"Rocky" is going away

Just a sad lament; tomorrow is the last day of publication for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the tabloid-sized daily newspaper. That's the one I read most when I lived out there from '78-'85, and the one I'd pick up in airports when I visit every summer.

Denver has another daily, the broadsheet-sized Post, which is actually all the same company as the Rocky Mountain News anyway, so it probably didn't make sense to have two dailies from the same published anyway. Not these days.

But I will miss "Rocky", which lost sports columnist Woody Paige and others to the Denver Post years ago.

Papers everywhere are in trouble of course. The San Francisco Chronicle is in trouble; that city's only daily could go under. Life goes on I guess. Farewell, Rocky!

Some dumb stuff

• VDOT mulls shutting down I-81 restrooms to save 12 million dollars a year ... several years after spending a reported 20 million to renovate them. Huh? A "measly" 12 million? Would we rather have motorists pulling off on the side of the road to pee, or truckers taking a snooze on the shoulders? VDOT needs to look elsewhere for savings - like, no doubt, its top-heavy management. Rest areas are a must! This is DUMB.

• Tropicana orange juice returns to older carton label: good ol' Tropicana OJ changed its distinctive label to a bland package that looked like a generic store brand. So much so that apparently some passed it up in the juice aisle. At Christmas time my mom went on and on about the change in labels, then even wrote a letter to the company complaining about it. (yes, and old-fashioned letter). The sides of the containers were awful, mostly words and crappy graphics.

Here's what "The Brand Man" from the Portnoy Group said on line about the new label:

"The design is so awful and so recessive on the supermarket shelf that stores like my local Ralph's now have hanging signs (never seen before in the refrigerator section) to point out that this new look indeed is the old tried and true Tropicana brand orange juice....can you say ugly? As a focus group moderator of many years, I cannot imagine that Pepsi tested this new packaging anywhere except among their in-house branding folks. In a kitchen research test I did against the other major brands 100% of participants thought new Tropicana was a store brand of lower quality than the old Tropicana packaged juice. Not good for Pepsico especially in this tough economic climate...they should go back to the old packaging or fix this one immediately."
So, Tropicana announced a few days ago it is returning to the old label, saying "gee, we didn't realize how many people missed the old one," or words to that effect. In a world where old brand names and familiar companies are biting the dust left and right, folks are looking for things to hold on to. Think "New" Coke vs. Classic Coke on a much smaller scale. Think DUMB.

• USAirways decides that hey, it won't keep charging fliers for soda, coffee and other soft drinks, especially since other airlines did not follow through when it made the policy change a while back. Its not bad enough that you have to fly on overcrowded planes, with delays the norm, with bad air and cabins that haven't been cleaned. Not to mention a lack of food on most flights. Then you had to pay for a Coke, after paying for your overpriced ticket out of Roanoke. Hey, USAirways, worry more about how to keep your planes out of the Hudson River (props to Sully & Crew of course).

And USAirways wonders why its going broke. DUMB

that's my rant for today.

Not a bad little book, written by Salem man

(Note - interviewed this nice elderly gentleman, a retired engineer whose great-grandfather once had a brush with John Brown Baldwin. So he wrote a book about him.)

Salem man writes book about little-known Virginian:

Retired Civil Engineer John Hildebrand went from recreating the journal of a Civil War-era ancestor to writing a full-fledged book about John Brown Baldwin, a Staunton native and an instrumental figure of the period, if little remembered. Baldwin was a member several times of the Virginia General Assembly, visited Abraham Lincoln in a futile attempt to keep the state in the Union, and then was on hand afterwards to fight off the more onerous aspects of Reconstruction.

Yet his story was little known, until Hildebrand researched, wrote and published The Life and Times of John Brown Baldwin, 1820-1873 recently. Hildebrand used the Roanoke City library’s Virginia Room for research, as well as resources available through the Salem and August County historical societies. “Its amazing how much help they can give an aspiring author,” says Hildebrand, who arranged for microfilm and books to be delivered for his project.

“He was an influential politician during the Civil War era,” says Hildebrand, whose great grandfather encountered Baldwin in 1862, when stationed with the Army of Northern Virginia on Alleghany Mountain. Baldwin gave the regiment a “pep talk,” says Hildebrand, a member of the Salem Historical Society. His great grandfather kept a diary from 1862-1865. While editing it for publication he came across John Brown Baldwin and decided he was worth writing about in a full-fledged book.

Baldwin, also an attorney, was a member of the UVA Board of Visitors and made a secret visit to see Lincoln, trying to keep Virginia in the Union. Many at the time in Augusta County were pro-Union. “I didn’t work out,” noted Hildebrand, who said there were “pro-war” forces that wanted the President to punish the South, rather than try to work out differences diplomatically. Baldwin was a legislator for one term in his 20’s, then was reelected much later in life.

Baldwin aligned himself with President Andrew Jackson after Lincoln was assassinated; Jackson was almost impeached because many in Congress thought he was too lenient towards the Confederate States as they sought re-admittance to the Union. There is little doubt adds Hildebrand about what the Civil War was fought for. He quotes Baldwin, speaking at the Virginia Convention: “the issue here is slavery.”

The Life and Times of John Brown Baldwin, 1820-1873 is available through the Salem Museum/Historical Society and at Ram’s Head bookstore.

Oops! Here's picture

HERE's that photo of folks vying for water bottles at Berkley Springs.... judges just stood back and watched.. although they let us grab a few first.

Exhibits at Hollins

Went to opening at Hollins for 3 new exhibitions last week. This piece originally in Roanoke Star-Sentinel. Check out the stained glass from Ireland. That was neat ... Binh Dahn's work is just haunting.

Haunting images at Hollins in The Eclipse of Angkor exhibit: The Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University this semester is Binh Dahn, who creates photographs on leaves using the chlorophyll found within. Dahn is also exhibiting some of his work in an exhibition being held on campus at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum through April 18. There is an opening reception on Thursday, February 19 from 6-8pm.

In the Eclipse of Angkor features Vietnam-inspired “chlorophyll prints” of soldiers, prisoners of war and other experiences, all reproduced on plants and leaves. Some tend to be grim, stark reminders of a prison camp in Cambodia, where pictures taken of POW’s before they died or were killed have found their way into Danh’s hands. He’s a San Francisco area resident of Vietnamese descent.

“The image is transferred using the natural properties of leaves, which is photosynthesis,” said Dahn in explaining his technique, which had been on exhibit locally several years ago at the Art Museum of Western Virginia. Dank also uses the old-fashioned Daguerreotype method for some of his prints, saying as a photography student he was “always fascinated,” by a technique that lasted just about ten years after it was introduced in 1839. “Mirrors with memory,” is how Danh refers to the first photographic method.

Danh has visited Cambodia several times while researching his work and has been to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – formerly a high school before it became a prison camp and mass gravesite during the Vietnam War era. That when “the Khmer Rouge started exterminating the [local] population,” notes Dahn, who is also working with Hollins students as the spring semester’s artist in residence. “A lot of them were children and normal citizens.”

Bringing Dahn’s work to the Wilson Museum fits with the mission of director Amy Moorefield, hired last fall. “I think Binh’s work is a perfect example of using the museum as a laboratory, really focusing on new technologies and artists that are …pushing the field of contemporary art further along.”

A printed catalog of Danh’s work, which also features several essays, will be available after the official launch on February 19. Two other exhibits at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, one featuring Irish stained glass and the other called “Re-imagining the Distaff Tool Kit” will also be shown until April.

“We have something for everyone,” said Moorefield, noting that the Distaff exhibit will feature “domestic tools used by women.” The National Craft Council in Ireland helped bring over the contemporary stained glass art exhibit and the Wilson Museum has it first.

As for Danh’s work, the artist thinks it relates to today’s world and current events. “We hold people accountable. There is a sense of justice to be found.”

Bloggus Interruptus - my excellent adventure in water tasting

Haven't blogged for a while; its easy to get out of sync with all of that.. anyway just back from a lovely weekend trip to Berkley Springs, WV, where I was one of 11 judges in the 19th annual International Water Tasting festival ... waters from all over the world, in 4 categories, including municipal water... very interesting, and the packages some of the water came in was interesting also... CNN carried footage from the event, which draws entries from Canada, Japan, Bosnia, etc.

Several Virginia bottlers are represented and in fact the best non-carbonated bottle water came from outside of Martinsville - for the second year in a row. Who knew?

The free hotel (2 nights) and free meals didn't hurt either. The people were interesting - one fellow judge had small roles on Third Rock from the Sun and the Young and Restless when he was an actor. Now he writes about water for a website that's all about water. And the Water Master for the event - Arthur von Weisenberger - travels around the world investigating - water. Again, who knew?

By the end of the night I had sampled about 100 different water samples for clarity, odor, taste, refreshment, aftertaste. I've sworn off water for a while. I could hear it sloshing around in my stomach when I was walking around at one point.

Interesting too was the 'water rush" at the end, when spectators - yes, there were spectators, plenty of 'em, water geeks and bottlers looking for a marketing boost that comes from winning a bronze, silver or gold, were allowed to grab bottles from an elaborate display set up from all of the entries. Bottles with an unusual shape - like one shaped like a flask - were the first target. One women got knocked over by folks who came prepared, with garbage bags to scoop up multiple bottles. No one got hurt though.

Check out Berkley Springs sometime; about 220 miles from Roanoke. George Washington owned several lots in the town there and bathed on the mineral springs that bubble up from the ground. The water in Berkley Springs itself one a bronze for best bottled water.

An international festival all about water- who knew? Now I do.

Interesting post on Obama

A new friend of mine, Staunton author Lisa Solod Warren, just wrote something for the Huffington Post about Pres. Obama - urging him to put the stimulus plan together that he wants - to heck with courting Republicans!

Give it a look (paste link below into browser)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-solod-warren/dear-president-obama-with_b_162588.html