Self-Promote like a Champion Today

Normally, I'm not one to toot my own horn around here. After all, I figure all my readers enjoy what I do well enough or else they'd stop coming, so there's really no need to hard-sell them. However, it seems that the visibility of my blogs, and some of the writings that are associated with them, are at an all-time high. Not long ago, the Muriels, and by extension the blog, were spotlighted by Jim Emerson over at Scanners. Well, that's not the end of it. Two particularly cool recent developments have me pretty darned excited.

1. I'm not sure it's available online, but I was quoted in the March 2008 Wexner Center for the Arts calendar. More specifically, Wex Media Relations Coordinator quoted a mostly-forgotten post on Conquistador Instant Leprosy (still Pomegranate Rickey at the time, IIRC), in which I said that the Wexner Center was "invaluable to the cultural landscape of my life." The calendar is pretty widely distributed, getting mailed to thousands of people in the area, so this is some pretty darned good exposure. However, it's nothing compared to...

2. Yesterday, I received an e-Mail from blog bud Victor (who's been schooling the lot of you at quote-identifying games), informing me that the Muriels have finally truly hit the big-time. That's right- we got mentioned in an honest-to-goodness daily newspaper. More specifically, the Muriels' own Hedwig Van Driel was quoted in the March 5 edition of The Washington Times, in the Culture Briefs column. According to Victor, Culture Briefs features direct quotes on various aspects of culture taken from outside sources, and runs on page A2 of the paper. Moreover, Culture Briefs was recently singled out by President Bush as being his favorite part of the Times. So congrats to Hedwig for your particularly noteworthy contribution to the cause, and thanks to Victor for using his influence to get our scrappy little awards ceremony into a big-time publication. And, as always, thanks to all the Muriel voters who contributed to this year's awesome awards, and of course to all of my readers, regular or irregular, new or old. I appreciate you all.