAR. The South Bay Music Awards will be on Saturday November 10th and she'll be performing there. If you want to vote for Ellee, click here.

YOU CAN BUY ME was also nominated for BEST DANCE SONG OF THE YEAR for the Los Angeles Music Awards ( Nov. 29th).

Ellee has been great in getting the word out to her fan base about CultureSufer.com. Girl, you rock! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Finally, a special thanks to Dan Schmatz for helping to get the word out to the cycling world that the Tour of Missouri videos are on CultureSurfer.com. You can check out Dan's site here.