Monday, April 30, 2007
I Know That The Comments Will Go On
Can't really get the crystal ball fired-up over Celine The Intern's career prospects just up the road a'piece on West Paces, but this blog thread just won't quit. I won't let it!
Blogging May Raise Cholesterol, Temper, Attitudes, etc.
Our Atlanta media/politics phenomenon, Doug Monroe aka Peachtree Screed, is interviewed here regarding New Media, porn, aging, defiance, Internets, politics, you-name-it. Be sure to check-out his terrific, Atlanta-based blog roll.
My favorite part? That Pablo dude saying Atlanta Magazine was "stale." Ain't that the truth!
My favorite part? That Pablo dude saying Atlanta Magazine was "stale." Ain't that the truth!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Every Day Should Be A Parade
Whole big 'ole slide show of parade photos from Rusty is here! Next year? The ATL Bloggers' huge-normous float. You heard it here first.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Nothing "Natural" on DNR Board
Let's count the envionmentalists on Georgia's DNR board!
If you can't find any here, then try counting the builders and developers instead. You'll find that more fruitful. Heck, there are two more dentists on the board than people who seek to protect our natural resources. What's with that? Might have to have one of my cellular chats with those dudes too, just for grins... and blogging purposes of course.
And of course, being a polite Southern lady, I'll be sure to invite them to the party for Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper on May 10th!
CITIZEN JOURNALISM MOMENT: Help me call some of these fine folks on the DNR board and invite them to River Revival!
A list of contact info for these folk is here. Another citizen journalism bonus point to see if any of these are also lobbyists.
DNR BOARD MEMBERS AND OCCUPATIONS
Per AJC, Oct 2006
William "Bill" Archer III, Lake Burton
Retired Georgia Power executive vice president; working as a consultant for the utility company on a three-year contract through 2009.
Earl Barrs, Cochran
Owner of Knapp-Barrs & Associates Inc., a Macon timberland management and investment company; also owns other land investment companies.
Jenny Lynn Bradley, Savannah
Community volunteer and former vice president of the Garden Club of America.
Warren Budd, Newnan
New York Life insurance agent.
William A. Carruth, Dallas
President of Aiken Grading Co., a land grading operation; also owns land development companies.
Cader Cox, Camilla
CEO of Riverview Plantation Inc., a quail hunting plantation on the Flint River; also owns a vegetable and timber farm.
Walter Hudson, Douglasville
President of Exxell Developers Inc. and Land Sales Inc., real estate development companies.
Mabel C. Jenkins, Millen
Retired.
Phyllis T. Johnson, Hazlehurst
Co-owner of Thompson Hardwoods Inc., lumber and wood products manufacturer.
Bob Rutland, Covington
Chairman and part owner of Allied Holdings Inc., a Decatur car-hauling business.
Loyce W. Turner, Valdosta
Former state senator, retired veterinarian, retired banker, farmer; runs a family foundation.
James W. Tysinger, Atlanta
Former state senator, retired sales industrial engineer from Westinghouse Electric Corp.
James Walters, Gainesville
President and CEO of James A. Walters Management Co. Inc., which provides management services for consumer finance companies. Managing partner of Walters Income Properties, which owns and manages commercial and office buildings, and shopping centers.
Tom Wheeler, Atlanta
Manager and principal owner of Wheeler/Kolb Co., a Duluth company that manages and leases shopping centers and office parks in the Southeast.
NEW MEMBERS SINCE OCTOBER 2006.
The following individuals replaced Sara Clark (Community Volunteer/League of Women Voters), Ralph Callaway (Callaway Gardens) and Jamie Reynolds (Developer):
Dr. David Allen, Atlanta (Oral surgeon)
Chair emeritus and founder, Oral Surgery Associates; Chair, Georgia Chamber of Commerce
Joe Hatfield, Baldwin
Chairman, Fieldale Farms Corporation
Dr. Gene Bishop, Dawsonville (Oral surgeon)
President, Health Service Centers
VACANT POSITION FOR GOVERNOR PERDUE TO FILL.
AT-LARGE BOARD SEAT PREVIOUSLY HELD BY SALLY BETHEA.
Shame, Sonny, shame. (All of the above are Governor appointees.)
Friday, April 27, 2007
Out 'O The Closet
OK... I'm gonna lay it out on the line here on the SGR: I have always been a Cat Stevens fan. And guess what? He's back!
Praise Jesus.
Praise Jesus.
Let's Commit Citizen Journalism!
Got a couple of citizen journalism irons in the fire: One being micro... about the ludicrous water bills residents in the NW corridor, Underwood Hills and Berkley Park areas, are receiving from the City of Atlanta water department. Our condo association's has tripled since Dec. of 2006, blowing our entire budget for 2007. We are hardly alone.
One neighbor's absurd story is here on WXIA -- thanks to our e-organizing efforts to get some sunshine on this, uh, draining issue. Many many thanks to Jerry Carnes for paying attention to our issues here in intown Atlanta! You're the best. Keep up the work, 'cause we got lots more where than came from. (I'm shooting video of our condos' saga too, in hopes that some MSM will want some of that to supplement their own hard work.)
In other less micro matters... that marvelous Wilson Smith from What Is Going On in Lyons, Georgia, interviewed Sally Bethea from Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper a couple of days ago on his show/podcasts about her being fired from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Board. Sally's interview with Wilson is here.
Sally was on Governor Perdue's Office of Executive Appointments for this year's state boards and commissions, as she has been for the past 8 years.
But Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), the State Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee on Assignments, managed to jettison Sally from the list this Legislative session, saying that since she's also a lobbyist, for an environmentally-minded non-profit, she shouldn't be on the Department of NATURAL RESOURCES board, although she's been both since 1999.
So that kinda begs the question... is Tommie Williams now going to purge all state boards and commissions of their lobbyista? He should do unto others as he did to Sally, right? He surely is quite the ethically-minded politician, and obviously feels a burning need to clean house right about now... especially of those pesky environmentalists!
Wilson and I want to get a master list of the 300+ Governor appointees to state boards for 2007, and just run a quick lil 'ole check of names on that list by the list of registered state lobbyists -- just to make sure there are no other conflict-of-interest discrepancies he may have overlooked. If there are any conflicts, Wilson wants to interview them too!
So I called the Governor's Office of Executive Appointments (404-656-1776) yesterday to try to get me that list. A woman named "Celine" (she wouldn't give her last name) refused to give me the list, saying it wasn't "released to the public."
So I then called Josh Willis, a cool guy and very interested in social media, who's the Senate Majority Leader's Chief of Staff, and I proceeded to have a nice chat with him, mostly about high-speed access across Georgia. But he eventually said he didn't have The List, go figure, and referred me instead to the Lt. Governor's office.
At that point, I needed a nap! So I will resume trying to find The List today... so we can just make sure Sally Bethea isn't the only Governor appointee to a board who is also a lobbyist. Call me a silly girl, but I get the nagging feeling she's not the only one.
I think that Senator Tommie Williams, from Wilson's neck of the woods, just needs a little citizen journalism help in getting rid of EVERYONE on a Georgia state board with some of those pesky "conflicts of interest." So I'm so glad we bloggers and podcasters are here to help our Senate Majority Leader with this rather annoying little task, eh!?
Anything you can add to this, uh, effort and conversation, please lemme know.
UPDATE: Thanks to the cache of PP, and not the SGR, as of 1:45pm Friday, I have an UPDATE for ya:
Celine The Intern! Bless her heart. She’s got a great career in politics (or journalism) I must say. Young bulldog & excellent gatekeeper. I’d hire her in a sec.
The Governor’s Office of Executive Appointments, Celine’s boss in other words, almost immediately contacted me (on my cell too) as soon as this post went up on PP. (Thanks Erick!) They are going to fax me the list of names first thing on Monday. I’d get it now from ‘em, but I gotta run go be mom for the rest of this lovely day.
Enough name calling and blogging! Going to go commence weekend of fun.
I’ll get back on this list thingee first thing Monday. If anyone else needs The List sooner, then you’ll have to contact the office of Execu- Appointments (404-651-7735) yourself.
And see folks, Republicans and Democrats can work together! Even in this state.
One neighbor's absurd story is here on WXIA -- thanks to our e-organizing efforts to get some sunshine on this, uh, draining issue. Many many thanks to Jerry Carnes for paying attention to our issues here in intown Atlanta! You're the best. Keep up the work, 'cause we got lots more where than came from. (I'm shooting video of our condos' saga too, in hopes that some MSM will want some of that to supplement their own hard work.)
In other less micro matters... that marvelous Wilson Smith from What Is Going On in Lyons, Georgia, interviewed Sally Bethea from Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper a couple of days ago on his show/podcasts about her being fired from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Board. Sally's interview with Wilson is here.
Sally was on Governor Perdue's Office of Executive Appointments for this year's state boards and commissions, as she has been for the past 8 years.
But Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), the State Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee on Assignments, managed to jettison Sally from the list this Legislative session, saying that since she's also a lobbyist, for an environmentally-minded non-profit, she shouldn't be on the Department of NATURAL RESOURCES board, although she's been both since 1999.
So that kinda begs the question... is Tommie Williams now going to purge all state boards and commissions of their lobbyista? He should do unto others as he did to Sally, right? He surely is quite the ethically-minded politician, and obviously feels a burning need to clean house right about now... especially of those pesky environmentalists!
Wilson and I want to get a master list of the 300+ Governor appointees to state boards for 2007, and just run a quick lil 'ole check of names on that list by the list of registered state lobbyists -- just to make sure there are no other conflict-of-interest discrepancies he may have overlooked. If there are any conflicts, Wilson wants to interview them too!
So I called the Governor's Office of Executive Appointments (404-656-1776) yesterday to try to get me that list. A woman named "Celine" (she wouldn't give her last name) refused to give me the list, saying it wasn't "released to the public."
So I then called Josh Willis, a cool guy and very interested in social media, who's the Senate Majority Leader's Chief of Staff, and I proceeded to have a nice chat with him, mostly about high-speed access across Georgia. But he eventually said he didn't have The List, go figure, and referred me instead to the Lt. Governor's office.
At that point, I needed a nap! So I will resume trying to find The List today... so we can just make sure Sally Bethea isn't the only Governor appointee to a board who is also a lobbyist. Call me a silly girl, but I get the nagging feeling she's not the only one.
I think that Senator Tommie Williams, from Wilson's neck of the woods, just needs a little citizen journalism help in getting rid of EVERYONE on a Georgia state board with some of those pesky "conflicts of interest." So I'm so glad we bloggers and podcasters are here to help our Senate Majority Leader with this rather annoying little task, eh!?
Anything you can add to this, uh, effort and conversation, please lemme know.
UPDATE: Thanks to the cache of PP, and not the SGR, as of 1:45pm Friday, I have an UPDATE for ya:
Celine The Intern! Bless her heart. She’s got a great career in politics (or journalism) I must say. Young bulldog & excellent gatekeeper. I’d hire her in a sec.
The Governor’s Office of Executive Appointments, Celine’s boss in other words, almost immediately contacted me (on my cell too) as soon as this post went up on PP. (Thanks Erick!) They are going to fax me the list of names first thing on Monday. I’d get it now from ‘em, but I gotta run go be mom for the rest of this lovely day.
Enough name calling and blogging! Going to go commence weekend of fun.
I’ll get back on this list thingee first thing Monday. If anyone else needs The List sooner, then you’ll have to contact the office of Execu- Appointments (404-651-7735) yourself.
And see folks, Republicans and Democrats can work together! Even in this state.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Blogosphere's Strange Fruit
This is kinda strange and unexpectedly bizarre... to read Tania's account of how the piece of Emory grad school trash that broke-up her first marriage contacted her out of the blue, via her blog. Unbelievable.
Tania used to send me poems she wrote about the death spiral of that marriage for my now-defunct website, in the dot bomb days, WaySouth.com. (I miss that zine. It was so pretty; before websites were pretty.) You've never read anything so raw and seething and just plain soaked in pain and memory with odd spikes of hope as some of those poems. They're available in her book. I hope she won't mind me re-printing one here.
Why I Still Cry at Weddings
Tania Rochelle
I'd like to tell you it's because
I sense the priest is a pedophile,
or know the pianist beats
his wife because she stutters.
I want to say the church is too hot,
that the depiction of an angel
holding John the Baptist's head
like she's about to drop-kick it
scares me; that I'm whoozy
from the godawful heat
and the blood oozing from the lamb
in stained glass. I'd mention
bad dresses snatched from the backs
of closets, safe mauves, and pantyhose.
I could claim memories
of my own failed marriage, like tiny
glass shards in my fingertips, still hurt
when I press down, though I only
glimpse them in a certain light;
claim I've forgotten what it was like
to look at him the way
this bride is looking at this groom,
the way her father looks at her
mother, swept into the vortex
that is past and future all at once,
a shuffle of snapshots—first grade,
the goofy kid at the birthday party,
prom. But it's because her gown
says This is the ball,
and midnight is a long way off;
and because I'm in love again,
which is akin to believing
in my own immortality:
so much hope in one room.
Tania used to send me poems she wrote about the death spiral of that marriage for my now-defunct website, in the dot bomb days, WaySouth.com. (I miss that zine. It was so pretty; before websites were pretty.) You've never read anything so raw and seething and just plain soaked in pain and memory with odd spikes of hope as some of those poems. They're available in her book. I hope she won't mind me re-printing one here.
Why I Still Cry at Weddings
Tania Rochelle
I'd like to tell you it's because
I sense the priest is a pedophile,
or know the pianist beats
his wife because she stutters.
I want to say the church is too hot,
that the depiction of an angel
holding John the Baptist's head
like she's about to drop-kick it
scares me; that I'm whoozy
from the godawful heat
and the blood oozing from the lamb
in stained glass. I'd mention
bad dresses snatched from the backs
of closets, safe mauves, and pantyhose.
I could claim memories
of my own failed marriage, like tiny
glass shards in my fingertips, still hurt
when I press down, though I only
glimpse them in a certain light;
claim I've forgotten what it was like
to look at him the way
this bride is looking at this groom,
the way her father looks at her
mother, swept into the vortex
that is past and future all at once,
a shuffle of snapshots—first grade,
the goofy kid at the birthday party,
prom. But it's because her gown
says This is the ball,
and midnight is a long way off;
and because I'm in love again,
which is akin to believing
in my own immortality:
so much hope in one room.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
ATL Web 2.0 Peeps - I Need Your Help!
Homies... Jim Long had a terrific idea: broadcast the Inman Park Parade live on Saturday (from Sas and Pauline's hot yellow Corvette-For-A-Day) over Ustream.tv or ComVu.com! It's such a visually-rich event too, and we can make a little ATL-based broadcasting his & herstory at the same time.
To make this happen, we'd need a video-enabled (3G) phone, and an operator for it. Info on those kinda phones here. I'll have my hands full with ridin' and wavin', minding kids and trying to keep my wig on straight. Publicizing the broadcast too.
Anyone out there who can participate, and has the cool toys to do so, get in touch with me at spaceygracey at bellsouth dot net.
Let's have some serious 2.0 fun with this parade on Saturday at 2pm!
BONUS: Pulver live on ustream.tv right now for some live inspiration should you need some of that!
To make this happen, we'd need a video-enabled (3G) phone, and an operator for it. Info on those kinda phones here. I'll have my hands full with ridin' and wavin', minding kids and trying to keep my wig on straight. Publicizing the broadcast too.
Anyone out there who can participate, and has the cool toys to do so, get in touch with me at spaceygracey at bellsouth dot net.
Let's have some serious 2.0 fun with this parade on Saturday at 2pm!
BONUS: Pulver live on ustream.tv right now for some live inspiration should you need some of that!
Pauline and Sas To Parade This Weekend
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: The perfectly delightful, wildly imperfect Inman Park parade is this Saturday at 2pm. The gals of TrueGritz are scheduled into the lineup this year... Look for their lemon-yellow Corvette. Or wigs, of course. Come have some loopy, loopy family fun and games this weekend! 
Order of The Phoenix Looks Amazing
Further fueling my fantasy of being ravaged by Snape (Alan Rickman) and rescued, and ragaved some more of course, by Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). What a bodice-ripper those Harry Potters can be, if you use a little, uh, adult imagination. There's something for every age group, especially us goth-minded soccer moms, in these movies. They're like a super-charged, sci-fi Jame Eyre or Wuthering Heights really. Order of The Phoenix introduces Delores Umbridge too, although we already know her 'round here as Laura Mallory.
WABE WARNING: Lois Reitzes playing something "skippy."
WABE WARNING: Lois Reitzes playing something "skippy."
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Movie Screening Today At 5pm
If you can make it shortly, a former news colleague of mine, Linda Pattillo, will be screening her documentary, The Breast Cancer Diaries, at 5pm today at Landmark Midtown Theaters as part of the Atlanta Film Festival, now under way.
Please come if you can and meet Linda. Anything she's had her hand in is going to be absolutely first-rate, and the film features the photography of her husband, David Murray. I used to run film for David when he was shooting sports for some wire service back in the early 90's, the days when the Braves were winning every game in town, so I could get in free, and way up close, to all their playoff games. David is an amazing shooter, and one of the nicest, kindest people I've ever met. David' sister is the person who came down with cancer; the one who's story Linda will tell us, on film, at 5pm.
Hope to see you there.
Please come if you can and meet Linda. Anything she's had her hand in is going to be absolutely first-rate, and the film features the photography of her husband, David Murray. I used to run film for David when he was shooting sports for some wire service back in the early 90's, the days when the Braves were winning every game in town, so I could get in free, and way up close, to all their playoff games. David is an amazing shooter, and one of the nicest, kindest people I've ever met. David' sister is the person who came down with cancer; the one who's story Linda will tell us, on film, at 5pm.
Hope to see you there.
Senate Leaders Who Hate (God's) Clean Rivers
Careful how you spell the name Tommie Williams, our Bible-waver of a State Senate Majority Leader who hates environmentalists who may actually want to, gasp, clean-up God's Great Earth and rivers... if you type in www.Tommy Williams dot com, you get Designing Menz -- ones who obviously adore that classic High Bordello style!
Hilarious. For a minute, my bad spelling had me really going there.
Hilarious. For a minute, my bad spelling had me really going there.
DNR Board Members
I just had to send this letter to the DNR Board about Sally Bethea from the non-profit environmental dot org, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, being let go from their Board. Write back soon, DNR!
Dear DNR Board:
Are there members of the DNR Board who pressured Senator Tommie Williams’ Committee on Assignments to drop Sally Bethea from the DNR Board? As a blogger-journalist, video producer and taxpayer, I certainly would like to know who felt Sally shouldn’t be on the board alongside them.
And what are the backgrounds of all the DNR members? Where are all the others employed? Who do they answer to? Do you have a list of who they work for on your website?
Please send tons of great information when you can. We Atlanta bloggers alone will be sticking with this situation/story. It’s a good one! Lots of questions abound. And if anyone on the DNR board would like to do an on-camera interview, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Grayson D.
President
WaySouth Media, Inc.
Of course, if Sally Bethea was fired from this particular State office's board for being a paid lobbyist (in her case for a non-profit), as Tommie Williams has claimed was the reason, even though she's been a lobbyist and on the DNR board since 1999, shouldn't all lobbyists sitting on ANY State office board now also be fired? Surely there are others out there. DOT maybe?
Dear DNR Board:
Are there members of the DNR Board who pressured Senator Tommie Williams’ Committee on Assignments to drop Sally Bethea from the DNR Board? As a blogger-journalist, video producer and taxpayer, I certainly would like to know who felt Sally shouldn’t be on the board alongside them.
And what are the backgrounds of all the DNR members? Where are all the others employed? Who do they answer to? Do you have a list of who they work for on your website?
Please send tons of great information when you can. We Atlanta bloggers alone will be sticking with this situation/story. It’s a good one! Lots of questions abound. And if anyone on the DNR board would like to do an on-camera interview, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Grayson D.
President
WaySouth Media, Inc.
Of course, if Sally Bethea was fired from this particular State office's board for being a paid lobbyist (in her case for a non-profit), as Tommie Williams has claimed was the reason, even though she's been a lobbyist and on the DNR board since 1999, shouldn't all lobbyists sitting on ANY State office board now also be fired? Surely there are others out there. DOT maybe?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Take TV Stations And "Burn 'Em To The Ground"
(Sorry @newmediajim, hate to embed your nemesis on the SGR, but I love that hand-wave thingee he does.)
Gone and Done It Now
I am sooooo pissed with the Georgia State Senate and their leader from Lyons, Georgia, Tommie Williams, that I can't see straight right now. They fired a fine person, Sally Bethea, from the Board of Natural Resources on Thursday.
Why? Because she also lobbied for good, clean, viable drinking water for Atlanta, and for clean, viable rivers. And oh yeah... one other reason she was fired... she asked too many "tough" questions in board meetings. From the AJC today:
Why? Because she also lobbied for good, clean, viable drinking water for Atlanta, and for clean, viable rivers. And oh yeah... one other reason she was fired... she asked too many "tough" questions in board meetings. From the AJC today:
Bethea, who rankles some of the board's other members with persistent questions and strong opinions particularly on water quality issues, said she viewed her role as advocating for a healthy environment.
"I represent the people of this state who want clean air, clean water, quality of life, and you can't sit still on that board and not ask questions and not ask about potential problems, " Bethea said. "Certainly there are some good people on the DNR board who care about Georgia's environment, but the dominant voices are the voices of the growth industry who will stop at nothing to make money off Georgia's natural resources."
The full AJC story is here. My initial reaction to the news is here in Peach Pundit, where I first read about it. And the video promo I just made for Sally's organization, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, is here.
This makes it more urgent and more critical then ever that you folks come to the fundraiser for UCR on May 10th... now more than ever does the organization need your help; not just to help clean and protect our rivers, but to protect decent, good, environmentally-minded people from our Republican-controlled Legislature.
Unbelievable...
Folks, the Chattahoochee is it. All she wrote. That's all we've got for drinking water. If we let it deteriorate into pure filth, then that's what we live with, drink, and play in -- pure filth. Like we weren't living with the filth already down there at The Gold Dome.
Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope.
Shit... Stormtroopers... gotta run!
The YouTubed Campaign
Here's Joe Trippi, who's now joined the Edwards' campaign, on how YouTube will impact politics and political campaigning. This vid-politics stuff is my crack! Check out PrezVid for more enabling "product." (Full disclosure: I've started the YouTube initiative for the James Marlow for Congress campaign.)
Jeff Jarvis of PrezVid interviews Joe Tripp at the Radio Television News Directors Association/National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Help Save Our Books... And Teresa Weaver
The AJC seems to think that as people migrate to the Internet, they won't be needing books. And thus they won't need a mighty fine literary pages editor, Teresa Weaver, either. Nothing could be further from the truth.
First off... I just started yet another new book, The Glass Castle (mavelous) just this afternoon. Imagine that. I read almost as much as I'm on the Internets, which is a hell of a lot. There's NEVER been a time in my life when I wasn't reading at least 2-3 books at a time. But bully for me.
What really, really pains me good about the AJC's decision to give-up on books is their decision to let go of the book editor, Teresa Weaver. Now that just makes me madder than a hornet. I want to personally go slap that She Who Must Not Be Named (Jule-ee-duh Wallace) silly for this one clueless-decision alone.
Here's where it gets personal... the first editorial I ever published was green-lighted by Teresa when she was on the op/ed pages at the AJC. (Since the AJC's archives were not cached on the Internet back then, I can't link you to it, although if I wasn't so lazy I guess I could create a PDF... maybe later.)
It was an essay really, not so much an editorial; one not unlike the latest memoir-of-a-really-wacked childhood work I'm reading today. At the time I wrote that first essay, I was organizing my (first and only) rather tres she-she wedding... all by myself as I had "the only mother in America" completely and utterly disinterested in a daughter's wedding details.
I wrote about how I once tried to engage my loopy mother in some girly-girl chit chat about dress styles and champagne cocktails, and she (Mom) merely sang opera to me over her end of the phone line, while screeching periodically at her numerous "damn cats" while she shooed them off her porch with her broom, way far away, so it seemed, out in the pine woods of South Carolina. Mom had never organized a damn thing in her life, and she wasn't going to, poof, suddenly morph into Martha Stewart just for her only daughter's Big City wedding. The thought of even driving to Atlanta scared the bejeezus out of her anyway.
I gave-up on trying to interest Mom in wedding planning, and merely let her attend the event au natural where she entertained the guests marvelously with her unique, loopy freestyle babble about growing organic eggplants and teaching illiterate country folk's kids South Carolina history, which she knows like the back of her long, elegant, aristocratic hands, even though she ignores her thoroughly blue-blood upbringing too, and is far more comfortable in her life as a peasant.
Come to think about it, Mom was never at all interested in my wedding or my lame attempt at marriage, and she hasn't really said much to me ever since the marriage failed, although I know it (the failure) hurt her more than it hurt me. She might pretend that divorce doesn't exist, but at least she never once lectured me about my gross shortcomings as a wife. For that alone I am immensely grateful for her MO of total disengagement.
To this day, writing that first essay helped me begin to work through a lifetime of confusion about my mother's, uh, detachment from the minutia of my life, and to come to terms with it and begin to learn to accept my mother for... well, for whatever she is! And "normal" she never was -- and never will be.
Teresa Weaver green-lighting that essay gave me the encouragement and the impetuous to begin to be whatever I was really meant to be; to start exploring, seriously, my own artistic inclinations, should I ever stumble across any. I started a blog about my life because Teresa Weaver once used to publish my essays. She thought they were interesting enough to print, and thus she gave me that desperately needed stamp of, yes, mainstream approval I required to move forward with non-fiction writing, no matter the platform.
Today, I can't stop reading, and that too is often because of a book Teresa reviewed at the AJC. But more importantly, on a deeply personal, visceral level... because of Teresa Weaver, I will never stop writing.
And now I've got to stop because I'm trying really hard not to cry in front of my kid... but others are able to do more than shed sentimental tears; there's a petition to Help Protect Atlanta's Book Review circulating online. Please sign when you can.
HT: PS
First off... I just started yet another new book, The Glass Castle (mavelous) just this afternoon. Imagine that. I read almost as much as I'm on the Internets, which is a hell of a lot. There's NEVER been a time in my life when I wasn't reading at least 2-3 books at a time. But bully for me.
What really, really pains me good about the AJC's decision to give-up on books is their decision to let go of the book editor, Teresa Weaver. Now that just makes me madder than a hornet. I want to personally go slap that She Who Must Not Be Named (Jule-ee-duh Wallace) silly for this one clueless-decision alone.
Here's where it gets personal... the first editorial I ever published was green-lighted by Teresa when she was on the op/ed pages at the AJC. (Since the AJC's archives were not cached on the Internet back then, I can't link you to it, although if I wasn't so lazy I guess I could create a PDF... maybe later.)
It was an essay really, not so much an editorial; one not unlike the latest memoir-of-a-really-wacked childhood work I'm reading today. At the time I wrote that first essay, I was organizing my (first and only) rather tres she-she wedding... all by myself as I had "the only mother in America" completely and utterly disinterested in a daughter's wedding details.
I wrote about how I once tried to engage my loopy mother in some girly-girl chit chat about dress styles and champagne cocktails, and she (Mom) merely sang opera to me over her end of the phone line, while screeching periodically at her numerous "damn cats" while she shooed them off her porch with her broom, way far away, so it seemed, out in the pine woods of South Carolina. Mom had never organized a damn thing in her life, and she wasn't going to, poof, suddenly morph into Martha Stewart just for her only daughter's Big City wedding. The thought of even driving to Atlanta scared the bejeezus out of her anyway.
I gave-up on trying to interest Mom in wedding planning, and merely let her attend the event au natural where she entertained the guests marvelously with her unique, loopy freestyle babble about growing organic eggplants and teaching illiterate country folk's kids South Carolina history, which she knows like the back of her long, elegant, aristocratic hands, even though she ignores her thoroughly blue-blood upbringing too, and is far more comfortable in her life as a peasant.
Come to think about it, Mom was never at all interested in my wedding or my lame attempt at marriage, and she hasn't really said much to me ever since the marriage failed, although I know it (the failure) hurt her more than it hurt me. She might pretend that divorce doesn't exist, but at least she never once lectured me about my gross shortcomings as a wife. For that alone I am immensely grateful for her MO of total disengagement.
To this day, writing that first essay helped me begin to work through a lifetime of confusion about my mother's, uh, detachment from the minutia of my life, and to come to terms with it and begin to learn to accept my mother for... well, for whatever she is! And "normal" she never was -- and never will be.
Teresa Weaver green-lighting that essay gave me the encouragement and the impetuous to begin to be whatever I was really meant to be; to start exploring, seriously, my own artistic inclinations, should I ever stumble across any. I started a blog about my life because Teresa Weaver once used to publish my essays. She thought they were interesting enough to print, and thus she gave me that desperately needed stamp of, yes, mainstream approval I required to move forward with non-fiction writing, no matter the platform.
Today, I can't stop reading, and that too is often because of a book Teresa reviewed at the AJC. But more importantly, on a deeply personal, visceral level... because of Teresa Weaver, I will never stop writing.
And now I've got to stop because I'm trying really hard not to cry in front of my kid... but others are able to do more than shed sentimental tears; there's a petition to Help Protect Atlanta's Book Review circulating online. Please sign when you can.
HT: PS
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Kid Power Radio
Adults aren't the only ones having a blast creating original media... so are the kids. Here's Kid Power Radio, with your host, Max. Max is nine. Yeah!
Old Media Recreates
Saw Jay Bookman playing pinball at Manuel's last night... begging the question: Do you get a Pulitzer if you get to Level IV?
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