Better Off Alone

Earlier this week, Micah and I were extended an invitation for an interview with Illinois Times. We gladly accepted the opportunity to promote Movie Geeks Club and the Just Two Guys blog. We were scheduled to interview sometime on Monday.

Then I grabbed a copy of this week's Illinois Times while I was picking up a few things at Food Fantasies. As I was flipping through it during my lunch break, I noticed in the Cap City section of the paper, that a staff writer at IT has written a "humorous" plug for the Springfield blogging scene titled "You Are Not Alone."

Basically, the column makes blanket statements about Springfield's bloggers, claiming that we are all "middle-aged men who spend their nights in their underpants, typing about their unrequited dreams and day-to-day anxiety and trading funny clips from YouTube with each other." When we're not torturing readers with our "tales of woe," it seems, we're boring our readers with unimportant tidbits from our lives.

I am not a person who is easily offended, but the condescending tone of this column really made me angry. Micah and I are proud members of the local blogging scene. With Movie Geeks Club, we've tried to create something of cultural interest to people in the community. We've tried to give people a place to go to see movies they might not otherwise see. With our Just Two Guys blog and public access show, we try to promote local arts and events. We try to showcase local talent. We try to entertain and inform people. We do all of this in our free time for nothing other than the enjoyment it gives us.

Russ at Springfield Rewind spends a lot of his time at the Sangamon Valley Collection, collecting photographs of interesting Springfield landmarks, and then photographing those landmarks today. This is culturally significant and important. Dan Naumovich of Blog Free Springfield is one of the best local writers I've had the pleasure of knowing. I always enjoy his column in the State-Journal Register, and I always look forward to his blog posts. His writing is intelligent, witty, and utterly enjoyable.

Will Reynolds addresses issues of local, national, and global importance on his blog, Where There's a Will There's a Way. We have Vatren Jurin's blog, Ask Me Anything About Agriculture. He uses his blog to share what he knows as an experienced agronimist. Marie Carnes, one of Springfield's smartest and most well-spoken bloggers, always has something interesting to say. When she blogs, we read.

We have the anonymous Thirtywhat, who posts her reflections on everything from growing older to playing World of Warcraft with her daughter. She has written extensively about her struggles with Polycystic Kidney Disease, and I feel that I have learned much about this complicated disease from reading her experiences.

The Eleventh Hour Blog was one of my favorite places to go for daily tidbits of local and national news, spun with a local flavor. ." We have bloggers who post creative original content regularly, like Dave Heinzel. We have poets and writers. We have people interested in raising awareness about Mass Transit problems in Springfield. We have an entire sub-community of UIS student bloggers. We have a blog written by Larry Stevens, a Vachel Lindsay scholar. In truth, there are too many local blogs for me to highlight them all or to expound their virtues. The bottom line is, we have a wonderful community of bloggers who spend a lot of time sharing their knowledge, their background, their expertise, and, heaven forbid, the stories of their day-to-day lives.

And I would wager that not one of the bloggers mentioned above has ever written a blog post in his or her underpants. I am offended by the Illinois Times making the analogy that reading local blogs is like "motorists who can’t resist looking at a bloody wreck or TV viewers who wait anxiously for the paternity-test results on The Maury Show." I'm sorry, IT staff writer, that it is so difficult for you to sit there and read our blogs in your underwear. I'm sorry we couldn't be more interesting. I'm sorry that we're the Internet equivalent of trashy daytime talk shows. I'm sorry you don't enjoy our community. Maybe you and the rest of your friends at Illinois Times would be better off alone.

Needless to say, Micah and I have declined an interview with Illinois Times. We don't need the publicity that badly.

The Courier update

Back in January, John and I announced that we would be shooting a short film called The Courier. Here was John's summary from January 29:

"The Courier is a short film prequel to our feature-length film, The Rickert Racket. It is about Snorri Harsgaard and Hamilton Stone, two milquetoast city employees at the beck and call of Springfield's biggest powermonger, Councilman Jack Rickert. During their first day on the job in Springfield's Animal Control department, Snorri and Hamilton get a call from Rickert to meet a courier at the old Sangamo Town site to pick up an important package. Snorri and Hamilton embark on a mini adventure to find the courier and secure the mysterious package for Rickert."

Just at the time that we were scheduled to shoot, 14" of snow dropped on us. We postponed the shooting date and we are now scheduled to shoot in the next couple of weeks. Ryan and Nick are still on board so we are in very good hands. Unfortunately Travis Liles will not be able to make the shoot. He was supposed to play the namesake of the film but he is taking part in a 100 mile run that weekend. Yes, that is 1-0-0, one hundred. We wish him good luck. However, we do want him to come on the show and discuss his crazy run sometime. Come to think of it, that is the second time we've had to cancel a "Travis-Just Two Guys" event because of snow. Anyway, the casting of that part is almost complete but we need to confirm once more before making it official. He had alcohol in him when he agreed.

This should be a fun project and we plan on airing the film on the show. Let's just hope we don't get cancelled again because of snow.

Friday Beer Blogging: Pouring One Out For Our Homie

YouTube - Guide to Beer - How to acheive the perfect Pour

Dave, this one's for you, brother.



Please note: I'm not trying to steal Dave's idea for FBB. I just realized there wasn't going to be one today, and I didn't know what to do with myself.

Tips for Clean Living

Tip #4211
Never steal something from an endurance athlete unless you have a suitable means of escape. You cannot outrun these people. They will follow you mercilessly until you can run no longer and you return whatever it is you've stolen and beg them to please leave you alone.

Trina M sings with Frank T

Trina M sings with Frank T - Popular Springfield chanteuse makes rare appearance with beloved jazzmeister - A & E - Now Playing - Illinois Times - Springfield, Illinois: "Popular Springfield chanteuse makes rare appearance with beloved jazzmeister"

Our good friend Trina Madonia is singing at Marly's tonight. I didn't live here when Elevator Shoe was still in business, so I never got to hear Trina sing with them. I did have the pleasure, however, to hear her sing a few times last year with her trio, and I'm looking forward to hearing her sing again tonight with the New Frank Trompeter Quartet.

If you're looking for good music on a Friday night (and early, too, for those of you who don't want to be out late), I'd recommend heading to Marly's.

5:30-7:30 PM, the New Frank Trompeter Quartet with guest singer Trina Madonia.

Johnny and Josie to appear on J2G

After months of trying to get Roy Mason of Edward D. Jones to appear on our show, WMAY has thrown us a bone. Johnny Molson and Josie from The Molson & Josie Show have agreed to sit down with Just Two Guys for an exlusive interview in April. We really hope to cut into some of the deep issues that Springfieldians fret about every day. Poverty, homelessness, racism, cable rates, state workers, shooting guns into the air, stores that leave Springfield, gas prices, State Fair shows, Chicago, etc.

Or maybe we'll just try to have some fun with them. We'll see. John and I really like their show and I think most of Springfield radio listeners would agree. We will tape next month so we'll keep you updated. I guess it's kind of our public access sweeps show. It's always an odd moment when you first see what a radio personality looks like so here they are. I'm posting them so you're used to their mugs when you watch the show.

The Letter People

I was typing a letter at work the other day and I began to struggle with the common "ie" spelling. "I" before "E", except after "C". Even though it doesn't always look right to me, it's a good rule. Except, in my head, I saw Ms. I and Ms. E standing next to each other. Work was off for those next few minutes. I began thinking of how my mind is wired. I began to think of how a simple educational tool from kindergarten still affected my thought processes. I still (occassionally) envision letters in my head as they are Letter People.

The Letter People was a children's educational show and literacy program from the 1970's. By the 1980's, the show was constantly airing on PBS and there were books and records with songs for each of the Letter People. We were introduced to each Letter Person every week. We would close our eyes and our teacher would turn the song on. We would open our eyes and before us would be a 30 inch blow-up doll of that particular character. It was very exciting. Some of the characters would have trouble keeping inflated. Mr. M and Ms. E to mention a couple. Others would stay well inflated throughout the year such as Mr. T (that was cool in the 80's anyway) and Ms. O. In my time, the consonants were men and vowels were women. That still sticks with me today. I still think of vowels as females. So strange.

In 1990, as I read on Wikipedia, there was a revival of the letter people but with politically correct changes. The males and females were more balenced and they could no longer use junk food to associate with letters. For example, Mr. D was Delicious Doughnuts. He had doughnuts all over him. That changed. Now, I love doughnuts but I don't think it had anything to do with Mr. D. I don't like lollipops but that's what Mr. L was all about. Cotton Candy C didn't do anything to me. So anyway, I think they went a bit too far with some of the "pc" stuff. Others from my generation seem to agree.

John and I spoke about The Letter People a while back. He had them too. I have a feeling John's wires aren't as mixed up as mine. Even though my mind still has the after-effects, I can look back with great appreciation of that program. I learned quickly with those tools. Seeing Cotton Candy "C" and Horrible Hair "H" standing next too each other as they teach me phonics is just an amusing side effect. It will probably never leave me. It hasn't in 25 years.