Chuck Hagel has had enough

I don't watch television news. And even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to see Senator Chuck Hagel's blistering, unscripted monologue at last week's Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the Iraq escalation.



And here's the two minutes that was soundbited most often:



Almost makes me forget he's a rabid right wing Christian conservative who has voted with the Bush Administration more times than any other Senator.

Almost.

Haruhi Suzumiya: Dance Craze!

Six videos play in parallel, illuminating the latest (or, who knows, maybe this was yesterday's) craze in Japan.

In the top center: the closing credits to "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", an anime feature. As in America's "Down With Love", the credits are juxtaposed with a dance number, in this case over a pop song that is the exact opposite of melancholy.

In the lower center: the dance number, full frame without credits.

To the left and right of each are fan-created versions of the same clips.

We missed the Ok Go backyard dance competition.
We gotta get in on this one.

Below: the full frame dance.

iPhone Phunnies

(via Presentation Zen)
The comedy world reacted to Apple's new iPhone swiftly, and thanks to YouTube, now accessible all in one place.

Saturday Night Live: link

Stephen Colbert: link

MadTV: link

Conan O'Brien: link

The Cure for Health Care

Courtesy of Bill in Portland Maine:

Stephen Colbert: What made [Tuesday's State of the Union speech] so groundbreaking, I think, was all the new stuff we've never heard from the president before...like a domestic agenda. Take his proposal to fix the whole health care mess with the only proven cure-all: tax breaks...

Bush clip: And for the millions of Americans with no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within reach.

Colbert: It's so simple. Most people who couldn’t afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But...if you give them a deduction from their taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they're not getting back from what they haven't given to buy the health care they can't afford.

Somebody Else's New Years Resolution

JUBILATION ! ! ! ! ! I have broken through the Blogger clog! I can once again post to my heart's delight! I feel like Solzhenitsyn fresh out of the gulag.

So: what have you all been missing out on? For starters, this: my fantasy New Years Resolution, which can never be mine. At least not for the next ten years or so. But check out the glossy surface of somebody else's decluttered dining room table.... ahhhhhh.

Colbert: Bollywood Feud, Part 2

(from The Colbert Report, January 18)
Stephen Colbert follows up on the celebrity feuds from the previous week, including the spat between Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Baachaan. (Includes a favorite Bollywood clip of Ronan's).

In the interest not getting our news entirely from Comedy Central, I tried to find via Google the actual details of the feud in question. However, though Google sources quite a few Indian media outlets, the fact that Colbert was giving this feud play on American television is bigger news than any actual feud.

In any case, the Bollywood news and gossip cycle has already moved on its next big item, the upcoming marriage of the Big B's son to sometimes co-star and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.

Stephen Colbert Weighs In: The Big B or SRK?

(YouTube link)
From The Colbert Report, January 7, 2007. Colbert's "We the Mediator" segment weighs in on celebrity feuds: Rosie O'Donnell v. Donald Trump, Angelina Jolie v. Madonna, and of course:


Shahrukh Khan v. Amitabh Baachan

Groove down with Steve Jobs

Ok, so let's say you didn't want to spend two hours in front of your computer watching Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone from the stage at MacWorld.

In just four minutes you can listen to the arguably inevitable, and surprisingly danceable remix of two key moments--when he reveals that the iPod, phone, and internet communicator he's introducing are all in a single device, and when he reveals that the device doesn't require a stylus.

The crowd, you can hear, goes absolutely nuts.

(Of course if you did want to watch the whole speech, it's available as a free podcast download here.)

Dissecting Trends in Package Design

A New York design consulting firm shares its grocery shelf research on patterns found in package design for related products.

Their January report, "Crunch", analyzes color, form, typography, illustration, and visual texturing found on packages for chips, crackers, cereal, and other things that crunch.



You can also check out earlier reports on Energy Drinks, Children's Cold Medicine and Sliced Bread.

"...the kind of theatre that Mark Twain would have told stories in."

This two-story octagonal chapel was built in the of 1880s for the Lucy Cobb Institute to host not only religious services, but cultural events, lectures, drama productions, and graduations. It later was absorbed into the University of Georgia. Abandoned after WW2, it fill into disrepair until local donors and preservationists restored it in 1997.

The Seney-Stovall Chapel in Athens has a Victorian interior, with a raked stage and 240 seats.

Storyteller Bobby Norfolk, when he stood upon that stage at the Stitching Stars Storytelling Festival in Athens, marveled "This is the kind of theatre that Mark Twain would have told stories in."

Saturday, Donna Washington and Kevin Kling and I will get to see if we can feel the magic that Bobby felt.

I've got two sets, one at 2 pm, for 40 minutes, and one at 7 pm for 45 minutes. And I'll pretty much be fretting over my set list between now at 1:59 pm Saturday.

Blognabbit 2.0

Upgraded to the new Blogger platform today.

Not sure what happened to our profile names in the upper right.
Maybe they'll come back once everyone has logged in
(you have to log in with a GoogleID rather than your Blogger username to post now).

The main change you'll see is the addition of "labels", also known as categories or tags.
I've gone back and begun to tag a few posts, and we can begin to see some trends.

Let me know if you need any help.

Momma's Got a Brand New Blog

Mom has joined the growing ranks of senior bloggers. She set herself up with a Blogger account, and I added a "BlogThis!" bookmark to her browser.

Today I admitted to her (sheepishly) that I'm more likely to read her thoughts, poems, website recommendations, etc., on a blog than in email, since email has become so task-oriented for me (too many of her emails I file quickly into "Read Me Someday", which--good luck with that).

But with my RSS reader I'm sure to read any new post within 24 hours.

I am such a slave to the internet.

Bagpipe and saw for the new year

Folk Music & Beyond played one of those sets yesterday that made me want to just park the car and crank up the radio. Lots of hyper-energetic music for the New Year. Notable: Bagad Brieg, a pipe band from Brittany which blends Brazilian carnaval percussion and Taiko rhythms with traditional bagpipes. Fishtank Ensemble, featuring saw with gypsy music from eastern Europe. An insanely manic klezmer tune called "In Your Garden Twenty Fecund Fruit Trees", by Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars. It all makes me want to rent a huge dance floor and get one of these bands to play some rockin' private dance party. Like, for when my husband turns 40. Just fr'instance.

"Maybe the Next One Will Be Good"

Part of the original addictive quality of MTV in the 1980s was that you had heard about a cool video, or had seen a cool one, and were willing to sit through a dozen or two mediocre ones in case a cool one came on.

1500videos.com features 1500 videos from the '80s.

So there might be fifty good ones in there.

Plenty of train wrecks. Mike and the Mechanics, Musical Youth, Rockwell, Quiet Riot. Quarterflash.
But oh... who even knew that videos existed for some of these '80s classics?
Like "One Night In Bangkok" by Murray Head, Afrika Baambaata's "Planet Rock," and the Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men."

Plus plenty of classics from Men at Work, Madonna, The Go-Gos, The Police.

The Tree of Life and Me

The Tree of Life project is an online database (funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of Arizona) which compiles information about biodiversity and the evolutionary relationships of all organisms. Both professional and amateurs can contribute to it... which makes some entries more accesible than others. It's nonprofit, intended to help scientists and teachers, but surprisingly middle and high school students are finding it a great resource.

I only stumbled across it while vanity Googling (to check on publicity for my Tell It on Tuesday gig this past week)... because their using some of my photos!

Click here, search for "Ereneta"

They are using my pictures of the slender salamanders I found living under our green waste bin on the side of our house last Spring.

The pictures have been on Flickr since March. I posted them under a Creative Commons license, spelling out that anyone could use them for noncommerical purposes as long as they credit me. Oh, and I suppose it helps that the labelled the photos with the Latin name for the genus, instead of just saying "salamander."

Side note: I was hoping to catch Taricha torosa, the California newt, with my camera this rainy season, since they are plentiful in Berkeley and Oakland, if you know where to look. Although Googling around the web I discovered that its skin is coated with an acute neurotoxin (Only harmful if ingested, or introduced via a mucus membrane (like the eye)... one pet site helpfully suggested: "Don't place any newt in your mouth")). Washing your hands is supposed to be enough of a precaution, but an adult California newt has enough tetrodotoxin to kill 2500-7500 mice!

Note to self: don't let the boys pet one.

on being the mother

from dooce :

“What are y’all reading?”

“One of her new Dora books.”

“Which one?”

“The very exciting one in which Dora imagines all the different things she could be when she grows up, like a doctor or a scientist.”

“You mean she’s not hoping to grow up to be a blogger?”

“Not in this version, no. But the best part is Boots, the monkey who follows her everywhere, he wants to be a teacher when he gets older.”

“I imagine that Boots is going to be seriously pissed when he gets older and realizes that monkeys only get to grow up to be monkeys.”

“There is a reason I am the fun one and you’re the one whose name she always yells when taking a breath between screams.”

Clooney Is The New Khan

Here's a movie ticket I'm willing to buy.

organic free-range chicken broth

From Dooce, a parenting blog worth the occasional visit:

I made all these points to my mother who continued to insist that organic free range chicken broth is a noble and valid product, and that is when I told her that I was going to write about this and emphasize the fact that she was taking up for the hippies.

And if you’ve ever wondered how it might be possible to melt the face off an Avon World Sales Leader, you might want to start by telling her that she’s taking sides with a group of people who don’t wear make-up.

The Scared of Santa Holiday Gallery

The 'Scared of Santa' gallery is worth studying as you plan your visuals for next year's holiday card. I shouldn't be so amused by freaked-out kids, but... Also worth a careful examination of the morphing facial expressions of Santa. ("Mommy? How can he be all over the world with these kids all at the same time? And how come he looks drunk?")

Science a la Joe Camel - washingtonpost.com

Op-Ed from Laurie David, one of the producers of An Inconvenient Truth.

She offered 50,000 free copies of the DVD of the movie to the National Science Teachers Association, to distribute to science teachers. NSTA declined, noting that accepting such a gift would put an "unnecessary risk upon the capital campaign, especially targeted supporters."

NSTA corporate supporters include Shell Oil, Exxon Mobil, and the American Petroleum Institute.

NSTA responds here. Seems like their Executive Director is experienced in damage control. Not only does he address Ms. David's accusations of corporate influence, he agrees to help get the DVD out to teachers.