Friends and family and almost no on else remember that I once made a mockumentary called “Paul Alien,” in which a Paul Allen look-alike bonds with space aliens and is linked to Nazi rocketry and other nonsense. Good stuff. And when I was working out promotion for the film I discovered that the domain name paulallen.org was laying unused and fallow, looking for a home. I plopped down my eight bucks, turned it into a website and assigned it the duty of ballyhooing my little movie and also gently satirizing Allen’s charitable foundation. It did so successfully for many years and made me proud.

But when you needle a billionaire you take the risk that he will turn a water-cannon of money back at you and ruin your dreams. On June 18 of this year I was informed that my hard-working little domain name had been seized by the Microsoft co-founder. In legalese, the matter was called, “Paul G. Allen c/o Vulcan, Inc. and Mojave Aerospace Ventures v. Alex Mayer.” In a perfect world, the defendant in a case (me) would be contacted by the complainant prior to deliberations. And I could see that a partial refund of my eight bucks might be in order. But in Allentown, the only response I can reasonably make is to give the big man a little bad press, so, here. I hope to never mention this unsavory matter again or at least until the deal for my unauthorized Allen/Gates/Ballmer/Simonyi Microsoft tell-all space alien conspiracy book is finalized.

(The guys at TechFlash.com covered this last month: “Allen wrestles PaulAllen.org away from ‘Paul Alien’ film-maker.”)

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Seattle now has well-compensated online-only journalists

Remember when Seattle baby-boomer and tech millionaire Tom Alberg gave a bunch of money to former Seattle Weekly publisher David Brewster to start a blog called Crosscut.com? For the sixty- and seventy-something boomer set. That was a bad idea and never made any money, and Crosscut recently slashed its budget. Well, undeterred by this life lesson learned by others, a fresh crop of young millionaires is pouring cash into a local news blog run by former Stranger staffers called PubliCola.

On June 16, former Stranger news editor Josh Feit announced that Rajeev Singh, president and COO of Concur Technologies, had become the second big investor in this venture; Seattle real estate developer Greg Smith kicked in some bucks recently, too. In the prevailing climate of full disclosure which is a hallmark of progressive journalism, neither Feit nor Singh are ready to reveal dollar amounts.

Conflict of interest issues will always arise when a local blog with poor financial prospects suddenly gets real cash from tech and real estate sources. Former Patty Murray campaign manager Sandeep Kaushik is a co-founder of Publicola, and also on Seattle mayor Greg Nickels’ campaign payroll.

The world of blogging has certainly expanded Feit’s horizons: the news hole at the Stranger was barely three pages when he worked there, and now the news hole on his blog is, well, infinite. Plenty of hole-room for padding out an endless stream of Olympia/Leftie/Insider news and opinion with crude cartoons, base film reviews and other naive flotsam. Seattle nightclub owner Linda Derschang — who made her seven figure fortune selling booze to hipsters and is no journalist — is on their advisory board. As is local DJ Riz Rollins.

Josh Feit blew into town in 1998 and was immediately seduced by music mucky-muck Dave Meinert, who convinced him that the profit and loss issues of the local music industry were of utmost importance and that he must write many many words about these pressing issues in the Stranger. While at the Stranger Feit also fell for Sherman Alexie, a great writer of fiction but also the biggest jackass in Seattle history. Josh had Alexie writing a basketball column. The pain Seattleites felt at losing the Sonics to Oklahoma was compounded by Alexie’s thoughts on the matter.

PubliCola is partnering with hipsters while siphoning money from wealthy capitalist types, and in this radical new media age you gotta work all angles to survive so I applaud that. This scheme is similar to the Stranger’s business plan, but without the revenue-generating porn ads and obscene sex advice.

As deadline approaches we learn that dour Stranger news editor Erica C. Barnett has been hired by PubliCola. Another sign that local writers are now getting paid real money for online-only journalism.

I must say that I think the name “PubliCola” is confusing. Public. Cola. Sounds like an East German soft drink from the seventies. Other unpleasant associations come to mind: a right wing response might well be a new site called Pubic Cola.net, in honor of right wing whacko and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

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What’s with the Microsoft Sounders?
During every Seattle Sounders FC home game I see thousands of true-believers wearing identical lime green Seattle Sounders team jerseys ... but the jerseys actually say “X-Box Live” on the front, not “Sounders.” Shameful marketing. This is no mere offensive Nike swoosh, it’s a giant billboard for the players and fans to wear so that they can express pride in the giant corporation that makes the Sounders possible and which by the way is a brutal, law-breaking monopoly whose excellent game console distracts us from their inferior, world-controlling operating system. And what does the “FC” stand for, anyway? Football Club? They don’t play football. Hey, Sounders? FU.