Amazing. . .
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Boredom
When hit by boredom, let yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit bottom. In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface. The idea here is to exact a full look at the worst. The reason boredom deserves such scrutiny is that it represents pure, undiluted time in all its repetitive, redundant, monotonous splendor.
Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium. It is your window on time's infinity. Once this window opens, don't try to shut it; on the contrary, throw it wide open.-Joseph Brodsky
Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium. It is your window on time's infinity. Once this window opens, don't try to shut it; on the contrary, throw it wide open.-Joseph Brodsky
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
"This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk"
A MUST READ FOR ALL YOU MUSIC FANS: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/music/15rubi.html?_r=1&ref=music
Friday, March 13, 2009
Jon Stewart Interviews Jim Cramer
IF THERE'S ONE THING YOU DO TODAY IT WOULD BE TO WATCH THIS!!!!!!!! NOTHING ELSE TO SAY.
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Pearl Jam - Sitting on the Dock of the Bay (live 94)
It's time for some Pearl Jam. I'm going back 15 years for this one. I always included this bootleg version on my Pearl Jam "tape" compilations :).
Sound quality is good. So enjoy!
Sound quality is good. So enjoy!
Justice In Iran?
Ameneh Bahrami poses on March 5, 2009 in Barcelona. Bahrami, of Iran, was blinded by a man who threw acid in her face. In 2008 an Iranian court ruled that the man -- identified only as Majid -- a spurned suitor who poured a bucket of sulfuric acid over her head, leaving her blind and disfigured, should also be blinded with acid, based on the Islamic law system of 'qisas', or eye for an eye retribution. Ms Bahrami has said that she is now waiting for a letter from the court to go back to Iran for the punishment to be carried out. By Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images.
John Lennon - Real Love (Guitar Version)
Here's John Lennon recording a demo of REAL LOVE (1977 or 1978) that will later be rerecorded with the other three Beatles (1995). But this version is as good as any other Beatles song. Enjoy.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Geography of a Recession
Check this out. Pretty scary. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.html
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Beatles - I Want You (She's So Heavy) and more!
Feeling some Beatles right now! That's Billy Preston singing with John. . . Good stuff!
Just in case here's the original:
Here's the clip from ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Pretty amazing!
Just in case here's the original:
Here's the clip from ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Pretty amazing!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Andrew Sullivan on Obama
ANDREW SULLIVAN GETS IT!
I've learned for two years now not to under-estimate Obama. I watched from the very start of the campaign how he strategized a path to achieving his goals partly by eschewing the kinds of tactics that Washington has come to see as political skill. I think of him in some ways as the Un-Rove. Karl Rove mastered the art of petty and nasty political tactics in the South of the post-Reagan era. And he never had a solid grip on conservatism as a political philosophy or of political strategy. And so Rove today endures as the architect of the biggest and deepest political implosion since the Democrats in the 1970s. It was all tactics, no strategy; all politics, no governance. He remains the worst single political strategist of modern times.
Now look at how Obama has framed the debate since the election. Every single symbolic act has been inclusive and sober. From that speech in Grant Park to the eschewal of euphoria on Inauguration Day; from the George Will dinner invite to the Rick Warren invocation; from meeting the House Republicans on the Hill to convening a fiscal responsibility summit; from telegraphing to all of us Obamacons that he wasn't a fiscal lunatic to ... unveiling the most expansive, liberal, big government reversal of Reagan any traditional Democrat would die for.
Smart, isn't he? He won the stimulus debate long before the Republicans realized it (they were busy doing tap-dances of victory on talk radio, while he was building a new coalition without them). And now, after presenting such a centrist, bi-partisan, moderate and personally trustworthy front, he gets to unveil a radical long-term agenda that really will soak the very rich and invest in the poor. Given the crisis, he has seized this moment for more radicalism than might have seemed possible only a couple of months ago.
The risk is, at least, a transparent risk. If none of this works, he will have taken a massive gamble and failed. The country will be bankrupt and he will have one term. His gamble with the economy may come to seem like Bush's gamble in Iraq. But if any of it works, if the economy recovers, and if the GOP continues to be utterly deaf and blind to the new landscape we live in, then we're talking less Reagan than FDR in long-term impact.
It's going to be a riveting first year, isn't it?
I've learned for two years now not to under-estimate Obama. I watched from the very start of the campaign how he strategized a path to achieving his goals partly by eschewing the kinds of tactics that Washington has come to see as political skill. I think of him in some ways as the Un-Rove. Karl Rove mastered the art of petty and nasty political tactics in the South of the post-Reagan era. And he never had a solid grip on conservatism as a political philosophy or of political strategy. And so Rove today endures as the architect of the biggest and deepest political implosion since the Democrats in the 1970s. It was all tactics, no strategy; all politics, no governance. He remains the worst single political strategist of modern times.
Now look at how Obama has framed the debate since the election. Every single symbolic act has been inclusive and sober. From that speech in Grant Park to the eschewal of euphoria on Inauguration Day; from the George Will dinner invite to the Rick Warren invocation; from meeting the House Republicans on the Hill to convening a fiscal responsibility summit; from telegraphing to all of us Obamacons that he wasn't a fiscal lunatic to ... unveiling the most expansive, liberal, big government reversal of Reagan any traditional Democrat would die for.
Smart, isn't he? He won the stimulus debate long before the Republicans realized it (they were busy doing tap-dances of victory on talk radio, while he was building a new coalition without them). And now, after presenting such a centrist, bi-partisan, moderate and personally trustworthy front, he gets to unveil a radical long-term agenda that really will soak the very rich and invest in the poor. Given the crisis, he has seized this moment for more radicalism than might have seemed possible only a couple of months ago.
The risk is, at least, a transparent risk. If none of this works, he will have taken a massive gamble and failed. The country will be bankrupt and he will have one term. His gamble with the economy may come to seem like Bush's gamble in Iraq. But if any of it works, if the economy recovers, and if the GOP continues to be utterly deaf and blind to the new landscape we live in, then we're talking less Reagan than FDR in long-term impact.
It's going to be a riveting first year, isn't it?
Conservatism is Dead
"Until conservatives can practice some painful introspection, looking with a self-critical eye at the reasons for the debacles of 2006 and 2008, most in the movement will continue to delude themselves that simply reaffirming conservative love of small government, low taxes, and less regulation will be enough to convince a majority of Americans that they recognize their shortcomings and have changed their tune. There must be a reckoning with those who violate the very nature of conservatism by obstinately adhering to exclusionary, anti-intellectual precepts that have thrown classical conservatism over in favor of ranting, ideological tantrums," - Rick Moran.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Gold and Congo
A man working in a gold mine is pictured on February 23, 2009 in Chudja, near Bunia, north eastern Congo. The conflict in Congo has often been linked to a struggle for control over its resources. Congo is rich in mineral resources such as gold, diamonds, tin, and cobalt. The Democratic Republic of Congo government and the main former rebel group reached preliminary agreement on a wider peace deal for the east of the country on February 22, sources on both sides said. By Lionel Healing/AFP/Getty Images.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
"The Empire - A Soldier's View"
"Serving in Afghanistan is, I think, for anyone a humbling experience. You are continually humbled by the geography, the complexity of the society, and the weight of history. Understanding in your bones how long a drive thirty miles is without a road. Feeling in your stomach eyes watching you from canyon rims. Seeing the mixture of sorrow and hope in a child's eyes and the disillusioned stare of an adolescent with no options. That stays with you and gives a texture and reality check that is valuable when sifting through dry memoranda and contemplating strategic options," - Craig Mullaney, rumored to be soon named the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Central Asia and author of The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education. Interviewed by Andrew Exum.
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