Jim Axel

I'm a little late on the draw on this one, but I would have been remiss to not mention it at all. If you're over 25 and you grew up in Atlanta, you'll remember WAGA's Jim Axel. He was an Atlanta television icon, much like Ken Cook is today. He was THE ANCHORMAN in town and much of my perception of what news was about came from Jim.

I never worked with him. He left WAGA in 1996 and I started there in 2000, but I did work with Amanda, Russ, Ken and Ken who all talk about Jim at the end of this piece. It isn't totally out of the ordinary for Amanda to cry on camera, but pretty much every time she does, she has good reason and seeing her cry always tears me up for some reason. I wouldn't call her an overly emotional person, just an emotionally honest person.

In any case, Jim Axel is dying of lung cancer. Back in the day, everyone who worked in television news smoked. Even when I started, the images of editors huddled in editing suites hovering over cellulose with cigarettes hanging from their mouths were still fresh. I smoked. My boss smoked. The director smoked. Eventually, I quit smoking and joined the new generation of professionals, who perhaps smoke in secret, but not at work. But some of those old school television news people still remain and still smoke and Jim was one of these. Well, it's caught up with him.

Here's is the moving tribute, produced by Executive Producer Marc Shavin who actually left his office and went to Florida for this piece, but who had the good sense to let Jim tell his own story, rather than muddle it with a voiceover.

It's a pure honest piece about what life looks like in hindsight, given to us from the man that told us what was news for over 30 years.



My only critique- I think that they would have been better served by not using cancer clips for his "career" montage. It would have perhaps been better to show clips of memorable stories. I know they did some of this later, but the cancer stuff seemed a little heavy handed and it didn't really serve to stir up the sense of nostalgia that would have given the viewer greater emotional involvement.

Much to say.

Okay. First things first. The Hills Season Finale. Are you kidding me? Lauren just leaves. That's it. We don't get any idea of where she's going? And Heidi and Spencer get married AGAIN. And I guess this was just an open invitation wedding because did Spencer and Heidi ever even meet Justin Bobby? Was he just there as a prop for Kristin to sit next to? And what about Spencer's family. I mean, there's Stephanie, obvy, but don't they have parents? Were they at the wedding? The rehearsal dinner? It's hard to believe that two people who could raise such fame whores wouldn't be interested in being in the show. So, Lauren and Whitney are gone and I'm supposed to watch this show next season? No way. Well, maybe. No promises.

Now on the less important things. There have been some major developments with our dogs. Primarily, we've decided to go ahead and adopt Douglas. Shocker, I know. We've had him 10 months now and he loves us and we love him and just couldn't stand to lose him. Also, Duke finally got neutered. Other than his incessant licking at his stitches, he seems no worse for wear.

Yesterday, I went to a huge yard sale with my mom. It's the Decatur First Baptist Church yardsale, billed as "The World's Largest Yardsale." Here's some video I ganked off the inDECATUR blog.


I snagged two chairs for my living room, which aren't exactly what I had in mind, but at $15 each they will do until I find the perfect chairs, at which point I'll resell these on Craigslist. I also got a Brody milk glass vase, a mushroom-themed canister, a little sheep figurine and a cute pink clutch. I should get those up on the Bad White Trash Memories etsy shop early next week.

In the meantime, I've listed several new items, including the following:

That last one is a bracelet that I found at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. It's from Morocco and it seems to have a strange Islam/Hindu combination theme. I'm not exactly up on either my Islam or Hindu symbolism, but it has charms of the crescent and star and a woman in a burqa. Also has a camel, an Arabic man and what seems to be a hand with a henna design. Good stuff and more coming soon! I love yard sale season!

Also, when I was trying to find out if what the woman on the bracelet is wearing is actually called a burqa and how that it spelled, I found this:

That's an Islamic swim suit. It scores very low in the "aerodynamic" category, but very high in the "modest " category. Good times.

How many times am I going to have to watch Spencer and Heidi get engaged?!

AJC

The local newspaper in Atlanta, The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) has recently undergone some significant changes. In an attempt to stay relevant, they've rolled out a new look and format, which is good. It needed an update. Unfortunately, part of these efforts has included several rounds of layoffs, which has eliminated a good portion of the staff. Good, veteran reporters and editors. Many of whom are my contacts and friends. Being unemployed myself, I feel their pain and the worst part is, there's no where for them to go.

When I lost my job in November, I talked to my husband about becoming a writer- a real journalist. After all, that's what I went to school for. My husband, gifted with foresight, warned against those hopes. "A dying industry," he said. He was right. Newspapers are on their way out. It's the natural progression. Technology has given us a new way to get our news. It's inevitable, but that doesn't make those of us who love journalism and believe in it's virtues any less sad to see the era of print journalism ushered out in favor of blogs and video clips.

Don't get me wrong. I admire the power that the Internet has given citizen journalists and I believe that many of them have much to offer in terms of insight and perspective, but I'm also wary. My friend, CB Hackworth, who is a much better media analyst than me, has, ironically, posted an excellent piece about why we should be wary on his blog, Certain Speculation.

As a new generation comes along, raised on the Internet, they bring a sort of sophisticated skepticism with them that previous generations have lacked. Thanks to the Internet, my mom is convinced that Barack Obama is the Antichrist and she's terrified to heat water in the microwave. My 17-year-old niece is wiser in the ways of media, but she's unable to distinguish the new urban mythology from hard hitting news. Where do we go for truth? Who is still bound by the long-enduring ethical codes of journalism?

Certain Speculation: Why we still need newspapers . . .#links

Woodland

I'm becoming obsessed with vintage Pyrex. I'm thinking that I want to start collecting the brown and tan woodland line.

It would go perfectly in my imaginary kitchen. It's not quite as desirable as the gooseberry stuff, but that's why it's perfect. It's a little cheaper, but also a little harder to find. Wouldn't my new imaginary cabinets look fab full of all coordinating Pyrex mixing bowls and casserole dishes? I think so.

Tonight, I'm going to an information session about how to become a teacher in Georgia. Substituting has been fun and it's a job with great benefits. Just interested in learning more. No commitments.

Gooseberry

I'd like to think of myself as the master of negotiation. When we bought our Honda, I handled the negotiations while Paul was as work and I did really well. I was cool, calm and collected. I was ready to walk away. But, when it comes to vintage Pyrex, I'm a teenage boy meeting a Playboy model. For example, I was casually yard saling with my friend Heffie a couple of weekends ago. We were browsing a table where a lady had a Lenox elephant, that I was mildly interested in, but she thought really highly of her elephant, so I was going to walk away and then I saw them.... a set of three near perfect condition gooseberrry bake-serve-store casserole dishes (with lids!). I looked at my friend and said something to the effect of, "I'm going to buy these. I don't care how much they cost."

Smooth. But, thankfully, the lady didn't seem to hear me and when I asked her how much, she quoted a price that would allow me to buy them and still turn a profit based on market value. Shew!

I also picked up some more Brody glass that day. It's a white ribbed milk glass pedestal vase and I got it for a steal, so I'm returning the favor and asking below value for it.

Both these items (and more!) and currently available for sale at Bad White Trash Memeories.

Swine Flu 2.0

I think I might have swine flu. Seriously.