the 941

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock the last couple of days, Suncoast residents have a chance to participate in a damn near historic moment this morning. Senator Barack Obama visits Ed Smith Stadium (2700 12th St., Sarasota) today in an 11th hour campaign rally. Gates open at 9 a.m., the program starts at 11, and tickets aren’t required for entrance to the free event.

If you’re still undecided, curious or just keen to witness one for the books, you know where to go.

On that note, did you watch Sen. Obama’s half-hour infomercial last night? As primetime offerings go, what popped to mind? Deal or No Deal? The Amazing Race? or Dirty Sexy Money?

A couple of comments, courtesy of posters at Defamer.com:

“After Obama’s term ends, he has a real career in infomercials. He could sell ShamWows like nobody’s business. He’s THAT smooth.”

“I just hope I get to see what happens on this show next week. They set up a really good cliffhanger at the end.”

“Like ‘Who Shot Joe the Plumber?’”

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The NPR program On Point spent an hour this morning trying to decide: “Can Bloggers Save Journalism?” Most of it was fairly on point (heh) but it quickly became apparent that a more apt name for the show would have been “No One Knows Shit About The Future Of Journalism.”

Andrew Sullivan — editor at the Atlantic, popular blogger of The Daily Dish, and writer of pro-blogging articles like “Why I Blog” — acted as the voice of optimism, which makes sense when you realize that his blog gets more hits than the Christian Science Monitor. Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism Nicholas Lemann (author of the seminal anti-citizen journalist piece “Amateur Hour”), served as party-pooper and realist. They also threw in Tina Brown — journalism’s kid-genius of the ’70s who recently started The Daily Beast — to add a few moderating tidbits. In the end, though no one could come up with an answer to what journalism is going to look like in 20 years. Or five, for that matter.

The death of traditional journalism has been on the minds of reporters for years now, brought about by a synergy of falling ad revenue and the inevitable migration of readers to the great, democratizing power of the internet. Likely, it’s a little too inside baseball for many of our readers, at least until the news that CL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a month ago. Even then, the average Joe the Reader probably can’t summon up much concern, since he can find News of the Weird and local events listings on a number of other sites.

For us — journalists, editors and media moguls — it’s about all we can think about. I started writing for CL a little over five years ago as little more than a hobby that happened to bring in extra dough and some free meals. Last year, I made journalism my sole source of income. Great timing.

Now, CL — and every traditional media outlet in the nation, from alt-weeklies to national dailies to broadcast news — is bumbling along the muddled and obscured path to the future of journalism. Don’t think that we’re just not adapting quickly or are innovative enough to make the switch, ’cause we’re smart, and trying to forge ahead. Truth is, the entire industry is desperately grasping for the elusive business model that makes bringing you the news (and criticism and local flavor) profitable over the long haul. No one’s found it, yet. (more…)

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So you’ve seen my article on bacon brittle and want to make the recipe, but for some reason (stove broke, power outage, stuck at work) all you have is a gas grill (with a burner). No problem, that’s all we have here at CL HQ, and I managed to make a double batch for the grateful — if skeptical — staff this morning. How? Just watch:

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I’m nominating Larry Flynt’s new Sarah Palin “biopic” — Who’s Nailin’ Paylin? — for an early Oscar bid. Not because of the dirty, dirty Alaskan sex scenes (mainly because I haven’t seen any). And not for the obvious political import that comes part and parcel with featuring a dim-witted vice (heh, heh) presidential candidate in flagrante delicto. Nope, this masterpiece should be up for writing, and maybe best supporting actor from the two Russian schlubs. Here’s an example:

Palin: Can I get you boys a drink?
Russian 1: No thanks, we’re already pretty drunk.
Palin: But you need to make a call?
Russian 1: You know, if I could re-arrange the alphabet, I would put U and I together.
Palin: If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you guys were flirting with me.
Russian 2: Excuse me … I think I dropped something … my jaw.

It’s a brilliant parody of common porn tropes, with a buxom veep impersonator to boot. And then the sex happens. Watch this clip of the first minute of this modern masterpiece — it’s totally safe for work. Unless you work for Fox News, or maybe the Amish.

Here’s a link for more pics, albeit of the less work-safe variety.

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This week’s Townie, Danae O’Leary, and her husband Ron need our help. On Sept. 5, five days shy of a year that they opened downtown eatery The Bungalow – and Ron’s birthday – he was admitted to Sarasota Memorial. The 36-year-old was diagnosed with a rare cardiomyopathy and now anticipates a heart transplant – and a half million-dollar bill: He’d passed on health insurance to instead finance the couple’s dream.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune did an in-depth piece on their story last month.

Several fundraisers are being organized to help out the couple, 30-year residents of Sarasota and longtime supporters of the local music scene. And if you can’t make it, visit ronolearyfund.org or send your snail mail to the Ron O’Leary Fund at P.O. Box 50631, Sarasota, FL, 34232. You can also make a donation at any Wachovia Bank branch.

Benefit concert with Elysian Sex Drive
Sat., Oct. 18, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.
T’Katz Pub, 2920 Beneva Road, Sarasota
tkatzpub.com, 924-0283
$5 donation at the door

BBQ dinner and music benefit
Sun., Oct. 19, 1-5 p.m.
JR’s Old Packinghouse Café, 987 S. Packinghouse Drive, Sarasota
oldpackinghousecafe.com, 371-9358
$10 donation at the door

Benefit concert with The Strangeways
Sat., Oct. 25, 9 p.m.
Champions Pub, 3676 Webber St., Sarasota
927-7686

Benefit concert with Elysian Sex Drive
Halloween night, Fri., Oct. 31, 8 p.m.-midnight
The Bungalow, 301 S. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota
365-4430
Costume contest and food, beer and wine specials

Benefit concert featuring music by The Velvet Hammer Band, The Venturas, John Howard Band, Al Fuller, Greenhouse Effect and Mitch Clark
Sun., Nov. 2, 1-8 p.m.
Sponsored by the Sarasota Film Society/Burns Court Cinema
Silent auctions and raffles for goods and services from local business
The Bungalow, 301 S. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota
365-4430 or 364-8662

Hair Cut-a-Thon
Sat., Nov. 8, 3-7 p.m.
Artisan Hair Studio, 5918 Palmer Blvd., Sarasota, 341-0688
Live music, barbecue, raffles, and haircuts with donations

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You know Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon/Johnny Rotten. He faded away for a couple of decades, gracefully heading into obscurity in the late eighties and nineties with fame intact. Then, a few years ago, he came back. Maybe he was bored. Maybe he was broke. In any case, for a while at least, it seemed there was still some of that beautiful noxious anarchy left in the depleted 50-something.

In 2006 he starred in one of those B-list celebrity reality shows, but walked off the set before the final episode. While touring this summer with three other elderly Pistols vets, he was accused of racial abuse, allegedly punched a woman in the face because he didn’t like his hotel room and lamented that he had to perform to “polite schoolteachers.” Yeah, that’s about right.

But now Lydon has made his biggest anti-establishment statement since God Save The Queen. He’s starring in a television commercial for Britain’s Country Life Butter.

Sigh. My childhood has now been completely, irrevocably claimed by commerce.

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Freddie Mac may be on the skids, but Farmer Mac — a similar program set up by the Feds in 1989 to provide a secondary market for farm loans — should have been doing well, according to articles at Forbes and the WSJ. But it’s not.

Thanks to a big boom in grain prices over the past few years, the delinquency rate on the $9.5 billion farm and rural loans at Farmer Mac is at an all time low. So why did they need a $65 million influx of cash from farm lenders this week? Easy — a big hunk of this Mac’s assets were tied up in 1 million shares of Fannie Mae and $60 million in Lehman debt securities. Oops.

So what do the banks get for their generous $65 million support, which brings Farmer Mac’s capital to $210 million (a mere $29 million more than the statutory requirement)? Preferred stock, for one, that comes with a 10 percent annual dividend. Henry Edelman, CEO of Farmer Mac since it started, is out and the lenders get to name three observers to the board.

Like all of us have learned at legislative gunpoint the past week or two, credit is vital to the operation of our economy, even in a time of high income for farmers. The cost of farming is going up at a rate (the USDA predicts a 16% increase this year) that will soon erode the benefits of high grain prices. And what’s the classic way for the rarely profitable farming industry to cope with that? Loans.

Sounds like a good deal for the banks, at least as long as the World Food Crisis keeps prices high.

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The difficulties in the national print media industry hit home at Creative Loafing as the company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy action this morning. It’s still business as usual, we’re still publishing and don’t expect layoffs or anything negative along those lines.

Here’s the full story.

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The Katie Couric-Sarah Palin interview has proven to be the gift that keeps on giving.

• Republicans go nuts because Veep debate moderator Gwen Ifill has a book with “Obama” in the title coming out next year. Anyone want to bet Palin tries to cancel?
• You could say Bush’s approval ratings are in the toilet, but it would be an insult to toilets.
• Is this the end of Wall Street’s global dominance?
• Emperor Bloomberg wants a third term.
• Wal-Mart grocery stores creep into the Bay area.
• Letterman, Leno and the politics of late night TV.
• The Rays to battle the White Sox in the divisional playoff round.
• The temptation of Ricky Williams.

- Joe Bardi

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Sarah Palin drops another hint at her awesome fitness for the presidency, once McCain’s glands get the best of him about six months from now: “He’s got experience based on many, many years in the Senate and voters are going to have a choice about what they want for the next four years.”

Oh, wait … she’s talking about Joe Biden! Looks like baby’s got a new sugardaddy, John. Watch this excerpt from the Palin/Couric interview. Please.

As an aside, what the hell is Tina Fey going to do with this on SNL Saturday night? Just run the video from CBS, or use the actual word-for-word transcript of the interview as the script for her parody? Does that even count as parody?

Oh yeah, which newspapers and magazines did Palin read in preparation for her run at the Veep seat? “Um, all of them.”

Thanks to TPMtv.

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