Entries Tagged 'Chattanooga' ↓

Today I am thrilled to announce the launch of Chattarati, a collaborative Chattanooga news and opinion blog. We’re going to be “blogging everything we love and hate about Chattanooga.”

Chattarati began as a small idea I had several months ago for a daily photoblog to chronicle Chattanooga’s evolving downtown. After much discussion and planning with other local bloggers, the idea grew and evolved into a full-blown hyperlocal news and opinion blog in the vein of Gothamist or, closer to home, Nashvillest.

Chattarati is being published by a great team who have all put in a tremendous amount of work to pursue our goal of not only creating a great Chattanooga-centric blog, but becoming a vital part of the flourishing blog community in our city. I’m honored to have such great minds collaborating on this project, and we have loads of compelling content planned to inform–and entertain–our fellow Chattanoogans.

Naturally, we’ve gone through the social networking checklist and integrated everything from multiple Twitter feeds to an Alltop-inspired RSS aggregator to a Flickr pool and Facebook group.

If you live in or love Chattanooga, I hope you’ll check out Chattarati.

Oh, and yes… I did design the bold, classy logo and stylish web site. Thanks for asking!

Praise the Lord, Eat a Biscuit!
Originally uploaded by JHawbaker1800

The Big Biscuit Barn has become part of the Saturday bike ride tradition for Team Green Nasty. The biscuits are truly praise-worthy, and the people are as friendly as you’d expect. We’re not sure what to think about Super Hair People.

I rode 33 miles today, and thankfully the stretch home after biscuit time was only about 4 miles. With every ride, I’m feeling stronger about my chances of surviving and even enjoying the 470 miles of RAGBRAI later this summer.

In honor of the first night of Riverbend
Originally uploaded by JHawbaker1800

For those of you outside of the Chattanooga region, Riverbend is our annual music fest dedicated primarily to country bands and has-been classic rockers. So, in honor of the mulleted masses who make downtown uninhabitable for ten days each summer, I am proudly wearing this badge of indie rock snobbery.

The Association of Visual Artists (AVA) Gallery on Frazier Avenue is now featuring an exhibit called “Design @ Work”, sponsored by AIGA. The exhibit features commercial graphic design case studies, including one co-developed by yours truly. The case study, developed with my friend (and future business partner… shhh!) Wes Barker, examines our packaging revamp/re-branding for the flagship Clarity Professional telephone. The exhibit is open through the end of June and also features design work by the illustrious local firms Coptix, Widgets and Stone and Tricycle. If you’re on the North Shore, stop in and take a look.

Note: I haven’t had a chance to snap any photos of the exhibit, but I’ll post some as soon as I can.

Unum: "Me, Too"
Originally uploaded by JHawbaker1800

I finally figured out the real reason the old EPB building came down: Branding. Unum wanted downtowners to remember they also have a big fancy HQ on a hill.

Farewell EPB Building
Originally uploaded by JHawbaker1800

Apparently this is old news, but the demise of the former EPB building is imminent. It’s always a bit sad to see an old building go down, and I’m hoping the future of this site holds more than just parked cars. Viva downtown!

Grey Hunter: The Hunter Museum of American Art, downtown Chattanooga
Originally uploaded by JHawbaker1800