Tuesday Guilty Pleasure

And we're back again for another exciting installment of "Tuesday Guilty Pleasure," where I bear my soul and risk ridicule to tell you something that I love even though I really, really shouldn't.

Unfortunately, this weeks selection was inspired by the not-so-stunning dook basketball band this Saturday. They played butchered this song (all I could really hear was the drum beat) during their game against the University of Texas and all the dookies hopped around mindlessly, as they do so well.

Anyway, enough dook bashing (is there ever really enough?) and onto the music. This week's song comes from Cascada. Don't know who that is? Oh yeah you do. Good luck keeping yourself from jumping around and throwing your hands up in the air when the chorus hits.

Cascada |MTV Music

You may now cease the fist pump and sit back down. Man, that felt good.

Another one gone...

I know that journalism is in a rough spot, but this is getting absurd.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer rolled of the press for the final time today. The paper, started in 1863, has stopped its print edition citing "a fatal economic spiral compounded by dwindling subscription rates, an exodus of advertisers and an explosion of online information."

The Hearst company, who owns the P-I, put the paper up for sale earlier in the year but said that if the paper didn't sell within 60 days they would shut it down.

The P-I is going to keep its website going and fill it with columnists and local news. But the paper as it's known and loved is gone. There still is a major daily in the city: the Seattle Times.

On top of this, the News and Observer recently announced that it was cutting another 11% of its workforce including 27 full-time jobs.

You'd figure that every newspaper in America is struggling right now. You'd be wrong. The little guys are getting by and, in some cases, even expanding.

Take the Carrboro Citizen, a small community newspaper (circulation ~5,000) in Carrboro that started printing in 2007. While all these other metro-dailies were struggling and cutting jobs, this little weekly announced it was expanding in January of this year.

Why are they thriving while everything else is dying? My community journalism class got a chance to visit the Citizen and Editor Kirk Ross had something to say about it. What it all comes down to, he said, were the huge companies (like Hearst and McClatchy, who owns the N&O) who bought all these other papers with the hopes that they could condense their operation and make more money off it.

Long story short, it didn't work. The huge companies are swimming in massive amounts of debt. And who pays? The newspapers. Ross said that Raleigh is a great newspaper market and the N&O is a money-making venture. But McClatchy is in debt so the local newspapermen take the hit.

That's why you see all these smaller papers getting along just fine. So when you see the news about newspapers crumbling and cutting back, don't think that the whole industry is dying. Oh no. The big metro dailies are struggling and looking to make a change, but all the small, hyper-local community journalists are doing just fine.

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure

I truly apologize for my absence last week. I know you were waiting with bated breath for the second installment of the Tuesday Guilty Pleasure series. But I was in Daytona Beach with limited internet access and even more limited motor skills most of the time. I have no pictures to share with you, and that's probably a good thing.

But never fear, the latest edition of things that I love but really, really shouldn't is here!!! (Applause)

If you really know me, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I have a terrible weakness for pretty girls that play piano. I can't help it. They can sing about hating men all they want, but if it's with a piano in front of them I'm going to be singing it at the top of my lungs with the windows rolled down.

So when I heard this song in 2005, Anna Nalick stole my heart away.

Anna Nalick |MTV Music

That's right, "Breathe (2 AM)" is my guilty pleasure. I own the album. I'm not ashamed.

March Madness!!!

March is my favorite time of year. Spring is coming, school is wrapping up, baseball has started and, most importantly, it's tournament time.

The brackets are official, now it's time for the fun part. I've already filled out three different brackets with random -- and often unexpected -- upsets all over the place. But, of course, the big winner is always the same: UNC all the way. And I'm not alone. Four out of the five talking heads on ESPN picked Carolina to win it all. I hope it doesn't jinx us.

Over the next three weeks Carolina will fight for their sixth national championship and guess what? Your faithful blogger will be there every step of the way. That's right, I'll be traveling with the band as far as the team goes. So don't be surprised when this blog becomes a sports blog.

I'll be sure to take my camera and document everything that I can. First game is on Thursday against Radford. Unfortunately it's only in Greensboro, so no exciting traveling. But if we get to the Sweet Sixteen we'll be in Memphis, Tenn.

I'm so excited I have chills. Go Tar Heels!

In other news, the "About Us" page of the Carrboro Commons has been updated with the new staff members. Check out my picture and the corny bio that I wrote myself.

Carrboro Commons 3

Here is your twice-monthly message announcing the release of a new issue of the Carrboro Commons!!!

I have to say that this issue is absolutely amazing. We have some awesome people on staff. I would love to work in a newsroom with any of these guys.

This issue, I wrote a first-person account of Dance Marathon. It was tough to cram those 24 hours into a coherent article, but I really like the final product. I hope you enjoy it.

But don't stop there. Check out some other great articles about the collector's fair, the Carrboro Community Dinner, Carrboro Beverage Co., Rainbow Soccer and Cliff from Cliff's Meat Market, which includes an awesome video shot by Carly Brantmeyer.

Over the next few weeks the Commons will be on a bit of a hiatus due to spring break, but we'll be back with our fourth issue April 1.

The newest member of Vinyl Records is...

...Colby Ramsay!

He wasn't my first choice, but, like I said in my earlier post, you can't really go wrong with any of the performers that I saw. I do have to give Colby some credit though: I saw him standing by the door at Lenoir dining hall with a computer asking people to vote for him. Might have skewed the results a bit, but you can't knock the determination.

Check out recordings of his and all the other performances from the February Face-off here, and be sure to keep checking the Vinyl Records website for more information about Colby and the other three artists.

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure

To keep life interesting and to keep me posting on a regular basis, I've decided to start a series called "Tuesday Guilty Pleasure." On this glorious day of the week, I will share with my lovely readers something (most likely music) that I really like, but probably shouldn't.

But there is one condition: you can't judge me (too much).

So for the first installment, I'm going to go big. I've gotten heat for liking this song in the past from many of my friends, but I can't help but be addicted to the beat of this song. It's so, well, toxic.

That's right, my guilty pleasure is Britney Spears' song "Toxic."

Admit it, you either really liked her music or thought she was really hot back before she hooked up with K-Fed and got preggers.

On a side note, there are lots of great covers of the song that are even better. One of my personal favorites is by Yael Naim ("New Soul," that song from the MacBook Air commercials). You can find that here.

So sit back, relax, and dig that beat.

Britney Spears |MTV Music

P.S. I know you love the graphic. That's what happens when you put Paint.NET in the hands of an amateur like me.