February 2010 posts for UpTake, Louisville.com, and Examiner

Check below the jump for my UpTake, Louisville.com, and Examiner articles from February 2010.

Read more

Talking babysitting, video games and rock n’ roll with REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin

REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin and me at the band's meet and greet after its recent show in Louisville.

Regardless of how well you prepare and what interesting questions you’ve come up with, the quality of an interview depends a lot on the subject and a bunch of variables. To be honest, I was concerned my recent conversation with REO Speedwagon’s lead singer, Kevin Cronin, was going to be a dud:

• It was delayed by a couple of hours because he was at the dentist.
• We spoke while he was in a rush to get to the airport.
• I was interviewing him for Louisville.com; while I’m proud of the site and its traffic, it’s not Rolling Stone in 1981.

Cronin, however, was fantastic to speak to, both in my interview, REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin on Louisville, power ballads and if my wife’s a slut, and when we met during a meet and greet after the band’s Louisville concert Friday night (my review of which is here). He was engaging, funny and passionate about subjects ranging from the power of the power ballad to the band’s new video game.

While REO Speedwagon put on a fun show that I reckon was similar to its performances during its peak in popularity in the 1980s, the backstage scene is probably a lot different now–Cronin and I chatted about how hard it can be to find a babysitter (he has two pre-teens and Friday was the first time my wife and I left our daughter with a sitter).

I talk bourbon with Woodford Reserve’s master distiller, Chris Morris, for BlackBook

BlackBook just published my interview with Chris Morris, Woodford Reserve’s master distiller:

Industry Insiders: Chris Morris, Master Distiller

Chris’s enthusiasm about bourbon is contagious (of course, it helps that we were talking about a type of whiskey and not, say, a type of cleaning solution). We spoke for about 40 minutes; some parts of our conversation that pertained to Louisville will appear soon on Louisville.com too.

I’ve been on a bourbon kick since I moved to Kentucky 14 months ago (interesting how that worked out). Louisville has a great bar scene and it seems as if every one of them offers a specialty bourbon drink. My preference, however, is pretty easy to make: bourbon on the rocks. And Woodford Reserve, which I first tasted on a distillery tour on the Bourbon Trail last year, has become my favorite bourbon. (Check out photos from my trip on the Bourbon Trail on Flickr.)

One thing I love about Louisville is how dedicated it is to its local variety of whiskey. During Christmas time, my dad when to the liquor store down the street to replenish my dwindling stock of booze. While checking out, the clerk gave him a hard time for buying Scotch and Irish whiskey but not bourbon.

‘So, who do you write for these days?’

I’ve been asked that question a few times recently (and not just by my parents, who I think might be happy if I enrolled in the Bloomingdale’s executive training program).

For blogs, I have regular gigs writing about travel for UpTake and Examiner.com and I contribute to BlackBook, usually about travel and culture. And, there’s that Louisville.com editor-in-chief thing. I also manage the web presence of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (I reckoned I should put my blogging and social media power to a good use, beyond giving advice on where to go and what to drink). And, for fun, there’s my new Tumblr blog. I’ll get all meta too and mention this site, which is now eight years old.

[Update March 8, 2010: I'm contributing to Gridskipper again too.]

In print, I contribute to Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, enRoute.

December 2009 and January 2010 posts for UpTake and Louisville.com

Check below the jump for my Louisville.com and UpTake articles from December 2009 and January 2010.

Read more