Because I like multi-tasking, I will again be tweeting live from the Merrie Monarch tonight (Fri. April 17th) during the Kahiko competition.

Follow me at @LeslieLang, or follow #merrie.
Off I go to pick some orchids for my hair! We’re leaving for the Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium soon.

 
One of my many hats has me, along with Kris Bordessa, operating the website Big Island On The Cheap, a place for all things free/cheap/discounted on the Big Island. And right now, in honor of Merrie Monarch week, we have some contests going on. All you have to do is follow the links to the contest posts, and then enter your name in comments there to possibly win one of our random drawings.
We are giving away a beautiful, and I do mean beautiful, hand blown glass vase from the Volcano glass studio 2400 …

An article in tomorrow’s New York Times is titled ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers.
If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Perhaps a package of information about your neighborhood, or even your block, assembled by a computer.
A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists.

It’s very much like what has sprung up over at FBI blogs, to which I belong. (And when I …

I want to be clear that the person in the video is not me. I know somebody will miss that! It’s not. This is a post about someone else whose name is Leslie Lang.
The other day I wrote about a standup comic who lives in San Jose and has the same name as me, and then she saw the post and emailed me! 
And she sent me a link to her comedy act on YouTube, which is, indeed, funny. I enjoyed it.
I like her and we’ve been emailing back and forth and it’s WEIRD. …

It’s almost Merrie Monarch week here on the Big Island. I love this week, when Hilo town shimmers and comes alive with people and flowers and hula everywhere.
Over at Big Island On The Cheap, we are going to be hitting Merrie Monarch hard. We’ll have a bunch of features — where to eat, half- and full-day trips to take around Hilo, all the exciting things going on with Merrie Monarch itself, some great local coupon deals that are exclusive to our readers (whether residents or visitors),  and some other surprises, …

Does anybody have extra Merrie Monarch tickets I could buy from them (at cost)?
One year my friend was on a mission to get Merrie Monarch tickets and asked a stranger in line at Starbucks, and said stranger indeed had extra tickets.
I haven’t asked at Starbucks yet, but how about you, online world? Surely you’re more effective than hitting up strangers at Starbucks!
I’d throw in a signed copy of my Exploring Historic Hilo book, if it helped.
Please ask around, tell your friends, all that. Let me know! I would really appreciate any help.

I have a Google Alert set up for my name (do you?) and today I got an alert about how great I was when I did my comedy improv act in San Jose recently. 
I, um, don’t do comedy improv (maybe some occasional, unintentional slapstick), nor do I frequent San Jose. But I’m glad to hear it was enjoyable.
Isn’t it strange to find other people with YOUR name? Maybe somebody named Steve Smith is used to it. But I don’t think my name is all that common, so when I occasionally …

I’m not 100 percent done yet, but here’s my new website design. What do you think?
As probably happens to many of us, I sprang up piecemeal over here in the online world. A website here, a blog there, some other projects scattered about. Nothing matched and it didn’t go together and the whole thing was getting to be a big mess, so I decided to clean house.

So here’s my new website, with blog front and center, and links to some of my various projects. There are still a couple things …

Macario is publishing a new online magazine and you should have a look. Wow. It’s eye-popping.

His photography is always great, and in this new magazine, called Macario’s Big Island, he combines his photos, interviews and commentary to illuminate some of the Big Island’s most interesting people in the world of arts, food, music and more.
He just put up what is only his third post there. It’s a feature on the Waimea architect Clemson Lam, and in a stunning turn of events – I’ve just now been able to get my jaw …

This blog is now part of a brand-new network of blogs, all from the Big Island and called FBI Blogs — get it? From Big Island?
It’s the brainchild of prolific blogger Damon Tucker, and a terrific idea. I have to say, I learn more about what’s going on this island over at FBI Blogs than I do anyplace else.
Twenty-something bloggers, all with different interests and access to different information — it’s an incredible resource to learn what’s happening on the Big Island, and also to “meet” some Big Island characters. 
I …