Thursday, July 17, 2003

I just finished an interview with Christopher Lydon about local weblogs, campaign weblogs, the media food chain, and lots of other fun stuff. It felt odd to switch roles and be the interviewee. I talk really fast when I get excited, and when I remembered I willed myself to slow down. The audio file will post to his weblog by tomorrow. 5:34:45 PM    comment []

There’s an article on Mitch Easter, the seminal NC indy musician who if he had never done anything but produce REM’s “Murmur” LP would still be a genius, in the N&R’s weekly entertainment freebie, GoTriad. I regret to inform you that they want you to register to read the article online –- dumb, dumb, dumb, it’s a weekly freebie, guys, now only people who really really want to read the article will bother, and all those who thought in that Internet way “hmm this sounds kinda cool” and might therefore have clicked through for a visit to a page on which you sell advertising are instead saying “screw that, I’m not slowing down to register for a freaking free weekly.” But here’s the link if you want it. 4:15:26 PM    comment []

The NC Supreme Court overturns the state's latest redistricting plans. Tarheel Pundit John Branch – who has a summer job at a Greensboro law firm and with whom I recently enjoyed a beverage at Fisher’s – does the post-mortem. 11:22:49 AM    comment []

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Well, now we know why Howard Coble and Brad Miller rushed us all to that half-baked press conference on Monday – they wanted to get photographed holding a big check for $4 million made out to the Guilford Genomic Medicine Project before the Senate could vote not to fund it. Hey, look what we brung ya from Washington! The N&R’s Taft Wireback reports that some funding is still expected to emerge for the project, but that’s not certain. More on this later. 11:00:05 AM    comment []

Tara Grubb has filed to run for mayor of Greensboro, according to the N&R. Nothing about it yet on her site. Tara is now CEO of  Policlicks.com here in Greensboro, and has been active in the effort to bring new life to the old Revolution mill buildings.   When Tara ran against Howard Coble, I tried to keep things in perspective from the start  – becoming the first candidate for Congress to use a campaign weblog was of great symbolic importance, but it wasn’t going to let her magically depose Coble. In the event, Tara did not make particularly good use of her weblog during the campaign, favoring as she did oracular pronouncements over more practical forms of campaigning.   It’s not going to be much easier this time around. Tara brings youth and idealism to the race, assets probably outweighed by the fact she only recently moved to Greensboro from High Point. I don’t see her beating out attorney Bruce Ashley in the primary, much less upsetting amiable incumbent Keith Holliday. (I am not running for mayor this year, but I may at some point in the future.)   At least Tara will liven things up a little. And maybe the woman who pioneered the campaign weblog can push the application of the technology forward in real-world ways this time.   Ten months ago it was a big deal to have an unknown Congressional candidate use a weblog. Now a presidential contender has one. I hope Tara blogs the hell out this campaign. 10:51:59 AM    comment []