openmikes.org blog

I gave $7 lunch money to Champaign County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) by visiting Blind Post and clicking two or three buttons.

What is CASA?

What does having a CASA volunteer mean to a child? Imagine what it would be like to lose your parents, not because of something you did, but because they can't - or won't - take care of you. Now, into your life come dozens of strangers: police, foster parents, social workers, judges, lawyers, and more. Having a CASA volunteer means having a trained and committed adult, by your side, who has been appointed by a judge to watch over you and advocate for your best interests. That volunteer will make sure you don't get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. They will be there for you until your case is closed. It can make the difference between homelessness and a safe home, between dropping out and completing school, between unemployment and success, between jail and becoming a productive member of society.

Champaign County CASA currently serves nearly 600 children, thanks to our volunteer advocates. The children we serve range in age from newborn to 18 years of age. Last year over 35% were under age 6.

Seven bucks. Two minutes. Go.

Posted by Paul Roub at 9:49 AM | Permalink

I licensed the cover art for my CD-in-progress.

Found the perfect shot at iStockphoto, purchased same. Saved me from having to step in front of a camera myself. Thanks!

Still working on the rest of the CD process — recording is scheduled for later this month. Pre-orders, and bonus reward options, are available at the project's Kickstarter page. For everyone who ever said "I can't thank you enough for openmikes.org", I'd say a $10 CD order is more than sufficient :-)

Posted by Paul Roub at 4:10 PM | Permalink

You may notice a new menu item at the top of the page - "mobile". If you access openmikes.org via your cell phone, you've probably noticed it's not terribly well-designed for that.

The mobile site, m.openmikes.org is designed to be small, fast, and simple. It does one thing - shows you listings within 10 miles of a zip code, city, or address, on any given day.

Click on a club in the resulting list to see the time, address, phone number, web site, and any comments on the night.

That's it. Just what you want, 90% of the time. Let me know what else you'd really like it to do.

Posted by Paul Roub at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've added a Twitter account for openmikes.org, @openmikesdotorg.

No, you won't hear about what the site had for breakfast, nor will it show you pictures of its cat.

What it will do is tweet each time a new open mike listing is added. Each listing will be tagged with its city and state, so a search for #Los_Angeles_CA will let you watch for new LA listings. Each post is also geotagged based on the club's address, so you can do a location search near you if you'd prefer.

Posted by Paul Roub at 3:23 PM | Permalink

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:04 PM | Permalink

This is from Dana Hudepohl, a writer for MORE magazine:

Do you know a woman in her 40s or 50s who wants to reinvent herself into a singer/songwriter or comedian? To feature in a national women's magazine, I'm looking for women ages 40-59 who want to seriously pursue singing/songwriting or comedy for the first time in their lives. The ideal candidate will have only recently gotten her feet wet in her desired field (maybe she's tried out her talents at an open mic here or there), but should not have achieved too much success yet. She should have a compelling back story of why she wants to make this drastic life change-- more than just "I've always wanted to do it." If chosen to be in the article, we'll hook her up with a celebrity in her fantasy field to review her work and provide some guidance. Please note: We will not be able to consider women who are not in this age range, who are already making a full-time living in one of these fields or who have been pursuing singing/comedy for many years.

Interested candidates should contact Dana at magazinewriter@yahoo.com. Deadline: Monday Sept 28. Thank you!

Posted by Paul Roub at 8:37 AM | Permalink

A visitor named Neal Warren was less than thrilled with a couple of open mikes he found on the site (once again, let me recommend calling to confirm a night is still going on) — finding them particularly less-than-wonderful for poets.

He's looking to get something together in his vicinity, poetry-focused and -friendly. Check out his Craigslist ad to that effect.

Posted by Paul Roub at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)