Flipping Pencils

Goodbye Where, Hello My Athens

On June 1, I launched My Athens, a blog devoted to what living in Athens, Ga. makes me think about. I’ll likely be thinking and posting a lot about walkability issues, anti-poverty policy, local media, city planning stuff, infrastructure issues and my neighborhood.

I'm no longer posting at Where, though the blog remains one of my favorite blogs about cities. During my brief stint as a contributor there, I found I increasingly wanted to write and think about a particular place, not cities in general. So, I decided to shift what blogging energies I have to My Athens, which is very local and particular indeed.

Here’s an archive of my most of my posts at Where:

Q&A with "Mayor" of Opportunity City

Introducing Urbanism: Top Books for Curious Novices

Infrastructure Book is Heavy, Useful, Beautiful

A Space So Confined? Saving Grace of Impotent Hatred?

Notes About the Future of Urban Journalism, Part 1

Notes About the Future of Urban Journalism, Part 2

Notes About the Future of Urban Journalism, Part 3

Notes About the Future of Urban Journalism, Part 4

Is Urban Poverty an Acquired Taste?

Where

Where, a blog about cities founded and guided by Brendan Crain out of Chicago, has been on this blog’s list of favorite sites almost from the beginning.

I’m pleased to report that I’m now a contributor—one of ten regulars—to Where. 

My first post on the blog came in October as part of a Blog Action Day dedicated to discussing poverty.

Today, I’m starting a series of posts about the future of urban journalism—a subject that combines two things I like to daydream about: cities and newspapers.

I’ll continue to post here at Flipping Pencils as usual— that is, every so often.

This is Still Not a Blog

If you read this earlier post, and actually expected to find a fully launched blog with something original to read starting April Fools' Day, well…

This is Not a Blog

"Mud, when it leaves the mud, stops being mud."*

—Antonio Porchia

This non-blog—which will be a blog when it is a blog—is still under construction.

If you visit here again on April 1, 2007, you should find a blog in this non-blog's place.

In the meantime, please pardon—and, if possible, completely ignore—the mess.

* From Voices: Aphorisms by Antonio Porchia, Selected and Translated by W.S. Merwin, New York, Alfred A Knopf, 1988.

ABOUT ME

My name is Dan Lorentz. I'm a freelance writer living in Athens, Georgia with my wife and two dogs. We moved here from Lexington, Kentucky where we lived for nearly six years.

For about a decade, I worked as an aide to state legislators in Wisconsin. I've also worked in the non-profit sector on poverty and public health issues. I have a master's degree in public administration from the University of Kentucky.

I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where my family still lives. That's the place I call home.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email me at danlorentz [at] mac [dot] com.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

What's this blog about?
Nothing in particular. Mainly, I'll be using it as a kind of scrapbook to collect quotes, images and links that strike my fancy. There might be longer, original content from time to time, too.

Are comments allowed?
Yes, but I'll screen comments before they are published and will ask those who want to comment on this blog to provide an email address. The address will be used for purposes of identification only, and will not be published (unless requested otherwise).

Flipping pencils?
What does the name mean? Not much, I hope. My top priority in selecting a name was to give myself maximum latitude in subject matter. Apart from the image of a pencil tumbling writing-tip over eraser-end in the air, "flipping pencils," I think, has few specific connotations. But there is some personal significance. Often when I'm thinking about something, I'll obsessively flip a pencil. When I catch them, the flips are 360-degree rotations starting and ending with the writing-tip pointing outward.

Copyright © by Dan Lorentz
All rights reserved.