You didn't get to see all this in the paper...

Let me clear our throat
In a letter to the editor, Josh Rogers, the Director of the College Hill Corridor Commission, reminded The 11^th Hour that the Commission is NOT a NewTown Macon project as was stated in the Jan 3^rd article “Artist’s Guide to Downtown Revitalization”. Though written by Mercer students, editor Chris Horne failed to get the facts straight, and for that, he is sincerely apologetic. He, in fact, wants me to stress how dumb and absent-minded he can be. (If you’ve ever read the paper with a red ink pen, you already know this.) The Commission is, as Rogers states, “a joint project between Mercer University and the City of Macon” which is “informed by a broad range of local stakeholders.” In specific, the Commission is the brainchild of Mercer President Bill Underwood, who believes that recreating the area between Mercer and Downtown Macon is a vital part of reviving our urban core. Personally, I think this is one of the best and most overlooked on-going efforts in the city. Wanna know more? Go to collegehillcorridor.com/

Fighting stereotypes from his pigeonhole
Al Tillman has proved impressively resilient against our local media’s pigeonholing. His name has repeatedly been prefaced with “entertainment promoter”, which is a clever way to dismiss a person who is trying to make a difference. Well, he’ll be harder to ignore now because Tillman is taking over as the new local NAACP President. On the agenda? Eliminating racism and becoming more pro-active in the community, which would sound empty coming from most people. With his Unity-N-Community group, Tillman has pulled together city leaders from various racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds because he understands that the fabric of our community is diverse and interwoven… like plaid. Seriously though, Tillman knows the rights of disenfranchised populations matter to the health of the whole, whether or not the whole likes that. And he’s bold enough to believe that being an entertainment promoter can be a position of social importance. He seems to understand that, sometimes, our social ills are best remedied in social settings.

Good to see our city leaders have such spirit
Our second annual Readers’ Choice Awards Show was, again, a blast. Surprisingly (to me, at least), there were several city council members in attendance: Rick Hutto, Nancy White, Rabbi Larry Schlesinger, and new council president Miriam Paris. They not only attended, but they mingled. Paris got up and danced to Da Clay, one of the live performances, and Rabbi Schlesinger stayed all the way through the end. It was not just neat having them there; it provides evidence that this new guard is seriously interested in building community, which is what The 11^th Hour is all about.

Don’t Rock the jukebox
There’s a connection between Roger Clemens and John Rocker. Yes, John Rocker was implicated as a HGH user in the Mitchell Report. The other connection? Both Clemens and Rocker were recently interviewed by reporters who lobbed softballs at them. No hard questions. In Rocker’s case, there were no questions at all, or at least that’s how it looks when Joe Kovac does one of those “life lesson” features. All we get is a bunch of random quotes and nothing that seems to relate to his involvement with the biggest scandal in baseball since the White Sox threw the 1919 World Series. Instead, we get his insights on Ted Nugget, anti-Liberal quips that Rush Limbaugh did ten years ago (and better), and of course, making fun of Ellis’s name change despite the fact that Ellis was the only public figure to stand up for him when the whole world wanted his head.

Let’s get literal, literal! I wanna get literal!
Hey there, Coley Harvey, I know you’re upset that an announcer (and reported friend) said the only way for the new crop of golfers to stop Tiger Woods would be with a lynching, but do you seriously believe that announcer was suggesting that they actually lynch him? If the greatest golfer in the world was white, do you think she necessarily would’ve said something else, and if so, and if it ended in death, as you point out lynching does, would that have been okay? Is it wrong to mockingly wish death on someone or just on members of a minority… or just in a manner historically tied to racial minorities? We all say things like “Ooo, I could kill you!”—it’s part of our vernacular. If Tiger says it’s no sweat off his sack, why are you upset? Are you trying to use a celebrity athlete to take up the cause of young, black men, or worse, waiting on one to fight for you? You’re absolutely right that this is a scary time in America when more young black men are incarcerated than college-educated, but you make that injustice look ridiculous by trying to pair it with this.

Picture Pages
Did Ellis steal City Hall’s portrait of Otis Redding? Was it an honest mistake? Who cares? I want to know why city employees were doing Ellis’s moving for him. Actually, I want to know how to get city employees to move my stuff for me.

Hank Vegas gets sticky with Paste
Big props to local rockers Hank Vegas, who were voted Best Overall Band in 2007. They are on the new Paste Sampler CD with the likes of Radiohead, Bright Eyes, The Whigs and the Blind Boys of Alabama. It’s a big step up for our local music scene for one of our own to get that kind of national attention. Oh, and they’re on tour for the next month too!