Great dates Orlando – Analog Artist Digital World

On Friday February 28th, I went to meet Julie Anderson at Shin Sushi (803 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL) to discuss the Orlando Sentinel‘s new “HypeOrlando Blogs.” This can be found on the Sentinel website on the “Home” tab at the top of the page. Several months ago, Terry and I bumped into Julie and her husband Lars at an outdoor cafe in Winter Park. Over drinks, Julie first described the “Hype” concept. A newspaper in Chicago first developed the idea where a large group of bloggers all contribute to the same blog site. None of the contributors is paid, so the newspaper online site gets plenty of creative content for free.

In return, “Hype” contributors would get, a daily newsletter from an experienced blogger
on how to build audience (Search engine optimization, optimizing
Facebook, writing headlines that make people click, etc.)

Offline blogger community meetups.

Free platform and technical setup.

Ongoing technical support.

Monthly incentives and contests for writing and audience-building.

I got to the Sushi restaurant a bit early since I had just done an interview with Seth Kubersky a few blocks away for a write up in the Orlando Weekly. The head waiter at Shin Sushi told me I would have to wait an hour before I could get inside. I had hoped to sketch the interior and fill the sketch with patrons as they arrived for the lunch hour. Oh, well, it was a nice day outside, so I sat across the street and sketched the barren exterior. As I was finishing my sketch, I saw Julie approach the restaurant and go inside. I packed up the supplies and rushed across the street. The restaurant was bustling now. I ordered some sushi combo which turned out to be much more food than expected.

HypeOrlando in it’s first weeks had about 30 contributors. Julie hopes to push those numbers up into the hundreds. My impression is that “Hype” is a great opportunity for beginning bloggers. All the layouts for the blogs are identical making it hard to tell one blog from another. The one established “Hype” blogger that I recognized was Kristen Manieri who runs Great Dates Orlando. Over lunch, Julie pushed for the idea of having me channel all my future content over to the “HypeOrlando” site. This seemed like an extreme notion which would likely result in my loosing many readers in the transition. I can’t imagine giving up a site that I’ve built up over 5 years. Kristen still maintains her original site while occasionally contributing to “Hype”. The fact that I post creative content every day means that I would have to write a new article any time I wanted to contribute to “Hype.” I would have to add an 8th day to my work week! I asked about just posting an article on “Hype” that already ran or simultaneously ran on Analog Artist Digital World. Julie said that the Google search engine would label any re-purposed article as spam thus all content would have to be new.

I fired of a long list of concerns. I didn’t like having to give up a large header on the new site. Apparently the “Chicago Now” site learned that letting contributors create their own headers resulted in some very bad and amateurish designs. The “Hype” site limits each contributor to a one inch square avatar. It results in trying to create a recognizable brand on the size of a postage stamp. I was also concerned that there is no right click copyright protections making it easy for Sentinel Surfers to copy any sketches I post to the site. This is an ongoing concern since even the Downtown Arts District and the City of Winter Park do not realize that it is wrong to copy and republish work without permission. The Internet is a lawless Wild West for theft and ripping. The fact that City organizations have no clue about copyright makes it appear that Orlando is a second rate city. Terry seems to feel there is no advantage to posting on “Hype”. Even the name seems to imply vacuous content with little substance. I’m still weighing the options. I might even cut back submissions to Analog Artist Digital World to 6 days a week and submit one article a week to “Hype”. I’ve been making adjustments to try and allow for more family time and contributing free content to “Hype” could be a step backwards. I was surprised and pleased that Julie paid for lunch.

Let me know what you think. Should I stay the course and keep AADW a daily, or should I also contribute to the “Hype”? Leave me a message below. One last note. Something I ate at Shin Sushi didn’t agree with me and I had the runs all afternoon. Not a good sign.

Kristen Manieri, of Great Dates Orlando, invited me to sketch a couples cooking class held in the demonstration kitchen above East End Market, (3201 Corrine Dr. Orlando, FL.) I arrived about an hour early to sketch in the layout of the kitchen before the couples arrived. The demonstration was completely sold out. The $120 class fee per couple included utensils, recipes, ingredients
and sit-down dinner for two, but BYOS (bring your own spirits).

Jes Tantalo, East End Market’s Chef-in-Residence, was busy with preperations when Terry and I arrived. Terry went to explore East End Market and then Stardust Video and Coffee while I sketched. We planned to go to Drip on International Drive after my sketch was done. Kristen helped out by making recipe cards for the guests before they arrived. Her iPhone was used to fill the room with romantic Italian music. A large banquet table filled the dining room next to the kitchen. Fresh flowers from the extensive gardens downstairs were put on the table as centerpieces.

The first order of business was to have all the couples create flat bread appetizer perfect for
noshing on while everyone sipped wine and dove into the menu sourced almost
entirely from East End’s gourmet purveyors downstairs. Everyone crowded around the counter that separated the kitchen and dining area. Each couple took some flat bread and spread goat cheese on it, sprinkled some olive oil and then cracked open a tiny dime sized quail egg on top. Fresh arugula, again from the garden downstairs was added as a garish along with a pinch of salt and pepper. One fellow put a mountain of arugula on his flat bread and he was playfully scolded by the other couples. There was plenty of camaraderie and laughter as everyone worked.

The main dish was Poussin, or baby chickens, for each person. All that was required was some seasoning before they were put in the ovens. The flat bread appetizers were done in a flash and then all the couples sat at the table sipping wine and talking. In the kitchen, Jes was still busy cooking fresh local vegetables marinated in Whisky. One adventurous guest was put in charge of cutting up a football sized turnip. I had to close my eyes when he struggled with the first loud slice. Fox 35 News reporter Jackie Orozco introduced herself. She was intrigued by my daily sketch journalism and is considering the idea of reporting about what I do. With the retrospective exhibit coming up, her timing couldn’t be better.

Terry stopped back. I hadn’t started adding color yet. This was a more challenging sketch than usual with so many people crowded in the foreground. When she left I sketched faster. I left before the Poussin came out of the oven. I rushed out to catch up for my own date night, but I was to late. She got a taxi to take her to International Drive to see Drip perform a show with black lights. Perhaps I should have abandoned the sketch. A better person would have done that. As I drove home alone, I realized I was extremely hungry. I hadn’t eaten all day except for tasting one of the flat bread appetizers Kristen had offered me. I pulled into a Subway and ordered a Flatizza which is sort of a flat bread pizza. It wasn’t very exotic, but it filled me up for the moment. Much later I picked Terry up from Drip. Apparently it had been an amazing show. She was soaking wet and covered in paint.

Mark Your Calendar! The next Couples Cooking Class is April 12 from 7pm to 9:30pm at East End Market.