The Taylor Grocery Band and the Eric Lindell Quintet sit side by side with “Rent” and the Baton Rouge Chess Club just steps away — Baton Rouge might not be completely boring after all, thanks to www.rougepages.com.
Rougepages.com is an events directory guide for Baton Rouge, started in April by Matthew Levine and brothers Jason and Michael El Koubi.
The Web site aims to connect Baton Rouge with technology and make it a more interesting place to live and visit by combining music, theater and civic groups, Levine said.
Rougepages.com is the key to finding “absolutely anything going on in town,” said Michael El Koubi, a 2004 University graduate and the site’s general manager. The site was created to make people realize Baton Rouge is actually a “fun and interesting” place.
Levine said rougepages.com is functional, minimalist, lightweight, quick and a “free to post, free to use and a free way to promote an event.”
Michael El Koubi said rougepages.com is a “self-perpetuating” business, in which people can now submit their own events and descriptions of them.
Jason El Koubi said customers can receive a daily update of local events with rougepages.com’s daily digest, a free event reminder service.
Levine said several hundred people visit the Web site daily because everything from sporting events to live bands to community activism can be found on the Web site.
Jason El Koubi said rougepages.com boasts a “robust collection of events.”
The idea for rougepages.com sprang from Jason El Koubi needing a haircut.
“He mentioned he wanted to find a good barber and he wished someone made a Web site” with barber listings, Levine said.
Levine had been thinking of making an event listings Web site of his own. “I wanted to find out where the music was playing,” Levine said. He and Jason El Koubi went to Chimes the next night and sketched out on napkins “how to turn their idea into reality.”
Michael El Koubi said he “took fliers from the street,” visited Web sites and called people to get event listings in the beginning, but people can submit their own events now.
Levine said he “had done a little web design before,” but he bought about $100 of books to brush up his skills for creating the Web site.
Jason El Koubi said rougepages.com “doesn’t have an editorial agenda.” All events are laid out equally.
“We democratize the field and give one equal voice to every activity so that the Varsity gets as much attention as the Baton Rouge Bridge Club,” Jason El Koubi said.
Levine said the Web site “never got around to actual barber shops” listings, but an overhaul Web site upgrade should start this month. “Events will be our core,” but additions will include movie and restaurant listings and classified ads.
“Over the next months, additions are going to be rolled out in stages,” Jason El Koubi said.
Rougepages.com will become personalized, giving customers options to put together their own calendars and look at events in their own way, Levine said.
Michael El Koubi said an “increasingly-online society demands” centralized sources of information like the Web site. He thinks “it’s gonna be a great thing for Baton Rouge.”