Accept no substitutes

Author: Paul (Page 104 of 147)

DocSouth Oral Histories opens

Natalia Smith writes to announce that the ibiblio-hosted Documenting the American South Project has added Oral Histories:

Documenting the American South has launched its 9th collection, “Oral Histories of the American South“. The collection includes 21 unique interviews from the Southern Oral History Program with the focus on three significant environmental transformations in North Carolina between 1985 and 2000: the Cane Creek Controversy in Orange County, the extension of Interstate 26 through Madison County, and the flooding from Hurricane Floyd in the eastern part of the state.

Podcastercon – Getting iTuned

One nice thing about the upcoming Podcastercon as an unconference is that you can propose a session on a topic that you know something about but want to know more about — sort of like Birds of a Feather sessions. TJ and I have proposed a session on iTunes and podcasting.
We were early in getting Roger McGuinn’s Folk Den registered and working with iTunes so we learned a lot about the iTunes extensions to RSS, but there are a couple of things that still drive us nuts. Like, how do you get the image to show in the “Drag Album — Art Here” area under Selected Song? LeShow from KCRW gets their picture there most, but not all, of time. We have the same RSS extensions that we see coming from KCRW but we can’t get our image in place. Not that Roger has a “Drag Album” ;->

Podcasterconpodcasterconpodcastercon
Where: 116 Murphey Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
When: Saturday, January 7, 2006 11am – 4pm

Cone calls on Skube about irresponsible article on blogs

That’s a long post title by my standard, but it gets the lede out. The story of the story is that Michael Skube, now teaches at Elon, wrote an article on the badness of blogs for the Greensboro News and Record. In the course of the article–according to Cone–(the article is unposted), Skube admits not ever reading blogs (who has time? he asks. perhaps some one who writes about blogs should make time, says i), doesn’t differentiate between say an Ed Cone and a teenager on Xanga, and decries that bloggers aren’t professional (some are, Michael). All in all, it seems from the Cone report and the comments following that Skube rehearsed some common complaints without doing any personal research.

Cone called Skube and talked with him. Ed’s report on the conversation is even odder still. Well, not Ed’s report itself but the conversation that is reported by Ed. Skube confirmed that he didn’t know that the News and Record is nationally famous for the blogging there. He didn’t know of any bloggers by name save Andrew Sullivan. He hadn’t read any. All in all, pretty embarassing for a journalism prof at Elon and a Pulitizer Prize winner at that.

I’m hoping that the News and Record will post the article soon. In the meantime, the posts and comments at Ed’s blog will have to do.

In an interesting coincidence of timing, News and Record Editor John Robinson calls student interviewers to task for nearly the same crimes as are committed by Skube. One crucial section:

Most recently, I’ve been interviewed via e-mail and telephone by professional journalists and university students. The topic: blogging. Inexplicably, they hadn’t actually read my blog or our other blogs. It didn’t appear that they had even done the easiest research on Google.


Sue Polinsky of Sue’s Place
also had a blog article in the same edition of the News and Record. Although she calls her writing a rant; it’s a good read and she knows of what she speaks.

Napoleon Byars on O’Reilly Factor

When Napoleon Byars retired from a long career as a Public Affairs Officer in the military, he didn’t imagine that he be raked over the coals on TV for advocating that both the military and the press have important but different jobs and that we need to be well served by both. But last night this on air and on the O’Reilly site:

Talking Points Memo & Top Story
Mainstream media & the terror war
Guest: Journalism professor Napoleon Byars

“Today The New York Times ran a story pinpointing countries in Europe that have allowed CIA planes to land on their soil in ongoing operations after 9/11. That story gives America’s enemies information and it could encourage Al Qaeda to attack the countries that helped the USA. That’s speculative, but there’s no question European countries are under pressure not to help the CIA. Does that help you and your family? If the world will not cooperate with the Central Intelligence Agency, doesn’t that make it easier for terrorists to operate? Of course it does. This never would have happened during World War II; Franklin Roosevelt created an office of censorship in 1941 and pressure was put on American news organizations not to publish information ‘that the enemy might be interested in.’ Today we’re fighting World War III, but every day the American press puts forth information the enemy might be interested in. Now this is very difficult territory. The American public has a right to know how the Bush administration is waging the war on terror. But there comes a point when the media has to decide if the information they are disseminating is going to damage the war effort. We are appealing to the American press to help fight the terrorists rather than to use the conflict to promote a political point of view. Let’s do what’s good for the country; is that too much to ask?”

UNC Journalism professor Napoleon Byars had a different perspective. “I think they both have a job, the media and the military. Let’s face it, the American public is better served, I think, when it gets information and it can make its own choices about how the war is going.” The Factor said that the media could certainly draw a line with its reporting. “CIA landings pinpointed by The New York Times? I don’t mind any exposition on policy, but on tactics and pinpointing what the CIA, where they’re going, I think that puts us all in grave danger.”

Monks Make My Day

In a day of strange visitors to town, it was good to get down to University Mall and to Tyndall Galleries to see the monks mash their magnificent mandala. After the mashing, the mandala sand was swept into a vessel and carried across to Booker Creek. There was a nice collection of spirited kids kicking leaves and chasing each other as we walked along with the monks their cymbals clashing and the monks themselves chanting. Once at the bridge over the creek, we paused. The chanting continued for a while. Then the sand was dumped in the creek., returned to the earth. Sally took pictures.
Ruby’s pictures taken in 2003 at the Temple Ball in Carrboro are of the same monks that we saw today.
Sylvia and Erica took these great pictures of the monks visit to Tyndall Galleries in January 2004 on Jane’s Birthday.

eVoting: Diebold must reveal code to NC or leave

Or as SlashDot puts it Diebold threatens to pull out of North Carolina. Why? Because state law here requires that all voting systems used in NC must reveal their code. This was enacted in response to the loss of significant votes in several NC counties in the last election.
The Slashdotters have a lot to say about this.
I have a category dedicated to the “Is Your Vote Counted?” discussions in NC and nationally that took place last year at about this time.

Michael Parker reads from Ain’t Gonna Bump No More

Leslee Farish write to alert us that Michael Parker will read from his story Hidden Meanings: Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the Song “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More Big Fat Woman.” I blogged about being delighted by this story when I read it in the Oxford American back in January.

Who: Michael Parker, UNC alumnus, award-wining novelist and fiction professor in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s MFA writing program
What: Parker will read from his story Hidden Meanings: Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the Song “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More Big Fat Woman.” He will also be hosting a discussion focusing on the issues raised in the story: body image, stress, family life, and relationships, in addition to sharing his own thoughts and feelings about the piece.
When: Noon, Friday, December 2
Where: the Mary Turner Lane Reading and Resource Room at the Carolina Women’s Center 134 East Franklin St, Suite 215

Google Map overestimates OBX trip time

With the blazing new roads that now take us to the Lone Cedar Restaurant at legal speeds of up to 70 mph, the trip out to Ocracoke is a much faster one than advertized. Of course the reduced ferry schedule nearly makes up for the time savings. We made it to the Ocracoke – Hatteras ferry at 4 past 7 am this morning. In time to see the ferry round the end of the island. The next ferry was at 8 am. Luckily the friendly station mistress was generous enough to share some of her coffee and some talk.
We still made it to Chapel Hill in record (for us) time and in time for Tucker to get to his afternoon meeting.

Part of being a pirate…

Is not having all of your parts. So goes the chorus of the sing-a-long song from Capt. Rob Temple of the Red Sailed Schooner, Windfall, as he and his daughter led us all at the Ocrafolk Festival Thanksgiving Concert last night. The sold out show at the Community Center featured all kinds of local Ocracoke talent lead by the Molasses Creek folks — Fiddler Dave and Gary Mitchell. Lou Castro of Coyote added slide and dobro to a lot of the selections. Martin Garrish and his 80+ year old uncle Jule sang together. Donald Davis told a wonderful tale of deception over a red coat. Roy Parsons who is easily as old as Jule Garrish and then some played his famous single chord. Cheryl Roberts showed the crowd that a fiddle can be a violin and can play more than bluegrass (not that bluegrass is bad, but she def took us down a classical track with a bit of new Old Time tossed in).
This was a fundraiser for the upcoming 2006 Ocrafolk Music and Storytelling Festival to be held June 3 and 4 on the Island.

Movement of Teach’s Hole

Ocracoke’s most ambitious pirate providers, Teach’s Hole, had warned me that they were being ousted by their landlord during our last visit. So I wasn’t surprised to see a For Rent sign on their building on the Back Road. But I was surprised to learn that the new big red building with black trim on the Main Road, the Garrish Road, Hiway 12, was to be their new home. Their warehouse and internet business will be upstairs and downstairs will be the shop, much larger of course, and the Pirate Exhibit greatly expanded. The new place is right across from the Variety Store.

Albert Styron’s Gone

Coming to Ocracoke after about 18 months off island brings some surprises. First the Jolly is closed for Thanksgiving as is the Silver Lake Hotel which is part of the same enterprise. Next we walked over to the lighthouse and noticed that Albert Stryon’s Store is now a printing company. “No longer retail” reads the sign on the steps. Along the road on the point, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trustees have purchased some property and made a nice walk out to the inlet available. Along the way is the grave of Sam Jones who is seriously awaiting resurection. The rumor is that Sam is buried with his horse. At the blast of Gabriel’s trumpet, Sam will jump on the horse and ride to Glory. Teach’s Hole our favorite pirate store gave us a scare. They has a For Rent sign on their building. Our last trip they told us that their landlord was going to boot them and install a bakery in their place. Our waitress at the Pelican, where we had a grand Thanksgiving dinner, told us that Teach’s would be moving to the Main Road up across from the Variety Store.
[more tomorrow]

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