I refer, of course, to my office, in the "Red Room" at Seven Days. It's actually much messier right now than it was in this photo from March.

I just finished putting together the email newsletter, so I'm taking a breather for a minute to post here.

We're doing a bunch of new stuff. I'm pointing it out here mainly to see if anyone is paying attention and/or has feedback. Right now I'm just working really hard, throwing stuff at the wall to see what'll stick. And I want to know what you think about it all.

If you're a regular 802 Online or Seven Days reader, you know that we have a vlog, Stuck in Vermont. What you might not know is that we recently hired vlogger Eva Sollberger full-time, to do a variety of video content (which we're still trying to incorporate into our print and web operations).

Here are some examples of the non-STVT videos Eva's done lately:

VT's reaction to the Simpsons Movie win: Eva shot this video the day they announced that Springfield, Vermont, won the Simpsons Movie contest.

How to Make a Rivet Bracelet: a corollary to the Rosie's Girls episode of STVT.

Real Live Tourists in Vermont: a video to accompany our summer tourism guide.

Thrashin' Thursday: video of Ridin' High's Thrashin' Thursday in Burlington (two weeks before the proprietor was in that bad accident on Rt. 108)

Chipmunks in Charge: a video that goes with Pamela Polston's Creature Comfort story.

Poof! Drag Cabaret: a "music video" with interviews, shot at the Cirque du So Gay party after Pride.

Comments? Yes, we know that the YouTube compression sucks. We're hoping to have it on a flash player someday soon. And hey, you can see the super-clear versions of Eva's STVT videos on VCAM, Channel 15 — Monday nights at 8:30, Tuesday mornings at 9:30.

We're also experimenting with audio — I've posted several audio clips over the past few months, and this week I added a new feature in our email newsletter called "How I Got That Story." We didn't have any groundbreaking exposes this week, so I asked Mike Ives to talk about his Simpsons voter fraud story.

Here's what Mike had to say (audio link, 2:30).

Feedback?

I should also note that we're on the verge of switching content management systems. We're moving to drupal. Hurray! Fingers crossed, the first phase of the migration should happen by the end of the summer. It'll include a searchable archive (from 2003 or so on -- that's all we've got so far), and RSS feeds, among other things. No comments yet, but that's coming soon, too. I've seen the initial mock-ups, and I think it looks awesome.

Back to work.