802 Online

No kidding. 

Lucy Belle LeMay of the Hot Damn Trailer Park in the fictitious town of Beaver Pond, Vermont, was at the Provincetown Carnival last week, where she competed for the title of Biggest Hair. She won in 2002, 2003, and 2004, but came back empty-handed the past two years.

This year, her luck changed.

From the official House of LeMay press release:

Lucy Belle was determined to go back to P'town 'one more time' to prove she could still be considered one of the most distinguished drag queens in Provincetown history. Last Wednesday night, at the annual bingo game, her dream came true. She was not only named Biggest Hair, but was sincerely considered to be named Best Drag Queen as well. Lucy Belle also made an appearance at the annual Friday Drag Brunch where she performed 'Red Neck Drag Queen.' 

The email, from "Amber LeMay," aka Bob Bolyard, adds, "Lucy Belle would liketo thank Ron and Don at the O'm Salon in Burlington for assisting withher hair presentation."

Whoever helped her definitely deserves some credit.

You can read Lucy Belle's P-town diary at the House of LeMay blog. And there's more info about the "ladies" LeMay in this story I wrote last year.

This photo was taken by Russell Dreher.

Sorry for the dearth of postings. I spent a big chunk of time Friday with my new buddy, drupal. We're overhauling our site, and I've been mucking around on the new one, trying to figure things out.

My mom is visiting, too. She's watching Graham today while our day-care provider takes a holiday.

My mom is so cool (that's her in the photo). She was a computer programmer in the 1970s, and helped write the code for the first ATM machines at the National Bank of Detroit. She spent her later years before she retired as a "new systems development" manager, working with people more than computers, as I understand it. But she still tries to keep current with the online world — she was one of my first friends on Facebook! Hi, Mom! Thanks for watching G today.

Here's an interesting item from yesterday's Sunday New York Times. A magazine intern wrote in to the Ethicist with this query:

A journalism major at college, I was delighted toland an internship at a national magazine. My editor asked me to postcomments on one of the magazine’s online blogs, being sure not tomention my working for the magazine but to write in a style thatsuggests I’m a reader. That felt dirty to me. Advice? — Nick McCarvel,Seattle

See how Randy Cohen replied...

I was browsing through the Seven Days classified ads for the NOW newsletter ad of the week, and I came across this one advertising a free fish that made me laugh out loud.

Free Live Fish!

 

Free 12 inch Oscar to a good home, or a bad home,whatever, as long as you have a home for it just take it home with you.Thats right!! A Fish! And it's free too! No money down. No credit? BadCredit? Come and get it! You can find it at The Outdoor Gear Exchangein sunny downtown Burlington. Bring a bucket or a bag, just don't planon sticking it in your pocket cause it bites. There is only one so actfast.

Barack Obama made a hush-hush fundraising visit to Vermont last weekend.

Vermont Daily Briefing blogger Philip Baruth has a first-hand account.

Seven Days staffer Mike Ives was also there (though unlike Baruth he was unable to get inside and get a photo with the guy). Here's Mike's write-up a day early: Obama's Vermont Appearance Raises Hopes — and More Than $250,000.

Paula Routly urged me to get it up early, so it could make the rounds on the blogosphere. So if you read this tonight, thank Paula at [email protected].

Here's a story from Computer World about how people are spending more time online reading "content."

Internet users spend almost half their time online reading andwatching content, dwarfing the time spent searching for information,communicating with others and buying products, according to a four-yearanalysis of Internet activity released Monday.

The new study from the Online Publishers Association (OPA) found that the time Internet users spend viewing online content is up 37% from four years ago.

Good news for me, content provider that I am.

Conservative Charity Tensel just couldn't stay away from the political blogosphere. Yep, She's Still Right.

This week I produced an unusual audio slideshow about memorial dolls.   

It features Jennifer Stocks-Dearborn, a Jefforsonville sculptor who makes realistic clay babies for people whose infants have died. Her own daughter died of SIDS in 2000.

Leon Thompson wrote a story about her for this week's paper, but I thought we could do more with the images of the dolls. Stocks-Dearborn refers to them as "creepy, naked babies," and they are indeed creepy. And also beautiful. And sad.

I drove to Stocks-Dearborn's house on Monday and recorded an interview with her, which I edited and mixed with the song "Precious Time" from The Cush. Talking with her was a moving experience. I hope that's clear from the slideshow.

Don, our creative director, has created a new template for the slideshows, which makes them look more professional.

I think this project illustrates the value of this particular medium. Some people suggested that we shoot video of Stocks-Dearborn, but I think the still images, paired with the audio, are more poignant.

Looks like the New York Times is dropping TimesSelect, the service which has put some of its content, and its archives, behind a pay wall. This is according to a story in the New York Post. The Times hasn't made an official announcement. I wonder if this means that everything in the NYT will be available online, for free, forever?

This is a big event in the media's paid vs. free web content debate.

I was on a Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility media panel a few months ago with WCAX anchor Marselis Parsons, who was complaining to our audience about how people today want to get information "right now" and "for free." As if that were a bad thing.

When he was done talking, I said something along the lines of, "Well, yeah, I do want my information right now, and for free. And I'll get it, too, because that's how we're all going to have to evolve." Can't remember if I added the obvious, "our job is to figure out how to pay for all this, not to complain about it, because this is just how it is. So suck it up and stop bellyaching."

I'm sure I didn't say that last part.

Our office manager just dropped a copy of Business People Vermont on my desk. Bill Simmon interviewed me for an article in the August 2007 issue called Media 2.0. Too bad I didn't have anything more eloquent to say...

The story references a few Vermont blogs and bloggers, including Ann Zuccardy of Vermont Shortbread Company, Champlain College prof Elaine Young and Joe's Coffee Blog from the Blue Star Cafe.

Ooooh, and I notice that the article has embedded links! I haven't seen many other Vermont media outlets doing this. Cool.

Remember in 2003/2004, when everyone made such a big deal of how Howard Dean was using the internet? Not surprisingly, things have changed since then. Now every presidential candidate is using online tools, some more effectively than others.

Champlain College Online Marketing professor Elaine Young is doing a series of blog posts analyzing how 2008 presidential candidates are using social media (i.e. MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, etc.). Because it's not just about blogs anymore.

Her first post spotlights Democrat Joe Biden. She comments on all his various efforts, and offers a summary judgement:

So the Biden team has a lot of thedifferent social sites covered, but what I don't see is a lot of actionoverall. I subscribed to the email newsletter and didn't get anythingin my email for several days. Haven't seen anything from him on MeetUp, and without creating a full group on Facebook, there's no way tomessage the members easily. The Facebook site could be juiced up quitea bit and really the goal is to have people recommend to their friends.Overall some good things going on, but not enough to really takeadvantage of the social media.

I'll never forget how difficult it was to convince my editors that blogs were worth covering back in 2004. We laugh about it now.