Finally, our local commercial media entity informed it’s readers today that Kamionka Entertainment has been harvesting personal information from over a hundered thousand government workers, local party people, travelers in town for the weekend and frat boys and girls over the past several years.

I got a “halfway to my birthday” card in the mail from the Hardware Bar sometime last year and couldn’t figure out how they got all of that info about me-

My birthday, full first and last name, address and who knew what ELSE they knew.

I never signed up for a mailing list or gave that place any more than a few bucks on random Tuesday’s over the years.

But that nifty yellow card swipe machine the doormen slide our drivers licenses through is doing more than just verifying our ages.

EVERY bit of info connected with your drivers license is now in the hands of the marketing team at the Kamionka Entertainment Group.

What reads to be borderline BRAGGING in today’s Patriot, “It’s amazing, the amount of information,” Kamionka said. “We can break it down a million different ways.”

When going to the various watering holes in town (or anywhere for that matter) I usually want to GET AWAY from the onslaught of advertising crammed down my throat daily.

But at all of Kamionka Entertainment Group’s establishments that employ the use of the ID scanning devices, we hand over some pretty vital personal information.

What’s the big deal?

How about consent? If a website or a business chooses to use your personal information to sell you more goods or products, we SHOULD have the option to say no.

Sure, it’s just a postcard in the mail–but what’s next?

What can we do about it?

If we wait for someone from PennDot to step up, it looks like we’ll be waiting for quite some time-Danielle Klinger, community relations coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation had this to say in the article- “We don’t advocate the use of [driver's license information] for marketing purposes, but as far as I know, there is no law against it,”. {bold italics added by yours truly for emphasis}
Um, Danielle? How about something a little more solid than “as far as I know”.

I’m not quite sure what’s worse-the fact that a company that is only supposed to be verifying the age of a patron is harvesting TONS of personal data and using it to sell more Bud Light?

Or the fact that the COMMUNITY RELATIONS director of PennDot didn’t take the time to physically check the rule book on that one?

What to do? The article states that we CAN ask the doorman to delete our personal info, but most people don’t know that–at least, maybe more WOULD know it if they posted a sign-

Or, just don’t go to The Hardware Bar.

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I didn’t know much about Backyard Tire Fire until a couple months ago; their agent hit me last minute to get them on a bill with Exit Clov.

Needless to say, my mancrush on this southern rock trio began at the first chord of their show and still burns strong today.

I don’t really get too excited about just any band these days.

But these days, I’m pretty damn excited about Backyard Tire Fire.

If you’re a fan of down and dirty, gritty, soulful rock bands, you’ll love Tire Fire.

Saturday 2/24 at The Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Company with Gongzilla and William Elliot Whitmore. TireFire starts around 10:30-no cover.

video://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cifvcMtH5C8

I guess this imponderable is one of those things that makes a criminal a criminal and a law abiding citizen a law abiding citizen.

So riddle me this:

If a criminal sees someone in a neighborhood moving out of a house, why on earth would they want to break in and rummage AFTER everything has been moved out?

I guess we’ll never know.

The move took about three days with a bunch of small trips; mostly due to my recent vow to minimality of my possessions and general crap that I’ve accumulated over the years.

I took my PC, my new-old Mac iBook, CD’s, one dresser full of clothes (everything that didn’t fit went to the Goodwill on Cameron St), bare minimum kitchen stuff and only the bare necessities for Kaiya. (We took an afternoon a couple weeks ago and went through all of her stuff to give away as well. ‘Twas a good lesson for a four year old, I reckon.)

But the VALUABLES were gone. The shit that I absolutely need to live are secure in an undisclosed location somewhere in the belly of the HarrisTundra known as Midtown.

Ha! That’s right, bad guys! How’s it go? “Rats! Foiled again!”

Yeah, and you would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

I, like many other Midtowners, let the snow sit through the rain and ice storm. By Friday morning my front three steps were like a block of concrete.

Being as physically lazy as I am, I opted to pay the kid a couple doors down twenty bucks to clear my steps. Sure, it was only three steps but the kid was out there for over an hour chipping away.

The kid also helped my friend with a van and I load the last of my stuff out of the house on Friday.

Did the kid, who lives in the Section 8 house two doors down that gets more foot traffic and visitors throughout the day than the bodega at the corner of Muench and Green, tip someone off to the fact that I had moved out and there was nobody around all day and night?

Who knows.

But the fact is, I moved out of that neighborhood because of it’s high propensity for crime.

The couple next door had their place broken into about two months ago, cars are broken into frequently and there’s a general air of ill refute on my old block.

Had I still resided there, I would likely be more angry.

But I knew it was coming.

It was just a matter of time.

After all, nothing was taken.

It would be like trying to steal a yard sale.

Adios, Penn Street.

Hello Midtown.