Being Amber Rhea

Here’s the latest video episode of Mostly ITP, chronicling our road trip last weekend and talking about why we do these road trips in general. It’s longer than we would typically make these videos, but we wanted to experiment a little, so that’s why.

I haven’t actually watched it yet because Rusty finished editing it late last night, and I don’t have sound on my work computer. But I had already seen the first ~half or so, and besides, I know it’s going to be good no matter what!

New episode of Mostly ITP today! Our interview with Stacia Farabee of MyKinkyAgent.com is up. Give it a listen.

Today also happens to be the second anniversary of the launch of Georgia Podcast Network. Go us! The new version of the site will be up very soon; all the functionality is done, now I just have to get the CSS up to speed. I’m hoping to get a lot of that done this weekend. Then we can have a launch party, which will probably just be another get-together at Manuel’s, because those are always good; but maybe we’ll reserve the room with the projector and show the new-fangled site on the big screen.

And, finally, happy First of May. Remember what starts today, so get to it!

We’re back from our weekend getaway. Actually, we got back last night. We had the foresight to take today off work to recuperate, and I’ve spent most of the day alternately uploading photos from the weekend and dealing with Sex 2.0-related business (and attending a fairly strenuous pole dancing class).

Rusty spent most of the day working on a video about PodCamp Nashville. He’s going to post it tomorrow.

I’ll write more later, but it’s been a busy day and at the moment I’d rather let these photos speak for themselves. So here’s some visual documentation of our weekend…

Our first stop was Adairsville, Georgia. It’s a tiny little town with a very well-maintained and (relatively) active town square. It’s important to say relatively active because this was the middle of the day on a weekday and there was hardly anyone around - and the Chamber of Commerce is right there.

Up on a hill we spotted the Gaines House, which has got to be haunted. (If only we had known about Barnsley Gardens ahead of time, we would’ve gone there, too!)

On Saturday, we went to PodCamp Nashville. My tweets from it pretty much sum up what I thought, and Rusty’s going to post a video. So instead, here’s a photo of downtown Nashville at night:

Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, and I spotted these two bookstores across the street:

Back on the road for more visits to small Georgia towns, our first stop Sunday morning was Ringgold. There wasn’t much going on in Ringgold, but they do have a wedding chapel where walk-ins are welcome:

Dalton, on the other hand, was bigger than we’d expected. The highlight was definitely the Wink Theatre. Later, at a Starbucks, we saw the people who run the Rock Bridge Community Church that meets there. They were dressed in all camouflage. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching with your venti latte!

Our last stop was Chatsworth, where there wasn’t much of anything in the downtown area, but on the way out of town, we happened upon this fabulous abandoned motel:

Even though I’m sad about missing SoCon08, overall it was a good weekend and I was happy to add more pins and highlighting to our big Georgia map! Road trips with Rusty are some of my favorite things in the world.

Every time I hear the Kid Rock song “Cowboy,” at the part where he says, “Get thrown in the mix and tossed out of bars,” I think, “No, you mean Waffle Houses.”

Rusty took photos at Buford Dam today. Here’s one:

By way of comparison, here’s a nearly identical shot I took in July 2005:

Rusty’s blog post is here.

…there’s a new episode of Mostly ITP up. This one is an interview with David Kaufman, author of the fascinating book Peachtree Creek: A Natural and Unnatural History of Atlanta’s Watershed. And I think it’s one of the best interviews we’ve done to date. In addition to talking about the history of Peachtree Creek and what it’s like to go canoeing in raw sewage, we also discuss the current water situation (crisis?) in Georgia, and what can be done about it.

We’re back from our trip to Columbia, and on the way home we also stopped in three small Georgia towns: Washington, Warrenton, and Camak. I love the peaceful feeling of driving along rural Georgia highways… and then coming upon little ramshackle towns (or remnants of towns) to photograph… good stuff. Road trips with Rusty are some of my favorite times.

I managed to get all the photos from our trip uploaded - and properly labeled! - on Flickr. I have yet to begin scanning all the interesting family history documents I found; that’ll be a separate post, or more likely, series of posts. I spent a good chunk of time in the Records and Deeds department at the courthouse; the Probate Court office; and the South Carolina Archives and History Center. And my quest is not completely over, as there are still people I need to call and/or write.

On a less happy note, I’ve been feeling an unpleasant sense of blog inertia for the past several days, where I feel like I can’t write about anything “controversial” anymore, and like I don’t have anything worthwhile to say and/or nobody wants to listen. But I don’t want to talk about that right now. Instead, here’s a sampling of some photos…

Unknown pair, First Presbyterian Church cemetery, Columbia, SC:

The Leaning Christmas Tree of Columbia:

Busted Plug Plaza, Columbia, SC:

The Wilkes County Republican Party has their headquarters in a trailer:

Knox Theatre, Warrenton, GA:

Camak City Hall:

Check out the full set here.

Another episode of Off The Bus has landed! This one was filmed at the Fred Thompson support meeting/rally(?) last week. Rusty and I actually went, so that Grayson wouldn’t be all alone and because we had a kind of morbid curiosity about how the other side lives. We make quick cameo appearances toward the beginning of the video.

Looking forward to episode 3!

There’s kind of a lot of kudzu behind our apartment building:

Ah, Georgia. Even in the middle of the city, the kudzu will not be thwarted.

Rusty and I will make our second appearance on What Is Goin’ On tomorrow morning. (Our first was back in November.) Rusty blogged about it earlier today; here are the details:

If you’re in the Vidalia/Savannah/Lyons area, listen to 100.9 FM live at 8 a.m. tomorrow to hear Wilson Smith interview Amber and me on What Is Goin’ On?. The expected topics of discussion are a breakdown of the features of the new What Is Goin’ On? web site (which we designed), and general discussion of the intersection of media, technology and politics in Georgia. He’s threatened to cancel the country music show ahead of him and keep us onthe line for two or three hours. I hope he’s kidding about that.

If you can’t catch the show live, it will be available as a podcast later (assuming the studio isn’t struck by lightning like it was during Shelbinator’s interview).

Don’t worry, we won’t really be on the line for two or three hours, because we have to be at work after the interview!

In related news, Wilson has his first full-fledged blog post up, and it’s insightful, hilarious, and straight to the point.

I am scared to death of people of faith making political decisions. I don’t even want someone praying and getting an answer as to what I should do. Why would I want to trust them to get the “right” answer on something as important as the federal budget or health care. I can hear it now: “I vetoed universal health care because God told me he would take care of everyone.”

Listen tomorrow morning, if you can. We’ll see how much I inadvertently turn up the Southern in my voice.

Rusty and I spent the weekend in Milledgeville, which is about two hours south of Atlanta. (Don’t you love how it’s possible to measure distance in hours?) We went on some tours, took a bunch of photos, and spent a lot of time in the big comfy bed at the B&B where we stayed.

I love when we take these little weekend trips. Even though the inn had free wifi of which we partook a bit, it still felt like we were “off the grid” for the most part. And even though I don’t usually go for touristy stuff, I make exceptions when the touristy stuff involves history or other nerdy pursuits. We really enjoyed the tour of the Old Governor’s Mansion and the trolley tour of downtown.

One thing that stood out to me about Milledgeville was that everything is so old. I know there are plenty of old small towns in Georgia, but something about Milledgeville in particular… it seems older. I don’t think that’s just a random perception, either. First of all, it wasn’t burned by Sherman’s troops during the March to the Sea, so there are a lot of actual antebellum buildings. (Peeve: we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast called the Antebellum Inn, but it was built in 1890.) It also didn’t get hit with a bunch of “urban renewal” in the 1960s. (I overheard someone talking about that while we were on the trolley tour, and I gleaned that Milledgeville had an active historical society way before most other places.) It was the state capital from 1803-1868, and, as the tour guide was saying, when the capital moved to Atlanta, Milledgeville pretty much became a ghost town. Its heyday was in the early/mid 1800s.

Speaking of ghosts… yes, of course we went to Central State Hospital! We didn’t go inside any of the buildings, because we’re not down with the B&E; in fact, we didn’t even get out of the car. (We rolled down the windows to take photos.) The place had a very creepy vibe, and I just did not want to be walking around.

Nevertheless, I may have inadvertently photographed a ghost. Generally I think the talk of “orbs” as something paranormal is crap. It’s dust on the lens, people. But what showed up in my photo was much bigger than your typical orb/dust. And I see the vague shape of a face in it (you have to view the original size to be able to make that out). Who knows, it could be something else… but, well, judge for yourselves:

There will be a podcast about our Milledgevile trip soon. In the meantime, check out my photos on Flickr: Downtown Milledgeville and Central State Hospital. And don’t forget to listen to our podcast reviewing two Atlanta swinger’s clubs!

Okay, this is just too damn funny. Where to begin…?

I don’t really know what BlogNetNews is or why I’m supposed to care. Anyone can build an aggregator, but the blogosphere relies on community buy-in, and apparently some of my fellow Georgia bloggers think BNN is something worth noticing, or at least something not worth laughing at? I don’t know. I remember hearing about it a few months ago at Grayson’s, then I forgot; then Sara blogged about it yesterday.

– Okay. I feel the need to interject something here, given the profound lack of basic reading and listening ability many people demonstrated during the fallout of the Creative Loafing hunk-of-shit blogosphere article. People who apparently couldn’t see beyond their own shit got all hung up on, “These folks are just JEALOUS that they weren’t INCLUDED!!1!11!OMGhighschool”. This isn’t about me being jealous of not being listed on freakin’ BlogNetNews, ffs. This is just some funny shit… Ren, got an extra “Typical” file? I need to replenish my stock.

(Interjection over.)

So anyway, after I saw Sara’s post yesterday, I overheard Rusty talking about other bloggers (who I don’t read as often) who had written about this apparent Top 10 list. I decided to check out the BlogNetNews site. There was a link to email them your feed if it wasn’t listed. So I sent a two-line email with my blog URL and my feed URL, with the subject line “For BlogNetNews Georgia.”

Here is the email I received in response:

Amber,

I am sure you’ve heard this before: You are trouble. BNN/Georgia is a humble politics and public affairs blog aggregator. Your content isn’t very local or public affairsy. However, I love the blog and your obviously broad blogging involvement. Take a look at www.blognetnews.com/cotillion . I built it for a friend who is a member. I am wondering whether you might have an idea for a group that you belong to. Thoughts?

Best,
Dave Mastio

BlogNetNews.com
We Serve Blogging

Remember to visit our advertisers

Bwahahahaha… what the fuck.

We will come back to the “you’re trouble” remark. Let’s just stick, for now, with the “your content isn’t very local” part. I sent him some examples…

Search my 5+ years of archives (I haven’t been at that URL for long) if you’re so inclined… on the old blog I had a category for “Atlanta”; on the new blog I have an “Atlanta” tag. I publicize local events of interest very frequently. Everything tagged “Atlanta” at my new URL: http://www.beingamberrhea.com/tag/Atlanta

I organized PodCamp Atlanta. I’m the co-founder of the Georgia Podcast Network. Pretty darn local. I give presentations on the value of hyperlocal content. I attend meetings of the Atlanta Press Club (I’m a member), Social Media Club Atlanta, Georgia for Democracy, Georgians for Choice… the list goes on… to help figure out how to best leverage social media at the local level.

But okay. My content isn’t local or “public affairsy.”

Dave replies again…

Let me be a little more clear. The intent of the blognetnews state sites is to cover state and local news and politics. Reading your posts, I didn’t see you covering what I think fits in to waht I am trying to do on those sites. We are building other aggregators — city focused ones where all topics will be in and national ones that will take narrower slices of the blogosphere. You’d fit in both those places.

The last part of my note was a suggestion that you come up with an idea for a national aggregator where you’d fit.

I replied with a short note…

I understood the last part of your note, but I’m not interested in being part of a national aggregator. My main concern/interest is hyperlocal content, which is why Rusty and I started the Georgia Podcast Network. We feel new media has the most potential for influence at the local level.

I also asked him to clarify what he meant by saying that I’m “trouble.” His reply:

Visits to sex clubs are hardly the stuff of a mainstream site.

Now, this is the REALLY hilarious part. I mean, aside from it being just good old-fashioned sex negativity and compartmentalization of sexuality, it’s also just another boring rehashing of - guess what! - the double standard! Oh, yay! I just never get tired of that.

This is highly (grimly) amusing to me, because Rusty’s blog is listed on BlogNetNews. He recently wrote about our visit to the sex club, too. But, as Jenny said in an email, “You’re a woman. You may choose between your sexuality and your intelligence. You may not have both.”

Lest we forget!

Many other questions spring to mind, too, such as: what makes him think I’m trying to produce a “mainstream site” - whatever that even means?

Btw, Dave is fine w/ my blogging these emails because, as he stated, BNN is “big on free speech.” Just not wrt sex clubs, I guess.

I will reserve further commentary because really, these emails speak for themselves. I wouldn’t want to kick a puppy. (Commenters, however, should feel free.)

See? If you wear a chicken suit and hold a politically charged sign, the mainstream media will flock to you!

Click To Play

Way to go, Shelbinator!

For some reason today, I’m thinking about good times in rural Georgia:

And if anybody can identify where all four of those photos were taken (without clicking through to look at the Flickr descriptions, of course), then you deserve a crazy prize.

Blogging for Sex Education post to come later today. Keep checking here for the round-up of all posts on the topic.