today's post is different, just things that caught my eye:
due to the fact that my life is not nearly as interesting...today.
The Morning Feed
By DAVE ITZKOFF
What we’re reading (and watching) on Monday morning.
The trial of the century — or at least of the week — is expected to begin Monday, The Associated Press reports, as Woody Allen’s lawsuit against American Apparel commences in a Manhattan federal court. Mr. Allen is suing the clothing maker for using an image of him dressed as a Hasidic Jew in “Annie Hall” without his permission on billboards and online advertisements. Mr. Allen is expected to be the prosecution’s first witness; Stuart Slotnick, a lawyer for American Apparel, told The A.P., “The freedom of expression is what this case is all about.”
While the fate of “Flight of the Conchords” remains up in the air and “Entourage” remains “Entourage,” HBO has struck a deal to keep another signature comedy talent, Ricky Gervais, on its airwaves, Variety reports: the cable channel is developing a new animated series adapted from the comedian’s popular podcast, “The Ricky Gervais Show,” which features Mr. Gervais (the co-creator and star of “Extras” and “The Office”), his writing partner, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, an eccentric radio producer who has become a regular member of their act. The show is expected to debut next year.
Blame it on the Economy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEePMrtfBhM
10-Day Forecast:
High /
Low (°F) Precip. %
Today
May 18 Cloudy 57°/41° 20 %
Tue
May 19 Mostly Sunny 69°/50° 0 %
Wed
May 20 Partly Cloudy 71°/55° 10 %
Thu
May 21 Sunny 80°/60° 0 %
Fri
May 22 Partly Cloudy 81°/57° 20 %
Sat
May 23 Showers 71°/56° 40 %
Sun
May 24 Partly Cloudy 70°/55° 10 %
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May 25 Mostly Cloudy 71°/55° 10 %
Tue
May 26 Showers 71°/54° 60 %
Wed
May 27 Showers 71°/55°
60 %
Last Updated May 18 11:15 a.m. ET
dangermouse & david lynch
May 15, 2009 - When the first cryptic bits of news about Dark Night of the Soul began trickling in earlier this year, it all sounded too good to be true. Though the whole project was shrouded in mystery, it appeared that Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, two of the most inspired artists making music today, were collaborating on a new album. That alone was enough to get our geek gears spinning with excitement. But there was an unusual twist that few of us at NPR Music could make sense of: Director David Lynch was somehow involved.
It all started back in March, at the South by Southwest music festival and conference. A number of us on the NPR Music team had noticed strange posters around downtown Austin, Texas, that read "Dark Night of the Soul." They looked like movie posters and had David Lynch's name on them, alongside names of some of our favorite artists, like Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, Vic Chesnutt, Jason Lytle and more. We wondered if it was some sort of musical film.
Soon after our Austin trip, NPR Music received copies of the mysterious posters in the mail. No return address. Someone was messing with us. I tried to find out more, but had zero success. Then, weeks later, I finally got a note from a publicist with all the details we'd been waiting for.
It turns out Dark Night Of The Soul is an album and the songs were written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, though the myriad singers featured on each track also had a big hand in composing and producing the work. The album was initially going to be packaged with a book of photos taken by David Lynch. But now there's word that the music may never be officially released at all.
An unnamed spokesperson for Danger Mouse says that "due to an ongoing dispute with EMI" the book of photographs will "now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: 'For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'"
You can order the book, sans music, from the official Dark Night Of The Soul Web site. In the meantime, you can hear the entire album here on NPR Music as an Exclusive First Listen.
I've listened to the record all the way through at least a dozen times, and can confirm that Dark Night of the Soul delivers in every way you'd hope for. It's beautiful but haunting, surreal and dark, but sometimes comical and affecting, with ear-popping, multilayered production work. It just gets more mesmerizing with every listen.
In addition to Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, other artists appearing on Dark Night of the Soulinclude James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane ofNeutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.
listen to the album here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585
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QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"I laid myself off. That's what I've been doing for 17 months here, looking at people and looking at processes and finding efficiencies."
--Former Turnpike director Alan LeBovidge on his decision to step down on 5.6.09.
"Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons."
--Manny being Manny, in a statement about failing his drug test and having to sit out 50 games. 5.7.09
THE DIG'S QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDEX
By Dig Staff
del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!print | email | 0 Comments
An MBTA train operator was texting his girlfriend during Friday night's Green Line collision, MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas announced, while sporting a snazzy orange safety vest to make him stand out in case any other train operators are texting while driving during the press conference. The accident caused $9.6 million in damages and injured more than 40 people. MINUS 40
Now the T may prohibit drivers from even holding cellphones while driving, since their fingers can't seem to resist those sweet, sweet buttons. Sure, it will save money, but think of their social lives! PLUS 1
Um, that guy on trial for kidnapping his own daughter wants to go by his preferred name (Clark Rockefeller), rather than his given name (Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter) during his trial, because he's charged with using a fake name, and using his, er, unfake name, might skew the jury against him. EVEN
The Statue of Liberty's crown will re-open to the public after being closed since the 9.11 attacks. Visitors will be allowed to be the lice on Lady Liberty's scalp starting July 4th. PLUS 1
Sixty-one percent of Boston voters polled by the Boston Globe said they'd re-elect Mayor Menino this fall. Michael Flaherty, who came in second with 23 percent, already had his campaign release a lengthy reply comparing his run to Barack Obama's and Bill Clinton's. If Menino had a response, it was probably inaudible.EVEN
Beth Israel Deaconess CEO Paul Levy notes in his blog that many Harvard students are riding around without helmets. Their enormous brains probably just don't fit in one. Levy should know this. He runs a hospital, after all. MINUS 2
White House National Security Advisor James Jones said last week that the Obama administration has begun preliminary talks about doing away with "Don't ask, don't tell." The policy, which forbids uncloseted gays in the military, was created in 1993, because if you're going handle an automatic weapon and get shot at, it's probably better to be really repressed and tightly wound. PLUS 1
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL: MINUS 39
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL: MINUS 10
OH, CRUEL WORLD!
By Dig Reader
del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!print | email | 0 Comments
Dear arrogant stain in the MASSIVE TOW TRUCK,
I wasn't in your way when you laid on the horn and tried to run my bike and I off the road in Mission Hill. You then drove up next to my boyfriend to ask if he paid car insurance. When he responded with a no, you screamed that we should "get the fuck off of the street!" while you swerved, threatening to flatten us, once more. What are you high on, you fucking redneck piece of shit? How dare you threaten me and my man?
Are you upset that bicycles are taking up precious road space or that you'll never be called to make a buck off of us? FUCK YOU and the crippled horse your mother caught and screwed to make you. You're nothing but a scornful ass. Your loud truck and your hateful, obnoxious yelling will never convince anyone that your prick is anything but tiny and useless. You're just a carny with some teeth, and if I see you again, I'm going to throw my U-lock through your goddamned window.
Nancy Pelosi and Waterboarding: The Democrats' Dictionary
By Debra Saunders
May 18, 2009
Nancy Pelosi says what she means on waterboarding. Or not. The Speaker of the House is quite confused on what she knew and when she knew it and now Pelosi is doing everything to try and massage words to make them mean something that can get her out of her waterboarded political mess. Debra Saundrers explores the word game - Ed. Doublespeak is alive as Democrats pull the strings in the White House and Congress 24 years after 1984. What do they mean when they engage in Democrat-speak?
Nancy Pelosi and Waterboarding: The Democrats' Dictionary
I know I'm not worthy, but I've got an assignment, so I shall borrow a page from Ambrose Bierce, not with a Devil's Dictionary, but a Democrats' Dictionary. The easy part: There's no dif.
Academic freedom: Full license to espouse liberal thought to unformed minds.
Bailout: Billions upon billions -- trillions really -- of government aid doled out to financial institutions to remind voters of the need for strong regulation.
Biden, Joe: Running-at-the-mouth politician, but, hey, he was elected vice president.
Bipartisanship: 40 Republicans and 60 Democrats.
Bush, George W.: Big-spending, war-waging Republican.
Cheney, Dick: Satan.
Clean coal: What Santa Claus puts in Democrats' stockings so they don't have to admit that their global-warming agenda is anti-coal.
Climate change: Global warming during a blizzard.
CNN. Unbiased news network whose reporters battle "right-wing" media.
Deficits: Overspending before 2009, or spending practices that President Obama inherited. For current usage, see: Investment.
Extremists: Abortion opponents.
Fox News: Unlike CNN, biased news network.
Global warming: An apocalyptic theory that every scientist believes in -- except dissenting scientists who don't count -- best bemoaned from one's Gulf Stream jet en route to an international conference on the environment.
God: What people in small towns clung to before Obama won the White House. See: guns, anti-immigrant or anti-trade beliefs.
Health care costs: A spiraling chunk of the U.S. economy that can be reduced by providing health care to all Americans. Really.
Homeland security: Gun control.
Iraq: An immoral war, once the focus of numerous anti-war demonstrations, which Democratic leaders vowed to end immediately upon winning the White House -- until Obama won the 2008 election.
Liberal: The L-word, a term unfairly hurled by name-calling right-wing kooks.
Lieberman, Joe: Former Democrat turned Independent senator from Connecticut. Sellout.
McCain, John: Former GOP maverick who -- the nerve -- turned out to actually be a Republican.
Middle class: Families that earn less than $250,000 -- until Washington decides it might be a good idea to pay for all the new Obama-era programs.
Nuance: Homeland Security Janet Napolitano's decision to refer to terrorist attacks as "man-caused disasters." Formerly known as Doublespeak.
Obama, Barack. God, at least in Detroit.
Oil: A crude substance used to fuel other people's cars.
One hundred days. The first in a series of holy days during which dutiful media preside over national thanksgiving.
Palin, Sarah. White-trashy grandmother utterly unqualified and too dim-witted to be vice president.
Pandemic: CNN-speak for flu.
Pelosi, Nancy. Grandmotherly House speaker who could not be expected to understand that when Bushies authorized waterboarding of high-value detainees, it actually might happen.
Progressive: Liberal.
Public transportation: What other people should take to work.
Regulation: The threat of a salary cap for executives with firms receiving federal funds.
Republican Party: The party of the rich -- if the California inland empire and Central Valley are rich, and Beverly Hills, Marin County and Malibu are not.
Sacrifice: Something Bush never asked for during time of war. Now a tax hike for 95 percent of working families while U.S. troops fight in two wars abroad.
Specter, Arlen: Republican turned Democratic senator from Pennsylvania. Free thinker.
Stimulus: A rush in the nether regions at the prospect of spending trillions of dollars you don't have. Not to be confused with: Banking.
Surge: A tactic involving troop increases that could never work in Iraq, but always made sense for Afghanistan.
Tobacco: Toxic substance that should be overtaxed or banned -- unless it is marijuana. Then see: Medicine.
Tolerance: An essential element to civil societies; individuals deemed insufficiently tolerant must be re-educated.
War on terror: The fairness doctrine, the only weapon that can harm America's true enemy, Rush Limbaugh.
Waterboarding: Torture -- unless a plane piloted by terrorists hits a reservoir.
In a Playboy interview, he said, "Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business." In his 1999 best-selling memoir I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, Ventura responded to the controversy sparked by these remarks by elaborating on his views concerning religion: "I’d like to clarify [my comments published in Playboy] about religious people being weak-minded. I didn’t mean all religious people. I don’t have any problem with the vast majority of religious folks. I count myself among them, more or less. But I believe because it makes sense to me, not because I think it can be proven. There are lots of people out there who think they know the truth about God and religion, but does anybody really know for sure? That’s why the founding fathers built freedom of religious belief into the structure of this nation, so that everybody could make up their minds for themselves. But I do have a problem with the people who think they have some right to try to impose their beliefs on others. I hate what thefundamentalist fanatics are doing to our country. It seems as though, if everybody doesn’t accept their version of reality, that somehow invalidates it for them. Everybody must believe the same things they do. That’s what I find weak and destructive."[22]
Ventura endorsed equal rights for religious minorities, as well as people who don't believe in God, by declaring July 4, 2002, "Indivisible Day" through this proclamation:
"WHEREAS: The unique feature of this nation at its founding was its establishment of a secular Constitution that separated government from religion - something never done before; and WHEREAS: Our secular Constitution has enabled people of all worldviews to coexist in harmony, undivided by sectarian strife; and WHEREAS: President James Madison made clear the importance of maintaining this harmony when he said, "The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the endless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries"; and WHEREAS: The diversity of our people requires mutual respect and equal protection for all our citizens, including minority groups, if we are to remain "One nation, indivisible"; and WHEREAS: It is the unfettered diversity of ideas and worldviews that have made our nation the strongest and most productive in the world; and WHEREAS: Eternal vigilance must be maintained to guard against those who seek to stifle ideas, establish a narrow orthodoxy, and divide our nation along arbitrary lines of race, ethnicity, and religious belief or non-belief. NOW, THEREFORE, I, JESSE VENTURA, Governor of Minnesota, do hereby proclaim that Thursday, July 4, 2002 shall be observed as: INDIVISIBLE DAY In the State Of Minnesota.
[I]t's a good thing I'm not president because I would prosecute every person that was involved in that torture. I would prosecute the people that did it. I would prosecute the people that ordered it. Because torture is against the law. *** [Waterboarding] is drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders. *** If it's -- if it's done wrong, you certainly could drown. You could swallow your tongue. You could do a whole bunch of stuff. If it's it done wrong or -- it's torture, Larry. It's torture.[41]
Amid swine flu outbreak, racism goes viral
Anti-immigrant hatred spreads on talk radio, Web sites
By Brian Alexander
msnbc.com contributor
updated 12:46 p.m. ET, Fri., May 1, 2009
“No contact anywhere with an illegal alien!” conservative talk show host Michael Savage advised his U.S. listeners this week on how to avoid the swine flu. “And that starts in the restaurants" where he said, you “don’t know if they wipe their behinds with their hands!”
And Thursday, Boston talk radio host Jay Severin was suspended after calling Mexican immigrants "criminalians" during a discussion of swine flu and saying that emergency rooms had become "essentially condos for Mexicans."
That’s tepid compared to some of the xenophobic reactions spreading like an emerging virus across the Internet. “This disgusting blight is because MEXICANS ARE PIGS!” an anonymous poster ranted on the “prison planet” forum, part of radio host and columnist Alex Jones’ Web site.
There is even talk of conspiracy. Savage speculated that terrorists are using Mexican immigrants as walking germ warfare weapons. “It would be easy,” he said, “to bring an altered virus into Mexico, put it in the general population, and have them march across the border.”
As more than 140 cases of H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, have been confirmed across the United States — from San Diego to New York City — the growing public health concern has also exposed fear and hate.
Fear and blame are counterproductive and even dangerous in any disease outbreak because the more stigmatized any group feels, the more reluctant people in that group may be to seek medical care. That only helps propagate the disease.
The attempt to scapegoat Mexicans, immigrants and Hispanic Americans is no surprise to Latino rights groups, who are now mobilizing a countereffort.
‘Ignorant beyond the pale’
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, called such comments “racist and ignorant beyond the pale … these so-called commentators shame themselves turning public health concerns into an immigrant bashing fest.”
“What we have seen is that the anti-immigrant groups are using this to shamelessly to promote their agenda,” said Liany Arroyo, director of the Institute for Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza.
While the war of words is mainly between the conservative commentariat and Latino advocacy groups, individual Mexican-Americas are beginning to worry.
“Our people are calling us and they are concerned,” said Florencia Velasco Fortner, chief executive officer of Dallas Consilio of Hispanic Organizations, an umbrella of affiliated service groups. “Even our staff members are starting to get a little discouraged. There was anti-immigrant sentiment prior to this and this adds fuel to the fire.”
The Consilio has mounted its own education campaign to teach Dallas-area Hispanic audiences proper disease prevention and hygiene techniques. Because many are uninsured and may avoid seeking medical care, the Consilio is also helping them find non-profit clinics and encouraging them to visit these immediately if they develop symptoms rather than waiting until they are severely ill.
As swine flu fears have spread, the backlash has also affected some Mexican restaurants’ business, possibly fueled by disparaging comments like those of Savage questioning the hygiene of workers.
Jennifer Pesqueira, whose family has owned and operated El Indio Mexican restaurants in San Diego since 1940, said her business has seen a 20 percent drop in business since the outbreak began.
Activist groups have advised their communities to be aware and on guard. “Board members put an alert out,” said Jan Hanvik, executive director of Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center in New York. “It was a heads up, saying ‘pay attention.’ ”
Blaming ‘the other’
Fearmongering and blame are almost a natural part of infectious disease epidemics, experts say.
“This is a pattern we see again and again,” said Amy Fairchild, chair of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. “It’s ‘the other,’ the group not seen as part of the nation, the one who threatens it in some way that gets blamed for the disease.”
Often, a disease outbreak is an excuse to vent pre-existing prejudices. “It’s fear of people we do not know or who look different,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan and author of “When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed.” “You take the fear of the unknown that already exists and then combine that with a real or perceived threat that is contagious disease and it’s explosive.”
During the medieval Black Plague, Europeans blamed Jews, saying they poisoned the wells. In an 1892 cholera pandemic, the U.S. blamed immigrant European Jews. In the flu of 1918, Markel said, “Italians blamed the Spanish. The Spanish blamed the Italians. For HIV it was gay men and Haitians.”
Americans “have a history of trying to keep ourselves ‘pure,’ ” Fairchild explained. “You saw it after the Civil War when slaves were denied citizenship, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when we were alarmed over southern and eastern European immigrants. There were fears that they would pollute America’s germ plasm, make us a weak nation of imbeciles.”
Americans have time and again responded to emergencies by clamoring to shut the borders and pull up the bridges.
“I’ve blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration,” conservative columnist Michelle Malkin wrote on her Web site. “9/11 didn’t convince the open-borders zealots to put down their race cards and confront reality. Maybe the threat of their sons or daughters contracting a deadly virus spread from south of the border to their Manhattan prep schools will.” (The cluster of New York school students who first contracted H1N1 brought the virus back from Mexico. The school is in Queens.)
“People who do not really know anything are creating ideas that don’t really exist,” said Sergio Ornelas, owner of a bi-national publishing and advertising business in El Paso. “I am worried these kinds of articles and comments might create panic.”
Fighting racism with information
Blame-the-victim reactions can be fought with clear, accurate information about the disease and about how it is spreading, said Dr. Larry Kline, a San Diego physician and member of the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission. “People get snippets of information here and there, and unfortunately much of it is inaccurate. That makes things ripe for blame and blame and fear never helped anybody.”
Tamping down blame and fear isn’t just the right thing to do morally, experts agree, it’s also the right thing to do medically. Germs, Markel stressed, don’t care about skin color or national origins or borders.
“These are naturally occurring events,” he said. “We expect flu pandemics every 30 to 40 years. It’s the cost of living in a world of emerging infectious diseases. That’s the folly of prejudice. They are wherever humans are.”
