I’m currently obsessed with…

1. Vampire Weekend 
2. Krav Maga
3. Getting Things Done by David Allen
4. Guerrilla Marketing for Writers by Jay Conrad Levinson
5. www.MoonPittsburgh.com
6. Johnny Bunko

[What to expect from the upcoming Vampire Weekend backlash] [Born Ruffians]

MoonPittsburgh.com goes live… finally!

The Moon Handbooks Pittsburgh companion website has literally been in the works for something like 10 months now, and finally – FINALLY! – it’s now live and online. I’d be much obliged if you’d take a minute to check it out, and also if you’d be kind enough to let me know what you think.

As for myself, I’m more or less in love with it. In fact, not only is it a storefront selling discounted and autographed copies of the book - it’s also a fantastic online guide with a great Pittsburgh-places directory. I’m in the process now of gathering together a bunch of merchandise ideas (T-shirts, tote bags, etc.), so you can count on there being all sorts of great stuff for sale on the site before too long.

Please feel free to get in touch if you’re a creative Pittsburgher with something you’d like to sell on the site; assuming there’s a significant enough interest, MoonPittsburgh.com will soon be acting as a retail store for all things Pittsburgh, like books and gift items.  

I have a new mobile number…

Q) When you’ve had the same phone number forever, and then you change it, how should you best go about the process of informing everyone who needs to know?

A) I don’t have the slightest inkling of an idea. We’re sort of past the age of sending out mass e-mails, aren’t we? After all, I don’t even know the majority of the people in my e-mail address books.  

Anyway, the point is, I finally decided to get a new mobile number. I thought it might be nice to have one with an area code that accurately reflected where I currently live. If you’d like the number, kindly send a request via e-mail, or simply call me on my old number, which will be active for another two weeks or so.  

Upcoming: U.S. stamps celebrating American journalists

For some reason, I find this incredibly exciting — the U.S. Postal Service apparently has official plans in place to release five stamps immortalizing American journalists “who risked their lives reporting some of the most important events of the 20th Century.” (In other words, these journalists were all foreign correspondents.) The first-day-of-issue date is still unknown, although a release-date ceremony for the stamps will be held at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The following is from a United States Postal Service press release:

 The U.S. Postal Service has released the images for an upcoming series of stamps celebrating American Journalists. The stamps honor Martha Gellhorn, John Hersey, George Polk, Ruben Salazar and Eric Sevareid. Other journalists who have been commemorated on stamps include: Edward R. Murrow, Ernie Pyle, Walter Lippman, Henry Luce, Nellie Bly, Ida M. Tarbell, Ethel L. Payne, Margueritte Higgins and publisher Adolph S. Ochs.

To view and download images of the stamps, click here.