From the Tennessee Photographers Pool on Flickr from picgerl.

And he’s quite proud that he didn’t know.

It wasn’t until today that I learned “Hannah Montana” is not her real name.

Carry on.

From Silence

I found this picture this afternoon looking around Flickr at Nashville photos and I decided to give Pink Kitty a gander.

Well, she’s not blogging there anymore and is here.

I’ve been blogging for years at pink-kitty.blogspot.com. I hid behind behind a nom de plume so I could say what I wanted to say and not really worry about someone in the real world finding out who I am or what I said.

I didn’t want to be dooced

She is continuing a brand new journey at her brand new blog, Habhak.

Ceeelcee pontificates about life in the new age.

I was listening to “This American Life” last weekend, (yeah I’ve got a yellow-dog liberal streak down my back, screw you, righties!) and David Rakoff told the story about Vinny Ricardo, who was found dead in his New York apartment after mummifying for over a year. Tragically, with the television on.

It got me to thinking, I pay all my bills via electronic transfer. My doctor and my dentist know that I’m responsible enough to make my own appointments on a regular schedule. The folks where I work know that I’d just as soon disappear to my cabin in Sewanee some day forever anyway and catch up on forty years worth of reading and bird watching.

He goes on to say, if you don’t hear from him on Twitter or on his blog, check up on him in case he’s deceased.

Lovely thoughts this a.m.

Our own Newscoma has a story about a woman who lives in Arkansas and is expecting her 18th child. Michelle Dugger, 41, is due on New Year’s Day. The children range in age from 20 to 6 months. I have no understanding of what her life is like. That’s got to be like $30 a week in milk alone…

Full story. And, the family has a web site.

Edit: They also have a TV show on the Discovery Health Channel, it seems. You can even play “Name that Duggar!”

The next Nashville Geek Tweet-up is scheduled for Thursday, May 22nd, at Flying Saucer. We’ll be there from 7:00 - 10:00 pm. Everyone is welcome, especially those who are looking to meet others in the social networking spectrum. RSVP in the Facebook Event, or in the comments of the post on studio nashvegas.

Come one. Come all. 

Damn. Sue Johanson of Oxygen’s “Talk Sex” is retiring, and the last episode will air on Sunday night (and will count down the year’s top 10 sex toys).

It’s a shame. Sue Johanson’s show was one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen on the telly.

Rachel is right. She will be missed.

- 2 tickets to Bonnaroo 2008
- OurStage Tent
- Free downloads of live Bonnaroo shows
- Free DJ Lessons
- $500 Travel Budget
- AND 2 tickets to Bonnaroo 2009!!!

Go here if you are so inclined.

god bless america… 

and yes, i’ve already ordered these

Jim at the FBI Memos talks twitter.

Now, email is old school. Adults send three emails for every text. With teens, it is the other way around. Young consumers play by their own set of multi-tasking, micro-messaging rules. And most marketers are failing at getting any message through to them. In a world they completely don’t understand, marketers just assume more is better, and they increase the frequency of their old school messages. This is a generation that can do homework, chat on Facebook, keep up with Twitter and text messaging, all at the same time. According to a 2007 study by MTV and Microsoft, 14-24 year olds have an average of 53 people they consider friends. Multi-tasking is all they’ve ever known. They can filter the noise out.

Our girl, Newscoma, has an amazing ability to get the more distinguished commenters over at her place!

Just a few months ago, none other than Norman Lear showed up to comment about the story of Loraine Barr!

This morning, gold medal great Bruce Jenner himself made us squee because ‘Coma made him laugh.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I think it’s pretty darn cool.

No, I didn’t spell that wrong. It represents Michigan and Florida, the two states where the primary process was thwarted. Now that the Democrats are down to the wire and there’s not a final decision, what about those two states?

On one side of the issue, the Democratic party leadership told each state government that if they moved their primary to such and such a date, the result would be that their votes wouldn’t count and the candidates would be told to not campaign there. They were warned ahead of time, and the result was exactly what they were told it would be. From this point of view, these two states should have gone by the rules. They’re whiny crybabies who got their hands (or votes) smacked by daddy.

Read the rest of this entry »

From former Nashvillian Brittney Gilbert.

Then: “Blogging will be the death of legitimate, long-form journalism.”

Now: “Twitter will be the death of legitimate, long-form blogging.”

Then: “I would never have a blog.”

Now: “I would never have a Twitter.”

She’s right.

Twitter is interesting to me. I’ve seen more news broken on Twitter that sometimes takes up to an hour to make it to mainstream news sites.

The Uncle also weighs in.

Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like “Make the World Go Away” made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday.

Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography “Eddy Arnold: I’ll Hold You in My Heart.” His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip.

Arnold was an ambassador of Nashville in many ways.

Read the rest here.

Ginger also weighs in.

Angela compares her definition of a recession in comparison with another person’s definition.

For years, I’ve defined recession as a financial condition causing stress-related indigestion, sensation of lightheadedness at the gas pump/Wal-Mart, and a recurrence of aberrant thoughts, such as: “Hmmm, generic Peanut Butter isn’t so bad.”

Turns out, these aren’t symptoms of a recession at all.

She says it’s good to know but it still doesn’t help her much.

Happy Birthday to John at Lake Neuron, who has helped the folks out at MCB on more than one occasion.

Go wish him well.

Aunt B. writes about a statement that Sen. Hillary Clinton made in an interview with USA Today. She breaks it down in a lengthy post and says this:

I don’t think the next President is going to be some miracle worker.  We sat by for eight years and let George Bush strip from us a whole lot of what it means to be an American.  And a lot of the power he consolidated for himself is going to be incredibly tempting for the next President to keep.  We have gone far off course and the next president is not going to be able to fix it all.  He or she may not even be inclined to fix it all.

I’m not trying to elect a perfect savior.

Read the rest here.

Cuppa reports this:

With a budget of nearly 6 billion dollars, funded by your taxes, the National Science Foundation decided it would be money well spent for a survey asking “Who’s Happier - Conservatives or Liberals”?

Now I can’t say I knew that there was a “scientific” definition of Conservative, Liberal, right-wing or left-wing. And I did not notice any definitions in reports on the survey. But the study says:

More here. 

We get letters and this one might be something you would be interested in if you have ever wanted to be on reality television.

Hello.

I am a casting director for Mark Burnett Productions (Survivor, Apprentice)
in Los Angeles and am working on a new show for him called “Jingles.” It is
a new music competition show where teams of 2-3 will write, sing and perform
product jingles. We will be coming to Nashville at the end of May to
audition musicians, singers and improv performers for this show. Below is a
blurb about it as well you can google Mark Burnett and Jingles to find out
more. I am writing to you in hopes of getting the word out to your readers.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
Thanks,

Jonathan Tanzman
Casting Associate
Jingles

CBS and Mark Burnett Productions have teamed up to find the greatest
undiscovered marketing genius for a new show, “Jingles”! We are looking for
teams of (preferably) 2-4 people to write and perform product jingles. A
team could be anything from a brother/sister team to a singing comedy duo or
a barbershop quartet!

Please email Jonathan at jtanzman  at markburnettprod dot com for more information.
We will be casting in Nashville late May.

I have delivered the word to you, kind readers and here’s more on the show from Variety.

From Christy Frink and the Music City Bloggers Photo pool on Flickr in a shot from March.

Gov. Phil Bredesen announced today that he will ask lawmakers to approve a voluntary buyout program for state employees with a goal of cutting 2,011 positions by the end of July. The 5 percent cut in executive branch positions would save $64 million toward the $468 million in additional cuts in the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 that he said is needed to balance the state budget

More at the Commercial Appeal. 

Jackson Miller went with the family to Jazzfest last weekend.

I have not been back to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. It was pretty sad to see how much destruction was still visible. Once we made it across Lake Ponchatrain it was much worse. The foundations without houses, the houses without occupants, the spray paint on the houses from the rescue effort. It was all very sad.

We got to the train station just as it started to get dark. The hotel was only 10 or so blocks from the train station, but my recollection was that those were not the safest 10 blocks in New Orleans. The thing is, it is hard to pile into a cab as a family of 8 with luggage. So we did what anyone would never do, we walked.

Scout went to a wedding a couple of weeks back to the Crescent City as well.

I look just over to my right and reality sets in and it sets in very very hard. Here I am staying in a hotel on the edge of the French Quarter, getting ready to go celebrate a marriage at a very swanky wedding and getting ready to enjoy a city that has become near and dear to the heart of most every blue-blooded American and to my immediate right underneath an overpass are literally hundreds of tents, sleeping bags, recliners, couches and cardboard boxes containing individuals and entire families displaced by the hurricane. And my heart aches because it’s not over. It’s really not over. Moms, dads, kids and grandparents are living under the interstate and occasionally going out with cups, asking for money. But, really, how good is a dollar going to do? Even a hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? It won’t buy a home.

Blabbermouse has a revelation about family, community service and gardening.

That’s when I realized that community service is all about recognizing and playing to your strengths. Larry was digging holes. Gus was doing the watering. Patrick was eating another donut (to keep his strength up! Otherwise, how can he continue to serve?)  Perhaps my place is not in the garden.

Read the rest.

Yawn. About the most exciting part of the whole thing was the primary where everything is decided, the Republicans. It seems that Republicans are doing a Hillary and refusing to give up, even though their candidates have. As Southern Beale put it:

Last night was also the Republican primary in Indiana and North Carolina. John McCain won of course, but Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney still collected a large percent of votes –large considering two out of those three aren’t even running anymore.

In Indiana, Huckabee collected 10%, Paul 8% and Romney 5%. In North Carolina Huckabee received 12%, Paul 8% and “No Preference” 4%.

What this tells me is that 25% of Republican voters are dissatisfied with John McCain as their candidate and wanted to “make a statement” with their primary vote.

As Newscoma reported last night, Sharon Cobb thinks it’s the beginning of the end and seems to feel that her squeaker victory in Indiana was courtesy of Rush Linbaugh. Meanwhile, in important news, “it’s the economy, stupid” doesn’t seem to be percolating through the political discussions the way our wallets wish it was.

From Chez Beziat