Compulsory 100 %

I’m sitting in my office at work, so I thought I would do a quick post. I’m supposed to go to this party, which I never feel much up for anymore but I feel like should try to be social tonight, but first: Robert Johnson!

King of the Delta Blues Singers is probably the best and most important single album in the history of the blues. Even if you have never heard the name Robert Johnson, you have heard a half dozen of his songs. On King of the Delta Blues Singers alone you can find such standards as “Walking Blues,” “Cross Road Blues”, “Kind-Hearted Woman Blues,” “32-20 Blues,” “Rambling on My Mind”– elsewhere in Johnson’s repetoire are great blues numbers like “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”, “Love in Vain”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, and “They’re Red Hot” (which you probably know from a very silly Red Hot Chili Peppers cover).

It was Robert Johnson who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play guitar. What you find in Johnson is not so much virtuoso talent (you find that too) as the ability to create really extraordinary multi-layered accompaniment on the guitar. It is always just Johnson and a guitar– but he transforms his guitar into a standard four-piece rock outlet– it’s drums, bass, rhytm and lead guitar all rolled into one. I’ve seen Johnson called both the greatest blues guitarist and the greatest folk guitarist– I think I actually prefer the second because it demonstrates a bit more perception and imagination. This is folk music played from a reality that was the blues.

It is probably a cliche twice over by now, but you can’t help but hear a Robert Johnson haunted by that same devil. Whether literally in “Hellhound on my Trail” or figuratively in songs of violence and temptation like “32-20 Blues” and “Drunken-Hearted Man.” He has the emotional power of the perfect and unreachable ‘original’ bluesman. It would be almost incorrect to describe Johnson as singing. More accurately, he howls on pitch– squeezing sound out of himself like water from a wet cloth.

Every song on King of the Delta Blues Singers has the stink of a timeless classic. What distinguishes Johnson I think more than anything else is his sense of rhythm and syncopation. He constantly switches back between double and triple time and songs will often thrillingly accelerate or stop dead in their tracks when they hit the break– see the break to “Kind Hearted Woman” or “Phonograph Blues.”

I have to go to this party now, but if you add one ancient Blues recording to your collection, make it King of the Delta Blues Singers (or go straight for the Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson, which really is only about 20-25 songs).

All I can say is, "Well, duh!":

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Not that the neofascist "christian" loonies will pay any attention. They hate science.

Around noon today the side of this building collapsed! This is just next door to WillowTree’s office! The construction crews are working on building a parking garage here, but I think that may be on hold for a while. The whole side is missing, and it looks like there is signifigant damage inside. The building was empty, and it appears no one was hurt!

A couple more pictures are online here…

Jordan Conley (our CEO) IM’d this to me this morning. Very funny…

As Part Of This Cheap Hosting Plan, We Let Your Server Rest Six Hours A Day

I don’t watch the Apprentice, but it looks like Chevy is having a contest involving the apprentice where users can create their own on-line advertisements. Sounds like a decent enough idea, right? Well, it is, until someone makes an ad that makes fun of Chevy. As we say in the online world: Chevy, you have been owned. (by yourself!)

So it appears Google has filed for three patents related to offering free or reduced wireless Internet access. The patent system has been out of control for a while now- With Microsoft patenting things like double clicking, and Amazon patenting one click buying. I completely understand the need for intelectual property protection, but I really don’t think that our patent system was designed to handle the technology of the 21st century.

The Patent and Trademark office is under a lot of pressure to reform how so-called “method patents” are reviewed and granted. Likewise, they are under a lot of pressure from software companies to grant them. Ultimately the courts get involved, and lots of money changes hands.

I don’t know what the answer is, I’m just asking the questions…It’s up to you to answer.

We recently added a comprehensive new section to our website that provides a range of details about the John Paul Jones Arena at the University of Virginia. Please visit www.vmdo.com/special/arena for a tour. Packed with tons of in-depth, revealing information,...

This is *clearly* a Honda Accord with BMW badges. No one is fooled, except perhaps, his owner. My question is simple: Why?

Every once in a while I get some things Google Alerts that are worth sharing. This is one of them.

Morgan Stanley Muddles Through An E-Mail Mess

Thoughts are always welcome.

Google’s own blog is reporting that for a short time on March 27, 2006 their Offical Blog was unavailable, and another blog was appear in it spot. I guess it goes to show that even at $375/share, anyone can make mistakes.

There’s mounting evidence that Super Mario and the tyrannical, communist dictator Joseph Stalin were actually the same person.

No joke.

And you thought Mario was a hard-working, little Italian-American plumber? Even if their DNA doesn’t match up, the seemingly harmless video game that Super Mario stars in is sure trying to subliminally indoctrinate our children with extreme leftist ideas.

AlbinoBlacksheep has accumulated the evidence and put it together in a snazzy Flash movie.

I used to think of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport as one of the greatest hidden gems in the Charlottesville area.  Certainly, people were aware of the airport, but so many that I spoke with, chose to drive to Richmond or D.C. for their flights.  Well, it seems that Charlottesville has been finding the benefit of this gem in record numbers, in recent years. 

"During 2005, The Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (CHO) celebrated 50 years of airport operations and service to the Greater Charlottesville-Albemarle County region. Befitting this milestone, CHO closed 2005 with record breaking passenger activity. A total of 390,970 passengers utilized flights at CHO during 2005 compared to 366,074 in 2004; representing a 6.5 percent increase over the previous record established just one year ago and continuing a solid 24 month trend of positive passenger growth."  - CHO website news, January 30, 2006

I love our airport.  Since we began using the airport twenty years ago, we’ve watched this tiny giant develop into an architecturally-attractive, consumer-friendly point of departure.  It is described as a "non-hub, commercial service airport offering 60 daily non-stop flights to and from Charlotte, Philadelphia, New York/LaGuardia, Washington/Dulles, Cincinnati, and Atlanta."  From these various destination points, travelers may fly anywhere in the world… it’s the only way we’ll fly.  We learned early that the 90-mile drive to Dulles meant Northern Virginia traffic and high parking costs, the inconvenience of which was certainly not worth the savings we might expect in the cost of our flight.  Add to that: convenient parking, short lines, tight security which is handled efficiently and pleasantly, and helpful, friendly airport staff, and you can expect a peaceful start to your journey.  The airport offers wireless internet, and Charlottesville’s favorite gourmet-to-go deli (The Market), has taken up residence.

I’m not suggesting that you can always expect the perfect travel experience… I have arrived for an early-morning departure which was cancelled (the US Airway plane was unable to fly in the previous night, due to fog), and my bags have been late on several occasions.  Of course, these are airline problems.  But, in all cases, my problems have been handled in a courteous, efficient manner.

The Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport is owned and operated by The Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Authority; an independent political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia. CHO is maintained and developed exclusively through airport fees and charges.  The Airport Authority Board is comprised of three members: the City Manager of Charlottesville, the County Executive for the County of Albemarle, and a citizen representative appointed by the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.  The Joint Airport Commission is a citizen’s advisory body appointed by Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and provides input and advice to the Airport Authority Board and its staff.

The airport offers General Aviation services & facilities which include an executive terminal offering a full-service fixed base operation, flight schools, and aircraft charter firms.  An air medical transport service, Pegasus, also operates from the General Aviation facilities.

Flying into Charlottesville is always a treat for me… the approach is pretty, and once on the ground, I know it’s a just a matter of minutes before I will have my bags in hand & be on my way for the five minute drive to our home in Earlysville.

Until my next cuppa……

Man… what a great webcomic. I really hope this comes back to life. Looks like it hasn’t been updated since last year. The acid style really works for me. I WANT MORE WAKING LIFE-ESQUE TRASH TALKING RABBIT ACTION!!!

Please?

I’m reading a book right now and in it all the electricity on Earth just failed. I knew this was going to happen (it was on the back cover), but it didn’t seem real until I read it. And then I thought to myself, What if that really happened right here, right now?

Disturbing.

Think about it. I’m not just talking about having to find food, or boil water over a fire, or somehow do laundry without a washing machine or dryer. I’m thinking about the long-term implications. Without electricity, cars don’t run. Telephones don’t work. Planes, boats . . . not even possible, unless you have access to a sailboat. People in adjacent towns are suddenly unreachable. Different states, countries . . . maybe if you have a horse, and sometimes not even then.

And if it happens to the whole world at once, there isn’t anyone to help you out. You’re stuck. Sunk. The rest of the world is just as deep in it as you are.And if your family happens to, for instance, live in a third-world country, there wouldn’t be much hope of seeing them again, much less alive.

But, you may ask, what if your older brother lives in a nearby town? I’ve been thinking about this, and have come to the conclusion that seeing him ever again would also be highly unlikely. All the cars have stopped, so a bicycle trip might be possible over highways, but the threat of robbery or worse from the criminal element that would have, undoubtedly, started to run rampant would simply be too high. Therefore, I’ve decided that if something like that ever happens, my only option would be to ally myself with whomever I could and live from day-to-day.

By the way, if anyone reading this is intrigued, I would recommend Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov. It’s not the book I’m reading right now, but it does present the same scenario.

Parade Magazine recently asked readers to come up with an alternative to the terms like “Senior Citizen” or “Elderly” to identify people who are over 60. And they got an earful and mailbox-full!

Many adults are shattering the stereotypes of doddering into old age. People who 50 years ago might have retired to a rocking chair are now skydiving, training horses, learning new lantuages, skiing, and traveling all over hte world. These active and involved folks came up with terms like “Seasoned Citizens,” “Life 102,” and “Re-Generation.” One woman said she and her friends chose the term “OWLS” because they are “Older, Wiser, Livelier Souls.”

This 60- to 80-year-old generation is breaking all the rules and setting new standards for involvement in the community. In addition to the activities and learning, people reported that giving back was a large part of this rewarding stage of their lives. How about “Legacy Launchers” or “Givebackers” to describe them?

Above all, keeping a sense of humor about life came through as a key to being happy with the inevitable changes that come with aging. You can read the full article here; I loved the explanation of why one man calls life after 60 “The Metallic Stage.” Call them the “Re-Generation” or say they are enjoying “Rewirement,” the sure bet is you won’t find them sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

In the Charlottesville area, you might find them taking one of the University of Virginia’s Personal Enrichment Courses, or seeing a show at The Paramount. The golfers could be out on one of the many courses in our county, and this time of year you’ll find the gardeners taking a workshop at Monticello. Like so many others, these folks realize that the Charlottesville area is
a great place to spend what many are calling their “Prime Time.”

Very Good 80%

A few months ago I attended a concert by Charlottesville “native” and contemporary blues musician Corey Harris. The concert was– for whatever reason– one of the most moving and inspirational experiences in recent memory (see description below). At any rate, he is coming back to Charlottesville tomorrow night to play with some West African griot musicians– I expect it may turn into something of a tribute to the recently deceased Ali Farka Toure.

In preparation for tomorrow night’s concert I will set about to review Mr. Harris’ most recent offering Daily Bread. Considering how spectacular the concert was, the records I’ve heard turn out to be– while quite good– somewhat disappointing in comparison. His most recent Daily Bread is probably the most ambitious album I have heard to date (I bought literally everything I could immediately after this concert).

Trained as an anthropologist, Harris is to a certain extent best understood under the umbrella of a musical preservationist. Seeing him in person, I can vouch for the fact that he can reproduce the style of a Robert Johnson or Mississippi John Hurt down with incredible accuracy– Between Midnight and Day and the exceptional Fish Ain’t Biting are recorded proof of Harris’ ability to weild a dobro. (Check these out if you are a fan of Dylan albums like World Gone Wrong or Good As I Been to You). How are we to then explain an album like Daily Bread which is a consistently uneasy mixture of musical styles and instrumentation? Blues violin?!?! What?!?

Harris’s spirit of preservation on Daily Bread and the appropriately titled Mississippi to Mali (which I still can’t find) is imbued which a kind of circular newness. He is certainly best filed under that most rigid of musical styles– the blues. Much like Keb’ Mo’, however — he thrives by knowing exactly what the blues is and how to make it sound new by paradoxically moving back to its past. If Keb’ Mo’ thrives (in my opinion) by bringing blues music back towards country music (Chicago blues being somewhat antithetical to country music, but Delta blues being inseparable), than Corey Harris thrives be re-injecting the African into the quintessentially American form that is the delta blues. Harris has made trips back to Africa to study under the legendary Ali Farka Toure, and tomorrow he playing with two griot musicians. According to Wikipedia, a griot is “is a West African poet, praise singer, and wandering musician, considered a repository of oral tradition.” That sounds to me like an excellent description of a Mississippi John Hurt or a Blind Gary Davis– or any of the best of the American delta blues singers.

Daily Bread is a very ambitious album– an uneasy combination of contemporary sounds, African and reggae influences, and “blues violin” into what is probably still best called the blues. It is spectacularly successful at its best– “Daily Bread”, “Big String” and the 10-minute call-and-response griot fable “The Peach.” Elsewhere it is far less successful and in my opinion greatly suffers for it’s “electicity” in otherwise strong tracks like “Kaira”, “Nickel and a Nail” (which I remember loving in their acoustic forms at the concert)… and actually just about anywhere you hear an electric guitar, which just seems to have to much sustain on the recording. Lyrically, the album is notable for its relentless optimism in all but the very awkward political song “The Bush is Burning.” I’m not sure this album is mixed that well… it’s released by something called Rounder Records, which I don’t think is a very major label.

iTunes Preview– Daily Bread

In case you are intersested I am including an email I sent to my father about attending the concert– which as I mentioned was just an incredible experience.

I have to tell you the story of this… I found this great little
concert venue in Charlottesville. I went there tonight and it is on
the first floor of this kind of 18th century victorian mansion thing
about 5 minutes from campus… completely smoke free and alcohol free,
it seats maybe 50 people.
So tonight I went because there was a contemporary blues musician
playing by the name of Corey Harris. I didn’t know his music real
well, but I knew enough to know that he is kind of a big deal– one of
the biggest names in contemporary blues… that was what I knew going
in.
So I get there about an hour early because I’m not sure exactly
where it is and he is just sitting in this tiny empty room playing
these songs– and you should have some kind of an idea of what he
looks like– he is maybe 6′4″ with giant dreadlocks and a giant
beard– he is from Cameroon although he grew up in the U.S.– actually
got his start playing on the downtown mall in Charlottesville. So he
is in his hometown, he has a couple kids running around. They are like
5 or 6 years old. They have afros.
I am the youngest person in the audience by about 20-30 years,
with only a couple exceptions… I am often the youngest person in the
audience by 40-50 years. Most members of the audience still look as
though they could chop a block of wood in half, however.
I get pretty good seats, second row. and by second row that means
about 2 feet from the stage.
As it turns out, Corey Harris is probably the most talented
musician I have ever seen. Honestly probably on a short list of the
world’s greatest living musicians. He knows the blues inside and out.
He’s got the blues in his bread. He even said so. To top it off, he
has infused the blues with gospel, reggae, african and carribean
music. As I read in the program, he will occasionally do things like
go on quests to find African blues masters. It was unbelievable, it
was like being in the presence of some kind of extra-terrestrial or
quite possibly an angel. It was like when we went to see Ladysmith
Black Mbazo except it was just one guy with a guitar and he would be
simultaneously as American as the blues.
So it’s not often that you get to sit close enough that you can
see someone’s hands while they are playing guitar. So I decided that I
should start taking notes on the kind of techniques he is using… you
know because why not right? This of course leads the middle aged women
around me to believe I am some kind of reporter or concert reviewer,
which in itself is kind of funny.
So we’ll skip to intermission and this point. This is when it just
starts getting ridiculous. It wasn’t ridiculous yet. During
intermission, the guy who runs the place has gotten his banjo and has
decided to give a little impromptu lecture about the history of the
banjo and this guy he knows who found some old banjo instructional
manuals from the 1850s and is using them to try to recover lost
banjo-playing techniques. He plays a couple songs on the banjo. To be
fair, they were really, really bad. “I’m goin’ over Georgie’s mountain
to find the girl for me…”
So then they announce that they have a couple very special guests
who are going to play with Corey in the second set. “Okay,” I think.
It’s a pair of 15 year old kids. One of them is chinese. The other is
a little white girl with a violin. “Okay,” I think and brace for
impact. At least it is referred to as a violin rather than a fiddle,
we are in the danger zone here in ol virginny.
Astonishingly, they are unbelievable. The girl plays jazz violin.
I didn’t know that such a thing existed. I’m not entirely convinced
that it does. She may have invented it. Did I mention she was maybe 15
years old? She looked like she had just had her braces removed and had
come straight to the concert from the ice skating rink.
At this point I have prettymuch been stupified. My jaw has dropped
and it will tend to stay there for the rest of the night. So Corey
Harris comes back out and now he’s going to play the blues with the
little-white-girl-jazz-violini

Shhhhh! Quiet! You smell that?

Saw the below this morning while walking to Fuel Co…

I have never understood why people choose to express their philosophy on their bumper. I find it even harder to understand why someone would take the time to cut and paste the above dig at our fair state.

Since this is kind of weak on content, I submit the following: In 1953, Virginia Governor John Battle tried, unsuccessfully, to change the Commonwealth’s motto from “sic semper tyrannis” to “Ol’ Ginny Gonna Get Ya!”. I think we should reintroduce it :)

Investment practitioners will tell you that risk may be defined as the possibility of the actual market return differing from the expected return. Another definition might include the probability of a loss in capital. In both these cases, the underlying premise is based on the theories developed, not for the measurements of markets as manifested in modern portfolio theory, but rather the work of the 19th century mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Professor Gauss was trying to understand the errors in astronomical measurements in the hope that he might be able to predict and thus minimize the risk of misidentifying events in astronomy. Known formally as the Gaussian model, we know it more as the bell curve with a median, mode and equal standard deviations. We might say that a given investment has a better than even chance (that is a probability greater than 50%) of achieving a 6% return based on its history that fall into the traditional bell curve. So what happens if the bell curve has a crack?

Benoit Mandebrot, the Sterling professor emeritus of mathematical science at Yale University who is perhaps best known for his work with fractals, has been talking about what happens when large unknown events disrupt the known universe, thus putting a crack in the curve. It may seem unusual for Professor Mandebrot to consider such randomness in light of the uniformity in fractals, but I think he is on to something. Do we continue to consider large random events like Katrina to be mere outliers and dismiss their long-term effect on the underlying systems? I am not sure what the answer is but I suggest that the Gaussian Model may be one measure of the evaluation of risk. We need to take seriously the suggestions that risk measurement (and thus risk management) is more complex. Maybe Professor Mandelbrot is the Gauss of the 21st Century?

Sorry to be blunt, but recent events do provoke these questions in even reasonable, liberal people….

Are these backwards Muslim countries a lost cause? I’m beginning to think so.

Should we just get out of there and let both Iraq and Afghanistan destroy themselves? I’m beginning to think so.

Our young sons are dying trying to give them better lives. For what? For them to unleash suicide bombs on us, to detonate roadside bombs to kill and maim us, to elect terrorists to public office (see the wonderful citizens of Palestine, the same ones who danced in the streets on 9/11).

What about just leaving them to their own devices and keeping an eye on them? If they happen to develop any technology that may be used to harm a free country, or perhaps I should say a non-Muslim country since that’s their goal, then just fire some precision guided missiles to take out that ability. Chances are though, that their mentality will keep them living like it’s the year 600 AD, since none of those countries has done anything to advance human civilization in hundreds of years.

Look at what’s happening to Abdur Rahman. He’s a guy that simply converted to Christianity. What do they want to do? Kill him!

“Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die.”

Remember that this is from followers of the so-called “Religion Of Peace”.

“The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed.”

And we have this jewel:

“Cut off his head!”…”We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there’s nothing left.”

But what about just moving him to a civilized country that respects peoples’ human rights?

“If he is allowed to live in the West then others will claim to be Christian so they can too….We must set an example. … He must be hanged.”

Imagine that! Opening individuals’ eyes to the possibility of the love of Jesus Christ and living in a free society. No!…don’t let them see so they might leave this country of bountiful opium harvests, IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), cave-dwelling terrorists, and, dare I say, a hate-filled and violence-preaching religion.

“We are a small country and we welcome the help the outside world is giving us, but please don’t interfere in this issue….We are Muslims and these are our beliefs. This is much more important to us than all the aid the world has given us.”

Can we just put a big fence around these people?

At least there are voices of reason piping up all around the civilized world, even the New York Times…

“The case is more than deeply troubling, it’s barbaric….If Afghanistan wants to return to the Taliban days, it can do so without the help of the United States.”

And we all thought the cartoon crisis was ridiculous.

Congratulations to our new officers:

Chairman: Amber Vervalin
VCC: Robert Martin
VCE: Emily Thomann
Treasurer: Savanna Rutherford
Secretary: Michael Gannon

To all who participated this year I give my sincere thanks and hope that you will help make next year as good as this one!

Brian

Fulbright bzw. das Amerikanische Aussenministerium war so freundlich, 140 Fulbright Studenten aus ueber 70 Laendern vier Tage lang nach Philadelphia zu einem “Enrichment Seminar” einzuladen. Es war ziemlich gigantisch, so viele verschiedene Leute zu treffen und etwas ueber ihre Laender zu erfahren!
Unter anderem durften wir in oertliche High-Schools gehen, und von unserem Heimatland erzaehlen (amerikanische High-Schools sind echt genau wie im Film und die Kids genau so unmotiviert wie deutsche Schueler…).
Das tollste war wahrscheinlich der Abend, bei dem wir alle bei Philadelphia-Buergern zum Abendessen eingeladen wurden. Ich bin bei Norma VanDyk gelandet, eine alleinstehende, lustige alte Dame, die echt jede Menge zu erzaehlen hatte und in einem wunderschoenen Stadthaus wohnt (das sie unter anderem als Bed&Breakfast vermietet, um Leute um sich zu haben).
Und am letzten Abend hatten wir eine Dinner-Cruise auf dem Delaware River.
Na gut, der Hauptteil des Seminars waren eigentlich Vortraege und Podiumsdiskussionen ueber “Civic Participation in Urban America”…. zugegebenermassen hab ich bei ein paar davon herausgefunden, dass auch ich wuuuunderbar im sitzen wegpennen kann :-)








Hier sind ein paar Fotos v.a. von Philadelphia; sie sind etwas durcheinander, weil der Blogger mich in letzter Zeit konstant verarscht. Aber darunter ist z.B. die Liberty Bell. Diese wurde gelaeutet, als die Declaration of Independance in der Independance Hall (auch auf nem Bild) unterzeichnet wurde. Dann gibt’s da noch die City Hall mit Benjamin Franklin oben drauf, der DER Typ der Stadt ist. Elfreth’s Alley ist eine Strasse, die ganz so erhalten ist, wie im 18 Jhdt., total suess. Die “wiederkehrenden” Gestalten auf den Bildern sind Vasyl, Serhiy und Ozera, alle aus der Ukraine, supernett. Ich glaub ich muss mal in die Ukraine fahren, da scheint’s ganz viele nette Leute zu geben!

Paul Fain penned the C-ville Weekly’s piece about our boy Virgil’s recent ethical indescretions. You can read what I think about his article here or here. I also sent him an e-mail challenging certain crucial assertions of his article, one of which occurs in a timeline as follows:

Undisclosed month, 2003. Goode arranges for an initial federal outlay of $3.6 million for MZM to create an intelligence facility in Virginia’s Southside, also part of his district.

March 2003. At MZM’s Washington, D.C. office, company founder and CEO Mitch-ell J. Wade pays for and collects illegal contributions to Goode’s campaign.

I referenced a USA Today article:

By the time Goode arranged an initial $3.6 million for the center in 2003, MZM’s PAC and its employees had given the congressman nearly $33,000 in campaign contributions, making them at that point by far his biggest financial supporter for the 2004 election.

Fain, in the reply:

I think you may have misread part of the timeline. In detailing the initial earmark of $3.6 million for the Martinsville facility I specifically state that the date of the inclusion and approval of this appropriation was unclear. The timeline reads that it was made in “an undisclosed month” in 2003. This was not meant to imply that the earmark came before Wade’s March 2003 first documented illegal contribution to Goode’s campaign. I’m sorry if this was confusing. I would have liked to have been more specific, but did not find a way to nail down the date of the earmark request in my reporting. Do you have access to that information? I was actually told that it’s classified. I realize that the USA Today said the first contribution came before the $3.6 million. I could not independently verify their reporting, although I don’t doubt its validity. However, in reporting a story like this I feel it’s far better to be safe than sorry. The burden of proof is on the reporter, as always.

But it was confusing, and, because Fain knew about what USA Today found, the other burden of responsible journalism comes into play: presenting a whole story. What the hell do I know about journalism though, I’m just a kid. I would guess the editors couldn’t find any fat to trim to add in that little bit, and include “though it could not be independently verified at the time of publishing.” Instead, Fain is forced to write responses to inquiring readers like myself, which is surely the only way to explain the bundled panty bitchy tone.

Oh, so it gets way better. After I referenced his response here, Fain came on this site and in the comments clutched pearls even tighter and insulted me:

The author of this blog has now incorrectly trashed both my C-VILLE Weekly article on Rep. Goode and my response to the author’s e-mailed complaint. (By the way, he never responded to an e-mail I sent to him. I guess it’s more fun to take shots on a blog than to engage someone in an honest exchange.) So for the record, my article/time-line identifies two flurries of illegal campaign donations - collected by Wade and given to Goode in March 2003 and March 2005. It also describes two major appropriations for the Martinsville MZM facility, which Goode helped to arrange. The first outlay, for $3.6 million, was created during an undisclosed month in 2003. I could not independently verify when this money was approved. The USA Today said, vaguely, that it happened after Goode had been given the illegal funds by Wade. That may be true, but the bummer about being a reporter is that you have to PROVE and back up facts. I was able confirm that the second outlay, for $9 million in June 2005, came three months after Goode received more illegal money from Wade. The story/time-line states this clearly. I have no idea what point the author of this blog is trying to prove with this nit-pick. However, it’s clear that he would have preferred a strident opinion piece to a fair, fact-heavy news article. Thank goodness for this blog, where the author can take unsubstantiated swipes.

….what?

I’m not a journalist, but I’m a reader. I support lots of businesses that advertise in that newspaper (it’s free) so that makes me someone who has an interest in receiving a fair and thorough account when I read it for news. It’s not all news because it’s a community weekly, but everyone around here reads it — and this story has received only superficial expositions from a large corporate media outlet.

I didn’t “trash” anyone. I called out Fain because I was aware of a fact that he chose to ignore. (He has yet to explain how exactly his investigations turned up utterly fruitless.)

So this is what I get in return:

• I think you may have misread part of the timeline.
• I’m sorry if this was confusing.
• Do you have access to that information? I was actually told that it’s classified.
• I guess it’s more fun to take shots on a blog than to engage someone in an honest exchange.
• It’s clear that he would have preferred a strident opinion piece to a fair, fact-heavy news article.
• Thank goodness for this blog, where the author can take unsubstantiated swipes.

As a reader, I expressed my concern to the author that he was failing to shoulder his responsibility as a journalist. While he wrote, “…despite Goode’s brush with wonkish infamy, it will probably take more than a confusing Capitol Hill imbroglio to take down the entrenched, five-term incumbent,” he simultaneously enabled what he called Virgil’s “squeaky clean image” by not presenting his readers with the full story, and, as a result, downplaying its severity and the questions that remain unanswered.

The March 2003 contribution is so crucial because, at least as far as we know, it represents a potential beginning of Virgil and Wade’s quid pro quo. We already know so much that tells us that this quite possibly might be true, and, if it really were, then Virgil’s “squeaky clean image” doesn’t look so squeaky anymore. The Martinsville facility has become an important justification for Virgil’s claim that he has brought jobs to his district. We need to know whether or not Virgil was thinking more of the people of the 5th, or whether he, after switching parties to help enable the current republican majority in Congress in exchange for a coveted seat on the House Appropriations uber-Committee and proposing that English be made the official language of the United States and proposing a resolution in favor of Christmas in the midst of last year’s faux anti-Christmas hilarity and accepting money from Wade “in person” and being an anti-gay bigot, was thinking more of himself.

Maybe it doesn’t matter because we readers will just “misread” things. But at least while we’re here, let’s not piss all over the relationship between reader and news-writer. I’m allowed to say whatever the hell I want to a journalist about their story, because it shouldn’t be otherwise. I want the truth — if I don’t feel like I’m getting it in one of my primary sources for local news, then I’m going to let someone know about it.

Mr. Fain, you’re a professional journalist. I’m 24 years old. Get a grip, simmer down, and instead of harassing my work e-mail account with multiple messages and comments on my blog, why don’t you accept my criticism and do everything you can to verify (or disprove) the evidence you claim is questionable. If you can’t independently verify what has previously been reported as fact, then report it, and then say that you can’t verify it. Don’t write a front-pager and cross your fingers that no one will notice that you flubbed. Give your reader the whole story, and do your damndest to get to the bottom of things. We are counting on people in your profession to DO THEIR JOB and check the secrecy needed to maintain the current rampant corruption taking over our government. Politicians are corrupt because the news media don’t do their job and inform people.

I’m not saying you’re not doing your job as a journalist, because it’s important that people become aware at least that this relationship exists (or that corruption exists at all — I had a friend today ask me what Halliburton was.)

I am saying that I think your replies to my inquiries are a little unhinged and scary. Accept that your readers are informed and will question your assertions. Stop harassing me. That would be great.

It would appear that the great state of Texas has been able to satisfy its quota for filling jails with petty criminals. As such, according to Reuters, they have begun stings INSIDE BARS to arrest people for public intoxication.

Come on now people- Claiming that being drunk in a bar is “public intoxication” is a BIG stretch. Civil liberties just aren’t what they used to be…When did it become the role of government to protect people from themselves??

Alright, rant over :)

I had a nice conversation with Robert Stuber yesterday about political fundraising, which has been posted as the latest Donor Town Square Fundraising Podcast. Robert's political fundraising experience goes back to the 1970's when he was in high school, and since then he has raised money for a variety of conservative causes and candidates. He was worked for the National Rifle Association, Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Jesse Helms, and for Lt. Col. Ollie North's campaign for Senate in Virginia in 1994.

We talked about fundraising in general, his political fundraising experiences, the future of fundraising and use of the internet, the most overused and underused direct mail techniques, and how to treat your donors and make them feel appreciated.

Many thanks to Robert for taking the time to discuss fundraising with me! If anyone listening to podcast has follow up questions for Robert, send them to me or post them here and I will make sure he gets a chance to answer them.

Note: Donor Town Square Inc is a non partisan company and our fundraising tools are used by many candidates of all political parties. We also provide consulting on internet fundraising to candidates across party lines.

Excellent– 87%

I should preface this review by pointing out that I almost never listen to hip-hop– so the presence of this album will probably surprise my “readers.” Again, I acknowledge my own ignorance in this field, so take this review as what it is: A white boy who considers Hank Williams as the apex of the musical tradition trying to express what he appreciates about Mr. West’s music.

So much of the hip-hop that I hear (which I realize is probably about the equivalent of Britney Spears), strikes me as stupid in content and lacking in musical variety. A recent song that went “Hey Girl, let’s go have some drinks” and then proceded to rhyme “Pina Coladas” with “I got a lotta dollars” is currently reigning as the worst song I have ever heard. For Kayne West, ‘even his superficial raps is super-official’– he seems to have discovered all the potential of hip-hop as a genre, and has introduced techniques and characteristics which strike my novice ears as very innovative or at least exceptional in the genre. And how awesome is that hat? It’s like an old Denver Nuggets logo that says “Supreme.”

These are the characteristics I find striking in Late Registration:

1) Its musical “Fullness.” And by that I mean primarily the variety and complexity of the harmonic arrangements and chord structures. In my experience of rap and hip-hop music, you seldom find a musical backing as full as Kayne West presents. Usually you will get some kind of a beat, a bass groove, and perhaps one or two central riffs. West’s music has very full harmonic and diverse structures backing up the vocal– which really helps color the kind of rap-drone that stays on one tone for such long stretches. I think it manages to create a really interesting sense of movement in the songs– you still get the familiar musical returns combined with the kind of horizontal rhytmic variety of the lyrics, but there is a lot of movement up and down occuring around that the adds another dimension for me at least.

2) Its Variety of Voices. I can’t think of the right phrase for this, but his music presents the listener with so many different voices– I mean that both musically and thematically. Musically, many voices contribute to the formation of the structures and progressions mentioned above– he uses vocal samples, bass, horns, individual voices, synthesizer strings, and well really too many instruments to mention. The variety of musical voices makes each song feel somewhat new.
There is also a kind of ‘thematic’ variety of voices that adds interest to the album for me– and I don’t mean just the extensive list of “featured” artists– Jay-Z, Nas, Jamie Foxx, and someone (?) named “Consequence,” which is a good rap name. I love the way the structure of the album — starting with the first spoken track– injects these other voices and perspectives from Kanye’s past who try to keep him down I guess. Even within the songs you frequently get a sense of choral or even “conversational” feel: “Come on homie, we major!” “We major?” These voices appear variously ridiculous, as parodies of themselves and the world they represent, but sometimes they seem to have a point or at least should be given the chance to say their piece. We will return to these voices more later on.
I also appreciate the consistent voice of Motown and Soul music (which I do listen to) on this record, which provides not only well-used samples from Ray Charles and Otis Redding, but seems to have really influenced the musical and vocal backing of Kanye’s tracks. I think at one point Nas talks about building his own Motown, and how “his change came like Sam Cooke,” which self-consciously melts immediately into a Sam Cooke-style “ba-ba-ba-ba” melodic phrase. I think you hear the influence of Soul music really strongly throughout– and perhaps most spectacularly on the lovely refrain to “Heard ‘Em Say”– itself an early tip the hat to this multitude of voices and easily my favorite track on the album. The sample in “Gone” is outstanding– it certainly sounds like Otis Redding, but I’m not sure.

3) Its Narrative and Thematic Structure: The album presents a very coherent narrative and thematic structure. It is probably one of the most familiar plot lines in hip-hop– a kind of narration of the rise out of extremely difficult and seemingly hopeless roots into wealth, fame, and super-stardom. What separates Kanye West’s treatment of this plotline is his constant awareness of the precariousness of his situation. The inclusion of the actual voices that… and I think the technical term here is “hate on” his success, is for me vastly superior to merely addressing the ‘haters’ who forgot about Dre, for example. You seem to get a sense of powerful ambivalence to the world of his past, with West recognizing his roots as fundamentally important (notice he doesn’t express this sentiment as “I’m still Jenny from the block”), while at the same time trying to avoid the pitfalls and temptations which are so much a part of that world. The Late Registration is full of pride, guilt, temptation and moments of self-consciousness and vulnerability that– at least to my untrained ears– are somewhat striking. It is almost Dantesque. For my money, the most exhilirating sequence is at the end of “Gone” where we hear Kanye simultaneously accepting and rejecting his status.

British and US troops freed three Christian Peacemaker Team activists today. That’s great news. Of course, the terrorists tortured and killed the lone American of the group, Tom Fox of Virginia, just a couple of weeks ago. It’s surprising, in this time of bittersweet joy for the “peace” organization, that they carry on with their narrow-minded thinking:

“We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq,” Pritchard said.

There’s more of that logic on their web site (linked to above).

Even with one innocent man dead, one who was just trying to help the people of Iraq, and three others with the same fate before the rescue, the “occupation” is the “root cause”. Root cause? I think you need to go back deeper for a root cause…like maybe the fact that a dictator was ruling that country with an iron fist and ordered the murder of thousands of Iraqis. Not to mention harboring terrorists and anyone who wanted harm the US. I won’t get into the whole WMD thing because it’s becoming pretty clear that Hussein wanted us to believe he had them and that strategy backfired.

So, these activists would rather he still be there? Rather than Multinational Forces trying to bring stability, peace, and freedom to the country? That’s pretty absurd.