Asheville's Unholy Media Marriage: Ashvegas & AC-T

I have sad, sad, sad news for you who love the grassroots community of Asheville: the lively, colorful, local blog that everyone loves, Jason Sandford's Ashvegas, has just teamed up with the Gannett newspaper, Asheville Citizen-Times.

Or as CBS late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson would say, "Oh, my God! I know."

So just read the Mountain Xpress news item ("Ashvegas blog joins forces with the Asheville Citizen-Times" by Jeff Fobes on Mar. 26, 2010 in the Mountain Xpress) about this modern-day David (i.e., Jason) becoming friends with Goliath (i.e. AC-T), and see if I'm not right in saying "Hell no, you can't!" (Click Here>)

Then read Sandford's gee-whiz, it's "an experiment in progress" comments posted with his new boss ("Ashvegas comes to Asheville Citizen-Times" by Jason Sandford on Mar. 26, 2010 in the Asheville Citizen-Times); I use "boss" for lack of a better term because he is so small and AC-T is so big and, besides, who's paying who in this case? (Click Here>)

Then take a quick gander at the unique (for now) Ashvegas (Click Here>).

Thanks for doing all of that: you might agree that there are so many reasons why this local media marriage is so WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

Case in point: Gannett has already begun reconstructing the site. When you go to Ashvegas now, and click on the SearchAshevilleBlogs subcategory at top of the homepage, all the blogs have been removed. The lame reason: "Working on a search engine that will search only Asheville and WNC blogs." What does that mean? For me it means one of the great reasons to go to Ashvegas has already been removed. (Click Here>)

I find myself repeating the words of House Minority Leader John Boehner: "Hell no, you can't!" I don't like myself for having to do that. But I just don't have any good responses to Jason Sandford's local act of treason of sorts other than that. Admittedly, my knee-jerk reaction is certainly emotional, visceral. But I think I'm right on target. At least I think so. I don't know. (Click Here>)

The last time I felt this way, this HELL NO revulsion, this ambivalence, was when Michelle and Tom's Asheville Disclaimer — at that time an independently published, stand-alone parody publication — announced it was teaming up with the Mountain Xpress. But somehow I knew, after my immediate "hell no" reaction subsided, was that it would work out — and for the most part it has (although it is arguably less raucous than in its stand-alone heyday). But for a lot of reasons, one being economics for sure, the Disclaimer/Xpress union made sense then, and it still makes sense today. (Click Here>)

But in this case of Ashvegas being joined at the hip with the Citizen-Times... well, it just doesn't seem right. And I'm not quite sure why. I haven't had much time to digest it all. It just smells similar to fish and visiting relatives that have been around for three days. Maybe I'll change my mind. But I don't think so. It jes' ain't fittin'.

Ashvegas and AC-T in bed together is weird. It's mixed metaphors. It's two parallel universes that have just collided. It's the bar scene in the original Star Wars movie; it's scary strange. And the Citizen-Times has made big bad mistakes before, only to be sorry for them later. (Click Here>)

My just saying NO to this "experiment in progress" isn't very constructive. I'll concede that. Yet just saying NO makes me feel better; it is a powerful thing indeed, and must be said sometimes, and let the chips fall where they may. Like John Boehner, no apologies here. But I'll have to get back to you on my SOLUTIONS on how Ashvegas can survive on its own without teaming up with The Empire, so to speak. And the Death Star is a terrible and awesome thing to behold, capturing or destroying all in its way. (Click Here>)

In the short term, what I fear most is that an Ashvegas/AC-T alliance will be akin to mixing black ink with white ink: all you get is gray. And that just doesn't fit with the character of Asheville, especially Downtown Asheville, which is a radiant rainbow of colors, ideas and characters.

Or maybe what doesn't set right with me is this union feels like being trapped in Being John Malkovich, the movie; that is, uniting Ashvegas with AC-T is sort of like getting dumped out onto a freeway in the middle of the night. What the heck are you supposed to do after an experience like that?

In the words of John Malkovich, "What happens when a man goes through his own portal?" In this case of AC-T marrying Ashvegas, we'll soon be asking Jason Sandford if he feels like he's Being John Malkovich. No matter whether it's good or bad for Sandford — and deep down I guess I hope it's good for him, because he is, after all, a most decent fellow — it's probably going to be very confusing for all of us to watch him go through his own portal. We'll see. (Click Here>)

Or maybe this David and Goliah mash-up will be strange in a different way — such as when the Leningrad Cowboys teamed up with the Red Army Choir to sing "Sweet Home Alabama." Cheesy and wonderful at the same time, I think. (Click Here>)

Of course, Jason Sandford can put on an AC-T suit and report to a new master, if he so chooses. That's his perogative. This is America. He can simply say, "Yes we can." But sometimes it sucks. I doubt that such an arrangement will be all that it's cracked up to be for him. I just hope he can return from the dark side someday, if he so chooses, to become, once again, a part of the grassroots community that so embraced him for the past five years. For now, he's suiting up for something, well, weird. (Click Here>)

-Byron Belzak
Publisher-Editor, DowntownAsheville.com, March 28, 2010
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