StoryCorps visits Kansas City

StoryCorps visits Kansas City

Every Friday morning I get excited when StoryCorps comes on Morning Edition on NPR. For those of you who are not familiar, StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit who's mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve stories. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived over 30,000 interviews!

Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind! I was thrilled to find out that their mobile sound booth (that cute little trailer up there) was parked here in Kansas City, September 9-October 3, 2010. It's a partnership with our local NPR station KCUR and sponsored by Mid-Continent Public Library.

The Booth is located at 6301 Brookside Blvd, Kansas City, Missouri 64113. On the corner of W 63rd St. in the Brookside neighborhood. If you're a Kansas City local please check it out and consider recording your personal story.

Here's tons of info on this exciting project, & I just found out some of the stories have been turned into animated shorts. !

Oklahoma Joe's

Oklahoma Joe's BBQ from Evan Scherr on Vimeo.

Nice video I found about Oklahoma Joe's. Probably one of the best BBQ places in Kansas City *In my opinion*. I love getting the Z Man sandwich. Mmm!
Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Christopher Elbow's Glacé Ice Cream Shop Opens

Glacé

It's no surprise I love chocolate, especially anything Christopher Elbow makes. So I was thrilled to find out that finally his ice cream shop is opening today! It's located south of the Country Club Plaza, on 4960 Main st.

Just like expected, his ice cream and sorbet flavors are similar to some of his chocolates, and I bet they will change with the seasons. He's done a few preview weekends where you could buy ice cream at his shop in the Crossroads by the pint. I sampled the Fleur De Sel Caramel and it was pretty much amazing.

Here are the ones I want to try:

• Caramelized Banana
• Basil Lime Sorbet
• Peanut Butter & Jelly (mmm?!)
• Rosemary Caramel
• Pineapple Cilantro Sorbet
• Venezuelan Spiced Chocolate
• Strawberry Balsamic

Check out the website for the other flavors. Happy Memorial Day Weekend !

36 Hours in Kansas City, Missouri

Image Source: NYT

Check out this wonderful article in the New York Times: 36 Hours in Kanasas City. It includes Travel guides for Places to Eat, Things to Do, and Where to Stay.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/travel/16hours.html

The Art of the Crown

At the beginning of the year there was an art show in one of our galleries called "Art of the Crown" it helped kick off Hallmark's centennial year (we blogged about it here a little bit). Hallmark artists created 250 uniquely diverse works of art, all starting with the same white resin crown (á la Kidrobot). Jeanee, Josh and I have crowns in the show!

Read more at the Centennial Blog.

Hallmark Channel Branding

Design firm Imaginary Forces just finished up the 2010 Network Branding for Hallmark Channel (The website got a facelift too).

Here is what they said about the concept:

"The new branding for the Hallmark Channel emphasizes the Network’s goal of “celebrating life’s moments.” Taking the design for the new branding a step further, we celebrated the brand itself. Using an embossed 3D logo, the design physically explores the ins and outs of the logo, and highlights the content of the network with changing color schemes and subtle cues to the programming it surrounds."

It is very very cool! Check out the video on their site.

Big 12

Not going to lie and say I follow many college sports events, but I keep hearing about the Big 12 Conference coming to Kansas City this week. The Women's and Men's Basketball championships start tomorrow March 10th-14th. Kansas City is expecting to have tons of visitors for the games and the Visit KC website has a wonderful site devoted to just that.

Things To Do
Where To Eat
Places to Stay
Where to Park
Getting Around

Sourdough Bread

Every Tuesday of this year the Centennial Committee has been posting a video giving us a glimpse into Hallmark's history. I enjoyed this one a lot- one of our bakers tells the story of the sourdough bread recipe J.C. Hall brought back from San Francisco in the 1960s. Enjoy!


Watch other Crown Minutes on the Hallmark Youtube page

Cards Reflect Our Culture

I have never really thought of a greeting card as a sort of "time capsule", but when you think about it...they really can be a freeze frame of world events, slang, social norms and design styles. The Hallmark Centennial site has a really great section where they showcase cards from the past 10 decades, they are grouped in themes. With Valentine's right around the corner, the album up right now shows the different ways people used to say "I Love You", and how they say it today.

While you're there check out the past albums.
• Tough Times, Good Wishes
• Cards Are Groovy, Man

Centennial Colors

It's starting to look like a celebration wherever you look around here ! Loving these colors everywhere. 

This is a photo of the Visitor's Center and Kaleidoscope.

KCUR Covers Hallmark Centennial Celebration

I'm an avid NPR listener, especially while I design during the day. I like to listen to the local Kansas City Station KCUR. One of my favorite local shows is Up to Date with Steve Kraske of the Kansas City Star.

I wanted to give a heads up about tomorrow's show - Steve will be talking with Hallmark's Historian Lynley Farris about how the need for emotional connection has stayed consistent over the decades even while the means by which we connected - the images and editorial used in Hallmark's greeting cards - changed to reflect the times.

It sounds like an awesome show, if you're in the listening area you should tune in tomorrow Friday 15th 11am - Noon on 89.3 FM, and even if you're not you can still listen online.

EDIT

Here's a Link of the show archive.

Happy 100th!

Photo from: The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star has a wonderful photo gallery of Hallmark through the years. As well as timeline of Hallmark History.

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Along with our centennial website (as Erin mentioned), there's a Centennial blog called Signatures - it's a behind the scenes look at the year long celebration. The contributors are 11 Hallmarkers (I'm one of them!) Check it out!

Union Station Model Trains

Happy New Year!
I wanted to share some photos I took before the holiday break, these were taken inside Union Station.

Another holiday tradition in Kansas City are these wonderful toy trains. They take up a large part of the lobby as you can see here.



There is so much detail, this is my favorite area of the display.
It's a vintage drive-in, and it plays old black and white films. (click on the images to see the detail)


The miniature railroads feature a wide variety of model trains in every scale. Holiday trains run through snow covered trees, mountains, and towns. It is definitely a delight for children and adults alike.

The display is free to the public.

The Plaza's Season of Lights

Did You Know?

The Country Club Plaza uses more than 80 miles of glimmering holiday lights in its annual winter display? ! (That's about 280,000 bulbs!)

The Country Club Plaza is one of Kansas City's famous entertainment and shopping districts, with more than 150 shops and restaurants.

During the winter months the lights have become a Kansas City winter trademark. The 80 miles of light accentuate every dome, tower and window of the Plaza, and it definitely puts you in the Christmas spirit when taking a night stroll through the busy streets.

Here are some fun facts about the Plaza Light Tradition.

Mayor's Christmas Tree

Did You Know?

The Mayor’s Christmas Tree in Crown Center is taller than the famous trees at the White House and Rockefeller Center in New York City? The Tree is 100 feet tall, making it one of the nation's tallest Christmas trees.

I sure did not know that! - Also after the holidays, the tree is cut into commemorative ornaments and sold to benefit the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which assists the city’s less fortunate.

Here is a fun FAQ about the tree.

WICKED!

Broadway Across America : Wicked

Ah! Yesterday was the last performance of Wicked, it had been playing at the Music Hall downtown since November 11th.

I was lucky enough to enter the Wicked Lottery, it happens 2 1/2 hours before each show. Basically, you enter in the lottery and if your name is drawn you can get really good orchestra seats for 25 dollars! My friend and I went to the 2pm showing (They only pick 10 pairs per show), we sat on the second row and I had an amazing time!!



This was my second musical in Kansas City. I highly recommend the lottery!

Here's a link to future shows.

National World War I Muesum

Veteran's Day is this Wednesday November 11th, and I just found out through The Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association's (VisitKC) Twitter page, that the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial will be offering free admission to the public on this day of honor.

Liberty Memorial is a short walk away from Hallmark, and has beautiful views of downtown Kansas City and Union Station (as you saw on my Autumn post). I've always wanted to climb up to the top of the memorial, I'm thinking of going over on Wednesday!

Beautiful!

Moving from Florida to Kansas City and experiencing autumn for the second time has been really wonderful. Most of the trees in the city are changing, so yesterday I took the time during my lunch break to appreciate the colors and take a few photos. Some I took right outside our buildings, and the others I took at Liberty Memorial. Enjoy!

Exciting News!

Hallmark Among “Best Places to Work”

on Latest Corporate Equality Index

I am a member of the Hallmark Employee Resource group called HERE: Hallmark Employees Reaching Equality, and in our meeting today we celebrated a great accomplishment in our company history! As of yesterday Hallmark became one of the 305 major U.S. businesses to achieve a perfect 100 score in the annual Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) survey.

Organizations receiving a score of 100 are recognized as one of the "Best Places to Work" for and support of equality for GLBT employees.

So congratulations to everyone who made this possible! Woohoo!!! News like this makes me proud to work here.

You can read the official press release
Also...Hallmark was featured in the GLBT News Magazine Advocate.

Whoop Dee Doo Art Collective

Whoop Dee Doo was created by a group of Kansas City Artists in 2006 as a way to promote the arts community in our city. It has now expanded into a faux public access variety fun show. They dance, have fun, learn cool things, play games, and perform skits by Kansas City's talented community. All the events are kid-friendly, and costume encouraged.

Whoop Dee Doo Live Filming November 2008 La Esquina (short) from Whoop Dee Doo on Vimeo.

Our local NPR station recorded a little interview with Jaimie and Matt (The Hosts) about Whoop Dee Doo. & I recently discovered their Vimeo videos. Check them out!