Consummatum Est

The Pope has died.

May gentle angels cradle you home.

Triangle BloggerCon TV

The Real Paul Jones - PLUS! Dan Gillmor...clothed!!

Get them while they're HOT!!!!

Now you can see your favorite blogger IN 4-D!!!

offerexpiresimmediatelyuponpurchase
youmaynotpassgoyoumaynotcollecttwohundreddollars

Cool Light: Chemiluminescence - Light without Heat

Chemiluminescence - Light without Heat

LEDs’ Advantages

(Thanks to Weekend America on NPR for the profile.)

Democrats "unhappy" you say?

You hear it all over the Purchased Opinion..."Democrats are unhappy".

Let's test this hypothesis. Study these websites, and tell me who is the happier.

Michelle Malkin
Michelle Maklin

National Review Online
National Rebuke Online

World Net Daily
World Nut Doily (Today only)


Or try this on for size. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. This. And this. How 'bout this. Finally this.

Where are the Republican equivalent to these? Where is the fun? Where the love?

Again...Follow the Love!

At the Charlotte Observer Forum...

Ace Pryhill comments on a pregnant post found in the Charlotte Observer, where a reader writes:

Mr. President, I want my GOP back

When I became a Republican 25 years ago, the party stood for individual rights and personal freedom, fiscal responsibility and judicial fairness. Now the Bush administration and the congressional Republican leadership spend their time exploiting a tragic family matter for political profit. Separation of power, states rights, and an independent judiciary are being ignored.

Ask yourself this question: If Terri Schiavo were black, without white evangelical Christian parents, would President Bush and congressional Republicans have been so eager to leap to her defense?

Michael A. Clark, Charlotte

To which Pryhill responds:

Or, another scenario: Imagine if Terri Schiavo was a lesbian, and it was her longtime partner who wanted to keep her on the feeding tube, at odds with her parents' desires. Would President Bush, congressional Republicans, and especially the flocks of Christian demonstrators been so eager to leap to her defense?

And to which I responded...but the comment crashed:

Excellent points! Thanks for the information too!
I didn't realize that her parents were white evangelicals, although I did suspect they were white, or at least beige.
Your point brings out one of the main reason why I cannot ever see myself in alignment with that party in its present incarnation; Racial and sexual bigotry. Bigotry is unintelligent, and I am not unintelligent. Nor will I cheerlead for the unintelligent. I am glad to see people like you who are not obsequiously deferential to the eleventh commandment, which basically says it's okay to lie and obey the stupid.


and you responded...

Daily Kos : Better than Free Republic

Why Daily Kos is better than Free Republic

Our friend who left Free Republic might find more love at Daily Kos.
Compare for yourself and see:

Daily Kos
Free Republic

Follow the Love: A Freeper jumps ship

A freeper says: "Time to part company"

Excerpts:

The whole Terri Schiavo case has changed everything for me. A mob mentality took over the first few days after the order to pull the tube was given. Anyone who did not toe the line was attacked. I saw a dedicated active-duty member of our armed forces called a “Maine liberal” for simply asking why troops in harm’s way did not get the same sort of “all-nighter” attention that Terri Schiavo got. It was a reasonable question – we have 40-year-old P-3s still out there. We have a war on terrorism still going on, in case folks have not noticed.
...
I’m sick of the way the Terri threads spun out of control, and the vicious attacks launched at reasonable people who came to a different conclusions about the situation or who pointed out facts that certain people found inconvenient. This is not what I signed on here for.
...
I do NOT want the federal government to be involved in any culture war. “Culture” was never mentioned in the constitution, thus I believe it is left to the States or TO THE PEOPLE (see the Tenth Amendment).
...
In the process of Free Republic leaving me, I now find that I fear the social conservatives as much as I fear the loony left. As a result of coming to this conclusion, I ask that my account be deleted and all posts I have made, save for this opus and the ping to my friends be removed.

I predict that more and more people will learn that it is better to follow the love than chase after money and popularity, and good people like Leach, Chaffee, Snow, Shays, Spector, Warner and others will realize that "the love" is no longer in their party. It has been pushed out by hate, reaction, bloviation, diversion, irresponsibility, obscurantism, greed, micranimity and a lack of respect for Truth.

Evening Muse 4 year Anniversary w/Tesser. Poprocket, Near Misses & More

Charlotte101.us - Charlotte101.us Event

Be there or be a parallelogram.

World Nut Doily: Premiere Issue

The Answer to the Liberal Media

A must-see!

Jeff Gannon Speaks Out

Tie me up. Tie me down.

Are they going to keep the Pope alive?

Should the Pope be hooked to the proverbial machine that goes ping, and kept alive a la Terry Schiavo over the past dozen or so years? What effect would this have on the succession of Popes?
If he were kept technically alive by machines, and he was unable to say or do anything...would he remain the Pope? Such matters are above my pay grade...

May he, and the world, be at peace.

The WELL Turns Twenty

Where it all began...
(Thanks to chattr+a-V for this excellent news.)

World Bank: "Lower Standards"

Architect of "Dead Wrong" Blunder Promoted to Head of World Bank
Keep an eye on your wallet, World!

Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary and one of the Bush administration's "dead wrong" hawkish hyperventilatives, was unanimously confirmed as the new president of the World Bank today by the institution's ludibund executive board.

Terri Schiavo is Dead

Back to God she goes...
Condit and Sharks to make their long overdue reappearance

13 Days After Feeding Tube Removed. 13. Not 14. Not 12. Proof Amerigeddon is upon us...

Global Voices at Berkman

Public Radio Exchange

Will March Madness ever end?

March Madness

Naomi Klein Reveals New Details About U.S. Military Shooting of Italian War Correspondent in Iraq

Democracy Now!

Three weeks after being shot by US forces in Iraq, veteran Italian war correspondent Giuliana Sgrena is released from a military hospital. New details are emerging about the killing of the Italian agent who saved her life. We speak with independent journalist Naomi Klein, who just returned from meeting with Sgrena in Rome. [includes rush transcript]

w o r d s - Save Our Ecosystem Service Provider

Part of our Blogs as Food Series: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Cracker To Play Raleigh Show For Tsunami Relief - markturner.net

thanks go out to markturner.net for finding this. They used to hang out in Richmond. Had no idea they were still together...

Thanks again!

Black Mountain Poet, Robert Creeley, has died

from Psychedelic 60s: The Black Mountain Poets

Born in Arlington, Massachusetts, Robert Creeley attended Harvard but dropped out before taking his degree. After living in the south of France in Aix-en-Provence and in majorca, Spain, where he founded the Divers Press, he joined teh faculty of Black Mountain College in 1954 at the invitation of Charles Olson. There he founded the Black Mountain Review. While Creeley left the college itself in 1955, his influence on Black Mountain poetics has been significant. Associated with the State University of New York at Buffalo since 1966, he was named poet laureat of the state of New York in 1992.

excerpt:
THE BLACK MOUNTAIN College began as an experimental school in 1933 and was located in a rural mountain community in North Carolina. Various avant-garde poets were drawn to the school through the years, most notably Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Jonathan Williams, and Robert Creeley. Robert Creeley was hired to teach and to edit the Black Mountain Review in 1955, and when he left two years later for San Francisco, he became the link between the Black Mountain poets, the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, and­ through Allen Ginsberg­ the Beat writers of Greenwich Village. A partial list of contributors to Volume 7 of the Black Mountain Review (the last issue) shows the connection between the three groups and the influence they had on each other ­Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, and Jonathan Williams.

BlogNashville Schedule

May 5-7, 2005

Charlotte101.us - Citizens Media for Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte101.us

Pray for Jerry Falwell

CNN - Falwell in critical condition - Mar 29, 2005

I have never been a big fan of Jerry Falwell. I won't even go into the reasons. I just hope he regains good health, and maybe realizes, as we all maybe should...that we are all bozos on this bus, so we may as well love and care for one another. It may be the only elegant escape.

(Thanks to the legendary Patrick Eakes for the link and reminder.)

N.C. Newspaper Uses Blogs to Reach Readers - BizReport

N.C. Newspaper Uses Blogs to Reach Readers - BizReport: "'When the paper's overhaul is complete, it may be a model for the sort of 21st century paper that many journalism big thinkers have been talking about, chewing over, and confabbing on for the last few years,' wrote the industry-watching magazine Editor & Publisher. 'Greensboro will be the first place where this conceptually newfangled newspaper actually exists.'
'It's a wonderful idea,' said Phil Meyer, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 'It's important for newspapers to try dangerous experiments.' His only reservation: The paper hasn't added any staff to work on its electronic experiment. 'I'd rather they were willing to make an investment in this.'
Other papers are watching. The Houston Chronicle, The (Portland) Oregonian, (Raleigh) News & Observer and USA Today have all called News & Record editor John Robinson to discuss what his paper is doing."

The World of Charlotte Bloggers

Charlotte by Night

I have just updated my Charlotte Bloggers blogroll (on the right sidebar), and am sure I left some out. John...could you send me your neighborhood blog again. I forgot the &$*%# address (being old and stupid and all). In deference to space, I have clumped them all together on this post like a giant amoeba, which it may well be. Need to check with the scientists and creationists, and see if they can split the difference and come up with a reasonable explanation for the blogamoeba you now behold. The new are emboldened.

CHARLOTTE BLOGGERS a100wwe's blog of news, politics, and sci/techAce PryhillAffecting FrankAfter Hours w/ Jason WorkmanAku-Rei*Ana Kova*Anna BananaanonyMosesBanter, Bitching & Moaning Begging To DifferBeth CherryBlackHoleIraqBrady Gaster (TatoChip)Cada dia, cada vez...Carolina Panther PageCharlotte Weblogger Meetup GroupCheerful Malcontent Cold FuryCollection of Thoughts, ACozmic BlondeDarryl's JourneyDaveTemple.comDione Rochell*Don't cry for me, pas de calais (Skyfi)DrainMyBrain.comEruanne Grace*Frocky (Doombilly)From the Ashes (Meishi Namida)Funk-Rhythmgabuyafa*Garrick WellsGene G. McLaughlin*Greg Burnett web logGrinsNLaughter Guyana GyurlHistory of Time TravelHitched to Everything Hugh R. F. CampbellHyperLincolnIncoherent MumblingsInside These Walls Jamzoo Ken Webster Legend of the SlashfiendLiberals Lie (Brian Simms) mitch*weblogMocklive Monkey ChatteringsMore than Expression (Jennifer Medlock)Caleida (My Lenore)*Natural Mystic's Random Musings NerdiiBlackBoyNorth Cacalacky PoliticsNorth Carolina Experiment, Thensikora*Ogre's ViewPatrick McElhaneyPerpetual Insanity Perpetual PlatitudesPhilobloggerPseudomuffin Art*Random IndentationsRandomURLRaphael D'Angelo*Reality BlogsRhapsody Radish Richard Jones Write Site*Rich BarrettRight-Wing NewsRockSchoolRuby RedSample RealitySimply IdleSister ToldjahSir Shannon Soaring Dragon*Soneji's Domain.Spilt MilkStatmark's Reasonable BlogStojak: Blithering Idiom*Tempting Talesterri's cellar doorThe 704.comThe Allan Handelman Show The Charlotte CapitalistThe Labyrinthine Mind The SeanachaiTheTrenchcoat ChroniclesThis is not the greatest blog in the world. (Kathy Kraly)T. L. Crowe*tokitikki*True Confessions of an Ex-Human Tweak & Beat*vintage: a lasting originawebakerYada yada yada*YesButNoButYesZhunZi

8.7 "Great" Quake strikes off Indonesia coast - Mar 28, 2005

Bloggers?

Anais Mitchell and The Near Misses delight Charlotte crowd

Anais Mitchell



I am reminded of a post I did a week or so ago on good/bad luck.
The night of the Anais Mitchell concert was such a night...

Let me back up.

It was a day like any other. Terry Schiavo was in full omnipresence thank to the paralysis of the American media corporate defenders of whomever has the money, and eve of yet another Bushweather holiday, and yet I had Anais Mitchell and Lea Pritchard to look forward to, a well as the possibility of being joined by some of my favorite hominids...Robert (the Philoblogger), Woody (Jamzoo), Erika (inchoate claymationista) and le petite Jacques (History of Time Travel) . Woody, as expected, never materialized, and we only materialized AFTER Anais had finished her set.

And what was our lame excuse for this bad luck?
3 things.
1. I just HAD to play my new vocal composition for Jack. (Figgering the headliner would play last, and the boy band would be first.)
2. A friend called at around 8, and wanted to listen in, and talk.
3. Robert and Erica were saying they weren't going to go, and I wanted to spend some time with them.

As it turns out, help with the entrance fee smoothed over their apprehension, and so we all piled into Jack's bus and headed over.

What's this? Anais is done? We missed it? And I've already paid entrance fees?

But good luck would have it that I also liked the second band, at least I knew I liked Lea Pritchard, as I had seen her for years, and appreciated the fact that she is the center of the internet musical universe, at least here in Charlotte...from what I have seen. If there are better, we are blessed indeed!

But my luck got even better when I discovered that Shana Blake was now conjoined with Lea. I probably suggested it to her at some point. It's astonishing to have two great talents in one band, and yet the other three Misses are most excellent too.

The highlight of the music had to be Shana's beautiful anthem near the end of the show, whose title slips me, so let me get back on that. Like Anais' "1984", it is one that should become as ubiquitous as Terry Schiavo.

After the concert was over, I went to congratulate the band, and as I was talking to Shana, Anais walked up and Shana complimented her on her performance. Thinking ever at the top of my intelligence, sadly, I was able to ascertain that this elegant woman dressed in black flowing silk velvet was the great Anais. And her name fits her most succinctly. Especially with her new hair, which should have been her hair all along, it fits so well together, and is so reminescent of her namesake.

I had gotten my money's worth, and then some. When, later, she appeared on the sidewalk, and I said to Robert, Erika and Jack, "This is Anais Mitchell", and Robert had one of those John Malkovich moments, you know, in True West, where he snaps up, cigarette stuck to his lower lip, and says, "Maybe it was Fresno!" Well, it looked that way to me.

We chatted about Richmond, Anais Nin, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer and then she was swept away by other adoring fans.

A few minutes pass, and we talk about our dinner with Andre, only it wasn't dinner and it wasn't Andre although the first two letters are the same.

When I suggested they meet Shana and Lea, "one star per night, please", was what I heard.
But I did it anyway, and talked Shana into saying hello to "my shy nephew", who, by the way, had ascertained her "coolness" earlier on, and made comment to that effect.

(Ah! How appropriate! William Ackerman just came on the radio! Impending Death of the Virgin Spirit, I believe it is called.)

So after some cordial exchanges, and sensing that it was becoming quite chilly, we parted, and headed home.

If you have the chance, make it a point to go and see these fine artists.
Here is Anais' schedule (She is going to be at Passim's in Cambridge, New York, and other fine places.)
...and website
...and blog.

Here are The Near Misses.

F-Chip: Remove unsightly Fox News from your TVs

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Device lets you out-Fox your TV

Bust: For women with something to get off their chest

Amy Sedaris, not Julia Roberts

Our Amy Is True
BUST’s April/May issue featuring a stranger-than–fiction cover-interview with Stangers with Candy star Amy Sedaris by SNL’s Maya Rudolph.