Lawrence.com

Friggin' MAYOR McWeak Sauce of Pansytown!

:( stupid economies, damn tubes.

Wahh!!

What will I read while I hover over the toilet at the Replay?

What are we supposed to do? Take our computers to the cafe or bar?? Can you imagine the Bourgeois Pig, full of people sitting by themselves staring at their laptops? Disgusting.

The Deadwood was something to look at while you wait for someone to drink with. Now what do we have? The Pitch? No thanks. I'd rather watch people watch their laptops.

The Advertisers have spoken, and they are right: we are all just computers with idiots hanging off of them.

RIP deadwood. You will be missed. The digital eye-burn I get from reading too much on the internets just can't compete with the soft texture of printed ink on paper, nor can it compete with the portability, the share-ability, or the reach-ability of newspapers on a local level.

Fortunately, Lawrence.com's demographics tend towards internet savvy youths, but as far as journalism goes and the fate of our democracy, it's a bit concerning to see the available mediums distributing information shrinking so much into the domain of the internet. There are still many people who don't have the internet or don't use it that often.

For what will our information commons say of this?

RIP indeed. My byline was in the LJW thousands of times in my six years there, but I was really proud of having one of my stories re-printed in Deadwood. That's the absolute truth.

Deadwood captured everything that makes Lawrence awesome.

This is sad... I have to admit that whenever I would come back to Lawrence, I'd always choose the Deadwood edition over jumping on the internet. I don't know what it is exactly, but it was always a more fulfilling experience to throw on some KJHK and lay back on the couch with a copy. Something about the internet is just so light and intangible compared to holding an actual paper in your hands.

It's a little depressing to think that new college kids coming to Lawrence won't be able to pick up a copy and won't really know any better. Hopefully they'll find out about this great website in some other way.

To Phil and all the staff-- keep up the great work. I know it isn't easy putting together a quality alternative magazine, because I've definitely seen my share of bad ones.

To the Deadwood itself-- farewell old pal.

My best to lawrence.com staff and family. May ye find success where others (like me) shrug and grump and groan.

now, how to get local people to remember to look at a calendar website that is outmoded by facebook invites, myspace postings, text messages and the next soon-to-be generation of pop-media of the moment. I viewed the paper version as the flagpole of local relevancy in an internet sea of hyperlink cultural irrelevancies.

Thumbs down to the World Co. for not understanding that "hyperlocal" medium requires a regular public reminder of its existence to remain relevant in the "hyperlocal" marketplace. I guess they've sold their software (noted in phil's link above: see "Django Web framework and Ellington") to everyone that's a potential buyer since they're throwing in the towel to some extent. As a regularly courted advertiser of a brick and mortar business, how does my message get through in the mess of irreverant commentary, sometimes informative feature pieces and day-to-day pertinent to-do info? Now add that yr without a constant hard-n-fast reminder of that ads existence on a virtual locale that is as accessable as thousands of other virtual locales? How does the lawrence.com website earn my business in a way that thousands of other information hubs does not?

I'm not asking rhetorically.

As an advertiser, I'm saying don't expect me to spend my money on hyper-local internet ads quite yet.

At some point, one can assume the internet will be a viable source of ad revenue - but it ain't here yet. Its probably 3 years away optimistically and 15 years away if the glass is half-empty. I wanna know what fills the gap on a local and niche level? Free crap like twitter, facebook, etc? Zines? Actual person-to-person interaction? GIANT MULTI-NATIONAL corps that contol most internet traffic that perfer profits over people?

Seriously - help me out here. Convince me that this isn't a short-sighted mistake on World Co.'s part. I'm willing to celebrate the life of the deadwood, but I''m more offended at the bottom-line approach in an ongoing (and worsening) downturn in the economy.

It should be noted that the Love Garden accidentally has a kinda-secret celebration at the same time as the l.com' wake - it'll be a double dip party evening. Love Garden is celebrating the re-birth of something real, tangible and life-affirming. No joke.

Up the people, down with the co.

School me, please. PLEASE!

Good-bye and good riddance to the Deadwood. It was a waste of paper to reprint the same information that could be found on this site. Now people will have use a computer to receive the worthless drivel written about Lawrence by The World Co, not to mention those super awesome party pics that no one cares about, well except for those self-indulgent narcissists.

The bottom line is, there are better, much more independent avenues for artists, musicians, and writers in Lawrence, KS. Media outlets that actually care about the creative energy that exists here vs. the bunch of yippies (yuppie + hippie= yippie) that work at the World Co. Here is a short list.

1) The Rathaus - therathaus.com - They are really nice people and they cover art & design (music is art), culture and communication, here, nationally and internationally and do so without pandering to advertisers. They are always looking for new creative types to promote so feel free to drop them a line. info@therathaus.com

2) ArtStew Magazine - artstew.org - Scott is also super nice and only wants to help other artists get there work out there. There is website and physical magazine that is starting to come out monthly and it is free.99 like the Deadwood was but only a third of the size. Plus he does not fill the pages with asinine columns like: What are you watching on tv?

We agree with Kelly of the Love Garden, "Up the people, down with the co.". Actually, down with all media that cares more about money that anything real. Peace.

b. d. eek

bd - easy, now. You didn't care for it, ok, that's valid. I liked it. I assume that's ok, too?

Regardless of the fact that the World Co. was the owner of deadwood, and this site, guess what? There are some "super nice" people who work at both institutions who do a lot to help local artists as well, which is something I can personally attest to.

I, too, agree with Kelly at the Love Garden about a great many things (not the Royals, however). But really - "down with all media that cares more about money that (sic) anything real"? That's not the world we live in. Many props to the rathaus and to artstew. But now that deadwood is done, really no need to disparage what was in fact the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of nice people. If you don't want to celebrate that, no worries. I'm looking forward to Friday, myself.

b. d. eek...nice coining the term yippie, but it's already had a different meaning for like 50 years.

i agree with kelly from the love garden about having a paper presence, but i'm glad i'll never see the deadwood edition delivered to me again. most of the stuff is so simple and predictable. we GET there are a lot of people in lawrence whose favorite place is the replay and favorite tv show is spaced or project runway. enough already.

oh, baby, please don't go. baby, baby, baby, please. I love you so...

do I sound enough like one of those panties melting R&B songs to be convincing?

I will sometimes weep now when I smell ink and newsprint, thinking of you, Deadwood. your style section, your blawgs, your drunken baffoonery... sniff

and of course, when I'm hovering the potty at the replay. xoxo