June 2009
WatchI didn’t realize Mark Romanek directed this music video. Not too surprised, but still. [‘Scream’ director Mark Romanek on Michael Jackson: An EW exclusive]
“D: Getting huffy at a party—that just shows that your lead character is too deep...”
– How not to enter the Austin Film Festival | Decider
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-6-28) →
The Greencards (26)
Simone Dinnerstein (21)
John Eliot Gardiner: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (17)
The Wailin’ Jennys (10)
Julia Fischer (9)
Imported from Last.fm…
WatchI obviously haven’t used my Flip camera much. Oh well, the audio is still pretty good! Last night at Threadgills, it was incredibly hot (even though it was after 8pm). Still, we had a great view from our spot on the grass, and it was a terrific show!
“I think we can agree that the Iranian regime benefits from the media rush to...”
– Will Michael Jackson Doom Iran? - The Daily Beast
Human Rights Lawyers 'Disbarred' by Paperwork -... →
Since the beginning of 2009 — a sensitive year filled with anniversaries of uprisings — the Chinese government has been forcing human rights law firms such as Yitong to shut down. Formally, there is no crackdown; no police are swooping in to seize files or send attorneys en masse to labor camps. Instead, Beijing is simply using its administrative procedures for licensing lawyers and...
So
Once upon a time there was this channel on TV dedicated to music videos. It would be another year before they started this show where they chose seven random people to live together and filmed them; at this point, music videos were pretty much their big thing.
This popular singer had created this amazing music video that was just going to blow everyone’s minds (it had cost so much money...
“Ms. Sands sent identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers...”
– Theater Has a Gender Bias? Do Tell - NYTimes.com
War Without Borders - Teenagers Recruited by... →
In the minds of many Americans, the Rio Grande divides Mexico, a corrupt land where drug cartels often seem to have the upper hand, from the United States, a nation of law and order, where the authorities try to keep criminal gangs in check. But the reality on the border is much more complex. The Mexican drug cartels recruit young men from both countries and operate their smuggling and...
My new favicon.
From “Sita Sings the Blues”, icons made by Alexandra. I just noticed that Chrome doesn’t show favicons except in bookmarks. Oh well.
“The dumb broad is not to be confused with the dumb blonde or the glamour girl....”
– The Smart Set: Summer Holliday - June 22, 2009
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-6-21) →
Neko Case (30)
Tift Merritt (11)
Brendan Benson (7)
Vince Guaraldi (7)
The Greencards (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
The Pacific isn’t the only ocean collecting... →
New research shows that plastic has collected in a region of the Atlantic as well, held hostage by converging currents, called gyres, to form a swirling “plastic soup.” And those fragments of plastic could also be present at the other three large gyres in the world’s oceans, says Kara Lavender Law, a member of the oceanography faculty at the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Mass.,...
NPR: Iran's Human Rights Activists Being Arrested,... →
Security officials posing as clients entered the Tehran offices of one of Iran’s leading human rights lawyers today and arrested him, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi just told NPR’s Davar Iran Ardalan.
“Eventually, Iran’s women will not be denied.”
– Who was really cheated in Iran’s vote? Women. | csmonitor.com
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-6-14) →
Gomez (27)
The Greencards (27)
Kathleen Edwards (13)
Butterfly Boucher (13)
Paul Winter Consort (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Boston Symphony Orchestra: Digital Music - Brahms:... →
$9.99 for the mp3 album, whoop! Heard about it on today’s Fresh Air.
Think Progress » Fox News’ Shep Smith: DHS... →
wow, good on Smith for acknowledging this.
As the Globe reels, papers must drop elitism |... →
Spend less time covering the bankers, power brokers, and masters of spin who dominate news, and spend more time in coffee shops and corner stores, bowling alleys and backyards. Beat expertise still counts, but that expertise should be focused on readers, not sources. It should be used to set the paper’s course, its agenda. Reporters need to cover how the other 90 percent of us live – and not...
This American Life: 382: The Watchmen
→
Since Congress hasn’t held 1930’s-style hearings into the causes of the financial crisis, we stage one of our own. The subject? The regulators and watchdogs who were supposed to be overseeing the banks and the finance industry—to make sure things wouldn’t blow up like they have. Clearly something went wrong. Today we pound a gavel and ask: where were the watchmen?
“(T)he musical — as an art form — is actually extraordinary in its ability to...”
– The Smart Set: Swan Song - June 8, 2009
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-6-7) →
Butterfly Boucher (69)
Metric (10)
Ingrid Michaelson (9)
Jim Noir (3)
Dixie Chicks (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“What made Dr. Tiller unusual was that he specialized in seeing women who found...”
– Slaying of George Tiller Focuses Attention on Late-Term Abortions - washingtonpost.com
“Does it sound as if I hate this movie? Don’t be silly. But don’t be fooled. This...”
– Movie Review - Away We Go - Practicing Virtue, and Proud of It - NYTimes.com
The Best and Worst Legislators 2009: Texas Monthly →
on the worst list:Governor Rick Perry
Nothing better sums up his performance this session than his itinerary for Thursday May 28. With deadlines bearing down on a fractious Legislature, much of the people’s work still unresolved, he left Austin to attend a fundraiser in Houston for Congressman Michael McCaul, where he presented talk show host Rush Limbaugh with an Honorary Texan Award. From his...
“I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our...”
– Barack Obama, “A New Beginning”, speech in Cairo, 6/4/09 [transcript]
Utne Reader: Twitter’s Gender Divide →
We found that an average man is almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman. Similarly, an average woman is 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman. Finally, an average man is 40% more likely to be followed by another man than by a woman. Twitter’s gender divide stands in stark contrast to most social networking sites, according to the study, where “most of the activity is...
WatchDedication! I couldn’t pay attention to what the reporter was talking about once the sprinklers came on. I recommend starting to watch about :31 seconds into the video.
Watch[Consumerist - Earplugs: You’re Probably Inserting Them Wrong]
