Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hangar 9 closed 'til ?

There hasn't been much activity in fixing the hole in the roof where the rain gets in and stop my mind from wondering. ... Word on the street is, the best music venue on "The (cough, cough) Strip" in C'dale may not be having a Raise the Roof Party, because the owners are approaching retirement age, and months of rebuilding is not an appealing prospect.

Perhaps the business or property will be sold.

Losing Hangar 9 would be a serious blow to the local music scene, because of its excellent stage, sound system, and spacious dance floor.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Keepin' up with Kevin

City Council candidate Kevin Clark has been hired as the Development Specialist for The Women's Center.

Perhaps an update of the The Women's Center web site is on his "to-do" list. The newsletter hasn't been updated since 2006. . . . (I should talk).

Monday, February 23, 2009

This year's Relay for Life has new wrinkle

TheSouthern.com: More teams are needed for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life set for April 25 at the CCHS football field, with a goal of raising $91,000. In addition, a theme has been added to the event: "Blast from the Past,' with walkers urged to dress in styles from the '50s through the '80s."

Today, volunteers will distribute information and answer questions at local businesses and campus dorms. I'd like to ask if an outfit from 1992 would be acceptable.

The group's web site doesn't say, but other details about the event are there, including a snappy group photo.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Chris Wissman's Platform

Got a campaign letter from candidate/councilman Chris Wissmann outlining the issues he feels he has taken the lead on or that the council should act on if he gets elected for another term:

violent crime--organizing neighborhood watch groups and associations

alternative energy technologies--seeking ways to limit the effect of Ameren rate increases

job retention and attraction--fostering the development of home-based and service employers, i.e. Paducah's Artist Relocation Project

Rewriting of the Carbondale Comprehensive plan incorporating the New Urbanism concept

Assisting in SIUC's growth

Expand programming on the city's GOV-16 channel

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Artsy Vartsy

Driving to The Cellar after tweeting Corny West lecture on campus Friday night, I stopped in the Varsity Center for the Arts (WARNING: The Stage Company's VCA web page graphic is huge & site isn't up-to-date) to get a gander at the new Carbondale Community Arts gallery where artists like Kathleen Shaffner can show their stuff.

House Manager, Mindy Beyke, is one of the leading ladies in the continued resurgence of the former Varsity Theater bldg as an entertainment venue.

Currently, in the smaller downstairs theater (the main screen theater is still under reconstruction), actors are performing Leading Ladies, a hilarious comedy by 2-time Tony Award winner, Ken Ludwig -about two actors performing Shakespeare on the Moose Lodge circuit in Amish Country. Show continues at the VCA next weekend, Feb 27, 28 and Mar 1.

In other artsy news, HeartlandArts.Net has announced the winners of its recent photo contest. And the winners are ...

I'm looking forward to tonight's Oscar show, and the twitterverse is abuzz.


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Friday, February 20, 2009

Tulsa: How tweet it is!

Tulsa World:
"The city of Tulsa has joined the tech-savvy legions who are using Twitter to stay in touch.

Twitter, for those unfamiliar, is a free, social-networking, micro-blogging phenomenon that allows users to send and read other's 'tweets,' which are text posts of up to 140 characters meant to answer the question: What are you doing?

The posts are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to those who have signed up to receive them via their computers or mobile devices.

Mayor Kathy Taylor said the city, by joining Twitter, is simply evolving with the latest in communication technology."
Will the City of Carbondale follow suit? Seems like something our own tech-savvy mayor would endorse.

Philosopher as Media Matriculator

Black American History month sponsors (see below) expect Shyrock Auditorium to be SRO for tonight's FREE lecture by Cornel West, the Princeton University professor and media talking-head. Dr. West's most recent book Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom can be previewed at Google Books.

According to his bio at World People's Blog,
West appears in both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions as one of the elders, Councilor West, who serves on the council of Zion. West’s character advises that “comprehension is not a requisite of cooperation.”

In addition, West provides philosophical commentary on all three Matrix films in The Ultimate Matrix Collection along with integral theorist Ken Wilber. West also made multiple appearances on the popular political show Real Time with Bill Maher.[12][13][14][15][16] West was also featured on Starbucks Coffee Cups with The Way I See It #284 quoted- “You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people”. .
More details about the lecture at Saluki Times website.

Dr. West did not come cheap. His book promotion is sponsored by:
Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, Black History Month Committee, Student Programming Council, Office of the Associate Chancellor (Diversity), Undergraduate Student Government, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

No Early Release for Fisher

Former C'dale landlord Henry Fisher will serve the remainder of his term for sexual assault after his appeal on the ground of ineffective council was denied by Williamson Co. judge Ron Eckiss

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Inside Hangar 9

Walking down Illinois, I took a peak inside Hangar 9, which recently had its roof collapse. Looks like a lot of work remains to be done, but a Raise the Roof Party is planned.

Kristin takes her seat

Yesterday, I got out to "The Strip" and walked its length -- all the way to the Interfaith Center, snapping pix and talking to folks, including:

Kristin Gregory Ward, the new Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce, a local girl, a graduate of CCHS, class of 1999. I reminded her, I used to sub at CCHS back then, when it was on Oakland St. Then I gave her permission to use the restroom. ;-)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Not as nice as the Neighborhood Co-op, but still

Last night, I did some shopping at the new Aldi, now that it's moved from its former location (next to Dollar General) across 13 from where Kroger West used-to-be.

Items were arranged "more or less" where they used to be in the old store. Same quality products.

I was told that Aldi is the Walmart of Germany .... but the Aldifoods website tells a different story, of opening its first store in Iowa in 1976.

The one picture here is located where Ponderosa used to be, behind Long John Silver.
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Monday, February 16, 2009

Train station art

From All Aboard Amtrak
Over at Scott Thorn's Daze-ette, there's call out for Artists who can paint these panels at the Amtrak station. There's more to this story -- how Mayor Cole stole this idea from me ;-) -- in my forthcoming blook, Karmadale After Blog. This project has been 2 or 3 years in making. I spoke to Nancy Stemper about his a year ago, and a call for Artists had been made back then, too. I wonder why the delay.

Red dressers

Out for a walk on Saturday and see Jay Cupp and brother Barry, and their friend Joe, and others, parading in red dresses, for the annual Hash House Harriers Red Dress Run, which has its origins in Hasher lore:
... a newcomer was invited to a hash run ran by the San Diego Hash House Harriers. Unbeknownst to her it was a running group and she attended the run in a red dress instead of running clothes. Upon being mocked for wearing such an outfit, she ran the trail and went into a hot tub with the red dress still on. Other Hashers began wearing red dresses as a joke, and the tradition soon became an annual event that spread across the world.
The Cupp brothers own and operate Midwest Cash in Carbondale and Marion. I'd put a link to their site, but it causes Firefox to crash.... (thank G for autosave).

Friday, February 13, 2009

Dome gets new plastic cover

Speaking of roofs, the one at Bucky's Dome Home is looking much better -- not quite a new roof, but a new plastic cover on the original -- and a new fence has been constructed. The Dome restoration effort still needs your support.
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Raise the Roof Party Planned

One of the casualties of the big snow two weeks ago - Hangar 9's roof - collapsed by weight of the snow. No one was in the building at the time. A "Raise the Roof Party" is planned, TBA.
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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Living the Bytelife

Looks like the bitter cold snap has let up at bit... 34 degrees at this writing, and here I am in sunny Colorado where it's 60 degrees. Go figure... And I'm keeping up with goings in The Dale via the ShawneeNet site, including Scott's new "Daze-ette" on Blogspot, which I've added to the ShawneeNet feeds, although the atom RSS feed doesn't quite work. I'll email Scott about it.

Plus, connected on Facebook and MySpace, so, I was reminded by Jessica B about the upcoming WDBX "Midwinter's Night Dream" Ball., Saturday, February 14 at 6:00pm - 11:00pm @ Carbondale Civic Center.

Let's see, what else? Oh yeah "Carter Fredrick." The man with nothing better to do (apparently) than dump anonymous/pseudonymous drek on "DaveX" the WDBX deejay with his own blog. So here's the comment policy... Anonymous comments are fine ... but comments that are merely negative with no supporting info, will be REJECTED. So Carter, please stop wasting my time and yours.

And good news ... more photos coming on this blog. I got a new camera that I'm anxious to try out when I get back to The Dale next week.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Cole claims Bytelife space for Carbondale

In what some Council members are calling "a stunning overreach of power," Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole announced plans yesterday to shut down the Carbondale Bytelife.

"We're making way for progress," he said. "This so-called 'blog' has become little more than a platform for one loud-mouth to constantly remind us of his radio show. I'd rather have two more Sunset Motels than this digital stain on our community."

Former Carbondale activist Dick Gregory agreed with Cole, pointing to Carbondale's seeming inability to keep much of anything in business.

"It would only be a matter of time that the Carbondale Bytelife was going to go out of business," he said. "It's already well-known as a place for anonymous bums to drop in and urinate; why prolong the inevitable slide into obscurity?"

SIUC communications professor Bob Beeble said it could be years before Carbondale is able to produce its own Internet content again.

"We just haven't been able to crack that nut," Beeble said with a sigh. "By the time we got AOL to stop charging Carbondale's bank account every month, the rest of the world had moved on. Most folks around here still think MySpace is somewhere you can drive to-- it's practically hopeless."

Bye, bye, Bytelife

With Scott Thorne launching his own blog Carbondaze Gazette, and me in semi-retirement in Twitterville, and DaveX busy with his "Too Damn Early" radio show and Startling Moniker blog, and the absence of contributions by others, I'd say Bytelife's "daze" are numbered -- unless some eager beaver with a digital camera and curiosity about The Dale steps up to post some updates. Don't look at me . . . I'm out of town.

Scott's move transpired while I was traveling to Colorado, so I did not have time to speak to him in person about his decision, although I managed to a bus-bumped text message to the effect that I thought it was a mistake, and I suggested changing the name of this blog to whatever he wanted, and the rest of us stepping out, so the Bytelife blog would become his, and his alone.

So we'll see what happens. ...

Sunday, February 1, 2009

New Blog

Wanted to give readers a heads up that I finally took a cue from dave and DaveX and started my own blog: The Carbondaze Gazette, so I'll be cutting back a lot on my posting at the Bytelife to concentrate on it.

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Cheap Eats

I see the Aldi's on the east side of town next to Dick's Sporting Goods has a sign up announcing they are open for business.

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