Polished, Melanie Woodard’s Silver Bullet

Posted by Lisa N. Ha

Some people get balloons and a greeting card stuffed with cash when they graduate from high school. Or a trip to the beach, courtesy of Mom and Dad. Valley native Melanie Woodard received a copy of How to Start Your Own Business from her aunt – and she says it was just what she wanted.

Years later that how-to guide is finally getting use. This month Woodard will open her first business. Housed on West Water Street adjacent to the parking deck, Polished will specialize in sterling silver jewelry pieces that exemplify “modern, elegant and timeless” qualities. The shop will take up 620 square feet of a building being renovated to also accommodate a new men’s clothing store and studio and office space for DIGICO, a video production company.

Downtown’s All A-Twitter

Here’s a running list of downtown-related businesses and organizations now using Twitter:

Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance: DowntownHburg
HDR’s Twitter feed is the best way to stay informed or get reminders of events. Miss the antique milk truck exhibit? Got to Court Square Friday only to find out Fridays on the Square was moved to the Turner Pavilion? You wouldn’t have if you were following us on Twitter.

Arts Council of the Valley: HarrisonburgArt
Keep up-to-date on arts related news and events downtown, including gallery exhibits, movies and live concerts, and First Fridays.

Big Brothers Big Sisters: BBBSHR
The Harrisonburg branch of this non-profit located near on High Street is a great source for family-friendly events both downtown and beyond. Also interesting RTs on articles related to child development.

Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine: The_Blue_Nile
All locals in-the-know have Blue Nile near the top of the list of nighttime haunts, or at least they should. Unfortunately, their Twitter feed hasn’t had an update for months, but used more regularly, this would be a great place for finding info on upcoming shows.

Blue Ridge Design Studio: blueridgedesign
Randall Seitz, co-owner of this downtown architect firm, has a Twitter page that is a bit difficult to describe…much like Twitter itself. Find photos, interesting articles (some even related to architecture!) and a few random musings in the mix.

By the Side of the Road B&B: HburgVaBandB
By the Side of the Road is one of Harrisonburg’s three B&Bs, all located near downtown. Owner Janice Fitzgerald keeps her page fed with room specials tied to local events, but also tweets about the day to day trials and joys of owning a bed and breakfast.

Chaz Evans-Haywood: ClerkChaz
Follow the Rockingham County Clerk of Court as he tweets from his office in the Court House. It’s actually more interesting than it sounds; Chaz lives a busy life, from traveling to Peru to volunteer in an orphanage to kissing a cow in the name of cancer research.

Daily News-Record: DNRonline
Kudos for the local paper for joining Twitter! Though so far the DNR is only re-tweeting content from its web page, breaking news is also posted here, so there’s a possibility you may see breaking headlines first on Twitter before you check DNRonline.com.

DIGICO: ShootPostDesign
The owners of this video production company tweet about cool projects they are working on, downtown sights from their vantage point on E. Market Street, and construction updates on their future site on Water Street, next door to the Free Clinic.

The Gaines Group: G2Architecture
Architecture and design firm The Gaines Group “gets” Twitter in a way that 98% of other Twitter-ers don’t. RTs of downtown news, words of wisdom, articles on green building (the company’s specialty), and the occasional tweet on Twitter’s most fundamental question, “what are you doing?” are all there for you to follow.

hburgnews: hburgnews
The micro-blog of hburgnews, the forum for news and all things Harrisonburg, often features downtown happenings, observations, and recaps of business from the city municipal building (which is of course located downtown).

Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint: JackBrownsJoint
Downtown’s newest restaurant stays jam packed almost all the time, thanks to its intimate size, reasonable prices and good food. Its tweets are much like their burgers: meaty and to the point.

Joshua Wilton House: WiltonHouse
Chef Mark Newsome’s decision to tweet from the Wilton House kitchen is what inspired this blog post. Anyone who has ever wanted to get into the mind of a chef in an upscale restaurant, or anyone who loves gourmet food from fresh ingredients, should definitely become a follower.

Kai Degner: KaiDegner
Harrisonburg’s young major is undoubtedly the most plugged-in of all time. He ran on a pro-downtown platform, and his tweets show it.

Kline’s Dairy Bar: Klines_DairyBar
Never miss another weekly flavor forecast from Kline’s! Need we say more? I think not.

Rosetta Stone: rosettastone
Rosetta Stone is practically a household name in the US, so it follows that they get way more action on their Twitter page than anyone else on this list. The company stationed in downtown Harrisonburg uses their account to respond to fans and product users from around the nation (turns out #jason_mraz is using their software to learn Spanish).

Sancar Flats/Liskey Building: SJDonuts
SJDonuts is the business name of the developer working to restore the Sancar building on West Rock and the Liskey building on South Main (the red building that houses the Harrisonburg Beauty School). It’s a personal Twitter account, but one that includes construction pictures from inside the buildings and peaks of the completed rental units.

Travel Counsellors: TCItravel
Yes, that is an acceptable spelling variant of “counselors.” I think it’s British. The TCI folks (in a new location on West Market Street) are so well travelled, it makes sense they would bring some European flair to the party. Their Twitter updates include their latest special package deals and rates, travel advice, and general greetings to their followers.

WHSV-TV3: WHSVnews
Much easier to follow than TV-3’s web page, a tweet from an hour ago from the station located off Court Square involved the increasing popularity of farmers markets. We like that.

The Yellow Button: TheYellowButton
What happens when we say the following: Shoes! Designer Handbags! Sales! Did your heart just skip a beat? Do the words “Lucky” and “Free People” conjure up images of fabulous fabrics and stylish clothes rather than leprechauns and the Revolutionary War? If so, get thee to The Yellow Button, re-tweeting entries from their blog on a regular basis.

Bass Were Never This Exciting

Who would win in a fight between a conventional angler and a fly rod angler? And what does this have to do with downtown Harrisonburg?

A LOT, thank you very much.

DIGICO, downtown’s full service video production company, designed the show open and branding for the mini-series Bass: The Movie, running on ESPN2 until March. Below are screen shots from the show open, with credit going to DIGICO design director Jeff Dobrow. Or, view the whole main titles here.

Way cool. And as you can see, with the anglers’ powers COMBINED, the Bionic Bass with all its monstrous power is no match…or is it? You’ll have to tune in to ESPN2 to find out (cue diabolic “dunh dunh dunh” music)…

Halloween Happens Downtown this Weekend

Looks like we’re in for some perfect Fall weather when Halloween comes downtown this Saturday (if the thunderstorms hold off, that is). Events planned for this Saturday, October 25 include:

Grand Opening of the Turner Pavilion (7-1pm) – The long awaited Farmers’ Market Pavilion opens in the Municipal Parking Lot!

Don’t miss:

• Ribbon cutting ceremony with free cake at 9am
• Vote for the best scarecrows decorated by market vendors
• Live music from Becky & Sheila, Todd and Rick, Rough But Natural Old Time String Band and The Keezletones
• Pumpkin decorating

Halloween on the Square (10-2pm) – Fun for the whole family with trick-or-treating, pumpkin decorating, hay rides, crafts, face painting, games, and more. Thanks to Hess Orthopaedics, our title sponsor!

Don’t miss:

• Trick-or-treating in downtown shops from 10-1pm
• The annual costume contest on Court Square at 1pm
• “Shrek 3″ for free at Court Square Theater at 2pm
• “The Wonderful World of Bats” photo show and t-shirt decorating at Massanutten Regional Library at 2pm

Howl-O-Ween Dog Costume Contest (2pm) – Dress up Fido and bring him to Court Square for a good time! To the right is a picture of Tim Smith and his dog Punkermelon at last year’s contest. Punkermelon, a Boston Terrier, is dressed as a WWI bomber pilot.

Don’t miss:

• Over $100 in prizes sponsored by BlueKey Web Design and Digico

Haunted Harrisonburg Walking Tour (7pm and 9pm) – You’re in for a good time with this one hour walking tour, researched and led by Lisa N. Ha.

Don’t miss:

• The Bootlegger
• The Civil War soldier
• The Lady in White

For more information on these events, visit HDR’s main site at www.downtownharrisonburg.org