It's All About...

Found vs. Post Secret in Lexington tonight!

One is a Web site of secrets sent anonymously to a non-judgmental guy from Maryland.

The other is a Web site of found items, sometimes secret in a 4 YOUR EYES ONLY!!!! way, sent to a non-judgmental guy from Michigan.

But when the creators of PostSecret and Found come together at ArtsPlace tonight, it will be an exhibition of humanity and a competition of pure pride and ego. (For more info about the event, which is almost sold out, click here. It starts at 8 p.m. at ArtsPlace, 161 N. Mill St. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $65 for VIPs. Call (212) 868-4444 or go to www.smarttix.com.)

Frank Warren, the secret collector, and Davy Rothbart, the keeper of lost items, are traveling the United States to show off their collections and raise money for the National Hopeline Network, a suicide-prevention hotline. Expect arm-wrestling and audience rivalry from the sites that seem cut from the same creative, Web-community cloth.

At an appearance at the University of Kentucky last week, PostSecret's Warren said Found was an inspiration for his site, which asks people to send decorated postcards sharing their secrets. No matter how sad, scary or silly, he says, "they're safe with me. I'm the PostSecret guy."

"Sometimes we think we're keeping a secret, but it's really keeping us," Warren told the crowd. He says that sharing a secret can create added burdens in the short term. It can create problems. Before he shared his own secret -- expect him to do that tonight -- he thought he'd be reliving it if he revealed it.

It just didn't happen.

But the people with the best secrets are those who say they have none. (Women, he says, have the very best.) "The children the world almost breaks become the most likely to change it," he says. "All of us have a secret that could break your heart."

Still, the secret he sees most often are confessions of peeing in the shower.

Rothbart's Found project relies on people sharing notes, photos and objects they've found; the secrets they reveal are open to interpretation.

"When you read these notes, it sparks your imagination. Two people can look at the same found note and come away with completely different stories," Rothbart said. "It's a fragment of a story. It helps reveal our shared humanity."

So who wins in this battle of common culture? Look behind the cut to decide.

Loving librarians.

I rather love librarians. Some of my fondest memories in an otherwise unstylish and awkward youth involve kindly librarians who were always happy to chat about books and didn't find it weird at all that I would rather sit right here, at this faux-wood-grain table with this static-charged plastic chair, and read this book, than go outside and face my death on the monkey bars again, thanks.

They were always cooler than the credit we gave them, so I was thrilled to see the Times article this weekend proclaiming libraries the newly hip place to work. (Please. As if they weren't always a self-selecting club of interesting people. You even need a card to belong!)

The Times story is just one notice of a pop culture force, though.

You've probably heard of Nancy Pearl, a librarian whose Book Lust is so famous that she inspired an action figure. With amazing push-button shushing action!

Maybe you've seen The Music Man, Party Girl and Desk Set , but did you hear about the documentary released this year analyzing the portrayal of librarians in film? It's called The Hollywood Librarian.

And let us not forget the requisite witty librarian T-shirts, magnets and mugs. There's an entire line proclaiming the end of  Marian-ism, although I find Marian to be wise in her snottiness and compelling in her character. (Thanks, Mollie!) And how about others that include fantastic points like "I guard your right to privacy. I protect your freedom to read. I support intellectual freedom. I am a librarian," or "Being nice to the librarian means the difference between the right answer and the wrong one." (And believe me, as someone who relies on librarians almost every day, I'm keenly aware of the quiet power they hold.)

Oh, and they have their own comic, Unshelved, which makes librarians inherently hipper than those of us without comic strips.

Ahh, librarians. UK has the only accredited library science program in the state, so we are rich with them. They will help keep us amused when we are sick and bored. They will keep us informed when we are in the dark. They will give us an eye when we are getting a little too loud 'n' crazy for the reading room. Exactly how this not cool?

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Watch: The winner of the Simpsons vote will be revealed at 2 p.m. today.
Will Springfield, KY get the premiere? Here's hoping!

Maria Bamford, who just can't contain the funny.

Because everybody in the newsroom was floating in a post-Derby haze yesterday, more than a few of us spent it wandering online, waiting for inspiration to strike.

And that's how we all fell in love with Maria Bamford and the Maria Bamford Show on SuperDeluxe.

I knew she was humorous, because, you know, stand-up comics, the kind that make a living at it, tend to be that way. And Comedians of Comedy, the show and documentary, were better viewing just by having her around. But there is nothing I love more after a long freaking weekend than an online clip of a woman who just can't contain the funny.

The short list of reasons to love her: Maria's actual voice seems so much more unrealistic than her fake voices; her mother, her friends and her sister are incredibly vivid, although we meet them only as caricatures of themselves; her dog is precious, and often winds up dressed up; there's a feature on her Web site called "Ask Maria's Mom," which can only be hilarious; she's adorable, just cute, cute, cute.

Watch it and laugh with me. I'm not ready to work yet.
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Read: The 25 Most Exquisitely Sad Songs in the Whole World.
I love this list because it streams the songs so you can actually hear their exquisite sadness. And it includes Amy Winehouse, my new love, and Ben Folds, my music boyfriend from college.

Watch: Radiohead's Creep, as you've never seen it before.
While we're on the topic of sad songs, you might as well visualize one with this bleak, but well-done animation by Laith Bahrani. It was born while the creator worked at a "well-paid, comfortable yet soul-destroying job." Depressing, and not in the kind-of-funny Office way. (Thanks for the mood-lifter, Edmund! ;)

Listen: NPR followed Fark founder Drew Curtis for a day.
Among other local highlights, it features Common Grounds, WXZZ-103.3 FM and lots and lots of Farkdom. This is all tied to Curtis' new book, It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News.

bringing George home.

I just landed back in the Bluegrass, so I've got to remember how this blogging thing works.

Let's start simple: I guess Tubby Smith left for Minnesota? Maybe you heard?

Please.

One of 10 million other things that could've occupied your mind last week was George Clooney and his propensity for skipping the Kentucky Derby, despite it being his home state's biggest party. There is pie, mint juleps, flamboyant hats and occasions for dress up. There is ample opportunity for bead-gathering,if that's your style, plus the fun of partaking in each part of Kentucky's three-pronged sin-based economy. And let's not forget that the prettiest ponies in all the land will be there.

We're planning to ask politely and often for George to attend.  You can ask him to, by signing our petition, but we need to do some serious convincing.

Send us a photo with your favorite thing about Kentucky with the official homecoming sign in view. (Send your photos to georgehome@ herald-leader.com by April 30. They should be JPG files and preferably 3 MB to 5 MB. They should identify any person or place featured and include your name and a daytime phone number. Don't send us anything gross.) We'll do our best to make sure George sees your argument.

I'm not going to lie, I discovered many reasons to love California. But every time I go away, I'm a little relieved to be back where the gas is cheap(er), the daffodils are blooming and the view from the plane pulls the breath from your body.

And, I missed the cat.

And clearly, Emmett misses George.

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Visit: Stuff on My Mutt.
Launched last week and brought to you by the fine people at Stuff on My Cat. Stuff + mutts also equals awesome.

Watch: The new Apples in Stereo video for Can You Feel It?
It debuted last week. Next up from New Magnetic Wonder, I'd like to see 7 Stars. Not exactly a video-ish song, but I loooove it.

Vote: Pick the hairstyle for Amber, our Priceless Prom winner.
You've already picked the blue dress and the black-and-blue tux. Now we're on to the hair. Amber has a clear favorite on this one, but you get to pick. Next up, flowers.

Lexington, a top city for ____________?

A Lexington H-L story today says we've been called a top city for women and a top city for business and, I know we're a top city for allergies.  And now The Advocate says were one of the Top 10 cities for gays and lesbians, thanks in part to our gay leadership, gay-friendly history and ample venues for drag shows.

Bloggy non sequitur: Other cities on the list include Ferndale, Michigan, were I was raised, and Dallas, where I worked immediately after college. Huh.

Anyway! If I'd been given charge of the Office of Fun and Arbitrary City Rankings, I'd bestow Lexington with a few more titles.

• One of the best places for eating pie: This entire state has great pie, but we have memorable pie, baked with tradition and sauced in bourbon. Mmmm.
• One of the best places to visit the library: Book nerd or not, we have cool libraries. The Central Library is fun to look at and lurk in. The Village Branch has a bilingual staff and a ton of resources for Spanish speakers or Spanish students. The Beaumont Branch has the kind of kiddie area that makes me pine for kindergarten. And people love our libraries, as evidenced by how people reacted to water damage downtown.
• One of the best places to find reality TV show contestants: I know I harp on this a lot because I watch TV like it's my job (which it is), but seriously, Kentucky is just brimming reality TV talent, for better or worse. We're the right mix of cute-wacky, all-American, real-but-not-embarrassing that makes casting agents swoon. The contestants often come from other parts of the state, but they do their auditioning here or manage to profess their love for UK basketball to the world, so yeah, we'll claim them.
• One of the best places to abuse street parking: There's not a ton of street parking, but an hour costs a quarter and I've never seen anyone get a ticket. That's about as generous as any college town can be.

And now, I pass the crown to you: What rankings would you bestow upon us?

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Sing: Anything by Diana Ross.
I wish they sang Motown during every American Idol episode. I would not get tired of that. Don't care if they're jumping late onto the Dreamgirls train (even though someone they booted is the engineer) don't care if I have to watch Paula weep over a song from The Wiz. I like it.

Mourn: Ross Zirkle, 1955-2007.
The University of Kentucky associate professor of art and master printer died Monday after a 9-month battle with cancer.

the amazing race, family guy and nintendo wii

Let's just lay it all out there and say it's all about...

The Amazing Race: Kentuckians David and Mary Conley weren't there, but they certainly weren't forgotten during this week's episode. Teams were wearing/attempting to steal David's University of Kentucky hat. They were yelling "David Junior" as they rode a tram down into a limestone mine in Helsinki, Finland. (For the record, I don't think you'll find any coal mines in Kentucky that require miners to ride down in a bike.) And each of the teams seemed to remember what the Pike County residents brought to the race. Awww.
    Nobody was kicked off during this episode, so instead we'll see them continue racing around Finland on Sunday.

Nintendo Wii: According to this story by business writer Scott Sloan, it's not clear if Nintendo or Sony will win the video game war. At this point, I think the Nintendo system gets bonus points for being on object of fourth grade lust during this grossly hilarious time-traveling-otter-loving South Park episode.

Family Guy, Season Four, Part Two: And while we're focusing on cartoons, how about we celebrate the release of the rest of Family Guy's fourth season! Hours and hours of gut-busting TV ahead! Read this interview with Alex Borstein, who voices Lois, before you head out to pick it up today.

The Kentucky Book Fair: By some divine act of timing, the Kentucky Book Fair came just before my few days off. Here's how I'll be keeping busy...

• That Distant Land by Wendell Berry
• The Memory Keepers' Daughter by Kim Edwards
• Lost Mountain by Erik Reece
• The United States of Appalachia by Jeff Biggers
• Speak, So You Can Speak Again by Lucy Anne Hurston
• This I Believe, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman.

fancy parking

The news of Lexus’ self-parking car entering the U.S. market means lots of oohs and ahhs, but some reviews of the $70,000 luxury vehicle say it’s essentially a cool gadget to impress your friends.

Mr. Jones, who taught you to drive you were a pimple-faced 16-year-old who thought a driver's license was one step away from world domination, will surely argue that you can park better on your own.

Still, the LS' parking feature is pretty fancy. Fancier than anything any moderately priced vehicle can do — unless you’re a student of Fancyparking.com, where even a $500 rustbucket can be a star, as long as it goes in reverse.

The Web site breaks down the methods of fancy parking; you learned some of them in drivers’ ed, like backing in, which the site calls a “Classic Fancy.”

Others are more modernized, like the “Was that a space?” You’ve probably done it, the last time you drove past a space, slammed on the brakes (perhaps spilling your coffee or dropping your cell phone), asked “Was that a space?” and then zipped back to grab it. The site says fancy parking is a philosophy, a lifestyle, a movement, “but essentially, it’s reversing your car into a parking space.”

See? We don’t need an automated motor beast to do that.

As for self-parking, well, that's great and all, but this is 2006. Where's my flying Jetsonsmobile?

botcon

Photos by Tricia Spaulding.

Is Lexington an AutoBot town, or a Decepticon town?

Are we always proud of the good guys, or are we suckers for the bad guys?

If you base it on the Transformers tattoos passed out at BotCon yesterday, the AutoBots were the clear winner. At least they were until the afternoon, when Decepticons took over.

Maybe Decepticons just sleep later?

I spent most of the day following Matt Lowry, a local collector, who was a patient translator and keeper of history.  "It's like Woodstock, with robots," Lowry told me. He pointed out that Transformers collectors are a solid cultural subset, with their own...

• History --Going strong since 1984! Except for that time when the Transformers stopped transforming, but whatever!
• Values -- Bots priced $10-$200!
• Priorities -- How long would you wait in line to meet Peter Cullen?
• Dress -- Mostly black. Transformers shirts preferred.
• Language -- Stick with words ending in -con, -tron or -king.

The info Transformers geeks want to know:

• Paramount delivered a 90 second short featuring clips from the upcoming Transformers movie, which will debut July 4, 2007. ("It's the July 4 movie," marketing director and University of Kentucky graduate Greg Lombardo told me.) The clip involved many, many explosions, including shots of a flaming bus being tossed through the air like a burning marshmallow. ("Welcome to a Michael Bay movie," one actor said.) Bumblebee showed up a lot in the clip we saw.
• The "classics" fills the gap between the end of the Cybertron line and the line of movie toys. "It's a collector's line with kid appeal," Lombardo said.
• A new Megatron looks like a gun, not a tank...but not a realistic gun.He's all white and purple and green. "We tried to do Megatron justice, with today's laws being what they are," designer Aaron Archer said. "I can't encourage you to go buy paint, but..."
• The Optimus Prime released for the 20th anniversary of the animated film is a cleaned-up Prime, not a battle-weary prime. Like all the other current Primes out there, there's no trailer.
• The 20th anniversary DVD includes some interesting commentary and interviews, including the question, "Can you sing the Transformers theme song?" There's a Pop-Up video-type version that's filled with Transformers factoids that seemed particularly amusing.
• The incredibly amusing Transformers Alternator line, which transforms robots into models of real cars, will end with a Honda Civic and a Jaguar, which actually transforms into a cat-typed jaguar. (Imagine that!) There were talks about creating a Cadillac XLR, but the line is closing up. The crowd let out a broken-hearted wail when Archer mentioned that it would have transformed into Megatron.

The info that even non-Transformers geeks might want to know:

• Hasbro is just as freaked out about the creepy Kiss Play Transformers line as the rest of the U.S. Transformers fans. (In it, the robots get their power by being kissed by scantily clad anime girls. Of course, nobody wants to kiss the evil Decepticons, so there's a certain level of force involved.) Archer said of Takara, the Japanese toy maker: "They're allowed to do in their market whatever they want. It doesn't really make sense to us either."
• Hasbro is making something called Optimash Prime. "We can't comment on it, but use your imagination," Lombardo said.

a little something to hear, watch, eat and read

Something to hear and see: Check out the new video from the Parlour Boys. The Lexington guys got scads of attention after winning the Calling All Bands competition, and now they've got a music video to show for it. It was directed by L.A.-based photographer Pamela Littky. You can see the band when they take the stage at The Dame Friday night.

Something to watch...or not: Because sometimes the TV gods give us a break, Fox's dismal new comedy, Happy Hour, is already the victim of schedule shuffling, along with the much better but little watched lawyer drama, Justice. The network says they'll be back, but that's just fancy talk for, "We hate admitting our mistakes."

Something to eat: Head to Coldstone Creamery today between 5-8 p.m. and you'll get three ounces of free Cole's Creation ice cream, which is chocolate ice cream, yellow cake, chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles. The free treat comes courtesy of the World's Largest Ice Cream Social, which benefits the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Something to read: Let's continue our celebration of Banned Books Week, shall we? Today's featured book is a doozy -- Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.

There's a long list of often-challenged books that make me say "Why?!" Really, what's so wrong with Flowers for Algernon?

But I never wonder about Margaret. This girl lies about getting her period, pumps her arms hoping it will fill her bra and tells God things generally reserved for pink diaries with cheap locks. That's a lot of material to make a parent blush. I don't like the list, but at least I can pinpoint the reasons this one ends up there.

I inherited my copy of Margaret from my older brother, who probably read the first three pages -- which mention boyfriends, deodorant and family finances -- before deciding that playing Bionic Commando on the Nintendo was more his style. It had an intensely 70s-looking cover decorated with tones of dirt and olives. Let me tell you: I learned more from that book than from weeks and weeks of elementary school sex ed. I learned the important stuff.

comics we'll miss

 

Word came yesterday that The Boondocks won't be back in your Sunday Herald-Leader.

Or rather, according to this very diplomatic statement from Universal Press Syndicate: "Although Aaron McGruder has made no statement about retiring or resuming The Boondocks for print newspapers, Universal Press Syndicate is announcing that newspapers should not count on it coming back in the foreseeable future."

So, it probably won't be back in your Sunday Herald-Leader. The editors here say we'd likely pick it back up if McGruder brings it back to life. I'm a fan of the suburb-skewering Over the Hedge, the strip we began running in its place, but just like I miss the one-panel wit of The Far Side and the sugar-addled excitement of Calvin and Hobbes, I'll miss the element of surprise that The Boondocks brought to the Sunday comics.

The Boondocks, which turned McGruder into the "Garry Trudeau of the hip-hop generation," was a constant source of ulcers for editors and letters for the editorial page. Even on the days when it wasn't particularly funny or poignant, it was different. The artwork was more stylized and modern that everything else on the funny pages, and the content often felt like it belonged over in the opinion section.

The Cartoon Network show was renewed, and the first-season DVDs are available now. But on cable and DVD, the show's viewers are only the people that want to see it, who know exactly what they're getting into. The newspapers comics page might seem stodgy or old, but they still show up in millions of homes every day.

It's those places where you'll find people who need The Boondocks.