Nashville Is Talking R.I.P.

February 8th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

An excellent interview this afternoon with Brittney Gilbert at Pith in the Wind by Betsy Phillips on the demise of Nashville is Talking.

I’m just going to say it. I miss those first giddy days of blogging and what Betsy said rings true to me as well.

From my perspective, when I was just starting out as a blogger, NiT was a huge deal. There was a vibrant community, people saying a lot of interesting things, and great discussion. The first few times you linked to me, I felt… I don’t know… really thrilled that some important media person was validating my ideas.

I agree. It was a fun time in Tennessee and if I hadn’t have been a part of that community, all the wonderful bloggers I know now I might now have met at all.

As I said at Speak To Power, it truly is the end of an era.

Annoying Autobiographical Pause – Winter Edition

February 8th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

Have you ever had one of those times in your life that basically the best that you could honestly do was only muster up the strength to put one foot in front of the other and that was it.

That’s been me for a bit. January was a sumbitch as the locals say, but February always comes in, gray and relentless, to kick me in the patootie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just regular February stuff. I was talking to Homer the sister this morning and we agreed that most people have a little S.A.D. during this time of the year. Will we see the sun again? My sister and I are like day and night, but we are similar when it comes to cold. We don’t like it and it gives us the blues. It is what it is. I am actually more of a fall person, but damn it all if I’m just a tad more emotional than usual, a bit more sensitive in February. What I end up doing is hiding out. This, my friends, is my hermit month where I feel I’m waiting for something although I have no idea what it is.

Some of you may or may not know about a new blog that some of us have been working on called Speak To Power. I’m pleased with it thus far. We have a vision and we are all getting our sea legs under us as we work toward a common goal of unity.

With that said, I also read this post by one of us this weekend and I had to put the computer down and walk away from the online world for a bit. What I mean is, that once you read something that hits you really hard, it’s best to just take a step back. I keep thinking of the chili because, as I’m his friend, I knew that this would happen. The chili was representative of more than words can express. There are real people behind each and every blog you read. Human beings that feel joy and pain, despair and happiness. It’s our curse and our gift that we must endure such extremes.

It reminded me of, when my mother died 12 years ago this very month, that I sat in her closet, smelling her clothes and wondering what was to become of us.

What would we do?

I’m gonna tell you, I wonder about that each and every February.

The snow finally arrived late today and there were those few moments of giddiness as snow has not visited us much since Homer and my childhood years.  I do not know if it will stick, but I do believe that it makes the world brighter, like it’s cleaning the ground and hugging the trees.

Maybe the snow whispers to us that spring will eventually come back by giving us a clean, white slate.

Everybody Hurts

February 8th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

If you watch this and not run for a tissue, you did better than I did.

Super Bowl Insanity

February 7th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

For once in our fine land of Hoots Proper, we have a sports bar for one day only. (I should mention one that isn’t playing Nascar.)

I will be there. I have been told that I must support the Saints but I will also look joyfully at the Manning Boy (which I’m going to start calling him) and smiling if he does well.

I must be supportive because I’ve been bitching about not being able to watch football in Hoots on the weekend when I wanna. With that said, already making plans for the first Thursday of March madness because it’s my favorite. May have to go back to Memphis that day.

I am flaming my inner sports geek today even though I readily admit I jumped on the bandwagon.

LunchBrag

February 7th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

If I’m going to be in Memphis more, I need to know where to go and eat.

I think I found something to guide my way through the dark tunnels of learning a new place and it’s called LunchBrag.

Jon Stewart Takes On Blog Headlines

February 6th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

Stewart makes a good point about blogs. I’m a blogger and I see the same thing happen a lot.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The Blogs Must Be Crazy
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Groundhog Fight

February 6th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

I don’t know why this made me spew coffee this morning, but it did.

groundhog

First of all, how did the groundhog and the woman get into a fight? Did the groundhog diss the woman’s mother? Was it over the love of another groundhog in some unseemly love triangle?

And why did this make the newspaper? So many mysteries around this one.

From Criggo

An Itch You Can’t Scratch

February 6th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

I love this post. And she’s right, sometime the myth beats out the actual facts of what really happened. But I feel this way to sometimes.

It used to be that the Butcher and I would drive around and we both had this feeling like there was something out there, in the cornfields, or just around the next corner, some itch you just couldn’t quite scratch, but it seemed like, if you drove fast enough or long enough, you might catch up to it.

But you never could.

But getting in the car and chasing it kind of soothed me, in a way.

I was talking to my sis this morning. We haven’t really caught up much lately as life had gotten into the way. When I read B.’s words, I thought of how when she and I were teenagers and we loved the wind in our hair metaphorically speaking.

As I get older, I think of what was, what is and what really happened.

I guess we create our own myths about ourselves, but it is wonderful to remember when life was an open slate. I guess I’m PhilosophicalComa today.

Holy CRAP!

February 4th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

This looks awesome.

Things I Am Tired Of

February 4th, 2010  / Author: newscoma

Welcome to my very tired brain, which is only operating at 60 percent today.

  1. I am tired of snow and ice. It’s gone today, but it looks like it may be returning. I say Boo.
  2. I am tired of gray skies which is making me go all S.A.D.
  3. I am tired of Mabel spreading her dog food all over the floor at the temporary digs because I have stepped on it 500 times. When I think I’ve got it cleaned up, she does it again.
  4. I am tired of my clumsy hands, which have dropped everything I’ve picked up today.
  5. I’m tired of talking about tea parties.
  6. I’m tired of mud. See #1.
  7. I’m tired of my ridiculously stupid hair.
  8. I’m tired of almost getting it but not getting it in the end.
  9. I’m tired of the recession, especially how it’s hit my piggy bank.
  10. I’m tired of insomnia.

So there you go. I realize this is a joyful post, but you can go look at this penguin to cheer you up. They apparently like snow.

Johnny Cash Is The Dude

February 3rd, 2010  / Author: newscoma

Damn.

This is incredible. I’m feeling all Cash tonight.

Do You Think You Make A Difference?

February 3rd, 2010  / Author: newscoma

I struggle sometimes to see the relevance of certain things and then small, significant things happen that put those very things into perspective for me.

I’m in Memphis right now. A stranger gave me a lesson on her views of the infrastructure here and why her city’s politics were fascinating. She did this while she was playing a Megatouch game that was somewhat like a Scrabble game.

“You new here?” she asked while staring at the screen, hitting letters to create words faster than the Blue Angels. My back was to her, so I was surprised that she had spoken to me. She was older, I’d say in her mid-50s, and was wearing a Beale Street T-shirt from 2003.

I nodded. She said she was a schoolteacher and noticed I was taking everything in. She called over the owner of the small bar I stopped into last night and introduced me to her. You could tell that she was somewhat of a regular, as their was an easiness between patron and owner. I told them who I was and we started talking. The conversation inevitably turned to politics when I told them about my part-time job. She told me her name was Sheila. The owner saw a friend of hers and left us to greet one of what I can only assume was a regular customer.

“Memphis politics is an odd funny game,” Sheila said, putting another quarter into the machine, her hands moving automatically into the creation of more words quickly. She eyed the machine and then gave me fleeting glances as to let me know that she was involved in the conversation and the game. “You just learning some of this stuff?”

I told her that I had watched Memphis politics for years, but always from outside the looking glass. She nodded as if she understood.

“I’ve been in the school system here for nearly 30 years. Herenton wasn’t a bad superintendent you know back in the beginning. He fought for us for some things we needed. Then he became mayor and we saw less of the man we knew. You familiar with him?”

I said that I was and that I’d seen him speak a few times.  I told her I didn’t understand why he’d run for mayor again only to say he was going to resign not even three months after the last mayoral election.

“I guess I just don’t get it,” I countered. “That just seemed like a colossal waste of time.”

She laughed, “No one does when it comes to him. You aren’t alone.”

Her game was over and she turned toward me. “Memphis is one of those places that politics doesn’t always make sense. We are the largest city in the state, but it’s like there are two or three cities here. The infighting in this town in incredible. I’ve been in the system myself for a long time and I can tell you that the thing that not only Memphis needs, but this entire state, is for people to be clear so we know what we are getting when we vote. I guess that is everywhere but it makes me lose faith. I want to know what’s going on. I don’t want politicians dumbing it down for me.”

She sighed. I was surprised she was being so frank with me, a total stranger, about her politics. Politics, such as topics such as religion, usually isn’t thrown out there within 15 minutes of meeting somebody.

“The thing is that we watch the fights, and then we find out about the bills these guys pass after the fact. But maybe it’s our fault too. I gave up on being a voice a long time ago when I thought I wasn’t making a difference. Do you think you make a difference?” Sheila looked at me intently.

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