Meet the Bloggers
Posted by Eric Brown
The Urbane Life wanders through and around life in Royal Oak, southeastern Michigan’s hotspot for new urban living.
You might find blatherings about the coolest new organizational tool found at IKEA, info on the latest trends in small space decorating, or the hottest new artist, restaurant, or boutique in the area.
Please join the fray by adding comments and suggestions. This blog is designed to be a space for respectful, free-thinking, new and progressive ideas about urban apartment/loft life in the Royal Oak, Michigan, area.
You can connect with Eric on Twitter or facebook or LinkedIn or email eric@urbaneapts.com, or cell phone at 248-767-4460. Eric is the owner and editor of the Urbane Life Blog and Urbane Apartments.
Have fun, live cool.
Brought to you by the good folks at Urbane Apartments and the Urbane Lobby
Our Bloggers:
Ashley Woods is the newest member of the Urbane Apartments team. She’s a licensed Realtor and Wayne State grad with a lot of experience working in marketing, sales and other corporate stuff. Her writing has been aired and published in: Model D, Detroit Public Radio, The Oakland Press, Detroit Metromix, and The South End (WSU).
Ashley loves (in no particular order): Detroit, rock ‘n roll, metered poetry, French 75 cocktails, live music, old things, dresses, and great writing. She wishes she could have been a flapper.
What else? “I think Michigan’s future depends on re-emphasizing neighborhood living, and investing in our urban centers. So working for Urbane is a perfect match for me. I really believe that you can experience as much diversity, opportunity, weirdness, and out-and-out fun in Detroit as you would find in any other big city in America. If you don’t believe me, come out with us Friday night.”
You can connect with Ashley on twitter or facebook
Matt Mergener
Born in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula, but raised in the burbs of Detroit, Matt is a Michigander and an MSU alum with a love for all things film. When not writing movie related posts for Urbane Life, he is out exploring Midwestern film venues (especially in the Detroit area) and writing about his cinema exploits on his blog, mergemovies.com. If you have any cool stories, theater/film venue suggestions or any comments, email him at mergemovies@gmail.com or find me on twitter
Monica Kurpinski
“A little about me; I was born October 8, 1982 in West Palm Beach Florida, and shortly after ended up in Michigan. I was raised with a Colombian and Polish background which probably accounts for my diverse, outgoing personality. I have had a wonderful life journey so far with no regrets, and feel I have accomplished many things to be proud of. To name a few, I am a former Dance Competitor, the spokesperson for the United States Navy, a Figure Competitor, and have been featured in a few magazines here and there.
“I graduated from Oakland University in Communications (conc. In advertising/broadcast), and believe my career history really kicked off as a personal trainer, where I have been given the opportunity to shape and change not only people’s health and figure, but their overall way of living. It’s a very powerful and rewarding thing let me tell you! I have always kept the fitness aspect in my life somehow, and then entered into the magazine industry (Clear/Ambassador) where I honed my craft for sales in Advertising, which then led to me heading up the Marketing and Events Department.
“All of these opportunities in one way or another have in common helping both individuals, groups, or businesses altogether, and that to me that is what I love about getting up every day and doing my work. So here I am now working with the lovely people at Urbane, and excited to launch our new endeavors. Feel free to jump on -board and get to know your neighbors!”
Nev Muftari
I’ve been playing around with Social Media for about 3 years now. I sort of just fell into it. Originally I started by helping Create Detroit (non-profit) utilize social media to help spread the word about their efforts to attract and retain creative talent in the City of Detroit. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to work with clients like the State of Michigan, Paxahau Promotions (the producers of Movement/DEMF) + multiple agencies in the metro Detroit area.
I’m looking forward to helping Urbane bring a unique experience to all their residents. We have some pretty cool things in store for current + future residents. Hope you stick around and take advantage! To read more about me visit > idUnited.com
Brandon Miller
“I am a resident of Urbane on Washington and a newcomer to Southeast Michigan. After graduating from Alma College in 1998, I joined the Peace Corps and spent four years living and working in Ethiopia and Madagascar. I spent the next five years trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up in and around Boston where I received a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
“I am now a law clerk for a federal judge in Detroit. When I found out that I’d be moving back to Michigan, I spent a great deal of time researching where I should live. Everyone from the area kept telling me about Royal Oak, so I came for a visit. I love the vibe and the energy of this town and the fact that you can walk to everything!
“My interests include politics, running, travel, personal finance, restaurants, and enjoying everything the Metro Detroit area has to offer. I look forward to blogging about all of these topics and learning about new places and meeting cool people along the way.”
Hubert Sawyers III
Born and raised in the city of Detroit, Hubert has been a resident of Royal Oak going on a year and a half now.
He enjoys good food, staying fit and MUSIC. He is currently in Sneakers Anonymous (S.A. for short … see his confession here).
Hubert thinks Royal Oak is developing into a premier town that will soon be a force to be reckoned with nationwide. He hopes to help build a greater sense of community with many of his young neighbors who will be responsible for maintaining the awesomeness that is Royal Oak.
Shauna Nicholson
Shauna is a lover of vlogs, design, and Slurpees. She is energetic and passionate about innovation and technology.
Shauna grew up in Southeast Michigan and attended Ferris State University for her BS. She returned back to Southeast Michigan to work near family and friends and has grown to love the area. You can usually find her anywhere from Novi to Birmingham, Auburn Hills to Royal Oak, dancing, drinking tea, or shooting videos.
Shauna currently is the Marketing Manager at BiznetIS.net, working exclusively online. She also volunteers at HOPE Center in Pontiac, logging stories of the area’s homeless (on Twitter @HOPEcenter); organizes a millennial networking group (MCC Millennials on Facebook); and does speaking engagements for online marketing for LA2M and Automation Alley.
You can connect with Shauna via Twitter, she’s @shaunan.
Dominique King
“Living in Royal Oak most of my life, I know there are places you drive by every day without really noticing them. I began noticing Urbane Apartments when I saw some familiar buildings starting to sport funky new facades as I drove around town.
“The funky facades proved to be only one face of Urbane. I soon discovered The Urbane Life blog online and ran into Eric on (no surprise) Twitter.
“It fascinates to me to see how the crew at Urbane Apartments has a real dedication to using ‘new media’ to foster personal connections with tenants, prospective tenants and other members of their local community.
“As a former newspaper writer, I always thought that was a story. I never imagined I might become a small piece of the story by writing at The Urbane Life.
“I spent nine years covering southeast Oakland County as a freelance reporter for the Mirror newspapers. My stories on business, art and regional travel topics also appeared in Hour Detroit Magazine, Entrepreneur’s Start Ups and The Daily Tribune.
“My own fascination with new media and social media kicked into high gear as I started a regional travel blog last year. Midwest Guest allowed me to write about subjects I enjoyed and to develop skills, friendships and opportunities in new media as the opportunities in print media dwindled.
“I’m a graduate of Wayne State University with degrees in Political Science (BA) and Communications (MA). My interests include travel, art, photography, music, hockey, geocaching, hiking and reading. Connect with me here, at Midwest Guest or look for @midwestguest on Twitter.
“I’m thrilled that Eric asked me to become part of The Urbane Life crew and look forward to writing about great people, places and events around the area.”
Erica Finley
“I’m a Western Michigan University journalism grad, originally from the Grand Rapids area. After working for major publications across the state for four years, I made the leap to public relations and marketing and haven’t looked back since. I’ve been a resident of Royal Oak since May 2008, and it didn’t take long to fall in love with the city and all it has to offer.
“Around the office, I’m known as ‘Blogger,’ and I’m very interested in the burgeoning social media scene and how it relates to journalism, public relations and (insert any industry here).
“I also enjoy volunteering my time with animal rescues, hanging out with my two cats, Nermal and Littlefoot, and my English bulldog Mona, and spending quality time with my boyfriend of seven years.”
Connect with Erica on Twitter at @EricaFinley.
JMills and Matt Dibble
“Armed with humor, sarcasm and a Sony handheld Justin and Matt’s medium of choice is digital video. They’ve created a style of adding some relevance or ridiculousness to every day occurrences in Royal Oak, and aim to get out and do, rather than blog, comment or write a letter.
“Justin’s got a degree from the College for Creative Studies and currently studies Film Production at The Detroit Film Center. Matt is an MSU grad with a lot of sales and business experience… none of which
qualifies him for a job this cool while you toil in the rat race. But life sucks that way.
“Follow us and get out and DO something! Feed a meter, piss somebody off, donate your time… it’s fleeting. Do you have an entertaining experience you’d like to share? Drop us a line, we may even let you be in the video. (note: we will only film your bad side, and yes your voice does sound like that in real life).”
Want to get involved? Drop us a line.
2 Responses to “Meet the Bloggers”
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Just Call It Marketing | Seo Services, LLC - Indiana based search engine optimization consultant Says:
January 18th, 2009 at 5:01 am[...] way that it took off. We turned it over to a Tribe, our most passionate customers. We recruited six staff bloggers, all of which were either current or past residents. The rules were pretty simple, the UrbaneBlog [...]
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Just Call It Marketing : SEO Pixels Says:
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:28 am[...] way that it took off. We turned it over to a Tribe, our most passionate customers. We recruited six staff bloggers, all of which were either current or past residents. The rules were pretty simple, the UrbaneBlog [...]
