802 Online

At the AAN conference last weekend, Don (the 7D web guy) and I went to a workshop on using Flash to create multimedia editorial features. It was a real eye-opener for me. I'm not really a tech person — I keep this blog, but my job title is Staff Writer. There's so much I still have to learn about creating content online.

Fortunately, R. Scott Horner, the guy who ran the Flash session, gave us some quick and easy tips. He pointed us to Soundslides, a cheap program that we can use to create audio slideshows to augment our print content.

Don downloaded it while we were sitting in the airport on the way home, and whipped up a slideshow for my Mary photo essay this week. We got the song from the podsafe music network. 

I know it's not an amazingly innovative thing, even in Vermont, but I'm really excited about finding ways to use this new tool.

I'm still digesting what I learned at the conference last weekend, and I'm writing next week's cover story, so things are hectic here in my little world. I've got a list of new Vermont blogs coming this week, also an announcement about the Best Vermont blog award. Just don't have time to put it all up yet.

In the meantime, read this post from Daily Kos about a liberal blogger being banned from Kentucky's state-owned computers.

...to my friend N. Todd Pritsky, whose mom died last week. N.Todd blogs at Dohiyi Mir, and has posted an obituary here, along with funeral details.  Some of you may know him from Friday Coffeeblogging, and from last fall's blogger meetup. Thought I'd do my part to alert the Vermont blogosphere to his loss. Sympathetic comments, like sympathy cards, are always welcome, I think.

I'm back from Arkansas, and completely swamped with work, but I have time to link to this collage of blog readers  from that brainy Bill Simmon at Candleblog.

Perhaps last year's collage is what helped Bill win the 2005 Best Vermont Blog Daysie award. Will this one put him over the top in '06? It remains to be seen. More details on that coveted award very soon.

Candleblog's got the scoop. And a lively back and forth between Dan Z, John Long, aka Mr. Happy and Bill Simmon.

Heard Bill Clinton speak today at this AAN luncheon. He went on forever. I had forgotten about his wide-ranging, copiously sourced speeches. The guys at my table joked about creating a bibliography that would include the many books he mentioned, including Emotional Intelligence, The Empty Tank: Oil, gas, hot air and the coming global financial catastrophe, and James Howard Kunstler's peak oil treatise The Long Emergency.

He spent a lot of time talking about the energy crisis. And he seemed to want to convince us that if she runs, Hillary will be a good presidential candidate — probably time well-spent given that he was talking with a room full of lefty newspaper people who will no doubt address the race. He kept taking questions, even after his aide said it was time to wrap it up.

I took this picture after he spoke, during the hour or so he spent shaking hands, signing autographs and answering questions from the folks in the audience. He really loves the meatspace, this guy. Loves to talk and press the flesh. Er...

UPDATE: Here's a report on the speech from USA Today. Incidentally, that's Westword editor Patty Calhoun in the photo with Bill.
UPDATE II: Here's a more colorful summary from the AAN website.

Heard Wes Clark speak this morning. I wasn't much interested in Clark during the last presidential campaign — probably because he was running against Ho-Ho, our hometown hero — but he was knowledgeable and articulate. Even likable, which surprised me a little, since he seemed so cold on the campaign trail. Maybe it's the gray hair and the shape of his face.

I took this photo after his speech. A few of us were standing around, waiting to talk with him and shake his hand, and this reporter from Santa Barbara started pressing him to clarify his position on Iraq. He'd said during his speech that he thought it was a mistake to go in, but that it would also be a mistake to execute an immediate and complete withdrawl.

The two of them went back and forth a few times — Clark didn't seem put-out at all by her questions. It was fascinating to watch this woman reporter grilling a former presidential candidate and supreme commander of NATO, to see him having to defend and explain his position. It made me appreciate the value of gutsy reporters who take the time to stay after and ask questions, and who aren't cowed by a public figure's power or prestige.

Witnessing that kind of exchange made the world seem a little smaller, a little more accessible, even to a small-town writer like me.

I forgot to post this before I left: This week I wrote about the Bad Colonies Motoring Cooperative, a Vermont-based group that's organizing two teams to compete in this summer's Mongol Rally. This insane roadrace, in which drivers take one-liter cars from London, England to Ulan Bator, begins July 22.

Bristol resident Seth Beck (who also goes by his middle name, Nathaniel), has set up an entertaining website about his teams and the race. He's got a Google map up there, and a downloadable fold-up model of one of the cars. The middle section of his site is a blog, and he plans to update from the road. Should make for fascinating reading. I'm looking forward to posting excerpts of it on here and in the Weekly Post column in the paper.

Go buy a t-shirt from this guy, or sponsor some space on his cars. The money goes to charity, the t-shirts are stylish and he'll drive across Europe and Asia with a bumpersticker with your picture or logo on it if you pay him. Yes, driving any kind of car that far for fun, even a small one, seems a little extravagent, but I think it's a kinda cool. 

So yesterday, I left for Little Rock, Arkansas to attend the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual convention at the Peabody Hotel.

I made it to two workshops yesterday, one on "Best Internet Advertising Practices," and one featuring writer Ted Conover. I didn't even realize before I got here that Conover was part of the program. He's not an alt. weekly writer — he's written a few books, including Newjack, for which he worked as a guard in Sing Sing prison for 10 months. And he contributes to the NYT Sunday Magazine, the New Yorker and the Atlantic. He talked about how to find stories by talking with people outside of "officialdom." Good stuff. I've got a bunch more sessions today, including "Flash for print journalists," and an introduction to putting our content on cellphones.

Last night we went to a reception at the Clinton Presidential Center I thought it was just his library, but apparently there's more to it. I didn't walk around much — just headed for the food and the bar. It's a pretty impressive building, though , especially at night (see photos).

At the reception, I met Todd Stauffer and Donna Ladd, the publisher and editor of the Jackson Free Press (right). We talked about their numerous blogs, and about their fight with the local Gannett daily, which is heating up. Gannett has begun distributing their new free publication holders to local businesses.

From the JFP's most recent report: The Clarion-Ledger has given all free media until Monday, June 19, tovacate the premises of some 160 locations unless we agree to pay them$8 per spot to be in the big ugly box. The Jackson Free Press and othertabloid publications such as Metro Christian Living do not even fit inthe box. We are also not clear that all businesses on the list havesigned the TDN contract—some tell us they haven't.

Sounds like it's getting ugly.

This morning I got up early and watched the red orange sun rise over the Arkansas River. I walked across a bridge over the river to eyeball a decommissioned WWII submarine I spotted out there yesterday. On the way, I passed a few pedestrians and some homeless guys, and one perky middle-aged jogger wearing a t-shirt that said: "This world is passing away, but those who do God's work will live forever." Yep, I'm in Arkansas.

In 45 minutes, I'm going to hear retired general Wesley Clark.

It's once again time to Pick the Daysies. Seven Days' annual best of Vermont survey is now online. Get your vote in by July 3.

I'm very, very sorry to report that the category of Best Vermont blog was inexplicably and unceremoniously mistakenly dropped from the survey this year without my knowledge.

But that won't deter me from naming a Best Vermont blog--or holding a contest for you to name it, anyway. More on that next week, when I have time to figure out how I'm going to make that happen.

UPDATE: Perhaps there will be a blog Daysie after all. More details to come...