Video: Three candidates talk about making THE NEW YORK TIMES

Last night about 6:30 on WGSR (the TV station that I work) Charles Roark did a live interview with school board candidates Eric Smith, Richard Moore (via telephone) and myself about our making it into Thursday's edition of The New York Times in regards to our offbeat television commercials. I just got finished uploading it to YouTube. It's a neat little segment with a lot of great interaction between Eric, Richard, Charles and myself. You also get to hear fellow candidate Reida Drum (off-camera). Among other things Richard got to show off photos of his very first grandchild who was born yesterday. Richard's wife Debbie gets on the phone at one point.
I think this segment is a great example of how this race has gone in the past few months. Ya see, this has been a positive, upbeat electoral race. And I mean what I say during the interview: it doesn't matter to me if my actual name wasn't mentioned in the Times article. What does matter is that if the nation's eyes can be turned to this school board race and see how it's going, maybe it can inspire other political races to drop the negativity and embrace individuality and creativity (by the way, that was Jennifer Olwin who first commented about that on the original post about the Times article.) Anyway, the video is a lil' bit of primary source material about this election, so being a good historian I went and archived it and made it available for others to watch. So, enjoy! :-)

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A candidate for Congress that we can finally support!

This honest man should be sent to Washington post-haste!
Find out more about Josh Jennings on his Myspace page and his page on YouTube.

(Special thanks to Marc for the find!)

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Dawn of "The Age of Steel" tonight on DOCTOR WHO

"I thought I was broadcasting to the security services, what do I get: Scooby-Doo and his gang... they've even got the van."

"I'm London's most wanted... for parking tickets."

"Even better... that's the name of my dog."

"Ex-cellent!"

"The human race, for such an intelligent lot you are all susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it."

"Upgrade THIS!"

"What the HELL was that thing?!?"

"Sally. Sally Phelan."

"This is the age of steel and I am its creator!"

"I'd call you a genius except I'm in the room."

"Ordinary stupid BRILLIANT people!"

"The most ordinary person can change the world."

"I'm sorry."

"That's the Doctor. In the TARDIS. With Rose Tyler."

"He's gone home."

"Nothing wrong with a van... I once saved the universe with a big yellow truck."

It's "The Age of Steel" starting tonight at 8 - and playing a few more times over the weekend - on the Sci-Fi Channel. Concluding the story that began last week with "Rise of the Cybermen", tonight's Doctor Who sees the Doctor, Rose and Mickey still stuck on the alter-Earth as insane industralist John Lumic begins processing humanity into the cold-hearted Cybermen. Be warned: this is a very horrifying episode, about as scary as any Doctor Who episode is apt to get. One scene in particular, long months after I first watched this episode, still gives me the freezing willies. One of the better episodes to come out of Season 2 of the revitalized series. And a wonderful setup for events that will happen at the end of this season.

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Sneak peek at this Sunday's newspaper ad

Here's the ad that will be running this Sunday in The Reidsville Review and the Eden Daily News. It'll be an entire half-page... which was a problem 'cuz I had no idea when they first told me about this special deal for candidates about how I was going to fill up that much space. I spent about two days designing and re-designing, juggling around potential layouts... and in the end this one wound up looking pretty good to "the staff" and me. This was the last bit of major creative work that was left in the campaign. Now we'll see what happens on Tuesday.

By the way, the same two newspapers that this ad will run in ran a front-page story today about the candidates in this race that are using the Internet to spread the message about their campaigns. Filling up a honking good portion of the front page was a full-color pic of me wielding the lightsaber from the first commercial. I may never escape that image :-)

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"Okay, we'll go."

Early on the morning of June 5th, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower met with his staff of the Allied Supreme Command, and listened as head meteorologist Group Captain J.M. Stagg delivered his weather forecast: the storm system that had halted the planned invasion of the French coast on June 5th was opening up. There would be a narrow window of a few days in which the Allies could establish a beach-head on the beaches of Normandy. If the commanders did not take this opportunity to launch, they could not make another attempt until the next full moon a month away.

Eisenhower listened to Stagg's report, conferred with Montgomery, Ramsay, Leigh-Mallory and the other commanders, and finally reached his decision: "Okay, we'll go."

And with those words, the second front of the war for Europe finally opened. Eisenhower had done all that he could do: the goals of Operation Overlord were now left to the American, British, and Canadian soldiers to fulfill.

A short while ago I accomplished what for all intents and purposes is the final task of my school board campaign: submitted the ad that I've made that will run in two newspapers here on Sunday. My friends and I are in agreement: it's a really nice ad. In some ways I think that this, even more than the commercials I've made, summarizes everything that I've intended to do in running for school board. I'll post it here on the blog come Sunday for everyone to look at.

And now, like Eisenhower, I've come to the point where there really is nothing else that I can do, at last. I've filed the paperwork, attended the meetings, gone to the public functions, handed out the cards, put up the website, put out the signs, made and aired the commercials, and now am running a half-page ad. Everything that I could have possibly done in my first-ever political campaign, has been done. Now it's left to the voters to choose what will happen next.

After all these months, it's really quite a relief. Now I can finally just watch the thing unfold, and see what happens. But no matter what does happen, I'm proud of myself and of the campaign that I've run. In every way, for my first time out it was a world-class campaign. This is something that, win or not, I can always look back on with only the fondest of memories.

But now, I can finally rest some. Lisa and I might head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday, or maybe go up to Natural Bridge in Virginia. It'll be a welcome change from the past few weeks, and a good respite before everything comes to a head on Tuesday. But now, for the most part... it is done.

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Ten years ago Part 2

To everyone who will understand,
I still remember what happened ten years ago today, too. Don't think that I'll ever forget.

Once again, to those who were involved - wherever you may be - thank you.

p.s.: Hope you'll know that I've kept the faith after all, in spite of all that's happened. But then, there were some really good people that I looked up to then... and I still do.

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I made THE NEW YORK TIMES!

I. Just. Can't. Buh-leeeeeve. It.
This school board race has made it to the pages of The New York Times! And look at what is gracing the article: pics of Eric Smith and Yours Truly (wielding my lightsaber no less!) and a still from Richard Moore's ad. Hey Eric, I should have done what you did and put my website address up the whole time the ad was running... and you thought your meter had been going crazy before! :-)

Here's the link to the article... yeah I can't believe it either. I've been hysterical with laughter for the past fifteen minutes. You should have heard me when I called Dad to tell him the big news. Here's the part that pertains to the school board race:

Local Issues Mirror National Ones, but the Special Effects Occasionally Stand Alone

The school board race in Rockingham County, N.C., has produced imagery including, from left, Pink Floyd, “Star Wars,” and the Wild West.

By PAM BELLUCK
Published: November 2, 2006

The election season is getting punchier in places far from the national political spotlight — even in Eden, N.C., where 16 candidates are slugging it out for the five available seats on the Rockingham County School Board.

One of them produced a television advertisement suggesting that the school system turned children into automatons. It is shot against a backdrop of a Pink Floyd video showing children coursing through an assembly line to the lyrics: “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control.”

Another candidate shows himself brandishing a light saber as a “Star Wars” Death Star blows up a little red schoolhouse. The message: the federal government, a “cosmic bully,” meddles too much in education.

The advertisement of a third contender, riffing on a “new sheriff in town” theme, shows a sheriff being killed in “The Terror of Tiny Town,” the 1938 all-dwarf musical Western.

Not every local race is quite as entertaining, but the Rockingham County election shows how national issues like education, the economy, crime and ethics have been localized.

Mash down here for the rest of the article. Special thanks to the Reidsville Free Press for alerting us to the story!

EDIT 4:16 PM EST: The story now requires registration (for free) with The New York Times website in order to read it. But it only takes a minute or so if you want to check it out.

EDIT 6:51 PM EST: Just got back from Greensboro a little while ago, the closest place I could find print copies of today's Times. I got four of them, and just as Eric Smith said in the comments there we are on page A20 (we made the "A" section of The New York Times... it just keeps getting better and better!). The picture of us is somewhat larger than I thought it would be. So now it's official and tangible: Eric and Richard and I really did make The New York Times.

That just... it's still sending my mind reeling. And you know who I've thought most about today? My Mom and Dad. And Lisa. And everyone else who's close to me. If it hadn't been for them being behind me all this time - on a lot of things - this would never have happened. My being pictured in the Times is more about them really than it is about me. And before today's over I just wanted to tip my hat to them.

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