The Friday Wrap

Let me just start by saying a fond goodbye to October, the best month of the year. College football and the NFL are in full swing, the NBA begins, the baseball playoffs and World Series... and, oh yeah, the leaves and the autumn winds and all that stuff.

Here's what I was up to this week:

In the paper and on the blog

This political season as the Year of Amateur Status.

Sausage-making and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

Last call for the Why I Vote project. (Thanks to those of you who sent something in; there's still time.)

An invitation to join me for a writing class, or come see a reading.

Links on Twitter

Here are some links I posted during the week from my Twitter account, @tommytomlinson:

Steve Perry singing along... with himself. Hang with the video -- it'll kick in. http://bit.ly/cmPIRN

Some of these are fake. But still: People are awesome. http://bit.ly/cntS1x

Honus Wagner: the world's rarest baseball card. Who ends up with one? Some nuns in Baltimore. http://es.pn/bUqh4R

Amazingly, Landon Donovan predicted this would happen today. http://bit.ly/cKy5Gq #worldcupoctopus

OK, I know what I want for Christmas. MINI-CANNON! http://bit.ly/9pTg1A

A musical interlude

My friend Andrea Pitzer of Nieman Storyboard linked to this great Tom Petty live clip the other day. There's one four-letter word, if you care about that sort of thing. But here's how Andrea set it up: "Love the tension he sets up here--The off-rhythm vocals! The injured hand! Where's the band?"

This one won't embed, but go take a look. It's worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpG09PenZt8

Coming up

A (very late) Avett Brothers album review, maybe some thoughts on the World Series, I'll have a column in the paper on Sunday, and of course Tuesday is Election Day -- I'll be columnizing on that, too. Go vote, por favor. Enjoy your Halloween weekend.

The Friday Wrap

Y'all are busy people, so I'm going to take this spot on Fridays to collect all the reportage, bloggage, tweetage and other blurtage I put out during the week.

Projects for you

There's a new reader project called At First Sight -- I'd really like to hear your stories about one of those moments.

I'm also thinking about doing a local version of this very cool CNN video project where people send in videos of their favorite walk. Would y'all do something like this if I put out the call? http://bit.ly/ciPjk8

On the blog and in the paper

Here's a few thoughts on the Chilean miners.

I watched the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" with four people invested in education in Charlotte; if you're interested in the future of our public schools, go see it.

There was a little NFL talk on the Gold Rush bus, and the home team didn't come off well.

Speaking of that, you can still take the Panthers QB poll. Here's how bad it is: We want Jake back. (And my bad for not putting Armanti Edwards in there.)

My links on Twitter

This showed up in the paper right after Dylan came to town. I'm just sayin'. http://bit.ly/cpIzHC

Gene Payne, longtime Observer editorial cartoonist, died today (Thursday). He made this list in 1968. http://bit.ly/b1IDu5

The Alvin Greene Performance Art Project continues. Makes Joaquin Phoenix look like an amateur. http://bit.ly/bUUIYy

Mike Harden, a great columnist I'd never known, remembered by @NNall. http://bit.ly/bZzQmq

RIP, General Johnson. charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/14/176… via @AddThis Here's the brilliant "Give Me Just a Little More Time": http://bit.ly/d3fbdq

My bud @jposnanski on the 32 greatest calls in sports. Brilliant stuff, altho Larry Munson is WAY too low :) http://bit.ly/9BobNM

Diamonds aren't really forever. But Happy Meals apparently are. http://bit.ly/bZZEGU

My favorite new correction ever. http://tbd.ly/9fz2FV (via @NNall )

Hey, I'm quoted in an ESPN story on Julius Peppers. http://es.pn/bf5v9q

Very cool crowdsourced video by the great @kimrichey. http://bit.ly/cYRcVX

Coming up

Unless they come to their senses, I'm supposed to be on WCNC's Charlotte Today on Wednesday. Just remember, the cameras add 100 pounds.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

The Friday Wrap

Here's a recap of the last seven days here at the ol' paragraph factory.

A guy who grew up in Charlotte wrote a cool book about the vocoder. (Plus DVD extras!)

Now you have to remember if you're in the Orange Zone or the Green Zone. (Several readers made a smart suggestion: The recycling bins should've been orange or green, depending on what zone you're in. But you'd still have to remember which week you take out recycling. Maybe they could've stamped a calendar on the lid.)

LeBron chose away over home.

A quick follow-up on that... NOBODY looked good after The LeBron Show last night.

LeBron showed all the emotion of an insurance adjuster and seemed to have no idea how deeply he was crushing Cleveland fans by renting ESPN for an torture session of kissing them goodbye.

ESPN chucked its credibility and spent an hour kissing LeBron's ring. Well, he doesn't HAVE a ring, but you get the point.

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wrote a letter hammering the guy he loved and coveted up until the very minute LeBron decided to go somewhere else. It must have been a blast to write, but conveniently fails to mention that Gilbert just finished getting rid of the Cavs' coach and general manager -- so much for loyalty -- and also fails to understand that he sounds like a ninth-grader who got dumped a week before the prom. Which, in a way, he is.

The only people who came out of the whole thing with unadulterated happiness are Miami Heat ticket scalpers. Good news, Junior, that college fund's back in play.

A few of the things I linked on Twitter (@tommytomlinson):

RT @Pogue Did the Jetsons predict the iPad, FaceTime, and streaming video news sites in 1962? http://bit.ly/bQJByg

Alvin Greene's stimulus idea: Alvin Greene action figures. I'm beginning to think this is performance art. http://bit.ly/chSbD0

Gator walks into a building at LSU. (Insert SEC joke here.) http://bit.ly/aGN4hd

Not sure I agree with all this from the great @williamfleitch... but damn, is it well-done. http://bit.ly/aWm0Gl

Former co-worker @tTribble helped come up w/the awesome cover for the Cleveland P-D today. http://bit.ly/cgf3Kx

Finally, some music. Smashing Pumpkins are coming to Charlotte next week. It's about a decade past their glory days in the post-Nirvana era, but I saw them when they were here in 1997, and they were really good. Here's a clip of Billy Corgan doing an AC/DC cover on the street in Italy. You'd never know from a Smashing Pumpkins show that Corgan can be charming and goofy... but he is here.



Enjoy the weekend, everybody.