Clarion Content

There is an arsonist or something else still afoot in Los Angeles. The Clarion Content wrote about it yesterday when it was a string of nineteen overnight blazes. L.A. police and fire officials are now reporting there have been more than thirty suspicious fires in the last twenty-four hours. More than three dozen vehicles have been burned from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley.



It would be awfully hard for a single individual to cover all that ground geographically.

To the Clarion Content, it feels more like the work of somebody like ELF (the Earth Liberation Front).

In almost all cases the fires started with a single vehicle being set afire.

Labels: public protest

We suppose if you are a fellow Tweeter that you have noticed, Twitter's website and service has been down for the better part of two hours. No information from the company is available. Their website merely says, "Users may currently be experiencing some site issues; our engineers are working on resolving this issue."

No word whether the site is simply overwhelmed with tweets and users or is experiencing a denial of service attack.

Stay tuned.

Read more here in Mashable.

Labels: technology, twitter

We saw that there was a slew of suspicious of fires set last night in Hollywood, CA. Los Angeles Fire Department officials today described a series of nineteen arson fires overnight in the Hollywood area as "highly unusual," according to the LA Times. This has the Clarion Content wondering. Single suspect acting alone? A political protest? A criminal?

What does the destabilized, highly charged situation that is America today mean we should expect for this New Years eve? Will there be a bunch of lone gunmen trying to personally fulfill their demented Mayan visions?

We are going to make a rare concession for us: we rather hope the cops are on high alert, paying attention to this sort of thing.

Labels: constitutional issues, Politics, public protest

One answer is, apparently, Rebecca Black.



You might recall, dear readers, the teen phenom who burst on the scene this past Spring with the pop ditty, "Friday." Audiences were captivated with Ms. Black because of the rags-to-riches story that accompanied her hit. She was not promoted by the multinational companies that run the record industry. Her Mom paid a local recording studio $4 grand and young Rebecca picked a song that "felt like her personality." Although derided in many quarters, she was a YouTube viral sensation with over 170 million views of the original video.

The song was no worse for the wear when we viewed it again today.¹ We did not understand the vitriol Ms. Black generated then, and we still don't get it now. We found her generally charming, for example, this mature, composed appearance on the Tonight Show that belied her age and newness to stardom. Having grown up in era when Tiffany, Debbie Gibson and Paula Abdul hit the charts, we couldn't find a significant qualitative difference between typical bubblegum pop and Ms. Black's music.²

However, as the title of the post indicates, her fifteen minutes must be up. How do we know? For one thing, she was recently contracted to play AOL's employee holiday party. Is there any less hip company than AOL?³ And the YouTube event of that little soiree, it truly tells the tale. Check it out here. And note the 57,000 hits, less than 3 one-thousandths of the hits she got for her original video. To give you, dear readers, a dramatic conceptualization of that kind of drop-off: it is the equivalent of the following, if the Sun, which is some 96 million miles from Earth, were suddenly less than 3 one-thousandths of that distance, it would be some 30,000 miles away and we would all be fried crispy.

Like Ms. Black's career?


¹According to Wikipedia the original video was removed from YouTube in June after almost three million "dislikes." It was re-uploaded in September.

²Don't even try to go with that Autotune card, dog. Plenty of legitimate musicians, even those with great voices, let them play around with their sound on the Autotune... okay, okay we concede she can be kinda hard to listen to, but that never stopped many stars.

³Don't say Time Warner, we were looking for un-hip, not down right evil.

Labels: music, Pop Culture

The odds have been and continue to be Ron Paul will not win the 2012 Republican nomination for President.



However, his poll numbers in Iowa, where the first delegates will be awarded, have been steadily improving. It is no wonder, as our friends over at the 538 note, he is running some sharp ads.

The 538's guru, Nate Silver, shows however, even if Congressman Paul wins Iowa, the odds of him winning the Republican nomination are slim. He needs a deeply divided race to have a chance. What success by Paul more likely does is one of two things, either: unites the Republicans behind Romney, the "Shoot, we had better close ranks or Ron Paul could actually win" scenario, or, causes a last minute candidate to come off the bench, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, etc., the "Sheesh these folks all suck we had better find somebody else" scenario. The 538 examines both possibilities here.

Either way, more Ron Paul looks to be a win for Obama.

One thing Ron Paul is doing, he is burying the Newt Gingrich candidacy.

The bad news for America, the politicians continue to fiddle whilst the economy immolates.

Labels: 2012 presidential election, Politics, Predictions

Our look at what the teens and tweens of America are watching. We peer into their world through the lens of Youtube. You may have caught some of our earlier episodes, if not, follow this link [and scroll down past this post].

This dance video, filmed on the Great Wall of China by Xceltalent, is blowing minds across the local school districts. The debate around our office, was any of it filmed in slow-motion? Feel free to weigh-in.

Labels: Pop Culture, what they are watching

Dear readers, are you asking yourself, if the current economic tumble is as bad as the Occupy folks say it is, "Where are the breadlines?"




Are the foreclosure crisis and the current economic collapse victimless events?

Dateline Colleyville, Texas... At the Clarion Content, we wonder in response how many of these kind of tragedies are allegedly in no way connected to the economy.

Labels: Economy, Politics

The Clarion Content presents:

An album debut press conference...

LiLa is:
Eli McDuffee
Jon Le Sueur
Griffin Wade
RoSean Franks
Kyle Cox







LiLa III comes to life and comes to the public this Monday, December 26th, at the MotorCo. The band spent more than three hundred hours in the studio creating their newest album. Lead singer Eli McDuffie warns, "it will bite you."


Bassist Rosean Alexander notes the band's diverse musical backgrounds feed directly into their sound, which spans the ever shrinking chasm between hip-hop and bluegrass...





The band has been grinding and attempting to make the leap. Banging away in the practice room and putting themselves out there for the Spring and Summer festival season. Hoping to play as many gigs in as many places as possible...


Forged in the fires of Durham, LiLa is bringing Durham's positivity, Durham's love and Durham's creative energy to a wider audience.





Drummer Griffin Wade assessing the band's musical drive, and why they worked so long and hard on this new album, "That's why your such a perfectionist, because you enjoy it, because you love it, you have to get it that way..."





Trombonist Mikey P. says the band has been reaching new heights, and the album has opened up their repertoire, "the music has to breathe and the music has to have room to breathe."





LiLa is Eli McDuffee, Griffin Wade, Rosean Alexander, Kyle Cox, Michael Petersen, and Jonathan Le Sueur. Come checkout the album premier, LiLa III debuts Monday, December 26th at the MotorCo.

Look for a Clarion Content exclusive interview with LiLa on these pages in the next few days.


Special thanks to all those who collaborated with the Clarion Content to make this fantastic photoshoot a reality. Stylist and Fashion Coordinator Cady Childs, Photographer Jessi Blakely, Bernard's Formalwear who provided the tuxedos, The Cordoba Center for the Arts and Julio Cordoba, Liberty Arts Foundry and Tim Werrell and Jackie MacLeod and Big Mike (who made everybody on the shoot custom bottle openers, too...) The Scrap Exchange and Ann Woodward, along with Reality Ministries, Brittany King and Mary Joan Mandel. We couldn't have done it without you!

Labels: Durham, music, photos, Pop Culture

A long time Clarion Content feature, "Interesting Links and Links of Interest," returns. Check out old posts below. Click here and scroll down.

The purpose of our Interesting Links pieces is to steer you to the entertaining, if off-beat, the fascinating, if less than earth-shattering, memes that populate the interwebs. Surely there are interesting links and fun stuff happening everywhere. If you see an interesting link you would like share, email it our way ClarionContent at Gmail dot com. (Type @ for at and . for dot. We are hoping to avoid additional junk in our in-box by switching up the nomenclature.)



Our first interesting link is to a piece by one of our favorite rock and roll interviewers, Chuck Klosterman. Klosterman has interviewed everyone from Bono to Noel Gallagher.¹ He is also a sports fan. He has an acerbic, intellectual take that is frequently absent from the monosyllabic and cravenly devotional work characteristic of much sports writing.²

Here Klosterman takes a look at the Tim Tebow phenomenon and what it says about the fissures and bigger debates American culture. Tebow is polarizing. Why? It is a fascinating read, as interesting a cut on Tebow-mania as we have seen anywhere. If sports is a microcosm of society... then Tebow and the media's coverage of him hold an important mirror up to our collective selves. It asks questions about our cultural position on faith that are very relevant, especially on the precipice of a presidential election. Read the whole article here.

Our next interesting link is for those of you looking for something to do on the day after Christmas. Don't let the Monday blues get you down. December 26th is a day to get up and get down. Get out and dance around... LiLa will be hosting a CD release party at the Casbah on Main Street in downtown Durham. Check out this hilarious promo video. Hear music from the new album, "III" here.

Next up, more cool stuff to know about... The Nation's Restaurant News selected the winners of its 2011 Hot New Concepts award. Crave, FöD (Food on Demand), Mixt Greens, True Food Kitchen and Twisted Root Burger Company. These restaurants span the gamut from an American take on sushi to a concept from Sodexo, wherein guests place their orders on touch-screen kiosks, watch their food being made-to-order, and are alerted via their smart phones when their food is ready.


Our final interesting link is cat science related. The Clarion Content has long supported the widely held notion that cats are more elegant than dogs, now comes evidence from the New York Times Science section to prove it. Did you know cats lap their water faster than the human eye can see?³ Maybe not, but you surely knew that cats don't make those unseemly slurping and slobbering sounds that dogs do when drinking water.

The NY Times reports... "the cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the point at which gravitational force would overcome inertia and cause the water to fall." The study's author Dr. Roman Stocker said, "Three and a half years ago, I was watching Cutta Cutta [his cat] lap over breakfast." According to the Times, "he wondered what hydrodynamic problems the cat might be solving. He consulted Dr. Reis, an expert in fluid mechanics, and the study was under way." Rest assured, cats' inherent grace was verified. Read the whole article here.

Share your interesting links with us and read about them in our next edition.

¹Don't worry, in searching for an appropriate name to pair with Bono, we had to look up who the heck Gallagher was too...the lead singer of Oasis.

²Bill Simmons, Nate Silver and Charles Pierce excepted.

³Four times per second.

Labels: Durham, food, interesting links, music, NFL, Politics, Pop Culture, sports

Our thanks to "Duck & Cover" and creator Storey Clayton.

Check out his other projects, here, at the Blue Pyramid.

Labels: Duck and Cover, humor

Our look at what the teens and tweens of America are watching. We peer into their world through the lens of Youtube. You may have caught some of our earlier episodes, if not, follow this link [and scroll down past this post].

This Korean group, Girls Generation, has been making inroads into the American high school consciousness. Their Wiki says they are considered the top Korean Idol group, a category Americans might analogize to a boy band of a different gender. And while the music is clearly fluffy pop, record sales are blowing up and the VMA's are rolling in. Check'em out here...

Labels: music, Pop Culture, what they are watching

Little shouts out of teen Twitter wisdom. Real quotes from real teens.



Making out in college is the equivalent of a handshake.---Morgan


i h8 when my dad doesn't call me back/ answer my texts. uhm hello what if i was dying? #cool #realcool---Hailey


May your finals be as easy as you are #ExamWeek---Hannah




All quotes are directly from real Twitter accounts and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Clarion Content.

Labels: Pop Culture, Sayings, twitter

All photos courtesy of Scenes from my Lunch Hour


This past Saturday was International Human Rights Day. Durham marked the occasion with a march organized by the “Historic Thousands on Jones Street,” an umbrella community organization that assembled a variety of traditional and newer groups to raise their voices on behalf of the 99%.



All photos courtesy of Scenes from my Lunch Hour


The marchers met at the CCB/People’s Plaza, home of the bull statue downtown. The very dichotomy of the name spoke to the protesters cries and the omnipresence of the debate.

Is the area around the bull, in an Occupy inspired renaming, the People’s plaza? Or is it named after a bank, the CCB plaza? The dominant paradigm inveighed a long time ago. The Occupiers implicitly weighed-in on that issue, too, with flyers referring to meetings and meet-ups at the People's Plaza. The physical terrain represented the meta-debate: Corporations vs. Government vs. the People.

Marchers chanted, “How do we stop the deficit? Stop the wars and tax the rich!” as they walked down Main Street to First Presbyterian Church. There the marchers broke into small groups to talk about issues within the specific framework of human rights. Group leaders facilitated a discussion about how human rights issues have implications that are global, regional and local.

The topics broached ranged from jobs and transportation, to voter registration and schools. The groups represented mirrored the array of themes. The head of the Durham, NAACP, Fred Foster was in attendance, vociferously spreading the message, “Social justice begins with the word ‘We’.” There were also folks from “Occupy Durham,” “The Durham Local People’s Assembly,” as well as the “Mental Health Workers Campaign,” the “Durham Coalition for Urban Justice” and “Health Care for all of NC,” among others.

The questions and challenges raised were as myriad the groups. The underlying feeling across the board was that now is the time. “If you don’t act, you will be acted upon,” was a common thread woven through the conversations. The turnout was not large, just over 100 by our estimates, but the enthusiasm was intense. It was mirrored by the public, numerous cars honked and waved in support as they drove by the march.

Speakers and citizens merged without hierarchy. The spirit of collaboration was evident. Many in attendance contrasted it with the bureaucratic instinct to suppress dissent. Attendees raised multifarious examples of tacit and active government suppression. They ranged from suppression of the right to freely assemble, one protester had been arrested peacefully sitting in her chair in a public park in Raleigh the week previous, to impediments placed in the way of the right to exercise one’s vote¹, to arbitrary limits on public comment at public hearings, School Board meetings and similar nodes of interaction between the public and their sometimes elected, sometimes selected representatives.²

The government, of course, was only one of the villains protesters raised their voices against. The other common ogre was big corporations. Numerous members of the assembly expressed frustration with a frequent Clarion Content theme: the absurdity of corporate personhood, a fiction that allows faceless entities to fiat onomatopoeia their existence onto the human playing field.

The all-encompassing irony of the complexity and pervasiveness of the systemic issues in play was made clear by one organizer, who under his breath wistfully sighed, that many if not all of these signs were made possible by, “adhesive tape, brought to you by 3M and their friends.”



All photos courtesy of Scenes from my Lunch Hour



All photos courtesy of Scenes from my Lunch Hour


¹The Reverend Curtis Gatewood spoke passionately and eloquently about this topic.

²The Clarion Content noticed this very phenomenon when we attended the Durham Cultural Forum and board members spoke for so long that after four or five public comments the facilities people were flashing the lights to empty the auditorium.

Labels: 2012 presidential election, Durham, Economy, Politics, public protest

Our thanks to "Duck & Cover" and creator Storey Clayton.

Check out his other projects, here, at the Blue Pyramid.

Labels: Duck and Cover, humor

A romp through Parker & Otis

by Cady Childs
our lead columnist for Durham, Culture, Fashion and Style



¹The Clarion Content can verify that Jennings learned this one from personal experience too... ;)

Labels: Cady Childs columns, Durham, Pop Culture, Practical Advice

Our thanks to "Duck & Cover" and creator Storey Clayton.

Check out his other projects, here, at the Blue Pyramid.

Labels: Duck and Cover, humor

The Clarion Content was delighted with the response to our first Fashion Drive-by. Perhaps you heard about it? If not, check it out! We love(d) Lakewood.

Up next Watts-Hillandale! Here is the lowdown on how it works. The Clarion Content partners with local businesses, clothiers, boutiques, salons and others to help share their wares and tell their stories. We supply the models, the staging and coordination, as well as the fabulous photographer. Durham provides the setting.

So here goes...

**********************************

Watts-Hillandale is among Durham's most famous old neighborhoods. The neighborhood was originally built to surround Watts Hospital, which is now the North Carolina School of Science and Math. (We would like to thank Open Durham, a highly interlinked archive/inventory of information about people places, and history of Durham for providing a treasure trove of old photos and detailed history. Click through on the links for additional back story.)

Our fashion partners for these photos, to whom we are very grateful, and we literally could not have done the shoot without, were Vaguely Reminiscent who provided all of the accessories pictured, and Runaway Clothes, a new Southern lifestyle clothing brand with a hip urban feel.

Vaguely Reminiscent is located at #728 9^th Street, just down the block and around the corner from the Clarion Content offices. They are a favorite of numerous local fashionistas and hipsters in our circle. In all the ensembles the accessories shown on the models are pieces from this amazing store, where creative and reasonably priced jewelry finds aplenty are mixed amidst unique gifts, fabulous stationary and cards, Durham commemoratives and other styling stuff, including-- in true Durhamanian style --shirts and toboggans from Runaway Clothes.

Runaway, our other partner, is the brainchild of Gabriel Eng-Goetz. Mr. Eng-Goetz is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in illustration. He is also a Durham native who attended Jordan High School. After college Eng-Goetz initially explored his art through painting and landed several gallery shows. But he felt some of his core supporters were being cut out of the loop, high price points for his art work deterred his most loyal, but young and less than affluent fans. This is part of why he made the move to clothing. As he told the Clarion Content in a September interview, "A t-shirt is a piece of art, but it also goes to a bigger audience," he said. "It's more interesting sometimes to show your art on a different level, in a different way."

Runaway has launched its terrific new winter line. There is much to check out here.

Cady Childs, the Clarion Content's Pop Culture, Durham, Art and Style columnist, was both the stylist and the fashion coordinator for this shoot. Jessi Blakely of Tamara Lackey Photography took all of the amazing photos. Cady Childs and Jessi Blakely collaborated on layout and design of this piece with the Clarion Content staff. Special thanks to our outstanding, hard-working models, Jonathan LaSuer of local music phenoms LiLa¹, Jen Phelan from one of our favorite local watering holes, Dain's Place² and Gabriel Eng-Goetz of Runaway Clothes.

Also our special thanks and gratitude to all of the local business owners and Watts-Hillandale neighborhood residents who patiently let us photograph in and around their homes and in some cases let us photograph them. Thank you to one and all who contributed.


**********************************

These photos were taken at three locations in historic Watts-Hillandale. First, Oval Park, which is wedged between Oakland Avenue and Oval Park Drive, these shots were captured on the south side of Club Boulevard. Save for the bottom right hand corner, which was shot at our second location, the famous bathtub house at #2003 West Club Boulevard.


Location #1: Oval Park
Club Boulevard and Oakland Avenue




Nuevo Durhamanians may not look at Oval Park and know. Oval Park as it is today is a sculpted beauty, with packs of moms pushing strollers, and kids running every which way. It hosts food trucks on Thursdays, a fabulous Fourth of July Festival, a kid-friendly Halloween and plethora of other neighborhood events.

Once again, Open Durham is instructive. You know our mantra at the Clarion Content, "Durham could not be what it is, without having been what is was." Watt-Hillandale is a neighborhood that was bravely and actively preserved through Durham's down years, but even here, there is a was, and there is an is. These amazing photos courtesy of the Herald Sun and Endangered Durham show Oval Park as it was.

It is because of those who helped make it what it is now that the Clarion Content was able to collaborate with fellow Durham culture movers, Vaguely Reminiscent and Runaway Clothes to make these beautiful photos in that same Oval Park.






As we said, the second location we shot at on this gorgeous Fall day was Club Boulevard's famous bathtub house. Where in typical Durham style, one of the renters rolled up on her bicycle as we were sprawled out in her front lawn's bathtubs, photographer, lights, stylists, extra hands on deck---cast and crew, with no more permission than we told the neighborhood association we would be shooting in Watt-Hillandale, and she shrugged with aplomb and said in so many words, "Cool."

And, Durham? How cool is that? Photoshoot on your front lawn? No problem. Let's rock.

This second location provided a fabulous set-up for Dain's famous proprietor bartender, Jen Phelan. The Clarion Content team, Cady Childs and Jessi Blakely, nailed it. Jen is shown wearing Vaguely Reminiscent's accessories and Runaway's shirts and toboggans. Now we are cheating a bit here, because the middle shot is from our third location, up the block from Oval Park on Oakland Avenue.

Location #2: The Bathtub House
#2003 West Club Boulevard





This third location, though not as historically notable, perhaps, as the first two places we shot was just as Durham: Warm and welcoming. Simply knocking on the door of the house with coolest decorations on the block gained us two young partners in photography and fashion. As in our first Fashion Drive-by of Lakewood, there are many more shots than seen here. Keep your eyes on this space in the coming weeks to see our youngest partners, as well as, lots more photos of Vaguely Reminiscent's fabulous accessories and Runaway's fashions on your local bartenders and resident rock and rollers.

In this panel, Jen Phelan and Gabriel Eng-Goetz are seen first at #2003 West Club Boulevard, then on Oakland Avenue amidst the Fall colors beneath the delicately constructed Halloween decorations.


Location #3: Oakland Avenue
the 1000 block of Oakland Avenue




Up next, Fashion Drive-by fans, all the extra photos and background from this Watts-Hillandale adventure. Then our next shoot!!! Amazing Durham eateries and night spots host ladies in fabulous evening wear.



¹LiLa is a local Durham music phenomenon that straddles the ever shrinking gap between hip-hop and blue grass, carving out an appealing new territory that one might call hip folk grass. It is an explosive wave of energy that must be absorbed live and in-person.

²Dain's Place is a famous local watering hole, with a top-notch have it topped your way burger, conveniently located on the 9th Street strip, down the block and round the corner from our offices.

Labels: Art, Durham, Fashion, Fashion Drive-bys, photos, Pop Culture

Our thanks to "Duck & Cover" and creator Storey Clayton.

Check out his other projects, here, at the Blue Pyramid.

All ideas and opinions are those of the cartoonist and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Clarion Content.<sup>*




*</sup>More often than not, we TOTALLY agree...

Labels: Duck and Cover, humor

Our thanks to "Duck & Cover" and creator Storey Clayton.

Check out his other projects, here, at the Blue Pyramid.

All ideas and opinions are those of the cartoonist and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Clarion Content.<sup>*




*</sup>More often than not, we TOTALLY agree...

Labels: Duck and Cover, humor

Clarion Content fave, and perhaps the most insightful pop culture commentator today, Stephen Marche takes on the American dollar in last month's Esquire magazine. Who is Marche, you ask yourself, dear readers? Only the kind of man who can cite Milton Friedman and Kanye West in the same article and have you nodding your head.

As he says in this, his latest blast, "As sound as the dollar," once proverbial, now sounds ironic. And while at first, this might feel unsettling, as Marche concludes, it is ultimately liberating.

Read the whole piece here.

Labels: economics, media, Pop Culture

Our thanks to "Duck & Cover" and creator Storey Clayton.

Check out his other projects, here, at the Blue Pyramid.

All ideas and opinions are those of the cartoonist and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Clarion Content.<sup>*




*</sup>More often than not, we TOTALLY agree...

Labels: Duck and Cover, humor