We offered free Halloween photos to kids (and parents) in the neighborhood this past Saturday.  We had an awesome turn out.  Chad setup a dark backdrop and then cast red light through the branch of a dead tree he found over by the golf course.  The effect was fantastic and lot’s of fun.  This little cutie was the winner of our drawing.  The Kollmeier family won a family photo shoot for the holidays.

I think we gave away 10 pounds of candy that night—and we still ran out.  It was a great way to meet people in the neighborhood and let people know what we do.  We are having a lot of fun in our new space.  Stop by and visit anytime.

If you haven’t heard yet, Monkey C Media has moved.  Our new location is at 3011 Beech Street here in South Park, a fun little neighborhood tucked away from the hustle and bustle of downtown with plenty of great restaurants: The Big Kitchen, Vagabond, Alchemy, The Station, El Camino, Hamilton’s Tavern and Cafe, South Park Bar and Grill, and Grant’s Marketplace; we have some of the best boutiques in town too: Junk, Boutique & Gallery, Citizen Video, Mythology, So Childish, & Studio Maureen.  You can check out more about South Park here.

Here are more of the Halloween photos (click any slide to visit the complete show, the horizontal images don’t appear completely in the slide presentation):

Thank you South Park!! More than 500 people walked through our door last night to see The People of South Park, our second art exhibit featuring the photography of Chad Thompson (my husband and co-owner of Monkey C Media). For this show, Chad decided to honor the people of our neighborhood. He pulled the show together in 30 days, shooting each person in less than five minutes as they filtered in and out of the studio in a two-week period (the lighting and backdrop was set and ready to go). He mounted every image on foam core and ended up choosing 21 black-and-white photographs for the show. This one is of Marcie from Pixie Salon. If you didn’t get a chance to come by, the show will remain on display until December 4, 2009.

We gave away 400 plus cupcakes, and of course we couldn’t have an art opening without beer and wine. We met so many wonderful people (and dogs) in the South Park community and beyond. We had cupcakes for people and doggie cookies for our furry friends (Monkey C Media is dog friendly).

Gregory Page, accompanied by an incredibly talented pianist Sky (not sure of his last name) played a phenomenal show!! The night was, as one guest said: “magical,” a full moon lit the night sky as people meandered about from our gallery to Halcyon Tea next door, sharing smiles and handshakes. Bread and Jam played a great set as well, we really had our corner of South Park jumping and we can’t wait to do it again!

Stay tuned for updates on our next event!!

We like to contribute to a clean earth as much as possible and encourage sustainability here at Monkey C Media, that’s why we work with companies like Host Gator who offers wind-powered server space, and Blend, who offers 100% recycled paper (which is really sharp looking paper by the way).

I’m proud to say that our MCM parking lot is filling up-with bicycles. Take a look. And, ride your bike to work too, it’s addicting!

Check out Seth Godin’s presentation from O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, New York City, NY, February 11, 2008. You may not be able to see the video but it doesn’t matter - it’s still worth a listen.

What recession? Harlequin’s profit is up 32% - people love their love.

Image by maury.mccown via Flickr

Apparently there are several individuals (about 250) who are protesting any Kindle book that sells for more than $9.99. And they’re using Amazon’s own tagging system to do it. So if you see anything marked with the ‘9 99 boycott’ tag they’ve been called out. Once the price is dropped, the tag is removed.

Read More Here

Posted by Chad

Let’s face it we all love free stuff. And if you just spent your tax return on a new Kindle or smart-phone you may now be too broke to buy any titles for the thing. Have no fear Public Domain is here! Many books’ copyrights have long ago expired and have become free to distribute in the digital form. Fortunately for you someone has done the hard part of transcribing them. Project Gutenberg has tens of thousands of volunteers and over 28,000 titles for you to freely download to your mobile device. But just ’cause they’re free doesn’t mean you shouldn’t donate a little—trust me you’ll feel better doing it while you read the entire Dickens collection.

Maybe also check these out:

• http://www.freekindlebooks.org/
• http://www.worldlibrary.net/ (subscription based but only $8.95yr)
• http://www.mobileread.com/

One of Google’s best kept secrets is the @google series. They have important leaders in various circles up to the Mountain View, CA headquarters to give a presentation to the troops. One of our clients gave such a talk. Way to go Sara!

Wanna give a talk? Click here for more info.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Is the Kindle e-book reader bad news for the publishing industry? Farhad Manjoo discusses some of the finer points here on Slate.com. Personally, I prefer the ability to share great books I’ve read by giving them to other people. As far as I can tell that’s not an option with the Kindle. But what the hell do I know I prefer the EPUB standards anyway.

Posted by Chad