I'm Giving Away a New Windows Phone to One Lucky Blog Reader

How would you like to win a new Windows Phone? Well, I'm giving one away, thanks to the folks at Microsoft. But before I tell you how you can win one from me, let me give you the details on a cool event Microsoft is bringing to Charlotte.

Microsoft is taking its Windows Phone Inner Circle Tour to about 20 cities around the country and is hosting parties. The Charlotte Windows Phone party takes place Wednesday, November 16, 6-9 p.m. at Mez (210 E. Trade St., inside EpiCentre). At the event, a Microsoft team will show you the latest Windows Phones--its features, apps, games, etc. There'll also be music, mixing and mingling, and appetizers and drinks served, plus phones and other prizes will be given away. Click here to register to attend.

Partiers playing Angry Birds on a Windows Phone at a recent Windows party in New York.
Credit: facebook.com/windowsphone.

Now, here's how you can enter to win a Windows Phone as a faithful reader of Grown People Talking. Microsoft is providing a phone for me to give away, such as the HTC Radar 4G, HTC Titan, Samsung Focus S, or Samsung Focus Flash (click here to read about the new Windows Phones). I'm kicking off the contest on Friday, November 11 at 5 p.m. through Tuesday, November 15 at 11:59 p.m. And I'll announce the winner here on Grown People Talking on Wednesday, November 16.

You'll be entered to win the phone by submitting your entry in the comments section of this post. You'll get one entry for each of the following ways you interact with me via social media:

• "Like" my Grown People Talking Facebook fan page, facebook.com/GrownPeopleTalking
• Follow me on Twitter @HollidayInk, twitter.com/HollidayInk
• Subscribe to my Grown People Talking YouTube channel, youtube.com/GrownPeopleTalking
• Share the link to my Dusk Till Dawn blog, CharlotteMagazine.com/Blogs/Dusk-Till-Dawn, on your own Facebook and/or Twitter page
• Share the link to my The DNC in the CLT blog, CharlotteMagazine.com/Blogs/The-DNC-In-The-CLT, on your own Facebook and/or Twitter page

So that's a total of seven entries you can earn. After you've done some or all of those things, post one comment in the comments section below with your first and last name, the number indicating how many entries you've earned, followed by a description of which social media tasks you completed. Here's how your comment should look:

John Smith - 5 - liked you on Facebook, followed you on Twitter, subscribed to YouTube, shared Dusk Till Dawn on Facebook, shared DNC on Facebook.

-OR-

Jane Adams - 2 - liked you on Facebook, followed you on Twitter.

If you're already a fan on Facebook, follower on Twitter, or subscriber on YouTube, you don't have to undo and redo it. Just list it in the comments section of this post as the tasks you've completed.

I don't need any contact information from you yet. I'll only need it from the person selected as the winner. So when I announce the winner on Wednesday, I'll ask the winner to email me his/her mailing address to receive the phone.

If you have any questions about how this contest works, feel free to email me at JarvisH@grownpeopletalking.com. Good luck!

READ FULL STORY

'Mummies of the World' Opens at Discovery Place

I went on a media tour of Mummies of the World this morning and it's far more intricate than the King Tut exhibit I remember going to see when I was a kid. Mummies of the World officially opens to the public at Discovery Place tomorrow, November 11 (11-11-11, how fitting for this tomb-esque exhibit) and runs through April 8, 2012. It's the Southern U.S. premiere for MOTW, which is the largest exhibition of real human and animal mummies ever assembled, with more than 150 specimens.

Discovery Place is a science museum, of course, and that's what's really at the heart of this traveling exhibit (Charlotte is one of only seven cities that will show it). It's fascinating to see how these mummies have been preserved for centuries and how scientists study them to learn about cultures, the environment, historical eras, and even diseases.

"The Tattooed Woman" is from Chile, believed to have lived before 1400. She's noted for her unusual tattoos--an oval with a dot inside on both breasts and her mouth.

Walking through the exhibit, you'll experience a range of emotions. One of the first pieces you'll encounter is the "Monkey Mummy." This howler monkey is from Argentina and is believed to have been naturally preserved in the warm, dry environment of the area. But what makes it stand out is that it's displayed with a feather skirt and feather wreath around its head and neck--a fancy monkey it is, that'll have you going "awwww." But as you proceed through MOTW, you'll encounter other pieces such as a South American mummy of a woman and her two children that'll leave you a little sad. These are, after all, the remains of people who once lived.

MOTW is a 12,000-square-foot exhibition so you'll journey through many sections, several of which are defined by the region where the mummies were discovered. I captured a short video, which you can see below, of a display in the European Mummies section. In the video is the Orlovits family, also known as the Vac Mummies, a husband, wife, and son group of mummies from the 18th century who were found in a long-forgotten church crypt in Vac, Hungary.

Admission to Mummies of the World is $24 for adults; $18 for children ages 2-13 (you might want to think carefully about letting small children see it); and, $20 for students with ID and seniors ages 60 and older. All tickets include full-day admission to Discovery Place. For more details, visit www.discoveryplace.org or www.mummiesoftheworld.com.

READ FULL STORY

Jon Beason and Harris Teeter Team for Thanksgiving

Carolina Panthers star player Jon Beason has been on the sidelines since September with a torn left Achilles tendon, but that's not going to stop him from doing a little lifting for the holiday season. The All-Pro linebacker is partnering with Harris Teeter to assemble 2,000 Harvest Feast Thanksgiving bags to benefit local families in need.

The philanthropic deed takes place Tuesday, November 15 at Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina (500B Spratt Street), beginning with a press conference at 1 p.m., followed by the bag assembly at 1:30 p.m. Harris Teeter is donating enough food for the Panthers player and Harris Teeter associates to assemble 2,000 Thanksgiving dinner bags.

Follow him on Twitter @jonbeason. Photo via panthers.com

After filling the bags, Jon and company will then make a stop at the Boys & Girls Club Marsh Road to personally distribute some of them to children and their families. Each Thanksgiving bag will feed a family of four, containing cranberry sauce, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, a two-liter Coca-Cola, pie, rolls, and ham.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina will identify and distribute the Thanksgiving bags to emergency pantries throughout its 19-county region before the holiday. Emergency pantries and soup kitchens are reporting 30 to 40 percent increases in requests for assistance over this time last year. Click here for more details on the November 15 event.

You can help families in need by contributing to Harris Teeter's Harvest Feast Food Drive and Donation Card Campaign, through November 29. Click here for more details on this drive.

READ FULL STORY

Anthony Hamilton Goes 'Back To Love' December 13

Grammy Award-winning, platinum-selling recording artist Anthony Hamilton is releasing his next album, Back To Love, on December 13. It'll be the Charlotte singer's fourth studio album and he's putting it out exactly three years after his last album, 2008's The Point of It All.

The first single from Back To Love is "Woo", which finds Anthony in awe of a woman he meets, singing in his usual soulful tone. "Ooh girl, you're so bad. [Woo woo ooh ooh.] But it feels so good," he croons on the chorus. He shot the video for "Woo" on Friday and posted a couple of camera phone photos to his Facebook page.

Anthony Hamilton on the set Friday for his new music video, "Woo".

Back To Love features songwriting and production by industry legends Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Salaam Remi, Dre & Vidal, and Anthony himself. You can pre-order the new album by clicking here, which includes an instant MP3 download of “Woo”.

And you can see him in concert when he brings The Woo Tour home to The Fillmore Charlotte on November 30. Tickets are $45 to $55. His website, www.anthonyhamilton.com, is currently raffling off tickets to select concert dates. Click here to see photos, by my friend and colleague Jon Strayhorn, from when Anthony last performed at The Fillmore in March.

READ FULL STORY

Verizon Commercial Spotlights Charlotte, Energy

I saw a cool new TV commercial tonight in which Charlotte, specifically its Uptown buildings, is the star. Verizon has rolled out a national campaign to promote how its "network of technology, people, and ideas" is benefiting businesses and communities. In the commercial featuring Charlotte, it highlights how the city is using "Verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs, making communities greener."

The creative premise of the commercial shows a series of Uptown buildings being honored as employee of the month inside their respective offices. Those include the new UNC Charlotte Center City Building and NASCAR Hall of Fame, among others. Watch the video below.

If you visit the Verizon website dedicated to this campaign, verizon.com/plus, and click on the "Energy" tab, it takes you to several resources, including white papers and case studies on smart grid and cloud technology. There's also a link to Envision Charlotte, an initiative led by Duke Energy's Smart Energy Now program that uses digital grid technologies to display real-time energy data throughout Uptown, to create awareness and encourage behavioral change. The goal of this initiative is to cut energy use in Uptown by up to 20 percent by 2016. Several major corporations and organizations have partnered with Duke Energy on this, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Verizon, Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte, and others.

Plans for Envision Charlotte have been in the works for the past year, and the campaign officially kicked off last Friday (click here to read The Charlotte Observer article). Below is a video from last year, in which former President Bill Clinton announces Envision Charlotte at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. He's joined on stage by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Mayor Anthony Foxx, and Charlotte Center City Partners President Michael Smith.

All of this strengthens the momentum Charlotte has been building over the last few years to grow its energy sector. Several local leaders want the city to be known as an energy hub as much as it is known for banking, and the motivation behind energy is propelled by the possibility of job creation, in addition to environmental sustainability.

READ FULL STORY