The supervolcano / Romney’s plan for August / Overthrowing Mossadegh / Background on Sikh religion / Plan out your next 200 years
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1.‘Super volcano’, global danger, lurks near Pompeii By Antonio Denti | Reuters | Aug. 3
“Across the bay of Naples from Pompeii, where thousands were incinerated by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, lies a hidden ‘super volcano’ that could kill millions in a catastrophe many times worse, scientists say.”
2.The longevity of US presidents’ mothers By Richard Knight | BBC News Magazine | Aug. 3
“The mothers of US presidents and presidential candidates live far longer than the mothers of British prime ministers and opposition leaders. Is that just a statistical quirk?”
3.Romney’s August to-do list By Maggie Haberman | The Arena :: Politico | Aug. 5
“The fear for Democrats is how much of a cash advantage Romney will have over them when his campaign begins its own serious spending.”
4.A Crass and Consequential Error By Roger Cohen | The New York Review of Books | Aug. 16
“Muhammad Mossadegh, the Iranian prime minister overthrown by US and British agents in 1953, was a man who declined a salary, returned gifts, and collected tax arrears from his beloved mother.”
5.David Axelrod: Barack Obama’s street fighter By Paul Harris | The Observer :: The Guardian | Aug. 5
“For the second time, the ultimate campaign manager is determined to get his man into the White House. And now the gloves are off as he masterminds a brutal ad campaign against Mitt Romney”
6.5 Things To Know About The Sikh Religion The Huffington Post | Aug. 5
“Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world with a population of upwards of 30 million worldwide. There are an estimated 250,000 Sikhs in the United States having first arrived in the late 19th century.”
7.Raghava KK: What’s your 200-year plan? TED | April 2012
“Artist Raghava KK …. shows how it helps guide today’s choices and tomorrow’s goals — and encourages you to make your own 200-year plan too.”
8.Where Daisy Buchanan Lived By Jason Diamond | The Paris Review | July 23
“Founded in 1861, Lake Forest, Illinois, was originally built as a college town by Presbyterians.”
9.Before the Storm By Ronald S. Coddington | Disunion :: The New York Times | May 7
“James E. McBeth was a modest young man of few words who in 1862 left his job as a law clerk on Wall Street and enlisted in the Union Army. Later, in a series of wartime letters to a friend, he detailed the experiences that sparked his transformation into a military zealot advocating total war.”
10.Decoding the Science of Sleep By David K. Randall | The Wall Street Journal | Aug. 3
“In today’s always-on economy, we’re tired like never before. Caffeine and sleeping pills only do so much. How did we get this far away from our most basic, ancient habits? And how can we get back on track?”
Being alone / Planning for post-Assad Syria / NASA preps for Mars landing / Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld get coffee / RFK’s secret archive
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1.How to be alone By Tracy Clark-Flory | Salon | Aug. 4
“We all have to learn to be by ourselves, whether it’s after a breakup, a move or a divorce — but how, exactly?”
2.State Department and Pentagon Plan for Post-Assad Syria By Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker | The New York Times | Aug. 4
“Mindful of American mistakes following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, both agencies have created a number of cells to draft plans for what many officials expect to be a chaotic, violent aftermath that could spread instability over Syria’s borders …”
3.Ruins a memento of Iraqi Christians’ glorious past By Kay Johnson | Associated Press | Aug. 5
“[R]uins have emerged from the sand over the past five years with the expansion of the airport serving the city of Najaf, and have excited scholars who think this may be Hira, a legendary Arab Christian center.”
4.NASA braces for ‘7 minutes of terror’ Mars plunge By Alicia Chang | Associated Press | Aug. 5
“The Curiosity rover was poised to hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph. If all goes according to script, it will be slowly lowered by cables inside a massive crater in the final few seconds.”
6.He May Be Leader of Peru, but to Outspoken Kin, He’s Just a Disappointment By William Neuman | The New York Times | Aug. 4
“The president’s brother Ulises, the oldest of the seven Humala children, compared the family’s wranglings — ‘Humala vs. Humala’ is a headline that needs no translation here — to the escapades in ‘Dallas.’ ”
7.Theo Jansen creates new creatures TED | September 2007
“Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles.”
8.Kennedys keep vise-grip on RFK papers By Bryan Bender | The Boston Globe | Aug. 5
“Scholars and government officials believe the 62 boxes of files covering Kennedy’s three years as attorney general during his brother’s administration could provide insights into critical Cold War decisions on issues ranging from the Cuban missile crisis to Vietnam.”
9.Left for Dead in Virginia By Ronald S. Coddington | Disunion :: The New York Times | June 28
“George T. Perkins and his Union comrades breathed a collective sigh of relief on the afternoon of June 27, 1862.”
10.Mississippi 1964: Civil Rights and Unrest By Walter Cronkite | NPR | June 2005
“Walter Cronkite recalls the story of the slaying of three civil rights workers in 1964. Cronkite saw the drama unfold amid two struggles: one for civil rights and another against the Vietnam War.”
Olympics beefcake / Gore Vidal’s career as a dramatist, plus a reading list / Detroit, the dumping ground / Human sculpture found in Turkey /
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays, and criticism.
1.The Olympics or Soft Porn? Female, Gay Fans Gawking at Male Athletes By Tricia Romano | The Daily Beast | Aug. 3
“From Ryan Lochte to Tom Daley, the Web is awash with lascivious pictures of the men of the London Games. Did ‘Magic Mike’ set the stage for the worldwide gawkfest?”
3.Ben-Gore By F.X. Feeney | Los Angeles Review of Books | Aug. 1
“There is an almost violent difference in scale and power between the novels that preceded [Vidal’s] career as a dramatist and those which come after.”
4.Washington’s War on Leaks, Explained By Cora Currier | ProPublica | Aug. 2
“Leaks, of course, are nothing new in Washington, but now the Senate has jumped into the fray, with a new proposal to tighten control over the flow of information between intelligence agencies and the press.”
5.Gore Vidal’s reading list for America By Michael Winship | Salon | Aug. 2
“The author’s recommendations were as brilliant and eccentric as he was”
7.Jonathan Harris: the Web’s secret stories TED | July 2007
“With deep compassion for the human condition, his projects troll the Internet to find out what we’re all feeling and looking for.”
8.Archeologists Unearth Extraordinary Human Sculpture in Turkey Science Daily | July 30
“A beautiful and colossal human sculpture is one of the latest cultural treasures unearthed by an international team at the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) excavation site in southeastern Turkey.”
9.Fighting for Nightfall By Will Hickox | Disunion :: The New York Times | June 27
“Rather than securing the rest they badly needed, the exhausted soldiers of Col. Elisha G. Marshall’s 13th New York Infantry began building breastworks.”
10.Civil Rights Era Almost Split CBS News Operation By Walter Cronkite | NPR | May 2005
“Walter Cronkite recalls CBS-TV coverage of civil rights in the 1950s, and how it threatened to divide the news department from network management.”
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Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the wonderful Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.
1. The Kilborn Alley Blues Band — Watch It 2. Blackfoot — Sunshine Again 3. Susan Tedeschi — There’s A Break In The Road 4. Wiser Time — Devided 5. Curtis Salgado — Wiggle Outa This 6. Elvin Bishop — Midnight Hour Blues 7. Storyville — Fairplay 8. Chris Rea — Houston Angel 9. George Thorogood — I Drink Alone 10. Travis Tritt — The Storm 11. Flophouse — Everything Is Cool 12. The Stoney Curtis Band — Hard Livin’
As the winter of 1862 turned Brokenburn into a snowy, muddy landscape, Stone sensed the war was growing ever closer as the joys and comforts she had always enjoyed were slipping away.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, the daughter of Louisiana cotton plantation owners who chronicled her turbulent life throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
Stone was in marginal command of Brokenburn as her mother and brothers attended to business in and around Vicksburg. As the winter of 1862 turned Brokenburn into a snowy, muddy landscape, she dutifully recorded the comings and goings of family friends, neighborhood gossip, and her brothers’ dreaded school lessons.
By the end of January, however, slaves and animals belonging to Ashburn, her late brother, were distributed to other owners, bringing Stone a degree of “distress,” and the demands and tragedies of a still far-off war were again felt in Louisiana. Stone sensed the war was growing ever closer as the joys and comforts she had always enjoyed were slipping away.
Jan. 16:
Real winter weather at last with sleet and snow whitening the ground a real winter landscape. We made some ice cream last night, ate it this morning, and pronounced it splendid. Today they are killing the last of the hogs, and all of the house servants with a contingent from the quarters are making lard, sausage, souse, etc., etc. ..
Jan. 17:
The snow is melting and running off the house in a continual rain and underfoot is too slushy for anything. It is too cold and wet for Sister to go to school, but the boys went and came in this evening covered with mud but in high good humor. Each one has an essay to write, their first attempt, and it seems to hang over them as a regular kill-joy. Brother Coley is studying at home for several hours a day. I have been sewing and reading “The Pilgrims of the Rhine,” a perfect prose poem. …
Jan. 20:
Sunday, though it was cloudy, windy, and so muddy, all of us went to church, leaving only Brother Walter at home. Mr. Holbury gave us an excellent sermon. We saw nearly everyone we know in that section and also met the new Presbyterian minister, Mr. McNeely, and Anna’s bright, particular star, Dr. Meagher from Franklin Parish. It looks like there might be serious intentions in that quarter, for Mrs. Savage permits no flirting on her premises and is a famous matchmaker. The Doctor is quite nice looking. …
Dr. Lily left last week, I suppose for the army, and did not come out to say farewell. And such a friend as he claimed to be to the Brokenburn household! I was sorry he left in a bad humor with us.
Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich were at church, his first attendance for years. The death of their little girl Sarah not long since was a dreadful blow to them. She was a bright, attractive child about thirteen who died of diphtheria. They have one little boy.
Jan. 22:
Gen. [Leonidas] Polk has called on the planters from Memphis to the lower part of Carroll Parish for hands to complete the fortifications at Fort Pillow, forty miles above Memphis. A great many Negroes have been sent from Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Mississippi, and now it comes Louisiana’s time to shoulder her part of the common burden. A man was here today with Gen. Polk’s appeal. He had been riding constantly since Monday from one plantation to another, and nearly everyone had promised to send some half of their force of men, some more, some less. As they get off tomorrow evening, Brother Coley had to go down to see Mamma about it.
Took a cozy dinner all to myself shut up in Mamma’s room, which I am occupying while she is away and which Frank keeps at summer heat. I find the piano a great resource as I am recalling some of my music. … We miss Mamma dreadfully.
The boys start to school immediately after breakfast and get home just at sunset, and directly after supper they commence on next day’s lessons. Brother Walter has just worried through his first essay. It is short and of course must be filled with mistakes, but he will not let us look at it. It is the first step that costs. Hereafter, hope he will not find it such a job. The other two boys are hammering away at their speeches. Sister has not attained to the dignity of either writing or speaking yet awhile.
Jan. 24:
Mamma and Other Pa (Stone’s maternal grandfather) got home late Thursday evening. We were not looking for them and no supper had been kept hot, as it was some time before then that hot supper was served. Other Pa only came on business and went back to Vicksburg carrying with him Ashburn’s Negroes, who are to be divided out among the heirs. Separating the old family Negroes who have lived and worked together for so many years is a great grief to them and a distress to us. I wish Mamma had been able to buy them all in and keep them here.
Stone reported the final distribution of her late brother’s slaves and animals on Jan. 30:
From Ashburn’s estate Mamma drew two Negroes, Mathilda and Abe. Patsy and John went to Cousins Jenny and Titia. They all came up on the boat this afternoon. Mat with Festus, the horse, goes to Uncle Johnny, Hill to Uncle Bo, Peggy and Jane to Aunt Laura, and Sydney and her two youngest children to Aunt Sarah. It is hard for Sydney and her older children to be separated. We are so sorry but cannot help it. Jan. 27:
We went to hear Mr. McNeely preach Sunday rather dry and humdrum. Dr. Carson took him all around the country to introduce him to his new field of work. Quite pleasant socially, and could not be called ceremonious.
But I forget. I must give the real neighborhood news. Rose and Dr. Lily are to be married very soon — my pet prejudice, Rose Norris and the “Tiger Lily.” She will be Mrs. “Rose Lily.” She slipped quietly off with Mrs. Savage to New Orleans and is selecting her trousseau. … I never would have picked Rose Norris out of all the world to spend my life with. For that matter, neither would I have selected Dr. Lily for that post. But oh! how tastes differ. I cannot believe he is in love with her. It has been too recently that he was criticizing her severely her looks, her walk, her manner. If it proves a happy marriage, I shall be surprised. She is quite young, about seventeen I think. …
Jan. 30:
A late mail this evening. A letter from My Brother complains that it is dreadfully dull. They are just wearing the time away winterbound in their tents. The papers confirm our defeat at Fishing Creek and the death of Gen. Zollicoffer. Two lamentable events. Mr. McNeely knew Gen. Zollicoffer intimately and grieves for his death. He admired him greatly and considers his death a great loss to the Southern Cause.
The whole Northern Army is now on the move preparing to attack us at all points. We expect to hear of great battles within the next few days. God grant us victory in our just war. The manner in which the North is moving her forces, now that she thinks us surrounded and can give us the annihilating blow, reminds me of a party of hunters crouched around the covert of the deer, and when the lines are drawn and there is no escape, they close in and kill. …
It looks like we may have difficulty in getting summer clothes. The merchants are selling only for cash and that cash is hard to get, unless we can do as they seem to be doing in the towns make it. Judging from the looks of the paper money and the many signatures on odd-looking paper and pasteboard, one would be convinced that many people are making their own money. We have spent less this year than ever before. Have bought only absolute necessaries — no frills and fur belows for us. Affairs are too grave to think of dress.
As she faced a long, hard year ahead, on Jan. 8, 1862, Stone made a fresh promise to herself as an individual and as a citizen of the Confederacy.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, the daughter of Louisiana cotton plantation owners who chronicled her turbulent life throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
As she faced a long, hard year ahead, on Jan. 8, 1862, Stone made a fresh promise to herself as an individual and as a citizen of the Confederacy.
Jan. 8:
This is my twenty-first birthday, and I think this will be my motto for the year so uncertain are all our surroundings: “Live for today. Tomorrow’s night, tomorrow’s cares shall bring to light.” May I always be able to put my trust in God as I can tonight, satisfied that He will order our future as is best.
This has been a year of changes, of stirring and eventful life, the shortest ever in our calendar. God has been with our Nation during this year of trouble. He has given us wise rulers, brave and successful generals, valiant and patriotic men, and a united people, self-sacrificing and with their trust in God. …
Stone’s first entry for 1862 was a somber one. The shadow of her brother’s death darkened the holiday cheer.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, the daughter of Louisiana cotton plantation owners who chronicled her turbulent life throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
Stone’s first entry for 1862 was a somber one. The shadow of her brother’s death darkened the holiday cheer.
Jan. 6:
Christmas passed very quietly with us. Greetings on all sides but no gifts and not many good things prepared beforehand. Had the customary eggnog before breakfast, but not a prize nog. It was made of borrowed whiskey with a strong flavor of turpentine. A lovely day, so warm that we sat on the gallery until bedtime.
Julia Reed came on the twenty-seventh and stayed until today. This is the first Christmas in our recollection that was not a time of fun and feasting. We missed Ashburn’s kiss and blithesome presence.
Mamma invited the two Mr. Valentines, father and son, to dinner, thinking it would be pleasant for Other Pa (Stone’s maternal grandfather) to meet the older man, and rather to our surprise they came and stayed until sundown. We never heard of Mr. Valentine, Sr., paying a social visit before. He is odd, just as we fancied he would be, but an excellent talker. He and his son are strikingly alike in looks, manners, and turn of mind, though they generally take opposite sides on every proposition. Mark, Jr., says they are forced to do so to have something to talk about the long winter evenings.
Mark, Jr., acquainted us with his fixed determination to pay us a New Year’s call. So Julia and I hurried back from our ride that misty, misty morning and looked for him all day. In the afternoon we begged Mamma to let us pay our expected visit to Mrs. Savage, but she would not allow it. So he ruined our plans for all day. It will be long before we let an engagement with him keep us in again.
The morning after Christmas Mamma gave all the house servants holiday … and they all went down to the quarters. She hired some of the field women, who were busy in the backyard drying out lard, making up sausages, cleaning feet and so on. …
As the war’s first Christmas approached, life went on at Brokenburn. Soft winter rain drenched the neighborhood. A strange relative got married. Sickness claimed yet another acquaintance. It’s a fascinating record of a quiet home front. Quiet for the moment.
From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, the daughter of Louisiana cotton plantation owners who chronicled her turbulent life throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)
As the war’s first Christmas approached, life went on at Brokenburn. Soft winter rain drenched the neighborhood. A strange relative got married. Sickness claimed yet another acquaintance. It’s a fascinating record of a quiet home front. Quiet for the moment.
Dec. 22:
I have been sleeping with Mamma and so I have not written for some time, as night is my time for scribbling.
Aunt Laura left us ten days ago after a two-week stay, and she seemed to enjoy so much being with us all, especially Mamma. Her visit was a pleasure to us. …
After two weeks of the lovliest warm spring weather with skies as blue and bright as bend over Italian plains, we wake to hear a soft, warm rain pattering down, and so no church for us today. And none of us went last Sunday. Sunday spent at home is a long, weary day. …
The greatest news of all Uncle Johnny is married. On the seventeenth of this month he gave his heart and hand to Miss Kate Boone, a girl from Charleston, S.C., who has been visiting her brother at Pine Bluff, Ark., for some months. She is quite a young girl, not more than seventeen, while Uncle Johnny is thirty-five. We wish them every happiness, and I wish he would bring her down to see us. I only hope he will not try to educate her according to his theories but will let her go on as Nature and her own antecedents and education would have her. But for years he has had the idea of marrying a very young girl and molding and educating her according to his pet theories. My mind misgives me that such is still his plan.
Other Pa (Stone’s maternal grandfather) left the day after the wedding, which was very quiet. He is not pleased with the marriage, though he does not say much against it. Uncle John is editing a paper in Pine Bluff. He is a most impracticable man with so many theories, and he has made ducks and drakes of all the money inherited from Other Ma (Stone’s maternal grandmother) and every other cent he could get. We hope marriage will be his salvation, an anchor to keep him from drifting with every tide, or feeling, or impulse. Johnny says he shall call his new Aunt “Aunt Boone.” He likes it better than “Kate.” I have pre-emption title on that name. …
Mrs. Virginia Cavalier, the oldest sister of the Morris girls, died a week ago of swamp fever. She was a widow with two young children and a very attractive woman. Her brother-in-law, Mr. Joe Cavalier, has been addressing her for the last year, so report says.
Less poverty by 2030 / Don’t ‘Like’ James Holmes / Springsteen at 62 / What we don’t know about forgiveness / D-Day deception
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1.US intelligence sees poverty plummet by 2030 By Kimberly Dozier | Associated Press | July 28
“The chief at the U.S. government’s top intelligence analysis shop says if current economic and demographic trends continue, 1 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day now will drop by half in roughly two decades.”
4.Myths of Forgiveness By Will Meek | Notes to Self :: Psychology Today | July 26
“Most of them are ways that our minds and culture bundle other things with forgiveness, rather than seeing it as a process of its own.”
5.Before The D-Day Invasion, Double Talk And Deceit Weekend Edition Saturday :: NPR | July 28
“The British effort to feign, trick and fool the Germans into believing the D-Day invasion would be anywhere but Normandy was largely the work of people plotting at desks: untrustworthy double-agents, West End set designers and at least one pigeon handler.”
6.We Are Alive By David Remnick | The New Yorker | July 30
“Bruce Springsteen at sixty-two”
7.David Perry: Are games better than life? TED | October 2008
“Game designer David Perry says tomorrow’s videogames will be more than mere fun to the next generation of gamers. They’ll be lush, complex, emotional experiences — more involving and meaningful to some than real life. ”
8.Presidents at the Olympics Politico | July 24
“President Barack Obama does not plan to attend the London games, but first lady Michelle Obama will represent him at the event.”
9.Where Was Stonewall? By Ben Cleary | Disunion :: The New York Times | June 22
“[Stonewall] Jackson may have relied on his will to push himself beyond the limits of human endurance, but those limits are very real, and he encountered them in the hot, swampy lowlands east of Richmond in the summer of 1862.”
10.Loss of Spy Plane Sabotaged 1960 Summit By Walter Cronkite | NPR | May 2005
“Former CBS anchor and commentator Walter Cronkite recalls the tension of spring 1960 when an American spy plane helped to plunge East-West relations into one of the deepest chills of the Cold War.”
Video of asteroid near miss / Peruvian food around the world / Death in a Facebook status / Cronkite remembers the Battle of the Bulge
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1.Near-Earth Asteroid Fly-By Captured by Observatory Space.com | July 2012
“Asteroid 2002 AM31 flew by Earth on July 22nd. The Slooh Space Camera in the Canary Islands observatory was on hand to capture the space rock zoom by. It was about 3.2 million miles away on its closest approach.”
3.Facebook, in Life and Death By Rubina Madan Fillon | The Juggle :: The Wall Street Journal | July 25
“I’ve grown accustomed to finding out about friends’ milestones on Facebook: graduations, engagements, weddings, new jobs and children. But hearing about death that way — I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that.”
4.Gang Violence Smoulders On Hot Chicago Streets By Scott Simon | Weekend Edition Saturday | July 28
“When the sun goes down behind the glimmering lakeshore skyline, blocks on the South and West Side of the city can ring with shots and sirens.”
6.Texting: Grammar suffering as a result, finds a new study By Alexander Besant | GlobalPost | July 28
“Researchers from Penn State have found that teenagers who use text messages to communicate tend to have worse grammar skills than those who don’t.”
7.J.J. Abrams’ mystery box TED | January 2008
“J.J. Abrams traces his love for the unseen mystery … back to its magical beginnings.”
8.Fancy that: the golden age of the sexy geeky leading male By Zoe Williams | The Guardian | July 27
“The home-grown actors making it big in Hollywood these days aren’t chiselled or buff, but funny, nerdy and strangely attractive”
9.Runaway Masters By Daniel W. Crofts | Disunion :: The New York Times | June 22
“All hope vanished that the war might end soon, or that the old Union might somehow be restored intact.”
10.The Battle of the Bulge Remembered By Walter Cronkite | NPR | December 2004
“Cronkite reflects on what remains the largest pitched battle in the history of American arms.”
Has Madonna gone crazy? / Sandals and flip-flop advice / NBC’s Olympics coverage slammed / U.S. Grant’s third star / Too many Agrippinas
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
2.Nazis, breasts and guns: Has Madonna lost it? By Laura Barcella | Salon | July 27
“Madonna’s European shows have included swastikas, sex and violence. Is it more than the usual button-pushing?”
3.NBC lambasted over banal butchering of opening ceremony By Emma G. Keller | The Guardian | July 28
“Tim Berners-Lee? Who’s that? Madagascar? Oh, like the kids movie! If you’re going to make us wait hours to watch the ceremony live, NBC, the least you could have done is keep quiet”
6.They loaded mortars in the war, so now what? By Pauline Jelinek | Associated Press | July 25
“U.S. combat troops patrol dusty pathways in Afghanistan, look for hidden roadside bombs, load and fire mortar shells at insurgents’ positions. So when they come home, how will that help them land a civilian job?”
7.Jakob Trollback rethinks the music video TED | April 2008
“What would a music video look like if it were directed by the music, purely as an expression of a great song, rather than driven by a filmmaker’s concept?”
8.Sorting out the Agrippinas By Mary Beard | A Don’s Life | July 24
“One of the problems of the first century AD is that there are simply too many Agrippinas.”
9.A Black Spy in the Confederate White House By Lois Leveen | Disunion :: The New York Times | June 21
“Journalists, historians, even the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and the C.I.A. have celebrated the extraordinary Mary Bowser, yet most Americans have never heard of her.”
10.Mariel Boatlift from Cuba Witness :: BBC News | May 25
“In 1980, more than 100,000 Cubans left the island in a boatlift from Mariel harbour.”
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TUNES
Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the wonderful Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.
1. Ron Artis Family Band — You Can’t Lie To Grandma 2. Z-Tribe — Defending the Blues 3. Ian Moore — Pay No Mind 4. John Mayall — With You 5. Grace Potter — Stop The Bus 6. Jerry Forney Blues Band — I’ll Play The Blues 7. Preacher Stone — Old Fashion Ass Whoopin 8. The Buddaheads — Howlin’ At The Moon 9. Lost Immigrants — Can’t You See 10. Paul Thorn — Pimps & Preachers 11. Jeff Strahan — Amen To The Blues 12. Stony Larue — Solid Gone 13. Bob Seger — Come To Papa
Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.
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