Buttermilk & Molasses

Old 97's Plan New Release and Tour

It's been six years since I landed in San Francisco and was told that I would be going to see the Old 97's perform for my birthday, and my love for the Texas alt.country/pop/rock band has not diminished. They just rock that hard. For instance, here they are performing a new classic song ("Barrier Reef") live at this year's South By Southwest last month:

Lone Star Music recently sat down with Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller to talk about the band's new album, slated for an early May release. Among many other topics, Miller tackles an alleged feud with Ryan Adams early in their musical careers:

It was a manufactured thing. Ryan was a little bit younger and we both got signed at the same time. And we were very friendly. We had a lot of fun in those days because they were heady days, a lot of labels, a lot of attention. It was end of this tour we did for No Depression magazine and it was three weeks in and Ryan was sick of opening. He wanted to be the headliner, but we had more records and more fans in general. So he got drunk one night at soundcheck and came to me and said, “I think we should have a feud.” And I said, “I'm not really into that.” He goes, “C'mon, it'll be great. Like the Beatles and the Stones.” And I said, “I call the Beatles.” And I said, “No, I don't want to base a career on negativity.” And Ryan went ahead and did it, man, so for years, I had to hear these reports and quotes in interviews and stuff from people who told me about where he was, like, trashing me and trashing the band. It was like high-school name-calling. I couldn't believe it. And then we made up over the years. We don't have that much contact now. But I try not to worry about it.

He also talked about the band's new album:

I'm so proud of “Dance With Me.” I really feel like it encapsulates everything about our band over the years. It's got that Tex-Mex beat and it's got these kind of creepy lyrics that tell a story that I feel has some depth to it, more so than most pop songs, and, you know, Ken's guitar work on that song and throughout the album, I feel, may be the best of his career. Certainly right up there, and I just … I love the whole record; I feel like the first five tracks are undeniable. I feel really great about it. I hope people listen to the record a lot before they come to see the shows. That's why we're giving it a few weeks to breathe before we go out on the road, so people hopefully will be familiar with some of the new songs. I mean, we'll still play a big selection off all the other albums, and I think the way we're going to address adding in 12 new songs to the set is simply adding 12 songs to the set and instead of playing two hours a night, playing more like 2-1/2 hours a night or three hours a night or something like that.

Now, if my peeps at the National have any sense, they'll get on the phone with the Old 97's tour manager.

Finally -- Richmond Gets First Place (for Weblogging)

While I once worked as a journalist, I've never been bold enough to claim that any of my public sites -- the community/cultural hybrid Buttermilk and Molasses or the neighborhood weblog North Richmond News, in particular -- crossed any journalistic threshold. (Even as I've been hypercritical of the Times-Dispatch and other local media.)

Still, I've always felt that community-focused sites like the 270+ serving Richmond (see RVABlogs and RVANews for a complete rundown on them all) provide unique and important voices, and add something significant to Richmond's culture. Je ne sais pas recently pointed readers to a report on citizen journalism sites recently issued by the Project for Excellence in Journalism because Richmond ranks at the top of the 15 large, medium and small cities for the number of and quality of news and community focused weblogs.

Richmond, Virginia, was the most developed community of citizen journalism sites in the sample. Richmond has 16 citizen journalism sites, 10 of which were citizen neighborhood news sites, two were neighborhood blog sites, two were blog sites that addressed the Richmond area, one was a news aggregator for Richmond, and one was a blog aggregation site. Of particular interest are the neighborhood sites that have very similar “About Us” statements and that link to each other. According to a statement on the Greater Fulton News (http://greaterfultonnews.org/about-this-site/), the neighborhood sites can be traced to John Murden, who set up the Church Hill People’s News (http://chpn.net/news/) in August 2004. The Greater Fulton News, which was established with a grant from the New Voice Program at the J-Lab (http://www.j-lab.org/) with help from Richmond news media, wrote:

“The programming and format of this site is based on work by John Murden, who started Richmond’s first community news blog, Church Hill People’s News, and who has helped launch other community news blogs in the Richmond area.”

Most of the citizen news sites started during 2007. On the basis of statements on the sites or the earliest postings in the archives, two sites started in March 2007, one in May 2007, one in June, four in August and one site in October 2007.  In addition to the individual sites, RVANews (http://rvanews.com/) serves as a news aggregator by providing links to specific stories on the neighborhood sites and publishing some original material. RVABlogs (http://rvablogs.com/) serves as a blog aggregator for more than 200 blogs.

Although all of the neighborhood sites ask for volunteers, for news tips and for work from area residents, most indicate that the contributors should contact the site administrators with their story ideas.  Most of the news sites offer free classifieds, community calendars, business directory and crime maps about the neighborhood. Taken as a group, these news sites provide a network that provides an extraordinary volume of hyperlocal news from a medium-sized city.

Yay us. And yay John Murden at Church Hill People's News for getting almost all the rest of the neighborhood sites launched (and for helping to keep them running).

In the Project's State of the News Media 2008 report, they provide a pretty comprehensive snapshot of what's happening with online news, including the possible future of the blogosphere:

The majority of Americans expect blogs to play an increasingly prominent role in bringing them the news. According to the Zogby Poll, 55% believe blogging will be an important aspect of journalism in the future. An overwhelming number (74%) saw amateur citizen reporters, as opposed to established media outlets, playing a key role.¹⁵

If they are right, independent bloggers will have to figure out a way to finance their work.

Heading into 2008, there are mixed signs about an emerging financial model. Advertising — and therefore ad revenue — is becoming more common, but whether this trickles down to contributing bloggers is less certain. Let’s consider two of the more popular blogs in 2007, both of which showed signs of turning a profit.

The popular political commentary blog Huffington Post placed ads from CNN, the New York Times, Xerox, Audi and Discovery in 2007. Co-founder Ken Lerner expects the blog’s audience to double in the election year of 2008, suggesting more ad revenue to come.

But profit or no, Lerner has no intentions of ever paying volunteer bloggers, who numbered about 1,800 as of late 2007, many of them famous names who submit essays without expecting payment. “That’s not our financial model,” Lerner told USA Today in September 2007. “We offer them visibility, promotion and distribution with a great company.”

                                                                                                   

The financial model is something the Richmond Blog Collective -- that handful of neighborhood and community blogs featured at RVANews -- has been bandying about. Advertising is the most obvious path to explore, but anyone who has been involved in community news -- online or newsprint -- knows that advertising is an all-consuming monster.

When Robots Rule the Earth

Boing Boing steered me toward the insanely brilliant Onion video news segment on a world ruled by robots -- "Are We Giving Robots Too Much Power?" And then I found myself compulsively perusing all of the Onions YouTube videos, cackling.

Art I Love: John W. Golden

I totally dig John W. Golden's work, especially his By Order of Management Signs and Rovinato Series (pictured above).

Henrico Purchases Richmond; VCU To Form Breakaway Government

In a series of last minute maneuvers in the wake of former Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder's announcement that the City of Richmond was bankrupt, representatives from Henrico and Chesterfield counties have seized legal authority over much of the city's 63-square-mile acreage. In a related move late last night, officials from Virginia Commonwealth University announced that the university would form its own county and initiated moves to annex much of downtown Richmond, including Oregon Hill and Jackson Ward.

Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine called for calm even as workers from both counties were at work late last night surveying and marking the boundaries of their newly expanded jurisdictions.

"Residents of the former City of Richmond will have many new opportunities as residents of Henrico County, and we are excited to welcome them to their new community," said Virgil Hazelett, county manager for Henrico. Henrico essentially claimed all of Richmond's land north of the James River, as well as the Manchester district.

More details were not available at press time.

Mizrahi Will "Dress Up" Monument Avenue Statues

The City of Richmond announced a new partnership with fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi to revitalize the city's public statuary -- beginning with the revitalization of the famous Civil War statues along historic Monument Avenue.

"People know that the times are changing," Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder said at a press conference announcing the partnership. "It's high time public officials in this city look the facts straight in the eye -- those statues are just horribly unattractive. They need a little help if this city is going to be known as a 21st Century City."

Mizrahi told the crowd that his plans for at least five of the statues -- those of Confederate generals Stuart, Lee and Jackson, as well as that of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Matthew Maury -- would be completed in the fall.

"When the mayor called and floated this idea past me, you have no idea how tingly it made me," Mizrahi said. "To take these icons of war and manliness and bring them into the modern era, well, you can't imagine the thrill. I'm thinking taffeta, and maybe a splash of velvet for Stuart."

Mizrahi showed several proposed treatments for the statue redesigns, including a dramatic overhaul of the statue of Robert E. Lee. That proposal involves wrapping the statue in a thin veneer of lavender-tinted tin, which Mizrahi says will add "just the right subtle splash" on the historic boulevard.

"I really envision something magical," Mizrahi said of the Lee concept. "In addition to the tin veneer, we'll probably do something to soften the actual base of the statue to make it more approachable, to give it what my friend Sandra Bernhard could call 'the special touch.'"

Representatives from the Sons of the Confederacy were not available for comment.

Times-Dispatch Large Print Edition Planned

In response to the changing demographics of the Richmond region, the area's only daily newspaper has announced plans to release a large-print edition targeted exclusively at the region's senior set.

"Beginning Sunday, April 6, the Richmond Times-Dispatch will transform its design and its content to better meet the needs of the area's growing Boomer population," said Thomas Silvestri, the paper's publisher. Silvestri was speaking to a select audience of residents from area retirement communities at a recent Public Forum organized by the Times-Dispatch.

"In addition to tripling the size of the text used for news articles -- from 12 point New Times Roman to the more dramatic Bodoni set in 36 points -- we'll be refocusing the newspaper's coverage to serve the information needs of Richmond's gray mares," Silvestri said. The change is not a result of the recent acquisition of the newspaper by Reader's Digest Association, Silvestri noted.

The daily will resurrect its "Richmond In Bygone Days" column and bring back the popular social column originally published each week by Richmond's afternoon newspaper. Silvestri promised "more of what you love" to the audience, including "more obituaries, more coupons, more Word Scramble."

"Our studies also show that having just one story on the front page will suit the needs of our readers better," Silvestri said. "The average Times-Dispatch reader has too many decisions to make each day to have to sort through multiple news stories -- they want to take in the day's news in a glance before getting back to four hours of the 'Today Show'."

"I'm as pleased as punch," said Henrico resident Chadwick Atkins, a retired doctor and newspaper subscriber. "It tickles me pink that the paper will be doubling the number of obituaries run each day. My wife is just darn excited about the expanded Bingo directory."

The large-print edition of the Times-Dispatch will gradually replace the traditional newspaper, Silvestri said. He gave no time-line for the transition.

Pennsylvanians Boycott Polls for Democratic Primary

In a move that has sent shock waves through the nation's political establishment, union-friendly Pennsylvania has declared a statewide electoral strike.

"Until further notice, the residents of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are on electoral strike," Governor Edward Rendell said in a press conference held just three weeks before the state is slated to hold its Democratic primary. "Eligible voters will picket the polls on April 22, and any voters who cross the picket line will be dealt with accordingly."

Rendell would not elaborate on any possible consequences for voters who choose to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Pennsylvania residents voted for the strike in a special election held last week, even as Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama swept through the state in search of votes. Exit polls suggested that Pennsylvanians were simply tired of all the attention presidential politics bring.

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, threatened the Pennsylvania Democratic Party with "severe punishment" for its actions.

"The PDNC will not receive any proceeds from the sale of t-shirts during this summer's national convention," Dean said.

Revised Downtown Plan Proposes Plastic Coating for James River

In a surprising turnabout, Richmond's Planning Commission has asked the city's Department of Community Development to make significant changes to Richmond's proposed Downtown Plan.

The recommendations -- channeling water from the James River through the Downtown Expressway; a new dress code for all downtown residents and visitors; and covering the river with a clear polyurethane coating recently developed by Dupont -- set Richmond apart from other river cities, officials say.

"We've worked hard to incorporate the best ideas generated by our stakeholders in the development and business communities," said commission co-chairperson Bev Lacy at a press conference yesterday. "The entire commission is excited about our proposals to transform the city, and put Richmond on the map again."

A March charrette brought together most of the executives who funded the development of the Crupi Report, a strategic look into Richmond's future delivered to city leaders last fall. The charrette was designed to correct the flawed designs in the initial draft Downtown Plan, which was developed by hundreds of residents in a series of meetings in 2007.

"Look, it's hard for average citizens to really understand the nuances of modern urban planning and architecture," said Bob Mills, a local architect and the other co-chair of the commission. "It was great to see so many people with such passion for Richmond, and I'm really elated that we could bring the development community into this creative conversation to help put some shape to the plan."

Among the report's recommendations:

• Plastics: Aquathene, a new plasticine coating developed by local chemical company Dupont, will be used to create a clear, protective shell covering the James River from the Huguenot Bridge to the I-95 bridge. Environmentalists laud the proposal, which they say will protect the "look and feel" of the river for generations to come.


• Uniforms: In an effort to restore the vitality of downtown Richmond around the mid-1900s, the commission proposes strict dress requirements for all residents and visitors to the downtown area. Gentlemen will be expected to wear sock garters, suede shoes and bow-ties. Ladies are required to wear hose. Dresses must show no more than two inches of ankle or lower leg.


• Downtown Song: The Planning Commission will launch an "American Idol-like" contest to select a new song celebrating downtown Richmond, Lacy said. City employees will meet outside of City Hall daily to serenade the Mayor and City Council once the song is selected.

Behind the Times

I'm about 321 posts behind, and hope to have several updates -- on the Downtown Plan and on the Crupi Report -- online later this week, depending on what happens on the home front. Keep your eyes peeled for those updates, and a few dozen random cultural tidbits.