"Morning" by Anonymoses Hyperlincoln
I love anniversaries. Eat them for breakfast. Probably why I'm so skinny.
And the skinny on recent anniversaries is that The Cheap Seats Is One Year Old!
AND BlogAsheville is also One Year Old. Let me explain the seeming impossibility.
After this picture.
AshVegas
Brainshrub
THe Hangover Journals
Modern Peasant
Syntax of Things
Edgy Mama
Bird on the MoonBlogger time is different from normal time. The year may, for example, have seemed like 10 years, say, or two weeks. Blogs bend time, but in different, and often opposing, ways. It is what is called "unintelligent design", or more correctly, "intuitive design". This is not to be confused with "Body by Fisher", which refers to the Fisher King himself, Bobby Fisher. Or was it Jesus?
One of those guys. Maybe. You're the car person.
At any rate, it is important that we celebrate these anniversaries, as it marks us as cultured beings, with cultured pearls of wisdom and other goofiness.Everyone who's coming can contact Egdy Mama for directions.
Bring your family and fans if you like. If everyone could choose an unmet
blogger from the blogroll and contact them about the
extravablogiversapaloozathon, that'd be great. There are too many of you who
haven't come out of the cybershadows into our BlogAsheville extravirtual
gatherings, and I'm as curious as can be.
Date: Saturday, June 17
Time: 6:30 ish until the beer runs out, or someone starts dancing nekkid
in the treehouse, whichever comes first
Place: Pnavistan, home of just a
few high-minded North Asheville liberals and two cats (if you've never been
here, e-mail me for directions at janusatannefittenglenndotcom)
Who's invited: You. BA bloggers, Asheville bloggers, NC bloggers, their family
members, blogger groupies, male strippers.
Dress: The less, the better.
Bring: Food to share. Alcohol, if you don't want beer. Prizes (wrapped).
A sleeping bag if you plan on being overserved.
The Extravablogiversapaloozathon is a chance to celebrate our achievements, our
friendships, our creativity, and our future. I can't wait to see everybody
there.
Well, I, for one, will be there. And I want to nudge other Taverners to try and make it as well. We could, alas, prove, once and for all, to the aching world, that we are, indeed, the Andy Gryphons we've been waiting for. And toward that end, let me now readjust your screen, and bifocals, back onto Justin Thibault's bloggerly year in the Cheap Seats.
Lots of fun things here too. For example, Justin proffers:So, since I'm having the birthday party at the Tavern - I
figured it would be fun to play a little game. In the archives for the following
months, I used (or modified) a popular song title. See if you can't find one or
two. Use the comments section with your answer.
July 2005
August 2005
October 2005
March 2006
May 2006
There are a lot of cool stats he has compiled regarding his year of blogging dangerously. But what I found particularly pregnant was this:A lot of you may not know it; but this area has many
bloggers...even though most of them are in Charlotte, Asheville, and up in the
Triangle. They've set the standard for me in terms of design and content. I
can't say that I meet the highest standard in any area - but I imagine I'm
somewhere within a few standard deviations of the top of the bell curve. I check
out the Tavern most times it comes out and, agree or disagree with the authors,
you can tell that we have people who are passionate about their community and
our democracy. So, I just wanted to thank y'all for everything that you do and
your example has helped me this first year.
"Night" by Anonymoses Hyperlincoln
"All men are my brothers, and all women my lovers and sisters."
- Gandhi
Maybe the Mahatma didn't have a father and mother, I don't know. But, in general, I'd have to agree with his sentiment. In fact, that's one reason why I enjoy the Tarheel Tavern. Even with disparate notions about what may, or may not, be true and good, we still seem to respect each other enough to realize that we are all at different stages of development, and that there is probably not one of us who has a monopoly on the truth.
Take, for example, the "God's Patriotic American Family Marriage Amendment" that is, for some odd reason, impeding Washington from thinking about more important matters. Is there a pandemic of Gay Marriages? And if there is...so what? We still haven't caught Osama. We are in a downward spiral with respect to the environment. We are paying out the ass for gasoline while greedy CEOs sneer their way to the bank. Soldiers are being slaughtered, and some appear to be slaughtering others. They are not sufficiently protected, and they are in an unnecessary war, with only a bad end in sight.
We should not let politicians get away with diverting our attention from truly pressing matters...especially if it involves writing bigotry into the constitution. Our politicians are doing what Osama could never do: Disenfranchising millions of Americans.
Ron Hudson is urging every caring soul to say no to the bigotry, distraction and wrongheadedness, which Jude Nagurney-Camwell calls "An Unwise Use of the U.S. Constitution", in a recent BlogCritics column.Discrimination and injustice should never be the result of a
proposal for any amendment to our U.S. Constitution. It's not a play-document to
be used by political panderers at will. It is sacred to the heart of American
freedom, justice, and democracy.
I'm old enough to remember when a majority of whites would ban so-called "miscegenation" or interracial marriage. The daftness, I suppose wasn't immediately apparent to some, I suppose. But people still have blind-spots, and many will not stand for it being pointed out. But the math is simple:
The amendment does not spread freedom.
If anything, it takes it away.
And I thought we were about spreading freedom...
As Ron says:It took the US Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation,
several Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights legislation of the
1960s to overwrite the bigotry of our founding fathers who saw African American
slaves as only three-fifths human. It has been in my lifetime that the majority
has continued to support laws that denied multi-racial marriages. Luckily, these
laws have come off the books and are viewed as archaic.
Cheryl at the Last Nerve... chimes in:This whole gay marriage debacle is a waste of time and taxpayer money. If two men or women or two of anything in this world can stand each other's morning breath enough to want to
smell it every morning, let 'em have each other!
Over at Sarx, Raphael adds:
ONCE AGAIN, the left and the right of my social circle are
saying the same thing. No messing with the
Constitution over marriage. It's not the area of the feds. Period.
And yet, as Pam at Pam's House Blend warns, the anti-gay Article 8 Alliance, and other clots of atavism, other "Bizarre Bay State homobigots " seem hellbent on seeing it otherwise.
But you know what? I think I heard our President make a genuine Freudian Slip during one of his addresses. Maybe it was a Jungian petticoat. Will consult the scientists at Liberty University. They have double-digit IQs!
Are we offended yet? Do we take issue with someone regarding mediocrity as mediocre? Never. Not us. We are beyond all that. We all have, yes, triple-digit IQs. I checked.
Anyway...Bush talked about "spreading feareedom". A new word, I suspect. A combination of Fear and Freedom. Spreadable, like mayonnaise. Only with bigger, sharper knives. And sure enough, The Age of Exuberance has devolved into The Age of Fear. As it turns out, where there is no evolution...there is devolution. Devolution. Devil+Pollution. Note. Change to Devilution.
Have Cal slip it into American Heritage.
"Evening" by Anonymoses Hyperlincoln
The Coturnixes Do New York
A. Fear of Flying
B. Bryant Park
C. SEED
There is so much I can relate to in this adventurous trio. Post 9/11 fear of flying, the vicissitudes of New York airports, Bryant Park, the importance of bloggers, enjoyment of family and travel...
and his aside on Tesla is most interesting. I wonder if he knows how much he resembles the genius of a different age?
It is clear from reading The Travels of Coturnix that here is a man very much in love with his family and friends. This is also clear in reading Erin's heart-warming account of the Charlotte Metro Heart Walk 2006 in which she is participating a raising funds. Please contribute what you can...and read about the reasons she is offering her time and services.
In fact, if any American Idols are out there...you too can pony up to the bar. Kellie Pickler? Bucky Covington? Chris Daughtry? You out there?
I've heard that at least one of you made a recent visit, and that you were actually a pretty nice guy. And that ZhaK had pictures to prove it! Zhak does offer up A Fine Dish!
But apparently he is not the only one in the fine dish department.
Look what washed up in Charleston!
And this.
And this!
But there are different kinds of dishes, as Nicomachus knows only too well.
Here is a dish called Daryl.
And a future dish or two from another Darryl. This one with two "r's".
And if I wasn't hungry enough, Billy the Blogging Poet has to come along and pen a tour de force on what else? Food!
Fast Crimes In Fast Food
Scrutiny Hooligans wants to know why Rep. Taylor can't see the forest for the fees.
Maybe he needs a little nudging...
The Bull City Bully Pulpit share an act of love for his hometown, Durham. The diamond in the rough of the Triangle is actually the jewel in the crown. Any dissenting views?
I, for one, like Durham...and have recently found myself researching its English namesake...as well as the English Chapel Hill -- a much smaller place.
Lots going on in Caroline this weekend.
But she doesn't mind. She's a taverner at heart.
Just like John. The composer. The whale.
Or was that Hovhaness?
