Xark!

New Charleston

Defensive ornamentation, East Bay Street, Charleston (Dan Conover photo)

Because Charleston was founded in the 17th century at the southern tip of a north-south peninsula, power and class here have always run on something of a north-south axis. So in the 1970s, when the area around the navy base incorporated as North Charleston, the name spoke as much about the new city's blue-collar identity as it did about its relative location.

Well, I think it's time we imposed a new axis on Charleston. Not North and South, but Old and New. 

Charleston, for all its considerable charms, remains a backward-looking city. Not "backwards," as in unsophisticated or unintelligent, but more enamored of its past than its present. So while the city officially recognizes the value of its "creative cluster," its "tech sector" and its "knowledge-based industries," Charleston's institutions, typically dominated by the same old families and traditions, remain wary -- if not openly hostile -- toward new ideas and new people.

Since that anti-outsider bias tends to limit opportunity, Charleston has developed a reputation as a place where who you know is more important than what you know. It's why so many talented people here seem to direct their energies toward celebrity instead of substance.

Once upon a time I wanted to change that. Now I believe we should let eccentric, odd Old Charleston be whatever it wants to be. I thank Old Charleston for preserving this beautiful city, and aren't we stronger when we value and preserve indigenous cultures?

Instead, I want to encourage Charleston's outsiders to start appreciating their own significance. The prosperity of the Lowcountry depends on the energy, creativity and spirit of people who moved here "from off," and once we start acting on that knowledge it simply won't matter whether Old Charleston recognizes this truth.

New Charleston doesn't have to beat Old Charleston. It simply has to stop looking to Old Charleston for permission.

What are we waiting for?

Go to a New Charleston event -- Kulture Klash, Pecha Kucha, BarCampCHS, a TweetUp or an SMCCHS happy hour -- and look around. Hundreds, thousands of musicians, writers, artists, designers, art directors, photographers, programmers, Web-heads, researchers, engineers, architects, entrepreneurs, chefs, dancers, filmmakers, actors and big-thinkers live here. How many are "from off?" Most.

Yet I still meet people who tell me different versions of the same story. Instead of being encouraged in their new ventures, they are visited by members of the local establishment who always deliver the same message. Get back in line. There's some kind of old-boy system here, and it wants to pick the winners of every contest in advance. I don't understand it, but there it is.

My question is, so what? Yes, these people have some money. Yes the city has various programs and perks it can dole out to the favored few. Yes, the local paper acts an unofficial enforcer of Old Charleston orthodoxy. Again: So what?

We don't need mass media to spread the word. We don't need membership in exclusive social clubs to meet interesting people. And the sophisticated tool users here can do more with less money in less time and with less formal organization than Old Charleston can even imagine.

It isn't as if they're offering us an alternative. You're never going to be accepted into the Old Charleston clubs, so why bother conforming to their rules? What have you got to lose by ignoring them?

When we stop fighting and cajoling Old Charleston, we can invest all that energy into building a healthy New Charleston. A separate culture that reflects the values of the people who came here by choice. A culture that's more egalitarian, educated, productive and open.

This change doesn't require government loans or angel investors. Just start small. Cooperate. Do business with each other -- and with the thousands of like-minded Lowcountry natives who are our good friends and collaborators. Support each other. Work together.

Opposing an existing power structure gets us nowhere. Building our own power structure, with our own open networks and values, is progress.

In conclusion...

You don't undo an old habit. You have to create new habits, and to make them stick you have to reinforce those new patterns until the old ones silt over.

That's how we're going to make progress. And the funny thing is, Old Charleston won't even notice it.

It will simply benefit from it, along with the rest of us. Now go forth, join ranks, and start inventing a new city.

(BarCampCHS photo via Ken Hawkins on Flickr)

BarCamp Charleston: Geoff's video

Geoff Marshall has been a good friend since we met back in the early Lowcountry Blogs days. I helped him get a job at The Post and Courier and in the early days of the paper's web video push it was pretty much just the two of us, wandering around with cameras, figuring out technical tricks, comparing notes, and each of us trying to develop personal styles of storytelling.

It didn't take time much time for him to begin establishing a style that I thought was not only distinctly his, but very, very good.

Geoff covered BarCamp Charleston this weekend and just posted his video. I think it's excellent in all sorts of ways.

And it makes me feel a bit nostalgic. He's leaving Charleston in a few days with a one-way ticket back to London, his true home. So in a way, this #BarCampCHS video is his parting gift to the Lowcountry. It shows not only how far the tech community has come, but also how sophisticated Geoff has become.

Thanks, mate.

The #helpgeoff thing

Earlier today Janet (@xarkgirl) messaged me that our filmmaking buddy Geoff Marshall was in trouble: His 48-state documentary roadtrip had been interrupted in Greensboro, NC, by a smash-and-grab auto break-in. He lost about $6,000 in video and computer electronics, and apparently some of his material for the film (which he has been videoblogging along the way).

Janet wanted me to contact our Greensboro friends, which I did, getting quick responses from John Robinson, Sue Polinsky and Ed Cone. And as I was doing that, Chrys Rynearson popped up in my Google Talk bar:

exposur3: dude
fundraiser

let's get it going

we can raise 5k

what do you think?

A few hours later, Geoff had bloggers in Greensboro and Charleston working his case and offering help. We had a Help Geoff blog, a Help Geoff Twitter account, a new e-mail address, plus accounts at Tipjoy and PayPal.Someone suggested a #helpgeoff hashtag. We'd worked through numerous technical difficulties, all without anyone "being in charge."

The best place to follow all this? At Charleston's TheDigitel, where Geoff's former boss, Ken Hawkins, is covering this like the community story it is.

Here's what makes it all particularly sweet to me: The most influential moment in my turn toward networked media occurred in 2005 at ConvergeSouth , the Greensboro conference organized by Sue and a host of others. It's where we met John Robinson. It's what inspired Janet and I to launch Lowcountry Blogs in April 2006. At the final free ConvergeSouth in 2008, one of the largest and most enthusiastic groups in attendence were bloggers from coastal South Carolina.We owe a lot to those people in Greensboro.

As his friend, it's my duty to say that Geoff is a dumbass for leaving his stuff in the car, but as Chrys said, "He's our boy." And frankly, I just don't want want his documentary to end in a way that portrays America that way. Online communities are communities nonetheless. Let's see how well they function.

House party @ Chez XARK!

 
(Click on the image to see it larger... click here to download a PDF of the party flier to post wherever...)

We've been meaning to throw a house party for a long time now, and on vacation last week, Janet got over her innate terror of guests realizing that we don't live in a Southern Living showcase and said "OK." So it's on, people: SATURDAY, JUNE 27 (from 6:30 p.m. until the cops arrive). here in lovely North Central Charleston, just up the street from the intersection of Rutledge and Grove which played such a funny role in Charlie Geer's novel Outbound.

It's not the biggest house in the world, but we've got a nice porch and a back yard and I'll open up the garage and the boys have said they'll set up and play live out back (if you feel like jamming, bring your instrument). Don't bother to dress up, remember that early evenings in June mean bug spray if you're gonna sit in the back yard, and then make plans to drop in, hang out and have fun.

Here's our house on Google.If you think you might come, feel free to let us know (helps with the shopping). We're looking forward to seeing you!

KK4 V.I.P R.I.P.

So a funny thing happened on the way to the beer ticket window at Kulture Klash 4: A guy looked at our wristbands and redirected us to the VIP Lounge, where free beer and food awaited us.

How did we wind up with VIP wristbands? Well, the most likely answer is there was some kind of screw-up, and we later heard rumors that something had gone wrong and flooded the lounge with people who weren't so important after all. Which I think is just divinely sweet.

But here's the lesson I hope the excellent people behind the influential Kulture Klash series learn from this glitch: You're misreading our new culture when you add a VIP room to your party.

Organizing #CHS news Twitter from the ground up

The first time I encountered a hashtag on Twitter I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I understood that adding a # symbol to a word or abbreviation created a more specific search string, but that was back before the days of Twitter Search. The concept was cool, but it didn't have powerfully practical applications.

But here we are, less than a year later, and nine of us (including representatives from three news outlets and Lowcountry Bloggers)  just sat down and agreed on a set of nine preferred hashtags for local news. Now that's progress.

The #CHS prefix
While Charleston County and Charleston the city are only geographical subsets of a larger community/media market generally known as the Lowcountry, we went with the tag #CHS to describe it. Reason? Because using our airport code is an efficient, already popular way of communicating a general location.

With that established, we moved on to subject tags.

Correcting the record

Please allow me to clarify an annoying statement from this morning's Post and Courier.

Not only did my frighteningly intelligent and capable wife receive absolutely zero credit (internally or publicly) for the South Carolina Press Association second-place award that her Lowcountry Election Experience blog received in the category of Best Online Project, but this morning's story failed even to mention it.

Rather, the newspaper gave the credit generically and incompletely to the website formerly known as Charleston.net.

The newspaper's Web site, www.charleston.net, took first place in the Online News Project category for presidential election coverage, and Best Integration of Print and Web Coverage, as well as Best Photo Gallery on a Newspaper Web Site, for "Locked Down."

No mention of the second place for Janet's blog, which she created via Typepad and operated independently of Charleston.net.

But what about the full-page ad celebrating the paper's victories? It cites the award this way: "The Post and Courier Staff -- Online News Project -- Election Coverage."

Here's why I want to be clear about this, and it goes beyond dumb-ass press awards and me being miffed at the way Janet's contributions were handled (it would have been nice to see the newsroom editor who contributes the most to the paper's online presence, Melanie Balog, receive some due recognition, too, but I digress).

Local First & The 10 Percent Shift

Lowcountry Local First came about around the time I was pitching my previous employer a "Shop Local" online/print guide to locally owned business organized by products and services. That idea went nowhere, but LLF has been growing and becoming increasingly influential ever since. Tonight I attended my first meeting at One Cool Blow for a speech by Laury Hammel.

The shtick for the Local First movement is as simple as it is profound: Spend $100 with local independent businesses and $45 stays in the community (where it's subject to the local multiplier effect). Spend that same $100 with a national chain and only $15 sticks around. The rest "leaks" right out of town.

The movement is well under way, and its next step (a change from "building awareness" to "real, concrete behavioral change") is the "Ten Percent Shift." You sign a pledge to shift -- not expand -- 10 percent of your budgeted spending from national chains to local independents.

What's that worth to Charleston? Well, a study in Grand Rapids, Mich., concluded it would mean 1,600 new jobs, $53 million in wages, and a $137 million economic impact. Our MSA is home to about 640,00 people. Grand Rapids' is about 777,000. Your mileage may vary.

Hammel quotes after the jump.

Charleston Trends That Never Quite Caught On Elsewhere

No. 1 in my series of Great Rejected Freelance Ideas.

Politely Celebrating Bad Poetry
Charleston is a deeply and pleasantly anti-intellectual city with a proud heritage of pretend cultural achievements, and despite attracting any number of great thinkers and artists "from off" over the years, it has long managed to sustain a native artistic class of singular non-distinction.

Nowhere is this heritage more overtly displayed than in the field of poetry, where Lowcountry muses, the essential Charleston social impulse and vast quantities of adult beverages have combined to create a tradition in which the befuddled sons and matronly daughters of the aristocracy hold exquisitely catered lunches and teas to celebrate the barely literate writings of their comfortably overwrought cousins. While these events remain somewhat popular here, actual poetry is generally preferred in other great cities, with the possible exception of Boca Raton.

See also: "Archibald Rutledge."

Episcopalianism
The Church of England was tremendously influential in the development of colonial America, and as many Charlestonians continue to ponder whether permanent separation from the Crown would be a wise course of action, our connection to The Church of England remains strong. Charlestonians are typically shocked -- if not violently alarmed -- when informed that the Episcopal Church is no longer the largest in the city, much less the rest of the country (where Episcopalians come in ahead of the Jews, but trail those damned Pentecostals) .

It has been said of the local denomination that "Wherever you find four Episcopalians together in Charleston, you're sure to find a fifth." This peculiar Lowcountry sect, known as "Whiskeypalianism," has its strongholds in the city's two historic churches, St. Philip's and St. Michael's. Pews and seating arrangements in these churches are subject to elaborate protocols, many of them allegedly established by the city's 18th century social registry, elements of which remain in effect to this day. The faithful now spend much of their time writing letters to the editor against the ordination of gay bishops and spiking the punch at the rectory.

See also: "Secession and Other Charleston Pastimes."

Aristocracy
While America was founded upon egalitarian ideals, Charleston and the Lowcountry were founded by Lords Proprietors who were interested mainly in making a quick buck and remaining happily marinated throughout as much of the day as their livers would allow. We witness this entitled heritage of pickled privilege today on various civic and charitable boards, societies and commissions, but also during walks around the city, where it is not uncommon to be confronted by natives who are prevented only by federal intervention from the practice of releasing their hounds upon anyone who stops to peer through the fence at their landscaping.

Though other great eastern cities preserve remnants of an aristocratic past, Americans have generally rejected the idea that all power and status should be conferred upon an elect class, graced by god with superior wisdom, gravitas and insight via their family name and fortune. Charlestonians consider such thinking ill-bred and tacky. 

See also: "Carolina Yacht Club."

Romanticizing People You Used to Own
The wealth of the Lowcountry was created by slaves kidnapped from Africa and preserved by an ante bellum system that depressed the earnings of free white farmers and tradesmen. Though eventually destroyed by Yankees and rejected by the civilized world, that system remains a wistful memory of perfection South of Broad, where the aristocracy enjoys the certain belief that their families' former slaves were beloved, simple servants, and that all the brutality of the plantation era was somehow the fault of viscous overseers from the white middle class.

Though an extremely popular view locally (witnessed in the endlessly patronizing aristocratic celebrations of Gullah culture, sweetgrass basketweaving and Philip Simmons), the bizarre arms-length embrace of local blacks by local blue-bloods has failed to permeate the rest of the American psyche, where such behavior is considered not only racist and deluded, but also extremely creepy.

See also: "Acceptable uses of the term 'Darkies.'"

Excessive Eccentricity
The old homeless man you may have noticed shambling through the Harris Teeter is actually not homeless: He lives in one of the finest historic houses on the peninsula, serves on several charitable boards, and is worth several million dollars. And he's perfectly harmless, unless you happen to be a woman forced by unfortunate circumstance to ride with him alone on an elevator.

See also: "Charleston City Council" and "#meatwaffles."

Inbreeding
See "Aristocracy" and "Excessive Eccentricity."

Flamboyantly Closeted Homosexuality
Charleston is a gay city where no one from the native population admits to being homosexual. This bizarre affectation gives many of the city's top social events all the farcical cheek of a Noel Coward romp.  From senators to shop keepers to solicitors, dandy Charleston bachelors make life here delightfully clever and stylish.

See also: "Spoleto."

Alcoholism As Civic Virtue
Charleston's early attempts at developing an intellectual class (See also "Unitarians, Lutherans and Other Nerds") were generally drowned out by the efforts of the Whiskeypalians. Though Whiskeypalians were not well known for their accomplishments, their parties tended to be far more entertaining, or at least far better stocked.

This historic trend is explained in a popular joke: "When you meet a Yankee, he'll ask you what you do for a living. When you meet a Southerner, she'll ask you who your people are. And when you meet a Charlestonian, he'll ask you 'What'll you have to drink?'" Charlestonians think this is a real hoot.

Natives view extreme forms of sobriety with outright hostility and moderate levels of indulgence with wary suspicion. In fact, it is possible to view the totality of Charleston history as a protracted frat party gone horribly awry.

See also: "Holy City."

In defense of rule-breaking

During my time in Germany, I observed something amazing to American eyes: At 3 a.m., in a city-center with no cars on the streets, drunken Bavarians leaving their favorite gasthauses would stand obediently at intersections waiting for the "Do Not Cross" light to change.

To the Americans on the corner, this seemed insane. Sure, having lights for pedestrians makes sense. It's a good rule. But the sight of a small crowd of happy, liquored-up people standing on an empty street corner in an otherwise silent city patiently waiting for a machine to tell them when to cross the street struck me as essentially, fundamentally absurd.

Which brings me to bicycles.