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August 31, 2005
A Blog from the Heart of the New Ground Zero
Times-Picayune Breaking News Weblog
(tip: Michael Kelley)
Posted by colrus at 01:18 PM | TrackBack
August 30, 2005
Oil, Vey
If you live in Chattanooga, there’s a good chance your gas prices have jumped by 20 cents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The storm has shut down oil platforms and pipelines along the Gulf coast this week, sending barrel-value up to $70 in today's trading. The hike hit Chattanooga this same day; prices at Murphy’s USA – next to the Brainerd Road Wal-Mart – are among the highest in the state, leaping from $2.42 a gallon to a pants-soiling $2.67. There's even a report of gallons going for (gulp) $2.99 in East Ridge.
However, if you live in coastal Louisiana or Mississippi, there’s a good chance that you are dead. So let’s keep it in perspective.
Posted by mesh at 07:01 PM | TrackBack
August 29, 2005
"It's a Shift"
Just a miniscule one: Chris Newton is pleading guilty. And then there was Ward.
Posted by mesh at 04:00 PM | TrackBack
Also, Don't Ask Them to Give You Beads
FOX News reporter Shepard Smith meets New Orleans.
Posted by mesh at 12:56 PM | TrackBack
August 24, 2005
More Downtown Barnyard Fun!
It's stories like this that keep us going each day.
An excerpt:
On the topic of animals, City Council members again on Tuesday discussed possible new ordinances dealing with farm animals within the city.
Council members concluded there are no restrictions on the books dealing with chickens.
Councilwoman Marti Rutherford asked, "Don't chickens stink?"
But Councilman Leamon Pierce said, "I'm not against the chickens. I enjoy my breakfast at Krystal too much."
One woman told the council that roosters next door wake her up as early as 4 a.m. in the morning. She said the neighbors who keep them and other animals barely speak English.
Councilman Jack Benson said having animals next door devalues property. He said, "It's like stealing really."
Posted by colrus at 02:06 PM | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Debra Matthews undergoing double-bypass surgery
Hamilton County School Board member Debra Matthews is undergoing unplanned (emergency?) double-bypass surgery as we speak.
Developing...
Posted by colrus at 11:00 AM | TrackBack
County Commission Approves Tax Hike
The County Commission has voted to approve a property tax increase of 26 cents. 10 cents will go to the general fund, with 16 cents going directly to school funding.
More coming...
Posted by colrus at 10:12 AM | TrackBack
August 20, 2005
Mad Hot Film Series
The Arts and Education Council's Independent Film Series has been announced. The Bijou's fall offerings:
9/2-9/8: The Edukators
9/9-9/15: Mad Hot Ballroom
9/16-9/22: The Beautiful Country
9/23-9/29: Asylum
9/30-10/6: Murderball
10/7-10/13: Happy Endings
10/14-10/20: Grizzly Man
10/21-10/27: Rize
10/28-11/3: The Beat That My Heart Skipped
11/4-11/10: Junebug
11/11-11/17: Apres Vous
11/18-11/24: 2046
I'm particularly happy about "Grizzly Man," Wim Wenders' documentary on a doomed bear-hugger, and "2046," the latest Wong Kar-Wai and a sequel to "In the Mood for Love."
Posted by mesh at 07:42 PM | TrackBack
August 16, 2005
City Officials Contending With Roosters, Goats, Fighting Cocks
This whole Chattanoogan.com story is hilarious.
The first five paragraphs are gold:
City Council members are looking into possible new legislation aimed at curbing farm animals in the city.
Marisol Jimenez, local teacher who works with the Hispanic community, said many Hispanics are used to keeping farm animals and don't know local laws about it.
"I'm not sure we do either," said Councilman Jack Benson, who heads the legal and legislative committee.
Mike McMahan, assistant city attorney, said there are ordinances dealing with swine and goats. But there are apparently no sections of the code dealing with chickens, horses and cows.
Councilman Leamon Pierce said, "As much chicken as I eat, I'm not going to vote against chickens."
It only gets better from there.
Posted by colrus at 11:40 PM | TrackBack
Barry Graham now at Bradley News Weekly
Former Pulse columnist (and Wally Witkowski fave) Barry Graham is now the Editor of the Bradley News Weekly. It'll be interesting to see how the community reacts to his work. Take this piece, for example...
Posted by colrus at 11:17 PM | TrackBack
August 15, 2005
"They're Comparing Chickens to Black People?"
PETA does it again.
Posted by mesh at 12:56 PM | TrackBack
August 11, 2005
Found Sugar
Cultural items I am enjoying while I am supposed to be working:
* I've never quite connected with the long-polar-nights pop produced by Sigur Ros. I basked in it on a few early mornings, but always felt that it wouldn't fully resonate unless I set about on a steady pharmocological diet. But "Hoppipolla"... now that's more like it. Listen for the moment, two minutes and fourteen seconds in, when the orchestra returns with a gooey detonation, like a Twinkie tossed in the microwave.
* There's more aspertine at the "Internet First Look" for Elizabethtown, the new Cameron Crowe movie. The greatest virtue of Crowe's films is their innocent emotional fevers; they all feel as if they were shot the night after high school graduation. The "First Look" isn't a trailer so much as some scenes choppily strung together on an Elton John tune, but it carries the same buoyancy. The Kentucky setting works well for these images: no surprise that when Crowe films the South, it isn't a Gothic underbelly but a soft, warm playground, where you go to recover from sorrow. Probably not true, but it actually is pretty to think so.
Posted by mesh at 05:04 PM | TrackBack
August 09, 2005
Happy Birthday, Philip Larkin
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
- P. L.
Posted by mesh at 01:20 PM | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
Peter Jennings dead at 67
Longtme ABC anchor Peter Jennings has succumb to lung cancer. Looking at pictures of him, it's hard to believe he was 67.
You could always detect the hint of Canada left in his voice despite working decades as a U.S. anchor. Maybe it's me, but that -- coupled with his overtly calm approach behind the desk -- seemed to give him a tad more class than his rivals.
He will be missed.
Posted by colrus at 12:33 AM | TrackBack
August 05, 2005
"They Will Never Let Me Do This Critique Again"
The Washington Post has started the oh-god-here-we-go-with-everybody-having-a-frigging-say process of letting all the underlings take a stab at internal memos criticizing the product. (Somehow I don't doubt that they refer to their paper as "the product.") But then Style writer Hank Stuever has his turn, and manages to sink 30 years of polling and tweaking with six paragraphs of logic.
I have worked at newspapers that fretted, angsted and test-marketed all sorts of "news you can use" and entry points and time-savers. We added geegaws, rails, skyboxes, refers, breakouts, sidebars; we set the articles in ragged-right and whacked the living shit out of them. It helped not one bit, but this identity crisis ultimately created a paper you really could read in 10 minutes. And soon enough, it started to feel like something that wasn't worth the 50 cents they charge for it.
Amen. Let there be longer articles, text-oriented design, and let the morons go buy Reader's Digest or something.
****
Also, so there's, like, this new planet.
Posted by mesh at 07:23 PM | TrackBack
Awkward News for Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics
Not sure how much to trust this -- it arrives from MTV News, whose last major scoop featured presidential underwear preferences -- but 666 may not be the number of the Beast after all. 616 appears to have similar shrouded-in-evil properties.
The very best part of the article is its uneasy mix of hermenuetical study and dopehead rock stars. What, MTV asks with grave concern, does this bode for Metallica? This focus leads to a brilliant moment:
Alan Mitchell, a theology professor at Georgetown University, said there's no reason the discovery should detract from the popularity of 666. "In my opinion, it doesn't change anything," he said. "The most reliable manuscripts have the number as 666. There's no reason to change the text of the New Testament, and there's no reason to change the tattoos."
Also, judging from U.S. area codes, the new Mother of All Whores appears to be Grand Rapids, Michigan. Yes, that Grand Rapids. The home of Calvin College. Guess that liberalism's gonna get a whole lot worse up there.
Posted by mesh at 11:59 AM | TrackBack
August 03, 2005
Larry Henry Leaning Toward Tax Hike
Absolutely huge news from the County Commission halls: Larry Henry, the swing vote on a property tax increase that would raise tacher salaries and fill school maintainence coffers, has tipped his hand -- toward ,a href="http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_70341.asp">"yes."
Chattanoogan.com quotes the man of the hour: "I continue to have serious concerns about the leadership of the county schools, but I will not fail to respond to those who are on the front lines."
Posted by mesh at 07:36 PM | TrackBack
August 01, 2005
"Whereas Kip's Relationship with LaFawnduh is a Tribute to E-commerce and Idaho's Technology-Driven Industry"
Idaho declares its gratitude to Napoleon Dynamite, in what can only be seen as a frightening attack on democracy by the forces of irony.
(Tip via Geekville)
Posted by mesh at 11:11 AM | TrackBack