
My favorite photo from a few taken today at the Books on Wheels session at the Robinson Theater.
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My favorite photo from a few taken today at the Books on Wheels session at the Robinson Theater.
[...]
As something of an experiment, I’ve added a forum to CHPN. I imagine this as a less structured environment where the conversation can range a bit more widely. Check it out and let me know what you think.
[...]NPR’s On The Media takes a look at community blogging this week in the aftermath of the Seattle Pilot-Intelligencer giving up the press and moving to online only. They do long interviews with Tracy Record from the community blog West Seattle Blog and folks from the [...]
jmurden - why the 6 in your tag (#capone6)? Is the 6th hazmat scare at Cap1 or is this some sort of awkward branding move?
CBS6 - the latter ;-)
@CBS6 - Y’all see how that makes the tagging less effective, right? Other folks&media won’t use branded tags, even [...]
An excerpt from the longish Old Growth Media And The Future Of News:
In fact, I think in the long run, we’re going to look back at many facets of old media and realize that we were living in a desert disguised as a rain forest. Local news may be [...]
Almost done working on a site for Richmond renovation contractor Reveal. Some copy is still to be written and proofed, but the site is polished enough that it was worth getting in place. The photography on this site (none of which is mine, btw) is so good that I [...]
Over the past few days, the New York Times has launched a few local citizen-journalismy type sites that are supposed to have “news, information, entertainment and informed conversation about the things that matter to you, your neighbors and your family, from bloggers and citizens who live, work and create [...]

The front page to the Times-Dispatch at imesdispatch.com is asking folks to email to them their snow photos. The front page to the Times-Dispatch at inrich.com, meanwhile, has picked up on my post to flickr and tag with “RVAsnow” notion.
Hey folks — if you’re in the Richmond area, put your snow photos on Flickr and tag’em with “RVAsnow”. We’ll get a great slideshow that nobody could put together by themselves.
[...]The Culpeper Star Exponent is reporting that “employees of Media General Inc. … will take a mandatory 10 days off without pay during the remainder of the year, President and Chief Executive Marshall N. Morton said in an e-mail to workers this afternoon.”
I would like to offer to buy [...]
VIA North Richmond News: activists make Montrose house symbol of fight against decay
Over the past month, community activists claiming rights as homesteaders have been fixing up 2913 Montrose Avenue, a property that they describe as having been vacant for 3 years. Given 24 hours on Monday to stop work [...]
The new Red Lobster opens on Monday @ 4PM if you’re into that kind of thing.
[...]The two most popular methods of putting a number a site’s traffic are Google Analytics and any of a number of server-side programs. The host for CHPN offers AWStats, for example. The two can serve up wildly different numbers, with the server-side program usually giving much higher [...]
Just from the look of the generic icons served up for my plugins in WordPress 2.7, I figured that there had to be a way of putting my own icons there. Based on sample code that I found here, I was able to figure out how [...]
I’m newish to twitter and I’m trying to figure out how it can be useful and entertaining (or both at the same time). Anybody want to share suggestions about folks to check out or applications or whatever?
[...]I’m tracking this thing where a WordPress install occasionally has the comments get turned off somehow, and Google has not been helpful.
The ability to comment on all posts on the site is suddenly turned off. I’ve seen this on a few sites, though my site that gets by far the [...]
I’ll have a few photos hanging in the show opening this coming Saturday at Eric Schindler Gallery. It is a benefit show for Tricycle Gardens and will feature work by over 20 artists working in sculpture, photography, painting, printmaking, and more.
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Roaming dogs came through this morning and scared one of our outside cats up a tree.
[...]You’ll need to install software from here: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/install.aspx
You can watch it here: http://www.pic2009.org/
The ceremony, I think, is at 11:30AM
[...]Deputies announce drug bust (NV Daily 12/16/08)
He said Murden’s condominium was searched at about 4 p.m. on Dec. 9. There, investigators with the Northwest Virginia Regional Drug Task Force seized two guns and what are believed to be marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms.
“He had his own video surveillance system to [...]
Do you want to participate in shaping Richmond’s future? What if you could share your ideas with other Richmonders, also committed to a healthy and vital city, and work together to make sure a strong citizen voice is heard? Join us on Thursday January 15th to help create Envision Richmond, [...]
Back when we were clowns, one of the other Richmond clowns was Poppy. Even as kids familiar with the process of the make-up and the costumes, we were taken in by the magic of the other performers. One man was a clown in the summer and played Santa later on [...]
Silver Persinger yesterday launched the Richmond City Council Reporter & Telegraph , a site dedicated to “independent and thorough news and opinion [...] with especial focus on Richmond, Virginia City Council, Free Speech, Free Press, and Open Government.”
[...]Evergreen Cemetery is a historic black cemetery in Richmond’s East End and is the final resting place of such notable Richmonders as Maggie L. Walker and John Mitchell, Jr. Opened with no means for perpetual care, [...]
This is the idealized, advertising-sourced version of the dollhouse that I’m building for my wife as part of an ongoing Christmas present that began last year:
This is where I’m at after the first day of actually attaching pieces to [...]
Some other-intended googling turned up this relic from the Time Magazine archives about the then-current school integration/busing controversy in Richmond in February 1972:
School busing, an issue that has been smoldering in Richmond for two years, last month flared up when U.S. District Judge Robert R. Merhige handed down a [...]
I would really like to be able to read:
Two other teenagers are now charged with his murder: 18 year old Marcus Yancey and 18 year old Hakeem Witcher. Both are charged with first degree murder, and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. [via]
My first year in the classroom, in a Henrico County school, Hakeem [...]
Based on how well Church Hill People’s News had been received by the community, over the past 18 months I helped start other such sites across Richmond. Some of these I’ve been publishing while hoping that they’d be picked up by people that, like, actually live in the areas [...]
This is going to be really awesome. The hotel is slated to open in January, the condos are to follow soon after. The views from the condo side are along Broad, Grace, and 6th Street; the apartments are along Grace and 5th.
I’ve added a new piece to CHPN that I’m calling Open Assignments:
I’ve posted a list of Open Assignments, upcoming events and what not that it would be great to have words/photos from or about for the site. [...] The process is easy. Check out the list. If you [...]

I’m completely convinced that Tobacco Avenue and Jocelyn’s Corner have nothing on the greatest satirist in Richmond. Whoever is behind the faux musician/simpleton (and apparently ill-fated) Meade Skelton is doing this so 100% I am awe.
A sample of the typical stream [...]
I’ve put together a list of almost 20 great books on Richmond or specific parts thereof, if you’re into, like, books and shit.
[...]Inspired by a photo in Harry Kollatz’ new book, I went out to Maury/Mt.Olivet Cemetery and took some photos today.
Get any good or interesting photos from election day? Put’em up on Flickr and tag’em with “rva election” so that we can all see what you’ve got!
[...]This is what the night before Christmas used to feel like when I was a kid.
[...]This is what the night before Christmas used to feel like when I was a kid.
[...]Jonathan Curly has a great piece in the Christian Science Monitor that reflects my experiences canvassing for the Obama campaign except that he says it better than I could:
I’ve learned that this election is about the heart of America. It’s about the young people who are losing hope [...]
ABC’s 10 most germy jobs gives the #1 spot to teachers:
The reason for all the germs is, of course, the reason why the teachers are there in the first place.
“Kids’ desktops are really bad, too,” Gerba said. “Probably the dirtiest object in a classroom is a kid’s desktop.”
Children [...]
Do you live in the Semmes/Forrest Hill area and have an interest in community blogging? Hills and Heights is looking for some good hands in which to fall, so now is the time to step up to the plate…
[...]A cabbie picks up a nun.
She gets into the cab, and notices that the VERY handsome cab driver
won’t stop staring at her.
She asks him why he is staring.
He replies:
‘I have a question to ask you but I don’t want to offend you.’
She answers,
‘My son, you cannot [...]
You moms so fat ACORN registered her to vote *three* times.
Yo mama so slutty, even the McCain campaign won’t pull out of her.
Yo moms so fat Russia can see her from *their* house.
Yo moms such a ho they set up robocalls for all her booty calls.
[via]
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Speaking on attracting tourist dollars to our fair city during a mayoral candidates forum in Fulton last night, Bill Pantele said that “there need to be less bloggers” in Richmond. I missed his context in the little surprise of hearing Pantele mentioning bloggers, especially given the recent Pantele/Jack [...]
fivethirtyeight.com has a demographic breakdown of Palin’s “real America” and , surprise surprise, her version is a pale imitation of the real thing:
Even in Richmond, only 11 of the 25,000 or so in attendance at the Palin rally were African-American according to the [...]
I have been asked to give a presentation about community blogs at Saturday’s Community Planning in Richmond workshop. I’ve put a Google Docs version below; I’ve got say, though, that everything looks a little better in Keynote.
One of the more recent community blogs, Monroe Ward, passed quietly yesterday. Paul Hammond, the guy that started the site, abruptly walked away from the undertaking after only 2 months or so of active publishing. The URL has since been reverted to an earlier placeholder version.
[...]I canvassed for Barack Obama again today, this time in the northern edge of Church Hill and in Fairfield Court. My co-canvasser said that in the 1990s it was difficult to find registered voters in areas like Fairfield, but the enthusiasm this year is palpable. A good [...]
Attributed cast roles in the upcoming movie version of Cormack McCarthy’s The Road via IMDB:
The Man, The Boy, Wife, Old Man, The Veteran, The Gang Member, The Thief, Road Gang Leader, Cannibal #2, Militant #2, Amputee Man #1 In Cellar, Cannibal #1, Man In Cellar, Militant, Baby Eater, Woman [...]
If you look behind me in the accompanying photo, note the way-past-Februlights hung on the porch. See for yourself.
[...]I’m 0-1 in any type of public endorsement, but I believe that events have proven that I was correct. With that out there, I have had the opportunity meet many of the folks running for office this season in Richmond and I have developed some opinions about them.
RPS school board candidate Jonathan Mallard has been badmouthing RPS on his blog and other sites. Now he is holding up Petersburg of all places as a better model, apparently attempting to score on RPS efficiency by pointing out that “Petersburg has saved over $500,000 and is expecting to [...]
I just spent 90 minutes or so making calls from the Obama headquarters at 1208 West Marshall Street. I’d walked in cold and asked what I could do: they put me on the phones with a list of names and numbers and a script. I was a touch nervous at [...]
I’ve got another multimedia piece up, this time over at Carver&Jackson Ward News: Green Jobs Now day of action. Pop over and hear for yourself what folks had to say.
I’ve been using Dictaphone [App Store] on my iPhone to record the sounds. It works well, but it [...]
The Outbreak is an “interactive zombie movie” with a flow like the “choose your own adventure” books that I hope kids are still reading. The Outbreak gives you a scene and then stops for you, the viewer, to make choice. The plot splits there and then you probably [...]
Check out Bill Farrar’s The Wild, Wild Web - How do libel laws apply to bloggers, citizen journalists? in the most recent Richmond Magazine. Great quotes :)
[...]director of human resources, vice president of targeted solutions, soon-to-be-formed business-development group “that will create innovative business solutions to attract new customers and help expand a multimedia portfolio of products and services”.
The team will work with other departments to earn revenue from non-traditional sources.
The appointment continues efforts to [...]
This time from the River City Saunter…
[...]I took some photos at the Obama rally today at Byrd Park.