Kickers vs. Hokies; updated

The notice below just came in from Shelly Sowers of the Richmond Kickers:

“In response to the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech, the Richmond Kickers will host the Virginia Tech Men’s soccer team in an exhibition match to be held at the University of Richmond Stadium tomorrow (Tuesday), May 1, at 7 p.m. All proceeds from the gate will be donated to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. General admission tickets are $5.00 and can be purchased in advance until noon tomorrow via RichmondKickers.com or at the gate. Fans are encouraged to wear maroon and orange to show Hokie Spirit.

“‘I think it will be a tremendous opportunity for Hokie fans, soccer fans, and non-soccer and non-Hokie fans in central Virginia to join both teams in honoring the victims of the recent tragedy on our campus’ said Virginia Tech Head Coach Oliver Weiss. ‘It speaks volumes for the Kickers organization to do this on such a short notice. It is our hope to bring people together who want to feel connected to our Virginia Tech world.’”

To visit the Kickers web site click here. To visit the web site for the Hokies memorial fund click here.

Update (Tuesday) from Sowers:

"Thanks to the overwhelming support of the Richmond community (attendance 3,820), the Richmond Kickers were able to raise over $20,000 for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund during tonight’s exhibition match with the Virginia Tech men’s soccer team. The Kickers narrowly defeated the Hokies 3-2."

SLANTblog supports the NBC boycott

How do I stand on the move to boycott NBC, stemming from its handling of the package of material it supposedly received from the gunman who shot 32 people to death in Blacksburg last week?

As the publisher of SLANTblog, I am all for it. In this case what NBC did was different than the rest of the press. It alone had the material until it stamped its logo on it and sent it out to the other networks, wire services, etc. To say it had to do what it did is simply not true. Choices were made. Actions were taken.

So, after a few days to cool off and think about it, I still say NBC acted deplorably in rushing to decide what to do, and in rushing to get it done.

While I don’t like what others did afterward, NBC’s role stands out. While I don’t want to muzzle or chill the freedom of the working press, nor do I want to encourage it scream fire! in a crowded theater.

While some of that wretched material NBC received in the mail may have had real newsworthiness, I question that it all did. And, I think that shoving it in the faces of the people who were watching the news on television -- in a state of shock -- trying to find out about people and a school they knew and loved was unbelievably cruel and unnecessary.

No public interest was served and none of that had to happen like it did. Remember, this is the same outfit (MSNBC) that only the week before had 86ed a shock jock -- Don Imus, who is known for his loose lips -- for his over-the-top bad taste in choosing his words. There is some irony in there somewhere...

Yes, there are other issues coming out of the tragedy at Tech that deserve attention. However, in my view this boycott of NBC does not take anything away from those concerns. So, I support the boycott (click here to go to newsboycott.com) and I hope it picks up steam.

If it does, I think such an unprecedented phenomenon would become news itself and encourage a debate about the proper role of the press that’s long overdue.

Update: Now that I’ve said I support it, what form should a boycott of NBC take?

Well, that’s a question that eventually needs to be answered. It first occurred to me on Saturday night. I switched channels to see what Saturday Night Live had on, to see if it was a fresh show, instead of a repeat. A minute later I saw the NBC peacock logo and it hit me, I’d written on my blog that boycotting NBC was a move worth considering.

Feeling guilty, I changed channels. Since then I’ve posted my support of the concept of targeting NBC for punishment. Then it hit me, a vague boycott is one thing, a specific boycott is another.

Now I wonder how long should I boycott NBC? What’s the point?

My experience tells me there needs to be a specific day, or a particular important program to boycott. This concept needs to quickly demonstrate that its actions can be measured. After that, if it works, those who support this maneuver will be in a different position.

So, what should be the next move?

Stay tuned...

Drake the Flake

It should come as no surprise to most film buffs that there is sometimes a dark side to the business of doing business after dark. While some saw the Biograph Theatre (1972-87) as a beacon in the night, for others it was a place to hide out from a sad reality. Like any business, sometimes things just went wrong.

Although nearly everyone who worked at the Biograph was on the up-and-up, there were a couple of rotten apples that weren’t. Since, as the manager I hired both of them, I have to take the blame there. But that’s another story.

A man in his early-30s died watching a movie called "FIST." He breathed his last sitting in a seat in the small auditorium. The movie was bad, but not that bad. His face was expressionless, he just expired. As the rescue squad guys were shooting jolts of electricity into his heart, and his body was flopping around like a fish out of water on Theater No. 2’s floor, down in Theater No. 1 "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was on the screen delighting its usual crowd of costumed screwballs.

There was a night someone fired five shots of high-powered ammo through one of the back exits into Theatre No. 1. The bullets came through the two quarter-inch steel plates that formed the door to splinter seats. Amazingly, no one was hit. It happened just as the crowd was exiting the auditorium, about 11:30 p.m. and I don’t think anyone even caught on to what was happening. It was never determined why it happened.

A rat died in the Coca-Cola drain once and clogged it up. Havoc ensued when I poured a powerful drain clearing liquid -- we called it Tampax Dynamite -- into the problem, not knowing about the rat. Well, it started bubbling and backing up to erupt into a horrible flooding mess that smelled wretched!

Then there was Drake the Flake, who was banned from the Biograph for life in 1972. Then 20 years later he turned up in California as a serial killer. Supposedly, Drake, who always had fancied himself as an actor, had made up a long list of people he intended to pay back. He had gotten to only six of them when, as the cops closed in on him, he took his own life. Drake wore grease paint on his face when he committed his murders.

It seems Woody Drake's childhood was straight out of a horror movie. He was always a problem to those around him. The photo above ran in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on November 16, 1992. What follows are excerpts of a piece I wrote for SLANT in December 1992:

"...The November 16th edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch carried Mark Holmberg's sad and sensational story of Woody Drake. As usual, Holmberg did a good job with a bizarre subject. In case you missed the news: Lynwood Drake, who grew up in Richmond, murdered six people in California on November 8 [1992]. Then he turned the gun on himself. His tortured suicide note cited revenge as the motive.

An especially troubling aspect of Holmberg's account was that those Richmonders who remembered the 43 year old Drake weren't at all surprised at the startling news. Nor was I. My memory of the man goes back to the early days of the Biograph Theatre (1972). At the time I managed the West Grace Street cinema. So the unpleasant task of dealing with Drake fell to me.

Owing to his talent for nuisance, the staff dubbed him 'Drake the Flake.' Although he resembled many of the hippie-style hustlers of the times, it was his ineptness at putting over the scam that set him apart. Every time he darkened our door there was trouble. If he didn't try to beat us out of the price of admission or popcorn, there would be a problem in the auditorium. And without fail, his ruse would be transparent.

Then, when confronted, he'd go into a fit of denial that implied a threat. Eventually that led to the incident in Shafer Court (on VCU's campus) when he choked a female student [Susan Kuney] who worked at the Biograph.

That evening he showed up at the theater to see the movie, just like nothing had happened. Shoving his way past those in line, he demanded to be admitted next. An argument ensued that became the last straw. Drake the Flake was physically removed from the building, tossed onto Grace Street, and banned from the Biograph for life.

The next day, Drake made his final appearance at the Biograph. He ran in through the lobby's exit doors and issued a finger-pointing death threat to your narrator. Although I tried to act unruffled by the incident, it made me more than a little uncomfortable. In spite of the anger of his words, there was an emptiness in his eyes. In that moment he had pulled me into his world. It was scary and memorable.

Using a fine turn of phrase, Holmberg suggested that, 'Whatever poisoned the heart of Woody Drake happened in Richmond...'

If you want more evidence of the origins of the poisoning, take the time to look him up in his high school yearbooks (Thomas Jefferson 1967/68). Pay particular attention to the odd expression in his eyes. Looking at Drake’s old yearbook photos reminded me of a line in the movie 'Silence of the Lambs.' In reference to the serial-killer who was being sought by the FBI throughout the film, Dr. Lechter (a psychiatrist turned murderer himself) tells an investigator that such a man is not born; he is created.

There is no doubt in my mind. Someone close to Lynwood Drake III, when he was a child, systematically destroyed his soul. So while we can avert our eyes from the painful truth, we basically know where the poison is administered to the Woody Drakes of the world..."

Yes, we do.

The assembly line for such monsters runs usually through their homes. Woody Drake liked to beat up women. After I threw him out of the Biograph and he disappeared, several people told us about various females he had hurt. His last act before he shot himself to death was to whack a 60-year-old former landlady in her head with a blackjack.

She lived to tell her story.

-- 30 --

FDSL Hall of Fame

The Fan District Softball League (1975-94) established a Hall of Fame in 1986. The first class was elected by the 12-team league’s designated franchise representatives prior to the annual All-Star game/picnic. To be eligible then one had to have retired. Ten names were selected.

The same rule held true in 1987, but by 1988 a few of those who had been inducted into the Hall had unretired. So, in 1988 it was opened up to anyone who seemed deserving and those already in the Hall got to vote, as well.

For 1989 no one was voted in. In 1990, ‘91 and ‘92 additional names were added. In all, 41 players and two umpires were tapped. The list leans heavily toward those who made significant contributions to the league’s lore in the early years of play.Those in the FDSL HoF are: Ricardo Adams, Herbie Atkinson, Howard Awad, Boogie Bailey, Yogi Bair, Jay Barrows, Otto Brauer, Ernie Brooks, Hank Brown, Bobby Cassell, Jack Colan, Willie Collins, Dickie deTreville, Jack deTreville, Henry Ford (depicted below right), Danny Gammon, Donald Greshham, James Jackson, Dennis Johnson (depicted top left as the batter), Mike Kittle, Leo Koury, Jim Letizia, Junie Loving, Tony Martin, Kenny Meyer, Cliff Mowells, Buddy Noble, Randy Noble, Henry Pollard, Artie Probst, Terry Rea, John Richardson, Jerry Robinson, Larry Rohr (depicted above as the pitcher), Billy Snead, Jim Story, Hook Shepherd, Pudy Stallard, Durwood Usry, Jumpy White, Barry Winn, Chuck Wrenn.

This year the Derby Day party (the 28th annual reunion) for the Biograph softball team and friends will incorporate into its format a FDSL reunion, which will enlarge the gathering. So, players and fans associated with any of the league’s teams over the years will be welcome. The event will take place on May 5th. Contact the event chief Larry Rohr, (804) 233-2295, for details.

Art by F.T. Rea, the illustrations are from the old Sports Fan (1977-81).

'The Tale of the Allergist's Wife' to open at Firehouse

Jessica Fulbright sent us a notice from the Firehouse Theatre Project about a new play to open Thursday night at 8 p.m. The essentials are below:

The Firehouse Theatre Project (at 1609 W. Broad St.) is set to present a play by Charles Busch, “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.” It opens on Thurs., Apr. 26 and runs through May 19.

Tickets are $20 for general admission; discounts are available for seniors and students; tickets are available online at the Firehouse Theatre website, or by calling the 24-hour ticket line, 1-800-595-4TIX (595-4849).

Directed by Daniel Ruth, and featuring Melissa Johnston Price, John Moon, Alice Schreiner, Harriett Traylor, and Joey Chahine, the “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” promises to be a hilarious roller coaster ride that you won’t forget.

Note: Thurs., Apr. 26 -- Opening Night Reception provided by DD33 Asian Bistro. Fri., Apr. 27 is Talk Back Night; join the director, cast, and designers after the show for a discussion about the production.

Founded in 1993 the Firehouse Theatre Project is a non-profit theater company that operates in a building that once was Richmond’s Fire Station No.10. Its mission continues to be to present important contemporary pieces with an emphasis on plays which have not previously played in the metro Richmond area. For more info call Jessica at 355-2001, or email her at Jessica@firehousetheatre.org.

Image from the Firehouse Theatre Project

Color Radio and 10,000 Maniacs

Twenty-five years ago, a forerunner to WRIR-FM was born. It was called “Color Radio” or “Channel 36.”

On August 26, 1982 Color Radio began beaming its signal, via Continental Cablevision’s cable TV hookups, to what its creators hoped would be a listening audience in Richmond and Henrico County. It existed as the soundtrack that could be heard when a viewer tuned his television to Channel 36, which was the channel for Continental’s color bars test pattern. Les Smith signed on with his “Music Appreciation 101,” to launch the station’s existence.

In his college days Smith had been a DJ at VCU’s radio station. Then he played the same role at WGOE, the daytime AM station that owned the hippie audience in Richmond for most of the 1970s. He probably had the most on-air experience of the original cast of characters who breathed life into the venture, which was the brainchild of Burt Blackburn.

“In June, 1982 [Burt Blackburn] conceived the idea of a ‘radio station’ utilizing one of Continental Cablevision's empty channels,” wrote Smith in a 2001 remembrance of Channel 36. “He approached Continental’s Virginia marketing manager, Matt Zoller, who liked the idea and encouraged Blackburn to proceed. Zoller himself had been involved in college radio.”

By the time your narrator came aboard as a volunteer DJ, in October of that same year, the station had situated its studio over Plan 9 in Carytown (this was Plan 9’s old location where Chop Suey Tuey is now). My show, “Number 9,” was on for three hours on Thursday afternoons. All the DJs and the staff were volunteers -- but it was really like you had to be asked.

At times Color Radio was cool. At its peak, its programming covered 96 hours a week. At times it was silly and a waste of time, or worse. Always, it danced on the edge like no other radio station it Richmond’s history. It lasted about two years.

The image above was the main element of a handbill for a 1983 fundraiser that I booked into Rockitz to benefit Color Radio. The headliner was a group out of Jamestown, N.Y. that was building a following here from appearances at Benny’s and Hard Times. They called their act 10,000 Maniacs. Lead singer Natalie Merchant was 19-years-old then. The opening act for the show was a local group -- Ten Ten.

A few weeks prior to the live show at Rockitz, I taped an interview with Merchant for my radio program. What follows is the beginning of that 24-year-old interview; she starts by answering my question about what it was she and her friends in the band were looking to gain from touring and recording their music. Was it all for fun, did they want to get rich, or what? She laughed.

*

Merchant: We haven’t yet assumed our adult responsibilities. We don’t have enough income to live away from our parents yet. Sure, I’d like to be independent of my parents. After that, anything ... any success that comes, I’ll accept that. I’m not intimidated by the mass media. I think it would be a great tool to reach more people.

Rea: Reach them with what?

Merchant: With what we’re saying ... with what I’m saying.

Rea: What are you saying?

Merchant: I write the words. Most of what I’m saying is that music should be instructive.

Rea: Instructive?

Merchant: It should teach you something, even if it’s just building your vocabulary and making you realize you feel good when you dance. Anything you can learn ... I don’t know (she laughs). Probably by the time we can reach more people, I’ll be more sure of what I’m trying to say.

*

Color Radio was part of the last gasp of the Baby Boomer-driven freewheeling underground-oriented art and music scene which had been centered in the Fan District for nearly 20 years, from the end of the beat era through the last of the punks at the party.

At Color Radio when the microphones switched on there was no filter. There was no corporate-think limit. It was wilder than WGOE-AM had been in it rather freewheeling days in the '70s, before it got busted by the FCC. Color Radio had no FCC oversight.

The programming at Color Radio was left to the DJs, many of whom were connected to the local live music scene in some way. Several were in bands. Others were Rock 'n' Roll promoters or worked at record stores.

The format, in unrelated blocks, ranged from Rock to Bach and beyond. Some shows were all talk. There were comedy programs and, yes, sometimes things got raunchy, or weird. Like an offshore station, Color Radio flew below the radar; the ride lasted two years.

Art and words by F.T. Rea

Boycott of NBC growing

Here’s a development that will be interesting to watch -- newsboycott.com. It’s a new web site devoted to punishing NBC (MSNBC, etc.) for its terrible judgment in its handling of the material mailed to it by the April 16th shooter at Virginia Tech, which had the effect of promoting the suicidal gunman as a celebrity.

The site went up on April 20th. While this example of spontaneous righteous indignation may blow over, it might not. With the unpredictable but awesome power of the Internet to connect the likeminded, and the fact that millions must be more than a little fed up with way the 25-hours-a-day news networks tend to throw fuel on fires, maybe we’ve reached the tipping point.

Maybe like the Howard Beale character played by Peter Finch (who won a posthumous Oscar for his perfromance) in the brilliantly bitter 1976 feature “Network,” enough Americans have gotten to the point they, too, agree with Beale’s signature rant -- “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!”

Click here to visit newsboycott.com. to read more about this movement and to see an online petition you may want to sign.

Pocketful of polonium-210? No problem

In the post-Virginia Tech tragedy atmosphere of the last week, the most ardent defenders of the familiar gun manufacturers’ position -- as championed by the NRA -- which claims private citizens ought to be able to own whatever exotic firepower they can afford, fell back on their most basic spin/scam.

Thus, once again we are reading and hearing, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

It’s going to be interesting watching that convenient assertion/slogan stretched around the scary idea that even mentally ill people still have second amendment rights to own rapid-fire weapons that must be defended against all slippery slope suggestions to limit what they can legally buy in the name of self-defense or sport.

If we take the line of thinking of that simplistic slogan and begin to apply it to a few other situations it underlines the absurdity of it: Bombs strapped around terrorists’ waists don’t kill people, people kill people. Weaponized anthrax in the mail doesn’t poison postal workers, no, people poison postal workers. Giant sports utility vehicles don’t flip over way too easily, it’s people who flip them over way too easily.

In this world of denial and I want what I want, a dangerous thing isn’t dangerous. The danger is only in how certain people use those dangerous things. So, if I’ve got a pocketful of polonium-210, there’s no problem with that until I pour it into your Bloody Mary.

Tech students give media a deadline to scram

On Tuesday one of MSNBC’s rent-an-expert talking heads told Tucker Carlson the Virginia Tech students were being comforted by the wall-to-wall presence of the media in Blacksburg. Carlson had set up the comment by saying he’d never seen quite such an gathering of the working press with all their accouterments.

“It’s seen as more of a show of respect,” said the shill, “this isn’t a media circus.”

Well, now the students have apparently had enough of that brand of respect. The Washington Post reports that the students at Virginia Tech have given the inquisitors with their media trucks a deadline to leave their campus:

“Virginia Tech’s student government has asked that all journalists leave campus by 5 a.m. tomorrow [Monday], according to a statement issued by a spokeswoman.”

Yet another parade

Yesterday afternoon a parade celebrating Confederate History and Heritage Month proceeded from the Division of Motor Vehicles on West Broad Street, then east on Monument Avenue, and it ended in Hollywood Cemetery. Why it started at DMV, I can’t say, but they picked a beautiful day for a parade.The photographs in this post were shot at the foot of the Robert E. Lee Monument, here in the Fan District.

The parade/march, coordinated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, also commemorated Lee’s 200th birthday (he was born on Jan. 19, 1807). Since Lee is buried in Lexington, I’m not sure why the parade ended in the ancient cemetery over in Oregon Hill, overlooking the James River.There weren’t many spectators for the parade, at least not at this location. Instead of a crowd watching a few people march by, in this instance it was the other way around.As far as how I feel about such demonstrations, well, I’m used to it. I’ve lived in this neighborhood a long time. So, I’ve seen all sorts of groups use the Lee Monument as a rallying point. In the summer sunbathers and Frisbee-throwers will likely use the same area as if it's a beach.

On just as a pretty day a few years ago a curious commotion was underway at the statue’s pedestal. About 25 adults were milling about; some were propping large posters against the base itself. Upon closer examination the posters proved to be pro-life propaganda.

So, why would anti-abortion activists be rallying in the shadow of a piece of heroic sculpture that fondly remembers a Confederate general mounted on his horse?

In response to my inquiry it was explained to me that they were there to picket an “abortionist” with an office in the medical office building, just across the street. Then, with that mission accomplished, apparently the group opted to take some keepsake photographs, using the oldest of Monument Avenue’s statues -- it was dedicated in 1890 -- as a backdrop.

Standing next to identical placards displaying a blown-up depiction of a bloody fetus they posed with easy smiles; it could have been a company picnic or a class reunion.

Today, I had to wonder -- how many of those in the passing parade would have objected to the pro-lifers’ rather bizarre use of the statue of old General Lee? And, how many would have happily joined them?

-- My photos.

...Walk with Patsy Cline at the Byrd

The Byrd Theatre Foundation will present its own production of “Just a Closer Walk with Patsy Cline,” starring Julie Johnson (pictured right), for four performances over three days next month -- May 18-20.

The Byrd Theatre Foundation is made up of volunteers dedicated to the purchase and restoration of the Byrd, a genuine 1928 movie palace Richmonders are fortunate to still have in their midst. Proceeds from these benefit performances will be applied to the cost of a new roof and other such essential preservation moves that need to be made, ASAP.

Tickets are $37.00 (group discounts are available) and they can be purchased at the Byrd Theatre’s box office, or at Plan 9 Music. For more information, or to contact the foundation, please call Bertie Selvey at (804) 358-9901.

Image from www.juliejohnsonmusic.com

NBC boycott?

In response to NBC’s bad citizen act in promptly airing the Virginia Tech campus killer’s depraved promotional presentation, what if bloggers of all stripes banned together, coast-to-coast, to promote a total viewing boycott of NBC for the rest of April?

Could that happen? Would it make a difference?

There’s only one way to find out...

What should NBC have done?

Once it was in possession of the radioactive package of material mailed to it by the man who shot as many people as he could on Virginia Tech’s campus on Monday, what should NBC have done?

No doubt, it should have contacted the cops immediately, if not sooner.

We’re told the network did something along those lines. Whether it did so before it shamelessly stamped its corporate mark on all the images, to serve as promos for NBC wherever they would be seen, I don’t know.

Then the network’s bosses and wise heads should have had a private powwow. At that meeting it should have been decided that before the controversial material would be aired there would be a 24-hour period of study to see how the network should proceed.

So, the existence of the package would be publicly acknowledged, but NBC would tell its audience that in deference to many concerns, some with many facets, it would not be presenting or sharing any of the material until further notice.

That’s what the network should have done yesterday.

Today its smartest people should have met with law enforcement reps, officials from Virginia Tech, people who could speak for some of the families of the dead, and others. Discussions should have covered when some, if not all, of the material should/might be aired. They should have covered what value the material had, if any, beyond its ability to reveal depravity.

Furthermore, what time of day might be avoided? How could it be done without seeming to promote the publicity-seeking shooter? When and how could it be done in a way to minimize the pain it might inflict on the victims’ families, etc.?

Perhaps it would have been decided to release some material on Friday, or Saturday. Then, next week, maybe more of it could be available on Internet sites, or only on television after 10 p.m., or whatever. Perhaps it should have been decided to just wait and see. The key is to think it over for a day, or so, and try to be careful.

Instead, NBC acted like a giddy 19-year-old political blogger, wannabe shock jock, looking to have his biggest day ever for hits. Instead, NBC looked after its own greedy short-term interests, to do with promoting itself. Sadly, the other networks all followed suit.

In a better world, NBC would be boycotted for its headlong rush to cash in on creating a sensation, by using the shock and grief of the Virginia Tech community as a backdrop. In a better world...

Silence?

Then, there’s this idea for April 30th -- a day of silence.

To hell with promoting Monday’s shooter

What if a writer deliberately wrote a short story he knew would humiliate a particular person if it got published? This story would make a certain person’s life miserable because it would reveal something a few selected people would be able to decode and understand as having a special meaning.

Well, that would be mean.

Still, it happens. Sad as it may be, it’s one of the reasons some people write fiction -- to get revenge on those they think have it coming to them.

If the names in the mean writer’s story were changed to put a slightly new face on the damaging details, would the target who got fired, or lost a spouse, or was ruined in some other way, have any chance of getting relief or satisfaction in a court?

Well, if the payback-seeking writer did enough to camouflage the specifics of what he wrote about, so the general public wouldn’t be able to discern the hidden meaning of the key information, I doubt the victim would get anywhere in court. Maybe a lawyer will tell me I’m wrong about that, but I think it happens like that plenty of times.

So, some writers use this easy license to get back at old girlfriends and rivals, and so forth. On the other hand, everyday writers with good judgment, and a moral compass in working order, usually know where to draw the lines.

OK. Let’s take it further down that dark road. What if a writer knew the script he’d written for a television soap opera would get a person killed?

Well, if the writer covered himself in the same way as described above, he’d probably not be punished by the courts system. But what about the stinking morality of such a calculated act?

To me, that’s about where we are with NBC broadcasting the tape sent to the network, supposedly by the mass murderer who snuffed out all those lives at Virginia Tech on Monday. By making this killer into a celebrity villain of the first order -- with tiny details blown up large -- NBC and others running that depraved material every ten minutes are hastening the day yet another tortured sicko will do something to top Monday’s gun-wielding madman ... just to be remembered as “somebody.”

Therefore, at SLANTblog, the shooter will not be named. No. I don’t have to promote him, and I won’t. His name will not appear in this space. To hell with him.

There can be no doubt the wicked desire for hall-of-infamy status is part of what’s in play here. That’s why NBC got the tape. And, we all know there are too many sickos out there right now fantasizing about a crime spree to dwarf Monday’s carnage.

So, what if a broadcast network deliberately presented material -- in the name of reporting the news -- that its bosses knew perfectly well would eventually contribute to getting a bunch of people killed? What if those bosses knew they were helping to create the next tragedy by hyping the author of the Virginia Tech disaster of April 16th to the max?

Legally, who knows the answer?

Morally, I know the answer. Do you?

*

Update: Instead of promoting the posing gunman, maybe on Friday we should wear the colors, as suggested by Don Harrison at Save Richmond.

Madness can't be explained by reasons

CNN and MSNBC thrive on tragedy. About an hour ago I heard one of those rent-an-expert talking heads telling a windblown Tucker Carlson that the Virginia Tech students are being comforted by the overflowing presence of the media in Blacksburg. That was in response to Carlson’s noting that he’d never seen quite such an assemblage of the working press.

“It’s seen as more of a show of respect,” said the shill, “this isn’t a media circus.”

A distinctive Virginia Tech gray stone building served as the authenticity backdrop for the cable news “reporters,” as they plied their trade between commercials and promos for more "massacre" coverage.

If you’re watching the cable news channels, among other things, you’re being led on a wild goose chase. But when they can add an element of suspense to their blood red story of aberrant mayhem, then it can be a ratings bonanza for them. Thus, viewers who leave their televisions tuned to 24-hour news channels for the next few days will be hearing a lot about the motive of the shooter, now said to have been a 23-year-old Korean English major at Tech.

The talking heads are asking: Why did he do it? Was it revenge? What about his writings? Was he out to hurt the university? Was he a loner? Were there clues? Is this somebody’s fault? Or, was it just another byproduct of America’s violent culture?

Why is that a wild goose chase?

Looking for one paramount reason that will explain a morning’s outburst of sudden madness may be good for ratings, but it’s not likely to allay anxiety, or to lead to anything akin to satisfaction. Madness doesn’t need a reason. It is the opposite of reason.

So, for what it’s worth, my advice is this -- don’t leave your TV on CNN or MSNBC for hours at a time. And, don’t dwell on finding something that will make sense of this tragedy. In time, we’ll know more about the culprit. Still, that doesn’t mean we’ll ever really grasp the motives of a crazy man on a suicide-run in a way that will make us feel any better.

Me?

Well, now I’m watching the Atlanta Braves pound the Washington Nationals -- 3-0 in the top of the third. Tonight the Nats players are wearing maroon Hokies baseball caps. No doubt, there will be other touching gestures along these lines. At this extreme mood-swinging time that’s my kind of story. Yes, I want to know more about who set that up.

And, perhaps like you, I keep thinking about some of the guys I know who went to Tech...

Kudos to Millsaps

Since I was only nine when Jackie Robinson retired, it took years before I could begin to understand what he meant to so many people who lived in the parts of Richmond I knew little about then. As a kid I was a Yankees fan (my excuse -- they had a Triple A farm club here, then), so Robinson was mostly another player for the National League enemy Brooklyn Dodgers to me.

At that age, although I was a devout baseball fan, there was just no way I could fathom what Robinson had accomplished in breaking the color line in 1947. In truth, I’m still learning about what a genuine hero Robinson was in that time, over eight years before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott put Martin Luther King, Jr. on the map.

The recently retired executive editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Bill Millsaps (who was the sports editor of that same newspaper from 1973-91), used his personal view of what Jackie Robinson’s impact had on the black person he knew best when he was a boy, to shed some light on what a source of pride Robinson was in the African-American community all those years ago.

“To Neet, Dodger Ranked a Source of Pride,” is an elegant sports remembrance by one of the best sportswriters I’ve known. Click here to read the whole piece; an except is below:

“...As young children, we didn’t know a lot about Neet, except we knew she was a wonderfully gentle soul. We knew she and her husband Glenzon lived over in The Ridges on the other side of the Southern Railroad tracks, that they raised a family of four children, that they were people of deep religious faith, and that Neet answered most questions one of two ways: ‘Yessum’ and ‘Nome.’ To say that Neet kept her feelings and opinions under wraps is to say that the Grand Canyon is a very big ditch. Then Jackie Robinson came to the major leagues 60 years ago today as a member of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, and Neet couldn’t hide her pride.”

Now I'm strictly a National League fan, and I routinely pull for anybody to beat the Yankees. Anybody!

Death in Blacksburg

A tragedy of yet-to-be-understood proportions has taken place at Virginia Tech today. Early news reports disagree about the numbers, but it appears that perhaps over 30 people are dead, stemming from a shooting spree on two locations of the campus.

“‘This is a tragedy of monumental proportions,’ Virginia Tech president Charles Steger told reporters.’

Naturally, for those of us old enough to remember it, this brings to mind the Aug. 1, 1966 shootings by gunman Charles Whitman on the University of Texas campus, which left 15 people dead. And, no matter how old one is this unfolding story from Blacksburg sets the mind reeling.

While I realize this will likely create another tidal wave of angry opinions, accusations, name-callings, and you-name-it in the blogosphere, for today, I’m going to stay out of that rush to hurl quick takes on the story of a mass murder before the facts have been established.

Moreover, to me, it is a bad idea for a blogger (or anyone) to try to score points on their usual rivals at this time by using a preexisting set of political opinions. Hell, the facts are still coming in; the bodies aren’t even cold yet. It’s just too soon for drawing conclusions and being a know-it-all about what this will/should mean in the world of politics.

Some might say it’s rather indecent to be bloviating on gun control, and such, while the families and friends of the dead and wounded are still in the process of learning the sad truth. Some parents are probably still trying to find out if their kids are alive.

Thus, my advice to my readers and fellow bloggers is to hold off on all that for a day or so. It will keep.

Instead, it may be better to look to less literal modes of expression than dwelling on news stories, or opinion-writing, to connect with how you feel in your gut. It’s at a time such as this that music, art and even poetry maybe come closer to expressing our feelings, or comforting us.

My thought upon hearing the news of the shootings in Blacksburg?

It brought to mind the picture of modern madness that was painted by Irish poet W.B. Yeats in his “The Second Coming” (1921).

*

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- William Butler Yeats

*

In the days to come we will hear/read a lot about this shock to our sense of what is possible, and what is not. The identity of the now dead culprit, who is thought to have acted alone -- but who knows? -- may reveal clues to his motive. On the other hand, we may never really understand why this thing happened in Blacksburg. Whatever else it was ... it was an act of utter madness.