This is my column from Weekender today. It's all true. -- Jamie G.
It's all about...
Not knowing what to say.
Why? Because I’ll move to Atlanta in March for a job at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
I’ll leave behind all these wonderful friends and co-workers and continue this ruse that I’m a Midwesterner on an extended vacation in the South.
This is my last column here. It’s All About, the blog, will live online for a while, until it shifts over into that
techno-purgatory where old, neglected Web sites dwell.
It’s tough to leave with many reasons to stay, so many things left unfinished.
What’s going to happen to The Dame, Buster’s, our music scene, our nightlife?
When will the Kentucky National Guard unit I embedded with in Iraq make it home?
Will I even recognize this place when I swing through on the
12-hour trek back to my parents’ homes in Michigan?
I think so. I hope so.
In three years, I’ve met more thoughtful and engaging talkers, artists, haters, lovers, underdogs, egos, sweethearts, activists, geeks, fanatics and pals than I ever expected. You can find all those on the walk between Rupp Arena and the Kentucky Theatre if you’re willing to make eye contact and smile.
As I’m leaving, I have a few wishes for you:
That you won’t believe it when people say there’s nothing here to do. You live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. There’s plenty to do. We built LexGo.com just to track it all. And whenever there’s an empty space or a free moment, some creative type here takes it into his or her own hands and fills it. Smile and make eye contact with those people, in particular.
That the University of Kentucky will have a hugely successful and inspiring basketball season — the stuff of triumphant TV movies and serious local pride. It’s one of the few things here that would give almost everybody a moment, if not a year, of joy, and I want that for you.
That Kentucky will continue its strange brand of pop-culture dominance, whether it’s through George Clooney at the Oscars, David and Mary Conley on The Amazing Race or the never-ending supply of youngsters on the Jeopardy Teen Tournament. Just be careful about the reality shows — we’re easy prey, but we’re also smarter than that.
That a few menus in town will always, always, always include black-bottom banana pie, doughy pretzels the size of my hand, vegetarian burgers (even at dive bars!) and Ale-8-One served in a green glass bottle.
That you will stay scrappy and romantic about whatever causes, scenes and ideas you believe in. This is your city, and inside it is your neighborhood, your block, your home. Turn them into places you want them to be, not the places you think they should be, or the places they were when you showed up.
I recently spent time with a Transylvania University class trying to focus some community-building attention on the North Limestone neighborhood. Last week, a writer from Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine area talked to the class about loving her neighborhood when nobody else did, and how powerful it was to start writing there. To her surprise, people wanted to hear what she had to say.
She wished the students all the best, along with any of the other hangers-on who had gathered around the back area at Al’s Bar to listen.
“I want the best for you because you’re sitting here listening to me,” Melissa Mosby said. “It is so important to be listened to.”
That’s what I wish for Lexington: You’ll listen to each other, your history and your ideas for the future. Listen to what’s going on around you. I’m honored that you listened to me, even when I didn’t know what to say. I adored making it my job to listen to you.
When I’m back in town, I hope you’ll smile, make eye contact and wave, because I’m quite sure now that’s what we’re all about.
It's what I see, hear and experience for six weeks in Iraq. Of course, for a much better look at what's happening here, I recommend you check out the blogs from those who are here full-time, Baghdad Observer and Inside Iraq.
All right, pals, time for some serious talk. Not to say that The Amazing Race isn't serious, but this is more evening news-style serious.
Today is my last day in the Herald-Leader office for several weeks. I'm heading to Iraq for a rotation in McClatchy's Baghdad bureau. We're also working on an embed with a Kentucky National Guard unit, which I hope will give you a closer look at what's really happening over there, and the people moved to make it happen.
I'll land in Baghdad in the middle of next week, and I'll fly out of there on Jan. 15, if all goes according to plan. My colleagues there will include Bureau Chief Leila Fadel, the woman behind the blog Baghdad Observer. I also have the great honor to work with an Iraqi staff that risks everything to witness events no Western journalist can truly report. To read more about them, visit their blog, Inside Iraq. Six women staffers were recently honored with the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award, too.
I'm not doing this to catch a thrill or chase away boredom. I will miss you. But I feel that this is one of the most important events that will happen in our lifetime. For many people, on many days, it seems like old news, far away, with little effect on us beyond the gas pump. I understand where that perspective comes from, but it doesn't ring true for me. What happens there, I think, will determine a lot about the course of this world, and certainly how our country fits into it. We live in the United States, and regardless of whether we agree with this war, we all will bear its worst consequences and live in thrall of its successes. As one person, I feel helpless. It's only six weeks, I know, but as one reporter working with a team of dedicated talents, I hope and believe we can show that any war, any recovery, anywhere in this world is our war and our wound. If it happens in our world, we're responsible.
People ask often if I'm scared, and much to my surprise, I'm not yet.
I'm off doing my civic duty today, but keep yourself busy with The Great Turtle Race.
You might have seen Stephen Colbert touting his leatherback fave, Stephanie Colburtle. I think I'm rooting for Genevieve. She looks a little middling and nerdy. I like that about her.
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Watch: How long is a line of 1,000 people? H-L photog superstar David Stephenson answers the questions with this video of the Makers Mark autograph line at Keeneland last week. Beware: It's longer than you think.
Look, I'm not all about adult diapers. I plan to lead a joy-filled life among with cute animals and wacky characters, then fall of the face of the earth before they become a necessary part of my shopping list.
Thanks to an unsexy-yet-riveting love triangle that has transfixed the humiliation-hungry American public, adult diapers are more in vogue now than they ever have been or ever will be again. (It's like the sunburst nipple shield Janet Jackson exposed during the all-too-well-known 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. Everybody was talking about it for a few weeks, but I don't see too many of those around the office these days.)
So here ya go, everything you ever wanted to know about ultra-absorbent adult diapers.
1. Our very own Merlene Davis did the very dirty job of researching which professions have relied on adult diapers. (Weightlifters? SCUBA divers? Who knew?) I'm quite sure Merlene she was off diaper duty for a while, so kudos to her.
2. This story looks at the history of NASA's Maximum Absorbency Garments, which is a very kind but totally ineffective attempt by the space agency to make the pads sound less like diapers. Need more? (Of course you do!) Here's a similar story from Newsweek. And another from the Chicago Tribune, which also catalogues some of the diaper jokes passing around blogs and late-night shows.
3. In case you aren't convinced that adult diapers are getting their unfortunate moment in the sun, here they are, right at the top of Slate's Zeitgeist Checklist.
Now, let us be thankful for clean gas station bathrooms and Scott tissue. We'll not speak of this again.
------ Chatter: Here's the list of the Grammy winners. Congratulations to the many, many winners, including Kentucky's Ricky Skaggs. But my true feelings about the Grammys are probably revealed in that I'm placing them lower than a bevy of stories related to adult diapers. Enjoy.
Watch:Big Red on Deal or No Deal. The Western Kentucky University mascot will make a special stop on the NBC show this week to support Kate Miller (picture above), a Kentucky native and Western alumna.
Back from vacation, more exhausted than when I started. ('Twas the season of the kitchen gadget -- a bread maker, a food processor, a yogurt maker and no fewer than two hand mixers, plus an iPod, which is kind of a kitchen gadget, if you like to dance to the New Pornographers while mixing scone batter. If.)
While I was gone, we missed a death trio of James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein and an impossible number of year-end lists. So while away, I was all about...
Hank Stuever's ins-and-outs lists, and the discussion that followed. (Out: Laguna Beach, Beatlesesque, champagne cocktail, In: Meerkat Manor, Springsteenesque, 1stdibs.com.)
Combination pie from Missy's. You'll find 1/3 of one in the fridge, with guilty fork impressions on the edges.
Holiday TV marathons. Scrubs. Heroes. Ugly Betty. It doesn't speak well of my character that one of my greatest achievements in holiday recovery was getting through 23 episodes of Scrubs?
Resolution tracking at 43things.com. I've not committed to any new year promises, but I'm curious to see others' aspirations. Tell me yours and maybe I'll realize mine.
Playwright Eve Ensler will be in Lexington tonight to sign books and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association. Find details about the event here.
I could talk about my experiences performing in and co-directing The Vagina Monologues, or all the wonderful women I met during those productions, or all the shocking forms of violence they'd experienced although most of us were just college kids, or how you'll occasionally get a smile of recognition when someone sees the cast shirt that says "Please turn your cell phones to vibrate," or how Eve's book, The Good Body, inspired perhaps the most, uh, personal piece of writing I've ever had published in a newspaper, or how I bounced with excitement when I saw her new book, Insecure at Last: Losing it in our security-obsessed world.
Instead, let me direct you to a few resources that might help, educate or at least provoke discussion.
Sisters in Pain, where you can listen to WEKU's award-winning documentary about women who were victims of domestic violence that went to prison after committing violent crimes against their abusers.
Read: Die, Pitchfork, Die! This is just the latest in a series of articles that shrugs its shoulders at the pretension-breeding, allegiance-blasting indie music Web site, Pitchfork Media, suggesting that if you don't like it, don't read it. This follows a particularly great Wired article about The Pitchfork Effect. Loving it and hating it, I just can't stop reading it. (Although Stereogum and locally produced You Ain't No Picasso take up more of my Web time now.)
Watch: The Heroes marathon. If you came late to the Heroes party, the Sci Fi Channel is here to save the day. It will replay the first six episodes starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday. You can catch new episodes 7 p.m. Fridays on Sci Fi, too.
If you have a tip on a traffic jam, a hot buy or a favorite spot that deserves more attention, or a comment on the blog, e-mail me at jgumbrecht@herald-leader.com or call (859) 231-3238 to fill us in. Check back throughout the day to see how the biggest shopping day of the year is progressing in Lexington.
Evening update Now that all the early morning shoppers are coming home to crawl into bed, I've heard from a few more readers. One woman called to say she got all her shopping done in the almost-wee hours of the morning by going to TJ Maxx -- there weren't any special sales, but she's willing to pay their prices anyway, and because the crowds had gone elsewhere, she had the store to herself. Another reader called to complain that she waited in line like a dutiful shopper, but didn't get what she was looking for. Like many a first-time Black Friday shopper, she's learned that perhaps retail-induced claustrophobia isn't for everyone.
Reader Jessica C. wrote in with a long list of tips for more weekend shopping and future Black Fridays...
Consider heading to the mall, where a shuttle will carry you to the general area of your car.
Garden Ridge has massive sales, but she's glad she kept her newspaper ad with her -- she had to correct the prices several times. "Otherwise, I would have been paying $25 for something that was suppose to have been $8," she said.
Many of those Circuit City sales that people were waiting for, running for, growling for early Friday morning were still in effect last night and online. Was it worth waiting in line for two hours? Maybe not, but perhaps people will shop smarter next year.
1:27 p.m. downtown update The saddest thing about Black Friday isn't the undulating crowds or the willingness to purchase Little Nicky because it's only $10. It's that downtown seemed so empty. Pockets of people were keeping it awake, but it would have been great to see more action in the restaurants and shops downtown.
I just came out of LexArts BuyART! Market, and I'm incredibly impressed. I suspect that a lot of my holiday shopping will be completed in the Downtown Arts Center in the next day or two. All the artists are sitting near their artwork, so you can ask questions, tell stories, stick out your tongue (although that's not very nice and I don't recommend doing it) or stare at their booths for minutes at a time without saying a word. (I did a lot of that. I call it shopping.) I left with a gift for myself, the print to the left by Sara Turner of Lexington's own Cricket Press, but I'll be going back to shop for others.
11 a.m. We've now reached the hour when many of the doorbuster sales end -- although most of those extreme sale items are long gone anyway -- and the sleep we rightfully deserved this morning begins. I'm heading to LexArt's BuyART! Market at the Downtown Arts Center shortly, but the updates will likely slow for the rest of the afternoon. Keep checking back, though -- if something wild 'n' crazy happens, we'll let you know.
9:15 a.m. Nicholasville Road update More bad news from Nicholasville Road!
Toys R Us: Almost all of the doorbuster deals that would have drawn people here are gone, including the TMX Elmo and the GameBoy Micro. And to top it off, there's a 45-minute wait to check out. (I suppose it's to be expected -- the manager arrived at work at 1 a.m. and found a line waiting outside, Jillian says.) The good news, though, is that the stock for the two-day sale coming up this weekend will be replenished tonight, so you can try again. Tip: If you're looking for something in the ad, it's toward the front of the store. You won't have to tear the place apart looking for it. So, while you're looking, send someone to wait in line for you. By the time you're done, you might be near the front of the line.
9:05 a.m. Richmond update More good news from Richmond!
Wal-Mart: Reporter Cassondra Kirby says the Wal-Mart in Richmond is comfortably empty, and most of the items in the ad are still available, including some of the big TVs that were getting so much attention. The iPods, though? Gone. Sorry.
8:47 a.m. Hamburg update Reporter Karla Ward has been at the Circuit City since 4:15 a.m. so she can follow a store employee on its busiest day of the year. (Look for that story in Saturday's Herald-Leader.) She's mirroring what we're hearing from others that TVs are the big seller this year, although a $150 GPS unit that usually sells for $450 was gone in 10 minutes.
“One of the most interesting people I met was a guy named Tom Prater," Karla said. "He’s from
Somerset. He and his wife had a power outage a couple weeks ago that blew out their 50-inch TV. They left
Somerset at
midnight last night and got here at
2 o’clock this morning. They had a lawn chair (Prater’s wife waited in car), and he sat in the lawn chair until the store opened. “When the store opened at 5, they were 73rd in line. He headed straight back and got a 50-inch Samsung plasma TV that he said is normally $3,000, he got it for $1,700. He thought that he was going to have to go to another store to get another TV to replace a second TV that was blown, but they ended up getting it here, and they actually also ended up getting a camera, a DVD recorder and other kinds of stuff. “‘We came in for one thing and ended up with $1,000 worth of other stuff,’” Prater said. “When we found him, he was dozing on a sofa in the TV department while his wife waited in line. He said, ‘I haven’t slept since
6 o’clock yesterday morning.’”
8:22 a.m. Richmond update Reporter Cassondra Kirby has good news to report from Richmond: the shopping is tame, parking is readily available, and a lot of those sales last until noon, so there'
s still time to get there if you're not willing to brave Lexington stores.
Hastings Entertainment:Cassondra says the store is empty, despite massive piles of $5 DVDs that will be at that price until noon. And if you buy two, you get a DVD storage unit free. (They're even good movies, she says, like Memoirs of a Geisha and X-Men. Other stores act as if Little Nicky was an Oscar winner.)
8:07 a.m. Nicholasville Road update Here's the word from reporters Jillian Ogawa and Scott Sloan, who are handling the scene out on Nicholasville Road. (I'm not exaggerating. It is a scene.)
Best Buy: Nicholasville Road: Jillian says the right turn lane into Best Buy is backed up for miles. Instead of trying to turn right into the store's parking lot, people coming from Fayette Mall and Lexington Green seem to be having more luck. Some people are parking at Crossroads Plaza and walking to the store. The hottest items this morning have been televisions, which were advertised, such as the 42-inch plasma TV for $999, but you had to be very early in the line to get one. Of course, people were lining up at noon on Thanksgiving day, so they deserve it. Tip: Don't block intersections. Police on Nicholasville Road are citing drivers who try to push their way through and end up stopping traffic.
Target, off Nicholasville Road: Scott reports that Target is still chock full of cheap, cheap DVDs.
6:53 a.m. Hamburg update
I'm stationed outside the Cosi in Hamburg, despite the fact that it won't open until 8 a.m. I needed a breather. I drove into this fast-growing retail zone at 5 a.m., following the lines of minivans that were on just the wrong side of the speed limit. Stores were just opening their doors, but there was a bit of a frantic, exhausted look on the faces of the drivers. (In the photo above, by photographer Pablo Alcala, you can see the line winding behind me. I might look like I'm pleading to the heavens to get me out of their quickly, but I was actually staring at a security camera. At 5 a.m. after exactly zero hours of sleep, such things can be quite amusing.)
Circuit City, 5 a.m.: I had to park in the Norwalk Furniture lot and wait in line just get in to Circuit City, where people were snapping up $19 editions of Family Guy, $49 GameBoy Advances and $99 car speaker sets. A few lucky people strolled out immediately, perhaps because they were the first people in line, but the lines to leave were coiling around the store like a snake on the verge of a kill. Shoppers were surprisingly chipper, despite the news that they're almost out of Nintendo DS Lite. Tip: If you're heading here, check out the line in the car audio section. It's got about eight people in it, instead of 200. Check online, too. A lot of the prices are the same there.
Meijer, 6 a.m.: This is quite possibly the hippest place to be in town right now. I haven't gone in because I can't find a parking space within a distance I'm willing to walk. Any news on the $99 LCD TVs? Did anyone get one?
Michaels, 6:08 a.m.: Calm reigns, but it's a craft store. I'd quit now if scrapbooking turned violent. The clerk assured me that no brawls had broken out over 25-percent-off paintbrushes or cheap ribbon. Tip: Make sure you bring the ad, which includes coupons you will NEED at the checkout to get the biggest discounts. Also, the sales aren't always well-marked, so look closely.
H.H. Gregg, 6:53 a.m.: Good luck finding a parking space here. This store is more isolated than places like Meijer and Circuit City, so I see many more cars circling. Of course, you also don't have to deal with other crowds -- most of the small stores nearby aren't open yet.
3 a.m. Pssh! Sleep? Who needs that? Here's a Herald-Leader story about the Keeneland Art Fair and LexArt's BuyART! Market, two gift-shopping alternatives going on during the next few days. If you're looking for a holiday gift that absolutely won't be duplicated, check out those places. (I'll be checking in on at least one of them later today.)
Midnight It's just after midnight on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, which almost surely means there are already people in line at stores around town. I just drove six hours from my family's Thanksgiving feast, so I'm going to get a few hours of pumpkin pie-induced sleep before I brave the retail storm.
Here are a few resources to get you started...
Gottadeal.com: This Web site compiles all those Black Friday ads that made your Thursday Herald-Leader feel more like a Sunday edition. Its other special perk is that it points out which of those advertised items are available online.
Thanksgiving Survival Guide: This Herald-Leader story offered tips for shopping, driving and cooking. Thankfully, we're beyond some of those pointers, but it doesn't hurt to review.
The list of Lexington shopping centers: It's tempting to wait in line for $50 TVs or $3 tennis shoes, but don't forget all the downtown shops, the independent stores and the locally owned businesses that are making deals without fear of bloodshed.
A fab new program on the WEKU lineup is really putting the public into public radio.
Open Source with Christopher Lydon starts as a blog. After producers write about an issue, registered users can comment, offer reading suggestions or spout off in their area of expertise; those comments might be used as sources for the show. Most shows include commentary from a blogger, too.
The show has the freedom of the blog, quality of public radio and the variety of both; topics range from hip-hop to coal to photography.
Nobody is telling you what to listen to, nobody is choosing the discussion for you; on this show, the public is the discussion.
