Sunday, October 31, 2004

Another local candidate with a blog -- Libertarian Rusty Sheridan, with whom I've been sparring in the comments at my own site. He's running against Kay Hagan, one of the most powerful legislators in Raleigh, and one of the best things Greensboro has going for it. 2:12:22 PM    comment []

Frograbbitmonkey leaves a scorching comment about the Secret Service investigation of a blogger who "prayed" for bad things to happen to the President: "All of you who think that this girl deserves Secret Service investigation are nuts. It's not even a real prayer. She doesn't believe in God. So she's asking someone she doesn't believe in to give GWB an aneurism through telekenesis. And you people honestly think this is a threat worthy of investigation? If I said, 'Dear Santa, please strike Karl Rove by lightening when your sleigh flies over Washington DC' would you think I deserved to be personally investigated?" That frm is going to be one scary lawyer, but scary on the side of goodness and justice, of course. 11:39:14 AM    comment []

Kelefa Sanneh decries "rockism" in the NYT. Interesting but unconvincing. The question is not rock, it's talent, musicianship, originality -- some blend of those things. Does anybody think that the straight white guys with guitars in, say, Poison were more important or in any way "better" than, say, Public Enemy?  And great pop (e.g., Motown) is great music -- not because of or despite the corporate format, but because of the talent of the people involved. The Ashlee Simpson clip damns the "singer" more effectively than any rock critic ever could -- and who listens to rock critics, anyway? 10:17:23 AM    comment []

N&R columnist Giles Lambertson was cryogenically frozen like Austin Powers and woke up recently in a world he doesn't understand. It's only a theory, but it explains a lot. There is supporting evidence in today's column (unposted). Giles says our ugly political culture "began in November 2000. Supporters of Al Gore were bitter about that election outcome, demonized it as corrupt, and fomented four years of hate." He's right that lots of people were bitter about the election (although I'm not sure that you can demonize an outcome, but this is a report card on thinking, not writing style). But Giles-- did you miss the '90s? Impeachment? The success of Rush Limbaugh and the rise of Fox News? You mention Richard Mellon Scaife in your column -- he didn't just fall off the truffle truck in 2000, he was bankrolling spiteful liars long before Gore v Bush. Your timeline is truncated, which makes your analysis more than a little shaky. Previous Giles gems: 35 dead kids not news; criticizing US policy is treason. 9:04:17 AM    comment []

Sitting in a dark car, waiting to pick up Elijah at a party, listening to Woody. "It's high enough...it's long enough...it's GOOOD." Wow. They played nothing but crowd noise for a few seconds on the radio. Nice. Elijah had been watching with the fellas inside. He came running out like he'd kicked the field goal himself. "The great thing about Carolina football," he said, "is that when they lose you don't care, but then they do this, and it's so cool." Miami official site: "CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina might have kicked Miami right out of the national title race." Did State play yesterday? 8:04:27 AM    comment []

"I am going to vote for John Kerry for president." That's the first line of my newspaper column this morning. I expect it to persuade exactly no one. But I thought I should put my cards on the table, even if I've been telegraphing them for quite some time. Read the whole thing. The last election left me so tired and frustrated that I quit writing a newspaper column for more than a year. This time, the stakes are higher, but I'm calmer, secure in a zen space into which I invite you all. Well, we can't all fit into my calm space, but you can find your own. On Wednesday -- a theoretical date for a decision on the vote, but let's go with it -- I will wake up. No matter who wins, the dog will have insinuated herself onto the bed. The kids will need feeding before school. I will be getting ready to fly to California to talk about weblogs and politics, and closing a story at the copy desk and reporting another one about the software industry, and thinking about what I'm going to say at Elijah's bar mitzvah, and walking the dog and loving my wife and calling my mom and working on a project at my kids' school and worrying about Carolina basketball and trying to finish the big book I'm reading so I don't have to lug it on the plane. These fragments I have shored against my ruins. You should shore some fragments, too. What goes on in the big world is important, life or death stuff. But what goes on in your world is, too. We confuse the two, and sometimes, say for soldiers and civilians in Iraq right now, they are one and the same. But for most of us, win or lose, a little perspective helps. 7:55:38 AM    comment []