Author: Jason

“End Of An Era” Is Right

Snoopy links to a TD report that Julian’s Restaurant is closing its doors after nearly 60 years in business:

Julian’s Restaurant, which has had a location on West Broad Street since 1946, has closed.

The Hickman family shut down the business at 2617 W. Broad St. on Sunday night to concentrate on its other restaurant at 11129 Three Chopt Road in Henrico County.

“My parents have been doing this a long time, and it was such a huge burden having the two restaurants,” said Cathy Hughes, the daughter of Dennis and Agnes Hickman, who own the business with their son, Robert.

The family has another reason for closing — a contract to sell the building.

“We’re in the early stages, but it is a good contract,” Hughes said.

The West Broad Street location filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2004 because of mounting debt stemming from a city meals-tax payment dispute.

Musical Shove

If you haven’t heard of Dan Bern you obviously haven’t spoken with me about music at any length. I guess you could call him a folk singer. I just call him good.

For a good taste of what he brings to the table, check out his MySpace and listen to what’s there. Great sample of his work, handpicked by Dan Bern himself. And the songs change every now and then so keep going back for more. If you notice him coming to your town on his tour list there, go see him. You will not regret it.

Then go to the store and buy all of his albums. Fifty Eggs is probably his best (produced by Ani DiFranco), but you can’t go wrong with any of his albums.

Go now and enjoy.

UPDATE: You can also hear two Dan Bern songs in the podcast of the March 5th episode of Under The Covers. Woo!

Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters

John Grohol has a great article up at A List Apart about the relationship between identity and community on the internet and while the article focuses more on communities created by sites such as Wikipedia that have visitors submit information, it still makes some relevant observations on anonymity vs. pseudonymity that apply to the blogging community just as well.

Ah, Opening Day

Nothing says Spring has arrived like baseball. I’m currently listening to the Nationals game against the Mets. Unfortunately this may be the only one I catch considering Richmond is an Atlanta Braves city (bah!).

4:02pm UPDATE: Drats. Mets won 3-2 after Lo Duca tried to stretch a single into a double with two outs in the ninth. Still, good game.

Site Shut Down For Anonymous Posts

A bulletin board out of Wisconsin has been shut down due to content provided by anonymous posters:

Fond du Lac County Judge Robert Wirtz on Thursday ordered local Web site owner Dennis Payne to cease operations of the bulletin board site, fullofbologna. com, based on the allegations of a libel lawsuit filed by Winnebago County Clerk of Courts Diane Fremgen.

As part of the temporary injunction, Wirtz also prohibited Payne and other defendants listed from operating any similar Web sites until the order is lifted. Failure to abide by the order would be considered contempt and could be punishable with jail time and fines, according to the order.

…

Fremgen on Thursday filed the lawsuit based on two sexually explicit comments that were written about her and posted on the site by an anonymous user. She will seek $100,000 in monetary damages and $500,000 in punitive damages, according to the civil complaint.

In addition to the complaint, Fremgen filed for the injunction for reasons including that Payne not only allowed the defamatory statements on the site, but also failed to remove them.

…

According to federal law passed as part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Phillips on Thursday said a full injunction removing the site from the Internet was the only way to stop more libelous statements from appearing. The anonymity factor created an attitude where users of the board felt they could write whatever they wanted, he said.

Easily applicable to blogging and quite a dangerous precedent were this to succeed.

Space-Shot.com

Win a trip into space!

Space-Shot.com allows you to win a trip to space on Rocketplane XP via a game of skill. You may become one of the first 1,000 people to ever fly in space. The first step is to buy some entries into the tournament. Each entry costs $3.50 or 6 for $18. The second step is to use your entry to make a prediction of the weather for Central Park tomorrow from midnight to midnight Eastern time. We provide you with research from Accuweather and Custom Weather. The third step is to predict. The fourth step is to see who your opponent is and the prediction you are competing against. The last step for you is wait to see if you have won and play again.

$3.50 for a shot to go to space. Hmmm…

The Gift Of Music: Ben Folds

In late 2003 through early 2004 Ben Folds churned out three EPs under the radar. Speed Graphic, Sunny 16 and Super D each contain five songs, mainly originals with a few covers mixed in.

ben here. i just finished an EP. it’s called “speed graphic”. it has 5 songs on it. it is available now and i’m currently working on finishing another EP called “sunny 16”, to be released in september. a third EP will be recorded (no name yet) for release in november. a trilogy of EP’s. a full length cd will come out at the beginning of the year, for those who don’t like EP’s. i have 24 hour access to a studio now, so i’m using it.

quietly releasing my music as EP’s allow me to get it out there as i finish it. with a minimum of hype. it’s for people who buy my music anyway. it won’t be sold in the big ass chains, because that puts the price up and starts the big ass machinery – press, radio etc. then i have to pose naked at the piano, and really, i’m not a piece of meat, you know. the music will be available at gigs, and online, and on vinyl in some smaller stores.

The only song off of these EPs to make it to his next album, Songs For Silverman, was “Give Judy My Notice” off of Speed Graphic. So most of these songs you can’t get anywhere else.

I’m a pretty big Ben Folds fan but I missed these. I heard “Rent A Cop” off of Super D through Pandora and thought it must have been a b-side. Nope, entirely separate EP, which also contains a cover of The Darkness’s “Get Your Hands Off Of My Woman” and Ray Charles’s “Them That Got”. “Rent A Cop” is a great little diddy about a mall security guard and funny as hell.

All three of these give a good musical transition from his first solo effort in Rockin’ The Suburbs to his latest album Songs for Silverman. And if you’re not a Ben Folds fan, well, please, try and listen to something other than “Brick”. 90% of folks I talk to that don’t like Ben Folds specifically name that song as why and, well, I can’t blame them. Overkill at its finest.

Another Ben Folds find I’ve made as of late comes off of the Rockin’ The Suburbs EP. About six years back I caught Ben Folds Five live at an Earth Day festival down here in Richmond. Guster played as well as did a very crappy band that took up what I guess was the second stage and played really horrible songs. Pre-Irish-rip-off Carbon Leaf. Ugh.

Anyway, during their set, BFF played a song about a gentleman who wanted cream of wheat and then went on this late night urban adventure. Great song. But I had no idea what the name was and went years without finding the tune.

About a year ago I was poking around the web for music and such and came across a site of rare Ben Folds songs. They’d offer a few at a time, sweet stuff. One was a song called “The Secret Life of Morgan Davis”. Jackpot.

So I give to you “Rent A Cop” and “The Secret Life Of Morgan Davis”. These are hardly representative of the full joy that is Ben Folds but it’s a start.