Enjoy the Fourth, my fellow Americans!

• Fun activities around Birmingham and Alabama
• Independence Day playlists from Birmingham magazine

And some fireworks and tunes to celebrate our freedom!

We’re doing something a little different but a lot of fun over on my personal site WadeKwon.com.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow me at @WadeOnTweets. Then you can enter my crazy 1,000 follower prize blowout.

You can win prizes from these great Birmingham-area sponsors:

• Birmingham Business Journal
• Birmingham magazine
• Birmingham Museum of Art
• The J. Clyde
• McWane Science Center
• Mellow Mushroom

All you have to do to enter is retweet the contest. For full details and rules …

Visit the contest page.

Good luck!

*as a featured blogger (feh)

What, you thought I was pretty enough to be selected to be among 2009’s Beautiful People in Birmingham magazine? Sigh, no.

But nonetheless, my sites for the Birmingham Blogging Academy and this little ol’ blog Wade on Birmingham are prominently featured, thanks to our pal and associate editor Carla Jean Whitley.

The article focuses on the academy’s origin and courses and how to get started blogging. So be sure to check out:

• Carla Jean’s story
• and my suggestions for five urgently needed blog topics for Birmingham.

And absolutely grab a copy of the June issue of Birmingham magazine today!

(Maybe next year I’ll be beautiful. sniff!)

And the winner of two tickets ($50 value) to tonight’s Art on the Rocks is …

Rebecca Whitten of Birmingham!

Congratulations! Enjoy the food, the art and the performance by Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, compliments of Wade on Birmingham and the Birmingham Museum of Art.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who entered. You can still sign up for brand new our free e-newsletter.

P.P.S. And of course, you still have time to buy tickets for Art on the Rocks.

Can you believe Art on the Rocks has turned five? Five?!

The monthly cocktail party has brought thousands to the Birmingham Museum of Art for summer nights of live performances, hands-on crafts and mixing and mingling.

• Friday: Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles
• June 26: Ben Lee
• July 17: Tim Brantley
• Aug. 14: Courtney Jaye

To celebrate, Wade on Birmingham
is giving away
two tickets to Art on the Rocks.

That’s a $50 value!

Start the weekend in style with Boston rock band Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, pictured above.

To enter: Sign up for the brand new Wade on Birmingham free e-newsletter. Receive updates, discounts, exclusives and more, all in your In box.

Deadline: You must sign up by Friday, May 29, 2009, at noon CDT. Winner will be randomly drawn from entries. We will contact the winner by e-mail (duh!), so you better leave a working addy.

And be sure to check out Art on the Rocks this season. The events run from 5 to 10 p.m.; tickets are $20, $10 for members in advance, and $25, $15 for members at the door. Admission includes food, concert and all the art you can handle.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit the Art on the Rocks site.

Enter today!

Video: Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, “Better at the End of the Day”

Update: Art on the Rocks contest winner

On this Memorial Day, remember those who gave their lives for our freedom.

• Forbes Traveler: “Crowds flock to America’s popular memorials”

“I think memorials and monuments act as physical symbols of our reverence,” says Gina Gray, Director of Public Affairs at Arlington National Cemetery.

• mental_floss: “10 Things to Remember About Memorial Day”

3. It was first known as Decoration Day: From the practice of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, the holiday was long known as Decoration Day. The name Memorial Day goes back to 1882, but the older name didn’t disappear until after World War II. Federal law declared “Memorial Day” the official name in 1967.

• Boston Globe: “The Big Picture: Memorial Day, 2009”

Collected here are a handful of photographs for remembrance, acknowledging some of the men and women who have passed in conflicts from the U.S. Civil War through Iraq and Afghanistan today.

• Map the Fallen

This Memorial Day I would like to share with you a personal project of mine that uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories—you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial websites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.

The winner of the Washington Post’s Peeps Show III: “NightPeeps” by Melissa Harvey, Arlington, Va.

A gorgeous re-imagination of Edward Hopper’s famous painting “Nighthawks” won the hearts of the Style staff in a landslide vote. “I wanted to re-create the bleak urban landscape and the fluorescent light, and add a little pink and yellow,” says Harvey, 44, a graphic designer for WETA who spent 45 hours over two weekends on the diorama.

Photo by James M. Thresher.

See more Peeps Show III finalists.

And enjoy more Easter photos in this Flickr slideshow …

Also:

• “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!”
• Eddie Izzard on Easter

I’m hurting my arm patting myself on the back, but this unremarkable entry represents post No. 2,000 on Wade on Birmingham.

While it took a mere 561 days to reach the first 1,000 posts, it took 722 days for this wry batch of 1,000 posts. Clearly, the economy is at fault.

This morning, I started one of my new careers as professional new media instructor, teaching my first class for the Birmingham Blogging Academy. I’m closing in on 2,000 tweets in my mere 67 days on Twitter (probably by Thursday at the current rate).

On Wednesday, I’ll be on a panel talking with University of Alabama students about the future of journalism.

And what exactly is the future of journalism? You’re looking at it. And it’s not just me, but everyone. Everyone is the future of journalism. Make it a good one.

Thanks to our readers, our friends and the good people of Birmingham. I love my hometown and feel blessed to be here.

Just a reminder: As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m teaching beginning blogging this Saturday and next as part of my new Birmingham Blogging Academy. Enroll today.

I’ve also used the blog on that site as an opportunity to discuss techniques, marketing and more. Recent topics:

• Talking with WBHM (90.3 FM) about blogging ins and outs
• Why I and other Birmingham bloggers started their sites
• Why moms should learn to blog

If you’re interested in learning more, sign up for class by noon Friday. We’d love to see you there.

Let me tell you about an exciting new opportunity, one for me, one for you.

As you, dear reader, know, I’ve been a blogger for four years, a journalist since high school, and a nerd since probably birth. I’ve always enjoyed working with computers and people, and bringing the two groups together in interesting and productive collaborations.

In April, I’m launching the Birmingham Blogging Academy, a venture dedicated to helping you become a power blogger. Nothing like it exists in Birmingham.

Starting at $99, you can take beginner courses, ones that can help you figure out how to get started, what to blog about, and how it can show off your skills, your hobby, your product or your company.

I can’t wait to hear about how your goals for blogging, and how I can help you reach them faster and more easily.

Maybe you’ve wanted to launch a blog, but aren’t sure how. Maybe you’ve been blogging for a while, but you want to become a more effective publisher. Or maybe you know someone — a friend, a neighbor, a colleague — who really should be taking their funny or wise insights to a broader forum than the water cooler.

It starts with the Birmingham Blogging Academy. Check it out, and let me know what you think. And be sure to tell your friends about it.

Looking for ways to tout your business, your brand, your product, or yourself? Even in a down economy (a k a recession), you need to take advantage of every marketing tool and trick at your disposal.

The Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce can help with its special “Marketing in a Tough Economy” seminar.

Join me (Wade Kwon), along with noted area marketing experts Isaac Pigott (Positive Position Media Consulting) and André Natta (Urban Conversations) for a half-day session March 27 at The Club. We’ll share our secrets and our caveats about social media, how to make the most of online communities, and what you can do today to outflank the competition.

(My hourlong session, “Getting Started in Low-Cost, No-Cost Social Media,” is first come, first served. We’ll cover Twitter, Facebook, blogging and whatever else we can squeeze into 60 minutes.)

Spots are still available, but limited to 125 total. Tickets, which include breakfast, are $25 for Chamber members, $50 for non-members. For more information, or to register, visit the Chamber’s event page.

• Marketing in a Tough Economy
• 8 a.m.-noon, March 27, 2009
• The Club, 1 Robert S. Smith Dr. [map]
• $50 ($25 for non-members of the Chamber)
• Register online in advance

I hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone who read through the haiku for the Pick your favorite haiku contest. First, our randomly drawn winner from all qualified entries is … James!

Congratulations, James, your crappy prize —a hot pink heart-shaped pillow in honor of Valentine’s Day — is on the way.

The big question is: Will I be part of Friday’s lineup of spoken word performers at BMA Speaks on Friday at the Birmingham Museum of Art?

(Updated with response from the museum.)

(more…)

I’ve always considered myself a triple threat: actor, comedian, dancer. I act like I don’t care. I know tons of knock-knock jokes. And I can square-dance like a champ.

With BMA Speaks, the spoken word celebration at the Birmingham Museum, coming up, I thought I’d try some poetry out loud. But I need your help. The free event will be 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 6 at the museum, with headliner Patricia Smith (pictured here).

Poetry should be heard aloud. Which ones do you think are the best or worst, the ones you’d like to see me perform?

I have more than 1,200 (and counting) haiku on this site. In order to qualify for the event, entrants must turn in poems by tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 30). You can help me narrow it down.

Leave a comment (you can copy and paste your favorite poem) below, and one randomly selected qualifying commenter will receive a crappy prize. I guarantee: The prize will be crappy, far beneath you or your social standing.

Entry deadline: Leave your comment by 3 p.m. CST Jan. 30.

I’ll announce the results next week. Here are the haiku for you to peruse …

• Haiku retrospective 1
  
• Haiku retrospective 2
• Haiku retrospective 3
• Haiku retrospective 4
• Haiku retrospective 5
• Haiku retrospective 6
• Haiku retrospective 7
• Haiku retrospective 8
• Haiku retrospective 9
• Haiku retrospective 10
• Haiku retrospective 11
• And the latest haiku.

Good luck!

Bob Henriques/Magnum Photos

” Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
— Strength to Love, 1963

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”
— Bill Vaughn

Happy New Year! May 2009 bring peace and prosperity to Birmingham and beyond.

AP

In Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, partygoers dance in front of a laser and water show in the early hours of 2009.

John Javellana/Reuters

Spectators watch a fireworks display amidst the rain during a New Year’s Eve countdown in Fort Bonifacio, Metro Manila, the Philippines.

Rajwinder Singh/Flickr

Fireworks in Sydney, Australia, to welcome 2009.