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chocolate bobka ["living in a candy jail = +rep] reviews the free merriweather post pavillion (due 1.20.09) listening party hosted by animal collective. obviously, i have not read it yet.
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nyctaper pegs itself as "A discussion of NYC live music recording, sharing and archiving."
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Beach House: Used to Be
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the cotton jones basket ride - all along the year (in a day)
brings to mind american analog set, dan bejar, and vetiver.
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via timesonline:
Sarah Palin 'did not know Africa was a continent', say aides
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Obama sought advice from gay bishop
Bishop Robinson, who received death threats after his election as Bishop of New Hampshire and was advised by police to wear a bullet-proof vest at his consecration, also discussed with Mr Obama the risks incumbent upon being a high-profile leader in a country such as the US.
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timesonline asks, What is your single biggest hope for Barack Obama? in eight words or less. some responses:
That he loses in 2012.
"His expectations are achieved and hope is reinstalled"
Avoid becoming the first appallingly bad black president.
Be a leader of the free world worth following.
that he gets impeached for lying to us
That he's everything W's administration isn't.
Do something interesting instead of spouting oratorical fluff.
That he is quickly exposed as a fraud.
My life is fine. Keep the government out.
foster a climate that inhibits cynicism and hate.
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Two months after China’s athletes dazzled the world at the Beijing Olympics its 750 million peasant farmers were invited to take their turn in the sporting spotlight this week at the 6th Peasant Games. In the ’quickly harvest the grain and get it Into storage’ event contestants peddled a three-wheeled cargo bike down a track, loaded it with sandbags, then sprinted for the finish line. There was also tyre-pushing, in which contestants rolled big truck tyres down a track, a tug-of-war, and pond fishing, to go along with more traditional sports like basketball.
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Photoshop failure in Kim Jong Il image?
In a bid to end speculation that Kim Jong Il had suffered a stroke, North Korean officials released a new picture of the “Dear Leader” in apparently good health. But is the image genuine?
closely related:
WATCH THIS NOW. for reals. if you're dicking around here, anyway, watch this 14-part series (a few minutes each) curated by vbs.tv depicting an american's travels in the heirarchy-obsessed, america-hating north korea. it will fucking blow your mind.
the rest are here. i also recommend any of their other guides; they'll teach you things about the rest of the world you'd never even contemplate otherwise.
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I just spent the last hour scrolling through a list of Barack Obama pins online. My favorite was 'Breakfast for Obama.' How could one not want to sport a button with a picture of Obama sitting at a table eating his morning eggs with his glass of orange juice in front of him? One could scratch his or her head for hours on this one. Are the eggs and orange juice "for Obama?" What about the fact that he is eating them? Do they not mind? Maybe it is merely the action of eating breakfast that is for Obama…but then the pin would have to say "Eating Breakfast for Obama." Right? God forbid my dyslexia sets in and I interpret it 'Eating Obama for Breakfast' (which I am sure is a pin McCain would like to sport). In reality the message MUST be: Breakfast for Obama…if you eat breakfast, and if you are for Obama – we have the perfect pin for you! [via]
i came across this breakfast for obama thing while ago, but it just resurfaced in my memory as i was perusing through blogs of note and came across this photo on apifera farm:
sidenote: this blogger has literally decided to become a shepherd and tend to her garden and goats. will hunting what's up. also: watermarks are annoying as hell in all formats.
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smugopedia is a collection of slightly controversial opinions about a variety of subjects. it is actually much more insightful than it sounds.
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etymologically speaking... offers a plethora of etymologies.
Companion; Compañero (Spanish); Copain (French) Companion
From the Latin "Companionem," which was, "one with whom you would eat bread" -- "Con" (with) and "Pan" (bread) -- presumably, your "companion" was someone with whom you would "break bread." See also Lord and host.
Escape
In Latin, escape means "out of cape." The ancient Romans would often avoid capture by throwing off their capes when fleeing.
Pedigree
From the French "Ped de gru," which means or meant, "Crane's foot," the /|\ symbol "used to denote succession in a genealogical table."
Utopia
Greek for "no where."
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if i'm not mistaken, this graph shows that, as of 2005, eighty percent of the world's population, or 5.15 billion people, live on a budget of less than $10 USD per day. [via]
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nytimes says so:
tears to remember
On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: “Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.” “Save this paper,” she told us. “This is the start of a whole new era.” And it was. An era of unbridled deregulation, wealth-enhancing perks for the already well-off, and miserly indifference to the poor and middle class; of the recasting of greed as goodness, the equation of bellicose provincialism with patriotism, the reframing of bigotry as small-town decency.
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on the tv show "south park", the city after which the program is named was facing a flag problem: some people thought they should change the current flag due to some racist undertone in its design. Of course, some people, including the KKK, contested that the flag imagery should be kept since it is part of their history. The first attempt at reconcialiation was to draw a smiley face on the hanged figure. It failed.
The final version was adopted after a school debate pointed that violence was indeed part of their common history but that the flag should be more multicultural. The poll that was taken was 2 for the flag, two against the flag, and the rest undecided. This was intended to poke fun at the recent flag debates at the time (South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi). [via]
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eztv offers a plethora of documentaries and tv shows for free, including programs from national geographic, discovery channel, history channel, modern marvels (which is on the history channel), mv group documentaries, and nova pbs documentaries.
related: in pot we trust is probably the best cannabis-related documentary i've seen. there are interviews with first-time patients, politicians, activists, christopher hitchens, lester grinspoon, and plenty of other notables and unheard ofs.
In Pot We Trust tells the story of four medical marijuana patients, against the backdrop of last year's Hinchey-Rohrabacher vote. The filmmakers follow MPP's Aaron Houston through the halls of Congress, then join the DEA as they uproot marijuana plants in the hills of California. Marijuana experts such as Lester Grinspoon provide insight into the drug's benefits, while prohibitionists Joe Califano and Robert Dupont explain why they've dedicated themselves to criminalizing sick people.
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[via]
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AN ELECTORAL-
COLLEGE BREAKDOWN
FOR MY FRENCH IN-LAWS
THAT MEETS ALL THEIR
PRECONCEPTIONS [via]
Maryland
It may come as a surprise to you that Maryland is actually a state. It comes as a surprise to most Americans. This illustrates how much uncharted territory still exists in the United States. Maryland has only a handful of electoral votes. However, if your name is Mary, your vote counts twice. Otherwise, Maryland is a state of pure enlightenment. In Maryland, you don't have to put the extra line through the seven, you can cut your meat with a fork, and water is brought to your table whether you've requested it or not. Sometimes with ice cubes. I realize it's unimaginable, but it's true. All that being said, Maryland is definitely not worth returning to after you've spent time abroad. Gosh, no. Likewise, it's not the kind of place for a young couple to try to raise a family. One really shouldn't even consider it.
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via largehearted boy:
The Associated Press gets writers' responses to Barack Obama's electoral victory.
"Until now, my identity as a writer has never overlapped with my identity as an American — in the past eight years, my writing has often felt like an antidote or correction to my Americanism," says "Everything Is Illuminated" novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.
"But finally having a writer-president — and I don't mean a published author, but someone who knows the full value of the carefully chosen word — I suddenly feel, for the first time, not only like a writer who happens to be American, but an American writer."
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The Telegraph credits Barack Obama's musical taste (and supporters) with helping him win the White House.
While McCain lamely cited Abba as his personal favourites (it's hard to picture the Vietnam veteran as a dancing queen), Obama featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, discussing the contents of his iPod. His was a persuasively eclectic selection spanning rap (Jay-Z), rock (Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones), blues (Howlin' Wolf), singer-songwriters (Bob Dylan, Elton John), old-school soul (Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire are his all time favourites), classical (Yo-Yo Ma) and jazz (Miles Davis, John Coltrane).
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off the record says that noah lennox "is possibly the kindest person to talk to, and doesn't give one sentence responses. It was a conversation that only went for a half an hour, but it felt longer. Noah was kind enough to compile a playlist for Off The Record of his 5 favorite songs, as many artists have done so far (and there's plenty more to come)."
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i guess i'm floating offers panda bear's remix of the notwist's "boneless" and three absurdly good mpp covers.
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ac takeaway shows:
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naturalismo offers downloads of albums that influenced panda bear.
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bonnie "prince" billy - the letting go (2006) / lie down in the light (2008)
animal collective - sung tongs (2004) / feels (2005) / strawberry jam (2007)
i've been spinning (and watching) almost nothing but will oldham and animal collective for the past few days. both collectives sing of growing up and transitioning from youth to adulthood, fear to confidence, emptiness to fulfilment. will oldham takes things easy, accepting his constantly changing world and transforming it into beatiful, sometimes very funny, songs that carry and convey his every emotion in each warbly syllable, be it one of pristine joy or supreme despair. animal collective transitions more wildly, and avey's voice is monstrous in every way will oldham's is not. animal collective bash their horns into whatever life supposes to throw at them and they have a lot of fun doing it. vocally and lyrically, avey tare is one of the best singers in the world, though most people probably wouldn't give him the time of day to show off his skills. he jumps from octave to octave at the drop of a hat and uses his voice as the weirdest instrument i've ever heard. sitars and one-stringed chinese instruments have nothing on his voice, but he could probably emulate them pretty well if he wanted to. in "tripping with caveh," will, in deep thought, expresses "umm" by humming it, starting at one pitch, lowering an octave, and then returning to the original pitch. octaves are so wholesome in the music world, especially given the tendency of these two discrete styles to sound decidedly dissonant much of the time. the octaves that show up from time to time are tiny assurances, letting the listener know that even though they may stray, it's with clarity, conviction, and the confidence that they'll be able to get back to wherever it was that they started, if they so please.
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