This is a project that just occurred to me a couple of weeks ago. I heard that our beloved Longmont Leader closed its doors and that felt like a real blow to our art scene. I was sitting at Rosalee's one afternoon and started talking to my friend Connor; local writer and musician. I was joking around about starting my own news site and how funny that would be. Frankly, as I laughed and thought about it the idea gave me a lot of dopamine. I realized that it could actually be a useful thing for the community as well as a drug-like source of joy and purpose for me. That's sort of the sweet spot for me in my art life. My projects need to keep me engrossed and a little obsessed. They also need to serve someone other than myself. My best projects have always been the ones that come from a service mindset.
I think it is dangerous for our community to be uninformed about local politics.
Ever since I fell in love with and moved to Longmont in 2009 I've tried to follow the local political happenings. I found that people often asked me what I thought of certain candidates or issues in town so I started writing voters guides for each election to help the issues seem easy to understand and fun to learn about. Eventually, that turned into interviewing community members and candidates on my podcasts "The Prairie Scholars Podcast" and "Ando's Thinky Time Podcast". In 2019 I created a live interview show called "Longmont Tonight", where I interviewed business owners, Congresspeople, and artists down at Left Hand Brewery. During the lockdowns I hosted a live streaming show called "The Hippie Report", where locals could tune in and share helpful information in the comments for me to report. Then in 2020 with the help of Longmont Public Media I created "Boulder County Tonight"; the direct predicessor to this project.
Big News Boulder County is the newest iteration of my efforts to inform, entertain, and celebrate this community that I love so much.
An informed community is a safer community.
... also we like jokes. so... jokes too.
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