Blinq

Blogodelphia

America's 2nd-bloggiest city?

That's us, according to Monday's graphic in USA Today.

The stats were compiled by Outside.in. One of their representatives wrote by email that the group has been tracking blog activity in 60 or so cities around the country, watching how many posts were published in March and April. 

Divide by the population, and you get a rate. They call it a "blogginess quotient." We're quite bloggy.

Using this methodology, Philly came in No. 2 -- both in the number of total posts and the rate of posting, when you figure for how many people live here.

Boston had the highest rate. New York had the most posts. Seattle was busy drinking coffee.

Pittsburgh had the third-most posts per capita, which says something good about the scrapple state.

Whiskey On Ice

Every few months I try to call up a dead link on my list of "favorites," hoping to be surprised by some activity in a shuttered Web site. I'll play Rbally, to see if the music blogger's gone back to posting great shows from rock's golden ages.

And I'll drop by the Whiskey Bar, to see if the blogger named Billmon's ended his long drought to again show the way out of our current political troubles.

I wish I could report Billmon's return. (Or Rbally's for that matter.) We have to settle for second best:

Someone's put together an archive of Whiskey Bar's most essential pours -- his incisive posts on the Iraq war. The ones that show once again what happens when you combine journalistic chops (he used to be a reporter) with a sense of outrage over the way our goverment operates (just because there are two sides to a story doesn't make them equal). It may or not be Billmon who built the archive. Interesting speculation here, at All-Spin Zone.

My favorite blogger shuttered his place the end of last year. For months just error messages came up when you called up his site. Now there's a way to re-read some of the posts that put him at the front of the pack. Maybe it's been up a while; I found it when I Googled, "Whiskey Bar." He's also got archives of a few more subjects, with titles such as "Come to Daddy," "Comrade Webb," and "Winners & Losers." It's only a taste, but it's still top shelf.

Is This Thing On?

No, we haven't been decommissioned, as the BM Rant wrote this weekend. Blinq was just a momentary casualty of the switch to a new publishing system at Philly.com, and it took lots of woman hours to make it look the way it does now. (Thanks Jennifer and Nadya) We lost the pictures, though I'm told those will be back. But we found the animated Blinq title, which Nadya designed nearly two years ago, and which the overlords at Knight Ridder nixed because it was too .... well, it was too something, so they said no. It's nice to see it again.

All this work makes me want to write something. Something about "Rome?" I'm pretty bummed about the end of this HBO series - and sad about the end of HBO, which disappeared from our house because Comcast has decided to pull it from all places that have analog, not digital service. And I see no reason to pay more money for digital, when people are starving in India, so no HBO. Thanks to a friend at work, I got to borrow  copies of the last two episodes, which I watched this weekend. I'm not telling how it ends - other than its written in history books, so look it up. But the guy on the ROME board at HBO's Website who predicted an Opie and Andy in Mayberry shot to end the series ought to handicap the mayor's race.

Three Worth Hearing

For this weekend's tunes, we look toward the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, where - supporting his first album in 17 years - guitar maestro David Bromberg and his Big Band take the stage Friday night.

"Try Me One More Time" comes out Feb. 27. Its 16 songs of acoustic folk and blues feature Bromberg and his guitar, and was recorded at the Delaware Center for the Arts' Baby Grand Theater. You can find some two-minute samples here.

The Philly-born, Columbia-educated picker and singer emerged from the Greenwich Village music scene as an in-demand session guitarist, playing on records like Bob Dylan's New Morning and Self Portrait. After his solo performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, he signed a record deal and "The Holdup" from his 1971 debut was a favorite of underground radio.

On Appleseed Records' site, Bromberg talks about why he dropped out of the record-and-tour whirl back in 1980.  "I got burned out, but I didn’t know it was burn-out. I thought I wasn’t a musician anymore. I wasn’t writing or practicing. And I didn’t want to be one of those musicians who ends up ‘phoning it in.’ Music was too important to me to treat it that way."

He moved to Chicago to study violin making, and after graduation, moved to Wilmington, where he opened a violin store. He tours from time to time, but hasn't recorded much since 1990. Here, he's caught on video playing at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1985.

*

Also Friday night is a double feature of serious jazz chops: singer Dianne Reeves and pianist Jason Moran. She's got the smoky alto that provided the after-deadline atmosphere in George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck. He's a major player. To sense what's in store, visit the never-disappointing Motel de Moka mp3 blog to hear her play a keeper version of "Maiden Voyage" with pianist Geri Allen.

Moran offers a lots of samples to download on his site, from six CDs, and I'd starting with recommend the bizarro "Ringing My Phone" from The Bandwagon.

Blogs From the 19th Century

It's been 146 years since a Prince of Wales last visited our fair city. The royal in question was the slight, pale, 18-year-old son of Queen Victoria and heir to the throne of England -- known as Albert Edward, and called Baron Renfrew. Decades later, he would become King Edward VII. (For a naughtier connection between Edward and Charles, kindly click this link; looks like he had thing with Camilla's great grandmother.)

The Oct. 11, 1860 report ran down the left rail of the Philadelphia Inquirer's front page with, in the style of the period, a many-decked headline that tipped busy readers to the main events (sort of an Express of its day):

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

BARON RENFREW IN PHILADELPHIA

VISIT TO A BOWLING SALOON

PRESENTATION OF AN ENGRAVING

TRIP TO GIRARD COLLEGE

THE PRINCE IN THE COUNTY PRISON

GALA DAY AT POINT BREEZE

THE GRAND OPERA

Etc. Etc. Etc.

What's amazing to this modern reader - other than the fact his hosts would show the future King of England to a bowling saloon - is just how much etcetera they packed into their news back then.

A reporter trailed the prince as he toured America's second-largest city to produce a timely, atmospheric, rambling, and oddly detailed narrative of gifts received, engravings examined, dwellings admired, horse chestnuts planted, and hail fellows, well met.

In short, it reads like a 19th Century event blog.

The Inquirer article goes on for 2,972 words and nearly the only drama is the wind lifting the heir to the throne's hat, and sending it cascading into a nearby garden.

This moment is revisited near the bottom of the account, as the unnamed writer feels compelled to add more names and details and interrupt the narrative flow. (Remember that moving paragraphs required physical labor back then.)

Throughout, facts are gathered like a well-mannered mob.This, from some time spent at the Point Breeze race track:

There was a gentle breeze blowing, and the weather could not have been more desirable. A splendid band of music was upon the ground, and discoursed its strains of melody in the interim between the different heats.

The Prince whiled away the time in smoke a fragrant Havana and conversing with those around him. Among those within his immediate vicinity we noticed Mayor Henry, Hon. Wm. B. Reed, John Rice, Esq., Wm. D. Leis, and other citizens, besides the entire royal suite. The ladies who were represented to the number of about two thousand, seldom cast their glances in an opposite direction to the Prince. Some had opera glasses, which they used during most of the afternoon.

The first race came off at half-past two P.M., between the following horses: "Throgsneck," entered by C. S. LLoyd (F. Morris.). "Irona" five years old, sired by "Register," dam "Black Sal," by "Prince George," with 103 pounds and "Rosa Bonheur," three years old, weight 87 pounds. This was a handicap race of one mile. Entrance $100; forfeit $59; declaration $20. The "Bonheur" won the race - time, 1 minute 47 3/4 seconds.

There's even a classic display of Philadelphia attytood toward the end of the visit, although the reporting gets a little loose here.

"It appears that on the arrival of the Prince at the hotel, in consequence of some slight inadvertence, he was not recognized at the door, and was stopped by the person in attendance with the remark, "No intruders admitted" or something the same effect."

So, things haven't changed that much around here, give or take a few bowling saloons.

(Inquirer photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, www.hsp.org.)

Benjy Ferree

shhhhhh. we don't want to disturb him.

i'm going to forgo my usual diet of haute americana, such as dave alvin, james mcmurtry and the bottle rockets, all of whom are are coming to town this weekend, to try something new.

on the advice of our aging pop critic, i'm digging into the work of benjy ferree, who's playing johnnny brendas on sunday, with public record and frightened rabbit.

the boy's from d.c., and seems to be big europe - hence all the myspace love from france and belgium and finland.

you can stream various songs from his november release,"leaving the nest," on britain's domino records here.

pitchfork says he "talks the talk and walks the walk."

i love cleveland says this (we can let him use upper case. it's time to wake Bengy):

His latest offering, Leaving The Nest, is a sweet combination of glam styled pop, southern swamp gothic, and out there indie influences. Sometimes he has me thinking Marc Bolan, like on the disc's opener, the blissfully catchy boogie, "In The Countryside." Other times, when I listen to "Little At a Time" and its slightly off-kilter approach to instrumentation, I'm thinking Badly Drawn Boy. Then, we get to a song like "Private Honeymoon," a haunting ballad of violin and piano, it makes me wish I could take back all of the other times I used the Jeff Buckley comparisons to artists that failed to craft a song in the Southern tradition that's as haunting and inspiring as this one.

Most of the time he just leaves me thinking, "This is one really fine disc."

Photo Of The Day

If we had a Photo of the Day department, like Londonist has, we would have posted this.

Reminds me of all those deflated Santas you drive by in my neighborhood.

Do people let the air out at night? Is it the drop in temperature?

Is it vandals, systematically working their way through the Delaware Valley?

We don't know from Santa.

Poured Out

With Saddam hanged and reports of arguments at the end -- American advisers counseling caution, Iraqi officials rushing to the gallows -- there's one spot in the blogosphere that could be counted on to make sense of the confusion.

And now it's gone.

If you stopped by Whiskey Bar over the holidays, you might have found that instead of the usual - an elegant and well-reasoned essay about the folly of our times - the blogger named Billmon had posted a picture of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig and the words "That's All Folks!"

The southpaw stopped pouring Dec. 28th. Now the saloon's closed. You try to call up his site, and an error message bars the door. For many readers, including this one, it was the most satisfying watering hole on the strip.

Billmon didn't explain if this is a pause - he's had a few before - or a full stop. But readers of his site have noted some hints left in recent posts. A week before he closed, he wrote, "I've been spending some of my spare time these past few weeks rummaging around in the Whisky Bar archives, trying to decide what, if any of it, is worth keeping ..."

Firedog Lake observed that Billmon assembled a "greatest hits" collection of his commentary on Iraq. Before he pulled the plug, Firedog Lake noticed how Billmon had lamented that his and other blogs hadn't served a useful purpose, and changed the course of the war.

Russ Wellen, writing in OpEdNews, called Billmon "the man who may have done more to brng respectability to blogging than anybody." But he noted that Billmon had worried in his posts that dedicated blogging came at a high price, robbing time from work and family.

I put in a call to Billmon's home in suburban Philadelphia. A woman there said he wasn't available. And he didn't get back to me. Last spring we talked for about 45 minutes for a profile.

He was slowing down, questioning the worth of what he'd written, complaining about burn-out, wondering if he should just write blog on the history of travel. I published that, and Billmon proceeded to go on a vicious tear, writing with more energy and passion than he'd summoned for months.

I'd happily be made to look foolish again if it meant he returned to form. But I wouldn't count on it.

It's hard to know who to turn to for the real story of Billmon's disappearing act. He writes anonymously - he's a corporate marketer, and revealing himself wouldn't exactly help at work. He didn't frequent the Drinking Liberally gatherings in Philadelphia. He kept to himself, writing with the social detachment of a journalist, which he used to be, and with deep, personal conviction.   

One man who I thought might know the story is "Bernhard," proprietor of Moon Of Alabama, a site that mirrors Billmon's Whiskey Bar, with the exception that it invites reader comments. Billmon got rid of comments after they got out of hand.

Bernhard wrote by email:

"I don't know why he stopped or if he will write again."

Turns out the two have never met, and their only e-mail exchanges have been about technical matters, Bernhard wrote. For now, Moon Of Alabama will continue - it's for the community of Whiskey Bar readers, and there's still much to talk about - though Bernhard said that the needs of his other job might require he shut it down or hand it over to someone else later this year.

On that site, Billmon readers have been lamenting Whisky Bar's shuttering. One, Elizabeth Doughty wrote: 

I don't know Billmon's name or his face. I wish we could put some of his best posts (any of them are his best) on the back of a milk carton and send them far and wide. And in suburban Philadelphia--put them on milk cartons, yogurt containers, anything you can.

I'll wonder who is is, where he is, wish he could still help me see things clearly, using his understanding and the facts.

Hope he's safe and sound.

Thanks very much, Billmon.

They Are Black Friday Zombies!!

Psst! Wanna know a badly kept secret? With Black Friday approaching like an good-old-zombies-in-the-mall movie, several Internet sites have gotten into the business of spoiling retailers' secrets by leaking what products are going to be on sale.

And some of those big-box retailers haven't loved letting the world know their plans. Last week, Frank Barnako reports, some of the Black Friday sites received threatening letters from lawyers representing Best Buy, insisting they remove their tips from the Web. (Best Buy insisted its sale prices were copyright-protected.)

Now we're seeing an "if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them" strategy.

Best Buy and Wal-Mart are blowing their own embargoes. If you go to Best Buy.com and type in your zip code, you can see the whole Thanksgiving Day newspaper ads that will announce what bargains can be had.

Wal-Mart, too, is using its Web site to announce the "unbelievable in-store values" that will be available between 5 and 11 am. the day after Thanksgiving.

These Black Friday sites seem to be busy little places. The Black Friday site at GottaDeal.com, for instance, boasts of 110,000 members who hang around and chat about such deals as BestBuy.com's upcoming unadvertised specials -- a $249 Toshiba laptop and a $999 plasma HDTV.

FatWallet, Black Friday.info, Black Friday Ads and The Black Friday are more look-alike sites dedicated to day-after-Thanksgiving deals. These are some plain spaces, but they get the job done.

Black Friday has come to mark the official start of the Christmas shopping season. (Ok, Hannukah, too) The term refers to the time of year when retailers typically went from the unprofitable red ink to the profitable black ink.

Let's say you don't want to spend Friday sweating with the masses? You might want to check out this site. Someone might even be live-blogging of Black Friday. I'll be raking leaves.

At Last

 

A Web site gets its wish:

Fire Ed Wade.

It was official Monday afternoon.

Someone else gets blamed next.

In all of the Phloggery, one reports stands out. It begins with praise.

A good man was fired Monday, and we should take no personal joy in this, begins Shallow Center. By most accounts, Ed Wade acted with class while doing a tough job in a tough town. Except for the occasional run-in with a reporter, he kept his cool under trying circumstances, including tens of thousands of complete strangers calling for his job.

Then blogger Tom Durso gets on with the business of what went wrong. A taste:

His two managerial hires comprised a tyrant with an inflated sense of self and no people skills, and a Southern-fried players' manager who thinks a double-switch is something you use to turn on a light from two different walls. Neither man was successful.

Beerleaguer bellies up fast to the bar of public opinion:

Justified, overdue and smart, the Phillies have taken the first step in mending a broken relationship with fans and delivering a product capable of making the playoffs. Though the team made progress under Wade, including an 88-74 record this season, his record shows no playoff appearances in eight seasons as boss.

In terms of placating fans, the move couldn't be better PR, as season ticket holders and casual fans alike have been grumbling for Wade's head for years. In terms of baseball, Wade's legacy will be locking into over-reaching contracts and not being aggressive enough to make the right moves before the season and at the deadline.

Wade was overmatched as a general manager, squandered his resources and alienated fans. Simply put, he wasn't good enough, and the decision to replace him should have come sooner.

But the job is only half over for team president David Montgomery, charged with finding the right person capable of restoring Philadelphia to an elite baseball town and delivering a championship. Meanwhile, Phillies nation will wait to see who stays and who goes.

We'll Never Win Again -- can we take a moment to love the name of this Philacentric blog? --takes a headline from a favorite Pixies song, "Ed is Dead."

And now we're singing it all day long.

The Phillies fired Ed Wade! The Phillies fired Ed Wade! It's his fault somehow that Rollins' hit streak no longer matters!

He's gone! Yay!

But what's going to happen next year when the team still sucks and there isn't a crappy GM to blame? Oh no... Quick, Phillies! Hire someone horrible! We need a whipping boy! WE NEED A WHIPPING BOY!

Phanatic Phollow Up write:

fans in Philly are certainly doing the “Happy Happy/Joy Joy” dance. Wade had to be the most despised man in all of Philly sports.

Is that phor real?

The Good Phight creates a depressing graphic of return vs payroll for the team that has won the most games since 1993 to have not made the playoffs

Anybody know if there are any Billy Beane acolytes looking for work? Shallow Center asks hopefully.

Minutiae - "Ramblings of a pop culture moron" - has some ideas.

It's what happens next that will determine exactly how good a move it was. Elevating Ruben Amaro may be a smart move, but it isn't one that the season ticket holders will support. Brian Cashman has succeeded in New York (and will likely be available soon), but he won't be able to spend the kind of money that George Steinbrenner was willing to throw around.

I recommend Houston veteran (and former Hawk alum) Jerry Hunsicker. He's not the smart, young candidate like Cashman or Theo Epstein. He's a solid baseball man who knows how to put together a team. But even if Hunsicker is hired, it will be his first (and second and third) moves that determine if the hire was a good idea.

But for right now, I can only smile and say mission accomplished.

While everyone else gets all analytical and stuff, Balls, Sticks and Stuff zags:

I just checked with GoDaddy.com, and HireEdWade.com is still an available domain name.