Happy 2nd Anniversary, iList Paducah!

Photo by Brian Steffen.

It’s Quilt Week in Paducah — the time of year when passionate quilters gather in our city to admire one another’s gorgeous artwork, visit the National Quilt Museum, share stories and tips, buy fabric and, we hope, enjoy a lovely time in our lovely town.

For Nikki May and me, Quilt Week signals a similar shared experience — the anniversary of this Web site and our weekly Wednesday email. It was just two years ago today that we launched iList Paducah, our area’s most comprehensive list of events. And we’ve been blown away by the response.

Events! We Love Events!
In the past two years, we’ve listed thousands of events and highlighted more than 150 events in our hottest events box at the top of the site and our email, as well as in our iLove it column along the left-hand side.

Our iLove it stories help publicize events in special ways. For example, fashion columnist Laura K did super-cute pieces to promote the Paducah Symphony’s Little Black Dress party and the Charity League Bargain Fair. For last year’s Distiller’s Dinner, we actually paid a visit to hottie Harlen Wheatley of Buffalo Trace. Hey, someone’s gotta go check on that bourbon!

The Hot Singles Scene
We’ve gone on 89 "dates" for our hottie iDate of the Week column — including one with our own Nikki. Two sets of iDates are gettin’ hitched this year — Jay Page and Lauren Adams and Kenn Gray and Kendra Thompson, otherwise known as Kenndra. Want in? Email us and we’ll feature you!

Totally Cute Pets
Pet columnist Patience Renzulli launched our iPet of the Week column last year, telling heart-warming stories of animals quietly doing miracles for their owners and others. We’ve met more than 30 pooches, kitties, horses and even buffalo so far. Want to see your pet included? Email us and we’ll hook you up! The feature is sponsored by Ceglinski Animal Clinic. Looking for a vet? Call them at 554.0171.
       
The Music Scene
Our iList Playlist column helped inspire columnist DJ Urban Kobbb to become an actual DJ. A longtime music lover, local businessman — and, my husband, Bruce Brockenborough — took DJ lessons a few years ago. He purchased some equipment, which led to more equipment, and he learned his way around the dials.

His first gig was last April for artist John Romang. DJUK played for John again this past Saturday, providing all-new beats for the One Night Only show, featuring art from John and from Joshua Comley.

Among the highlights of DJUK’s first DJ year: playing for the LowerTown Art & Music Festival, WKMS Ports of Call show, Cosmic Vibe Alliance shows like Miss Behave, Good Times!, Jungle Boogie, The Drop, Art, Friends & Musik, the Maiden Alley Chick Flicks Series, di Fratelli’s and our own iList Paducah party.

DJUK still contributes to the iList PlayList column, and we’ve also called on rocker Cory Greene of The Union Suit, who recently shared his top movie picks of the year and the music that has influenced his life most.

We Even Sponsor Events!
Speaking of Chick Flicks, one of the most fun parts of running a community calendar is that both Nikki and I have been involved as actual event sponsors.

We partnered with Robyn Shapiro of René Advertising and Landee Bryant of Maiden Alley Cinema and with significant help of Contemporary OB/GYN, we launched the Chick Flicks series this past October with Sex and the City. The event was an immediate sell-out. So we did it twice.

Since then, we’ve shown Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Thelma and Louise, Pretty in Pink — and our Oscars party rocked. Next one up: Pretty Woman, Tuesday, May 19. Email us for details.

We’ve also sponsored the LowerTown Art and Music Festival, Project AIDS Orphan One World Run, PASAC’s Men Who Cook, most all of the Cosmic Vibe Alliance shows, Feast for St. Nick, FEAT on the Street 5K Run/Walk, Paducah Renaissance Alliance February Promotion, the Yeiser’s PostSecret show and, of course, the Carson Center’s Wine Tasting and Auction, Vintner’s Luncheon and the Distiller’s Dinner. And we just yesterday signed on as one of the fabulous sponsors of the fabulous Radioactive City Rollergirls.

We Love Our Sponsors

We certainly couldn’t do the site (or eat) without the support of our sponsors. You’ve probably noticed the increase in sponsor logos, banner ads and special sections like the one we do for the Carson Center.
Online advertising rocks — what better way to get your message and details across than by linking to your Web site, special events page or whatever else you’ve created online? We would love to do more of that. So if you’d like to show that your business or organization is part of, as Terry Reeves calls it, The New Paducah, contact us and we’ll get you connected.

Thank You!
Many thanks to Patience and Becca Harmon for helping us catch typos. Since I’m the one doing most of the typing around here, I can use all the help I can get. See a goober? Please email me and we’ll fix it.

Above all, many thanks to YOU for subscribing to our email, submitting events to us, checking our site and email regularly, your kind comments about what your doing and, our very favorite thing, the fun emails we receive…with the exception that one cranky one.

What’s Next?
Our upcoming plans? We are, as we say, fixin’ to switch our site to an easier-to-maintain content management system, which will free up a bit of both Nikki’s and my time. And will finally make it possible for us to help others launch their own iList Media franchises. Interested? Send us an email.

And we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, and more of it.

iList Paducah is, indeed, Your Invitation to Everything. Thank you for accepting our invitation.