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Friday, August 12, 2005

Price of oil has jumped 300% since Clinton left office

Have read a few places tonight that it was $22.50 per barrel just when George W. Bush was sworn in. It's now $66 a barrel and only going up.

Funny thing is, Bush chided Clinton back in 2000 about the escalating price of oil. What does he make of a 300% jump in it on his watch, then?

The only reason I'm up right now posting about this is because lately I've been doing a lot of study on petroleum production and possible alternatives to gasoline. I'm inclined to believe that the point of Peak Oil has now arrived and we are seeing the beginning of a rapidly dwindling supply of crude (or at least the readily-refinable "sweet" variety) that cannot meet escalating demand (especially from India and China, where petroleum demands are beginning to vastly outstrip those of the United States). Two possibilities exist from this point forward: a drastic change of lifestyle as formerly plentiful liquid fuels "dry up", or look for other forms of liquid fuel that might be used in already existing engines with some modification. Primary problem here is that many gasoline alternatives - such as ethanol - do not have the energy potential of "fossil fuels".

The best recourse we might be faced with would be a conversion to biodiesel as soon as possible. But I don't know how easy (or even feasible) it would be to convert a gasoline engine to diesel (which could run most biodiesel with no problems). Can anyone enlighten me as to whether this is possible? 'Cuz some interesting stuff I'm reading suggests that if we could do this, if current research bears out we could produce more than enough bio-derived energy to meet not only current demands but those of the next several decades.

So the good news is there is hope if we are almost out of petroleum. But it's gonna take a little bit of effort to make it work... if it's indeed possible.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Now it IS "The end of the world...": Prophetic article from 1999?

The following item isn't something "new" in the least bit. It was first printed in my old college newspaper more than six years ago. I had no plans to write something that week: the following edition would be my "farewell column" before graduation but my editor told me the morning of deadline day that he had too much empty space on the op-ed page for this week and he needed someone to fill it. Since he'd considered me to be his "wordy wordy monkey" I obliged him by promising to write something... even though I had no idea at all what I was going to write about.

So, I wandered around campus the rest of that day, trying to find my Muse. Listening for whatever it was that I was supposed to write about. Elon University really is one of the best places I've ever found to walk around until something presents itself. Lot of rain that day. I think it was finally about 4 p.m. that some things "clicked" in my mind, and I slammed out the following essay. Two days later when the paper hit a lot of friends told me that it was "a really deep article" that they had to try and wrap their brains around. I didn't intend for it to be OVERLY heady... this was the purest essence of my take on things that got poured into MS Word, just because a friend was desperate for filler material and asked if I could provide it.

I refound this a little while ago. Looking back on it now, I have to wonder what exactly was going on that day that made the cylinders fire as they did. It's a very dated read now because it refers to Y2K, the situation in Kosovo back then, and Star Wars Episode I which was getting released the following month. The first part of it reads like a guy with a "Pollyanna" schtick going. The rest of it though... well, in light of the situation our world is in now, and how fast things are headed downhill, it just seems downright too prophetic: we ARE fast approaching the worst stagnancy that human culture has ever known, and very few people seem to want to stop that train from flying off the track. The stuff about "empire", that now seems like too much foretelling of the rise of the neo-conservatives who've gotten us so bogged down in Iraq. A lot of other things that make this article resonate so strongly today.

Anyway, make of this what you will: from the April 22nd, 1999 edition of The Pendulum at Elon College (now Elon University), here is my essay...

'The end of the world as we know it?' I don't think so

Chris Knight
Columnist

According to some students of esoteric lore, the next month or so is when Nostradamus prophesied the end of civilization would occur, with a great cataclysm.

Nilus, a fourth century Christian, foretold of the coming of the Antichrist before the end of 1999, after describing in detail such things of this century as telephones, aircraft and world war.

All over the world people have become so terrified of the "Y2K bug" that some are digging bunkers and stocking up on food and ammo, hoping to "ride out" what they believe will be a global catastrophe.

One of the hottest sells in bookstores lately has been Apollyon, the latest of the "Left Behind" series set in a post-Rapture world (think of Book of Revelation meets Tom Clancy, meets The Winds of War). Meanwhile, Christians everywhere have begun interpreting the times to mean that the Second Coming of Christ must soon come to pass. Some say that Kosovo will erupt into World War III.

How appropriate that in the midst of "millennial madness," Stephen Jay Gould spoke here a few weeks ago about the times we live in. Especially of late, Gould has been critical of the idea that we can know the future. According to Gould, the obsession that some people are having about the "end of the world" is so much foolishness, particularly religiously-inspired eschatology.

I am a Christian. Meaning that I have accepted Christ as my personal savior, and I believe that a relationship with Him is the only way that a person can enter into the presence of God. I came into that relationship after a life of experiences, especially the experiences I've had at Elon College. So too, as part of my faith, do I believe that Christ will return someday. As a Christian, that much of the future is already established.

That doesn't mean I'm gonna join in the frenzy, though. As Jesus Himself said, "NO MAN knows the hour..." Whether it happens in the next several months, or even in my lifetime at all, that's not something to be worried about. Shoot, I got more stuff out the wazoo to take care of than I know what to do with: post-graduation plans, gearing up to see Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, wanting to travel and see more of the world, get married someday... TONS of stuff. The stuff that life is made of, y'know? I mean, remember Bobby Fischer? He was the world's greatest chess player back in the Seventies. The guy had everything, then he dropped out of sight and started living in cheap motels and getting boozed up, because he was waiting for the Second Coming. That ain't LIFE, man! And that ain't what God wants you to do with it, either: He wants you to be living for Him, but still be grabbing life by the horns and not letting go!

Still, regardless of all the end-time scenarios that are getting chucked around lately, I do wonder if humanity has reached a summit... or perhaps a plateau is a better term. Professor Gould may have been partly correct that we can not predict the future with any reliability. But perhaps, it is that we no longer have any reason to predict the future. If we are not at the end of the world, we could be at an end of history.

Note that I say "an end," not "the end." By "an end of history," I am not speaking of the apocalyptic or supernatural at all. It is something that man has brought upon himself, whether by grandiose dreams and designs spread out over millennia or the simple cravings of the human nature that have steadily brought manking to this point. It is the course of history, culminating in a long-sought "equilibrium" on a global scale.

Throughout recorded time, history has been divided into epochs of "empire:" the Babylonian, the Greek, the Roman... onward until the English and finally, the American empire. The "empire" is the binding force of human civilization: for good or ill, "empire" determines the value of currency, establishes the frontiers, and interprets and enforces the law. "Empire," whatever its name, is what man looks to as the identity of whatever time it is he lives in.

"The empire" has remained the same; only its seat has changed. The influence exerted by our leaders in Washington D.C., though in a radically different form, is essentially the same as that of, say, Xerxes of the Persians, two and a half thousand years ago. And the same of Hadrian, and the khans of Mongolia.

And up until about the middle of this century, "empire" has taken the course it had been on for the past six thousand years. And then something became apparent: that the growth of empire had increased the effect that regionalism was having worldwide.

Consider the two World Wars: they were not true "world wars" at all, in that they were confined to two separate theaters in Europe and the Pacific Rim. But economies and whole nations worldwide were affected all the same. And after the conflicts, there was one undeniable seat of empire: the United States.

There has been one great characteristic that all forms of "the empire" have shared throughout time: growing centralization. It's an aspect of the increase in power that comes with grasping the economic and military reins.

And with this centralizing of military, infrastructure, and economies, there is almost always a breakdown of empire. Consider the Roman Empire, which became so ingrown and heavy upon itself that it collapsed, unable to bear its own burden which had been added to by internal corruption. The Roman Empire fell, only to have "empire" further built up upon its ruins, expanding further.

Now consider that for all intents and purposes, America has become the new Roman Empire, only ours has a truly global influence and a far greater disadvantage.

Without any further frontiers to push into (unless you want to consider colonizing Antarctica), and with the rest of the world either province or periphery, WHERE is it left for "the empire" to expand, to add unto itself? There is nowhere... and no other left to take up the burden of "empire."

There becomes a lack of vitality, and subsequently a waning drive for civilization to improve upon itself. Advances in sciences and the arts steadily dwindle. Ultimately, all that is left is for the seat of empire to try to hold itself together. That has become America's motivation on the world stage in this decade (and I think that trying — and failing — to maintain the situation in the Balkans is part of that effect).

Here's where I'm getting at with all this: as this world becomes more "globalized," we are looking at a breakdown of everything we have come to cherish of human civilization. It's losing its vibrancy, everything is becoming lackluster. There’s an "equilibrium of mediocrity" we are approaching.

Consider that the American of 1800 had far, FAR more rights than you or I enjoy in 1999, with far less to pay for them but his or her own drive and initiative. Growing centralization on a global scale has hit you and me in ways both apparent and subtle... all in the name of a global "community" but more accurately, a global "empire."

This is why I said we are at "an end of history," because in such a time as we are entering into, what is left for history books to be written about? Human progress is slowing down under its own weight for the sake of empire. It needs to break free, with as few limits as possible.

I have some ideas for that. First, we cannot change the world overnight: we need to start "locally." America should consider taking a "protectionist" or perhaps even a bit "isolationist" stance, at least for a decade or two. We need time to examine ourselves internally, and try to determine who we are again, and where we are going.

Second, we should take steps to end centralizing everything here into what is becoming one giant bureaucracy. Localized governments are far more efficient than our federal one. This may sound extreme, but a HUGE step would be to eliminate the Department of Education and let communities run their own schools. Putting all the schools in this country into one basket just opens itself up to incredible abuse and corruption, at the cost of the best education we can give this country's children.

Third, we should really consider getting out of the United Nations. The UN began with the noblest intentions, but time has proven it to have been a grand failure so far as creating and "maintaining" peace goes. It was doomed from the start, because it took the best elements of "empire" and magnified its vulnerabilities to human nature.

I've already argued in past columns, human nature is, on its own and without God, inherently corrupt. If we get out of the UN, now, we will be setting an example to all nations of the world: that they have to start looking to God and their own experiences, and not the illusion of combined human "wisdom," to guide them.

For the young people of our generation, this world still holds great promise. I believe that each of us has God-given potential to make something better of this world than how we first found it.

But we need to take a good, hard look at what this world is becoming now, if we want to someday leave our children and theirs with the same opportunities that we have been blessed with.

It sounds like an impossible task to cut off "an end to history," to break apart an "empire," but it can be done. It might be hard, but it will be fun. And if we need any more enticement, think of it this way...

It will be revolutionary, in every sense of the word.

Like I said, this was written over six years ago, and it's pretty open to interpretation, so feel free to do so.

I'm really new to this whole Cindy Sheehan business...

...but it seems to me like it should be a simple enough affair: Bush should look her in the eye and tell her for what reason was it that her son was killed in Iraq.

In another time, real men could do that much.

After-Action Report: Revenge of the Sith at Atlanta's fabulous Fox Theatre!

The only way this could have been better would be if a good friend had gone with me to this. Otherwise, I can't imagine a finer way to have ended seeing the first-run theatrical release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith than what happened the night before last.
This needs a little setup though: Monday afternoon Lisa and I were driving down to Atlanta for something of a business trip (we'd been staying with her family an hour away) and as we got close to town and started fiddling with the radio, some station called 99X FM mentioned something about Episode III. I didn't catch it the first time but pretty close to our destination they ran it again: Revenge of the Sith playing Tuesday and Wednesday nights... at the Fox Theatre! Since Lisa was going to be busy with something on Tuesday night, we thought this would be a good way for me to kill some time and hey, how often is it that you get a chance to see a Star Wars movie at the Fox? I pulled the full details from the Fox Theatre's website: turns out they do this summer film festival every year: Monday night they had shown Batman Begins and they were gonna end this year's run with two showings of Sith. I conferred with my friend/collaborator "Weird" Ed about it the next morning via AOL Instant Messenger. It went something like this...
ME: Hey Ed do you think I should go see Episode 3 at the Fox Theatre tonight?
WEIRD ED: ARE YOU NUTS HECK YEAH MAN!!!!!!!!!!
There was also gonna be a wine-tasting before this thing. Since I've never been to one before, all the better for the new experience, eh? Anyhoo the movie started at 8 and the wine tasting at 5:45 so I left Lisa's parents' house shortly after 4, fought an awful thunderstorm while "heading down the Atlanta highway" as the B-52s once put it, and after overcoming the local environment's traffic quirks I pulled into a parking garage around quarter 'til 6.

Why drive over an hour to see a movie I've seen about twelve times this summer already? 'Cuz it's at the Fox Theatre!! It must be said with such awe and reverence. I'd been to the Fox twice before - once to see Stomp and a few months later for The Phantom of the Opera and every time this place bowls me over. This is the theater that had the world premiere of Gone With The Wind back in 1938. It's hosted a lot of neat shows and world-renowned folks (and in 1996 it was headquarters for the Australian Olympic team) over the years. Ignore all that and the place will still absolutely overwhelm you: the architecture is grandiose beyond mortal ken. The entire building was originally a Shriner's temple back in the 1920s that got bought and converted into a theatre at the dawn of the Great Depression. Well those Shriners wasted no expense in giving the building an Oriental/Egyptian/Moorish look: the outside of the Fox has those onion-shaped domes out of "Arabian Nights". That's nothing compared to the inside: the main auditorium will literally make you weak in the knees, it's so overwhelming. The bathrooms are cleaner than most people's houses... heck the bathrooms have like a smoking lounge between them and the rest of the theater! The Fox is so grand it borders on the obscene. But, it's incredibly beautiful. It must be seen in person at least once in your life, just so you'll know that this kind of place really does exist in the world... and for seven bucks for a movie ticket, you can take it all in for the evening!

Well, the wine-tasting it turned out cost an extra ten bucks. I ain't a cheapskate but I thought it'd be wiser to keep the pocket change I had on me for a possible bite after the show and 'sides, this thing would be better shared along with Lisa. I decided to forego the wine this time. So I hung out in the main lobby and about 6:15 Darth Vader and four Imperial Stormtroopers came out, joined later by Boba Fett. They were from the 501st Imperial costumer's group, so respected it is that those troops that accompany Anakin into the temple in Sith were dubbed the 501st by Lucasfilm... is that cool or what? There's a documentary film in the works about them also. Neat bunch of guys. Oh yeah did I tell you that there was gonna be a costume contest before the show? Darn... 400 miles from home and I sure could have used my Jedi outfit and custom-made lightsaber. Ahhh well...

They opened the doors at 6:45. I got me the biggest tub of popcorn and a large root beer and then found a seat in the upper balcony (the best seats in the house). Like I noted at the beginning, I didn't have any good friends with me but I did make a few new ones: there was a really nice lady named Marie, in town from Miami, sitting next to me and she hadn't seen Episode III yet. We had quite a good conversation about Star Wars and other stuff. I even told her about Forcery and she said she'd have to take a look at that :-) At 7:15 an organist came out to play on "Mighty Mo": from what I've read it's the 2nd biggest theatrical pipe organ in the world, after the one at Radio City Music Hall. So we listened as he played some stuff and then everyone did a sing-along (complete with lyrics slides that date back to the 1930s) to songs like "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and "You Are My Sunshine". Then came the costume contest: about three Darth Vaders, two Obi-Wans, a pre-burn Anakin, one Darth Maul and a Twi'lek chick, along with a few generic Jedi: the smallest Darth Vader was the winner, I think.

7:55 and the curtains opened up to show they screen. They ran that old Warner Brothers cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24th and 1/2 Century!!! How cool is that?!? And then you know how most theatrical chains have a custom-made "welcome to the whatever theater"...? Well there was a VERY beautiful one made just for the Fox Theatre: that should give ya an idea how important a place this is, when this ONE theater has its very own... one of those thingies.

Then they crank up Revenge of the Sith. As far as I can tell it was practically a virgin print of the movie. And for the next two hours or so... it was unlike any showing of Episode III I'd ever seen.

Nobody talked. Everybody was spellbound. Marie, sitting to my left, cried a few tears, I noticed, during that heartbreaking scene between Anakin and Padme and Obi-Wan.

The quietest I've ever heard the Fox Theatre be came when Darth Vader's mask and helmet come on for the first time: the mask locks down, the helmet clamps on, there's that momentary silence and then Vader's breathing for the first time: "whooooooo-hhhhaaaaahhh". You could have heard a pin drop in that place, I swear.

And then not long after that the show was over, and as everyone was leaving I told Marie it was great meeting her and we wished each other a good trip back home. I got to my car and after getting on I-75 I turned on my MP3 player and dialed up the PERFECT song to end the night on: "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Yoda".

And, that was my night at the Fox Theatre to see Star Wars Episode III. Even if you never see a Star Wars movie there (who knows maybe they'll run all six of them there someday) it's well worth any chance you get to experience the place. But as for me, if there had to be a one last time to ever see a Star Wars movie during its first run, I can't imagine a better venue to have had it in than at the Fox. It was a night I don't think I'll ever forget.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Ain't no way to check out

In South Korea a 28-year old man has died after playing video games for almost 50 hours nonstop.

Meanwhile in Washington state another man has died after having sex with a horse.

Call me old-fashioned, but when my time comes I want to go out standing up, with a gun in my hand and loud 'splosions going off.

20,000th visitor to this blog coming today?

Looks like this blog will get its 20,000th visitor sometime today. It got more than 5,000 visitors in just the past month or so alone.

Maybe I'm doing something right? :-)

Will have a full report later this evening on something really cool that I did last night. Here's a tip in the meantime: if you're in the Atlanta area you might wanna check out the Fox Theatre tonight around 8 or so.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Post-Prince: Is Rowling tricking us with Snape?

For some truly fascinating thoughts regarding the latest Harry Potter book, head over to Dave Kopel's blog, where he posts an essay on Severus Snape. It's a very long but provocative article about where things now stand in this story in the wake of Half-Blood Prince's events.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Vox Day puts women in their place

Read it over at WorldNetDaily now and be sure to check out Vox's blog right now especially this and this and this and this 'cuz the reactions to this article have been a real scream!!

Sunday, August 07, 2005

RuneScape is a pretty neat lil' game

I'm going to be writing up a review of Guild Wars pretty soon (now that I'm almost level 11 and have had time to explore the game a bit). In the meantime, my 12-year old cousin Dylan came over earlier today and showed me something pretty darned cool: RuneScape. So far as massively-multiplayer online games go it's rather unique. Fer starters, the entire game is played via Java applet on your web browser. Graphics are 3-D, not the full-detailed stuff you'd find in World of Warcraft or City of Heroes, really sorta glorified textual MUDding but they're still rather effective. Play is either fee-based full membership or free, which limits the landscape you can explore and quests you partake in and puts some banner ads in your browser window. But even free, it's quite a nice game to behold. I found a lot more info about it at Rune Tips and Runescape Realm.com (Rune Tips has a nice graphical bestiary where you can take a gander at the game's various monsters... which includes chickens, ducks, and drunken dwarfs). All things considered, I was rather impressed with RuneScape, so sign up for free and check it out!

Kyle Williams hits the mark again

This time he's spotlighting Christian hypocrisy toward homosexuality while caring little for the actual sanctity of marriage...
Some of the very people who vehemently oppose and criticize homosexual marriage are basking in the hypocritical light of a double standard. Their mantra is "save marriage" – from homosexuals presumably – but the practices of the average American have nothing to do with a devotion to chastity. In other words, what is marriage being saved from when Britney Spears, while in a drunken stupor, gets married in Vegas for 55 hours? And aside from social repercussions, there's very little encouragement from our nation for couples to stay married.
Mash here for the rest of his article over at WorldNetDaily.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Forcery: Coming soon to a TV set near you?

There is a good possibility that Forcery is going to be broadcast for a television audience soon. No, it ain't public access cable either :-) This is a pretty top-notch station we're talking about.

Will post more about this as it develops.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Now, THIS is a neat fanfilm! Why isn't TFN hosting this?!

Friend sent me a link tonight to a new Star Wars fanfilm that, apparently this is the first one known to come out of Russia. I think that's a strong selling point on this 'cuz Star Wars Alien War is full of that Russian storytelling tradition that emphasizes depth of character. For most of the story it's two characters in a darkened room, so it has to carry through on whatever strength is in the dialogue. It's native Russian with English subtitles, but it's quite effective. And those might be the best lightsaber effects I've seen in any fanfilm to date.
Click here to watch Alien War in Quicktime, it's well worth the download. And be sure to check out the official website.

EDIT: I went to the TheForce.net forums to see if this movie had been mentioned in the Fan Films section. Sure enough it has been. For too many reasons to go into I thought THIS one would merit hosting by them (yeah even if Forcery didn't) but...

Yes, we submitted it to TF.N, but we were denied the hosting: film's not good enough. But, actually, it doesn't matter at all, 'cause we have a good hosting for our files already, we just wanted to get in TF.N news... And looks like we won't make it. Happens.
This film's "not good enough"?!? &%@$!!! WHAT the heck are they SMOKING over at TFN Fan Films these days?!? I saw where the filmmaker noted on the thread that this is indeed the first fanfilm to come from Russia. It should warrant good TFN hosting on that mark alone. It's a gutsy movie, to not rely on "action, faster, more intense!" to drive the story. It has EXCELLENT special effects. Look, Jeff, John, Kurt, whoever's at the controls over there: I don't care what you thought of my own movie at this point. But you are positively NUTS to turn Alien War down and deny it some good recognition.

Once again - but NOT thinking of my own movie at all here - I have to wonder what kind of criteria they're going by in judging which movies make the cut and which don't. TFN Fan Films prides itself on being "a leader" in fan-made productions. Well, it won't be a leader much longer if it keeps denying rich content like Alien War. This is a work of genius that should be accoladed, not absconded from.

This is why I no longer do the political discussion sites

I gave up participating in them about a year ago. For over five years I was known as "Darth Sidious" on Free Republic, until FR went neocon-crazy and banned me. Then it was a good stint on Liberty Post for awhile. I still watch LP every now and then for stuff... even though I can't stand the mean-spiritedness of many of its posters at all.

This is one example that I found a few minutes ago, from a thread about Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist returning to the hospital:

2. To: out damned spot (#0)

Rehnquist is next, then Stevens and finally Cancer-girl Ginsberg.

Man would I hate to be a liberal, even if they were to win in 2008, the Dem will have to face a 7-2 Republican SC.

LOSERS.

GENANDREY VLASOV posted on 2005-08-04 21:41:55 ET Reply Trace

Gloating over the ill health of two or three Supreme Court justices out of bitter partisanship... that's just too cold.

That is why I gave this up: I didn't want to be tempted to become this way myself. And I was getting too close to it as it was anyway.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Carolina Circle memories, or: How one mall's food court destroyed an urban economy

There was a lil' "meet and greet" at our apartment complex tonight, after which Lisa and I decided to take a ride. Do some explorin' ya know. So it was that while driving around Greensboro and finding ourselves on Cone Boulevard I realized it had been a pretty long time since I'd seen the far east end of it, where Carolina Circle Mall was. That's where we aimed the car toward.

Ooh-boy...

The northeast side of Greensboro has seen a lot better days. I feel old now just after coming back from it. It's nothing like it was fifteen-some years ago, when that entire part of town bustled with activity. I mean, there were several restaurants, a K-Mart, a big Toys R Us that I remember seeing open in '85, a lot of other stores. And at the hub of it all, one of the best shopping malls in the region: Carolina Circle Mall.

I can't begin to describe how wonderful a place this was. It was a two-story complex sprawled across a few city blocks' worth of space. In its heyday it was home to a Belk's store, a JC Penney, an Ivey's (some of these won't ring a bell with most reader's but trust me Ivey's was big and Belk's is still a clothing giant in these parts), a Montgomery Ward, and dozens of smaller stores. The Waldenbooks at Carolina Circle was my absolute favorite place in any mall anywhere to look for new books: I'll never forget that joyous day there in 1991 when I spotted the very first Star Wars "expansion" novel Heir to the Empire, which I quickly snatched up and took to the register. I've no idea how many books on my shelves came out of the Waldenbooks at Carolina Circle.

There were other stores too, like K&K Toys: I got everything from Star Wars toys to G.I. Joe figures to model rocket equipment from that place over the years. There was DoctorX Pet Store (I kid you not that's what it was called): I got a lovebird for my sixth birthday that came from that store, we named him "Pete". Had a couple of hamsters from that place too.

There was a music store that Mom bought her organ from. She even took lessons there once a week for a while. This friend of our family would take my sister and me all over the mall while Mom was having her lesson. There was a Baskin-Robbins that most times in summer our family would walk out with ice cream cones. Another store, I remember buying my first compact discs from. A candy store. Everything else you could think of, Carolina Circle had.

This is where our parents took us every December to sit on Santa Claus's lap. Carolina Circle Mall was the very first place that I drove my car to on my first solo drive out of town.

That mall had the movie theater that, to this day it's what first comes to mind whenever I think about going to see a movie, the AMC Carolina Circle 6. Six screens, reddish-colored walls and carpeting. I can still smell the popcorn with that butter, the way movie theater popcorn butter used to be before the Food Police(tm) wrecked it years ago. I never saw it there but this was one of those theaters that used to show The Rocky Horror Picture Show every Saturday night. That was the theater that I saw Return of the Jedi at in 1983: as long as I live, I will never forget the wild cheering and applause that broke out when Darth Vader lifted the Emperor and threw him down that shaft. There's never been a cinematic moment like that since then at all. The last movie I ever saw there was Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country on December 7th, 1991... the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, it so happened.

Carolina Circle was the kind of mall where you could just go to sit and watch people and talk to just about any relative stranger and wind up with a friendly conversation. It was a family shopping mall. Partly because of charming choice of stores, and partly because of the great movie theater...

...but mostly because of its ice-skating rink.

On the lower level of the mall there was a pretty good-sized skating rink. Everything else in the mall centered on that. And there just ain't no telling how many families spent the evening skating around that rink, or how many first dates took place there, or how many kids had birthday parties next to the ice. The ice rink was the heart and soul of Carolina Circle Mall. No matter what other business brought you there, you always wound up taking in the wonder and free-spiritedness wafting from across that ice into the rest of the mall.

I guess you don't realize how much you miss something, until that thing is gone. I guess too that nobody realized just how dependent a lot of things were on the ice rink, until it was too late.

Like I said, the rink was the heart of Carolina Circle Mall. And the mall was the center of all the surrounding area's business.

So it was that in the early Nineties the mall's owners made the galactically horrible business decision of DESTROYING the ice-skating rink... and replaced it with a food court.

You could practically watch the mall wither and die after that, as one tenant after another vacated the premises. I think a lot of us kept coming though out of longstanding loyalty to such a family environment. But in the end, as more empty store fronts looked down onto a soulless food court (that never had that much to offer to begin with) we really had no more reason to keep coming. There were a lot of other malls around, and movie theaters that had ten and sixteen, and then twenty and twenty-four screens to offer us. And then, maybe four or five years ago, the mall locked its doors for good.

Every other business around it suffered, including the Toys R Us. I was in there last a few days after Christmas in 2000, and they were preparing to shut down then. That was my last real time anywhere in the old Carolina Circle Mall complex until tonight.

My heart darn near broke to see what's become of it: a vast parking lot rife with weeds, overlooked by a shell of a building in the process of being demolished. I could even see where Waldenbooks used to be. The Toys R Us building is gone completely.

There is no sign that a movie theater ever existed there. Mom and Dad took me, my sister and my best friend Chad to see A Christmas Story there in 1983. One beautiful memory of my childhood and they went and wrecked the joint.

You could really believe that this was one of those places that you'd always have to come back to. I've got so many wonderful memories tied to that mall... and now, memories are all I have - all I will ever have - about Carolina Circle Mall and the special place it had in a lot of people's hearts.

All because some IDIOTS managing the place thought it'd be more economically viable to wring a few more dollars out of a food court than an ice-skating rink was bringing in. They destroyed a wonderful family environment, just about the ENTIRE economy for one-fourth of the city, and a lot of cherished memories.

Darnnit... I know you can't stop time, that you can't stop progress but, seeing what's become of Carolina Circle Mall made me feel thirty years older than I really am. It had that kind of affect on me.

Maybe that part of town's luck is about to change though. After demolition is finished the location will then give rise to a Wal-Mart Supercenter. No doubt it'll attract a lot more business to that part of town. But it will be one more Wal-Mart Supercenter: just another big blue-and-white box like thousands of others in seemingly every town in North America, without any warmth and soul and charm, and personality to call its own. It will never occur to most people who shop there that once upon a time there was something far different - and far better, in my book - sitting at that same location.

But as for me, I will always see something else there: a beautiful edifice built not only to accommodate commerce, but friendships and families. Maybe memory and dreams are all that remain of Carolina Circle Mall... but as sweet as those memories are, it will be enough.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Bush was right to recess appoint Bolton to U.N.

Well, he was.

I'm not the biggest supporter of Bush by far (as has been well-documented here). But let's face it: partisan Democrats - and that's what they've been exactly - have been pretty silly to hold up a United Nations appointment without a simple yes/no vote.

I can see a rationale for stalling on something more important, if there's serious questions about a candidate's eligibility... but not on this one.

That said, I don't like how Bush is giving the United Nations some kind of special importance when it really has none. It was a brilliant idea in concept but in execution it's been one bungle after another ever since its inception. It would have been more ballsy to simply NOT appoint an ambassador on that basis alone, and hold out until Koffi Annan and the other powers-that-be at the U.N. got their act together. That would have been the far better thing to do over the long run.

But hey, I'm just a guy with a blog... what do I know?

At last, the face of Professor Alastor Moody

Better known as "Mad-Eye" Moody. Ain't It Cool News conveys the grisly visage of the newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (or is he?) as he'll appear in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie this November. Mad-Eye has become my favorite character after the events of Order of the Phoenix (and I was really disappointed that he only makes practically a cameo appearance in the Half-Blood Prince) but this look for Moody... isn't what I was expecting. I can't remember it said anywhere that his magical eye needs a strap to hold it in place. And it seemed like his face would be a lot more angular/crudely cut. But Lisa likes his look here, and I'm going to hold out on a full judgement until I see the movie. After all it's not so much Moody's look that's as important as his attitude :-)

Four years of journalism school down the drain...

Over at Chad's Running Commentary there's some wry discussion about what happened at my old hometown newspaper this past week that got national attention. Seems that two cub reporters there were caught making up people and quotations for the paper's daily "man on the street" feature. In this case they were found taking mugshots from TheFaceBook.com website and attributing fake quotes to them. The two reporters should have been fired immediately. Instead they and their managing editor were given a choice: quit now or get fired. They resigned and ended up not only giving a bad rep to a 117-year old newspaper, they totally thrashed the formal journalism education they got at UNC-Chapel Hill. Anyway, on his blog Chad offers up some choice advice to whoever it is that works next at the review.