Strange Days

Apparently, there was nothing and no one for whom to vote on Tuesday. I made a comment about not knowing anything about voting this year and was chastised on Facebook and heard nothing but crickets on Twitter. But there was no voting here.

I drove by the church where we normally vote and it was dead. No flags. No signs reading "Vote Here." Nothing. It's as if COMO was in a strange alternate America where voting doesn't happen.

Admittedly, I don't read the paper enough, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about not voting. Even the schools were out like last year for voting day. No one told me that there would be no voting on the first Tuesday in November.

Why was there nothing on a ballot of any kind here in COMO? What does this say about our right to vote? What does it say about the times in which we live?

I don't know for sure. I assume there were no tax hikes or school issues due to the crummy economy. We are only one year removed from a pretty big election year in '08. I guess there were no decisions for COMO-ians to make this year.

It's probably for the better. We have our mayor for at least another year. The schools are still working on regaining the public's trust. Oh, and we didn't get the opportunity to take away any one's civil rights..well, not since '04.

Still, I feel we missed out. I had no chance to exercise my right to vote like so many others on Tuesday. Maybe next year.

Cafe Berlin

Cafe Berlin once occupied that odd, little building on Providence and Walnut. Before that, it was the Root Cellar. Cafe Berlin's food was mediocre at best the first time we tried it. I had a ham sandwich, something I could have made ten times better at home. I didn't have much hope for the place.

Then it seemed like we were hearing from everyone we knew that a great breakfast could be had at Cafe Berlin. Ever since Cucina Sorella left Ninth Street, COMO was in desperate need of a good breakfast joint that wasn't a diner or bakery. We hoped maybe Cafe Berlin will fill the void.

Cafe Berlin has been a weekend staple for this family after we gave it another try. The coffee is good and the pancake burritos are better. Rarely is there a Saturday or Sunday we don't make a trip to our favorite breakfast joint. (That and the owners have a daughter who is the only Lucia we know outside our own.)

Our breakfast needs were fulfilled, but one day Cafe Berlin moved. Why? I didn't know. Who would leave such a prime location near downtown?

Well, this past weekend we finally got our answer. We headed out to CB's new locale on 10th and Park, across from Mojo's. In what used to be a gas station/convenience store, Cafe Berlin set up shop.

The new spot has a lot of amenities over the old building. First, it looks more like a restaurant with plenty of windows, a bar(!), booths(!!), and the potential for outdoor seating. The joint is not finished, but it's way roomier than the old place.

I know that I complain about living here, but I do like to see good, local business thrive. Cafe Berlin is such a business. This new move only makes it a better breakfast option and expands the scope of things to do downtown.

Now, if we could just get a proper Thai restaurant...

Music for Lucia

I haven't written about the kid in a while. I guess that whole month of nothing but Lucia was even too much for me. Not to worry, though. I still give her lots of attention (even if I haven't written a letter in a while).

One development in Lucia's...er...development is her love of music. I've always played records for her and sang to her, but she has really shown an interest in anything musical lately. Besides playing instruments and singing her own "songs", she dances to anything on the radio. During transitions on NPR, she'll dance to the ten seconds of music they play. She's really tuned into the music.

As I said before, I sing certain songs to her, but I also play a ton of videos on YouTube. The following is a top-10 of her favorite videos. Some we sing to her at night. Others are just to be enjoyed on YouTube. Either way, she likes them all...

10. The Beastie Boys - "Hey Ladies"
By accident, I discovered Lucia's love for old school hip-hop. Then I discovered she particularly liked the Beastie Boys brand of hip-hop.

9. Feist - "1 2 3 4" (Sesame Street version)
I always thought this would be a great Sesame Street song and Feist pulls it off with ease.



8. MIA - "Paper Planes"
This track had Lucia shaking what her mother gave her. That was the correct reaction.

7. Guided By Voices - "I Am a Scientist"
We discovered Lucia's love of GBV the same day she discovered hip-hop. I have no idea how that works, but that's what happened.



6. "Clap, Clap, Clap"
I will never forget the morning we woke up to jazz on the radio. R snapped her fingers to the beat. Lu - for the first time ever - clapped her hands. Soon after that momentous occasion, I discovered this little video.



5. Dan Zanes - "Jump Up"
There isn't an indie geek/alt.country fanatic around who doesn't play Zane for his/her kid. Never mind the hair. You have to admit it makes you tap your feet.



4. Kimya Dawson - "The Smoothie Song"
This is a family favorite. The video doesn't do it much justice, but you get the idea.



3. Pavement - "Cut Your Hair"
She is my daughter. I've sung this song nearly every time I've put her down to sleep and she knows it like few others. I recently showed her the video and Lucia liked it even more.



2. "Mah Nà Mah Nà"
This is an absolute classic. This was also the first song Lucia recognized in another as it played with various instrumentation on NPR.




1. Kermit the Frog and Debbie Harry - "The Rainbow Connection"
We discovered this one while searching for Muppet and Sesame Street videos. I couldn't resist this classic moment on The Muppet Show. Both R and I sing this song to Lu whenever we try to put her to bed or soothe her. She dances to this video no matter how many times she sees it. Notice how loaded Debbie Harry seems.

See The Foundry Field Recordings Saturday (and some others)

I am terrible at supporting local music. In my youth, I was at every show or at least several every week and I never missed a local fav on consecutive shows. So, I've put in my time. At this point in my life, I'll just do the best I can.

That said, go to Mojo's Saturday night and see The Foundry Field Recordings do their thing for only a fiver. For this week's set, the line-up will be Billy Schuh (vocals/guitar), David Korasick (vocals/guitar/keyboard/trombone), Justin Nardy (bass), and Cody Mains (drums).

Then, the following Friday (the 13th), you should hit Eastside for Cpt. Captain. On December 12th, Cpt. Captain's label Yards and Gods release their second compilation. The party will be at Mojo's.

Most likely, you will find more info on both shows at Ravenous Horde, but I thought I'd do my part this evening.

Random Musings

It's been nearly a week since I last posted. It's not like I have nothing to say, because I do. It's just that work, school, and family have a way of pushing the blogging aside.

• Apart from the blogs I mentioned two weeks ago, another Bathysphere alum has entered my Google Reader radar. Kiernan Maletsky gives a full rundown of his daily listening habits along with some insight as to what may have led him to such choices. Read All Day Long.
• Speaking of my shout-outs to the local blogosphere, Pete Bland returned the favor via Twitter and Facebook.
• I listened to Wilco (The Album) this week and think they are returning to my good graces; Modest Mouse's new EP made me revisit This Is a Long Drive...; the selection of the opening track for the Monsters of Folk debut is confusing to me; and I got a lot of responses to a Tweet/Facebook status update concerning Nebraska.
• I don't really know what all the hub-bub is over the new Facebook interface. Just jump around between the news feed and the status updates. It's not that hard.
• Geocities closed its "doors" this week. I thought they did that years ago.
• Kids at Paxton-Keeley have been snorting Smarties. Really. I blame hipsters.
• Although I don't really report on the beering at this particular blog anymore, I did brew my third batch this past weekend (yet another reason I'm not blogging). It's a barley wine with bourbon-soaked wood chips for a little oak and vanilla flavoring. It should be good and potent.
• College football rolls on. I will not write about my team until they redeem themselves. Of course, at least they aren't 0-3 in their conference after getting shellacked on their homecoming night. Oh, and I'm predicting everywhere that Iowa will win the national championship. Write it down.
• I spent my first two nights alone with Lucia. We both survived.
• Not only am I not blogging, but I have not been able to attend many happy hours at the 'Tag in recent weeks (and won't make this week's either). Still, you should go and have a Lion Stout for me.
• There was other stuff, but I've already forgotten. I promise to do better.
  

Re-Views of the News

Every Wednesday evening in our home, we listen to a local radio show called Views of the News. There are several reasons for this. First, we are nerds, especially when it comes to the news and media. Second, the #1 journalism school in the country resides here. It would be foolish not to tap that resource once in a while for some insight into the news media. Third, it's on after Marketplace and therefore isn't bad, classical music.

Normally, I find Views to be a nice diversion from daily life, sort of a throwback to radio talk shows (sans irate callers) of yesteryear. The topics are timely but benign for the most part. However, tonight's show sort of rubbed me the wrong way.

Before I go on, it should be noted that I in no way am attacking the hosts, producers, or KBIA. We all work for the same employer and that would be against certain policies. What I am doing is respectfully disagreeing. Moving on to the topics...

The first topic was the #balloonboy story of Falcon Heene and his fictitious balloon ride through Colorado airspace. The story was one of those classic cable news fiascoes where all news around the world stops as the newscast is hijacked by [enter random, extraordinary event that has no consequence for the rest of us and really just appeals to the voyeur inside all of us here]. I followed it on Twitter, trying to concentrate on my work but not succeeding (extending my day unfortunately).

The View's take - aside from simultaneously blaming the media and audience for indulging in such voyeuristic garbage - was that the key difference between the online media and traditional media (read "newspapers, radio, and TV") was that traditional journos think it most important to check all the facts first before reporting while the online media just get the story out there and check facts later.

They're wrong.

I blog and Tweet from time to time. While I am in no way a reliable source of information, I do understand the thinking and motivation of the citizen journalist and online media. The idea is simple, really. Put it out there. Someone in your network will repost or comment. Someone else will Google it or look it up through other means. The facts will pour in. The errors will be corrected. Through collaboration and audience participation, the narrative will be pieced together. We no longer live in a time where we wait for the evening news or morning newspaper to get the story. We watch it and participate in it as it unfolds.

The second story didn't allow me to come down from the outrage over the first misinterpretation.

Earlier this week, the fabulously infamous Yes Men pulled another great hoax on the United States Chamber of Commerce. It seems that the merry pranksters posed as Chamber spokesmen and declared that the Chamber was reversing its stance on climate control legislation. (The actual Chamber was and is against such regulations.) Of course, the Yes Men were exposed but not before they exposed the chamber for its idiotic stance. (Now you know where I stand on the political spectrum.)

Once again, the View had it wrong.

The three, wise professors thought it a travesty that these Yes Men continue to pull hoax after hoax on poor corporations and the federations that represent them. Their claim is that these deceptions do nothing to solve national and global problems. In fact, it's claimed that the Yes Men actually harm those they want to stand up for and turn public sympathy to the bad guys/multi-national corporations.

Brought into the conversation was the screening of The Yes Men Fix the World at last year's True/False festival. At least one of the View's hosts was in attendance for that showing of the film and he was appalled at the reaction of the audience who cheered for the Yes Men as they lied to and manipulated the media, corporations, and various other power brokers into falling for their entertaining pranks.

I was there too, but I had a different take as I do about this past joke played on the Chamber. What the Yes Men do is important, inspirational, and effective. It's important because it exposes wrongs committed by those in power against the powerless to an enormous audience. The film and this week's stunt inspire people by showing them that we don't have to take what corporations or the traditional media are shoving down our throats. And yes, it is effective. People are duped, even the victims. However, I seem to remember the victims of the tragedy in Bhopal and those left homeless in New Orleans due to the the re-purposing of their homes appreciated the Yes Men's work in standing up for them while exposing the truth about their situations. These people usually figured it was a hoax from the beginning, but they understood what the Yes Men were out to accomplish. Again, truths were revealed through their work of deception.

That brings me to an interesting topic in the worlds of both traditional journalism and community/citizen/guerilla journalism: truth.

There is no one, essential truth. Because a journalist checks all the facts and asks all the questions she can think of doesn't mean she'll only report the truth. That is one version of the truth, no matter how thorough or ethical a journalist may be. The truth is not as simple as right or wrong. In every story, there are many truths. Each blog, newspaper article, Tweet, evening news report, vlog, etc. holds some truth. Traditional journalism does not control the market on truth. Sure, they have the training and resources to gather most of the truth, but they can never have it all.

The one part of the program I agreed with came from former host and current guest Rod Gelatt. Now, as the amateur that I am, I will attempt to paraphrase Dr. Gelatt's sentiment. He talked about how journalism and the media will change, so the students should be prepared to change their view of what it is they are training to do or plan to do in the future.

This is something the media is not doing: adjusting to change. Newspapers are dying because they were unwilling to change how they delivered information when they had a chance. Now, the New York Times is laying off its reporters. Radio and TV are jokes. Radio is becoming so homogenized that we might as well only have a handful of stations for the entire nation. And TV is all about ratings and being sensational. To counter any argument about TV journalism, all I have to do is point at Fox "News."

The media's future is online. The future is talking with communities, not about them or at them. The future in media is in collaboration. There is no more banking system where the newspapers, TV networks, and radio stations hold all the capital to divvy out to the masses as they see fit. There are many more truths out there than traditional media is willing to accept at this point in time.

At this point, I could get more revolutionary, but that would get away from my original intent just to review a radio program. I just wanted participate in the conversation instead of passively accepting the stories and opinions shared on KBIA's Views of the News. So, there you have it.

Views of the News can be heard every Wednesday evening after Marketplace on 91.3 KBIA here in COMO.

This Flag Signals Goodbye

I should have know this would happen. It wasn't as if the band was playing anymore shows. This is maybe sadder than the day Pavement hung it up forever (or next year).

Recently, it was announced that Swearing at Motorists would be playing a lone, random show in Dayton. This gave me hope that I would catch them again, but that hope did not last long.

I've written about Swearing at Motorists before here and here. So, you should know my fanaticism is true.

Today, this was posted on Facebook...
























Then this...





















That's right. Swearing at Motorists will be no more. I think the worst part of being an aging rock fan is that all your favorite bands and musicians eventually stop playing music.