Month: September 2011

The following is a letter from my daughter, Shana, that just went out. I reprint it here and urge you to support her project if you haven’t already. If you’re one of the thousands of people who read this blog and have just kind of shrugged or said, “Maybe later,” there is no more later. This would mean a lot to her and a lot to me. Please help make this happen:

Happy Friday!

If you’re reading this email it’s because you have kindly allowed yourself to be hassled about a project that is much needed in Riverside, the takeover, rebranding, and renovation of the 5 Points Theatre. Through your support and that of other residents and businesses Tim and I have raised over $46,000 on our crowdsourcing site at ulule. That’s pretty impressive, except that our goal is more than twice that and we only have a week to pull this off. As of this writing we have 142 “supporters,” and I know at least one of those is my grandma. Consider that Riverside and Avondale have what, 25,000 people and when you add Downtown, Springfield, West Jax, and Ortega you’re at 250,000. Dangit, I just don’t think that Jacksonville’s representing the way it oughta.

For the sake of our hood, please spread the word far and wide. Remind people this restoration likely will not happen if we can’t raise the funds. Let them know this ain’t a donation, you can buy two tickets and a tub of popcorn for only $25, lifetime movies or a year’s worth of onscreen ads for $1000, or have the best company Christmas party ever for a cool $10k, with lots of great incentives in between.

To break it down:

If 2000 people drop that 25 bucks we’re set. 500 people could buy a card that gets them into 10 movies and we’d be there. Or 50 people at $1000. We don’t have a second shot at this. The kind folks at Ulule gave us this rare opportunity to extend our campaign so let’s all get on the Facebook, the Tweeting, and the guilt tripping because next Friday it’s all over.

Power to the people!

Shana

Jose Reyes of the Mets has caused a brouhaha that underscores the notion that Mets fans can find loss in just about anything. He brought the team its first batting title in its history (and indeed pretty much the only bright spot in the season) but fans are taking issue with the fact that he took himself out of yesterday’s final game after a single appearance…the better to protect his narrow lead in the race.

I know the old saying is, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” Well, guess what? This season the Mets played for crap. So I’ll take my wins wherever and however I can find them.

He won the batting title fair and square. He didn’t cheat. He didn’t take steroids (God, I hope not). There’s not gonna be an asterisk next to his name in the record books. He won it. And in a season where wins of any sort have sometimes been few and far between, I’m just not inclined to bìŧçh about how he won it. But maybe that’s just me.

Oh, uh…happy New Year.

PAD

So let’s see where we stand. In recent Republican debates, we have seen audiences cheer for the prospect of a young uninsured man dying in a coma. We have seen audiences cheer the high rate of people being executed in Texas. And we have seen them boo a soldier on duty because the soldier could now be openly gay.

Here’s the question: Is compassionate conservatism dead? Or was it, like other Bush creations as WMDs in Iraq, something that never existed in the first place?

PAD

Got back in from Los Angeles at a little past midnight today. Still tired and not quite up to speed. Went to IHOP for lunch since this is the one day a year I allow myself to have chocolate chip pancakes. Settling in now for cartoon night: all our favorite series are on tonight on Cartoon Network, and they’re all new.

PAD