Via Pitchfork Media:

Seems Ryan “Minus” Adams has finally parsed down (or tossed aside entirely) the 3,492 tracks recently uploaded to his website into one concise, 13-song album. Ryan’s ninth full-length proper, Easy Tiger, enters the physical universe June 5 via Lost Highway.

After churning out three albums in 2005 and going quiet in 2006, it’ll be interesting to see what sound this album takes.

What an odd yet entertaining ad campaign.

Utilizing Google’s Webmaster Tools I have found some of the assorted searches that seem to help people find J’s Notes:

Fight Club Spark Notes and Cliff Notes? You can’t just read the book? It’s not like it’s highbrow literature.

Though “i got me some j’s” is a little promising.

Can’t wait to see what Google Analytics reveals about J’s Notes.

People keep blogging about it so I feel the need to keep linking.

John at Buttermilk & Molasses shares his thoughts:

Having a weblog Sadie Hawkins dance is a fine idea. I’d be really interested in seeing a genuine conversation form between the various media communities in the area, though.

One thought I’ve had recently was to pull together a working group of area journalists, editors, freelance writers, PR gurus and webloggers to engage in some free-form brainstorming around the intersection of news, technology and community building. A total pipe-dream, of course, given the financial rivalries among many of the players (Hey, Tom Silvestri, give me a call. Let’s do something really out-of-the-box in Richmond.), but how cool would it be to white board possibilities with a significant handful of the region’s wordsmiths and idea generators?

Another idea involved pulling together a large handful of area webloggers and facilitating a full-blown critique of each other’s sites — voice, content, focus, design, etc. Create a space where five or six or nine people could sit down and give voice to their best thinking of ways to enhance and strengthen each other’s work.

Both great ideas and things that can come with a greater sense of community that a summit would help create. Pipe-dreams, sure, but completely feasible.

Tim at Geistweg thinks:

…the idea of a summit is interesting from the community building aspect. As I stated on Tripp’s site, I get regular chunks of traffic from RVABlogs, and always see spikes when I talk about local issues.

To me, that would be the biggest benefit. Aside from getting a chance to meet the people you regularly read, it might be a chance to create inter-connected programs or features that are highlighted and shared across the local blogging community, which could give us a greater voice (and greater exposure) across the board.

Not to mention, it could be damned entertaining as well.

Tripp has an update as well, with a list of things he’s learned since starting this whole madness.

Bearing Drift passes along this message from your friendly neighborhood RPV:

The CAA Basketball Tournament’s coming this weekend and VCU enters with the top seed. F.T. Rea has a good breakdown over at SlantBlog. More information is available at the CAA website or you could tune in this afternoon from 5-7pm to WVCW’s The Aftermath with Matt and Alex. You can contact the guys during the show via AIM at AftermathSports.

The Aftermath Facebook

WVCW site (stream requires RealPlayer)

F.T. Rea’s really getting the ball rolling over at SlantBlog. Snoopy over at River City Rapids also has some thoughts:

the problem is the biggest dog on the blog, the Times-Dispatch, will hardly acknowledge bloggers. When confronted with a digging story about all the newsroom changes, they slammed the door on Style and instituted a don’t talk to the media policy.

While things seem to have stabilized on Franklin St., it is still too anachronistic in many ways. Bloggers and the big guys can co-exist peacefully and help each other, but I would be shocked - pleasantly so - if they embraced us at a summit with much more than a handshake and the usual pleasantries. That’s not to say we could not charm them, of course…..

Bloggers most of the time use the resources of the mainstream media to comment on stories and the mainstream media uses bloggers posts on various topics to open new lines of thinking they may not have thought of or face the courage to explore that they may not have thought of.

…

I think a blogger summit is a great idea if for no other reason than to get to know each other outside of the keyboard. I would certainly invite the big guys on the block to attend, I just won’t hold my breath waiting for them to ask us along for the ride.

More at The804 Blog.

Kilo rocks it out. Enjoy.

Tripp Fenderson has a great post on blogging in Richmond:

Over the last year, the community has evolved from a simple collection of bloggers and pundits to something more.

There’s greater interaction with one another. Posts on one site often reference posts on others. People are beginning to regularly comment on one another’s posts. A loose network is forming and it’s growing, thanks in no small part to Ross Catrow and his site, RVABlogs.

According to Ross, the site’s intent is “to create traffic for local bloggers, expose bloggers to new blogs, and expose non-bloggers to blogging.”

He’s done just that.

I agree. RVABlogs is a great resource for info on all things Richmond. When I worked in DC there was a nice collection of area blogs through the now defunct DC Metro Blogmap (which allowed you to see blogs in a Metro stop area by mousing over the stop) and now DC Bloggers but both ultimately acted more as a blogroll and less as an aggregator of information like RVABlogs is. (Admittedly, the DC blog round-ups started before RSS feeds were all the rage.) RVABlogs goes a long way to developing a sense of community among Richmond bloggers and allows us to share in ways that might not otherwise happen. It’s also a great way to read a bunch of blogs you might not otherwise ever find.

All that said, there’s a lot of meat to the above post about Richmond blogs and their potential relationship with the mainstream media and it’s all well worth reading, but I’m going to jump to the end and fiddle with some posted questions.

Should there be a relationship (loose or formal) between traditional publishers and the community?

I think that a relationship would be in the best interest of all involved, if anything just a basic meet and greet to put faces and names together between the MSM and the bloggers in the area. An active, feeding one another information relationship should exist in the same way it does now, by reading one another’s work.

Should media companies work to actively share news and information with this community?

I think blogs provide a great opportunity to flesh out a story more than one might be able to in a column or print or thirty second byte on television. The MSM might be better served by creating its own blogs (which it has in some cases) to delve a bit more into the stories. I also think that the next question is a good way to do this too…

Should media companies acknowledge the online publishers who bring important stories about the community to the table (or who scoop the story)?

Yes and no. I can understand the MSM’s hesitancy to acknowledge another source for a story because you then drive your potential market to only seek the info at that source. But blogs provide a great place to get more details out and should be utilized for that purpose. If SaveRichmond and River City Rapids are covering the “hole in the ground” more thruoughly than anyone else, then the Times Dispatch would do well to send their readers that way, even if the coverage does have an slant and at times take the TD to task for its coverage or lack thereof.

I think what you may see more of in the future is the MSM turning to blogs as starting points, something that’s already happening in many ways. Such as the “Macaca” story for George Allen last year, a story that starts on the blog and gains traction shows to the MSM that there is a potential audience for this and they pick up on that. It might do the media well to meet some of these bloggers who are doing this work and helping provide (and in some cases create) a story for them. It’d also be nice, from a blogger’s point of view, to meet these people who write the stories we bloggers run off or pick apart at times. More often that not, media related blog content is fed by stories from the MSM. While blogs add to the story, someone’s got to start them. And if any meet and greet were to involve free food then it’s DEFINATELY a great idea.

UPDATE: F.T. Rea has some thoughts up here.

2:25pm - House passes the plan. Now it’s up to the Senate.

Jim’s liveblogging over at Bearing Drift.

You can keep an eye on the status of the bill here at the HoD website.

NLS is reporting that the compromise bill should be coming out today.

Brian over at Bearing Drift points to some of the details that are already out:

Here’s the highlights. The smidgeon of $250 million dollars of General Fund money to finance $2.5 billion of statewide bonds has been lowered to $172 million, which makes it a fragment of a smidgeon of the $72 Billion state budget. Do that math! I tried to make another pie chart, but my computer said “I can’t chart ZERO”

Kaine whined again, as if he doesn’t like it as much as he likes his own plan which he never revealed and never submitted.

Republicans have dominated this conversation, whether House or Senate, and led the way. All the Dems have are an absentee Governor, an ethics challenged Senate, and a divided House. Will Dem lawmakers play obstructionist on the proposed solution or start helping Virginians instead of helping themselves?

2:28p UPDATE: BVBL reports that there will be a 3pm announcement on HB3202.

3:38p UPDATE: James Bowden gave his thoughts over at Bacon’s Rebellion this morning:

The bad parts of the Transportation compromise of Republican and Conservative principles are so terrible that Virginia is better off with nothing. The bad far ouweighs the good reforms and innovations.

Is no solution better than the proposed “solution”?

4:28p UPDATE: BVBL has Howell’s press release up concerning the compromise.

Drive-through robbery?

Richmond Police are warning against a man they say is robbing people from inside his car. We’re told he’s hit four times.

Police say the driver-seat robber is asking people for directions and when they get close to his car he pulls out a handgun and robs them of money or jewelry.

Richmond Police John Keohane says, “Just be aware of your surroundings and if someone stops and asks you for directions and lures you to the vehicle get as much information as possible, but don’t approach the vehicle, walk away.”

The suspect is described as a heavy set black male between 35 and 40 possibly driving a dark colored 4-door vehicle. Police advise you to stay away from the car and call CrimeStoppers at 780-1000 immediately.

Isn’t this something we’re supposed to teach the children, never approaching a vehicle if someone is asking for directions? And a “dark colored 4-door vehicle”? Is it a car? A SUV? A hovercraft?

So the warning here is to just not give directions if people ask. Because they might rob you. I guess.

(h/t WOTBN)

UPDATE: CHPN was on this yesterday morning.

Or not…

A Fredericksburg man is facing several assault charges after police say he hunted down a group of Republicans and confronted them in their home over their beliefs.

Police said Andrew Stone, 23, recently went to a home in Fredericksburg at around 5:30 p.m. after he saw a name and nearby address on a Republican Web site.

Stone confronted three residents about their political viewpoints, police said. When he found out the residents supported the Republican-led war effort in Iraq, police say Stone became enraged.

Stone then hit the homeowner and his roommates several times as they tried to force him out of the door, police said.

Stone faces three counts of assault and battery.

Crazy. Though I think the last line of the Free Lance Star’s article isn’t really necessary:

It was not clear in the report what political agenda Stone was supporting.

2.22 Update: Michelle Malkin has an accout from Richard Pannell, one of the men attacked, as well as accounts of some disturbing behavior from the accused.

Missed this one a few days back, but Richmond War Room has joined the growing list of retiring blogs.

Glistening in the sun:

Plan 9 is proud to announce a new monthly series of in-store performances by local artists. Our “Local Music Spotlight” will hold its first session on February 24th and feature Conshafter, A New Dawn Fades, and Robert Parker Vaughn.

Our mission each month is to expose talented artists to different audiences and help build a bigger and tighter community to support these Richmond musicians.

We encourage all area artists to submit their music to us by the 1st of each month to be chosen for that month’s spotlight. All genres of music are welcome. Each band selected will perform a half hour set on our Carytown location stage on the third Saturday of that month.

For more info, hit up Plan9’s site and be sure to check out their first show this Saturday.

(h/t WOTBN.net)