Today marks the fifth anniversary of the MBIP blog! Five years ago on this day I hit “publish” and put up the very first MBIP blog post. You can see that post by clicking here. I’m having a party to celebrate the anniversary of the blog in a couple weeks and I’ll have more thoughts on my five years of MBIP at that post, but I do want to sincerely thank all of you people and friends who read the blog, like it on facecrack and have become part of this online MBIP community. This blog has really been an interesting journey and it’s not over yet! So stay tuned and thanks again for reading and being a part of it! I truly appreciate it!
I was thinking about blogging yesterday and it dawned on me that I really found my blogging voice with the second blog I did, A Guy Walks Into 365 Bars. That blog started on January 11, 2010 and It was during that year I really learned how to interact with strangers and translate social activities into a blogging experience online through writing and photos. I also learned that blogging in this style is a real improvisational experience and sometimes it falls flat but sometimes it works and when it works it’s really a magical and exciting feeling. I was lucky enough to get a write-up in the NY Daily News early on in the 365 journey and that led to world-wide exposure and it kind of turned my life and the blog upside down for a while! I want to thank writer, Simone Weichselbaum for doing that feature that gave the blog an audience I never could've imagained! Below are six links to some of the articles that were written about the blog that led me on the road to where I’m at right now.
Marty Wombacher plans to visit 365 city bars in 365 days and blog about each experience - This is what put the blog on the map and it got a lot of attention in New York City! I spent an afternoon with writer Simone Weichselbaum of the NY Daily News and the story came out on March 10, 2010 and immediately my email and phone started blowing up and the blog got more hits than I ever could’ve dreamed. I didn’t think it could get any bigger than this!
Man plans 365 beer nights for bar blog - And then it got even bigger as the U.P.I. Wire Service picked up the story and put it on their international wire and the story went world-wide. I got phone calls and emails from all over the world and it was really a weird time in my life. Things were happening too fast and furious and I still had to go to a bar every night, take pictures and then put it all together the next day. Plus I was working full time at a job where my shifts were sometimes twelve and fourteen hours. It kind of turned into one of those “watch out what you wish for” moments in life!
365 bares en 365 días - I couldn’t keep track of all the stories that were written about the blog the couple of weeks after the story went out on the wires. Some of them, like this one, needed to be translated!
Bar blogger gets a taste of Cleveland: Writer's pub crawl is about the people, not the drinks - Cleveland Plain Dealer writer and Minister of Culture, Michael Heaton invited me to bring the bar crawl to Cleveland for a weekend and I happily accepted his invitation. This is the column about our bar crawling in Cleveland.
365 Bars Guy - Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York is a popular and well-respected blog in New York City and I was honored he chose to interview me at the end of the run. I think it was one of my favorite interviews I did for the blog.
The Morning Show In Australia - Shortly after the U.P.I. Wire Service ran the story I got an email from a producer from a news show in Australia called, “The Morning Show.” She wanted to know if I could be interviewed that Sunday night at a location in midtown Manhattan. So much was going on then I didn’t have time to think much about it, but I told her I could and went to the address at 6:15pm on a Sunday evening and rang a buzzer at the door. A man greeted me and said he was the engineer and took me to a waiting room and said the interview would happen in about twenty minutes. I was joking with him and he said to me, “Wow, you’re not nervous at all, have you done a lot of TV?” I said I had been on TV before and I asked if I made a mistake or flubbed it up, if we could do another take. He laughed and said, “You have no idea what you’re doing here, do you?” Then he explained this was going to be a live interview because Australia’s twelve hours ahead time-wise and it was 6:30 in the morning there. He also told me it was their equivalent to the Today Show and it was broadcast all over the country and millions of people would see it! Well, I was nervous then, but I calmed down by knowing if I screwed it up, I just wouldn’t tell anyone about it! I ended up doing okay, but the weird lapses in silence were due to the time difference. What a kooky year!
Tomorrow is a festive post as a holiday tradition here on MBIP continues with our third annual Christmas tour with Kevin and Star. This year Kevin and Star took me to four bars and the one that gets the spotlight is The Vault in Danvers, Illinois. It’s a cool bar in a historical building and Scott, the owner even gave us a tour of the exclusive private room upstairs! It was such a fun day and you can read and see pictures of that tomorrow! Tuesday we continue the seven month steak tour and this week’s steak happens at a restaurant that most people don’t associate with steak! Wednesday is yet another December tradition and that tradition is my annual tattoo at I’m No Angle Tattoo Parlor on Farmington Road. Wanda Harper who owns I’m No Angel put the ink on my arm and my friend Matt Buedel took the photos. Tune in and see what I got inscribed this year and the story behind the new tattoo! Thursday will be the weekly person for the People of Peoria series and then Friday I’ll be sampling more fast food and I pray it’s more appetizing than last week’s fish taco! Okay, I have to get busy putting all of this together and once again, thanks for reading, I wouldn’t have lasted five years if it wasn’t for all of you reading and being part of this online community!
Related Posts: Sunday Links: Watergate, Magical Mystery Tour and Black Friday.