ConvergeSouth Film Festival is now available online!

I love films. Well, many of them. And I loved most of the ones I saw during the ConvergeSouth Film Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina this weekend.
As I was watching, instead of having AFV pop to mind, I had flashes of Bunuel, Rouch, Dziga Vertov, Man Ray, Woman Rhea, Richter, Melies, Lumiere, Cocteau, Cockfinger, Eisenstein, and some of the pioneers of avant-garde cinema whack me across the glasses in Potemkian montage sequences, as my mind tumbled down the steps of ontological approval like a perambulator adrift on the gravity of pregnant steps of Odessa.

(working, working...)

Rainbloggers Break North Carolina Drought! ConvergeSouth, Fifth Estate, Credited.

nfConvergeSouth was THIS BIG!
(photo of Ruby Sinreich by Iddybud)

WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR...

(dans progress)

A
funny thing happened this weekend, beginning on Friday. While the stock market was going to shit, hominids were gathering in North Carolina to break the drought that was long plaguing the state. The impact was instantaneous and widespread.

Rain soaked the area represented by these holy blogger/rainpersons, and earth and heaven were once again speaking.

Here are some of the things unearthed by said rainbloggers...

THE GATHERING OF THE FIFTH ESTATE
As the blognoscenti of The Fifth Estate gathered, I realized that it was going to be impossible to spend quality time with everyone, but I am glad that I did get some quality time with some quality folk, in particular, David Hoggard, Jay Ovittore, Dr. Sue, Michael Habib, Bora Zivkovic, David Jordan, Scott and Barbara Nelles, Stew Pittman, Billy the Wordjones, Dan Conover, Lex Alexander, Fec Stench, Brandon Gross, Saskia Wilson-Brown, Robert Reddick, and a few others. Some, like Ben Hwang and Ed Cone were always on the move, and thus hard to trap into a long discussion on what's next.

THE FUTURE:
CHARLOTTE FESTIVAL OF THE FIFTH ESTATE

I am pondering a notion from the mind of Joe Killian, who wondered why these events could not happen twice a year...


UNCC college of Computers and Informatics Campus

Charlotte is typically very lovely in April and May, which is roughly six months from now. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has a new campus dedicated to Information Technology, which auspiciousoly lies at the north side of Charlotte, very close to I-85, from whence most people from the Triad and Triangle would be coming. Seems like such an event might serve both institutions well.

University Place, Charlotte

Nearby is University Place, where people can stay, and party...and also NODA, charlotte's vibrant art district, which has venues for music, film, art, and good food. Again, this would serve both institutions well...


Charlotte Arts District (NODA)

Flight from other cities around the world are available, media coverage from the Charlotte Observer, sponsorship from Bank of America, Wachovia, BMW, and other deep pockets might be available...and Lord knows the city is always looking to promote the image of it being a state-of-the-art, world-class city. As I said also to Saskia and Brandon of Current TV and San Francisco...Charlotte's god in chief, Hugh McColl, loved San Francisco, and wanted to bring the best of that city to Charlotte. Among the projects he is involved with is the Echo Foundation, founded by Elie Wiesel and, i believe, headquartered in Charlotte.

Charlotte also has telemedicine, and is making great headway in holistic medicine...with Stewart Brand's recent involvement in the creation of a new holistic, hospital, replete with Feng Shui gardens, waterfalls, and much else besides. Surely an interesting topic for discussion... Perhaps health can be at the center of discussion, but maybe also other aspects of life for which the city is known, like investments, banking, business, sports...and these other quotidian, yet necessary, arenas.

Besides...the mayor is on Facebook.

Rainbloggers Break North Carolina Drought! ConvergeSouth Credited.

World Anthology of ConvergeSouth Reviews:

Current.com comes to Greensboro - Jude (Iddybud) Nagurney-Camwell has some great pictures of folks at ConvergeSouth, including our guests from San Francisco and CurrentTV, Saskia Wilson-Brown and Brandon Gross, as well as CrapTV's Jason McHugh.

ConvergeSouth: The Buzz That Was - Lenslinger, who writes: "When a shirtless Al Gore first twisted the internets out of molten lava, experts worried it would turn the people of the Earth into agoraphobic laptop addicts. Perhaps they had a point. Still, when used correctly, the series of tubes that is the web can actually bring people face to face - and I‘m not talking about those skeevy dating websites, either. I‘m talking ConvergeSouth. " Wondrous words, my friend!
ConvergeSouth Film Festival stuff
Late breaking news
ConvergeSouth 2008 - Volunteer and the job is yours - Sue Polinsky
Too fast from Greensboro to Milwaukee [A Blog Around The Clock] - Bora Zivkovic
Converging 2007 - Joe Killian
Converged - Ed Cone

ConvergeSouth - all good (except for…) - David Hoggard, "The Man with the Meat", wonders if some of the class leaders did not get the memo about the audience being smarter than you are. Elsewisely put, "zen mind, beginner's mind". Lively discussion!

A Morning’s Worth Of ConvergeSouth 2007 - CMF

2007 ConvergeSouth Coverage - updates by Billy Blog Jones

Twitter updates for 2007-10-20 - Amber Rhea

ConvergeSouth Saturday, Part 2 - Stephanie (NC Inkslinger)

ConvergeSouth - Joe Guarino

Thoughts on ConvergeSouth - Sam Harrelson

Just got back from ConvergeSouth - Angelico (Blue NC)

ConvergeSouth: Day Two Social Networking - Sir Leonard Witt

Saturday morning at ConvergeSouth - Anton Zuiker (with a link to Storyblogging session, which I regrettably missed.)

ConvergeSouth 2007 - Michael Kimsal

Social networks at ConvergeSouth - Ruby Sinreich

ConvergeSouth photos - Radical Georgia Moderate

ConvergeSouth 2007 Day 2 - Guillaume le Blogpoetistan (no lackbeard) keeping track of ConvergeSouthiana while reminding us of the importance of his majoral candidacy and his future mayoralty. May he bring peace and macrobiotic food to Blogsboro.

Don’t Question Us! - The Conservative Alternative

Tidbits from ConvergeSouth - Erik Huey

ConvergeSouth Liveblog III - Mama's Bloggin

Hello world! - David Jordan Jr. (currently inchoate)

ConvergeSouth first looks - Ben (the Wizard) Hwang

Attytood's Southern strategy - Will Bunch (who had graced us from Philadelphia)

BCR at ConvergeSouth today - Bull City Rising (Durham)

dan who?

ConvergeSouth 2007: Where Bloggers Meet and Share

We at anonyMoses Blog Manumissives are extremely pleased to note the approach of this year's blog bash called ConvergeSouth. In order to remind myself, it is quite likely that i will post a few items regardingthe venerable event, so do not be alarmed. Rather sign up before it gets too full. You have waited long enough...

friday theme: "The Fifth Estate"
KEYNOTE
JASON CALACANIS
STEP BY STEP
Owning the news - the challenges of moving from old media to new.
Panelist: Dan Conover
Panelist: Will Bunch
Moderator: Joe Killian
Interactive Panel: WE DO AGREE TO DISAGREE
How community-driven nontraditional news sites have changed the
way we perceive what is news or newsworthy
Panelist: Ruby Sinreich
Panelist: Chris Rabb
Panelist: TBA
Moderator: Ed Cone

WORKSHOPS
To Be Announced
Dr. Abdul Alkalimat
Legal Issues Online
Eric Fink

Affiliate Marketing, Web 2.0 and Social Media
Sam Harrelson
Science Blogging
Bora Zivkovic

We Don't Need No Titles
Billy Jones
Get Your Political Foot in the Door
E.C. Huey

saturday theme: "The Making of the fifth estate"
KEYNOTE
Dr. ABDUL ALKALIMAT
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Creative people and groups are
providing new context to the world around them
Panelist: Anil Dash
Panelist: TBA
Moderator: Sean Coon

MOVING PICTURES - IMAGES AND VIDEO ON THE WEB

HOW-TO
Podcasting and Beyond
PRESENTER: Amber Rhea


HOW-TO (part 1)
CurrentTV
How to make a Current pod, demo pods, answer questions and take pitches
HOW-TO

Videos that Don't Suck
PRESENTER: TBA

HOW-TO
Better Blogging
PRESENTER: Ed Cone


HOW-TO (part 2)
CurrentTV
How to make a Current pod, demo pods, answer questions and take pitches

HOW-TO
Riffing an Existence with Lenslinger
PRESENTER: Stewart Pittman

Sustainable Journalism
PRESENTER: Kirk Ross

AMATEUR SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

Hosted dinners throughout downtown Greensboro

Music downtown

Converge South, Greensboro once again make blogging history

No Place for Wompsters


Hoffman as Scoble

wompster - noun Someone who thumps or pounds something, usually a bible or other sacred text.


The great and good blogger, Robert Scoble, his lovely wife, Maryam, and the remarkable Elizabeth Edwards, helped to make this year's Converge South a memorable and historic success. Legends of the blogosphere converged on A & T University in Greensboro, North Carolina on a cool and beautiful October day to establish, reestablish and celebrate the fellowship which seems endemic to the blogging family. Just like in the first of North Carolina's blogger conference, Ed Cone, David Hoggard, Sue Polinsky, Billy the Blogging Poet, Jay Ovittore, Patrick Eakes, Citizen Will R, and yet other archons of the blogosphere whose mere countenences rend ringent the slackjawed lookers-on who may only p-p-pray for such station in this amazing life we call anonyMoses, but participate in as if it were anything but, sadly. And let it be said that we at anonyMoses are sad and disappointed that we didn't get to meet Mister Scoble, but enjoyed the darshan, and his (and his wife's) most pleasant personalities, notwithstanding. I'm sure we'd be great friends, and probably are.

Great to see Bora has showed up from Chapel Hill. Fec Stench was also there, and in top form. Hell, every was excellent. Must have been magic. Other legendary attendees include Lex Alexander , Jude Nagurney Camwell, Sandy Carmany, Zack Exley, Ben Hwang, Matt Gross, Stewart Pittman, Robert Reddick, Roch Smith Jr., Pam Spaulding, Mark Tosczak, David Wharton, BlueNC and others I will surely add as my mind returns.

Here’s Daniel Conover’s Xark notes and Anton Zuiker’s notes.

EEBuzz - from Benny's World


THE LEGEND OF THE PIEDMONT BLOGGERS
as told to Anonymoses Hyperlincoln III
[from NC's first Bloggercon]




Iddybud, Anonymoses and Senator Edwards in Concord on Friday 13.

More of the occasion from Carolina Girl over at OneAmerican Blog.

Jay Does Convergence - Blogger Ovittore's recent experiences at ConvergeSouth, Greensboro, NC

Jay Ovittore's Blog

With special focus on the music...

John Lennon's Day

John Lennon October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980


Working Class Hero
by John Lennon

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and class less and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me


Speaking of Greensboro, I was in Greensboro when I heard the news about Lennon's death.
There was a nice and moving candlelight vigil at UNCG with good folks like John S. Jones, Bill Poole, Chuck Newman, Maria Robbins, Lucy Biron, David Grogan, John Pope, Eric, Chance, Dayna, Fred and Stan in attendance. Hard to believe 25 years has passed since then...

Good to see Greensboro is still a groovy place, because it certainly was back then. Long live Greensboro!
Long live the memory and music of John Lennon!

The ConvergeSouth Blog

Converge!

ConvergeSouth, taking place this weekend in Greensboro, has a blog, featuring some of the speakers.

convergesouth

Moog is Dead

Robert Moog with his synthesizers

The Man Who Democratized Music Has Died

New York Times:
Robert Moog, the creator of the electronic music synthesizer that bears his name and that became ubiquitous among experimental composers as well as rock musicians in the 1960's and 70's, died on Sunday at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71.
MORE


Who hasn't heard of a Moog Synthesizer? And how many of those correctly pronounce it "mogue" as in "vogue" or "rogue"? Fact is, everyone has heard of a Moog Synthesizer, even if they call it a "mood simplifier", a subset that would include me, mainly because I happen to think it does simplify the mood. Not, of course, because I am a buffoon, like the others who call it that. I taught my precocious nephew how to play when he was but six or seven. And I taught myself on the minimoog and then on the maximoog, the granddaddy...which was housed at the university in Greensboro, along with a monster ARP. Wires and levers were the fashion in those earlier days.

The first one though was the Minimoog, which was made available for public use at Reliable Music, back when it was in the backroom of a pawn shop in downtown Charlotte. Early 70s.
While most people there were hogging the guitars, I was hogging the Moog. Several years would pass before I got the opportunity to goof with the classic Moog, which resembled a telephone switchboard with all the patchcords. A friend of mine was studying electronic music at UNC-Greensboro, and she let me come to the lab and goof around on it.

A few more years would pass, when my old friend, Ken Phillips (who had come for one of his always interesting visits) and I were walking down Mass. Ave in Cambridge, and on a pole outside the MIT campus was a flyer that said Moog and Ray Kurzweil were going to be presenting their latest creation.

My God. My jaw dropped open, and nothing seemed to make it close...as Ken and I sat and listened to what I believe was the first public display of the amazing Kurzweil keyboard, of which Bob Moog had a hand. Another decade would pass before I had my own...which I've never regretted, since it allowed me to create 20 or 30 tapes of music before passing it on to my dear musical wizard and friend, Woody, who is still having a blast with it, and probably has as many CDs.

Once upon a time classical music was reserved for a small coterie of society somebodies, but then symphony orchestras were created and now you can have many violins, many oboes, many contrabassoons, and you can invite in more people. Classical music was being democratized.

But with Moog, and because of Moog, a single person could create symphonies, and actually hear the final product. Before Moog, many may write symphonies, but finding one to play it was a different matter. This de facto gatekeeper has been removed, and it is largely because of Robert Moog. And now he is gone.

There isn't a musician or composer today that doesn't owe him a debt of gratitude.

Long live his legacy!

Play one for Mister Moog!


And speaking of which... I'd love to see folks like ELP, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, PDQ Bach, Tomita, Kitaro, Radiohead, Faust, Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Einsturzende Neubauten, The Beach Boys and so on, converge on Asheville to do a benefit concert, with their Moogs, to raise money for one of Moog's favorite charities.

Who can get that done?

_______________
Reprinted on Blogcritics

ConvergeSouth: The Movie

OCTOBER 9, 2005
BLOGSBORO, NC
TARHEEL TAVERN

ConvergeSouth

It was a weekend unlike any other in this small Southern city. Celebrities and blogebrities were everywhere. You would trip on them as you walked. And if you ran, forget about it, collision with fame was a certitude. Anyone who was anyone was in Blogsboro to lend their support, influence and money to the blogtival, and to the historically African-American institution who was hosting the event this momentous and pivotal year. So far, over a million has been raised, which will go toward creating a "Blogospheric Studies" department at A & T University, along with scholarships and such, as well as other projects like the network of "poverty oases" hosted by the University of North Carolina, at their many branches -- with Greensboro, Chapel Hill and A & T triangulating as pioneers, soon to be in all branches.

(A "poverty oasis" is a place in the university where the poor and luckshy can come and gain valuable skills, connections, food and work. )

"Word of this event started to saturate the media by late summer", says blogger Synonymoses, "and before long Hollywood and Independent directors were fighting over the rights to covering the event.

Spielberg wanted to call his "Blogging Private Ryan", about war-bloggers during the current unpleasantness in Iraq.
Michael Moore pitched for "Blogging for Columbine", a story about how students are sublimating their violent urges and learning how not to kill people by killing time instead.
David Lynch's "Oil Peaks" is about Peak Oil and its coverage in the blogosphere.
The Farrelly Brothers' "Jog Blog" will star Jack Black as a jogging blogger.

Francis Ford Coppola is doing "The Blogfather" about Mister Ed Cone, pioneer and gentleman blogger.
George Lucas will do "Blog Wars" to get more of the anger out.
Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls get the Blogs" is about how the blogosphere is now seeping from the Headland into the Heartland.

James Cameron pitched"Blogtanic" but retracted it when told it would not hold water.
John Hughes' "Blog Alone" is about a blogger's life prior to discovering the blogosphere.
John Sayles' "Blogwan" is a story about West Virginia bloggers who rebel against their ISP after The Bhagwan is reincarnated as Glenn Reynolds, who proceeds to make them all drive Rolls-Royces and chant nonsense in Hindi.

Jonathan Demme is working on "Stop Making Blogs" and the sequel, "Silence of the Blogs".
Kevin Costner's "Steppin' with Wolves" is about a night out with FOX executives.
Martin Scorsese's "Raging Blog" covers the more vituperative bloggers among us.
Mike Nichols' "Who's afraid of Virginia Blogs"is about the lack of blogging representation from Virginia, our state to the north (should you have forgotten).
Oliver Stone, what else?: "GWB"
Quentin Tarantino - "Blog Fiction", about the work of Billy the Blogging Wordjones and others.
Richard Linklater "Slack Blogger" is a blogumentary about yours truly.
Rob Reiner's "Spinal Blog" is about bogus blog musicians.
Robert Altman... "B*L*O*G"

Tim Robbins' "Blog Roberts", about the blogging of neo-Supreme, John Roberts and/or a simple love story about bloggers who are named Robert.
Steve Martin's "Blogfinger"is about Carpel-Tunnel syndrome.
Tim Burton's "Edward Bloggerhands"another movie about Carpel-Tunnel.
Woody Allen & Roman Polanski are whipping together "Young Girls Who Blog".
Robert Redford's "Horse Yeller" is a sort of cross between "Old Yeller" and "Horse Whisperer", only the character yells at his horse, mainly because he is still using dialup.

Spike Lee's "Blog the Right Thang" is a blogumentary joint about ConvergeSouth.

One mustn't overlook the music at this veritable Blogstock, this Blogapalooza, this Tangleblog. All the best bands in the South were in attendance. REM, Dave Matthews, James Taylor, Allman Brothers, Ryan Adams, Josh Joplin, Love Tractor, B52s, Hootie, Arvo Part, and all the rest. Oops. Arvo is not from down here. Maybe next time.
Writers and novelists, always curious, also came out in droves, as did political beings such as Jesse Jackson (an alumnus of A&T), John Edwards and Liddy Dole. Andy Griffith even made a cameo appearance, whistling that famous melody, and partaking in a discussion on poverty with Mister Edwards and his lovely wife, Elizabeth.

The hightlight was, of course, the appearance of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton...who stole the show even more than Mister Internet himself, Al Gore, who was also there. Along with their esteemed and beautiful wives!

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made appearances, as did Misters Ellison, Grove and Chambers. Flipper and Lassie were allowed in free. Flipper, bless his heart, wound up having people throw buckets of cold water on him, and complained that the sidewalks needed sweeping.

Of course, the cream of the blogosphere were in attendance, including Hoder, Jay Rosen, Dan Gillmor, Sybril Bennett, Nancy McLaughlin, David Hoggard, John Robinson, Lex Alexander, Ruby Sinreich, Ed Cone, Michael Moran, Christie Seals, Allison Perkins, John Teleha, Ted Vaden, DeWayne Wickham, Jeff Jarvis, Phil Meyer, Bob Steele, Francisco Camara, George Curry, Kevin Sites, Duncan Black (Atrios), Amanda Congdon, Dave Winer, Sandy Carmany, Tiffany Brown, Herb Everett, Roch Smith, Jr., Ruby Sinreich, Michael Bowen, Jimmy Wales, Sue Polinsky, Iddybud, Seth Godin, Dave Taylor, BL Ochman, (Sir Tristram) Tris Hussey, Toby Bloomberg, Andy Wibbels, Denise Wakeman, Steve Rubel, Rick Bruner, Wayne Hurlbert, John Jantsch, Neville Hobson, Biz Stone, Eric Alterman, Stowe Boyd, Henry Copeland, Wil Wheaton, Wiley Wiggins, Cory Doctorow, Arianna Huffington, Al Franken, Lawrence Lessig, Doc Searls, David Corn, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, James Wolcott, Juan Cole, Matthew Yglesias, Andrew Sullivan, Evan Williams, and God herself!

Can't wait to see the movies!"

Are you through now, Mister, ah, Synonymoses?

"Quite! Except to thank hometown bank, Bank of America, for their generous sponsorship."


And now a word from ProductPlacement...

ConvergeSouth
BE THERE OR BE STUPID

TARHEEL TAVERN : Going to Blogolina in my Mind

A Blogtour of North Carolina

In my mind I'm going to Blogolina.
Can't you take the sunshine,
can't you just drink the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of wine
to smack me on behind?
Yes, I'm going to Blogolina in my mind.

With a holy host of bloggers blogging round me,
listening to the dark side of the moon.
And it seems like this blog goes on like this forever...

The blogosphere is not equally distributed throughout these United, or should I say Untied States. It is not even equally distributed around this state. Any look at NCBlogs.com will tell you that. The heaviest concentration is in the Triad/Triangle region, with Charlotte and the Mountains in second rank, and Jesse country pulling up the rear, so to speak.

There are reasons for this unequal distribution, just as there are ways and needs for expanding into these undernourished regions, these bozarts, again, if you will.

That makes twice that I've said "will", and it is beginning to disconcert me. I am growing ill at the thought of Will. And no, not Will Robinson, should you be lost or spaced. I'm talking Will, as in Der Willen. Will as in George's "They will not break our Will." Or Leni and Dolphy's "Triumph of the Will". Not wit. Not love. Not caritas. But Will. Getting your way, costs be damned.

But alas I digress. It is what I do. Life is digression. The opposite of Will.

That said, let me try to hoist this travel guide back into the saddle, and quit examining the remains of our passing.

Coming, going, the waterfowl leaves not a trace,
nor does it need a guide.

I remember that koan from the sunny '70s, when I first made their acquaintance. I remember telling Rob Urban, who also thought it was "pretty neat". Neither of us embodied it though.
But neither, I predict, have you. Yet we have no Hiroshimas to live down either.
Or do we?

Live simply that others may simply live.

More true to that one I suppose. Some are actually astonished, or turned to stone, at the simplicity of my lean-to down by the river.

OK, it is not really a lean-to, and it is not near a river, but it is simple, practically Thorouvian. But relatively energy-efficient.

So, what was that about a saddle?

Alright. Enough! Time to start over.

---

[ I WILL STILL BE TAKING SUBMISSIONS UNTIL I AM TUCKERED OUT. THE FINAL VERSION WILL BE SET AT MIDNIGHT. - THANKS FOR PLAYING. - DAVE]

---

Blogtouring North Carolina

The blogosphere is not equally distributed throughout these United States. It is not even equally distributed around this state. Any look at NCBlogs.com will tell you that. The heaviest concentration is in the Triad/Triangle region, with Charlotte and the Mountains in second rank, and Eastern North Carolina pulling up the rear.

There are reasons for this unequal distribution, just as there are ways and needs for expanding into these undernourished regions of the state, country and world. In the old days, it was the seaport cities where civilization and culture mostly took place, because of their being a crossroads of different cultures. As the late Dr. Richard Schultes once said, "Monoculture breeds disease." But moreover, it breeds ignorance.

In these new times, it is not just the seaports, but also the blogports, and other places where minds meet, where you will find civilization and culture thriving. North Carolina is among these meeting grounds, along with New York, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Texas. Places where universities also thrive.

Within North Carolina, the universities are mainly in the Triad/Triangle area, along with the bulk of the blogosphere. And it is these places who will reap the rewards of blogtourism. So when a blogger, such as the illustrious Iddybud (who is an honorary Tarheel, although she lives in New York, and has appeared on CNN, the LA Times, Yes Weekly, and on John Edwards' blog, as well as others), comes to North Carolina, she knows she can contact Tarheel bloggers, tell them of the upcoming visit, and then tour the state with bloggers as guides and helpers. No blogger a stranger. And speaking of which, Jude (Iddy) plans to attend the upcoming event of the year, which is ConvergeSouth, to be held in Blogsboro (Greensboro) on the weekend of October 7th...so introduce yourself, and extend some of that famous Southern Hospitality. But if you really feel the need to throw tomatoes, make it the Jellybean variety, or the Sungolds or Juliets or the Calabash Purple, such as you might find in the garden, or blog, of Laurie, who because of her Slowly She Turned blog, has recently been named "Blogsboro's slow food guru". And throw them at me, not Jude, or anyone else for that matter. I'll come armed with lettuce and bacon.


Laurie's 'maters

EAT AND BE EATEN

And speaking of Bacon, how about them six degrees of Kevin Bacon! To think that every person alive has only six degrees of separation, at most, from Hollywood's Kevin Bacon, whose quatrayle, or great-great-great grandfather, was none other than Novum Organum's Sir Francis Bacon, who, no, did not write Shakespeare (or "Sheik's Peer", as some have insinuated).
Was he really a Sufi?

---

A DIGRESSION ON NAMES
Prince Albert Gore Vidal Sassoon
Earl Warren Christopher Lloyd George Michael Jackson Browne
Patricia Neal Diamond Jim Cary Grant Tinker Bell
Osama Bin Franklin Roosevelt Grier Garson Kanin Abel

---

OK, so I was wrong about Kevin and Francis. His quatrayle was a guy named Lonnie. But this fascination with the interconnectedness of humanity, not to mention the interconnectedness of all life, has now merged with technology, and now, because of so-called "social software" such as LinkedIn.com as well as Ecademy, Ryze, Multiply, MySpace, Friendster and others, tracking and using these connections has become but a mouseclick away. I have to thank Tarheel Taverner -- not to be confused with John Taverner, who is one of America's premiere composers, I believe, although I know there were Taverners in colonial Virginia -- Dr. Sue of Sue's Place for urging me to get linked in, as I now see that it is to blogging what blogging is to solitaire. Which is to say that when you play solitaire, you connect with no one. When you blog, you are likely to connect, but usually with Americans. With sites like LinkedIn, you are just as likely to connect with people from other countries as you are to connect with Americans. Your cybertourismic possibilities are equally widened, as are other possibilities.

Also linked in are Billy the Blogging Poet, Matt Gross, Roch Smith Jr., Ben Hwang and others, included, but not limited to, Dan Gillmor, Steve Rubel, Dave Taylor, Wiley Wiggins...but there is nothing stopping everyone here from also connecting in with these new tools. And by using them, welding the relationships, in a manner not unlike that of photoblogger, Mandie's omnicapable father, one may truly cast their net worldwide, and fish the exotic seas of distant shores. Bring the world home, and home to the world.



And North Carolina has so much to offer to the world. Do people around the world suffer loss? Of course not! But if they did, they could find comfort in the books and blog of Erin Monahan, for example, and learn how to cope with loss, divorce, death. Her Poetic Acceptance could touch hearts not only in North Carolina, and America, but could be touching lives even in the dark and archaeological cloacae of Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro, or at the Priory of Sion in risible Rennes, while making a nice profit for Erin.

DO WHAT IS PLEASING TO ONE'S SELF AND USEFUL TO OTHERS

Poetry, it seems, has helped more than Erin cope with loss. Billy Jones too has found meaning in his own poetry, and others. And his blog highlights his poetry and online novels, but also features the poetry of others. His shorter prose is also enlightening, as in this post, where he celebrates the life of his father, and laments his passing on the anniversary of his death. And although Billy wonders if he will ever attain the greatness of his father, we think his father would be darned proud. Particularly of his work in establishing North Carolina as one of the blog hotspots on the globe. I know I am. And I know many other that are as well.

I say we erect a statue!

But lest it be said that North Carolina is great, but so serious, one need look no further than Valerie Nieman to be given a dose of levitas and jocundity...

AUTOMATIC PENCIL, PART THE FIRST

Automatic pencil
Autopencil, to write moving finger without thought, to fill page after page like a signature machine freed of the loops and squiggles of a program, like the mind in long stretches of waiting for something, waiting is all, waiting is the empty place from which understanding blooms like a seed sudden from the desert after a breath of rain.

Automatic pencil
My father’s clipboard, his pencils, shop pencils thick in the barrel, industrial.I have one, black plastic or Bakelite, steel at each end where the lead came out and where the eraser sat, now an empty tube. The legend: Champion Tool & Die Co. McKeesport, Pa. 15131412 751-6000

I wonder if they’re still in business, or rusted with the rest of the belt, foundries and steel suppliers, solvent and paint dealers, tool and die works, trucking companies, designers, fabricators, merchants. A whole world whittled away, year by year, until now the red brick buildings stand like historic sites, Hadrian’s Wall or the Great Wall or some other useless thing, a single bare bulb burning over a back door.

Automatic pencil
Is not to be preferred over the traditional sort. Thin lead in yellow plastic. Ersatz. No smell of cedar, no scalloped shavings, no angled shading across a ruled page as faces and horses emerge from doodles, no pencil-point under the skin from grade-school bullies. - Val Nieman


-

Her latest book is Fidelities, a short story collection from West Virginia University Press. The collection of 18 stories includes two winners of the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Prize from the Charlotte Writers Club, as well as stories that have appeared in the News & Observer, Wellspring, and the anthologies One Paycheck Away from Main Street Rag Press (Charlotte), The O. Henry Festival Stories 2003 (Greensboro) and Racing Home: Stories from Award-Winning North Carolina Writers, The Paper Journey Press (Durham).
She has also published poetry, a novel about the '70s called Survivors, and an SF novel way back when, Neena Gathering.

AUTOMATIC PENCIL, PART THE SECOND

In which our state's most beloved Ogre, makes the following astute assessment:

The Quick Brown Fox
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

But after the quick brown fox jumped over, the lazy dog moved quickly. The lazy dog ran after the quick brown fox. The quick brown fox discovered that it was not as quick as it thought it might have been. The formerly lazy dog quickly closed the distance between it and the not-so-quick fox as the chase continued.

The quick brown fox ran past Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Turkey Lurkey, and even past his cousin, Sly Fox. The lazy dog, now panting profusely, continued to get closer and closer. The quick brown fox hopped on the alligator's head for a ride over the river. Still the lazy dog followed.

They continued over the hills and through the woods. The race went down the path and the quick brown fox took a shortcut that his half-brother suggested through the woods that led past grandma's house. The lazy dog fell behind a little while traversing the thick undergrowth of the woods.

On the other side of the forest, the quick brown fox ran through the brier patch. Brer rabbit waved as first the quick brown fox, then the lazy dog, sped through his brier path. The briers slowed the quick brown fox, but the lazy dog continued.

Past the brier patch, the quick brown fox ran up the hill. At the top of the hill was a well that had recently been abandoned by Jack and Jill. With nowhere else to go, the quick brown fox stopped and turned to face the lazy dog. He bared his teeth at the lazy dog, hoping that it would turn him away.

The lazy dog stopped, panting from the long chase. He paused to catch his breath, watching the quick brown fox the entire time. Finally, the lazy dog said, "Why did you jump over me?"

From the Left Coast of North Carolina, to the Right, our state abounds in talent, fortuna et lux.

And speaking of which, Science and Politics' Bora Zivkovic, inches from his PhD, graces us with his ample and protean mind, week after week, and for this occasion has explained the differences between left and right...when it comes to science, pseudoscience, borderlands science, and nonsense.

About the pseudosciences he says:

Lefty pseudoscience was always marginal and marginalized by everyone on both the Left and the Right. No political party has ever pushed for astrology or biorhythms to be used in classrooms or in military planning.
However, attack on science, reason and rationality is the centerpiece of the Right-Wing strategy. The only way they can save their medieval notions about society, economics, religion, science, race, gender equality, etc. from being deposited forever in the trashbin of history is if they systematically brainwash every new generation into dogmatism, uncritical thinking and fearful obedience to their authority. They are in power now - White House, Congress, Supreme Court - and they are ramming anti-science and anti-reality ideas into school (and into media) as hard as they can.

His provocative and entertaining explanation can be read in its entirety here. Read and enjoy each delightful and instructive paragraph. Dull minds think alike. Coturnix is an original.

And for a slightly different take, you may want to snort a sprocket...which is a helluva lot safer than snorting "the powders", or "the vapors", which is just gross. The best thing to snort, though, is air. And the best way to snort air is pranayama...not to be confused with melinama, which is not to be confused with melanoma.

Thhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee thing is this. This is the thing, and the thing, is thusly this. You see.

And thus, you may feel something a bit odd in your whithers today. It could be that you are dreaming of taking droughts of Dramamine (unit of measure: drams), or perhaps possible pensives of Pontius Pilate’s palate, who ponders persimmons.

We are the persimmons. EAT US.

You can rest assured that the way is weirdly wondrous and wends through the jungle. Night thoughts, we can be assured. Assuredly, be.

Thoughts of 1 (2? 3!) hit my cortex. Impaled! It is time for much work, and we have so much to do, and not much time.

Lastly: remember. We are all (in love). In love, we all are.

In love.

Quick! Get this man some Asinine Alliteration Antidote with the anti-Charles Dodgson additive!
— Andrew S. Damick Aug 5, 10:01 AM #
“You don’t see the Shintus come around here, shattering sheetglass in the shithouse, shouting slogans…”

“Oh, don’t you go practicing your alliteration on me!”

Or so says Snort a Sprocket from the smerpological depths.

"Smerpological depths?", you ask. Why not alabandical depths, or antipelargical depths, flosculational depths or miasmic depths?

To answer these questions, we have to turn to our resident sesquipedalian, Melinama at Pratie's Place: a phrontistery (affront history?) where you will learn the meaning of the previous paragraph, as well as much else besides.

---

We owe this word to the Roman writer Horace, who wrote in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) [ see also Arse Poetica] : “Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba” (“He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long”). It comes from Latin sesqui–, one and a half, plus ped, a foot. It was borrowed into English in the seventeenth century and has become a favourite of those writers who like self-referential terms, or are addicted to polysyllabic humour. - Weird Words

---

Carolinians, and indeed, Southerners, have long been verbophiliacs, which may alas stem from the predominance of Shakespeare in our cultural heritage, dating back to England, or maybe the interplay of cultures, or it may be what historian David Hackett Fischer called our love of leisure and "killing time".

With that in mind, allow me to share the adventures of Durham's Ron Hudson, who is killing time in Spain and Portugal. Let him share some of his own methods for killing time. You can keep track of his journeys by bookmarking his blog, 2Sides2Ron.

---

In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from becoming lost as serially numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He will be the champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely upon him.
-Lin Yutang
The Importance of Living 1937

On the other hand...

"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,' like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder."
—Alexander Berkman

---

The Berkman quote just came to me in an email from another honorary Tarheel, who absolutely loves it down here, but lives in Cleveland, just a couple of miles from the base that sent so many to their deaths recently, and about which he says:

I'm sure you heard about the deaths of all those marines who came from my home state. Everyone here is just devastated at the tragic loss of life. I have never seen such an outpouring of grief and sorrow in quite a long time. The battalion headquarters where those marines were stationed is only a couple of miles from where I live. I drive past it every time I go visit my Mother. I think people are now starting to realize how absolutely insane and senseless this war is and who it's truly impacting.

But that's so negative, man! Don't drag me to negativeland. Sharks and Condit are what everyone is talking about now! No wait, that was on 9/10 and the months before. What is it we're talking about now? Oh yeah...shuttle debris and flag burning.

The question then becomes...

When the Media obsesses on junk-food news, are we in for a whacking? On September the 8th, 2001, while walking to a Yes concert at Radio City Music Hall, in, yes, Manhattan, I asked a media person about the obsession with sharks and Condit, to which he responded, "It is a slow news time." My intuition* told me otherwise. That is why I trust my intuition.
And when I need a muffler repair, I trust Maaco. To charge me an arm and a leg.

So why is the media obsessing on trivial, diversionary matters? Don't tell me they are still in cahoots with Daddy Warbucks, and that we are about to be taken to the cleaners yet again.
And wasn't Bush vacationing in Texas during the months before and during 9/11?
Is there a connection between Bush's vacations, a pussilanimous and diversionary Media, and terror?

It is such negativeland, Debbie Downer kind of stuff, that makes people want to watch sports all day and night, with the only reality being reality TV, which should really be labeled "reality-food TV", following Kraft's famous individually wrapped cheese-food ... also a few degrees of separation from reality.

But I digress. I am not a Fascist so I am allowed that luxury. More people should digress. Procrastination can be a virtue. I wish we would have procrastinated on the war. But nooo! Even the War Machine has to show a profit, and the Media has way too much invested in their parent companies. Thank God for blogs!

But I am surely starting to sound cynical. The MSM, mainstream media, corporate media, have great and good people working for them. Some could even become bloggers if they tried! But as Ben Bagdikian points out, and which can be found at Pratie's Place:

"Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's St. Matthew's Passion on a ukulele." - Bagdikian's Observation

I should talk about religion...

---

How 'bout them stupid Baptists!

Naa...better not go there. Hell, Clinton AND Gore were both Southern Baptists! The exemplars! (Not to be confused with the Templars.)


The Templars

Speaking of confusion, who, besides me, is confused by this most appalling of Tarheel Taverns? Can I git a show of hands? OUCH! Not of the face, Reverend!
I know...one hand clapping. Very funny.

Now I realize that there are going to be some fellers who do not agree with my position on war and peace, and might even claim that our illustrious prince of war is to be preferred to the prince of peace, as Pam's House Blend points out, but alas, their numbers are dwindling, largely because of the relationship between time and truth. What is new is rarely good, because if it is good, it is not long new, but long old. I'm long and old, so I know. (Stupid, the word is "tall"!)

Fine! Whatever!

And so it goes in sweet Caroline. Sweetness and light. Delicacy of feeling. Whimsical charm. T'ungjen.

And speaking of T'ungjen, we may as well go over some other Chinese terms, and why not start from the top?

---

A DIGRESSION ON 4-LETTER WORD POETRY
Time will tell
your mama that Karl
Rove will fess most
lies that Rush took
into Hell when dope
took that mind away.
Away! Into that cool
blue roof. Away! Help
your mama make soup.
Away!
Some days seem like they came from Hell.

---

Better second-hand and first-rate, than first-hand and second-rate

And what better proof of this than a Sunday circumambulation of a good second-hand store...

Let our favorite lenslinger, Stew Pittman, show you how it is done. If you don't know him, he is the premiere video-journalist in the blogosphere, at least as far as I have seen. AND he's right up the street!

Check out his take on second-hand store shopping. He won't dissappoint.

Only a few shoppers noticed the bearded man with the fancy-cam gliding down aisle five. Most just shuffled behind battered shopping carts, staring fixedly at row after row of hand-me-down clothes and second hand doodads. North Carolina’s annual tax-free weekend was only a few hours old, but the feeding frenzy was well underway...

But if that is a little to down-to-earth, you may find solace in Joe Guarino's post on Supreme Court Nominations, Ellen Goodman and the Right to Take Human Life.

Since Justice O'Connor's retirement announcement, Ellen Goodman has been writing often about the issue of Supreme Court nominations and abortion. I have been following her column in the News and Record... - Joe Guarino

JOCULAR CONCLUSION

A scientist and a philosopher were being chased by a hungry lion. The scientist made some quick calculations, he said “it's no good trying to outrun it, its catching up”.
The philosopher kept a little ahead and replied “I am not trying to outrun the lion, I am trying to outrun you !”

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!” The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!”
The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you.”

Thanks to all who played and/or enjoyed this little foray into the life of the Tarheel Tavern. It has been a barrel of said monkeys. But looks aren't everything.

A White House of Bloggers

In the future, the White House will have a hundred bloggers who interact and gauge the pulse and problems of people of all walks, regardless of the size of their wallets. Meetings will be held where the President discusses the day or week's findings, and solutions are sought immediately, with progress reports due the following week.
Around America and the world, bloggers are also reeling you in...

No! That is not where I wanted it to go!

But you see, there will always be reactionaries, and thus some people will, quite automatically, seek the worst motives, and posit them as your own, which, of course only the contrary could be true. And yet still, even by trumping the reactionaries, I also trump myself, inasmuch as I have, in the squabbling, lost my readers who simply have not the time to wait for me to finish.

But that is not all.

Bloggercons, blogfests, convergences and such will start occuring in such a way that an entire region will participate -- first here, then there, then Greensboro, then Asheville, then Athens and Atlanta, Savannah and Charleston. A sort of roving blogtour a la Grateful Dead concerts, with even the transportation from city to city participating in the roving circus of knowledge and jocularity.

I would like to invite Phillip Glass, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Robert Fripp, Jon Anderson, and a few other good folks to join in the celebration, and hope that all would find it more than acceptable.

THESE THINGS AND MORE...
(later)

HoggFest BlogFest

Don't tell me blogging is bad for society. This weekend, Blogsboro bloggers gathered and created community and a good deal of cash for Jinni Hoggard, who is suffering from cancer, and the outrageous costs of health care.

If you or your company or organization would like to help, you may find more information here.

Here is a quick look at HoggFest through the eyes of Technorati:


And the tote board says.... 21 minutes ago
And the tote board says.... $9,171.00... ...was raised through all HoggFest related activities... and qualified Guilford County senior next year. This HoggFest funded scholarship will be given... agreed that the event will be repeated. In future years we hope to grow HoggFest into a larger Hogg's Blog 107 links from 62 sources

The Mailman Cometh 1 hour ago
The Mailman Cometh You ask, Gate Answers! Keep those questions coming and don't forget to write. Why weren't you at Hoggfest? My Dad wanted to see Revenge of the Sith, and I went with him to test my theory that Padme is who turned Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force. I stand gatecity 16 links from 11 sources

I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Hogg 2 hours ago
Finally, I post the complete Hoggfest Round-up-- Blogsboro at its finest. BloggingPoet.com - BloggingPoet.com 12 links from 7 sources

Making Money On Your Blog 2 hours ago
to make money off of a blog is fundraising. Yesterdays Hoggfest was put together mostly Jay Ovittore's Blog 45 links from 30 sources

Hoggfest-Greensboro's Shining Community 2 hours ago
Hoggfest-Greensboro's Shining Community Yesterday was the long anticipated Hoggfest. For those that didn't know about it, Hoggfest was a fundraiser and charity event for Jinni Hoggard. Jinni has... with David(Oh, I'll just make it four kids). What I witnessed yesterday at Hoggfest, was a great Jay Ovittore's Blog 45 links from 30 sources

To Hoggfests to Come 2 hours ago
at Hoggfest yesterday. Ed Cone found them first. David Wharton expresses the same with his photos... nice people as I was at HoggFest." I had planned to go and help out for the afternoon. After being... single accomplishment of Hoggfest was one that won't be tangible for many years. It's the gift that we Chewie World Order 40 links from 28 sources

HoggFest the best 5 hours ago
HoggFest was a big success, and on many levels. It raised a bunch of jack for a family hit hard by medical expenses. It gave something back to a family that gives endlessly of themselves. It brought together friends, neighbors, and strangers for a good cause and a good time. It was an excuse EdCone.com 552 links from 397 sources

HoggFest Festival of Photos 10 hours ago
A Who's Who of Greensboro bloggers, musicians, artists, photographers, and grass-roots philanthropists turned out yesterday for HoggFest to raise money for my friend and neighbor Jinni Hoggard's breast cancer treatment. As I said to Jinni, it was a nasty reason to have a great party, and a really A Little Urbanity 42 links from 36 sources

Hoggfest 8 hours ago
Got back from the Hoggfest, a fundraiser for Jinni Hoggard, around midnight last night. It was quite a spectacle. Several local bloggers were there, including Ed Cone, David Hoggard, David Wharton, and Chewie. Not to mention, Billy the Blogging Poet, who gave several of his books to be raffled off Absolutely American 0 links

More HoggFest... check back for periodic... 9 hours ago
More HoggFest... check back for periodic updates The numbers: 10:30a - HoggFest organizer... she created especially for HoggFest will be hanging in the Hoggard mansion. It will always serve... the night before HoggFest. I finally got to meet her yesterday and told her how much I admire her stength Hogg's Blog 107 links from 62 sources

Come on down to HoggFest! 1 day ago
It's almost 6 pm and there is still time to go down for HoggFest. Man, are the ribs, music and the company a fine load of fun! It goes 'till midnight so come on down! Michael's Corner 9 links from 9 sources

HoggFest Is Rocking 1 day ago
HoggFest Is Rocking HoggFest is well underway, but you still have plenty of time to get there and enjoy the festivities. When I left a short time ago, there was still enough food to feed an army. Plus, the children are being entertained by a balloon artist, face painting, and an inflatable moon Patrick Eakes 55 links from 37 sources

Hoggfest!! 1 day ago
Got back from Hoggfest a couple of hours ago. Grahams and I went around 11-ish to help set up for the silent auction, which was still in progress when we left. There's been a nice steady stream of folks, and I met some of the locals I've know by blog, but not in person. David Hoggard's a really Artful Fantasies Journal 1 link

Hoggfest Today 1 day ago
Hoggfest Today Today is Hoggfest, an event to show support for Jinni Hoggard & Co. in her battle against breast cancer. It starts at 1 and runs until it stops I am told. The location is the Flat Iron in Greensboro. Gate can't be there because of some other commitments, but encourages you gatecity 16 links from 11 sources

HoggFest 1 day ago
HoggFest. Starts at noon, goes a long long time. Flatiron, downtown GSO. I'm on my way to help set up, as soon as I make some late-sleeping girls breakfast. 10:27:54 AM EdCone.com 552 links from 397 sources

HoggFest 1 day ago
HoggFest Come on out to HoggFest today. David has been cooking the pork since 6:30am, and Ed will be serving it up early this afternoon. A dozen bands are playing, and there are lots of activities for kids, too. The event lasts from 1pm until at least midnight at The Flatiron. Surely you can Patrick Eakes 55 links from 37 sources

HoggFest preliminaries... 1 day ago
HoggFest preliminaries... I drove the old oil-drum cooker down to the park across from the Flatiron.... If more show up, I'll put them on to feed the late night wave of HoggFest revelers. The big pig... additions to the HoggFest activities will basketball goals. Friend Tom Franklin is going to load up Hogg's Blog 107 links from 62 sources

All Quiet on the Eastern Front 1 day ago
All Quiet on the Eastern Front Don't expect much blogging from Greensboro tomorrow -- most of us are going to be down at Hoggfest, at the Flatiron from 1pm until. As much of the blogging corps will be there, it might seem logical that this would be one of the most blogged events in recent Chewie World Order 40 links from 28 sources

HOGGFEST TOMORROW 1 day ago
I'll be at the Hoggfest tomorrow. In case you don't already know about it, Hoggfest is a fund raiser to help David, Jini, and family pay the medical bills run-up during Jini's recent bout with Breast Cancer. I hope to see you there too. BloggingPoet.com - BloggingPoet.com 12 links from 7 sources

New media gains national attention in Greensboro

Yes Weekly on David Beckwith and one or two other things.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
What it is ain't exactly clear

The effervescent and animated Brian Clarey described the blog scene at Panera's, and did so quite well. It is too bad he didn't make it to Revolution Mill afterwards, because, in the words of Fecund Stench, it might have blown his head off. Tara Sue and Ross Myers, sitting at modest positions of a rather large, wood conference table, encased by the wondrously redecorated end of a warehouse complex which, they explained, was once owned and operated by Ed Cone's grandfather, told us more about the history, and potential future, of where we were sitting.

Flash back 10 or 11 years. I am sitting in a warehouse in Lowell, Massachusetts discussing how we were going to create the first "information superhighway-in-a-box", where internet, TV, satellite uplink/downlink, multimedia, and publishing come together under one roof and for the benefit of the community. It was called Lowell Telecommunication Corporation, although it was not-for-profit. Other than having a connection at home to the University of Lowell's internet, LTC was where I cut my teeth on the web and in television production.

Flash forward 10 or 11 years. There is a bright future for Revolution Mill, I believe, and in fact, I think it could become the center of the blogging universe, as well as the multimedia universe, the motion picture universe, the music production universe, and more. There is plenty of room to create a generation of creators right there in Blogsboro. Talk to the good folks in Lowell, who essentially did the same thing, only without blogs. George Preston was the Executive Director at the time, and I'm sure he would pour forth what he learned, good and bad, about the experience.

I am excited about the prospects and potential of Blogsboro, and know that the place is overflowing with talent and genius.

For God's sake don't turn "There's something happening here." into "There's battle lines being drawn."

Cooperation evolves. One needs only to understand the process of evolutionary cooperation, and then put the synergy to work for everyone.

Group hug to all the good folks in Greensboro and Chapel Hill. (Bora, that would be you.)

The Heart of the Prajnaparamita

Translated by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Bodhisattva Avalokita, while moving in the deep course of the Perfect Wisdom, shed light on the five aggregates and found them equally empty. After this penetration, he overcame all pain.

"Listen, Sariputra, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. The same thing is true with feeling, perception, mental functioning, and consciousness.

"Here, Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are neither produced nor destroyed, neither defiled nor immaculate, neither increasing nor decreasing. Therefore, in emptiness there is neither form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor mental functioning, nor consciousness; no eye, or ear, or nose, or tongue, or body, or mind; no form, no sound, no smell elements (from sight to mind-consciousness), no interdependent origins (from ignorance to death and decay), no extinction of death and decay, no suffering, no origination of suffering, no extinction, no path, no wisdom, no attainment.

"Because there is no attainment, the Bodhisattva, basing on the Perfection of Wisdom, finds no obstacles for his mind. Having no obstacles, he overcomes fear, liberating himself forever from illusion and assault and realizing perfect Nirvana. All Buddhas in the past, present, and future, thanks to this Perfect Wisdom, arrive to full, right, and universal Enlightenment.

"Therefore one should know that the Perfect Wisdom is a great mantra, is the highest mantra, is the unequaled mantra, the destroyer of all suffering, the incorruptible truth. A mantra of Prajnaparamita should therefore be proclaimed. It is this:'Gone, gone, gone to the other shore, gone together to the other shore. O Awakening! All hail!'"

Hail? What's wrong with sleet? Or a gentle snow?

Strange the things we remember. I remember the first time I walked into Widener Library (a library meant to widen your understanding) back in the doldrum year of 1981. The first thing I wanted to find was the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Paul Courtwright, at Greensboro at the time, put the seed in my mind. What wild journeys the mind took thereafter...

Ah libraries! Ah sutras!

A New Feature: Gate and the City

gatecity

Excellent new blog from Greensboro...

The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools

Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com

While Tennessee didn't even have one school in the top 300, North Carolina has nine in the top 100. Sorry Tennessee, but our colleges and universities rate higher too. Maybe you ARE a bunch of rednecks! :)

NC High Schools:
9 | Raleigh Charter | Raleigh | N.C.
25 | Harding University* | Charlotte | N.C.
37 | Myers Park* | Charlotte | N.C.
38 | East Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill | N.C.
52 | Enloe* | Raleigh | N.C.
56 | North Mecklenburg* | Charlotte/Huntersville | N.C.
67 | Grimsley* | Greensboro | N.C.
74 | Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill | N.C.
88 | Butler | Charlotte/Matthews | N.C.

The Mood of the Newsroom

First Draft by Tim Porter

Tim Porter, who will be attending BlogNashville from California, as he puts it: "interviewed several hundred journalists - reporters, photographers, copy editors, executive editors, designers, graphic artists. I've been in newspaper newsrooms of more than 500 people and in newsrooms of less than 50. It has been an immersion course in the mood of the press - and much of it hasn't been pretty."

He goes on the surmise the following:


Here is the litany of shame that echoes in newsroom after newsroom:
We don't have the money.
We don't have the time.
We don't have the people.
We have lousy editors.
We have lousy reporters.
We can't communicate.
We don't talk.
We don't listen.

But he also shows some bright spots, such as Greensboro.

"There are plenty of ideas for change out there and some very smart people pushing them. "

An excellent read, with much else besides...

Going to BlogNashville

Are you going?

It has been a while since I looked at the list of folks already signed up to "please come to Nashville for the springtime", and so I am going blog my perusal of the additional folks I have yet to discover...

I peeked earlier and saw that the legendary Dana Blankenhorn is planning on attending, which spawned my excitement of yet other possibilities. I have read Dana's work since the mid-90s, and hope to get an opportunity to speak with him.

Now...whom else??

Weel, there is chris muir of daybydaycartoon.com who is coming up from Melbourne. Maybe he can bring my dear old friend, Ken Phillips, who lives right down the street in Palm Bay. He and I held each other's hand during the learning phases of the Internet, back in 94...when I decided to climb back in. An idea anyway. Carpooling is healthy.

Ross Myers from Greensboro! Awesome! Is Tara coming too? Hmm...
Minky Worden, from Human Rights Watch, and so many more. Too many to name really. Over 200. Maybe I'll just stay at home.

Naa.

Maybe YOU should come, instead! Can I git a witness!

Greensboro is ululating

"You have got a lot of good, clean, Christian yogurts."

AND MORE!!!

The conversation everyone is talking about.
Well, some people.