Give your iPhone a shake and explore the vagaries of love: its joys, passions, doubts, disappointments, insecurities, and finally the grief it too often brings. Or maybe when you have to spend just a little too much time home for the holidays, you’ll want to deliberately line up “boredom” and “family,” and read what comes up, both to kill time and to remind yourself that you are not the only one bored by your family. You can combine subjects and emotions deliberately, or you can “spin” the wheels and see what comes up. There are so many combinations to explore, it seems like you’ll never run out.
I’m talking about a new iPhone app from the Poetry Foundation called, quite simply, “Poetry”. It makes exploring poetry fun. What I’ve been talking about above is a feature that lines up emotions and topics such as love, nature, family, work and play to give you a list of poems relevant to the combination. I am pamelaannschoolofdance.com order cialis online a School Nurse at a Middle School in a suburb of a large city. This is said to be the best medication for you. cialis purchase Some cosmetic corrections may be required after 6 months to one year, after bariatric surgery, in some patients to get better contouring of the body. best price vardenafil cialis generic order Fallopian tubes: leading from the ovaries to the womb. The poems are from different eras, but all are fairly short and accessible. And even if you don’t like poetry, I bet you are at least a little curious to read what well regarded, “serious” poets have to say about disappointment or blame and family or, even better, disappointment and love. That’s the stuff of standup comedy, not poetry, right?
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Monthly Archives: June 2010
Putting the Call for Energy Independence in Context
Jon Stewart talks about Nixon and an energy-independent future
The second most informative hour is, arguably, the hour occupied by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. People shake their heads with a “tsk, tsk” when they are told that many in the younger generation get most of their news from The Daily Show, and it is a problem if this is the only source, but I daresay that an analysis of the content in the flagship news broadcasts on any network and that on The Daily Show would reveal that on many nights as much or more of the Daily Show is devoted to serious, important, timely topics than is the network news, particularly on those days when the guest is not an entertainer. Certainly the Daily show often provides more context, albeit through humor.
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More Train Songs
Almost exactly a month ago I posted a list of Train Songs, but I did so too early. I had asked the help of friends in Lost HighwayRecords Fancorps. They reminded me of lots of songs I had forgotten and even more that I didn’t yet know. They also introduced me to Jimmie Rodgers, The Singin’ Brakeman. A few suggests came in from other places, too.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who contributed. This was fun. I may just take SlowMovinOutlaw up on his suggestion and do another list on another theme. He suggested trucking songs. Maybe, though I don’t know how much that crosses genres. I found train songs that were Country, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Soul… They’re all here.
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Respect My Authoritah on The Daily Show
Jon Stewart did a segment on tonight’s Daily Show that made me laugh but also incredibly sad at the same time. It contrasted the rhetoric of candidate Obama with some recent policy decisions continuing to deny prisoners the right to challenge their detention in court (habeus corpus), continuing to send prisoners to foreign countries where they can be interrogated by harsher means than allowed here (extraordinary rendition), invoking “State Secrets” to protect sensitive information, rethinking when prisoners need to read Miranda rights and even prosecuting whistle blowers.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Respect My Authoritah | ||||
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Video Game Developed in Casablanca Will Premier Tomorrow at E3
A short item in the May 30 – June 5 edition of Jeune Afrique notes that the French software company Ubisoft will reveal a new video game conceived and developed entirely in Casablanca, Morocco at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which starts tomorrow in Los Angeles and continues until the 17th.
The article in Jeune Afrique is not specific about which game it is, but the press release on Ubisoft’s web site reports that at least three games will be exhibited at the Ubisoft booth.
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Does the Blame Really Matter Right Now?
Crude oil from washes ashore in Orange Beach, Alabama, where swimming is banned
As oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico, I continue to follow coverage informing us that the quantity estimated to have been released has doubled and of the damage it is doing to people whose livelihood is dependent on tourism, fishing or other industries affected by the spill; the devastating impact it is having on the already fragile ecosystem and species found only there; the as yet not fully understood impact on the health of cleanup and containment workers and area residents; and who knows what else. All of these seem like huge issues that need immediate attention.
And yet the other thing that repeatedly comes to mind is a few lines from the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. In one scene the giant’s wife from Jack and the Beanstalk has come down from the clouds looking for her husband’s killer. She is destroying everything in her path and makes it clear she won’t stop until she has the boy, Jack. He is in the company of several other fairy tale characters who are protecting him, and they are arguing about who is responsible for the giant coming down and being so angry. They refuse to give him up, and instead just argue about who is at fault for the giant coming down to begin with. Finally the witch hushes them all and sings these lines that I keep hearing in my head when the accusations and recriminations start in relation to the disaster in the Gulf.
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Academic Freedom Media Review, June 5-11
Academic Freedom Media Review
June 5 – 11, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
China defends internet censorship
Michael Bristow, BBC News, 6/10
Marquette Settles With Woman Whose Job Offer Was Revoked /
Inside Higher Ed, 6/10
Paper on Psychopaths, Delayed by Legal Threat, Finally Published /
John Travis, Science, 6/10
Faith and Freedom
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 6/9
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Academic Freedom Media Review, May 29 – June 4
May 29 – June 4, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Public conversation on universities is welcome
W. Salters Sterling, The Irish Times, 6/3
Catholic University of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine
Philip J. Crowley, Press Release Bureau of Public Affairs, 6/2
Union challenges new visa system
The UK Press Association, 6/1
Jefferson v. Cuccinelli: Does the constitution really protect a right to “academic freedom”?
Dahlia Lithwick and Richard Schragger, Slate Magazine, 6/1
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Get Ready for the Next Big Rock Star. No Really, Get Ready!
Ryan Bingham and Elijah Ford
If, a few years from now, you want to be able to say I saw one of the most influential rock and roll bands of our time while they were still playing in small clubs, you may still have a small window of opportunity. I went to the show by Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses at TT the Bears, a fairly small rock club in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Tuesday, and walked away thoroughly convinced that they won’t be playing places that small for much longer. They are definitely among the best bands I have ever seen play live, and word spreads fast about something like that. Bingham already has an Oscar for best song and the tracks they played from the upcoming album to be released in September lead me to believe it may well be showered with accolades, as well.
If you didn’t already know the band, you might not have expected much had you been there when they walked out on the small stage. They came out into this small dark club, having to duck so they didn’t hit their heads on their way to the stage. They were dressed unremarkably, with only Elijah Ford, the bassist and keyboardist looking like he’d made any effort at all. The rest were dressed for work in jeans and work shirts. Ryan wore Carthart work pants. It turns out that this was appropriate attire, because go to work they did! They played hard, loud and superbly, really into the music and committed to giving the audience the best show they could.
(Here’s a video of their performance on The Late Show with David Letterman, to give you a little bit of a sense of how they sound. More on the show and the band, after the clip.) Continue reading
The Bluebird Cafe at the Country Throwdown
My friends and family are worried. They’re constantly calling to check in on me and telling me I’ve changed. It’s true. My behavior has been out of character lately. Since adolescence I have generally despised country music, and yet yesterday I went to the Country Music Throwdown at the Meadowbrook Pavilion in Gilford, New Hampshire.
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of those concerned about this behavior are not concerned because they disapprove. Most of my family and friends back where I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even some of them up here in New England like Country Music. They worry because it’s so unlike me. Don’t worry folks, I’m fine.
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