two years
all but
done &
these
moments
i have w/me,
these tiny moments
of grassroots journalism
with a capital J, with a way
of seeming right, like something
you can get behind...

and i spend more time in Elwood now,
but it's a good thing. i'm helping another
start something here and can also use it as a
base of operations as the information war continues.

perhaps i seem too dramatic sometimes, but you have to
understand that at the core i'm a poet more than a
businessman. maybe more a poet than a journalist.
is this bad for the movement, though? to have
such as i lead the effort in central indiana?
can i use my rambling long line poetry to
try to define grassroots journalism for
the masses? i need to put it on paper
for the sales rep. to hand out and
to explain it to him so that he
understands it and can tell a
potential advertiser what it
means for them.

typing muncie downtown into google (for the moment)
brings up an advertorial page for someone who
bought an ad a few weeks back. (results not
guaranteed, but interesting...) we're not
piggybacking a print product, shoveling
your ads online - we understand the
web, the way it works. we live
the web - work and play and
study and so on and so
forth, going forth
with a browser
loaded with
ad-busting
extensions

wikipedia, wikipedia,
wherefore wikipedia
showing up for every
search known to man
(like 'buy dead people
on ebay from so many
years ago, with those
who follow and know
the SEO way)

random thoughts on the web
where the battle is fought
for the freedom of people
to not be beholden by
merely numbers, by
merely money, for
at the end of
the day it
is about
the people.

to be honest, i probably have it
easier than, say, Geoff or others
up in Chi-town. here rent and every-
thing is cheap and i can live off little
while the long tail grows like a garden here
and there in hoosier-land. although, you can be
sure that many years from now i'll have stories
of being plugging ahead day after day under all
kinds of circumstances that living at this level
ensues.

and i could be more productive in the ways of money,
but my poetic side needs to develop too. poetry and
journalism (reporting) have a lot in common - watching
the common man, wondering, writing words, gasping at the
thought of cutting too much. (and you just have to read any
daily almost to see examples of dead writing and dead words.

journalism *is* a conversation.

the money side, though, is important.
even the poet side knows that.
this begins to develop too,
though (see MFP for many
local ads with more to
come) and at some point
the revenue will be enough to
get me back on my feet after the
push off the corporate cliff (thanks
Emmett! here's another poem...)
and then employees - stringers
and paying people for contributing.

as my car falls apart, more money goes
into computer equipment and software,
server space and ram. a good investment
though. i park the car more and retreat
into slightly air conditioned apartment,
popping into the newsroom downstairs as
needed. (and so many thoughts connected
to that word - NEWSroom, a room of news
and/or like minded newsy people who are
in the know or would like to know - the
word was used by me this weekend within
earshot of the Elwood's ancient rag re-
porter - was it wrong?)

the frontlines aren't in the board rooms.
the glass tower of the east coast is rendered
irrelevant in the information war. we group and
huddle here and there for now, forming bonds and
helping each other. the frontlines are the events,
the handing out half-sheet b&w fliers and talking to
people for reasons other than getting their money. they
are LOVING talking to us. and when we point out it's not
the newspaper they nod and the lightbulb goes off maybe that
it's possible to replace what has become complacent, that the
American way of life demands such a thing to take place. let the
history books note that at least for me, there were more feelings of
it's going to happen (if even eventually) than feelings of failure or
doubt.

as Brian Walker (who though we jested about knew was one of the best editors
at the TSP) once said, you don't know what forces will shift your way until you
take the leap and i was pushed (didn't jump), but gravity treated me the same
and now i see what he means as everyday new opportunities present themselves

horizontal rather than vertical. that image keeps popping back up.

oh the stories i have to tell once i have time to sit down and complete
the book about this process (Lord willing!), but for now back to
nurturing the communities i'm helping build in a place the
large corporations can throw millions at but still won't
understand.

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