Tag: News

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The Stars Served Up Some Love

Most of my family has fallen in love with playing tennis recently, and to a slightly lesser degree, watching it. So it was exciting to find out that a benefit event had been put together, bringing four big names in tennis and a few other random celebrities to Asheville. The “Stars Servin’ Up Love” event gave us some up-close, in-person observations of what the pros are capable of, and it was quite remarkable.

On February 2, 2025, Jessica Pegula (ranked #6 in the world at the time), Emma Navarro (#9), Andy Roddick, and Andre Agassi, all showed up and played some seriously awesome tennis, even though it was just an exhibition.

The celebs in attendance, and who also played some decent tennis, included Esai Morales (of Caprica fame), Pete Wentz (Fallout Boy), Jeff Probst (Survivor), and some dude from The Daily Show named Michael Kosta (sorry, I haven’t watched that show in some years).

They raised over a million bucks that day, and much to everyone’s surprise, all of the stars involved did it completely free! Asheville is still recovering from the impacts of the hurricane, and we will be for quite some time. I still drive by the debris, missing buildings, upside-down cars, and devastation multiple times a week…over 4 months later. The whole city still has downed lines, fallen trees, and piles of debris lining the streets. It is slowly getting better, but the reminders are all still there, and the tennis event was a welcome, unifying celebration of what selflessness can do to lift spirits.

Check out some pics from Stars Servin’ Up Love.

Photos from Stars Servin’ Up Love

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Will Chatham’s Musical Variety Show is out!

My new solo album is out (unofficially)! It has been “soft launched” at willchathammusic.com and you can stream the whole thing from there, or buy it to download and listen to as you wish.

The album features some musical mastery from friend and former bandmate Morgan Geer (bass on Donald Trump Eats Babies), as well as the vocal talents of current bandmate David Earl Tomlinson (vocals on Hello My Friend).

Additionally, my two teens, Gray Chatham and Dax Chatham, contributed trumpet and sax parts on several songs. Needless to say, I am stoked at how all this came together.

The CDs and officially release to all the usual streaming services will be happening soon, but for now, here is the album. I hope you find something on it you like – it is a, well, variety of genres!

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My New Single: You’re Not Going Anywhere

https://dynamic.production.hearnow-cdn.com/images/hralb02002895/large.jpg

During this insane quarantine time we are all stuck in the middle of, I started working on a new album that, unlike my last one, won’t be in the electronica realm. Now that I’ve finally built somewhat of a home studio where I can play instruments and be loud without the need to channel everything through headphones, my options are much more inspiring.

That, coupled with this deep, intense angst that many of us are feeling as we are trapped at home under this new but hopefully temporary way of living, led to the following track that I hope you enjoy.

It is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and all the usual places, but you can also listen to it here:

https://willchatham.hearnow.com/

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Music Updates

I just updated my My Music page, which was long overdue. There’s not a lot of new stuff to report just yet, but I am in a ska band that is practicing and trying to determine a name. Stay tuned for more about that.

Here is a Spotify playlist featuring my songs, or songs I played on over the years:

And here’s an open directory from which you can download a lot of these goodies:

https://www.willchatham.com/songs/

Lastly, here’s a crappy video I made of me playing with myself the other day:

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Date Night Appetite, Because Writing & Eating are Fun

Just over a year ago, Rachael and I decided that we’d like to combine our love of escaping the house sans-children with our love of writing. Being fans of fine food and environments that enable us to focus on each other during rare, precious date nights, we thought it might be fun to share our experiences in Asheville with other couples who might be looking for a great spot to escape to, if only for an hour, or if for a whole evening. Plus, it would be a team effort that would allow us to collaborate on something we both love: writing and geeking out.

Thus, Date Night Appetite was born and officially launched back in September. To date, we’ve reviewed four local spots, but we also have some Instagram and Facebook posts to help share smaller delights that we find between date nights.

Check it out, and help add your ratings to what we have posted. And let us know if you have any questions or suggestions!

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Decluttering

declutter photoWith the start of a new year about to happen, I’ve been doing a lot of reflection on where I’ve been focusing my attention, and what I’ve been getting out of those things. My conclusions led me to discover that I have been putting a lot of time and energy into things that don’t necessarily help me, my family, and everything surrounding those primary things (career, creativity, cashflow, etc).

So, I have decided to give up the following:

  • Caring about sports. I may watch some bigger Louisville basketball games, but overall, this has become more of a chore than anything, and I spend way too much time wrapped up in the emotions surrounding games. This is particularly unproductive when they lose.
  • Facebook. I’ve given it up before, but it serves absolutely no purpose for me. If people want to keep in touch, they know how to find me.
  • Clash of Clans. I’ve led a very successful clan for almost 2 years, and been a part of the game for almost 3. I helped start the Reddit Alliance Clans system, and all of this has been a large time sink. I did have a lot of fun, and I met a lot of great people along the way, but ultimately, it’s been entirely unproductive towards helping any of the primary things in life I mentioned above.
  • Reddit. One thing I’ve noticed is that by deleting apps off my phone, I waste a lot less time. So I am removing the Reddit app that I use, and will instead only check in on occasion when at my computer, at home. I tend to get wrapped up in drawn-out conversations (or arguments) on Reddit far too often. While some of these interactions can have positive outcomes (discussing network security, for example), most of the time I am arguing with people who will never change their minds. Why? I have no idea.

I hope to start using all the freed up time and energy (in no particular order) towards continuing my newfound interest in working out, continuing to educate myself, investing more time and energy with my family, making more music, and focusing on the things that support all of the above — the primary things in life.

I will report back more in a few months to let you know how it all goes!

Photo by ollesvensson

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Gluten Deprivation Project: Day 17

gluten photoI know at least one of you is eagerly waiting, with baited breath, on the edge of your seat, for the latest goings on of my endeavor into the land of the glutenless. I haven’t posted any updates on this since what…day two? Wow. Sorry about that. I am on day 17 now!

The struggle has been real, yo. On day 3, I came down with a nasty cold that laid me out for a few days. Still, I gluten-freed my way through it. However, that was right when Rachael came down with the same thing. Not a good introduction to a potential lifestyle change, but we survived, looking forward to the positive changes to come.

The Positives

I will recap the positives first. We found that Asheville has a lot to offer the gluten-freers of the world. Not only do the grocery stores help out with options and signage (Earth Fare in particular, for most options in one place, Ingles for signage), there are restaurants that have large amounts of GF options on the menu. One in particular, King Daddy’s Chicken and Waffles, even has a separate GF frier. We’ve been back twice to get the hankering for fried food satisfied.

After too many trips to the grocery store, we finally found some things that were not too bad, including the Udi’s pizzas, Glutenfreeda burritos, and Glutina crackers.

Rachael also came up with some good recipes that we tried. I got into weekend omelette making as well. Hash browns and bacon pulled me through.

As for beers, I found that Omission was the best option for something close to a decent IPA. My GF work buddy informed me PBR is close enough to GF to count too (way under 20 parts per million). Still, being in Beer City, USA, I have missed my favorite craft brews for sure. (Foreshadowing: Dale and Shiva, I’m coming home!)

Other positives include:

  • I am pooping regularly, like a champ (probably because I’ve been eating a lot of pumpkin and sesame seeds as snacks).
  • Uh, that is all.

Which brings me to…

The Negatives

I have found myself wanting to cave on this effort more than once. The main reasons I got into this were to see if all the benefits I’ve heard about going gluten free would work for me. I was hoping to lose a few pounds, see some improved skin/complexion, feel less fatigued, and most importantly, see a reduction in arthritic symptoms I tend to have in my hands and wrists.

Sadly, none of those things have shown any sign of coming to fruition.

So, I have decided that this blog update will also serve as my official notice that I am going back to gluten! I am definitely more aware of how much gluten I was used to in my life before this effort, but I see no reason to avoid it any longer — with the exception being overly-processed white-bready types of things. Those, I will stay away from as much as possible. It will be my homage to the Great Gluten Deprivation Project of 2015.

Let’s go have a beer and a burger!

Photo by Whatsername?

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Serious Vulnerability in WordPress Jetpack Plugin

Get your updates going as soon as possible, as this looks pretty serious!

This is a bad bug, and Jetpack is one of the most widely used plugins in the WordPress world. We have been working closely with the WordPress security team, which has pushed updates to every version of the plugin since 1.9 through core’s auto-update system. We have also coordinated with a number of hosts and network providers to install network-wide blocks to mitigate the impact of this vulnerability, but the only sure fix is updating the plugin.

So not only is that an issue, but if you haven’t done your part in protecting yourself from this week’s HeartBleed bug, which has scared the bejeezus out of the entire Internet, get yourself fixed up ASAP!

If you are lucky enough to have been using LastPass to manage your passwords, log in there and do a Security Check to find out which websites you frequent may be vulnerable to that bug. LastPass will also help you quickly change passwords as needed.

Good luck, citizens!

 

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Gigabit Internet Coming to Asheville Soon

This is what the Internet looks like as it travels through the tubes.

You read that right!  According to the WRAL “Techwire,” Raleigh and Asheville will soon be getting blazing fast gigabit Internet, well ahead of Google Fiber reaching our neck of the woods.

That’s about 1000 times faster than your average Charter or Comcast cable Internet service. You can download an entire HD movie in roughly 30 seconds. Believe it or not, this will bring us more in line with the rest of the planet, where speeds have far surpassed those in the US in recent years.

When Does it Happen?

“Asheville will receive service about the same time as Raleigh, according to RST Fiber co-founder and CEO Dan Limerick.”

According to the article, that will be within 60 days or so.

The part about a-la-carte TV service sounded appealing to me as well. Imagine only paying for the channels you want. I’ve been a proponent of this concept for years. It remains to be seen how this will actually work, but there is hope.

This is exciting news!

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