Ben’s gone overboard:

If Jim Webb’s son is going to have his myspace profile dragged into this campaign, can we ask if the rumors are true on who Forrest Allen is named after?

Rumors? What rumors?

Oh, he means the one an anonymous commenter started a few months back that accused Allen of naming his son Forrest after Nathan Bedford Forrest. Nevermind that Forrest is Allen’s daughter*, folks still picked it up and ran with it. When I pointed out this fact to Ben in an IM conversation he said it was funny how these things happened.

Funny indeed.

Perhaps Forrest is a family name. Perhaps it was chosen by George Allen’s mother who the LeftyBloggers feel is the most racist person in the world because she taught her son all the French he knows including the insult of the week. Or perhaps they thought Forrest was a pretty name.

*4:11 PM UPDATE: I have been corrected by Jaded JD. Forrest is George Allen’s son. Not sure why my research back in April told me otherwise but there you have it. Just the same, demanding an explanation as to why someone has a particular name merely because you want to associate that name with a historical figure and their baggage is crazy.

The Nanci Raygun is closing it’s doors August 31st:

DUE TO AN INABILITY FROM OUR LANDLORD TO MAINTAIN HIS MAINTANCE RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE LEASE, THE NANCI RAYGUN WILL BE CLOSING ON AUG 31. WE APPOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVIENCE THIS WILL CAUSE FOR THE BANDS AND PATRONS. ALL OF THE SHOWS LISTED IN AUG WILL STILL CONTINUE AS SCHEDULED. PLEASE BE PATIENT, AS WE MAY RE-OPEN IN A FEW MONTHS. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE YEARS. THANKS YOU FOR THE GOOD TIMES, NANCI RAYGUN STAFF

Drats.

Welcome to the first installment of the Richmond VA Blog Carnival, wrapping up a bunch of happenings in RVA for the week of August 7-13.

Allow me to start by providing a bit of mood music. Check out Richmond’s very own David Schultz. I’ve become quite the fan as of late.

Now for the carnival!

Don gives some insight into Richmond’s very own (and literal) money pit and the inability of city politicians to take a stand on the issue.

F.T. Rea speaks of evil (and it’s not the metric system) and how the fear it creates is used politically.

The Richmond Business and Commercial News blog notes out that RVA is #6 on Forbes’ list of Top 10 Cities to Find a Job. Kudos to Richmond.

Brick isn’t too keen on Richmond Magazine’s listing of Joe’s Inn as Best Neighborhood Takeout Joint and Best Place for Weekday Breakfast. Personally, I’m with Susan, at least with her take on Best Thai.

If you haven’t been keeping up with Duane’s “A Painting A Day” you’re really missing out. Last week saw what I thought was a really great piece: Chinese Candy No.2. I may not know art, but I know what I like.

Snoopy has delicious tomatos and is willing to share, but woe be onto you who dare try and steal a bunch.

Did you catch Dave Chappelle this weekend? Chris did and mentions a few others who maybe should have passed.

J.C. Whitmore was not only well prepared for Sunday’s Carytown Watermelon Festival but also provided some great advice to help you folks at home on your way. Then he took a slew | of | pictures. Jorje was there too..

And a whole lot more happened too, but I’ll let you all find that for yourselves. Best place to start? RVABlogs!

Thanks for checking out this installment of the RVA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to host a future edition, e-mail me at jasonkenney@gmail.com and keep an eye on the BlogCarnival.com page for upcoming carnivals.

We Kenney’s better watch out…

There is currently a man having a lively discussion with VCU police in front of the President’s House. Perhaps it is concerning his sign that says, “Kiss my ass Eugene Tranni”.

Wish I knew what that was about.

More importantly, I wish I had a camera.

Hey, Richmond bloggers, let’s have ourselves a carnival!

I’ve set up our very own blog carnival site at blogcarnival.com. Through here you can get info on the carnival and upcoming editions.

I’ll be hosting the first bash this upcoming Monday, August 14th. All entries are due Sunday, August 13th by 6pm. The carnival is open to any and everything from Richmond bloggers. You don’t have to be talking about Richmond, you don’t even have to be talking about anything in particular. Random rants are fine by me. Just toss me a few posts that give a good look into the minds of Richmond bloggers.

You can submit by e-mailing me at jasonkenney@gmail.com or through the blogcarnival.com site

If you’re interested in hosting a future edition of the RVABC, e-mail me and I’ll add ya to the list.

Lowell, working hard for the Born Running campaign, has posted a little tidbit on the Webblog about a company promising jobs in 1997 then going under four years later and how that is something Allen must explain. I thought the outsourcing and loss of jobs was Harris Miller’s fault?

Yesterday marked five years of on and off blogging on whatever I felt like here on J’s Notes. Yay.

Now back to your infrequently updated blog.

(PS - Happy Bloggiversary to Instapundit, too.)

This just in from the Webb Camp:

It takes a lot of money to run for US Senate!

Democratic U.S. Sen. candidate Jim Webb said today that money is perverting the American political process.

Sitting with five Richmond area Democrats at a West End home, Webb said the need for campaign money has been the biggest surprise of his campaign for the U.S. Senate.

There is also word that the Webb camp may hold a press conference in the coming days announcing that it is hot outside.

(Seems Riley beat me to the punch with this story. So not so breaking, I guess.)

The Times-Dispatch has some brief thoughts on politicians using MySpace for campaigning:

Young people use MySpace and Facebook principally to reach out to their friends, make new friends, find dates, arrange parties and share photos and music.

You can bet that office seekers, who are likely in the well-over-30-plus demographic, will be trying to find common ground with the young people they’re eager to interest in their candidacy.

Eh. As I’ve said a couple times before, I don’t think it’s going to work, especially given MySpace’s reputation among many adults as a playground for children and old men chasing after them.

But is it a way to reach young voters? I don’t think so. Just because you’re showing how hip you are to the current trends does not mean kids are going to be motivatved to support you. I think it’s another means for young activists to show their support and help keep them motivated, but I don’t think you’ll see it getting new voters out to the polls.

UPDATE: Seems Time.com touched on this a bit in mid-July:

Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, which tracks politics and technology, is skeptical. “Because the age difference between the candidates and the users on those networks is so great, the analogy would be a 45-year-old arriving at a frat party,” says Rasiej, who served as a chief technology advisor for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign. “Any campaign that tries these sites will come across as fabricated.” The real power of these social networking sites, he says, will come only when a candidate “actually uses MySpace and authentically networks through it. You won’t see that until today’s young people start running for office and naturally turning to sites like MySpace.”

In the meantime, candidates are grabbing for any online youth credibility they can. In some cases, that credibility comes from the candidates’ own kids. Ned Lamont’s daughter, Emily, runs his MySpace profile for her coursework as a Harvard sophomore. Twenty-year-old August Ritter also oversees the MySpace and Facebook profiles for his dad, Bill Ritter, a Democrat in Colorado’s gubernatorial race.

August isn’t worried about his dad’s lack of hands-on participation. He believes it’s enough that his online profiles even exist. “Young people don’t see campaigns investing in them; it’s the perception that they’re not worth the campaigns’ money,” August says. “When young people see that we are making an effort to communicate with them, they appreciate that we understand that their vote matters.”

My initial thought is, wait, you can run a MySpace page as coursework at Harvard? Second thought is, who would name their kid August?

Now, more seriously, I think that if used wisely, perhaps there is a way to tap into a bit of youth activism, sure. Especially if it’s family of the candidate running the site and not just some staffer. But does that translate to votes? Or are they just using different means to tap into the same people who are already motivated?

On a broader scale, does an interactive internet presence really do anything for a candidate? Blogs have begun to play larger roles since the 2004 cycle and this year will really shows whether or not netroots activism really works. MySpace and other networking sites are just extensions of that, other tools at the netroots activist’s disposal. The difference is the potential target audience. People that use MySpace and Facebook are primarily 15-25 year olds, a demographic that rarely determines the outcome of elections (which is a sad fact in and of itself). Blogs, on the other hand, have no set age demographic and are a lot more inviting to people seeking information on a candidate or campaign. They also go a lot farther in lending themselves to the “echo chamber” that drives some of the larger stories and get more traditional media attention.

Could having a MySpace presence hurt a candidate? Potentially. By using MySpace you associate yourself with MySpace’s public image baggage. I’m sure MySpace loves campaigns using their site, it gives them a bit more credibility and standing. Perhaps it does more for MySpace than the candidates themselves in that respect.

Edgar Wright, director of “Shaun Of The Dead”, will be directing an “Ant-Man” movie and, more importantly, the movie adaptation of “Scott Pilgrim”. Awwww yeah.

He’s interviewed here.

Why yes it is…

The captain of the New York Yankees will step up to the plate for Avon this fall with his very own men’s fragrance, Driven. The fragrance, which industry sources estimated could do between $10 million and $15 million in retail sales in its first year, will be followed in the first quarter of next year by a full personal care collection encompassing an aftershave balm, a body wash, a deodorant spray and an antiperspirant deodorant stick.

There goes his Right Guard endorsement.