by David Burn | Apr 22, 2006 | Digital culture
According to The Creative Coast Initiative, the Savannah area is home to more than 300 knowledge-based businesses, representing multiple industries including: internet/web design, digital media, consulting, software development, among others. In my estimation, one new startup that has a real chance of standing out and becoming an international player is Evoca, a spontaneous podcast provider.
The democratic impulse of the Internet, the ubiquity of the cell phone, and the power of oral expression have convinced us of one thing: it’s time to mobilize the voices. Our concept is simple. Just call one of our world-wide numbers from your cell phone or Skype account and record a message. Or you can upload a recording from your digital recorder. We’ll automatically store whatever you give us in your account. From there, you can organize your recordings, you can share them with the world, or you can keep them all to yourself. It’s spontaneous, it’s far-reaching, and, most importantly, it’s so easy. At Evoca, we intend to enrich the world by empowering your voice.
I signed up for their free service yesterday. Now I have five voice recordings of me performing my poems to offer. Just like that.
Evoca is basically Flickr for voice. A social media site with a million possibilities for users.
by David Burn | Apr 22, 2006 | Food & Beverage, Lowcountry
Beaufort has two of the top dining experiences available in the county, a fact Hilton Headers might have some trouble digesting. If so, my advise is take a Tums and point your boat or vehicle towards historic downtown Beaufort, where you can dine in the California-meets-Charleston nautically-restored room known as Saltus River Grill. High ceilings, raw ahi tuna, Oregon pinot noir–that’s the ticket.
Then come back for the coup, cross the river to Lady’s Island and take your first hard right onto an access road, and find Bateaux tucked into the splendor of the marsh. We dined there recently, and the hostess showed us to our window table where we proceeded to bask in the glory of the view, the company, terrific Portugese wine aged for 12 years, fresh salads, delicious entrees all around and the best rice pudding I’ve tasted in my life. Not cheap, but not outrageous, Bateaux is a must visit for anyone–local or otherwise–who appreciates the pursuit of dining perfection.
by David Burn | Apr 22, 2006 | Lowcountry, The Environment
A few days ago, Pat Conroy, one of the Lowcountry’s more notable characters spoke out against unchecked development. He said, “I think southern Beaufort County is both lost and ruined.” Pretty tough words. For sure, the area is radically changed from Conroy’s youth, as is the rest of America. But for the newcomers fleeing a cold, gray, North, Hilton Head and Bluffton are the embodiment of that paradisical vision Conroy so longs for.
And it appears the place still has some fight in her. The Town of Hilton head is in battle with the Adventure Inn, over that property’s desire to build fire pits, bathrooms and other structures (look, tiki bars!) on the extreme beachside line of their land. I’m for the town in this. Stay the hell back from the dunes.
According to the Island Packet story, the inn’s owners say the town is incorrectly identifying the property as dunes and that environmental officials have said there are no dunes on the property.
Original redevelopment plans the inn submitted in January called for a building and other construction right up to the state setback line, which could have made the inn the closest development toward the ocean on that part of the island. That plan showed dunes in the area, a description the inn’s owners later said was made in error.
How’s that for some outside the Beltway spin?
I can actually sympathize with the property owners here, but only to a degree. They want to provide the ultimate island experience for their guests. No one can argue that’s not their right as operators, but I will argue that a different vision can be shared with visitors. The hotel could turn their negative into a positive by educating guests on the hotel’s sound design principals and embrace of ecotourism. Be proud of the fact that development is kept respectfully back, in honor of common sense and the stunning magnitude and power of the sea.
by David Burn | Apr 21, 2006 | Lowcountry
One of the first things I did upon moving to the Lowcountry 15 months ago was pick up a copy of Pat Conroy’s The Water Is Wide at a downtown Beaufort bookstore. It’s a great book. Conroy grew up here and he masterfully sets his best selling stories here. A couple of days ago the Beaufort Gazette set one of his nativist ecoriffs to type.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why Mayor Bill Rauch and most of the members of the City Council seem to loathe the exquisite and endangered town of Beaufort. I’ve made a career out of praising this town’s irreplaceable beauty and the incomparable sea islands that form the archipelago that makes Beaufort County the loveliest spot on Earth to me.
I think southern Beaufort County is both lost and ruined. Hilton Head has traffic jams that make me feel like I’m still in Atlanta. The coming of Sun City brought about the destruction of the jewel-like town of Bluffton.
Now I read that Mayor Rauch and the City Council are planning to annex a plantation where a developer plans to put in a modest 16,000 houses with a population that could reach 40,000 people. I can’t believe there have not been riots in the streets over this stupid proposal. If Rauch and his associates on the City Council succeed in this monstrous and unjustified annexation, Beaufort will soon be Hilton Head, Mount Pleasant, Myrtle Beach — the utter destruction of the South Carolina Lowcountry will begin its race to the finish line.
[via The Island Packet]
by David Burn | Apr 17, 2006 | Music
“Derek has a sense of musicality that I’ve never experienced with anyone else because he takes a solo and works it and builds it and rips your damn heart out. Every time, he does it differently. You never know what he’s going to do next. He’s a raving little genius.” -Butch Trucks
Milt flew into Jacksonville on the way home from a ski trip in the Swiss Alps. We were there to pick him up and deliver ourselves to two nights of Mule > Allman’s on the banks of the Suwanee River in Live Oak, FL. The shows were stellar and the setting was equally impressive.
The family vibe was in full swing at Wanee Fest. On Friday night Derek’s wife, Susan Tedeschi sat in for a song. Devon Allman (Gregg’s son) joined the Brothers on stage for a few songs Saturday night. As did Vaylor Trucks, Butch’s son and Derek’s cousin. Kofi Burbridge who plays keys and flute in Derek Trucks Band is the brother of ABB’s bass player, Oteil Burbridge. Add to that Luther and Cody Dickinson in N. Mississippi Allstars, Ian and Ivan Neville in Dumpstaphunk, plus all “the family” in attendance and you’ve got quite the reunion.
Derek did not play with ABB on Saturday. He caught a jet to England, where he joined rehearsals for Eric Clapton’s European Tour. Jack Person sat in on guitar. Personally I missed Derek’s presence, but the song selection was out of this world. Check it: Hot ‘Lanta, Ain’t Wastin Time, Done Somebody Wrong, Smokestack Lightning, Midnight Rider, Highway 61, Revival, The Sky Is Crying, One Way Out, Statesboro Blues, The Weight, Dreams, Elizabeth Reed. Encore: Southbound
On top of Mule and ABB, we saw Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Oteil and the Peacemakers, Dumstaphunk, Railroad Earth and The Wailers perform. Plus we could hear Derek Trucks Band play late night from our tent.
by David Burn | Apr 11, 2006 | Politics
Al Franken recently shared the stage at Judaism University with Ann Coulter, a.k.a. Thin White Puke. Midwest Values Pac has Franken’s opening statement. There’s a lot of great stuff in it, but I’ll narrow in on one small segment for our purposes here.
In her book Slander, Ann tells her readers that Al Gore had a leg up on George W. Bush when applying to their respective colleges. Harvard and Yale. Ann writes:
Oddly, it was Bush who was routinely accused of having sailed through life on his father’s name. But the truth was the reverse. The media was manipulating the fact that many years later Bush’s father became president. When Bush was admitted to Yale, his father was a little-known congressman on the verge of losing his first Senate race. His father was a Yale alumnus, but so were a lot of other boys’ parents. It was Gore, not Bush, who had a famous father likely to impress college admissions committees.
What does Ann omit? Well, that Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush was also a Yale alum and had been Senator from Connecticut, the home state of Yale University. That Prescott Bush had been a trustee of Yale. That Prescott Bush had been the first chair of Yale’s Development Board — the folks who raise the money. That Prescott Bush sat on the Yale Corporation for twelve years. That Prescott Bush, like George W. Bush’s father, George H. W, Bush, had been a member of Skull and Bones. That the first Bush to go to Yale was Bush’s great great grandfather James Bush, who graduated in 1844. That in addition to his father, grandfather, and greatgreatgrandfather, Bush was the legacy of no less than twenty-seven other relatives who preceded him at Yale, including five great great uncles. Seven great uncles. Five uncles, and a number of first cousins.
In case you’re still wondering where W gets his sense of entitlement, his right to lie for the nation’s own good, reread that last paragraph. Bush and cronies like to paint a picture of a bumbling, God-fearing everyman, but W is worlds apart from that fictional creation. The truth is he was groomed from day one to be where he is today, to say what he says and to do what he does.
by David Burn | Apr 8, 2006 | Literature
Dan Neil writing for the LA Times:
Here are words that no parent wants to hear: I’ve decided to major in English.
The English major presents for his or her parents a lexical quandary: What to call the graduate? My son the geologist, my daughter the physicist”these ring familiarly. But there is, ironically enough, no word in English for the English major. Our son the . . . um . . . who speaks English.
The high-minded, lowly employed English major has become a stock comedic character. And so I was cheered (note the archaic usage, so typical of an English major) recently when I found Richard A. Lanham’s The Economics of Attention amid a forlorn pile of books (personification–again, so typical) rejected by the book review editor. “The central commodity in our new age of information is not stuff but style,” read the cover blurb. “In such a world, intellectual property will become more central to the economy than real property, while the arts and letters will grow to be more crucial than engineering, the physical sciences, and indeed economics as conventionally practiced.”
Really? No kidding? Sweet! I want to be director of well-turned phrases for the Federal Reserve.
An an English major, I used to endure the constant concern of relatives. “What are you going to do, teach?” All these years later, with no classroom experience to my credit, I have to say, why certainly, I’ll teach. I’ll teach that a man of letters is not by definition an effete, but rather a man like any other, ready to do the work of a laborer, pettifogger or Machiavellian executive.
by David Burn | Apr 8, 2006 | The Environment
A 73-year old Savannah man survived nine days on an uninhabited coastal island, after his 16-foot jon boat was blown out of his reach by a strong wind while he was collecting oysters.
George Hamilton, who was born on Hilton Head Island, ate oysters, mushrooms and cactus to stay alive during the ordeal. He used Marsh grass to construct a makeshift shelter, keeping him warm at night and shaded from the sun during the day. To stay hydrated, Hamilton gathered moisture from the Marsh grasses. He also found a bottle of gin and drank all of it.
After a boater spotted him and he was rescued, Hamilton told the Savannah Morning News his faith and a lifetime of fishing the coastal waterways helped him survive. “A man can survive if you do it right,” he said.
“There’s one thing about going fishing: You don’t get nothing for free. You pay for everything you take out of the sea. And if you don’t, one of these days the sea is going to take something from you.”
by David Burn | Apr 7, 2006 | Digital culture
Elizabeth Spiers, formerly of Gawker, started a new blog recently. DealBreaker covers the underbelly of Wall Street. One of the writers on the site is named Muffy Benson-Perella. She’s an investment banker in Manhattan who holds a B.A. in French and Art from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Sort of. You see, Muffie is a character. Purely a work of fiction.
In one recent post, a commentor dared to call her a joke. Someone, called “MBA_Overlord” came to Muffy’s defense.
Muffie writings are not a joke. Rather, she offers more common people valuable insights into the rarified world of finance. Her trenchant observations illuminate investment banking’s mysteries.
After all, those, like you, who do not possess her level of erudition, acomplishment, and breeding, cannot possibly even hope to walk Wall Street’s hallowed halls of power. I should know as I enjoy a similarly advantaged provenance.
Her voice is the clarion call. You would do well to heed her words. As I have said before, Muffie’s existence uplifts us all.
This is good shit. Just look at the name. Muffy Benson would not suffice. This character has Continental flare!
Here’s how Vulture Droppings sees it:
What’s amazing about this blog is the immediate and hateful response it is getting from readers. Check out some of the comments on the “Ask Muffie” section, where we get to hear overworked traders, brains fried by constant exposure to the Bloomberg terminal, tear their hair out over a ditzy and COMPLETELY FICTIONAL MBA columnist.
Nice work, Ms. Spiers.
by David Burn | Mar 31, 2006 | Lowcountry, The Environment
For the past several days on my way home from work, I’ve taken notice of three wild turkey hens walking alongside ever busy Highway 278. They don’t seem to mind the traffic, even though I do.
The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) became South Carolina’s official State Wild Game Bird in 1976. According to the National Wild Turkey Federation there are over 5 million Eastern Subspecies turkeys roaming our hardwood forests.
