Today I learned of a new wordpress template designed for photoblogging. I have kicked around starting a photblog for a while now and this was the motivation needed to kick my inertia into motion. The template is called “monotone” and it changes colors to compliment whatever photo is featured on the page. It also has a cool archive function that allows you to see thumbnails of all of the archived images. My plan is to post a new image every day that I have taken on that day. After school ends this week. So for now I put up some old images just to play with the theme. I already love it.

Stop by lvimages.wordpress.com and watch the work in progress if you are so inclined.

Earlier today I posted about the inclusion of Oklahoma City on AOL travel’s / askmen.com’s list of top 10 cities not to visit. Beware the wrath of offended okies. Due to the volume of angry responses, not long ago, the list was changed and OKC was dropped from the AOL travel version. Apparently we are still listed as one of askmen.com’s 10 “Hells on Earth”, but my guess is that will change before the day is out.

Here’s the word from AskMen.com’s editor in chief.
Hello Oklahomans! — Thanks for all your posts. We certainly admire your quick defense of your capital, and please understand that its place on this list isn’t a commentary on it as an economic center, a sports town, or a place to live and raise a family. This article was commissioned and written as a lighthearted travel feature. What guided us in choosing the cities that we did? In seeking out the world’s least travel-friendly destinations, we looked for diversity in terms of what characterized each of them as such, hence the reference to “Type of Hell” within each subheader. So when it came time to choose a city that was characterized by natural disasters, OKC — home to some of the world’s most frequent and powerful tornadoes — was a natural choice.

James Bassil
Editor-in-Chief

Of course, in generating this kind of response, the good folks at AOL travel and askmen got exactly what they wanted. By dropping OKC they guarantee that they will be back on the radar a second time (like on this blog). But whatever.

So world - come to Oklahoma City. Just watch out for those blizzards.

While I will be one of the first to admit that OKC isn’t exactly a cultural mecca or the most exciting tourist destination (but it is getting much better), to put it on a list with Baghdad, Chernobyl, Mogadishu, and Pyongyang as one of the 10 worst places to visit is beyond ridiculous. AOL travel / askmen.com posted the list which claims that OKC is the worst place in the world to visit due to the prevalence of “natural disasters”. Really? Let’s look at their accusations and the facts.

1. Weather in OKC is unpredictable. I have to give them this one. Of course this is also true of almost anywhere in the midwest and the meteorologists in OKC are among the best in the world at what they do, so. . .

2. We get blizzards. Huh? In the almost 30 years I have lived in OKC I can remember maybe 5 times where it snowed more than 6 inches in a single storm. According to the National Weather Service, OKC averages an 8 inch or great snow event every 5-10 years.

3. It’s windy here. Yep. It’s windy a lot of places. The average annual wind speed is higher here than a lot of places, but is no greater than the average at Laguardia Airport in NYC and is lower than that of Boston.

4. We are in the “path” of Tornado Alley. Again, guilty. But the data show that OKC is actually number 9 on the list of US city tornado scores.

5. The May 3, 1999 tornado devastated “much of the city”. Was it bad? Yes. Much of the city? Seriously. Someone is watching too many made for TV disaster movies.

Someone clearly needed an American city to poke fun at and we got picked. Maybe the author is a (used to be) Seattle Sonics fan. Or maybe they are just sad from looking out the window at the weather in New York.

just drowning in academia. I’ll be back next week.

One last set of thoughts on this Idol Gives Back thing. The Thursday night show featured short clips from Sen. Obama (let’s get this over with), Sen. Clinton (deer in headlights), and Sen. McCain (really not funny) offering their cudos to the effort and encouraging people to like them best because they care the most about the world’s poor. Each of these amounted to little more than face time for the candidates.

Here’s the propaganda.

But the political moment of the event came from Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown who pledged funding for 20 million bed nets to help prevent malaria in Africa. That’s 200 million dollars to save the lives of more than 40 million people - most of them children. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. Are you listening Oklahoma Senators Coburne and Inhofe who voted against extending aid to the world’s poor?

Here’s the clip of Brown’s announcement. Sorry for the gratuitous Seacresting.

A whole lot of thoughts from the Idol Gives Back shows this week.

Best musical moment - Annie Lennox singing Many Rivers That is what passion sounds like. A close runner up was Carrie Underwood’s version of Praying for Time.

Most painful musical moment - Feel free to pick one or all - Mariah Carey, Fergie, Teri Hatcher (really? Teri Hatcher?).

Most awkward musical moment - Why in the world did they choose to end the show with the contestants doing the show choir step-touch to Shout to the Lord? Or at least the modified version “sanitized for public consumption”. Too weird. And then they fired it back out the next night. Learn from mistakes people.

Least funny comedian - Again, toss it up. Robin Williams - didn’t work, Sarah Silverman - nah, Ben Stiller - someone should tell this guy that Zoolander is a character, not a way of life.

Great comic moment - Jimmy Kimmel wearing out Simon over the whole tight shirt thing. Or Seacrest dancing.

Overall - I liked the show better than last year. I thought most of the faces were sincerely affected by what they encountered. But I have to wonder - of the money raised (60 million so far) how much came out of celebrity pockets? They tell me I can do without $20 (which I can), but many of those folks can do without $1,000,000 - so did they? I know they offer their time and faces and those do help, but do they follow their own advice? And what about the corporate “partners”? American Idol is an ATM machine for AT&T - with the text voting, AT&T makes millions every week. So how much did they “give back”? Last year it was ten cents per text vote. That means for every text vote, the poor got 10 cents and AT&T got 89. Is that giving or taking?

I appreciate that this show and the people behind it are tying to use their influence for the betterment of the world, but I often wonder about these celebrity cause things - how many of these people are just trying to ease some of the guilt of all that they have in the face of a world without? I know there are some genuine heroes in the celeb world, but this many?

Thanks Idol for raising awareness. And doing some good in the world. Listed below are links to each of the organizations that will benefit from Idol Gives Back. Skip the middleman and donate directly. Or maybe use these to check back in and give again in July or August. Without Kobe Bryant telling you to.

I can’t quote the whole thing, so I will just send you over to espn.com page 2 where they put together a season by season guide to the futility that is the Chicago Cubs over the past 99 years since their last World Series win.

 You can read the whole thing here.

From the black cat to Bartman, it’s all there. And it all still hurts.

But this is the year. . .

Just some random things that have been greatly enjoyed over the last week or so.

Film - saw Juno tonight. Incredibly good. Every performance was spot on and I especially can;t say enough about Ellen Page and J.K. Simmons. If you haven’t seen it - you should.

DVD - King of California. Another movie with incredible performances. Michael Douglas at his best. Hilarious and at the same time a movie that really has something to say about suburban existence.

Books - Thanks to my trip to Vegas I got to read Into the Wild and Earth Abides last week. I love it when I have time to read and find great stuff with which to fill that time. Earth Abides is another in my way too long string of apocalyptic novels.

TV - While I didn’t send any peanuts to CBS, I am a fan of Jericho. I caught the first season on the internet this summer and while it had some incredibly cheesy moments, something kept me watching. I’m glad I did. With only a handful of episodes to tell it’s story, the show has really tightened up and has great pacing and storytelling this time around. If you haven’t been watching, check out season 1 on DVD and the season’s episodes at cbs.com

Hoop - It’s tourney time and I spent a good part of the day in the big chair watching teams I care nothing about play basketball because that’s what you do  on the first day of the tournament. And I plan to do it for the second day as well.

Ah the joy of simple things.

World Neighbors Walk for Women — 3/8/08

Now that it looks like the NBA is coming to Oklahoma City, there are a lot of suggestions flying around about potential nicknames for whatever team finds its way to us (*cough* Sonics *cough*). Most people are trying to come up with names that are appropriate to OK and fit with our history or culture. Here are my suggestions for team names that would reflect what teams will experience when they come to play in the heartland.

10. OKC Weathermen (all you will see on TV the whole time you’re here)

9. OKC Roadkill

8. OKC Drive Thrus (in honor of our role as the nation’s fast food leader)

7. OKC Round Bales

6. OKC Billboards (from the moment you land until the moment you leave, they are everywhere)

5. Oklahoma City Evangelicals

4. OKC Wind

3. Oklahoma City Neocons (”W” could be the mascot since he’ll be looking for work after January)

2. OKC Nickel Slots

or we could just go with the reality of basketball in Oklahoma

1. Oklahoma Football Off-Season

I’m sure Bennett and Co. are taking notes.