Nobodies running against Obama

One of the Google Alerts I have set up is for the term "state primary elections." At regular intervals, Google sends me a set of links - usually to news items - relating to my chosen query. To be expected, as of late this has led to a bunch of useless muck regarding the circus known as the Republican primary. However, digging through enough dirt occasionally yields an interesting nugget.

Corrente readers are already aware that Aldous C. Tyler is mounting a Democratic primary challenge against Barack Obama. It would seem that he is not the only one. Deposited in my email in-box this evening was an article published in the Oklahoman stating that five Democrats will be on the Oklahoma Presidential primary ballot. Unfortunately, the article only mentions the name of the fifth individual:

A Florida Democrat will be on Oklahoma's presidential primary ballot next year after it was discovered his filing information and check had been sent to the wrong location.

Darcy Richardson called state Election Board officials Thursday asking why he was not listed as being on the Democratic Party presidential primary ballot March 6, state Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said.

Since we can safely assume that Barack Obama is one of the remaining four candidates, that leaves us with two out of five total in Oklahoma (as it is unknown whether or not Tyler has successfully filed to be on the ballot in Oklahoma or any other state). So, here are the individuals whom I can confirm are running against Obama to be the Democratic nominee:

• Aldous C. Tyler
• Darcy Richardson (campaign website is "under construction")

If anyone has any information about other candidates vying for the position, by all means feel free to expand this list. I don't particularly want to debate viability, but I would like to satiate my curiosity.

OTR: Camera - This is Camera

After LowSunday's Elesgiem (2001), it seemed that Shane Sahene was through with moody shoegaze. His first post-Sunday band, Camera, was all sorts of sunny, bouncy garage rock. It's a shame they didn't last long. Typing in the URL of the website printed in their sole LP leads one to a page full of weird links and Asian script. My computer probably has a virus now...

The most notable internet testament to Camera's existence is a glowing review on allmusic.com for 2006's This is Camera. And in a blink, seemingly, it was over. Shane Sahene moved on to a new project: The Tearing Spiders. Nate Fitzgerald (keyboard) co-founded the club night Super Secret Dance Party and is currently DJing at WRCT. I haven't a clue what the other three members of the group are up to.

This is Camera is a fun - and fast - album. There are ten songs total and the longest among them only clocks in at three minutes and twenty seconds. Overall, it sounds like what The Strokes would sound like if The Strokes weren't a bunch of annoying nasally wankers.

joi_division and I were dating when I first saw Camera live; she told me that she'd been invited out to a show and we went. I'm not sure where the show was, but I suspect it was The 31^st Street Pub where they were playing. I also don't know who the opening act was...which is probably for the best. In any case, This Is Camera had yet to be released, but the band was selling one of their early EPs (which had I any money at that point, I would have purchased). I'm not sure if they did it on purpose, but I recall that the packaging for the disc was in a "kick out" case (also known as an "ejector case). Done on purpose, or a happy accident, I thought it brilliant to name a band Camera and then have their CDs in a case wherein the mechanism for removing the disc was akin to an old-style camera trigger. In my opinion, they should have released all of their CDs like this. Unfortunately, This is Camera is in a digipak (my least favourite form of CD storage).

Hard to believe this disc is almost done over the course of me writing - what - five paragraphs? Some good things just go by too quickly...