Movin' on up

In addition to writing for Velocity Weekly, I am now also writing stories for the Features section of Velocity's parent publication, The Courier-Journal, which is the major daily newspaper for Louisville, Ky., and surrounding areas.

Check out my story "Louisville planners know how to party" in the Sunday, Aug. 24 edition of The Courier-Journal.

The beats go on

On Feb. 25, the music industry lost one of its most successful R&B songwriters when Louisville native Stephen Garrett, aka Static, aka Static/Major, died at age 33.

Static was well-known as a member of the R&B trio Playa, but within the music industry, he was known as the mastermind behind some of this generation's greatest songs.

Though I didn't know it back then, Static literally wrote the soundtrack to my teen years. Songs like Ginuwine's "Pony" and "So Anxious," Playa's hit "Cheers 2 U" and Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" and "Try Again" bring back so many high school memories for me -- and they were all penned by Static.

I never met Static, but I spent this summer talking to his friends and family members who miss his smile and people in the music industry who regard him as a genius.

I share their memories of Static in the story "The Beats Go On" in this week's issue of Velocity. The story can be found online on Louisville's new Metromix site. Click here to check it out.

I Heart Louisville...

and so does photographer Leslie Lyons. Read all about Lyons and her website I Live in Louisville in my Write Out Loud column in this week's issue of Velocity.

A bittersweet week

I was on vacation last week and my husband and I traveled to Virginia to visit his family and friends. I had a chance to tour museums and a famous battleship with my mother-in-law and I finally started a book I've been toting around all summer. I ate too much and beat my high score on the Bejeweled game on my cell phone. I also went to Virginia Beach where my husband and I played in the ocean like kids and both picked up some sexy chocolate tans.

But while I was away I also heard news of the deaths of comedian and actor Bernie Mac and soul legend Isaac Hayes. A young woman at my husband's former church in Virginia died of cancer last week as well. My week was a bittersweet one as I was reminded of our mortality day after day.

But sitting around worrying about death won't keep us or our loved ones on this earth any longer. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to live each day as if it were your last. I'm sure most of us wouldn't spend our last day on earth at work but you have to go anyway just in case it's not your last day after all. So instead I'll just say to live and love like you mean it. Try to make each moment as good as it can get, because in the end that's really all we can do.