Month: June 2003

If you’re a Dallasite (blogger or no), show up for the DFWBlogs happy hour tonight at one of my favorite Dallas haunts, the Meridian Room. (That is, it’s one of my favorite Dallas haunts on those rare occasions when I leave my apartment.)

If there has to be a photo of me floating around, it might as well be a good one. (That was shot by Rannie during SXSW.)

Dude, I didn’t know until just now that my photo was in the Austin Chronicle back in March. (I’m the one with a full head of hair. Not my best photo.)

A boring, yet strangely mesmerizing video for the Shins’ “New Slang.” Just a girl on a porch, staring into the camera and lip-syncing the song. The way she breaks up laughing at the end just makes you fall in love. (Trivia: That’s Kim Baxter of the All-Star Summer Fun Band.) I like it much better than the other (official?) video for the song.
And it’s about damned time the Shins record another album. Their last one was gorgeous.

Remember my post a few days ago about Greg Packer, the guy who mysteriously shows up as the “man on the street” in seemingly every story based in New York?
As Jon pointed out in the comments, ol’ Greg is a known quantity — a fame whore, basically. The mainstream media’s on it, too. (Here’s AP’s version.)

That’s what I get for not checking in at laexaminer.com for a couple weeks: they’ve up and relaunched. What was once a smart media-centric site (run by West Coast bloglords Layne and Welch) has now become a low-rent SoCal Gawker. Maybe they’ll hit their stride, but I’m not seeing it yet (and I’m a Gawker fan). The tone’s off, and the design’s goofy.
Meanwhile, the old laexaminer.com role appears to have fallen to the new laobserved.com.
Also noted: “Los Angeles is the world’s first and only city to receive its own unique Internet address: .la.” How strange is that? Can Dallas now get .dl or .ds? Or .df for the Metroplex?
Of course the added bonus is that .la works perfectly well for Louisiana web sites. I immediately tried to register www.rayne.la (in homage to my hometown), but the site says it’s already been registered. Doubtful.

Here’s my story from today’s front page, on Texas’ new efforts to sell its standardized tests to folks out of state. I believe (cross your fingers) that this is my last standardized test story for a while. Praise be.
I had to work a 3 p.m.-to-midnight shift Saturday night, and I thought it would be a fine time to catch up on some blogging. Alas, I ended up spending the whole damned shift dodging mosquitoes and tracking escaped convicts. Here’s that story.

Last year, I posted about a great boozy-Muppet video by the Starlight Mints. Unfortunately, the version I linked to broke about halfway through the song.
So to make up for that year-old slight, I now present you, in full and unbroken Quicktime glory, the Starlight Mints’ “Popsicle.”
(Their new album is quite good, too.)

Here’s my story from today’s paper, a middling effort on the Hispanic dropout problem.

Words I never thought I’d say: Ann Coulter may be on to something. Who is Greg Packer, what does he know, and when did he know it?
Reminds me of the highest honor a journalist can receive, membership in the Occult Hand Society (see June 4 entry). (Don’t believe me?)