Archive - 2010
August 2nd
Music Monday – Hugh Morrison
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 08:42For the past couple of weeks, the Music Review section of Orient Lodge has been dedicated to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Now, the mud is washed from my feet and most of the camping gear has been properly stowed away. It is time to return to reviews of performers that have been submitting their music via SonicBids.
I have now received about fifty different submissions. I’ve scanned all of them, and studied a majority of them. Listening to the performers’ music coming out of the speakers of my laptop as I sit in my office is much different than sitting on a rain drenched hill at Falcon Ridge, and I need to readjust my listening style back the solitude of my office. I’ve reviewed seven SonicBids submissions so far and today, I am adding my eighth selection.
Hugh Morrison was one of the more recent submissions I’ve received. He has a new CD out called, Robert Burns Rocks. If I didn’t like Morrison’s music so much, I would wait until the great bard’s next birthday in January, but I think this CD deserves to be highlighted right now.
I listened to various tunes, and when his rendition of Auld Lang Syne came around, my wife perked up her ears. It sounded a bit to her like the Pogues’ rendition. I won’t get into whether Morrison sounds more like the Pogues or the Drop Kick Murphys. No, he sounds more like Hugh Morrison, and Hugh Morrison sounds really good. Also, he’s Scottish, not Irish.
What I especially like about his music is that he has put together a whole CD of Robert Burns tunes. Everyone knows Auld Lang Syne. Fewer know Scots Wha Hae or Ye Jacobites By Name. Years ago, I learned to play the great highland bagpipes. I immersed myself in Scottish history, learning Scots Wha Hae and visited Culloden Moor. Yet for all my interest in Scottish history, the romantic poems of Robert Burns are closest to my heart and it is great to hear Morrison cover a few of them as well.
It has been fun exploring Morrison’s online presence as well. There is a video which I take to be his daughter’s first piano recital. There is a podcast, and it appears that Morrison plays with a bunch of different groups from time to time.
Check out Hugh Morrison’s new CD Robert Burns Rocks, and if you’re in Texas or Arizona, check out his schedule to see if he’ll be performing near you any time soon.
August 1st
Picking Fights with Bloggers
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 21:18On July 23rd, the St. Louis American announced its endorsements for the August 3rd primary. For the 14th State Senate District, they wrote:
Maria Chappelle-Nadal has six years of experience in Jefferson City and is a proven, stalwart progressive battler. Her youthful energy also gives her the edge over Joe Adams, the only other candidate in this race who is free of the taint of major funding by Rex Sinquefield. While we have some concern for her, at times, brash behavior and penchant for picking fights she doesn’t need, we feel she has learned some painful lessons in this regard.
Six years ago, Ms. Chappelle-Nadal was running for State Representative and was part of the first Dean Dozen group. The Dean Dozen were candidates that Democracy for America endorsed in the 2004 election cycle. Besides Ms. Chappelle-Nadal, other members of the first Dean Dozen group were Barack Obama who was then a State Senator running for U.S. Senate and my wife who was running for State Representative here in Connecticut.
It is good to see that Ms. Chappelle-Nadal is doing well, but recently a blog post accusing her of lying was brought to my attention. The blog post highlights this mailer:
The mailer quotes the endorsement saying:
Her youthful energy gives her the edge [and she is] the only candidate in this race who is free from the taint of major funding by Rex Sinquefield.
Except, that isn’t what the endorsement said. The endorsement states that Joe Adams is also free from the taint of Sinquefield. Is Ms. Chappelle-Nadal lying? Is her campaign mailer simply incorrect because of a little creative editing by one of her staffers? Normally, I wouldn’t pay much attention to this.
However, there was a follow-up blog post containing a letter the blogger claims to have received from “an attorney representing Maria Chappelle-Nadal” threatening a law suit if the blog post is not taken down.
The threatened lawsuit has been discussed on a national list of progressive bloggers and the consensus seems to be that the threatened suit is without merit since it appears as if nothing in the blog post is defamatory. The blogger asked for details about claims he has made which Ms. Chappelle-Nadal’s attorney believes are false.
All of this comes back to the initial endorsement. The St. Louis American expressed concern about Ms. Chappelle-Nadal’s “brash behavior and penchant for picking fights she doesn’t need”. Looking at this from afar, it appears as if Ms. Chappelle-Nadal, or at least her attorney is acting brashly and picking a fight that not only does the campaign not need, but has the potential to cause damage in a way that the original blog post does not.
I don’t expect Ms. Chappelle-Nadal or her attorney to apologize for what appears to me to be misstatements in the original mailing or for the ill thought out letter requesting that a blog post be taken down. However, it seems like that would be the wisest course of action.
Schweizer Bundesfeier, Connecticut Primaries and Cape Cod
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 09:17Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. Happy Schweizer Bundesfeier. Years ago, I used to work for a Swiss company and would celebrate Swiss National Day, with the smell of melted raclette wafting through the company.
Well, this July has been quite a month; between Social Web Week 2010, and Falcon Ridge Folk Festival I’ve had plenty to write about. As is often the case during these summer months, I get further and further behind in unread emails. It is likely to get even worse during August.
August starts off with the Connecticut Primaries on August 10th. If you live in Connecticut and are registered as a Democrat or Republican, please, get out and vote on the 10th. If you are currently an unaffiliated voter or not yet registered to vote, you can register with a party up through August 5th, and in person with the Town Registrar up through noon on August 9th. There are various other rules that need to be observed, so don’t delay. So if you aren’t registered or enrolled in a major party get to your town registrar today.
This week is also the final week of Woodbridge Recreation’s summer camp, so starting the following week, I will be busier keeping Fiona properly occupied. This will include our annual camping trip to Cape Cod.
With this, I expect to be posting more political entries early in the month, and then more personal entries later in the month. I also expect to be slower in responding to emails and visiting fewer other blogs. In all of this, I am hoping for a wonderful August and I hope the same for you as well.
July 31st
#FF #entrecard
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 07/31/2010 - 13:46@davelucas, @sparklecat, @ecopunkorguk, @photosbykml, @ontheverge6, @ScottzPrincess
Typically, on Fridays Twitter users post lists of interesting people they follow on Twitter. Well, it is now Saturday, but I didn’t get around to my Follow Friday post yesterday.
Also, typically at the beginning of each month, EntreCard users post lists of those people that have visited their card and dropped an EntreCard most over the past month. Well, today is the last day of the month, so I figure it is close enough to create this mashup. These are the six people on EntreCard that have dropped the most cards on me over the past month AND list their Twitter id on EntreCard.
They are all people (except of course the cat), that I enjoy following on Twitter and reading their blogs when I connect to them on EntreCard.
July 30th
Public Meeting Minutes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 12:27Section 1-225 of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act requires that votes from public meetings be available within 48 hours and minutes be available within seven days. Minutes of public meetings are important for residents to be able to find out what is going on in their town. They are also important to journalists who do not have enough time to cover local events. In some cases, they become part of important legal discussions.
The Connecticut Siting Council is currently considering an application by AT&T to put a cell tower in Woodbridge. On July 28th, attorney Keith Ainsworth on behalf of the Woodbridge Conservation Commission submitted an application to intervene in the proceedings.
AT&T objected, relying heavily on the minutes of the Woodbridge Conservation Commission, including noting that the June 17th minutes of the Conservation Commission meeting is not yet available. The July 15th minutes are also not yet available.
On Wednesday evening, the Board of Selectmen met to consider a request from the Woodbridge Conservation Commission for the Town to participate in funding for intervener status re Siting Council Docket #388. If a vote were taken, the results of the vote would not be required to be available until this evening at the earliest and the minutes are not required until next Wednesday. Nonetheless, there have been subsequent filings in the docket concerning the meeting.
Part of AT&T’s objection asserts that the Conservation Commission’s Intervention Request is procedurally defective and lacks authority. They refer to the agenda item at the Board of Selectman meeting to consider the Conservation Commissions request saying
We are advised by a member of the public attending the meeting that the Board of Selectmen took no action on the Conservation Commission’s request.
Keith Ainsworth, on behalf of the Conservation Commission replied,
The Conservation Commission was authorized to take action to file the intervention before the Siting Council and expend town funds in doing so by the Board of Selectmen last evening. AT&T represented falsely that selectmen failed to act on the request
Attorney Ainsworth’s allegations of a misstatement of fact which was conveyed to us by a member of the public is not accompanied by any independently verifiable facts of his own (i.e. based on discussions with the Town’s Board of Selectmen). As such, the Council may want to call the First Selectman directly to ascertain what if any formal action the Board of Selectmen did or did not take last night.
The response continues noting
The request previously submitted by Attorney Ainsworth lacks a resolution from the Conservation Commission adopted by a duly noticed public meeting of its own authorizing such action to seek intervenor status in Docket 388.
Agendas and meeting minutes matter. They are a way to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and this can become very important when the lawyers get involved.
(Cross-posted at The Woodbridge Citizen.)
