Bookmarks for December 11th through December 17th [del.icio.us]
![Bookmarks for December 11th through December 17th [del.icio.us]](http://www.paulbailey.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/scale-one-copy1-150x150.jpg)
Bookmarks from December 11th through December 17th:[del.icio.us]
- ‘Wire’ A Study Topic At Colleges – Baltimore Sun – [del.icio.us]
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“We did not design the show purely as an entertainment, but as a political treatise and social critique,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun. “To the extent that academia has found the work and is intent on extending the discussion, we are, of course, pleased.” Simon said he’s also happy that the social themes he worked into the series will be getting more attention – themes including “the fraud of the drug war, the evisceration of the working class, our inability to reform our political infrastructure, the inequality of educational opportunity and, lastly, the declining ambitions and viability of high-end journalism.”
- Los Angeles News – Truck vs. Church and State: Kogi Bites Back – page 1 -
“Wow! Little did our Squid Ink food blog editor, Amy Scattergood, know what she was getting into when she asked Church and State chef Walter Manzke a simple question, “Is there anything you won’t eat?” Manzke answered thusly and in the process set off a mini commentary storm: “Anything off a truck. L.A. seems to get caught up in these trends, when one person has great success with something and then no one can come up with anything new so they just copy it. And the most ridiculous one seems to be the truck. I mean, it was maybe cool when the first person did it, and it fits the economy because it’s cheap to operate and all that, but I think it’s everything that takes away from the purpose, the enjoyment and the passion of eating.”
- Scott Brown on Film Reviews Written Before Cameras Roll | Magazine
“Can we talk about how much the new Cameron Crowe movie sucks? I mean, seriously, what was going on with that freakin’ volcano? And all that nonsense about the Chinese antisatellite device? And hoo-boy, that far-fetched third-act turn — oh, hang on. You haven’t seen the movie? No worries, neither have I. Neither has anyone. It hasn’t actually been made yet — but the reviews are already in at Scriptshadow. A no-frills Hollywood blog, Scriptshadow is diabolically simple: An anonymous figure who goes by the nom de Net of Carson Reeves harvests scripts from a network of industry contacts (including hype-conscious writers and their reps). He reviews the screenplays, critiquing structure, story, and character development …”
- Judge denies awarding $391,150 to teacher’s defense team | court, corbett, attorneys – News – The Orange County Register -
“Corbett, an Advanced Placement European history teacher at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, was found to have violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause when he referred to Creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense” during a fall 2007 classroom lecture.” don’t you think this might have a chilling effect of “free speech”
- Facebook is the new Compuserve -
“The real concern is that we share so much behind the closed doors of Compuserve-esque Web “sites” that serve as Hotel Californias for our content. Yes, I want to keep some conversations private, but as more of my ramblings move to Facebook and other closed corners of the Web, I want to broaden the conversation beyond the borders of my “friends” list. I can’t. I’m stuck. What happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook. Even content that is cross-posted elsewhere: the ensuing commentary (often of equal or greater value to the original post) is trapped. Professor Jonathan Zittrain raises a warning voice about this in his “The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It”, but I can’t help but think that the convenience of Facebook will trump the social benefits of broadening conversations beyond the borders of such services.”
- Jazz: The Music of Unemployment: How saving a farming village from bandits in feudal Japan is like being in a big band circa 2009 -
“Because good musicians playing in a big band are like samurai deigning to fight without hope of glory, of course. They have to really love what they do, and they have to be willing to be paid in rice if need be.”
- Logic made fun A new comic romps through one of philosophy’s greatest debates -
“What “Logicomix” niftily demonstrates is how well the graphic novel form is suited to mounting sprightly explanations of abstract concepts. Thinkers often employ concrete metaphors as tools to convey difficult ideas — the “infinite hotel” of mathematician David Hilbert, for example, an establishment that, although full, always has room for another guest. In “Logicomix,” Hilbert’s paradox is further visualized by a character checking into an actual hotel and drawing arrows on the posted floor plan. That character is the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, and the scene is played for laughs with Russell’s bemused new bride shaking her head and a German porter exclaiming “They are crazy, these Britons!”
- In search of Eva Tanguay, the first rock star. – By Jody Rosen – Slate Magazine -
“To call Tanguay a “rock star” is anachronistic but appropriate. She was not just the pre-eminent song-and-dance woman of the vaudeville era. (One of her many nicknames was “The Girl Who Made Vaudeville Famous.”) She was the first American popular musician to achieve mass-media celebrity, with a cadre of publicists trumpeting her on- and offstage successes and outrages, and an oeuvre best summed up by the slogan that appeared frequently on theatrical marquees: “Eva Tanguay, performing songs about herself.” She was the first singer to mount nationwide solo headlining tours, drawing record-breaking crowds and shattering box-office tallies from Broadway to Butte. Newspaper accounts describe scenes of fan frenzy that foreshadowed Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre and Beatlemania. At the height of her stardom, Tanguay commanded an unheard of salary, $3,500 per week, out-earning the likes of Al Jolson, Harry Houdini, and Enrico Caruso. “
- Giving tourists a look at gang culture — latimes.com -
“A group of civic activists, united by faith and a belief that the poor economy in the interior of Los Angeles is a social injustice, is preparing to offer bus tours of some of the grittiest pockets of the city, including decayed public housing, sites of deadly shootouts and streets ravaged by racial unrest. After a VIP preview last weekend, L.A. Gang Tours expects to open to the public in January, giving tourists a look at the cradle of the nation’s gang culture — the birthplace of many of the city’s gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th Street.”
Bookmarks for November 21st through November 25th [del.icio.us]
![Bookmarks for November 21st through November 25th [del.icio.us]](http://www.paulbailey.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/hands1-150x150.jpg)
Bookmarks from November 21st through November 25th:[del.icio.us]
Los Angeles Eat+Drink – Fried in East L.A.: Antojito’s Carmen and the Breed Street Band of Mexican Vendors
“Until recently, the center of the Eastside street-food universe was located in a small parking lot on Breed Street in Boyle Heights, a nocturnal band of vendors drawing customers from as far away as Riverside and San Diego, serving sticky, sizzling, crunchy, meaty snacks from all over Mexico; salsas hot enough to burn small, butterfly-shaped patches into the leather of your shoes; and quart-size foam cups of homemade orange drink. Over here were huaraches; over there Mexico City–style quesadillas; crunchy flautas; sugary churros; gooey tacos al vapor. The vendors never stayed open quite late enough, but Breed Street had become something of an institution, a place to take out of town visitors, a great quick dinner before a show. Sometimes there were even clowns.”
- Photo Gallery: Fried in East L.A. With Antojitos Carmen & The Breed Street Band of Mexican Vendors – Los Angeles Restaurants and Dining – Squid Ink -
“Need a visual aid for your print edition? Jonathan Gold visits the Breed Street vendors of East Los Angeles (“once you abandon yourself to the magnetic chalupa forces you will be lured across the river again and again — the CIA could learn something about mind control from antojitos masters”). Click through for Anne Fishbein’s spectacular photos and read more in Gold’s Counter Intelligence, “Fried in East L.A.”
- Categorical Enervative: The Trouble With Genres | Classical Music -
People, we’re not really serious about adopting this “alt-classical” terminology, are we? I thought it was a joke, like “hobocore.” But no, it seems that there’s effort afoot to push it, un-ironically, into the classical lexicon.”"
- Books of The Times – The Voice That Helped Remake Culture, From Terry Teachout – Review – NYTimes.com
“With “Pops,” his eloquent and important new biography of Armstrong, the critic and cultural historian Terry Teachout restores this jazzman to his deserved place in the pantheon of American artists, building upon Gary Giddins’s excellent 1988 study, “Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong,” and offering a stern rebuttal of James Lincoln Collier’s patronizing 1983 book, “Louis Armstrong: An American Genius.” (wish this book was on kindle and it would be my holiday reading)
- Los Angeles Eat+Drink – Choza Mama (j. gold review) -
“Oh, Old Pasadena, dasher of hopes and destroyer of restaurants, a hostile, traffic-choked terrordome where only the strongest survive, where rents are breathtaking, where even the best-financed enterprises founder on the rocks. But out of the ashes of Hooters, within the very walls once saturated with testosterone and stale tap beer, comes Choza Mama, scion of the well-loved Burbank Peruvian restaurant, introducing Cusqueña and tallarines where once were Miller Lite and hot wings, and soft Latin American music where the likes of Hootie and the Blowfish once brayed”
- MIDEM(Net) Blog: Bruce Houghton: Doesn’t It Feel Lately Like Everyone Is In The Music Business? -
“The line between music fan and music professional has become difficult to draw. The demise of traditional media and rise of social networks means that fans are as powerful as publicists and radio promoters once were. Digital distribution has given everyone access to the consumer that was once funneled through a few. Everyone with a web site had the potential for global reach. I’m an authority, not because Billboard prints my words, but because I do. The Bad News: Everyone is your competitor. The Good News: Innovation is everywhere. It’s time to stop worrying about the bad and start embracing the good”
- When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth -
“Introduction: I’ve changed careers every two or three years ever since I dropped out of university in 1990, and one of the best gigs I ever had was working as a freelance systems administrator, working in the steam tunnels of the information age, pulling cables, configuring machines, keeping the backups running, kicking the network in its soft and vulnerable places. Sysadmins are the unsung heroes of the century, and if they’re not busting you for sending racy IMs, or engaging in unprofessional email conduct it’s purely out of their own goodwill. There’s a pernicious myth that the Internet was designed to withstand a nuclear war; while that Strangelove wet-dream was undoubtedly present in the hindbrains of the generals who greenlighted the network’s R&D at companies like Rand and BBN…” (great story… make sure to read the woodie guthrie copyright quote”
