by Kevin Ott
What Would You Like to Get Out of Metblogs?
March 16, 2010 at 2:22 pm in Announcements, Metroblogging Network
Last week your intrepid LA Metblogs crew met at Crash Space for a strategic planning session to develop a range of content generation initiatives to be implemented over the coming months. This meeting rapidly degenerated into a series of juvenile toilet jokes and graphic descriptions of horror movie torture sequences. Yes, yes: This is your Metblogs team hard at work.
But a few good ideas came out of the mess, like spring crocuses blooming from a heap of dog poo. And we thought our readers would like to hear about them. Thus we present the meeting minutes. Like an idea? Have an idea of your own? Let us know in the comments. We welcome your input. We may not run with all these ideas, but if any of them get a good response, we’ll be more likely to explore it.
8 PM. The group gathers. Cherry pie from Ralph’s bakery and fruit punch from Ralph’s juice aisle are served. Bristlebots are played with.
8:12 PM. First Star Wars reference. My notes are unclear on the joke itself, though it was probably a veiled sex pun. Likely candidates include “This little one’s not worth the effort” and “Aim for the exhaust port, just below the main port.”
8:16 PM: First real idea of the night: A series on movies in which Los Angeles is a character — similar to the our Songs About LA series. Ideally, these would be posts about films in which LA is an indelible part of the story, like Gotham City to a Batman movie. Look for this coming up.
8:32 PM. Idea: Another movie-themed series that explores local “forgotten” movie locations. The examples we came up with were……the Puente Hills Mall near Pomona (which was Twin Pines Mall/Lone Pine Mall in Back to the Future) and the Cunninghams’ house from Happy Days, which is, I dunno, somewhere in LA.
8:46 PM. Idea: Classic Drinks — like Classic Eats but with cocktails instead of oxtail. We’re hoping these might be attractive to non-Metbloggers, since going out for a few drinks is less socially intimidating than sitting down to a meal at a big table, worrying about dividing the check, potentially sitting next to a Metblogger who seems witty on paper but who in real life is socially awkward and keeps farting, et cetera. So, Classic Drinks.
8:53 PM. First of many references to the films of David Cronenberg. That one with Jude Law where they have guns that shoot human teeth. Or maybe one of the earlier Canadian ones, like Shivers, which was about sex zombies, though not really as awesome as one would hope a movie about Canadian sex zombies would be.
8:58 PM. Most awesome idea of the night: Spend a night — or better yet, all 24 hours — liveblogging from a 24-hour diner like Du-Par’s or The Pantry. More Cronenberg discussion blooms upon mention of The Pantry, which frankly is pretty unfair to The Pantry, which by all accounts is a decent restaurant.
9:12 PM Another great idea: Choose some local pro — an artist, a musician, a chef, a bartender, what have you — and ask for his or her favorite colleagues. For instance: We ask a local artist (or two, or five) to list his five favorite local artists. Then the readers learn about a slew of new local artists in just one post. You’re welcome, Los Angeles.
9:23 PM. For some reason we decide all Metbloggers need cardboard standees of themselves. The reasons for this are uncertain. The sell-by date of the fruit punch is hastily checked.
9:29 PM. Idea: Come up with two or three questions to pose to a variety of interview subjects. Multiple subjects, same interview.
9:38 PM. Rough plans drawn up for a Donut Summit: Post open invitation for all attendees to gather at a central location, with various Metbloggers assigned to bring donuts from any of LA’s many famous donut spots, like Bob’s (in the Farmer’s Market) or Randy’s. The price of admission will be a dozen donuts. More on this to come.
9:42 PM. Plans germinated for another hot dog crawl, wherein participants visit multiple hot dog restaurants around the city. Someone makes a joke about combining the hot dog event with the donut event; I don’t get it.
9:53 PM. Other potential ideas are brought up and hastily scrawled down: A bowling alley meet-up. A drive-in movie theater meet-up. A series on places that used to be other places, like the strip mall that used to be The Brown Derby, or my apartment, which used to be someone else’s apartment.
10:00 PM: Meeting ends.
And that’s it. As you can see, we’re a passionate bunch, and dedicated to exploring our communities in a way that’s enjoyable and informative for our readers. But we’re pretty easily distracted, and our imaginations run dry after a while, so we welcome input from those same readers. So: What would you all like to see?
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