Monday, May 23, 2005

Michael Christopher shows Davenport Jr. how he could have written an excellent column in yesterday's N&R about the Crossroads Ministries group employed by Guilford County Schools: "I'm interested in what can be done to build bridges to a peaceful coexisting society for the future. Will Crossroads Ministry help the GPS in that effort or will they keep them mired in the hateful rhetoric of the radical fringe? That is the question I wish Charles would have asked today, and I hope that Terry Grier asked before hiring Crossroads." 4:38:08 PM   permalink   comment []

Keith Holliday shills for a local TV station. The mayor does get the whole symbol-of-our-dying-manufacturing-economy thing, doesn't he? 4:24:15 PM   permalink   comment []

LA Times article on the N&R blog effort, by Martin Miller. A quite-capable summary of the scene and the industry context, but it leaves room for Kit Seelye's NYT article if she follows some of the threads we discussed. Interesting stat: "Figures for April show the blogs received more than 295,000 page views, compared with about 210,000 the previous month." Non-blog-related historical error in first graf, which says Nathanael Greene commanded "local militia" at Guilford Courthouse. He also had Continental Army troops. 4:21:03 PM   permalink   comment []

Telling the truth about cable "news" (via Dan Gillmor): "At the three-month mark, the Nancy Grace show is already strangely skewed from the real world. Guests who advocate a wait-and-see attitude toward suspects are used as punching bags. Guests who bring a scary amount of anger are praised, often becoming regulars." 8:46:11 AM   permalink   comment []

"I'm having a little bit of a surprise back surgery..." Ouch. Get-well-soon wishes to local blogger Ann. 8:33:31 AM   permalink   comment []

"The joke died a lonely death. There was no next of kin to notify, the comedy skit, the hand-buzzer and Bob Newhart's imaginary telephone monologues having passed on long before." From an NYT article by Warren St. John. 8:29:57 AM   permalink   comment []

I'm going to try to witness the death of the Burlington Industries building this morning. I watched it go up, I'd like to watch it come down. Not that I wanted it to die, but it hurts to see it like this instead of this:                                      I saw my first building implosion at roughly the same time the Benjamin's horses were being evicted from their old home to make way for the Burlington HQ. When I was in third or fourth grade the King Cotton Hotel in downtown Greensboro was destroyed. My dad took us to see it, and shot a home movie that my sister and I used to love to watch. I hope the N&R posts video at their site today. Sic transit gloria Greensboro. UPDATE: Down she came. A huge cracking explosion, a series of pops, and a rapid collapse. The big crowd cheered the spectacle. I felt like crying.                                             WXII video here. That's my voice in the background right after it collapses, saying "I can't believe people are clapping" to a woman who had worked there for 29 years. MORE: A Little Urbanity, N&R video, WFMY video. High-quality video and a 360-degree pan from the amazing Tom Lassiter (via Chewie, who was in the crowd near me -- although I didn't see her there, she's on the WXII video). A, O, way to go, Greensboro. 8:14:17 AM   permalink   comment []

Dave Winer defines the differences between podcasting and Wayne's World. One similarity: in both Wayne's World and podcasting, it is party time, excellent. 7:47:56 AM   permalink   comment []