Ramblin' with Roger

I can’t help it. When my wife got home after school Friday, I had had a bit of an enervating day with Lydia. So I did what I seldom do anymore, since we’ve had the DVR; I channel-surfed. When I hit C-SPAN 2, which was listed as the Senate, I found myself at the “First Year of the YearlyKos convention, which brings together bloggers and elected officials”, according to the overlay, held in Las Vegas, NV. Moreover, it was being shown LIVE.
My comments are impressions of the event, as I wasn’t taking copious notes; since C-SPAN is forever rerunning stuff, you might be able to catch it yourself sometime.

As you might be able to tell from the name, four of the five panelists were from the Daily Kos, including the Kos himself, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. The fifth was from My DD [direct democracy].com.

I came in at the very end of the prepared remarks, but in time for the extensive Q&A. The Daily Kos is trying to figure out a culture code of civility. That said, they would like to concentrate on the writing, not on bylaws.

A great deal of the discussion was how to take a lurker to the Daily Kos, e.g., and turn that person into a political activist. At least one panelist noted that of any 100 people who go to the site, 10 will post, and one will do the diary. This has been a constant number over the last few years. Moreover, as Markos noted, the the “old-timers”, who might have been on the site for a year, have always complained about the newbies. The site was compared to a city, where some people leave, sometimes for greater glory, and others come on board.

The conversation about keeping upwith one’ss reading wassuccinctlyy phrased: “How can anybody read all that stuff?” This lead to conversations about “high-impact diaries” and technologies that I was not quite following.

There was an extensive discussion about having a pseudonym online. A Daily Kos writer referred to as Hunter, addressed this. He believes some people operate with the “politics of division,” and he was quite perturbed about it. Having a viewpoint that is outside of the mainstream, or even having a point of view at all can lead to nasty recriminations, with people calling employers of bloggers, etc., etc.

So as a blogger who uses his own name, how do I feel about that? Well, let me put it this way: if I had it to do over again, I might have done it differently. But not for my sake. I remember this former fellow choir member of mine named Holly, who, on her 50th birthday, went out and bought the car she really wanted. The reality is that I probably have fewer years in my future than in my past, so I don’t really care for myself if I might tick someone off. Conversely, I do care about the well-being of my wife and daughter, so it’s a tricky wicket.

Some bloggers who use their own names write terribly specific things in their posts: “the family and I will be in Milwaukee all next week,” which presumably means that their house in Appleton is vulnerable. I never put out that I am away, only that I’ve been away, the credo of another named blogger I know.

Then there’s the case of GayProf. GayProf is a gay, Latino history professor in a college or university in Texas. (“A gay, Latino history professor in Texas” – can there be more than one, or is his/my Longhorn bias showing?) Recently, a couple of his colleagues found his site. Apparently, as a result, he’s been forthcoming enough to actually put his picture on his site, which I stole for this in-joke post.

Still, one does make summer plans. Our family is hoping to rendezvous with my family in Charlotte and my sister in San Diego in our hometown of Binghamton next month.

So, please, if you would, share with me your answers to these three solstice questions:

1. What movies/TV shows do you want to see this summer? I want to see the Superman Returns film, The Closer TV show and not much else.

2. What do you want to read and/or write? I’m looking to get rid of some aging periodicals. There’s a couple autobio pieces I want to work on.

1. Lydia’s illness. Generally speaking, she a very charming child, even when under the weather. But this recent pink eye/cold/fever/cough/runny nose/itchiness/insomnia thing made her uncharacteristically cranky.

Meanwhile, I’ve missed work Friday, Monday, came in late on Tuesday and Wednesday, when I was supposed to be training our new interns. Fortunately, she’s somewhat better now, though she still has a cough which precludes me from sleeping through the night. Edit, 9:05 a.m. Nope, I’m home with her again.

2. There was a wonderful story about DMC of Run DMC, which featured Sarah McLachlan, on the CBS Sunday Morning this past week, ‘I Am Who I Am’: Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels And His Long Journey To Self-Awareness. The print version is here, but it doesn’t do the story justice. When my wife watched it, she got teary-eyed, and I seemed to have gotten something stuck in my eye… (Imagine pictures of Darryl and Sarah; the Blogger curse strikes again.)

3. I finally got to watch the CMT special on Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger sessions. I loved the joy of the music making process. He seemed to, in some cases, take a familiar song, e.g., “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep” and sing what might otherwise have been the tenor part in traditional four-part harmony, and make it the melody line. Or so it seems to me. (Think Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer- compare what Paul and Art sing on the chorus.) I’ve GOT to get that album. And Lefty went to see him!

4. TV shows with a strong lead character. Commander in Chief- yeah, the three producers in one season really screwed it up – and the last episode EVER is this Wednesday, so I’m looking to watch something new to watch besides JEOPARDY and the news this summer. I’m going to try The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick on TNT. A marathon session of last season will be on TNT Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (EDT), and then the Season 2 opener will be on Monday at 9 p.m.

5. The last The Office – yeah, it was three weeks ago, but I just saw it! I loved Michael’s ménage, and especially loved the ending. Also saw the last Scrubs, and the last bit threw me a curve.

6. Mowing the lawn: actually, I don’t care – I’d just as soon hire goats – but my wife does, and with all the rain, it’s been difficult to get to it. A hand mower becomes useless once the grass hits a certain height, so I got to it on Tuesday just in time. It usually takes less than a half hour, but this time it took over an hour.

7. I’ve been thinking about songs for Kelly’s Songs of Summer Mixed CD exchange, assuming she accepts me. There are LOTS of songs, but I’m TRYING not to be too clichéd. Damn, and I really LOVE Summer in the City by the Lovin’ Spoonful. I used to play the bass line on the piano when I was a kid.

8. I enjoyed the songwriters post that Tosy put up this week.

9. Julie Hembeck draws Fred Hembeck. A great likeness, Julie.

10. Things in the news: That idiot Ann Coulter. Did I mention the word idiot?

There’s also a local murder story in which a young man is accused of killing his father and brutalizing his mother; you simply cannot live around here and NOT know about it. His attorney’s request for a change of venue seems understandable, given this.

11. “Doc” Rivett, who I saw just last month at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Albany Public Library. He was retiring as president, and he took his sweet time starting the meeting, I thought. He fell that very day, May 18, was admitted to the hospital, and died Tuesday. (Did he fall BEFORE the meeting?) Now I feel especially badly, over his passing, but also for being so impatient with an 87-year old guy.

Oh, I told my wife Billy Preston had died. She thought I said Billy Crystal. It lead to a very weird conversation, especially the bottom line, which was that she didn’t know who Billy Preston was. Ah, these young people.

I looked it up in a dictionary, and it says: “Reform \Re*form”\, v. i. To return to a good state”

So when I read about, say, immigration “reform”, with contradictory senses of what “good” is – lock the borders! show compassion! – the term becomes nearly meaningless to me.

A few weeks ago, the French labor unions, emboldened by massive turnout of demonstrators on the streets of several cities, demanded that the government withdraw its contentious labor reform law. In this case, one COULD suggest the “reform” was trying bring back prosperity, but the young adults who would be subject to firing certainly didn’t see it that way.

“The Senate’s idea of lobbying reform is no substantive reform at all.”

“Raise judges’ pay: They have gone years without an increase, and the system needs reform”

Long Term Care Reform Committee of the New York State Bar Association: “Poor people can always get care; rich people can afford it. It’s the middle class that’s getting squeezed,” he warns.

“The United States stood nearly alone” last month “as it voted against the creation of a new U.N. Human Rights Council, saying the reform did not go far enough to keep abusers off the panel.”

“Consensus elusive in talks: Labor, business leaders differ on ways to reform workers’ compensation”

“Faster work sought on voting reform: U.S. Department of Justice turns up heat on state to meet federal election guidelines”

“PSC praises price reform: Panel says deregulation helps energy consumers, but assemblyman assails report”

In each case, one side will tout action as progress, while the others will bewail as punitive.

I think again of the word re-form, to form again. I guess my point is that the things lifted as reform may be re-form, i.e., change, but it is not necessarily better. So I vow not to use the word loosely. I wish others, especially politicians, would choose to do the same.