That’s how they describe it on their website. The Sinclair is a new bar and performance space downtown, located at 521 W. Forsyth St.

We at The Sinclair hope to create a environment with an emphasis on art; we want to provide an environment for artists to meet, network, and perform.

I was going through all my Twitter follows, which get labeled by Gmail and removed from my inbox, when I came across The Sinclair. They serve beer beer and wine, “including a surprise or two on draft”. Happy Hour is Wednesday through Friday from 5pm to 7pm. Beginning Friday, July 17th The Sinclair happy hour starts early with DJ Comic spinning from 12pm to 4pm.

We are booking acts now for our stage. We have two theatrical productions scheduled for the month of July, in addition to several bands popping up here and there. Our show cover will vary from person to person as price will be determined by a roll of the die. We really start cooking in August with our Grand Opening week coinciding with August ArtWalk. We have several multi-disciplinary performances during that week.

Follow The Sinclair on Twitter
521 W. Forsyth St.
Wednesday through Friday from 5pm-2am
Friday and Saturday from 7pm-2am
FREE WiFi

It’s not easy to find information about Dillon online. LUCKILY I found this huge interview on the Wake Your Daughter Up blog:

Straight from “Duuuval!” aka J-Ville, aka Jacksonville, Florida, my man Dillon got his start around the small contingent of successful hip hop artists from the area in the form of The Alias Brothers aka Asamov, who members Therapy and Willie Evans Jr continue to make noise, Willie on the solo creep and Therapy as part of WYDU favorite, The Smile Rays. Dillon now resides in the ATL, but still keeps his Duval roots, remaining close to those from his hometown.

You can find Dillon on MySpace and here are some videos. Mainly promoting other artists, friends and cooking, but it shows what a tight knit the hip hop community is in Jacksonville.

Dillon will be appearing the first day of Summertime in the City at TSI in Downtown Jacksonville.

Day 1 – Friday July 31st @ T.S.I.

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan performing live with:
Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1’s and 2’s all night.

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

While the imagery is striking, it’s not the first president I’ve seen characterized as Hitler:

In the post Duval GOP In Controversy Over Obama/Hitler Comparisons At Tea Party JaxPolitics points out:

Several local GOP activists privately expressed shock that elected officials would be seen at any event that featured comparisons of Obama with Hitler. What surprised some of them the most; however, was the fact that the Duval County Republican Party would feature pictures from the event—complete with Obama/Hitler comparisons—on their Facebook fan page.

While the party has stated that they did not officially “plan” the event, the fact that they heavily promoted it and featured the controversial pictures on their website, has left them open to the ensuing controversy.

So, while I can’t fault individual freedom of speech, it seems a little irresponsible for the Duval County Republican Party to post photos of the event and the posters in question on their Facebook page. Especially in the light of some attendees: Florida State Representatives Lake Ray, Charles McBurney and Mike Weinstein and Florida State Senator Stephen Wise.

Download Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #9

Dennis Eusebio from Thought & Theory sent me a message about a week ago. It was simple: UJ + TT Mixtape. This is the result of our collaboration. We’re planning a mixtape release party downtown at the Burrito Gallery Friday July 10th. More details to come.

Thought & Theory specializes in creating, designing, talking about and developing simple and beautiful web applications.

1. Bulletproof (UJ) – La Roux
2. Make This Work (TT) – Magistrates
3. Julia – Cocaine (The Knocks Remix) (UJ)- Andrew W.K. and DJ B-Roc
4. Deli (UJ) – Delorean
5. I’m The Shit (TT) – DJ Class Feat. Kanye West & Estelle
6. Red Dress Turnin Me On (TT) – The Hood Internet (Keri Hilson vs The Glitch Mob vs TVOTR)
7. Help Im Alive (The Twelves Remix) (UJ) – Metric
8. Warm Heart Of Africa feat Ezra Koenig (UJ) – The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit)
9. I’m Good f/ Pharrell (Produced by The Neptunes) (TT) - CLIPSE
10. Get it right now! (UJ) – Del The Funky Homosapien
11. Colours (UJ) – DJ Sega (The Brick Bandits)
12. The Reeling (TT) – Passion Pit

Download Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #9

Past Mixtapes
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #8 (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #7 (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #6 (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #5 (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #4 (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #3 (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #2 Halloween Edition (download)
Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #1 (download)

I didn’t mix or create any of these tracks myself, they haveall been downloaded from various MP3 blogs. Thanks to all the MP3 blogs and artists who mixed these tracks*.

MP3 Blogs
The Hood Internet
Hype Machine
Palms Out Sounds
Fluo Kids
Discobelle
IHEARTCOMIX
Gorilla vs. Bear
Mad Decent blog
Ruckus Roboticus
White Folks Get Crunk
versus-3.blogspot.com and more….

*If you want me to take down a track, just let me know. In case you missed it: Download Urban Jacksonville Mixtape #9

The Dope Sandwich website describes this collective better than I could:

Dope Sandwich is a Hip-Hop collective that has taken the city of Savannah GA by storm over the past years. What started as a secret society of MC’s, DJ’s, B-Boys, and Graph artists, DSP is quickly becoming the voice of alternative Hip hop around the coastal South East. The bio goes on to say:

They own a live show that plays like a nonstop party, and truly have something for everyone. You have to see it to believe it.

Blue Collar – Bottoms Up

Lucky you! They are playing the second day of Summertime in the City at Shantytown in Springfield.

Day 2: Summertime in the City Grand Finale Blowout presented by HIP HOP HELL and Red Bull Music Academy

Where: Shantytown Pub 22 W. 6th St. (Springfield) MAP
When: 10pm to 2am
Price: $5.00

Featuring live performances by: Dope Sandwich, Steadfast, Grizleh (aka Blakhart), Mr. Al Pete, The Elevated Hip Hop Exp., Heavy Flow, The N Word, Dr. Sam Beckett and many more special guests.

Follow Dope Sandwich on Twitter and check out their Myspace

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

Marilyn Young, assistant managing editor at Jacksonville.com posed the question above on Twitter today. Instead of replying in 140 characters I felt it was my responsibility to tell her what I thought in as much detail as possible. Here it is!

Hi Marilyn,

I commend you and Jacksonville.com for reaching out to the Twitter community to ask what we would like to see come out of the visioning sessions this week.

In my opinion, you’re doing many things right. You’ve started and continue to develop a strong community via social networking. It’s invaluable to those of us who communicate with the paper this way. It’s given me an view into day-to-day operations at the TU and has changed my perspective on (you) the paper in the following ways:

• I consider you friends
• I think you have quite a bit of personality
• I’m excited to see you embrace new technology
• I’m excited to see the young people on staff (Jason, Amanda, Tia, Jonathan, Joe) to name a few

Now on to your answer your questions: What can we do better and what new things can we do?

1. Design, design, design.

(Yes we have to go over this again) I’ve harped on this from the day I met with Rich to review the current design. Good design will sell papers and good design will keep people on the site longer. I would love to see you get rid of those drop-down menus too. You know, the ones that fly out everytime my mouse passes over them.

2. Community

I’d like to see a community manager take charge of comments and drive the conversation. It seems like each article with comments (or at least the ones I read) devolve into name calling and unproductive conversation. I don’t know if it’s a matter of having a single person or each article author drive the conversation, but someone needs to. If no one is watching the candy store, the kida are going to act up, right? Be part of the conversation.

Maybe you could feature users who leave good feedback consistently and give them their own blog.

3. More video and more audio

I think every reporter should have a Flip camera and an audio recorder. It would add a great new dimension to stories. Shoot a quick video (1-2 mins) or record an audio snippet of an interview (these can be a bit longer). They don’t have to be produced after the fact, just upload to YouTube, embed in the story, and publish.

I think this is where many people stumble with video and audio. They feel the need to have intro music or fancy titles, no. We’re ok (the readers) with raw video, if it enhances the story and gives us a different perspective.

I’d also like to hear more podcasts. A few columnists used to have podcasts, but I can’t find them on the site. There’s so much knowledge at your organization, you need to get those smart people talking. Have a roundtable once a week where three journalists expand on their printed articles, the most popular articles of the week or the most overlooked. Something similar to Urban Jacksonville Weekly. Check out Media Shift’s 5 Across.

4. Shape election coverage

Integrate the things I’ve mentioned already into the upcoming Mayor election and cover it like there’s no tomorrow. We’re at a very important time in the history of our city. One might call it a defining moment. Our next mayor could shape Jacksonville into a city of the future by getting us back on track with the rest of the country or they could drive the city into the ground.

We need you to get the word out about the important issues and make this an election that engages the public.

5. Engage and participate with other Journalism publications

There’s a podcast called Journalism Now who has a weekly discussion covering multimedia, data and social aspects of modern news. It’s awesome and they record in Gainesville. I’m sure if you asked them to participate they would include you in the discussion from time to time.

I would also like you guys to shout it from the rooftops if you are doing something innovative. I could see the editors sitting down each discussing trends in Journalism and talking about ways Jacksonville.com could apply them.

For example Rebooting the News, a weekly podcast on news and technology with Jay Rosen and Dave Winer is a great example. Granted, Jay is an instructor and Dave is an entrepreneur, so they are pretty free to say what they want. It’s transparency and it’s fascinating. I feel like if you can personalize the people at the paper via discussion, you can build better communities around the paper. If people feel like they know the reporters, they wi

6. Be a media leader and an important industry brand

I would like to see my local paper emerge as an industry leader and thought provoker. I would like to hear about them speaking at conferences, guest hosting podcasts, winning journalism grants for innovative projects like the Knight News Challenge.

Strategize ways to distinguish yourself and do it! The St. Pete Times does this through technology and special projects. Maybe you can you invite them up here for some type of summit to discuss issues of news, technology and journalism? I think a Florida journalism summit hosted by the Times Union would be awesome!

Be seen as an organization who cares, who organizes events, who engages peers defies expectations. Send some journalists to conferences to energize them. They will can network with their peers and bring back innovative ideas to the TU.

7. Wrapping up with investigative reporting ideas

Abel mentioned bolstering your investigative reporting. This seems to be the journalistic darling right now, along with the increased emphasis on hyperlocal.

Maybe you can take one reporter, your best investigative reporter, and turn them loose. Give them the resources the need to report on a story and give them the air cover to concentrate on the story without distraction. Make this person the investigative watchdog. Have them investigate the TU. Have them investigate the school board. Have them investigate pension funds. Give them a blog and a Twitter account so they can update the story and source leads. Give them a video camera and a recorder so they can present the story in more than a printed dimension.

Finally, here is my inspiration for new media and journalism

http://mediactive.com
http://newsinnovation.com
http://www.buzzmachine.com
http://www.niemanlab.org
http://www.pbs.org/idealab
http://ryansholin.com
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift

These are my thoughts on what you can do better and what new things you can do.

Steadfast was raised in Ft. Washington, MD. Whether it was his sister playing the flute or his grandmother practicing with the church choir, it appeared early on that music would be a mainstay in his lifelong diet. He began writting in 1993 after listening to Wu Tang Clan’s debut album and after cultivating his style he linked up with The Homeless Society, a group of emcees and producers repping the New York, Maryland and DC areas.

He’s now on Social Light Sounds records and will be appearing at Summertime in the City 2009. You can also find Steadfast on MySpace.

Day 2: Summertime in the City Grand Finale Blowout presented by HIP HOP HELL and Red Bull Music Academy

Where: Shantytown Pub 22 W. 6th St. (Springfield) MAP
When: 10pm to 2am
Price: $5.00

Featuring live performances by: Steadfast, Grizleh (aka Blakhart), Mr. Al Pete, The Elevated Hip Hop Exp., Heavy Flow, The N Word, Dr. Sam Beckett, Dope Sandwich and many more special guests.

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

Edan is known for his unique/unlikely take on hip hop culture, where traditional rap songs are often skewed by 60’s rock samples, tape echoes, and foreign language choruses, not to mention the off-beat humor and surrealist imagery incorporated via his lyrics.

Edan use to like to wear a wig, but he’s grown his hair out since. From an interview with the Gossiping Bitches blog:

GB: You often wear a wig on stage. Did you run that by Kool Keith first?
EDAN: I deaded that wig shit a long time ago…I actually grew my shit out to accurately replace the wig…that was my scheme the whole time! Cats still think I’m rocking some bullshit wig…but thats part of the punchline.

Edan’s just a Rap Beautician:

Download audio file (rap-beautician.mp3)

Edan cuttin and rhyming, at the same time!

Credit: Nathan Wind as Cochese

Day 1 – Friday July 31st @ T.S.I.

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan performing live with:
Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1’s and 2’s all night.

Join the Dagha fan page on Facebook
Join the Edan fan page on Facebook

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

Paten Locke will be appearing the first day of Summertime in the City at TSI in Downtown Jacksonville.

Day 1 – Friday July 31st @ T.S.I.

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan performing live with:
Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1’s and 2’s all night.

This is what Clyde Singleton says about Paten:

this cat is still one of the most prominent figures in the Southeast hip-hop scene. Former deejay, and co-founder of the group Asomov- Paten Locke (known as DJ Therapy) is on the cusp of his Tres Records release, “Break Thru” and has blessed ya boy Hustlemania with his latest 12?. this, is some REAL hip-hop right here

You can follow Paten Locke on Twitter or
find him on MySpace or check out a review of Paten here or buy P Locke on Amazon.

Listen to Paten Locke from his album Break Thru

Paten Locke – Break Thru
Download audio file (Break-Thru.mp3)

Paten Locke – Funky Hit Record
Download audio file (Funky-Hit-Record.mp3)

Paten Locke – Just Me
Download audio file (Just-Me.mp3)

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.