Day 3:At least I will die free

Tonight I drank a PBR in a building in which both David Lauderdale and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger used to work: The Raleigh Times. There's nothing like the mighty carcass of a defunct newspaper building full of yellowing old memories of print days gone by to make one feel ever the more wistful for the sad reality that is the fate of newspaper journalism. Plus, it was turned into a bar, in either an act of humble homage or incredible prescience. The PBR was even at the accurate price range for the despondent journalist: $2 a glass.

Even the N and O is noticeably fading away lately, so said Ginny, with a sad sigh. And Raleigh has always deserved -- and typically had -- a strong paper, as the Times building reminds you with its old issues lining the walls, their headlines blaring for attention over the din of the bar and the fans watching the Hurricanes game.

I can only hope the future bears similar paths for other newspaper buildings should (or when) they become empty, giving at least a fitting use to the remaining ink stains and ghosts of the printed word.

Then I went across town and played "Wave of Mutilation" on a plastic drum set hooked up to a TV for two hours. I even managed to be not terrible at it.

That's front-page news, in my world.


11/20 UPDATE AND CORRECTION: via David Lauderdale--

Arthur and I both worked for The Raleigh Times, but not in that building. The late and lamented PM paper (“Evening Hours Are Reading Hours”; “Today’s News Today”) was on the second floor of the N&O building on McDowell Street when we worked there. (Arthur and I were not there at the same time; he was before me.)

Inverted Soapbox regrets the error.

Day 2 - Decatur is a Hatur

Highlights: First (warm) Chipotle in four months with Adam and Hannah who were in Atlanta for the Coldplay concert; having Cribbs force me to watch the movie Film Geek for no particular reason or because of no specific importance to him.

Lowlights: Paying $260 for new tires at Goodyear. After the aforementioned tire explosion Monday, the Goodyear people of course discovered that one other tire was about to go too. And apparently my car only uses tires made from the rarest gold strands, hand-spun by elves. The lube for my rectum was not included in that price either.

I'm off to Raleigh now with two good tires, and two that will probably melt into a pile of pus on the side fo the highway. FTW!

Day 1- Hilton Head to Atlanta

I left Hilton Head this morning amid a flurry of goodbyes and failed attempts to sell furniture (you know you want to buy a bed from me. Let's do business). 

Good omens: Gas down to $2.04 on Hilton Head, $1.99 in Decatur. 

Bad omens: Tire exploding while doing 70 mph on the highway outside Macon, causing a major unloading of contents of trunk on side of I-75 to extricate donut, followed by discovery that the only unoccupied space in the car in which I could place the busted tire was on top of the contents of the passenger seat, therein completely blocking any and all lines of sight out the right hand side of the car. Yikes.

Day 1: Leaving the rock

Goodbye hilton head. Your trees were always nice.

Combo Breaker

Obama victory celebration videos nationwide

Nov. 4, 2008: the night America officially lost its damned mind with excitement.

These videos are insane. It's hard to watch these and not be struck by the sheer physical force and tangible participation evident in the process this time. I heard NPR state it plainly earlier tonight: you aren't seeing toasts in Democratic party headquarters or hotel ballrooms this time; it's in the streets, streaming out of doorways into the night into a celebrated commonality of experience. No matter what you thought of Obama, I think that causes you to pause for a moment.



On the New York City subway:



Down Penn. Ave. in Washington, right next to the White House:



More D.C.:


Harlem:


Broad Street in Philly



Singing the national anthem at Illinois State University:


Downtown Berkeley:



And maybe the best, a massive Cupid Shuffle outside MLK's church in the ATL:




The list goes on and on. I'm sure YouTube will continue to fill up with these videos overnight. Hot damn citizen journalism is great sometimes. Hard to watch these celebrations and not be immediately reminded of the ye olden Terp riots from aught three. Except, you know, less fire and tits and pepper spray.

I'm trying to think of anything in my lifetime that has generated such a spontaneous, country wide celebration. The release of the last Harry Potter book maybe? It's like Oprah single-handedly won the World Cup out there.

Election day update

Spotted these three girls outside a church mid-island today. They're too young to vote (17, 16 and 17) so they got permission to take off school for the day to wave signs in front of a polling place. They had been flipped off seven times (that's middle finger x 7) as of about 10:45 this morning.

But they also got a lot of honks, notably (in the few minutes I stood there) from semi-trailer trucks.

"We got the Panera truck," one of them said. What a great way to encourage young people to be involved in the process by giving them the middle finger or screaming at them on the side of the road. America!!




I'm actually just posting these pictures here so I can link to them from the live blog I'm doing for the Packet's web site. Yes, our technology is that bad. But literally 10s of readers are dying to know.