Today I ventured out into the rain to the Hogtown BBQ fund raiser to benefit the Union Church preservation project. There were multiple BBQ vendors, and a friend’s band was playing. It rained most of the time, but it was still fun.

The Civil War Historymobile was there too. While touring it, an older gentleman was explaining to his wife how the Confederate war effort was hampered by the fine Christian morals that kept them from attacking cities and civilians, like the Union did. I tried to stay out of it, I really did. He continued on about how Lee refused to sack Gettyburg out of respect for the citizens. Then, he looked directly at me and asked me if I was aware of this fact.

If I was going to get sucked into debating a lost causer I was going all in. I commented that his analysis was a rather generous take on Lee’s actions at Gettysburg, and that I believed his hesitation there was more due to the fact that his Calvary had not reported in and he didn’t know where the Union Army was located.

He then went on to try to convince me that Sherman was anti-Christian due to some comment about “War is hell.” Apparently just using that word makes you a satanist, but enslaving your fellow man is a sign of good Christian values. He then went on to repeat some of the well worn exaggerations about Sherman’s March to The Sea. I rebutted with the fact that I’m from Atlanta and very familiar with the Southern mystic around Sherman’s campaign. I also commented that if his actions helped the war end in 1865 instead of 1866 then untold millions of Confederates were spared additional suffering and death at the hands of war. He then blamed Andersonville on the North, as the blockade made it impossible for the Confederates to extend proper Southern hospitality to their guests.

He then tried to connect the North’s immoral war to what is happening in the Middle East by asking me if I approved of the civilian causalities in the Middle East as part of the war on terror. I told him I thought the only thing that would make us safer in the Middle East was to get all the troops out of there. From there he started talking about 6 million dead in the fire bombing of Dresden. I have no idea why we were talking about WWII all of a sudden. Maybe he wanted me to admit it was wrong and then he was going to connect it back to Sherman? Maybe he is a Lost Causer and a Nazi? The truth is I really don’t know enough about the events at Dresden to have an opinion. I commented that maybe 12 million die if we don’t do that and the war drags on for 2 more years. At that point he gave up, snidely commented that I should educate myself with some real history books, and walked off.

Today I ventured out into the rain to the Hogtown BBQ fund raiser to benefit the Union Church preservation project. There were multiple BBQ vendors, and a friend’s band was playing. It rained most of the time, but it was still fun.

The Civil War Historymobile was there too. While touring it, an older gentleman was explaining to his wife how the Confederate war effort was hampered by the fine Christian morals that kept them from attacking cities and civilians, like the Union did. I tried to stay out of it, I really did. He continued on about how Lee refused to sack Gettyburg out of respect for the citizens. Then, he looked directly at me and asked me if I was aware of this fact.

If I was going to get sucked into debating a lost causer I was going all in. I commented that his analysis was a rather generous take on Lee’s actions at Gettysburg, and that I believed his hesitation there was more due to the fact that his Calvary had not reported in and he didn’t know where the Union Army was located.

He then went on to try to convince me that Sherman was anti-Christian due to some comment about “War is hell.” Apparently just using that word makes you a satanist, but enslaving your fellow man is a sign of good Christian values. He then went on to repeat some of the well worn exaggerations about Sherman’s March to The Sea. I rebutted with the fact that I’m from Atlanta and very familiar with the Southern mystic around Sherman’s campaign. I also commented that if his actions helped the war end in 1865 instead of 1866 then untold millions of Confederates were spared additional suffering and death at the hands of war. He then blamed Andersonville on the North, as the blockade made it impossible for the Confederates to extend proper Southern hospitality to their guests.

He then tried to connect the North’s immoral war to what is happening in the Middle East by asking me if I approved of the civilian causalities in the Middle East as part of the war on terror. I told him I thought the only thing that would make us safer in the Middle East was to get all the troops out of there. From there he started talking about 6 million dead in the fire bombing of Dresden. I have no idea why we were talking about WWII all of a sudden. Maybe he wanted me to admit it was wrong and then he was going to connect it back to Sherman? Maybe he is a Lost Causer and a Nazi? The truth is I really don’t know enough about the events at Dresden to have an opinion. I commented that maybe 12 million die if we don’t do that and the war drags on for 2 more years. At that point he gave up, snidely commented that I should educate myself with some real history books, and walked off.

Today I ventured out into the rain to the Hogtown BBQ fund raiser to benefit the Union Church preservation project. There were multiple BBQ vendors, and a friend’s band was playing. It rained most of the time, but it was still fun.

The Civil War Historymobile was there too. While touring it, an older gentleman was explaining to his wife how the Confederate war effort was hampered by the fine Christian morals that kept them from attacking cities and civilians, like the Union did. I tried to stay out of it, I really did. He continued on about how Lee refused to sack Gettyburg out of respect for the citizens. Then, he looked directly at me and asked me if I was aware of this fact.

If I was going to get sucked into debating a lost causer I was going all in. I commented that his analysis was a rather generous take on Lee’s actions at Gettysburg, and that I believed his hesitation there was more due to the fact that his Calvary had not reported in and he didn’t know where the Union Army was located.

He then went on to try to convince me that Sherman was anti-Christian due to some comment about “War is hell.” Apparently just using that word makes you a satanist, but enslaving your fellow man is a sign of good Christian values. He then went on to repeat some of the well worn exaggerations about Sherman’s March to The Sea. I rebutted with the fact that I’m from Atlanta and very familiar with the Southern mystic around Sherman’s campaign. I also commented that if his actions helped the war end in 1865 instead of 1866 then untold millions of Confederates were spared additional suffering and death at the hands of war. He then blamed Andersonville on the North, as the blockade made it impossible for the Confederates to extend proper Southern hospitality to their guests.

He then tried to connect the North’s immoral war to what is happening in the Middle East by asking me if I approved of the civilian causalities in the Middle East as part of the war on terror. I told him I thought the only thing that would make us safer in the Middle East was to get all the troops out of there. From there he started talking about 6 million dead in the fire bombing of Dresden. I have no idea why we were talking about WWII all of a sudden. Maybe he wanted me to admit it was wrong and then he was going to connect it back to Sherman? Maybe he is a Lost Causer and a Nazi? The truth is I really don’t know enough about the events at Dresden to have an opinion. I commented that maybe 12 million die if we don’t do that and the war drags on for 2 more years. At that point he gave up, snidely commented that I should educate myself with some real history books, and walked off.

Today I ventured out into the rain to the Hogtown
BBQ fund raiser to benefit the Union
Church preservation project. There
were multiple BBQ vendors, and a friend’s band was playing. It rained
most of the time, but it was still fun.
The Civil War
Histor…

To celebrate the successful completion of my son’s first year of college we attended the M3 Rock Festival on Saturday. We showed up sans tickets after all my attempts to score good seats on Craigslist failed. We picked up really nice reserved seats for $5 over list from a scalper there at Merriweather. I was pretty happy with that. Below is my impression of the bands we saw.

The best set goes to Twisted Sister. They blew up the place and had the most engaged audience of anybody we saw all day. My 2nd favorite set was KingsX. They had the smallest crowd we saw all day, which allowed us to get a bit closer to the stage. They get 2nd based on pure quality of music. The worst set was Loudness. Their sound guy should be fired. It was just a wall of noise for 40 minutes. I couldn’t make out the instruments or the singing most of the time.

The other bands we saw.

Great White featuring Jack Russell– I think Great White is doing the Queensryche thing with two bands touring under the name? This version featured the original lead singer. It was a good set – nothing special about it. The sound was good and the band was tight.

Steel Panther – They are basically an X-rated Vaudeville parody act of hair metal. But they do it out of love, and there is some serious musicianship there under the over-the-top lyrics in their music. They are very good at what they do and they have carved out a pretty good niche career. But it is hard for me to take them seriously.

Firehouse – They only had 35 minutes, and since they wanted to get all their hits in that means in was a very power ballad heavy set. They sounded great, and the audience was digging it. But it was too many power ballads in a short period of time for me.

Jackyl– I’m really not much of a Jackyl fan, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed their set. The audience was really into it, and when they ran long and the management turned out the lights on the stage they kept on playing and got most of The Lumberjack Song in before they finally quit.

The headliner was The Brett Michaels Band. Not Poison, just BMB. We decided to head home and skipped it. After Twisted Sister and Jackyl I really could not see how Michaels was going to close out strong. As we walked by we saw that his set backdrop was huge pictures of himself. That is just weird and narcissistic and I’m thinking we chose wisely by skipping the set. I don’t really understand how Brett Michaels solo rated as the closer for last night. Poison I could accept, even if I’m not a big fan. Hell, I can’t name one Brett Michaels solo song.

Other random thoughts from M3. The level of drunkenness was surprisingly controlled. Given that the doors opened at 10:30 AM, and a lot of people were probably still buzzing from Friday night, I expected to see a lot more people that were really hammered. Also, the number of 40-something women that can pull off dressing like they are 20 and at a metal concert is rather small. None of them were in attendance at M3 last night 🙂 Finally Eddie Trunk from That Metal Show was sort of the MC and came out between sets to hype his show and introduce the next band. He got visibly drunker as the day when on. They were having a good time backstage!

If the bands are good I’ll definitely consider attending again next year.

To celebrate the successful completion of my son’s first year of college we attended the M3 Rock Festival on Saturday. We showed up sans tickets after all my attempts to score good seats on Craigslist failed. We picked up really nice reserved seats for $5 over list from a scalper there at Merriweather. I was pretty happy with that. Below is my impression of the bands we saw.

The best set goes to Twisted Sister. They blew up the place and had the most engaged audience of anybody we saw all day. My 2nd favorite set was KingsX. They had the smallest crowd we saw all day, which allowed us to get a bit closer to the stage. They get 2nd based on pure quality of music. The worst set was Loudness. Their sound guy should be fired. It was just a wall of noise for 40 minutes. I couldn’t make out the instruments or the singing most of the time.

The other bands we saw.

Great White featuring Jack Russell– I think Great White is doing the Queensryche thing with two bands touring under the name? This version featured the original lead singer. It was a good set – nothing special about it. The sound was good and the band was tight.

Steel Panther – They are basically an X-rated Vaudeville parody act of hair metal. But they do it out of love, and there is some serious musicianship there under the over-the-top lyrics in their music. They are very good at what they do and they have carved out a pretty good niche career. But it is hard for me to take them seriously.

Firehouse – They only had 35 minutes, and since they wanted to get all their hits in that means in was a very power ballad heavy set. They sounded great, and the audience was digging it. But it was too many power ballads in a short period of time for me.

Jackyl– I’m really not much of a Jackyl fan, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed their set. The audience was really into it, and when they ran long and the management turned out the lights on the stage they kept on playing and got most of The Lumberjack Song in before they finally quit.

The headliner was The Brett Michaels Band. Not Poison, just BMB. We decided to head home and skipped it. After Twisted Sister and Jackyl I really could not see how Michaels was going to close out strong. As we walked by we saw that his set backdrop was huge pictures of himself. That is just weird and narcissistic and I’m thinking we chose wisely by skipping the set. I don’t really understand how Brett Michaels solo rated as the closer for last night. Poison I could accept, even if I’m not a big fan. Hell, I can’t name one Brett Michaels solo song.

Other random thoughts from M3. The level of drunkenness was surprisingly controlled. Given that the doors opened at 10:30 AM, and a lot of people were probably still buzzing from Friday night, I expected to see a lot more people that were really hammered. Also, the number of 40-something women that can pull off dressing like they are 20 and at a metal concert is rather small. None of them were in attendance at M3 last night 🙂 Finally Eddie Trunk from That Metal Show was sort of the MC and came out between sets to hype his show and introduce the next band. He got visibly drunker as the day when on. They were having a good time backstage!

If the bands are good I’ll definitely consider attending again next year.

To celebrate the successful completion of my son’s first year of college we attended the M3 Rock Festival on Saturday. We showed up sans tickets after all my attempts to score good seats on Craigslist failed. We picked up really nice reserved seats for $5 over list from a scalper there at Merriweather. I was pretty happy with that. Below is my impression of the bands we saw.

The best set goes to Twisted Sister. They blew up the place and had the most engaged audience of anybody we saw all day. My 2nd favorite set was KingsX. They had the smallest crowd we saw all day, which allowed us to get a bit closer to the stage. They get 2nd based on pure quality of music. The worst set was Loudness. Their sound guy should be fired. It was just a wall of noise for 40 minutes. I couldn’t make out the instruments or the singing most of the time.

The other bands we saw.

Great White featuring Jack Russell– I think Great White is doing the Queensryche thing with two bands touring under the name? This version featured the original lead singer. It was a good set – nothing special about it. The sound was good and the band was tight.

Steel Panther – They are basically an X-rated Vaudeville parody act of hair metal. But they do it out of love, and there is some serious musicianship there under the over-the-top lyrics in their music. They are very good at what they do and they have carved out a pretty good niche career. But it is hard for me to take them seriously.

Firehouse – They only had 35 minutes, and since they wanted to get all their hits in that means in was a very power ballad heavy set. They sounded great, and the audience was digging it. But it was too many power ballads in a short period of time for me.

Jackyl– I’m really not much of a Jackyl fan, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed their set. The audience was really into it, and when they ran long and the management turned out the lights on the stage they kept on playing and got most of The Lumberjack Song in before they finally quit.

The headliner was The Brett Michaels Band. Not Poison, just BMB. We decided to head home and skipped it. After Twisted Sister and Jackyl I really could not see how Michaels was going to close out strong. As we walked by we saw that his set backdrop was huge pictures of himself. That is just weird and narcissistic and I’m thinking we chose wisely by skipping the set. I don’t really understand how Brett Michaels solo rated as the closer for last night. Poison I could accept, even if I’m not a big fan. Hell, I can’t name one Brett Michaels solo song.

Other random thoughts from M3. The level of drunkenness was surprisingly controlled. Given that the doors opened at 10:30 AM, and a lot of people were probably still buzzing from Friday night, I expected to see a lot more people that were really hammered. Also, the number of 40-something women that can pull off dressing like they are 20 and at a metal concert is rather small. None of them were in attendance at M3 last night 🙂 Finally Eddie Trunk from That Metal Show was sort of the MC and came out between sets to hype his show and introduce the next band. He got visibly drunker as the day when on. They were having a good time backstage!

If the bands are good I’ll definitely consider attending again next year.

To celebrate the successful completion of my son’s first year of college
we attended the M3 Rock Festival on Saturday. We showed up sans tickets
after all my attempts to score good seats on Craigslist failed. We
picked up really nice reserved seats for…

Contrary to what this writer thinks, Twitter is not a replacement for RSS. The whole idea of RSS is to not miss stuff. If a writer you like publishes online once every 3 months, that article will be there in your RSS reader, almost impossible to miss.

Imagine the odds of seeing the Tweet announcing that once every 90 days post. It’s 90% likely you’ll miss it.

Twitter was founded as a social network. The whole idea originally was share what you are doing right now. Twitter originally was most famous for pictures of what you were having for lunch. The use case has shifted over time, and a lot of people use it for content discovery. It’s not a horrible tool for discovery because the really interesting stuff often gets re-tweeted enough that you can’t miss it. However, the lifespan of content on Twitter is measured in days, if not hours. If you are following a few hundred people on Twitter good luck finding that thing you saw last week, if you didn’t favorite it or otherwise save it outside of Twitter when you originally saw it. Twitter is mostly noise, and little signal.

RSS is critical infrastructure for the web. Google may have ultimately done us a favor by canceling Reader. It reminded us that RSS is important, and that maybe we had been taking it for granted.

Contrary to what this writer thinks, Twitter is not a replacement for RSS. The whole idea of RSS is to not miss stuff. If a writer you like publishes online once every 3 months, that article will be there in your RSS reader, almost impossible to miss.

Imagine the odds of seeing the Tweet announcing that once every 90 days post. It’s 90% likely you’ll miss it.

Twitter was founded as a social network. The whole idea originally was share what you are doing right now. Twitter originally was most famous for pictures of what you were having for lunch. The use case has shifted over time, and a lot of people use it for content discovery. It’s not a horrible tool for discovery because the really interesting stuff often gets re-tweeted enough that you can’t miss it. However, the lifespan of content on Twitter is measured in days, if not hours. If you are following a few hundred people on Twitter good luck finding that thing you saw last week, if you didn’t favorite it or otherwise save it outside of Twitter when you originally saw it. Twitter is mostly noise, and little signal.

RSS is critical infrastructure for the web. Google may have ultimately done us a favor by canceling Reader. It reminded us that RSS is important, and that maybe we had been taking it for granted.