Richmond’s got itself a new literary journal: Makeout Creek.  The first issue features writings and art from David Berman, Tom De Haven, R. Kuszyk, Clint McCown, Sto, Allison Titus and more.  You can find copies at Chop Suey’s two locations and a place up in NYC if you find yourself up there.  Read more about it at RVANews.

I’ve shared my thoughts on the latest Rasmussen numbers on the Virginia Senate race at Virginia Virtucon.

F.T. Rea on Waiting For Macaca.

All the web designing cheat sheets you might ever need.  (via Kottke)

Waldo Jaquith has recently started adding Senate video archives to Richmond Sunlight.

All the major carriers have come out with unlimited minute plans in the last few days, but Sprint might muscle its way to leading that pack:

Sprint has yet to respond, but analysts say it could be considering an unlimited calling plan for as low as $60 a month in a bid to stem customer defections.

That could force AT&T and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), to cut their prices or face losing customers.

“Our bigger concern rests with Sprint’s plans and the potential for future additional competitive responses,” Robert W. Baird analyst Will Power wrote in a research note.

As a Sprint customer currently paying about $45 a month for kinda enough minutes, I think I’d find it worth the upgrade to unlimited if it were only $15 or so more.  C’mon, Sprint.  You know you want to be awesome.  Just don’t make an upgrade an automatic two-year agreement and you might have me hooked.

Style Weekly’s Scott Bass has a little ditty this week that cherry picks from River City Rapids as an example of Jon Baliles readiness and presumed eagerness to take a job with Mayor Wilder’s press office. Because, clearly, if you support something you must be looking to get a job with that thing as well.

Where to begin…

Let’s start with the cherry picking. You grab four posts out of three and a half years of blogging and he’s begging for a job? You find four instances where Jon is supportive of the Mayor, one from Jan. 2005, the most recent from Oct. 2007, and this is supposed to be a feeler for employment?

Now, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Scott’s onto something here. I mean, I wrote an awful lot about IHOP’s Free Pancake Day. Who wouldn’t want to be the spokesman for Free Pancake Day? I could be IHOP’s Jared, only instead of losing a ton of weight by eating their food I’d be the fat guy that became large and in charge thanks to IHOP and their all you can eat pancake special!

Second, minor, but Scott Bass wrote the article and the first quoted post happens to mention, wait for it… a Scott Bass article! Dear Scott, now that I have cited you and an article you wrote, can I expect a piece to be written about me quoting the time I wrote about you? Please? Maybe I can hook you up with free pancakes. (I jest.)

Third, I think Jon’s being honest when he says the offer surprised him and he really had to think about accepting it.

While there certainly are bloggers out there who blog hoping and praying that someone will see their work and hire them on the spot to do what they’ve been doing, many bloggers simply write because they care about something. Jon cares about Richmond and at times he has found himself in agreement with Mayor Wilder on how to exactly “care about Richmond”. But I’m pretty sure there’s more to Jon than just his blog. Just as there is more to any number of bloggers who have been offered professional jobs in fields they blogged about (Conaway Haskins, John Henke, and Shaun Kenney to name a few).

Style and Scott have a right to pick on Jon a bit. That’s fine. But it’d have been nice if they provided the full URL to River City Rapids in the article and provided Style readers an opportunity to visit RCR and see for themselves how much Jon cares not for Doug Wilder but for the City of Richmond and its people.

Recommended Reading: Harry Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”

A new reader to J’s Notes (welcome aboard, Jim) pointed out that Edward (who I had called Ed) Hopper’s inspiration for “The Nighthawks” may have been Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Killers”.  From an interview with Gail Levins:

DA : In Silent Places (Universe, 2000), you mention that detective and mystery writers most frequently refer to Hopper. Do you think it’s the elusive nature of his work? We talked earlier about the many levels you feel his paintings operate on.
GL : They’re obviously projecting their imagination and story onto Hopper. That’s particularly true with his image “Nighthawks,” which has become a cultural icon. Writers of thrillers occasionally refer to other images by Hopper. Perhaps because Hopper’s work is so accessible and because it has become a kind of common currency. I think that “Nighthawks” has that sense of mystery, unease; of something happening in the night (the early morning hours, or the late night hours). And it’s not only detective writers and fiction, but also moviemakers and playwrights.

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas; 33-1/8″ x 60″. The Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of the American Art Collection.

I wrote an article a long time ago in which I suggested that “Nighthawks” was inspired by Hemingway’s short story “The Killers,” which Hopper read in Scribner’s magazine and liked so much when it first came out, that he wrote a fan letter to Scribner’s. He said that this writer was so much better than the rest and it was unusual that it wasn’t sentimental or saccharin like so many stories. But that short story has the sense of something about to happen, and it never does. In a sense, Hopper’s paintings are just like that. So that enables writers and filmmakers–fiction writers and poets, and other artists, perhaps too–to project their own imagination…and the viewer in general.

So Hopper doesn’t give you the last word. He sort of gives you the scenario and you have to imagine the conclusion, I suppose.

“The Killers” is a great story and the full text is available here.  Ron Berman reflects on the vaudeville philosophy of the story here:

Max and Al don’t like bright boys - the phrase is repeated more than any other in the story. In one of the two-man acts, “The Sport and the Jew,” the straight man says to Cohen (whose name has a certain resonance in Hemingway), “You’re a pretty smart fellow” (Laurie 455). He means the opposite. Al and Max are gangsters, satirists, philosophers, and vaudes, but they are above all ironists (Donaldson). Almost everything they say means its opposite. And one of the great resentments in their dialogue is intellectual. The dialogue is economical to a degree - minimalist - conveying the meaning not only of statement but also of predisposition.

Max and Al enter the text with attitudes about a number of things. As professionals, they have ideas about the job, but as comedians they have ideas about life. Their problem is not really Ole Andreson but the yokels they have to deal with - after all, these people have been cluttering up the vaudeville stage past living memory. There is no reason to expect them to behave correctly now.

I can’t recommend the story enough.  It’s relation to “Nighthawks” just makes me appreciate it more.

Thanks, Jim.

Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle

The House of Delegates effectively killed Smoking Ban legislation yesterday.

The Virginia GOP Caucus has had a blog pop up recently that attempts to promote the Virginia House Republican Caucus and hold Democrats accountable in ways that Dems have been targeting the VA GOP for a while now: video, insider thoughts and the like.  Waldo Jaquith has taken them to task for it, branding it as rendering their previous stance as “bullshit”.  While I don’t agree with Waldo assessment, I do see problems with what the VA GOP Caucus is doing and offer the following advice:

1) Actually pay for a blog:  While “This blog is paid for and authorized by the Virginia House Republican Caucus” might sound neat, you’re using a Blogpress blog, for cripes sake.  Cheap hosting is available everywhere you look.  I recommend MJZHosting with plans starting under $19 a year.  This will give you a bit more flexibility in what you can do with your site like…

2) Use WordPress or another content management system that actually allows you to log who’s commenting on your site.  IPs are very important to keep yourself from being harassed and allowing you to…

3) Limit anonymous commenters:  If you’re the official blog of anything you need to provide yourself a bit of a shield.  By either banning or simply limiting anonymous commenters by tracking IPs, you grant yourself a greater level of control over your very own soapbox.  Because that’s what this blog is, YOUR soapbox.  Don’t let it get hijacked by others.

4) Fully utilize and understand blogging:  Just tossing up a blog and posting once in a while isn’t going to cut it.  If you’re not going to engage your commenters, why allow comments?  Also, you have to…

5) Use the site to inform or update people as to the happenings of the GOP Caucus:  Don’t make it a one note blog.  Hitting at the Dem Caucus is all well and good, but try and do a bit more cheerleading for the GOP side or a bit more informing the public as to what’s going on.

6) Transparency is key: Who’s blogging?  If it’s a legislative assistant, that’s fine, but if you’re going to have Delegates blog once in a while (which they should), you should have their name on it.  And have a means for people to e-mail you because folks might want to say something or ask a question or just reach you to say hello and spam ya.  And last but not least…

7) Use the Republican blogosphere: Announcing things once in a while is all well and good.  But if you’re not going to link to other blogs or let others know what’s happening, who really cares?  There’s a big ol’ Republican Virginia blogosphere out here waiting to be engaged and offering some great insights that you can push around.  There are also plenty of brains to pick as to how to really use that blog to its fullest.

Just a few thoughts from a guy who’s been doing this for a while.

Jason Guard (there are too many Jason’s in this world) has some thoughts on blog commenting:

When I first saw the debate sparked by Preston Yancy about certain bloggers refusing comments on their sites (overflowing with raw opinions to make you cry, unlike the caramelized variety), my reaction was that it’s a matter of prerogative or personal property. A person’s soapbox is his/her castle. Nuff said. Don’t like it. Don’t read it. However, after laboring over a few posts, receiving minimal feedback, and not feeling content in the act of creation alone, I’m wondering if there is any way to maximize feedback, debate, and discussion. I mean, there is no subscription fee for any of the RVABlogs that I’m aware of. So, how do any of us know if our blog is legitimately popular, an utter disappointment, or a service to the community? Disallowing comments, may be the ticket to an insider job under a likewise undemocratic despot, but what about those of us who prefer two-way (or multi-directional) communication? Or better yet, there’s something to be said for just standing back and letting better informed readers fill in the blanks. (JB, I know you can take that ribbing).

Comments are pretty hard to come by. There are some blogs that just seem to attract tons of comments from being brief or partisan or just plain rumor-mongering. Others get plenty of comments because they’ve developed a solid, conversational readership over time. Yet most blogs just don’t get comments. It’s not for lack of readership, though.

When a blog is well thought out, validly makes its points, and provides a non-confrontational or generally agreed upon thought, well, what’s to comment on? “I couldn’t agree more,” is a rarity. You usually only find yourself generating comments by being confrontational or only presenting half-truths. But if you routinely do that, you also usually find yourself lacking readership.

Beyond comments, one also has to look at whether their blog inspires others to blog.  Instead of comments, I’d prefer to see people blog their thoughts on things I post.  Not only does it take the conversation elsewhere and spread it, but it shows that the thoughts were truly effective in engaging the reader.  So much so that it inspired them to inform others about it, for good or bad.

Having more comments would be nice. It’s a good visual indicator of real readership and engagement with the audience. But if you find that your site is being read a lot (Google Analytics is a good measure of visits and how long folks stick around) but not commented on a ton, well, maybe that’s when you’re doing something right.

Maybe it’s to keep him on a short leash (joking… or am I?), but Jon Baliles of River City Rapids has gone and gotten himself a job with City Hall.  Or City Hall went and got itself a blogger.  Either way, good move, especially since Jon’s already been doing a lot of shilling for the city.