What?! No Response from Flip Video

Well, FLIP VIDEO folk, I'm more than annoyed with you. I asked nicely to find out when I might receive my replacement FLIP VIDEO and DVD with all the video downloads...and you haven't replied to emails since 12.22.07. Shame on you! Now I've posted my frustration on Facebook, joined the Facebook group for FLIP VIDEO and announced my dissatisfaction, and I'm posting again here...along with a JPG file of the Facebook post.

Next stop TECHNORATI...

Waiting for the Flip Video Replacement...impatiently

Tapping my foot here, oh helpful ones in the Flip Video Emergency Room on Maiden Lane. Yes, my people, my new Flip-per had a software glitch. Shame, shame...it wouldn't allow me to download the wonderful videos of artists Kate Seawell and J.D. Crowe...much less the road trip through the Bankhead Tunnel at night with Big Band sounds blaring.

So, where is my Flip Video, help people for sick Flip-pers? Bring it on!

Technorati Profile

Little Black Book on Facebook

OMG, y'all! Do I smell romance in the air? Match.com is courting Facebook and there's soon to be a relationship...with it's own Little Black Book. So, let's just wait and see what kinds of issues this relationship encounters!

Peggy Varnado & My Flip Video DashCam Adventure

Wow! This Gypsy Queen played big time with the Flip Video. A cool device! Can't wait for y'all to hear my friend Peggy Varnado read her very funny story "Carol Ann."

BTW, the end cut off because of a technical glitch...I don't have the patience to read directions. Sooooo, I will have to upload it again, my people. Sorry

Art Walk in Downtown Mobile & Christmas Party at the Royal Scam

Headed across the bay to visit the Mobile Arts Council gala where friend and artist Kate Seawell was signing her new book & neighbor and world's greatest political cartoonist J.D. Crowe was signing his book.

Fortunately, friends Kate and J.D. were obliging and allowed this Gypsy Queen to video them with her new dash cam...a very cool Flip Video Ultra! So, check out the mini-videos of Kate and J.D. just as soon as I figure out how to load the rascals on the blog.

Then, I went down to the Royal Scam where our PR group, the Ad club and the Press Club were partying for the holidays! It was late, the crowd was gone, but good friends, good band, and great food were all there to enjoy. PLUS, everybody had a blast with the little video camera. Check out the pix of Robert E. Lee, the baby King Charles Spaniel, who rode into the party in his mother's large shoulder bag!

Visit my facebook page to see more videos!

"Make It Right" in New Orleans & the Gulf Coast

It's sweet! Brad Pitt tells Ann Curry that he's committed to building 150 houses in the Lower Ninth Ward through Make It Right --and Pitt mentioned sustainability. Keeping it GREEN is RED HOT, New Orleans.

Let's give all those nightmare images of Katrina a jazz funeral, please. New Orleans is dancin' a second line and I see white hankies waving, high stepping, and umbrellas raised in celebration.

Brad Pitt plans to "Make it Right" for New Orleans

Last week on NBC's The Today Show, I learned that Ann Curry will be in New Orleans on Monday with Brad Pitt who is expected to make an important announcement at 11:00 a.m. about his project "Make it Right." Give me a drum roll, please.

Pitt plans to build 100 green-friendly homes in the Ninth Ward. Pitt joined Global Green in 2006 and also pledged $5 million to the Clinton Global Initiative on November 9 in NYC. Y'all, put two hands together for the work Pitt has done to help folks rebuild in the Ninth Ward!

When the applause dies down, just remember those Katrina victims on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as well as the coast of Alabama. And, let's not forget all those tiny Louisiana coastal towns and villages that were wiped out.

Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the attention paid and the efforts made to rebuild one of my favorite places. There is no place like New Orleans, and my memories of living there briefly as well as visiting over the years evoke the sweet and bittersweet tastes of that extraordinary city.

However, it's important for everyone on the Northern Gulf Coast to remember to rebuild green! To that end, this Gypsy Queen is broadcasting the premier green build conference on the Northern Gulf Coast: GreenCoast 2008 in Mobile, AL on April 9 & 10, 2008.

Stay tuned, folks. You'll hear more about GreenCoast 2008!

Thank you, MoveOn.org and Facebook.Com

Dear Facebook MasterMinds and Bottom Line Decisionmakers,

Many thanks from this Gulf Coast Facebook member for respecting my rights to privacy. All of us who protested the BEACON INVASION felt somewhat as if we were wearing a straight jacket, strapped onto a hospital operating table, and being prepped for a colonoscopy without the sedatives or vaseline. You get the picture!

I feel sure you can imagine the sigh of relief all of us are breathing today.

With affection,
Lovelace Cook
GYPSY QUEEN CAB

Facebook Beacon will not shine on the Gypsy Queen Cab!

Don't you just love the immediacy of people taking action! This great NYT article just about says it all. And, of course I signed the MoveOn.org petition. No Facebook Beacon is gonna shine on this Gypsy Queen Cab's adventures online.

Facebook capitulates...High Five, Fellow Facers

Y'all, am I ever relieved to know that there is strength in unity. Thank you, Saul Alensky. Facebook listened to our protests...everybody is selling out for the big bucks! Thank God, those of us who keep up with the giants of social media got wind of what was happening and spread the word. If that doesn't confirm the power of the people, I don't know what does! Amen.

No Carbon Emissions Here, Folks!

So, we went into the shop for a while...maybe longer. In a nanosecond the world changes dramatically. Imagine how the world looks now to the new and revised Gypsy Queen Cab!

Stay posted, people.

AT&T To Kill Cingular Brand!?@*$!!

Tell me it ain't so! I leap on the cyber highway to AdAge.com, straight from the Haight...well, San Francisco, and learn that AT&T has plans to get rid of the inimitable little orange Cingular brand man in 2007. Noooo! That little brand represents cutting edge technology, at least to this Gypsy Queen Cab.

I agree with the folks at AdAge and the branding guru quoted in the article: "To give up Cingular is a mistake," especially in favor of AT&T, "my father's brand of telephony," said Jonathan Asher, president, Dragon Rouge USA, a branding and design consultancy.

Sometimes this Gypsy Queen thinks folks are just plain dumb!

Sixteen...and Bulletproof

Detours on life's highway took the Gypsy Queen Cab back to school...oh, lawd, teaching 6th, 7th and 8th graders in a drug prevention program. So many miles down that road now, and so many eye-opening experiences.

Friday night, just 6:30 pm, what were they thinking? The 16-year-old girl driving drunk down County Road 65? Her passengers, another 16-year-old girl and her 15-year-old sister, one of my students. The elder sister died when she was ejected from the car after it left the road. Her younger sister, my student, was sent by life-flight to Sacred Heart Hospital and her arm was amputated.

Last quarter we did role-playing about what to do if someone was driving drunk and they were in the car. It wasn't real in the classroom, I suppose. Maybe a few kids heard the message. It's too late for the 16-year-old who died on Friday night. Today, I will be back in classes with the 6th graders, and her youngest brother will be there. It is so sad, and so close to home.

Katrina, Rita, Wilma & Ivan Spawned... Contractors from Hell

So you think it isn't true? In the wake of devastation on the southern coasts came...the predators. People without conscience. Pathological individuals who go for the jugglar when they smell weakness. The worst of these predators are the contractors who flood into the storm-damaged communities and suck the very life blood from those who can afford to lose nothing more.

Dodging Dennis. Tales from the Storm

There's nothing like a Cat 4 hurricane bearing down at 146 mph, churning through the gumbo in the Gulf, headed straight for the shores of Mobile Bay, to get my attention. How does one prepare for such a wonder of nature?

On Friday, July 8, folks were boarding up their houses, buying out batteries and tarps at Home Depot, and clearing the shelves of peanut butter and snack foods at WalMart here on the Eastern Shore. I know first hand, because I watched the frenzy. The Gypsy Queen Cab got back on the road after a hiatus of months in storage--more on that later.

First stop was Home Depot where a power drill was on the list of must-haves. Who can just buy a power drill when there are packages of many power tools? The Riobi All-In-One kit with 18Volt battery powered everything from the power drill to a chain saw to a circular saw suddenly became a MUST-HAVE. Every D-Cell and C-Cell battery was ripped from the shelves; every generator sold. I bought the power tool kit so that I could start remedying the problems my contractor left, provided Dennis the Menace didn't take my little house and the Gypsy Queen Cab's home to Kansas or somewhere out in the Gumbo of the Gulf.

Following the shopping frenzy on Friday, Saturday started with a flap and a scramble. Powered up those batteries Friday night. Hired the neighborhood kids, ages 12 and 13, to move all the plants inside, to move all the construction debris under the house, and the mow the lawn. Thing is, those kids are sweet, but none too bright. Short term memory problems and distractions like the cats and the Wolf Dog...yes, I adopted orphaned Angel (Karen Cater's wolf dog)...and my white German Shepherd puppy made it really tough for the boys to get the job done without a few wrinkles. Major supplies of lemonade, hefty doses of mosquito spray, bandaids for blisters, and anti-itch medicines, along with cup after cup of ice water, were necessary along with strict supervision of everything those little rascals touched.

By Saturday night, the Gypsy Queen Cab begged to rest and was in a deep sleep, bookended by kitties Midnight and Lily, when the phone rang and Tampa EMA Official/high school friend Steve called, "You ARE evacuating." Well, no, we weren't. He scolded me and basically said, "Sweetheart, it's been nice knowing you." Then the reverse 9-1-1 computer phone calls came interrupted what little sleep I could get through the night, "You are putting your family in danger. Evacuate now." No, I am going to try to sleep.

More later on Sunday...the Day Dennis hit the Gulf Coast

Diamonds and Sex...Oooh, la la. It ain't what you think, folks!

It's two for the road.

Suzanne Hudson and Joe Formichella on book tour and in a quest for the perfect enchilada, but you have to visit the blog The Sex and Diamonds Book Tour to find out about the new cool!

They quote MacAdam/Cage publisher David Poindexter, "What's life without a little trepidation?" And, those road warriors are keeping us all on pins and needles as we wait for them to post their adventures on the road.

Suzanne's new novel In the Dark of the Moon and Joe's novel Here's to You, Jackie Robinson: The Legend of the Prichard Mohawks are receiving the rave reviews they both deserve.

Here's a blurb from Joyce Dixon's Southern Scribe about the launch of their new books. You can buy their books through Over The Transom bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Martin Lanaux!

There's nothing better than introducing a grand person to the world of blog...so, welcome to the virtual world Martin Lanaux, Bookseller.

The Gypsy Queen Cab has talked about Over The Transom bookstore and Martin. Now Martin has joined the ranks of the literary wunderkind and their kinfolk. And, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood on the bay.

On the Breath of Dawn

This afternoon at the Gulf we said our goodbyes to Karen Cater. Her nineteen year-old son Reid did his mama proud and told us all, "If my mother had her way, we'd all be dancing in the aisles, clapping and singing, 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'..." Of course she'd want the Rolling Stones. It would figure that Karen would take her last bow on Mardi Gras day. We wept, but Reid told us that wasn't what Karen would have wanted.

So we reminisced about our own experiences with the globe-trotting photographer and actress. Photographs of Karen brought back memories...a flower child in New York City, an actress, a very pregnant mom in a string bikini...ooh la la Karen

If you ran in off-Broadway theater circles in New York you may have met her. If you were in children's theater in Gulf Shores, or Chicago, or Fairhope, you may have met her. You certainly would never forget her if you heard her husky laugh and wonderful rich voice. Karen was a friend who gave as good as she got. She always looked like a gypsy floating into rooms waving a cigarette and toasting with a glass of wine. Her wolf, ancient and shaggy and white, followed her with his eyes when he grew too old and tired to be her shadow. The rest of us followed her lead as if she were the Pied Piper.

Dance with the angels, Karen.

Dimming the lights on Broadway

Someone great and grand, and larger than life, left life yesterday.

Karen Cater choose Mardi Gras day to take her final bow on this great stage where she lived life to the fullest. With contagious enthusiasm, kicking her shoes off while she danced on tabletops, Karen wove magic in her life and in the lives of all she touched.

We will miss you, Karen. Dream with the angels.

Come day, go day, God send Sunday

When the Gypsy Queen Cab toured the Blue Ridge Mountains and dropped in on Mr. Jefferson's University in Charlottesville for a few years, a favored English professor and his wife produced a documentary film...Come day, go day, God send Sunday. The title resonated and from time to time in the workaday world, this cab hears the lament and refrain from folks who toil in the corporate fields--another form of slavery.

A short history lecture: the expression, and the documentary title, was one that was voiced by African-Americans who worked in low paying, or no-paying, back breaking jobs from Monday through Friday, and who received little, if any, respect from their white bosses. On Sunday, those same janitors and house keepers and yard men became deacons and elders and preachers in their churches. On Sunday, those hard working individuals found respect, an opportunity to fortify themselves spiritually for the coming work week.

The Gypsy Queen Cab rarely tours a political landscape, but on this eve it somehow seems appropriate.