OMFG

WTF!!! :(:(:(:(

Although it was kind of cool, I guess, that the Stone Temple Pilots chose to reunite in Columbus (err, um) let's just say I'm glad I was in Nelsonville for the Folk Music Festival the other weekend ago.

Some pictures from Columbus Underground

Here is what the crowd at Rock on the Range looked like.



Ok so not so bad. They could be protesting a China-ruled Tibet or like doing an art project or something.

Here it is on a more intimate scale.



Lots of dirty, dirty people. At least the Juggalos have a theatrical sense.

Anyway, maybe all the resididual white trash mojo the cleanup crew missed at Crew Stadium is the reason the soccer people were acting so artarded.

(a youtube video that showed Crew fans lobbing racial slurs at New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph was apparently taken down from Youtube for copyright violations...which they have plenty of...)

Slew of Scientologists stirs scribe...I give up

I'm no artist when it comes to headlines ("It Takes Tuba", a story I wrote for the Columbus Alive comes to mind), so I really hate to judge... but it's something that I do.

Lyndsey Teter, whose name by the way makes me jealous in ways that are difficult to express (just check out the title of her blog,) wrote another cover story for The Other paper this week about the Anonymous nerds protesting Scientology as part of Project Chanology.

Judging from how she had a pretty good and potentially photogenic story about the Hell City Tattoo Convention tucked inside, it was probably fairly impromptu coverage.

The headline? Stalking the Scientologists. Hmm. *yawn* Seems forced. The alliteration reminds me of the two main headlines from Otterbein's student paper, the Tan & Cardinal (of which I am an alumni):

" Sounds of sirens send students seeking shelter" and "Sex slave in suburbia". Maybe I'm just jealous... I quit after four words in the title for this blog post. Seems so cheesy to me it's like nails on a chalkboard. Maybe it's just me.

I digress. Of course this hot news item was totally broken here at RFT first. Well not really, because my reporting was just pretty much Wikipedia-based (like TV news), but I tried. Sort of.

Teter's story missed out some of the real hardcore nerdiness that inspired this event, but she did a pretty good job, especially considering how convoluted the whole thing is.

The saga continues!

At least media coverage like this means the Wikipedia editors won't delete their article like they did back when Anonymous was still razzing Hal Turner.

Ps, sorry for all the external links, but it's something that bloggers are supposed to do. Two bits to anyone who actually clicks through to all of them.

Cavs disappoint

:(

I have a lot of respect for sportswriters who are able to rebound from abject despair to actually pen a few hundred words about heartbreaking losses like Game 7. I haven't even been able to post anything until today, a couple days after the fact. (another strike for the immediacy of blogging... at least for me)

Terry Pluto has been writing about Cleveland sports since I can remember, and trust me, he bleeds Cleveland. He was able to muster something, even if it was in bullet point form.

Oh well. Back to the time-honored Cleveland sports tradition of praying for a miracle and waiting for next year.

Anonymous explained

My buddy Stephen over at Stars Blink Out expounds on what Anonymous is better than I can.

Enjoy.

Cavs win! Cavs win!

That's more like it!

A great overall team effort. I know it's a longshot, but this could mark the Cavs' new unit finally coalescing, just in time for the middle of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

I'm not impressed with the Celtics -- they don't have half the poise of the Pistons.

I still think the Cavs will win in six.

Anonymous protests Scientology center in Columbus

Ok, I don't have any real information about this, but my friend Adam called to tell me there was a protest at the Columbus Scientology center at High Street yesterday (if you click on the link you'll notice its description has been doctored a little.)

Apparently it was members of Anonymous and they were all wearing Guy Fawkes masks. The above picture is from the Project Chanology entry in Wikipedia.

I couldn't get around to getting down there, but here are some Anonymous/Scientology Youtube videos from a few months ago for your perusal.

If you don't know what Anonymous is (and I'm not entirely sure... not nearly nerdy enough), it's basically a loose conglomeration of interent nerds who like to antagonize people. They're loosely responsible for Rick Rolling and a ton of stupid internet Memes. They're related to 4chan somehow and despite being a Wikipedia addict, I've never really invested the emotional energy to figure out how.

As with most Internet-only things, it's really convoluted. It's definitely an interesting story, but I can tell you it hasn't' gotten any local media coverage because the Dispatch and its readership has only faintly heard rumors about the Internet existing. Speaking as someone who has been frustrated by reporting technology issues for the Dispatch, the effort it would take to explain to the Dispatch's audience (old people) the subtle differences between /b, Anonymous, and 4chan would require a little more ink than the story deserves.

Not to mention it has nothing to do with sex maniacs sodomizing each others' children or girls bearing their breasts on Facebook or whatever.

Cavs need to bounce back

(quick sidenote on the logo: Finding the old school Cavs logo is pretty hard -- it's buried a little bit on Google image search. Hopefully I can bump it up a little bit.)

After having an impressive series against Washington, during which LeBron definitely took his share of cheap fouls, LeBron's field goal percentage in the second round makes Bob Sura look like an efficient scorer.

The Cavs are a pretty good defensive team (Mike Brown is actually being called a defensive guru/wizard/expert by the media), but after getting absolutely obliterated by the Spurs in the Finals last year, they could learn a thing or two from the Celtics about defending the pick and roll.

That being said, coming in to the series I really expected the Cavs to win it in six. LeBron is too good not to adjust, and it honestly surprised me how badly they were beaten in Game 2 (shows how important it was to win Game 1 when they had the chance.)

The Celtics are good, but lack the poise of teams like the Spurs, the Pistons, etc.

LeBron apparently was working on his shot in practice yesterday.

Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer wrote that Lebron "ricocheted trick shots off the backboard and swished left-handed jumpers, trying anything as he battled in a fierce game of "P-I-G" against the Cavs' PR director.

This reminds me of a story Cody Butzer, a kid I went to Northwest High School in Canal Fulton with told me. (I included the link to the Wikipedia article so you can peruse their bullying statistics)

I'll give you the short version, but Cody, who was crazy (but sometimes kind of good-natured) and is apparently in jail right now, was a state wrestling champ. Here's a video of him hurting a guy in a MMA bought on Sports Time Ohio. Character note: notice how good-natured he is after the poor guy is carried off on a stretcher.

Northwest used to have another wrestling champ who lost his athletic eligibility after getting caught breaking into people's houses while committing other illegal activities and videotaping it (I can't find a written newspaper record of the event, but trust me, it's gone down in Canal Fulton lore.)

This guy, who shall remain nameless (no reason to tarnish his name in Google, but he is wrestling in D1 right now), transferred to St. Vincent St. Mary’s in Akron, where LeBron was starring at the basketball. Cody was still friends with this other guy, and went to a few parties where LeBron happened to be. Apparently LeBron would play HORSE with people, but would have to shoot left handed.

Seeing as how he is ambidextrous, he would win anyway.

I know that resembles a lame story where I detail my pathetically limited connection to someone famous, but hopefully, in Game 3, LeBron will look like he is back in high school.

Rudy G Leaves CD101

I'm a little late to get on this. Blogs are great at reporting "NEW" news, except when they're not. Apparently Andyman over at CD101 fired Rudy Gerdeman right before Independent Playground was supposed to air, presumably leaving poor Tom to host the show himself.

According to Chris DeVille over at the Columbus Alive:

Gerdeman was unhappy with his job conditions at WWCD 101.1 FM, where he had worked for the past 13 years as a DJ and sound engineer.

"I haven’t got a raise in three years here. I’ve worked there for 13 years and I make $9.50 an hour," Gerdeman said in an interview Monday morning.

Gerdeman was also displeased with the promotion of Malloy, who he called a "meathead," to Vice President. Specifically, he was worried about Malloy's perceived negative attitude toward The Independent Playground, a twice-weekly late-night independent music showcase hosted by Gerdeman and Tom Butler.

So Gerdeman fished around for some other job opportunities, seeking to gain some leverage at CD101, and came up with an offer from WRWK in Toledo. But the plan backfired when CD101 didn't try to lure Gerdeman back. He said Davis asked him if he was sure he wanted to leave but never offered a raise or any other incentive to stay. So Gerdeman put in his two weeks' notice and got ready to move to Toledo.

"I was pissed off because they didn’t try to keep me here in Columbus," Gerdeman said.

To vent his frustration, Gerdeman logged into the MySpace account for his record label, She He It, and posted a bulletin that read "F--- off, CD101." Though Gerdeman removed the bulletin within 24 hours, someone printed out the message and showed it to Davis, who showed up at the station Sunday night and fired Gerdeman minutes before Independent Playground went on the air.

I'm pretty hesitant to REALLY criticize CD101 because, for one reason I only work/ed there like 20 hours a month and I don't know what really is going on there. To really illustrate how much of an outsider I am when it comes to their business doings, despite my ownership of no less than three!!!!! CD101 T-Shirts and the several lines on my résumé dedicated to CD101, I had no idea how little money the DJs actually made. I mean, I know that all of the people over there, with a few exceptions, have second jobs. But $9.50 an hour. That's not a whole lot more than I made there, and one could argue that Rudy's contributions over there (two-time award winning Independent Playground) made him valuable enough to try to keep around.

There is some big money floating around CD101, so I wonder what kind of overhead they have.

Of course, another reason is, as a commenter adroitly remarked on DeVille's blog post, I don't want to burn any bridges. I've probably peaked out in radio over there and who knows, I might want a reference or something someday.

I'm not going to rip into CD101 with any four letter expletives, but having at least somewhat of an insider's perspective, Rudy's side of the story (and his characterization of upper management) makes sense. He wasn't always super professional, but I'd think he's valuable enough to try to keep him around.

I think getting fired because of a Myspace bulletin to friends, a sort of hybrid of public and private communication, would certainly set an interesting legal precedent if ever brought to court (which I think Rudy could do if he cared enough.)

As much as it sucks, I know I probably self-censor a little bit because I am entering the job pool in Columbus media soon and don't want to end up on anyone's shit list. Yet another way the internet is weird.

Marc Dann goes up in flames

Holy crap, as reported in the Dispatch. Allow the countdown for the press coneference announcing his resignation to begin. I think this will affect the Democratic party's credibility, possibly having implications for the presidential election.

Oh, and I interviewed Marc Dann one time for a paper I was working for. Just between you and me, he's a huge douche.

Also, a sweet shot of the Marc Dann Sunshine Express pre-accident for your viewing pleasure.

Get it? Flames?

Let's go to Outback tonight

"Indie" music has become more marketable lately. Duh. Just watch Grey's Anatomy or the OC or whatever. It's the new "it's the new."

It's old news, but anyone with a television has been exposed to Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games." It's a really catchy song whose title wouldn't fit on one column in the Billboard charts. So it's easier to remember it as the Outback Steakhouse song.

Outback special ordered up another piping hot commercial using the song for Mother's Day. I'm pretty sure there's a didgeridoo somewhere embedded in the mix. Although Pitchfork says it's never been Of Montreal playing the song.

As Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal says, think of it as a "cover." Not as the Outback Steakhouse song.