DeLaWho? DeLaWhat? DeLaWhere?

Missoula in the Winter

2009-01-01T16:52:00.001-05:00

Again, I have gone long periods of time without posting. Here is a little video I put together illustrating the beauties of Missoula, MT (my current location) in the winter. Enjoy.

Missoula in the Snow from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.

I am eagerly awaiting the new Roots album which comes out at the end of April

2008-03-25T19:11:00.001-04:00

Via Okayplayer.com

I have come across these videos to pass the time

?uestlove and Travis Barker on the drums

Black Thought freestyling

Look/my squad is half Mandrill and half Mandela/my band 'bout seventy strong just like Fela

2008-03-17T14:07:00.005-04:00

I am eagerly awaiting the new Roots album "Rising Down" which is slated to come out in April 29th.

Here is the video for "Get Busy"

Is anyone else excited for...

2008-03-11T16:18:00.002-04:00

Hulu.com

from AP

Hulu.com, a joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal, plans to open its online library of ad-supported TV shows and movies to the public on Wednesday, the company announced.

Users of the service will be able to view more than 250 full-length episodes of shows such as "The Simpsons" and "The Office," as well as some 100 movies, including "The Big Lebowski" and "Ice Age."

Short clips from films and TV shows such as "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Saturday Night Live" are also available through the service, which is accessible at Hulu.com, as well as on Time Warner Inc.'s AOL site, Yahoo Inc. and other popular Web portals.

The public debut of Hulu, which has been available to a test group by invitation since October, comes as studios seek ways to make money providing ad-supported video online.

The entertainment companies behind the service have been feuding with popular online video sites such as Google Inc.'s YouTube, where unauthorized clips from shows often appear. Viacom Inc., which owns MTV and Comedy Central, is suing Google for copyright infringement.

The Hulu.com programming comes from 50 TV networks, movie studios and Web-based producers of content. Viewers of some movies and TV shows are given a choice of advertisements to watch.

NBC Universal is a unit of General Electric Co.

Episodes of The Office and Arrested Development online. I am in.

3 A.M. Girl

2008-03-09T13:53:00.002-04:00

via ABC.com

Casey Knowles of Bonney Lake, Wash., was recently watching Jon Stewart lampoon Hillary Clinton's well-known "3 a.m." ads on "The Daily Show" when her brother noticed something."They were parodying this ad, kind of poking fun at it. They were replaying it. We paused it. My brother was like, 'Is that Casey?' And we just erupted," Knowles said on "Good Morning America Weekend Edition" today. "Sure enough, it's me."

An image of an eight-year-old Knowles appears in the ad, shown sleeping soundly in bed. The Clinton campaign legally purchased the file footage of Knowles from Getty Images.

Clinton's ad aimed to emphasize her experience and say she'd be a strong national security candidate. The ad was a play on a 1980s-era advertisement with a similar theme: if there was a middle-of-the-night national security emergency, who would you want to have answer the phone and deal with it?

Ironically, though, the now-17-year-old Knowles would want Clinton rival Barack Obama to answer any important 3 a.m. calls coming into the White House.

Knowles' image originally was shot for a railroad company advertisement, but the teen said she harbors no resentment toward the Clinton campaign for using her image.

Happenings

2008-03-09T12:09:00.005-04:00

Well, I am wrapping up a lazy Sunday morning that is reminiscent of Sunday mornings of seven years past. Me pater is wrapping up a successful pledge drive show on WVUD and I am lounging about with the virtual version of the newspaper - nytimes.com. Anyways, yet again, much has happened since I blogged (like an actual blog, not a faux landmark blog). I went on a summer geosciences field camp with the University of Arizona, grew a mean beard, returned back home fit Christmas, and applied to grad school for geomorphology, or surface processes...oh yeah, I also graduated and got a job. With all of this excitement, I have not made time to blog. Which should not be a surprise to any of the remaining spurned Delawho? Delawhat? Delawhere? fans.

Last week, I wanted to make a difference and vote in the Ohio democratic primary. And yet again, Ohio has failed to see the light. Save the more recent 2006 election, Ohio and I have had our disagreements. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and now Clinton in 2008. In no way am I comparing the two persons, however, Clinton's success in this state does confuse me. Obama has projected himself as a uniter, a leader...a political wunderkind of sorts. Policy-wise Hillary and Obama very similar...maybe 95% alike (a Colbert guesstimate of sorts). But, Hillary is very abrasive and divisive at times. She has taken credit for Bill's successes and waffled on his "failures". She has played the old-fashioned political game of slander. This is not to say that Obama has not participated in similar activities, however, they have been slightly more understated than Hillary's attacks.

One of Hillary's attacks that has "got my goat" is the issue of yea, nay, or present votes that Obama submitted during his time in the Illinois State Senate. She first presented this issue when John Edwards was still in the running for the nomination. And I quote

He (Obama) voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator.

Sometimes the “present’ votes were in line with instructions from Democratic leaders or because he objected to provisions in bills that he might otherwise support. At other times, Mr. Obama voted present on questions that had overwhelming bipartisan support. In at least a few cases, the issue was politically sensitive.

from MSNBC.

Hillary's response to the logic that Obama presented was obtuse.

I want change and I want it now. Give me Obama.

milestone post

2007-12-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

yes, delawhere fans today marks the 300th post of this on again off again blog. This is also my first mobile post. I received a group gift of an iPod touch. Hip hip hooray. More to come in post 301.

I'm coming back to the DE

2007-12-16T13:01:00.000-05:00

Yes...it is true. After nearly a year outside of the state of Delaware, I will be making my triumphant return to the first state for the holiday season. While there are many things that I am looking forward to doing, seeing, eating, and enjoying. I must admit I am looking forward to going to the The Christmas House. The Christmas House, which can be seen while driving on I-95, brings the Christmas spirit with nearly 1 million Christmas lights, animated displays and live Christmas characters. It is a traditional Christmas spectacle. To be honest, it reminds me of the Griswold Family Christmas and the seasonal insanity that Clark Griswold falls into while trying to decorate his house with an equally brilliant display.

Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics

2007-11-27T18:08:00.000-05:00

I was browsing the tech site engadget and I came across a link to Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics. According to Greenpeace "The guide ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV's and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling." I know that going "green" (which is an interesting advertising and promotion angle for companies like NBC (GE) to take...More on this later) is all the rage. I have embedded the Guide in this post for your viewing pleasure. Notice that Nintendo, much like George W. Bush, was the first company to score a zero. Their ranking could be related to the fact that they have no policies in place regarding the use of certain toxic chemicals in their products, among other things. Check it out at greenpeace.

By the way, was anyone watching Sunday Night Football in America on NBC a couple of weeks ago. The unfortunate Cowboy - Iggles game that coincided with NBC's Green is Universal campaign. If you were, did you find it as amusing as I did, that they broadcasted in the dark...using candles and flashlights (if my memory serves me right). However, among other things, they managed to keep the bright LCD screens declaring the glory of the new Toyota...Maybe it was Hybrid.

Am I back for real?

2007-11-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

I am giving thought to yet again reviving this blog. I have left it to die many a time. But, it keeps on ticking. To tell you the truth, I think I get more hits when I am not posting, as compared to when I am actively posting. Anyways, I just purchased a new, functional computer, so my available time for recreational computing use may have just increased. Let us (me) hope that I really mean it this time.

2007-01-04T16:56:00.000-05:00

Oh, youtube, how you entertain me so. In search for something more amusing than significant figures and chemistry and inspired by the hilarity of the SCTV's Christmas DVD (a lovely Christmas present), I entered four of the English language's 26 letters and stumbled upon a wealth of SCTV skits and apparently a run-on sentence as well. Here are of my favorites so far...

The McKenzie Brothers "Mouse in A Bottle"

Liberace's Christmas Special

The Shmenge Brothers salute New Wave Music

Not time for time trials yet

2007-01-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Upon realizing that I could not find a stop watch and that afterschool practice may have commenced at the local high school tracks, I have delayed my time trials. Which, like Martha Stewart, is a good thing. I still have a couple of issues that I need to address. One: the pulled right hamstring that has been nagging me since a pick-up game of football about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Two: Poor running form that leads to lower back pain. Luckily, for me, at least one of these two is something that I can physically correct...poor form of course. I will have to wait out this hamstring pull. I have the tendency to run "top heavy", that is, I lean forward. Apparently, too much forward lean puts additional stress on one's lower back, shoulders, and neck. Luckily, there is a quick fix exercise that I found courtesy of runnersworld.com. Hopefully, with a little practice, I will be running with better form soon.

Back to the event at hand. Today, I chose to go for a leisurely run around the neighborhood. The run lasted about 15 to 20 minutes before my poor form and aching back cut off my run. I tried to implement the quick fix, but I was unable to maintain proper form for too long before poor running habits resurfaced. Since, I am using the blog to hold myself accountable, after my post-run cool down, naturally, I found myself at the computer attempting to manipulate mapquest to figure out how long my chosen neighborhood route was and what kind of pace I was running (by the way, if I was to guage my effort level, I would say it was approximately 50 to 60% of my maximum mile pace). Befuddled, I nearly broke out a ruler for scale and measured my route using the map on the screen. Luckily for me, my sister came in a told me about mapmyrun.com. Using the resources of google earth, you enter your starting point. Then mark your run by entering markers manually until you have accounted for your entire run. After, entering the end point of your run, the distance is calculated...and viola. Additionally, you can use the workout calculator to figure out your pace, average speed, and number of calories burned. For my 1.5 mile run, I had an average pace of 10 min/mile, an average speed of 6 miles per hour, and I burned a whopping 230 calories. This certainly was not a neckbreaking pace. In fact, it is approximately, 2 to 3 minutes off my desired pace for the 5-k. C'est la vie. I guess you could chalk it up as a baby step.

Tomorrow

2007-01-01T19:58:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, marks the beginning of my training for the flying pig 5-k in Cincy on May 5th. I have been perusing the internets looking for training programs and I have come across a few. Instead of going for a 2 or 3 mile run tomorrow, I will be timing my quarter-mile and mile times, in order to gauge what kind of realistic 5-k pace I would run at this time and what kind of 5-k pace I want to run in 3-plus months. In my travels around the internets, I have found Runners World and Running Times Online to be very helpful resources. I had never been a huge fan of running, like many others, as I had found it to be an under stimulating activity, especially when compared to the physicality and speed of hockey, basketball, football, soccer, and baseball. However, this past summer, I bought a pair of ASICS and started to find running to be both stimulating, therapeutic, and challenging. This past semester, I would run 3 to 4 times a week, usually for 1.5 to 2.5 miles. While it served as a excellent outlet for energy, I did not time myself or "push my limits." So, the training begins. It is my plan to log my progress on this blog, in order to maintain some level of accountability.

So, without further adieu, here is the chosen training program (via Running Times Online)

In the Novice Program, the athlete is ready to think about time. It is set up for the runner who has a little background (i.e., has completed the Beginner Program or has been running at least as much as was recommended in the Beginner Program), but is still fairly new to running. If you are piggybacking these programs, give yourself a down week of gentle running before you begin this program.

This program will take your heart and lungs to the next level. It will also continue to strengthen the muscles and connective tissue as well as the mind. The connective tissue is the slowest to toughen and since we can progress only as fast as our weakest link it is important to be patient. As everything toughens the likelihood of injury decreases greatly. If there is any question as to how fast the progression should go, ask a coach or be conservative.

All workouts are in miles, unless otherwise noted.

	Mon	Tues*	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat**	Sun
Week 1	3	WO1	off	4	off	4	off
Week 2	3	WO2	off	4	off	4	off
Week 3	3	WO3	off	4	off	4	off
Week 4	4	WO4	off	4	off	5	off
Week 5	4	WO5	off	4	off	Mile TT	off
Week 6	4	WO6	off	4	off	5	off
Week 7	3	WO7	off	4	off	2 mile TT	off
Week 8	4	WO8	off	4	off	5	3
Week 9	4	WO9	off	4	off	5K race (practice)	3
Week 10	3	WO10	off	4	off	5	3
Week 11	3	WO11	off	4	off	5	3
Week 12	3	WO12	off	3	off	5K race	3
On all days other than the Tuesday workouts and the Saturday time trials and races, run/ walk under 75% of your maximum heart rate. You can be tested for this number or you can continue to use the formula 220-age = max HR. Remember if you do choose to use the formula there is potential for error so pay attention to what you are feeling compared to the numbers. Do they make sense? Ask questions. At this point in the program, you are probably starting to see and feel some real results, as you gain fitness and confidence. Be careful, though, that you don't push yourself too hard. Listen to your body--if it is telling you something is hurting, don't be afraid to take a day or two off (or more if you need it!). Tuesday Speed Workouts: WO1 & 3* = one mile warm-up / 4 x 400 @ 85-90% with 400 jog recover / one mile cool down. WO2, 5, 7, 9, & 12 = one mile warm-up / 8 x 200 @ 85-90% with 200 jog recovery / one mile cool down. WO4 & 6 = one mile warm-up / 6 x 400 @ 85-90% with 400 jog recovery / one mile cool down. WO8 = one mile warm-up / 4 x 600 @ 85-90% with 400 jog recovery / one mile cool down. WO10 = one mile warm-up / 3 x 800 @ 85-90% with 400 jog recovery / one mile cool down. WO11 = one mile warm-up / 2 x mile @ 80-90% with 400 jog recovery / one mile cool down. Saturday Workouts/Race: Mile TT = one mile warm-up / 1 mile Time Trial. Each 400 should be quicker than the one before it. / one mile cool down. 2 Mile TT = one mile warm-up / 2 mile Time Trial. Each 800 should be quicker than the one before it. / one mile cool down. 5k race (practice) = Most people have a very hard time learning to pace themselves. The workouts and the Time Trials have started this process. This race will continue it. Run the first 400 at recovery day training pace, the next 1200 (to the mile mark) at an effort that is approximately 30 seconds a mile faster than training pace. The next mile should be approximately 30 seconds faster than the first mile. You should race the last mile using a progressive build-up from the two mile mark and running your hardest and your fastest at the end of the race. Remember this is a practice race with the goal being to begin to learn to run negative splits (i.e., run the second half of the race faster than the first). Race day** = A solid controlled effort in which you are successful if each mile is a few seconds faster than the one before it. (If course terrain or weather conditions make this an improbable goal, aim for a good steady effort.)

Resurrection in the Making

2006-12-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

It has been a long time since I last posted on my blog. My lack of blogging is related to a range of factors, but the most prevalent reason has been the issue of what to write about. With an extended absence related to my schooling, getting back into the swing of blogging has been a difficult task. However, with the 2007 peaking its head around the corner, it is the season for resolutions and goals. My resolution is not to blog more. Instead, my goal/resolution is to run in my first 5K on May 5th, 2007 in Cincinnati. Indeed, I will be making my running debut in the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon weekend. There are three products that will be associated with my fitness goal. One: Healthy Lifestyle. Two: Increased awareness about my diet (of course, for optimum performance during my training and race experience). Finally, Three: something to blog about.

Yes, you can mark it down. I will be back, blogging about not only my "training", but also about music, news, music, etc. Just like the good old days in Dr. Gilbert's Comm Class. I know my pater will be proud.

Worldly Happenings

2006-06-24T19:36:00.000-04:00

I have had quite an eventful couple of months since I last checked in with the blogosphere, some great moments and some not so great moments, without diving head first into the empty pool that is my emotional swimming pool (so to say...dont worry parents, I'm fine...Slightly exhausted but refueling in the comforts of the casa).

From the beauty of a sunset on the beaches at Waikiki,

to the lows of not succeeding (also known as failure),

and not graduating with the great friends I made back at school. With the brief overview of life as I have known it over the past several months out of the way, lets get to the nitty gritty: The World Cup. Every four years, this glorious event takes place and the world is hypnotized by the beauty of the game. I have delayed my return to the blog in order to follow as many games as my schedule will allow me. Unfortunately, Croatia was eliminated from group play and did not advance into the single elimination portion of the tournament. Surprisingly, this result may not upset the blogging dela-croat that is my father. He stated that, "I'll wimp out here and state that I have no preference. I enjoy both teams' style of play and while my land of birth tugs me in their direction, the underdog in me tugs me toward Australia." As a 1st generation croatian-american of sorts, I was emotionally tied to the ups and downs of the croatian national team as I tried to look busy at work (I only wish that they had a cool team name like The Black Stars of Ghana, the Elephants of the Ivory Coast, of the Sparrow Hawks of Togo).

After Australia equalized the scoreboard with a late goal in the second half and the Croats were eliminated from their group, the air had been let out of my proverbial balloon. Today, I checked out the verging one's blog only to learn that he didnt care who won. Say what?

I was thinking about how to tie in the ups and downs of life to the beauty of football/soccer and the agony of the same game, but it would have been pushing the BS meter a little bit.

In other news, it is good to see that the english hooligans are up to no good.

Colbert=Huevos

2006-05-02T16:58:00.000-04:00

I don't plan on becoming a serial video poster, but I feel as though Stephen Colbert's "roast" of the president, at the White House Correspondents Dinner in D.C. on Saturday night, deserves as much pub as possible. Well Done, Colbert, Well Done.

here are the second and third parts of his performance. Like Maxwell House, its good to the last drop.

Keep Your Eyes Out for...

2006-04-23T15:33:00.000-04:00

1. Lupe Fiasco, an up and coming hip hop artist out of the westside of Chicago. Praised as a brilliant lyricist, Lupe is pushing the first single, "Kick, Push" off his debut album "Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor".

Hip-Hop needs Lupe...this video gives me Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff vibes ala "Summertime". The album drops on June 27th.

2. Gnarls Barkley, the musical collaboration of Goodie Mob's Cee-Lo and Producer Dangermouse (whose recent credits include the "Grey Album" (the Jay-Z and Beatles Mashup) and the Gorillaz' "Demon Days" album).

Gnarls Barkley is the brainchild of Cee-Lo Green and DJ Dangermouse, their first single off of their first album "St. Elsewhere" is titled "Crazy". Just do yourself a favor and check out this video. This song is addicting.

I have a lot of blogging stored up...namely a look back at my spring break trip to Hawaii with the Geosciences Department...but graduation is goal numero uno. Only two more weeks of college...word? Additionally, I must suggest that everyone download the video of Dave Chappelle's most recent standup, For What Its Worth, on iTunes for only a $1.99. You dont need an video iPod to watch it, you can just view it on your computer. It is a steal. One of the funniest standup routines I have seen in a while.

Jay Dee aka J Dilla passes away

2006-02-13T16:25:00.000-05:00

Image courtesy of Okayplayer.com

On Friday morning at 8 o'clock, Detroit super producer James Yancey, aka Jay Dee, passed away at the age of 32 in a Los Angeles hospital, as a result of complications associated with liver and kidney failure. Jay Dee was a founding member of Slum Village and worked with the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Common, De La Soul, Erykah Badu, Madlib, Busta Rhymes and the Pharcyde. Jay Dee had just released a solo album last week, Donuts, a collection of hip-hop instrumentals that he composed during his recovery from last years' illness.

Yancey had been hospitalized last year for the liver failure related to malnutrition. He continued to produce throughout his hospitalization last year. He told the magazine URB, that "what happened was that the doctor told me that I'd ruptured my kidney from being too busy and being stressed out and not eating right," he said. "He told me that if I'd waited another day, I might not have made it."

I learned of this news during my daily visit to Okayplayer.com. I was shocked at the news as it had appeared that he was on the road to recovery. I started listening to hip-hop in high school when my tats (who has opened the world of music to me) turned me on to the Roots. It was the "Things Fall Apart" album which was released in 1999. "Things Fall Apart" was my summer soundtrack. It was the dominant album in rotation and I recall listening to the album over and over again as I drove to work as a shoe salesman for the sports authority. One of my favorite songs on "Things" was the dilla produced "Dynamite". With a growing interest in hip-hop but with limited knowledge about the music, I picked up Q-tip's "Amplified" album, which Dilla produced 11 tracks. I became interested in Q-tip's album after hearing his single "Vivrant Thing" (prod. by Jay Dee). While I would like to think that it was solely music (especially those pulsating hihats Jay Dee so masterfully used on Vivrant Thing) that attracted me to the song, I have to admit that in hormonal youth, I also liked watching the way that the rhythm was interpreted through the dance and body movement of the women in the video. But, I was soon knee deep into the album and I was drawn to the instrumentals that Jay Dee had provided. I loved the album and the production was hypnotic at points. But, my knowledge of and exposure to hip-hop was still very limited. I then graduated on up to Q-tip's former group, A Tribe Called Quest or ATCQ, when I purchased their "Beats Rhymes and Life" album, which remains one of my favorite albums of all-times (while it was not praised by critics as much as ATCQ's previous albums). I would zone out to "Beats, Rhymes and Life" during those early mornings I spent in the hallway before my friends came to school.

During the remainder of high school and throughout college, my love for hip-hop has grown and continues to grow as I do the same. I have dabbled in producing instrumentals, not for profit, but for the joy of production and creation. With this, I appreciate Jay-Dee's genius, innovation, and technical skill the more and more I listen to his material. I have always considered Dilla to be one of my favorite producers, but upon his passing and the subsequent reflection on his life and his career did I realize his influence and place in both hip-hop history and my own life and the music that I love. My heart goes out to his loved ones. He will be missed.

A Selection of some of my favorite Dilla Tracks:
Slum Village feat D'Angelo "Tell Me"
from Fantastic Vol.2
Slum Village "Untitled/Fantastic" from Fantastic Vol. 2
Jay Dee "Track 17" from Dilla Beats 3
Jay Dee "Track 21" from Dilla Beats 3
Q-Tip "Let's Ride" from Amplified
Common "The Light" from Like Water for Chocolate
Common "Dooinit" from Like Water for Chocolate
ATCQ "Find A Way" from The Love Movement
ATCQ "1nce Again" from Beats Rhymes and Life
J Dilla "Don't Cry" from Donuts
Glenn Lewis "Back for More (Dilla Remix)"

Dilla Discography

BBE Biography

another Rememberance of Jay Dee:

?uestlove "J Dilla Lives" on myspace.com
1. the kicks on pharcyde's "Bullshit"
2. the piano loop on pharcyde's "Runnin"
3. the chopping of herbie hancock's chords on "fantastic pt 1"
4. the whole idea of "i don't know"
5. those chords on "fat cat song" mixed with "turn off the lights" "oohs ahhs and say!"
6. the synchopated stutter kicks he programmed t3's "when you grip the mic biy you wack as hell..."
7. the background pattern on "the look of love"
8. the bill evans rhodes on "hoc and pocky"
9. the drum pattern sloppppppily displayed mastery on "beej n dem"

(continues on ?uestlove
)

Here is to Mother Nature...she changed her mind once more

2006-02-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

While I am not back home in the state of Delaware, I have recieved word that there has been a dramatic shift in the weather since I left for school. More specifically, the blizzard of '06. Nice work Mama Nature...touche.

What the Hell, Mother Nature?

2006-01-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

Mother Nature has been quite confused about the concept of seasonality as of late. Over the last seven days, we have served a big plate of mild weather and a side of rainy days. According to weather.com, the high temperatures over the past seven days have been no lower than 47 F and has peaked at 58 F, and its only the 14th of January. Did I mention, the day long fog that hung over our heads all day yesterday. Where's the snow or at least the bitter winter winds that make a home a welcoming and comforting refuge from the cold. Hot chocolates don't pack the same satisfying punch. As I walked outside this morning wearing shorts, I found myself thinking about how glad I was that spring was coming. "Wait a second...", I thought to myself, "Groundhog Day has yet to arrive and Punxsutawney Phil has even had his chance to speak up." Here's to a little bit more winter.

Soul Legend Lou Rawls Passes Away

2006-01-06T13:34:00.000-05:00

from Philly.com

Grammy-winning singer Lou Rawls dies

LOS ANGELES - Lou Rawls, the velvet-voiced singer who started as a church choir boy and went on to record such classic tunes as "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," died Friday of cancer. He was 72.

Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain cancer, said his publicist, Paul Shefrin. His wife, Nina, was at his bedside when he died.

Rawls' family and Shefrin said the singer was 72, although other records indicate he was 70.

Rawls' deep, smooth voice was his trademark, and he used it in a variety of genres.

"I've gone the full spectrum, from gospel to blues to jazz to soul to pop," Rawls once said on his Web site. "And the public has accepted what I've done through it all."

A longtime community activist, Rawls played a major role in United Negro College Fund telethons in the 1980s that raised more than $200 million. In the '60s he often visited schools, playgrounds and community centers.

Rawls' introduction to music came in his hometown of Chicago from his grandmother, who loved gospel. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s to join a touring gospel group, the Pilgrim Travelers.

After a two-year stint in the Army, Rawls rejoined the Pilgrim Travelers in Los Angeles, where he sang with his childhood friend Sam Cooke. Rawls performed with Dick Clark at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959, and he later he opened for The Beatles at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

Rawls was playing small blues and R&B clubs in Los Angeles when his four-octave range caught the ear of a Capitol Records producer, who signed him to the label in 1962.

His debut effort, "Stormy Monday," recorded with the Les McCann Trio, was the first of his 52 albums. In 1966, his "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" topped the charts and earned Rawls his first two Grammy nominations.

He won three Grammys in a career that spanned nearly five decades and included the hits "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)," "Natural Man" and "Lady Love." He released his most recent album, "Seasons 4 U," in 1998 on his own label, Rawls & Brokaw Records.

But his trademark will always be "You'll Never Find," released in 1976 and written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, architects of the classic "Philadelphia Sound."

Rawls also appeared in 18 movies, including "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Blues Brothers 2000," and 16 television series, including "Fantasy Island" and "The Fall Guy."

In 1976, Rawls became the corporate spokesman for the Anheuser-Busch Cos. breweries.

Rawls was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2004 and brain cancer in May 2005.

Besides his wife, Rawls is survived by four children: Louanna Rawls, Lou Rawls Jr., Kendra Smith and Aiden Rawls.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete, Shefrin said.

Off of the "The Edge: David Axelrod At Capitol Records 1966-1971". David Axelrod was a legendary producer whose best known for his work at Capitol Records. Here is Lou Rawls You've Made Me So Very Happy.

Fresh New Template

2005-12-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

To renew my blog and refresh the experience I have tinkered with a new template and you can see the not yet finished results of the template. If you have any tips for me when it comes to moving the right sidebar to its rightful position, drop me an email...the comments may not be working yet. Expect many blogs in the near future...its a new year.

2005-12-26T18:09:00.000-05:00

It has been three months since I posted on this, my beloved blog. I had an amazing summer that began with geology research back here at Denison and ended with a little over a month long trip to the land of Magyars (for research) and later to my father's homeland of Hrvatska (Croatia). Needless to say, it was an amazing summer and I have delayed posting about my adventures as it still has yet to completely sink in. Of all of my summer's events, the trip to Croatia was far and away the most exciting, spiritually-rewarding, and amusing of them all. (THIS PORTION OF THE POST HAS BEEN REMOVED) Along with my Tata, my Mama, my sister, and my cousin, we were able to spend a couple days in Zagreb with my Baka (grandmother), Teta Nada, Teta Vera, Stric Rico, Ivica, Maja, , Stipic Ivan, Zrinka, Jura, and Stjepan. As we made our way down to the coast, we met with Teta Mila, Stric Toncek, Davor, Blanka, Fran, and Lucija. We then stopped at Teta Ljubica's seashore house (a house that the late-Stric Marko, my Deda, my Tata, and the rest of the family helped build from scratch) and visited with Teta Ljubica, Marko, Tania, and Nika. As we continued our journey down the Adriatic coast to the city-state of Dubronik. There we visited with Zrinka and Jura's daughter Iva and her boyfriend Sasha. After a wonderful visit with them in Dubronik, we drove back up to Teta Ljubica's and spent more time in the glory of the Adriatic. After that we treked up to Crikvenica and spent time with Ivica, Maja, and Tin. There we visted my Deda's (grandfather) birthplace on the island of Krk. The trip concluded back in Zagreb. There were many things that were memorable about the trip. So many in fact, that I feel like I am listing them off instead of truly appreciating them. But, first and foremost, there was a connection to the land that I felt, the pull to the sea was strong. The family dinners were great..the amazing food and the hilarious conversation that ensued at the dinner table. At this point in time, it still hast sunk in...but I do know one thing. I want to go back...no I need to go back...it is a beautiful country with beautiful women a plenty...I am starting to understand why my father was always so disappointed when we go to the beach (because no matter what...it isnt the Adriatic)...I can proudly say that I am first-generation Croatian-American...who also has family ties to Hungaria. When somebody asks me where Croatia is...I will not be bashful about it. It lies on the eastern coast of Adriatic Sea. See my pictures at Flickr.

Happy Father's Day

2005-06-19T12:31:00.000-04:00

Just as I did for Mother's Day, here is a song for the 'pa. On all four of his albums, Common has given his dad a song to preach his fatherly advice, so here are two of his entries. The first cut, titled "Pops Rap Part 2/Fatherhood" is off 'One Day It'll All Make Sense', while the second song, "Pops Rap III...All My Children" can be found on 'Like Water for Chocolate'. Not included in this post, the first entry can be found 'Resurrection', which has eluded me to this day, as well as the final entry on 'Be' which is still being shipped by hiphopsite.com (I pre-ordered it...and it still isnt in my possession). Anyways, Happy Tata's Day.

Platinum Pied Pipers

2005-06-12T14:53:00.000-04:00

I have, again, neglected my blog for an extended period of time, but with good reason, I have been listening to many sonic masterpieces including the Platinum Pied Pipers' release titled "Triple P". The soulful Detroit duo is headed by Waajeed (Slum Village) and Saadiq. The hype for this album was pretty high and it surpassed it. At it's heart, it is a compilation much like "The Neptunes present The Clones" album was. It features a variety of talented guests like fellow Detroit native and former member of Slum Village, Jay Dee,as well as Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Tiombe Lockhart, Steve Spacek, Zeno, Georgia, Invincible, and Derf Reklaw. The entire album has that distinct sound associated with Detroit hip-hop. It has a level of grimy darkness that is uplifting and bright in it's own special way. One of the best examples of this can be found on "One Minute More" featuring R&B artist Georgia. The track is driven by the faint sounds of bright percussion, dark bass, and a cracking snare/clap that flashes into the sequence every 8 bars or so. On "Deep Inside" which features Sa-Ra, the two production duos combine to create a sound that reminds one very much of the Funkadelic. While the entire album is dynamic and driving, "Act Like You Know" featuring Jay Dee is another track that stands out for me. The overdriven guitars which are backed by a spacey pad has a certain edge and attitude that makes your upper lip raise in defiance. Tiombe Lockhart blesses three of the albums tracks with her angelic voice (shades of Jill Scott). I have nothing but high praises for this album. Check this video about the making of the album out.

Congrats are in order

2005-05-28T14:02:00.000-04:00

To my former professor Dave G., once of Polueides now of ORG COMM, for his appearance in NYT about a podcasting project he has done with his students at Marymount Manhattan College. It's nice to see his work with students acknowledged, I enjoyed his Public Speaking Class here at Denison and it is the reason that this blog even exists...so my hat is tipped to you Dave, nice work.

via the NYT

May 28, 2005
With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour
By RANDY KENNEDY

If you soak up the Jackson Pollocks at the Museum of Modern Art while listening to the museum's official rented $5 audio guide, you will hear informative but slightly dry quotations from the artist and commentary from a renowned curator. ("The grand scale and apparently reckless approach seem wholly American.")

But the other day, a college student, Malena Negrao, stood in front of Pollock's "Echo Number 25," and her audio guide featured something a little more lively. "Now, let's talk about this painting sexually," a man's deep voice said. "What do you see in this painting?"

A woman, giggling, responded on the audio track: "Oh my God! You're such a pervert. I can't even say what that - am I allowed to say what that looks like?"

The exchange sounded a lot more like MTV than Modern Art 101, but for Ms. Negrao it had a few things to recommend it. It was free. It didn't involve the museum's audio device, which resembles a cellphone crossed with a nightstick. And best of all, it was slightly subversive: an unofficial, homemade and thoroughly irreverent audio guide to MoMA, downloaded onto her own iPod.

The creators of this guide, David Gilbert, a professor of communication at Marymount Manhattan College, and a group of his students, describe it on their Web site as a way to "hack the gallery experience" or "remix MoMa," which they do with a distinctly collegiate blend of irony, pop music and heavy breathing. It is one of the newest adaptations in the world of podcasting - downloading radio shows, music and kitchen-sink audio to an MP3 player.

Specifically, these museum guides are an outgrowth of a recent podcasting trend called "sound seeing," in which people record narrations of their travels - walking on the beach, wandering through the French Quarter - and upload them onto the Internet for others to enjoy. In that spirit, the creators of the unauthorized guides to the Modern have also invited anyone interested to submit his or her own tour for inclusion on the project's Web site, mod.blogs.com/art_mobs. (Instructions are on the Web site.)

In the museum world, where the popularity of audio tours has grown tremendously over the last decade, the use of commercial MP3 players seems to be catching on. Officials at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis have discussed putting their new audio guide material on the Web for downloading to portable players. Last year, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo lent viewers iPods to use as audio guides for one exhibition, and Apple Computer has helped the Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley of France do the same thing, using the sonorous voice of the actor Michael Lonsdale.

But the rise of podcasting is now enabling museumgoers not simply to enjoy audio guides on a sleeker-looking device but also to concoct their own guides and tours. A New York art Web site, woostercollective.com, recently made a sound-seeing tour of the Jean-Michel Basquiat retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, which the Web site's creators made in hushed tones while wandering through the show, sometimes quoting from the museum's official audio guide, which they listened to as they chatted.

At Marymount, on the Upper East Side, Dr. Gilbert said he was partly inspired to create the unofficial guides after listening to the museum's audio tours for children, which he found much more entertaining and engaging than the new ones recently introduced for grown-ups.

But Dr. Gilbert said his larger point was to try to teach his students to stop being passive information consumers - whether through television, radio or an official audio guide - and to take more control, using as his model the guru of so-called remix culture, Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School.

"It's not incumbent on us to, you know, praise the art necessarily," Dr. Gilbert said recently at the museum, wearing neon-green sunglasses and leading a group of students through the underground tour. "That's part of the playfulness and fun of this project. If we want to say something irreverent or something scathing about the art, that can come out." (In the name of politeness, the project's Web site does tip its hat to the Modern: "Apologia: We love MoMA. Hackers hack a platform out of respect for it.") Informed about the project last week, museum officials declined to reciprocate with their opinions, but also made no comments about instituting an iPod ban.

College Life is a funny thing

2005-05-25T11:53:00.000-04:00

Not the actual living part, but the transportable life that is associated with living AKA your stuff or things...depending on what you define as valuable. The ritual associated with stuffing your things into a small place than driving to and from school and home is something that I find very amusing. I may have more "thuff" than your average college student as my interest in music consumes space, but the act of packing your life up and moving it back and forth between college and school is such a funny thing. After a brief stint back in Delawhere, I drove back out to Ohio to begin my summer research focusing on constraining the time period during which a pro-glacial lake was present here in Licking County during the last ice age. Anywho, on my way out, I drove through a cloud of papers and paper clips. Shortly after passing through the cloud of office supplies, I drove past a ford taurus on the side of the road whose trunk had been packed so tightly that the entire trunk was being held together by bungee cords and the trunk door was blocking any possible lines of sight that the driver had in his rear view mirror. I would venture to say that the man had stuffed 15 large duffel bags in his trunk. Needless to say, my stuffed car (whose doors were all closed) didnt seem that ridiculous after all.

A First Rate Contest

2005-05-17T10:42:00.000-04:00

That we here at DeLaWhere? DeLaWhat? DeLaWho? are very excited about and have already launched our sloganometer into high gear for the May 23rd due date.

from delawareonline.com/The News Journal

It's good being first. Unless that's your state slogan designed to attract tourists and business. Delaware Tourism officials have grumbled about lackluster response to the slogan, which replaced "Small Wonder." So we're serving up a first-rate challenge for the talented populace of the First State: Create a better slogan for our beloved state. It can be funny or serious, but send it to us by Monday. E-mail suggestions to features@delawareonline.com (please put "slogan" in the header). Mail suggestions to Slogan, The News Journal Features Department, Box 15505, Wilmington, DE 19850. Please include day and evening contact numbers.

This is tempting

2005-05-13T14:33:00.000-04:00

I found out about this contest, in which a large library of George Bush audio has been made available for download, while reading an old copy of Remix magazine. And it seems to tempting to pass up. Here is the website's description.

Think you're pretty good with audio editing? Do you have some original music that you can make Bush rap along to? Are you ready to go toe to toe with The Bots Fuzzy Math and demonstrate your mixing and parody prowess? Do you want to win some incredible audio software prizes? Then The Bush Raps (Re)Mix Contest is for you!

The Bots are having a contest in the next few months to see who can come up with the most interesting use of the database. Think of it as a remix contest if you want, but the idea is, we'd like to see what you can do with the George W. Bush Public Domain Audio Archive. We're giving you the tools to make the president rap, even tell the truth. The database is optimized to inspire creative word mangling. The only limit is your imagination. If you come up with something good, send a link to it(we cannot host your files, if you have a problem hosting files, contact the bots). We will setup a vote on this page, and we will be offering some awesome prizes to the best mixes, including:

* 2 copies of Phatmatic Pro from Bitshift Audio
* 1 copy of Unison / Micron from ConcreteFx
* 1 copy of Orion Pro from Synapse Audio

More prizes may be announced soon. How to get started? Download some Bush samples. Make Bush rap on top of your original music, and post an mp3 of the mix on your website. Then submit a link to your creation to the bots. We will post the links on this page, and let people vote on the best ones. The winners will get the prizes listed above. You are encouraged to make some original music to mix with the samples. Even if you aren't very musically inclined, there are a lot of tools out there that will allow you to mix the Bush samples with some sort of original music.

Are you a rockist?

2005-05-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

I suppose I might be a little late to the scene in reference to this debate about rockism...however, I find this issue to be a very intriging one. Many definitions have been used for the term rockism:
1) Robert Christgau wrote in 1990 about "the 'rockism' debate that raged through the U.K. music press in the early '80s": Rockism in the early 80's, meant putting stock in rock's "capacity to change lives or express truth"—as opposed to the kinds of pop that (a rockist would say) have more of a capacity to express pretty lies.

OR

2) For Kelefa Sanneh, rockism is the aesthetic that defines itself by building barriers against what rock isn't. It means, he says, "idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video."

OR

3) Rockism, let's say, is treating rock as normative. In the rockist view, rock is the standard state of popular music: the kind to which everything else is compared, explicitly or implicitly.

A rockist would find pre-stereo blues or country interesting only as it pertains to the growth the the rock genre.

I find that when defending rap or hip-hop, most recently against some of my geology profs, that I am dealing with the notion that because rap and hip-hop samples previous recordings that it is a lesser artform and is vastly inferior to their jam bands and rock n' roll. I am not a rockist, however, I may be a bluesist or jazzist. I find rock interesting in two different contexts: as it related to pre-stereo blues (opposite of a rockist view), and in the context of itself. This idea that rock is the pinnacle of music is a curious one. Check out these articles and leave a comment. (These articles discuss pop artists like Ashlee Simpson, Ciara, Justin Timberlake...and it just so happens that my roommate enjoys much of their work as they are easily accessible on his favorite top fourty station. There are many times that I am disgusted by his tastes in music (by the way, he is elated about the Backstreet Boys comeback). But, not because he listens to top fourty, but because all he listens to is top fourty and if he has never heard a song before he shuts it off and doesnt listen to it. I despise his close minded approach to music, but not necessarily some of his tastes in music...i enjoyed JT's album which was produced by the Neptunes and Timberland as well as many of Ciara's singles...i can't say the same for A. Simp. though)

from Seattle Weekly

Smallmouth: Thinking About Rockism

by Douglas Wolk

The topic that's lingered most from last month's Pop Music Studies Conference at Experience Music Project is one that's been going around for a while: the idea of " rockism." It's a loaded word, partly because it means a bunch of different things in practice—it's yay close to "racism" the way it's sometimes used. For various people, it's a term of praise for avoiding artifice or a description of unadventurous musical tastes or a word for just liking rock a whole lot. But it's also a potentially useful concept for thinking about the way people write about popular music, and the way people experience it. The trick is to figure out exactly what it means.

Robert Christgau wrote in 1990 about "the 'rockism' debate that raged through the U.K. music press in the early '80s": Rockism, at that point, meant putting stock in rock's "capacity to change lives or express truth"—as opposed to the kinds of pop that (a rockist would say) have more of a capacity to express pretty lies. To be a rockist, then and there, was to demand a perception of honesty in pop music, no matter how much artifice that honesty involved (and when you're standing on a stage, playing an instrument and singing words you've memorized, there's no getting around artifice, but that's a whole other discussion).

This past October, Kelefa Sanneh threw "rockism" back onto the coals in a widely discussed New York Times article. For him, rockism is the aesthetic that defines itself by building barriers against what rock isn't. It means, he says, "idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video." And Daphne Brooks gave a fascinating talk at the EMP conference, "Guided by Voices: Some Thoughts About Raging Against Rockism," wondering what "a black feminist rock criticism" would be.

Still, there hasn't beena clear definition of rockism, and I'd like to propose one—a very narrow one, to keep its meaning from bleeding too far out. Rockism, let's say, is treating rock as normative. In the rockist view, rock is the standard state of popular music: the kind to which everything else is compared, explicitly or implicitly. So, for instance, it's a rockist opinion that pre-stereo-era blues and country are interesting less in their own right than because they anticipated rock, or that Run-D.M.C. and Alison Krauss are notable because their virtues are also the virtues of rock, or that Ciara's Goodies isn't interesting because it fails to act like rock.

Now, the interesting thing about that formulation of "rockism" is that it's not intrinsically rockist to love rock, or to write about it; you can also mostly care about R&B or norteño or bubblegum pop but discuss them in a rockist way. It's hard to get around rockism, though, because it's built into the way people talk informally about whatever kinds of popular music interest them. (If Usher or Eliza Carthy or Autechre do something amazing, it rocks.)

Most of all, rockism is programmed into the way people write about music. The basic DNA of popular-music criticism came from the people who wrote for Rolling Stone and Creem in the '60s and '70s. They were the first to write about pop interestingly and at length; they loved rock of that pop-historical moment's Beatles/Stones/Dylan school more than anything else; and their language and perspective and taste have been internalized by pretty much everybody who's followed them, even people who've never actually read their stuff. That's the foundation for our house. Note, for instance, that anybody who writes about popular music is a "rock critic."....(cont.)

From New York Times

October 31, 2004

The Rap Against Rockism
By KELEFA SANNEH

Correction Appended

BAD news travels fast, and an embarrassing video travels even faster. By last Sunday morning, one of the Internet's most popular downloads was the hours-old 60-second .wmv file of Ashlee Simpson on "Saturday Night Live." As she and her band stood onstage, her own prerecorded vocals - from the wrong song - came blaring through the speakers, and it was too late to start mouthing the words. So she performed a now-infamous little jig, then skulked offstage, while the band (were a few members smirking?) played on. One of 2004's most popular new stars had been exposed as. ...

As what, exactly? The online verdict came fast and harsh, the way online verdicts usually do. A typical post on her Web site bore the headline, "Ashlee you are a no talent fraud!" After that night, everyone knew that Jessica Simpson's telegenic sister was no rock 'n' roll hero - she wasn't even a rock 'n' roll also-ran. She was merely a lip-synching pop star.

Music critics have a word for this kind of verdict, this knee-jerk backlash against producer-powered idols who didn't spend years touring dive bars. Not a very elegant word, but a useful one. The word is rockism, and among the small but extraordinarily pesky group of people who obsess over this stuff, rockism is a word meant to start fights. The rockism debate began in earnest in the early 1980's, but over the past few years it has heated up, and today, in certain impassioned circles, there is simply nothing worse than a rockist.

A rockist isn't just someone who loves rock 'n' roll, who goes on and on about Bruce Springsteen, who champions ragged-voiced singer-songwriters no one has ever heard of. A rockist is someone who reduces rock 'n' roll to a caricature, then uses that caricature as a weapon. Rockism means idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncher....cont.

From Okayplayer.com Lesson Board

To quote The Damaja

the rock reviewer can't actually say anything useful, other than add or detract from collective praise
- they can't compare to other interpretations of the work, like in classical. they can't provide interesting historical context. they can't discuss music theory. they don't even have the comfort that the composition is already an accepted masterpiece
- they can't name the samples, scratches and quotations like in hiphop, and discuss "the beat" in a technical sense that's still acessable to the audience. the extent to which anyone gives a fuck about the lyrics is also quite limited
- they can't really talk about the instrumental skills of the band, because they know that even in "classic rock" this is a very mixed bag
- they don't really know more than their audience. and their qualifications don't matter much
so basically, they take their very personal likings and dislikings, broadcast them so that they are perceived as impersonal, and pad the article out with musings about trends and influences and other stuff that they're basically making up as they go along (such as the cannon of classic rock albums). then other reviewers disagree and this meta-debate about "rockism" and similar things arises. man on the street just doesn't care
this is inevitable. it would happen if hiphop reviews were as widely read (hiphopism).
some of the things he attributed to rockism, there's nothing wrong with. Singing IS better than lip-synching, live performances ARE better than videos. Touring experience IS healthy. It is true that they view rock as the norm, as the 1st article said, but I repeat that's just an inevitable consequence of their views being broadcast.
edit: oh and what this boils down to is that "rockists" never really agree with eachother anyway. Some will call Oasis a "guilty pleasure" others hail them as the saviours of British music; some will praise Coldplay, others can't see them as anything other than a shadow of great bands of the past; some love Radiohead, other ridicule them; some like obscure, some like more obscure, some like more more more obscure....
----
Anyway, rock fans always look for apologetic hiphop albums like 3 Feet High, Nation of Millions. I always get the impression that they don't really like RAPPING, if you know what I mean. One of the refreshing things about rap is that its sufficiently different not to be appropriately judged by the same standards. Ditto with folk music. With pop and rnb and rock they're always going to be talking about the melody, the performance.
----
ANYway... for criticism unaffected by other music, i find the reviews at epinions.com quite good. there's no tiresome references to punk rock or whatever, the reviewers are just hiphop heads who're addicted to writing reviews.
For "general criticism"... I don't know. I quite like those little books like A-Z of Hiphop, they provide an overall, yet inside, view of hiphop. For specific articles? hmmmm, can't think of any. But then i've been avoiding journalism since the 90s

ADDITIONAL LINKS
When Critics Meet Pop
Douglas Wolk, clearheaded, on rockism
Robert Johnson, Rockism, and Hip-Hop Crate-Diggers
Search for yourself on Google Search

Happy Mother's Day

2005-05-08T17:28:00.000-04:00

In honor of our ever-loving mothers and mamas, I submit to you a track done by Kanye West called "Hey Mama". This was not included on his last album but would have been a welcome addition. Give this song a chance to grow on you, its a great song.

Audioscrobbler.com

2005-05-02T21:55:00.000-04:00

As finals approach and I commence my studying, I will listen to a wide variety of music. Now, if you want to know what I am playing from my rather massive collection of music, then check out my audioscrobbler site. After downloading a plug-in into my music library, the site will track what I listen to. Some might say that it is slightly intrusive...and it may be. But in the long term it will be interesting to see what i listen to the most. Check the site out for yourself.

Primetime Failure: Hey Let Him Say Something...!

2005-04-28T20:22:00.000-04:00

Let me applaud the first three white house reporters who hounded Bush with fair questions following his 12 minute must-see-TV debacle. It still amazes me to hear how poorly he expresses his ideas through commonly used communication tool often referred to as coherent speech. He was befuddled, bewildered, and blindsided by many of the questions and failed to answer most if not all of the questions which he was asked. He even went back to the days of the '04 debates, snapping "hey let me say something...!" All in all, it was what is was...and my depressed roommate didnt get to watch his favorite show on TV...the OC (this is the same kid who still watches Full House and swears to me that it is a good show). Since we were watching FOX (for the OC), I found it convientient that they cut off their coverage of the following press conference to broadcast, two people that are really worried about saving money and how they are going to deal with a social security system that will "run out" of money within the next 30 years or so....oh yes, the Simple Life's Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. All hail the Chiefs...presidentas hilton and richie.

Behold

2005-04-25T18:05:00.000-04:00

from Hip Hop Blogs and Engadget

the Numark iPod DJ Mixer. While I myself own a set of turntables and as a "DJ", I will always be a purist when it comes to vinyl. But, this iPod mixer is just soooo good looking.

Not too many details on this yet, but a pic of the prototype unit surfaced (above) and was too good not to pass on. Word has it that Numark aims to put out a consumer model in the next couple of months, retailing in the $250-350 range, to be followed with a pro DJ version with pitch control and other goodies required by the pro mobile DJ. Both versions will feature the dual iPod dock with crossfaders and transport controls. The other word on the street (tentative, hearsay, take with a grain of salt, yadda yadda) is that Numark is teaming up with Apple to cook up some products. Mobile music-makers, keep thy ears to the ground…via Engadget

New Template

2005-04-22T16:37:00.000-04:00

As you can probably see, I have added another sidebar to the template...if there are any problems that you run into with the blog's template please let me know (leave a comment) so i can hopefully correct it. Thanks

Album

2005-04-21T23:17:00.000-04:00

Check out these updated photo albums on my Flickr Photo Album
Talib Kweli and Jean Grae in concert at Denison
& Geology Trip to North Carolina

Above: Jean Grae's red-tinted silhouette from the Kweli and Grae Concert.

Coming out of the Little Ice Age

2005-04-21T23:03:00.000-04:00

I am currently reading Brian Fagan's "The Little Ice Age" which discusses the volatile and unpredictable climatic conditions that occurred from 1300-1850. The large amount of climatic variability shaped the way civilization developed. In the past 150 years or so, we have been experiencing a warming trend...partially due to human activity....

Study Shows Antarctic Glaciers Shrinking
Email this Story

Apr 21, 2:23 PM (ET)

By EMMA ROSS

LONDON (AP) - The first comprehensive survey of glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula has shown that the rivers of ice are shrinking, mostly because of warming of the local climate.

It is unclear, however, whether the increased temperature causing the shrinkage is a natural regional effect or a result of human-influenced global warming, said the scientists who conducted the study, published this week in the journal Science.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed more than 2,000 aerial photographs dating from 1940 and over 100 satellite images from the 1960s onwards.

They calculated that 87 percent of the 244 glaciers going out to sea from the peninsula have retreated over the last 50 years and that the pace of shrinkage has accelerated over the last decade. Until now, scientists were uncertain whether the glaciers were growing or melting.

"Fifty years ago, most of the glaciers we look at were slowly growing in length but since then this pattern has reversed. In the last five years the majority were actually shrinking rapidly," said the study's leader, Alison Cook of the British Antarctic Survey. "However, 32 glaciers go against the trend and are showing minor advance. Had we not studied such a large number of glaciers we may have missed the overall pattern."

The Antarctic peninsula is a small segment of the Antarctic continent, located at the South Pole, and the behavior of the ice on the peninsula is not necessarily a reflection of what's going on elsewhere in Antarctica, said another of the investigators, David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey.

Temperatures seem to be much warmer there than on the rest of the continent.

Evidence from the main Antarctic ice sheet is mixed, with some areas of the continent showing shrinkage and others showing thickening.

Ice shrinkage has also been documented in Alaska and the North Pole.

Scientists worry about the melting of the ice sheets because the extra water may increase sea levels, which in turn could mean more flooding damage to coastal areas during storms.

Sea levels have risen by 10 centimeters to 20 centimeters over the last 100 years and experts predict it could rise by a meter over the next 100 years. However, the study was not able to tell whether the shrinkage is having a meaningful impact on sea levels.

It is also unclear whether changes in the larger ice sheet in Antarctica are contributing to sea level rise, Vaughan said.

"This is another piece in the jigsaw that tells us how climate change is affecting the planet. It may not be a significant piece, but there's a million-piece jigsaw out there to be filled in ... and this is one piece in it," Vaughan said.

Surviving Elements: From the Soul Survivor II Sessions

2005-04-21T21:18:00.000-04:00

Is the title of Pete Rock's compilation of instrumentals that did not make it (for one reason or another) onto the Pete's most recent album "Soul Survivor II". Pete Rock is one of the most innovative producers in hip-hop since his early days with CL Smooth in early 90's. He is a true hip-hop icon.

When Pete's vintage grooves start playing, they take you over and send you into another world. Drawing a lot from elements of jazz as well as R&B and Soul, Pete Rock has created another masterpiece. He proves he is still one of the most ingenious hip-hop producers with "You Remind Me" in which he samples Al Green's "Let's Stay Together". The style in which he chopped and reconstructed this classic soul song is pure genius. He sends the sample through a serious filter and subtly phases the original song's string arragements. The beat is simply intoxicating. The drums on this track also hit hard and the harsh hi-hats add level of depth to the track. Other highlights of Surviving Elements include Hip 2 Hip, Midnight and You, Placebo, Glowing, (Pimp) Strut, and Hop, Skip & Jump. I highly recommend giving Surviving Elements a listen.

A Favor

2005-04-14T22:37:00.000-04:00

I have a favor to ask...recently one of the songs that I produced has been climbing the charts on Soundclick. To get a little more exposure, would you jsut check in and and give "Ohh" a listen on my Soundclick page.

Martha's Jail time continues to Payoff

2005-04-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

I am continually amazed by the whole Martha "sichiation", I learned tonight that two of her magazines won at the National Magazine Awards. And you'd never guess how many awards those magazines have received from the same organization in previous years....a whopping zero. The big goose egg....the legend of martha's stay in the penitentiary continues to grow. from yahoo news

Martha Stewart takes awards under house arrest

Wed Apr 13, 5:17 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two Martha Stewart magazines won their first National Magazine awards on Tuesday, even as the lifestyle trendsetter remained under house arrest.

Stewart, convicted last year of lying to investigators over a suspicious stock sale, is allowed 48 hours out of her home each week for work-related events and accepted the awards at a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan.

"My deepest appreciation to the ... judges and to all of you in this industry who have honored us today," Stewart said.

The style guru who built Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. on tips for gracious living is under house arrest following a five-month prison term.

Martha Stewart Weddings won in the general excellence category for magazines with circulation of 250,000 to 500,000. Another of Stewart's magazines, Kids: Fun Stuff To Do Together, won for best magazine design.

Stewart's flagship magazine, Martha Stewart Living, has previously won three National Magazine Awards. The latest honor comes as she attempts to rebuild her business, which suffered declining circulation and revenues while she was jailed.

The Atlantic Monthly won for fiction writing -- an ironic accolade since the glossy, which once published Ernest Hemingway and other literary greats, plans to drop fiction from its pages except for an August fiction issue.

The New Yorker magazine, published by Conde Nast Publications Inc., was the biggest winner, taking home five awards after receiving 10 nominations.

The New Yorker was the only title to win multiple awards, collecting honors for reporting, public interest, profile writing, reviews and criticism, and for general excellence at a magazine with circulation of 1 million to 2 million.

The New Yorker has now won 44 awards, more than any other outlet since the awards began in 1966.

Vanity Fair, another title from privately held Conde Nast, was nominated for seven awards but won none.

Glamour magazine, from Conde Nast, won one of the most coveted awards -- general excellence at a magazine with circulation of more than 2 million.

Esquire, published by Hearst Magazines, took home the feature writing award.

The National Magazine Awards are sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University graduate school of journalism.

Whaaaa?

2005-04-12T02:29:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, one of my geology professors (who was once a hardcore deadhead), turned me on to this website eTree.org. Here's their self-description.

"Welcome to etree.org, the award-winning leader in lossless digital audio distribution on the Internet! We are a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format.

You can find nearly every band that allows taping in the jambands community on etree.org, including Phish, The Grateful Dead, The Seth Yacovone Band, String Cheese Incident, The Slip, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Umphrey's McGee, The Big Wu, Amfibian and The New Deal."

It is an amazing resource for downloading live shows. You find the selection of their live shows (downloadable artists are bolded) on the Database and the required software for conversion to WAV files on the Software Page. I myself just downloaded some Robert Randolph and the Family Band as well as Charlie Hunter. I just downloaded the software for conversion so I will be rolling audio bliss in just a few minutes. Aaaah

Despair

2005-04-08T13:46:00.000-04:00

I understand that this maybe a question that doesnt haunt many others, but it pains me to see that I only have 2.7 MB of space left on my 20 GB iPod. With new music entering the Ivan music cycle, choices must be made and entire albums must be doomed to living only on the PC. It is just so hard...why must you torture me like this iPod....whyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Roadtrip

2005-04-05T21:07:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, 20 people (including myself) from Denison University’s Geology and Geography (or DUGG) Department , piled into three Ford F-350 white vans and headed down to North Carolina at mind-blowing slow rates of speed due to a Van, that we, the inhabitants of Van Gogh, later known as Van Damme (the most bad-ass van known to man) dubbed Van Slow. After traveling through West Virginia and Virginia, we finally wandered to a hotel in Western NC for the night. The next morning, we set out for Pilot Mountain, which is composed of quartzite (metamorphosed sandstone and in this case represents a beach environment). After a brief stop at Pilot Mountain, we began our trek down to the Outer Banks. Before reaching the relatively young geologic formation that is the Outer Banks, we stopped at a State Park to take a look at a transgressive (rise in sea level) sequence represented in the exposure of a bank. We then traveled down to the Outer Banks and dropped off our stuff at the Caribe Inn. The Caribe Inn, the motel with a little bit of character, was quite unique. After a night on the beach, we retired to our rooms to rest up for the upcoming days of geology. On Friday, we explored the southern most reaches of the Outer Banks. We saw the variety of environments that are present on such a barrier island like the dunes, inlets, marshes, tidal “streams” and so on and so forth. On Saturday, we left the Caribe Inn at 5 am and headed off to OI, NC. After cruising around the island, two of the three vans missed the ferry to Hatteras. So, Van Damme and Van Nawhite sat in the line for the ferry in heavy rain and winds with nothing to do. With skills in kung fu and turning lighted letters, both vans managed to scrounge up a little fun sending some of their occupants into puddles for delightful prizes as well as deploying occupant’s odd skills in imitating a Raptor (the dino) for a wave of attacks concentrated on Van Nawhite’s hood. When the ferry arrived, we cut through 60 mph gusts of wind in order to make it to Hatteras. When on the northern most barrier islands, we visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Killdevil Hills. After jumping off the sides of the dunes of the Killdevil Hills, we began our trek back to Denison stopping in Durham for the night and completing our trip on Sunday. It was quite a trip.

It's the Big Mac Y'all

2005-03-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

from NY Daily News

McHip-hop name-drop

Chain wants rappers to mention Big Mac

BY OREN YANIV and LAURA WILLIAMS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

With names like Big Pooh, Big Daddy Kane, Big Rich Tha Don and Notorious B.I.G., "big" is already huge for rappers.

Now, McDonald's reportedly hopes to lure hip-hop artists to drop references to Big Macs into their rhymes.

Though it's not offering money upfront, the fast-food giant is willing to pay rappers $1 to $5 each time songs with the plug hit the radio, according to today's Advertising Age. McDonald's hopes to have its signature sandwich in several songs by summer, the mag says.

And it looks like the plan just might boost sales, some McDonald's customers said yesterday.

"If 50 Cent says so, they're gonna buy so many Big Macs," predicted Kai Davis, 27, a customer service rep and Jay-Z fan from the Bronx. "[Rappers] have a big influence."

"Anything they say, people are going to do," added 16-year-old Benji Lusena of Harlem.

But others said they weren't so easily led. "I usually don't use stuff just because somebody else uses it," said Pedro Rojas, 20, of Jersey City. "If you like the food, then that's about it."

Rappers have been pushing products gratis since Run DMC revived a flagging sneaker brand with its 1986 smash "My Adidas." Hip-hop artists have famously rapped about high-end brands like Cartier, Versace and Dom Perignon.

Sales of one French cognac went through the roof thanks to Busta Rhymes' "Pass the Courvoisier."

McDonald's isn't the only company now paying to break through to the hard-to-reach youth market. The marketing firm Maven Strategies, which McDonald's hired for the Big Mac project, got Seagram's gin mentioned - for a fee - in five raps last year, Ad Age says.

McDonald's has final approval over the Big Mac mentions, so perhaps the company won't want oversized pitchmen like Fat Joe. Decades ago, McDonald's dumped chubby Willard Scott as Ronald McDonald in favor of a leaner clown. Dem Franchise Boyz, on the other hand, might be the perfect spokesgroup for the 30,000-outlet chain.

The Tie Chronicles

2005-03-27T16:55:00.000-05:00

After parking my car in the parking garage at Easton, me and a friend were walking through the mall to go to P.F. Chang's for Easter dinner. As noted before, I was dressed quite well (if I do say so myself), and apparently I was dressed well enough to be offered a job. A Polish businessman, who himself was dressed to the nines, approached us and commented that I was looking very sharp and asked if I was going to school. We were a little bewildered by the whole thing. He went on to ask me if I had free time to do a little work during the school year. I respectfully denied his offer and went off to dinner. The odd thing is, he never said what the job entailed and what industry he was involved in. Makes one wonder...

Today, I took one step closer to

2005-03-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

becoming a man, by tying my own tie. With the guidance and help of one of my roommates, I made long strides towards becoming a self-sufficient man. I got up early to prepare my clothes for the Easter lunch/dinner with his parents, so I could get a little homework done before we went and I realized that I had a untied tie in my possession. At first, I consulted necktie.com's knot page (yeah, I tried to tie my tie using online instructions)...but I was befuddled by their diagrams and instructions. So, I wandered over into the other room of the suite and found my roommate getting ready for church. With a little instruction, I was able to pick up the sequence and went back into my room to perfect it. I sit here now, with a tie fitted tightly around my neck...a tie that I wont untie for fear that I will lose it's perfect dimensions.

Late Pass

2005-03-25T07:41:00.000-05:00

I am granting myself a late pass on this one...podcasting. With some things, I tend to browse and overlook important details like the joys of listening rare and out-of-print soul, funk, and hip-hop albums. Here are some that I came across yesterday: VinylPodcast.com, Can I Bring My Gat?, Funk You, Ear Fuzz, Combo Plates, and Soul Sides. Give them a listen.

Blog Stardom

2005-03-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

Warning: the following post has hints of sarcasm

I have let my blog sit for extended periods of time over the past semester and as a result, it's quality may have dropped a bit...no longer do I post daily and many times I simply link to other pages...this is not the case for one Darko the Dark One of Pertinent Verge fame. No, this exceptional father has blogged consistently and has brought his blog to semi-stardom. Being his creative self, he has nuzzled himself into a web of net activity garnering him an impressive 122 visits a day. For a while, both blog's of family Orsic recieved a similar number of visitors (I have kept a steady dose of 26 visits a day), but with a few clicks of the mouse and the help of the number one Google image search for "iceland" my father's site has rocketed into the bright lights of 100+ visits a day. All the while, my blog has been relatively silent. I might be suffering a bit of blog envy, but no longer am I listed at the top of his links to blogs...he has alphabatized them and left by blog wedged between the C's and the E's. In a recent post, he mentioned a couple of blogs which he considers daily reads and I was not blessed with the honor of being on the list. Then, it hit me...I have to earn the number one spot...because he is hitting the big time now, and he can't be linking to a subpar, panty-waste of a blog...This blog must earn it's spot on top...maybe I will link the picture of Iceland too.

A Remix Revolution

2005-03-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

Just last week Curtis Mayfield Remixed was released, last year, the Isley Brothers were remixed, now on May 24th, Motown is going to be remixed. I am really looking forward to hearing Questlove's of The Roots fame (Randy Watson Project) remix of Gladys Knight and the Pips version of "I Heard It Throught the Grapevine". from Allhiphop.com

Motown Releasing Remix CD Of Classics
By Nolan Strong
Date: 3/21/2005 9:00 pm

A variety of Hip-Hop artists will help re-introduce Motown’s “Sound of Young America” to a new Hip-Hop audience via a compilation, Motown Remixed.

Some of Hip-Hop most well respected producers took part in the remix project for the legendary label that boasted such talent as The Temptations, The Supremes, Jackson 5, The Commodores, Rick James and numerous others.

Motown executives gave each producer access to a master recording, with permission to create new versions of the original song.

Producers such as Green Lantern, Jazzy Jeff, Saalam Remi, Easy Mo Bee and The Bomb Squad’s Hank Shocklee reworked such hits as The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” The Supreme’s “My World Is Empty Without You,” Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and others.

Hank Shocklee, who as a member of The Bomb Squad, helped produce Public Enemy’s sonic marvels, Yo Bum Rush The Show and It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, seized the opportunity to recreate one of his favorite songs.

Shocklee was granted permission to re-work The Undisputed Truth’s hit, “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” which was originally an R&B hit in 1971.

“Working on this project was a dream come true,” Shocklee told AllHipHop.com. “Working with the Undisputed Truth track was great, because I felt that we [the Bomb Squad] have a similar production style. I’ve always been a fan of [producer] Norman Whitfield. On my song I stripped it down and really went after making the song have a Hip-Hop feel to it.”

The project will also be released on limited edition vinyl singles that include 10 of the album’s 15 remixed songs.

Additionally, DJ Smash will embark on a Motown Remixed Tour.

The tour will feature Smash showcasing the remixes and other songs from the Motown catalog in 10 cities during the month of May and June, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and a city to be announced.

Motown Remixed is slated to hit stores May 24, 2005. Below is the track listing:

1. "I Want You Back"/JACKSON 5
"Z-TRIP REMIX"

2. "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"/GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS
"THE RANDY WATSON EXPERIENCE SYMPATHY FOR THE GRAPES MIX "

3. "Let's Get It On"/MARVIN GAYE
"DA PRODUCERS MPG GROOVE MIX"

4. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours"/STEVIE WONDER
"DJ SMASH ESSENTIAL FUNK REMIX"

5. "ABC"/JACKSON 5
"SALAAM REMI CRUNK-A-DELIC PARTY MIX"

6. "I Just Want To Celebrate"/RARE EARTH
"MOCEAN WORKER REMIX "

7. "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"/THE TEMPTATIONS
"DJ JAZZY JEFF & PETE KUZMA SOLEFULL MIX "

8. "Quiet Storm"/SMOKEY ROBINSON
"GROOVE BOUTIQUE REMIX," featuring guest soloist ROY AYERS

9. "My World Is Empty Without You"/DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES
"TRANZITION REMIX"

10. "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)"/THE TEMPTATIONS
"EASY MO BEE REMIX"

11. "Smiling Faces Sometimes"/UNDISPUTED TRUTH
"FUTURESHOCK ENTERTAINMENT MAIN INGREDIENT MIX"

12. "The Tears Of A Clown"/SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES
"HOTSNAX REMIX"

13. "Keep On Truckin'"/EDDIE KENDRICKS
"DJ SPINNA REMIX"

14. "War"/EDWIN STARR
"KING BRITT MIX"

Bonus Cut
15. "Mary Jane"/RICK JAMES
"DJ GREEN LANTERN EVIL GENIUS MIX"

I was waiting for Chuck D to speak up about

2005-03-24T11:54:00.000-05:00

Flavor Flav on the VH1 reality show "Strange Love", in which Flav and Bridgett Nielsen are "in love". Flav's role in the show goes against Public Enemy's entire message and presentation. It portrays him as a gimmick (Spell Check please) and a simple minded character...Well I will let Chuck D do the talkin...(from Allhiphop.com

Chuck D Comments On Flav’s Surreal Life On “Strange Love”
By Houston Williams
Date: 3/23/2005 1:43 pm

Chuck D, lead rapper of Public Enemy, has issued a statement regarding group member Flavor Flav and his actions on “Strange Love,” a show televised on VH1.
“We'd like to offer an apology for some of the actions that many considered offensive to Black people, and especially Black women and children, by our brother Flavor Flav as portrayed on the VH1 television show "Strange Love," Chuck said in a statement to AllHipHop.com. “Like I said, Flav is our brother but we cannot begin to agree with what the rest of us consider inappropriate behavior and unfair actions towards his family and to himself.”
The show is built on the premise that Flavor Flav woos Brigitte Nielsen, who is engaged to be married. In the process, there are a number of cultural conflicts that arise. In some episodes, Flavor Flav reacted angrily towards the group and members of his own family over a number of instances.
“What is offensive is that his character and private issues are being trashed in front of millions for mere sake of profit and ratings. To showcase the troubling conflict between his kids and ex was uncalled for and we can't stand by it.”
Public Enemy remains one of the most popular and powerful groups with its unique mixture of message oriented music and hard beats. Chuck stated that the recent televised developments haven’t necessarily added to the legacy.
“[The show’s imagery] has been harmful to Flav's standing and legacy of being our brother, regardless of what he got paid, fame, infamy, ratings... but at what price?” the rapper queried. “It is this Flavploitation by the "Strange Love" executive producers Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego, production companies Mindless Entertainment and 51 Minds, VH1 and yes, even Flav and his manager.” According to Chuck D, the entire series was taped over three weeks in Oct. 2004.
“Let's keep in mind that television - no matter how much 'reality' they put in front of the word - is not real,” he stated.
Ultimately, Chuck D explained that his rapping partner was his own man and not bound by any formal doctrine.
“Public Enemy is not a fraternity, nor a political or religious organization, and thus everyone has their own individual personal agendas. But together we make music and are dedicated to spreading the good word around the planet,” he said. “I would be lying if I said that the side of Flav shown on ‘Strange Love’ doesn't affect what I've wanted our collective to stand for, because it does and many have told us how deeply they are bothered by this.”
Rapper Paris, who will produce PE’s next album, said, “While Flavor Flav is a grown man and responsible for his own actions, it's worthy to note that VH1 (and its sister station, MTV) have a history of not supporting message-oriented music, even though they openly embrace corporate-chosen artists who damage our communities with negative images and messages. The "Strange Love" show is little more than an attempt to indirectly discredit the one group most relevant to the Black Experience in hip-hop.”
At press time, Flavor Flav and his manager didn’t respond to inquiries by AllHipHop.com.

It's March Madness Time on CBS...

2005-03-20T19:17:00.000-05:00

No, not the NCAA tournament...but Spring Break Shark Attack. While watching most of this weekend's games, CBS has been shamelessly plugging many of its programs...make that most watched programs. CSI, Without A Trace, Everybody Loves Raymond...and B-minus movie "Spring Break Shark Attack". Frankly, I am surprised that CBS...who dealt with the FCC in regards to one infamous halftime show would even think about showing this disaster of a movie. It doesnt look to be a high-class production. Here is a brief description from the website:

Kathy Baker ("Picket Fences"), Bryan Brown
("The Thorn Birds"), Shannon Lucio (The O.C.) and Riley Smith ("New York Minute") star in this thriller about the invasion of a group of killer sharks on the Florida coast as a beach full of college co-eds enjoy their spring break from school.

College girl Danielle (Lucio) lies to her parents about her spring break plans and sneaks away to the fun-filled beaches of Florida with her two best friends. Soon after arriving, she falls for Shane (Smith), a handsome young blue-collar local working to raise college money.
While on vacation, Danielle seeks out her brother, Charlie (Wayne Thornley), a graduate student at the Florida Maritime Institute, whose thesis is on tiger sharks. Charlie cautions his sister to stay out of the water. He suspects that a large number of sharks are in the area due to a new artificial reef that was built to attract tourism.

Caught up in spring break fun, Danielle forgets her brother's warning. However, on an overnight boat trip she and her friends are viciously attacked by a group of sharks. As they find their way to safety on an islet, the reality of the danger hits them even harder when the body of a friend washes ashore.

Sounds tasty...maybe I will tune in for the hilarity.

My trip to the Landfill

2005-03-08T19:54:00.000-05:00

For my Environemental Geology class, we took a little trip to Waste Management's Suburban Landfill in Glenford, OH. This impressive engineered mound of garbage provides Construction & Demolition Debris Disposal, Contaminated Soil Remediation, Liquid Waste Disposal, Municipal Solid Waste Disposal, Special Waste Disposal, and Transportation of Special Waste for central Ohio. This twelve year old facility was managed by a relatively young man who gave us a two hour tour of the mountain of waste, which hasa an elevation of 1100 feet and is by far the highest point in Licking County. He showed us how the solidify liquid waste, how they seal the landfill, how they manage the land and how they manage the waste. It was an impressive operation that combined high technology with brute mechanical strength. Other than a construction site, it would be a 6 year old's favorite place with large dump trucks whose tires were taller than my 6'2'' frame. This trip gave me perspective as to the amount of waste we produce daily as the Suburban Landfill accepts 2600 tons of waste a day. The manager stressed the importance of recycling, not only so he could make more money, but also because cans, bottles, and paper are relatively light and take up valuable air space in the mounds-o-trash. I began to think about my daily consumption and the amount of waste that I produce and how I can cut down on such things. I think it is valuable for one to take a trip to one's local landfills, if not for the lovely views and fresh air, then for a little perspecitive.

Wait there's more

2005-03-05T22:22:00.000-05:00

Here is, (this time the link included for the Verger), John Legend's new video "Ordinary People" also directed by Kanye West. I really like Kanye's vision on both "Ordinary People" and "the Corner". At first the arguing families in the video may take you by surprise and take away from the song, but it all pieces together in the end.

I urge you to take a look at this

2005-03-03T23:51:00.000-05:00

new video directed by Kanye West for Common's "The Corner" feat. the Last Poets. The camera work is amazing and I heard someone say that this video makes Chicago look like Rome. The combination of the Last Poets and the end of the video gave me the chills.

Well I Be Damned

2005-02-24T08:34:00.000-05:00

The Sixers are on the loose after picking up Webber and some how keeping Iverson...Let Us Rejoice!!!!!

Kings' Petrie taking a big chance
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

It's not just a blockbuster trade. This one ranks as new-millennium NBA history.

Reason being:

It's a highly questionable deal for Sacramento's Geoff Petrie, and I can't remember ever saying that before.

Petrie didn't just end an era Wednesday night when he agreed to trade away one of the strongest forces behind the Sacramento Kings' rise from laughingstocks to NBA elitists. By sending Chris Webber to Philadelphia for three forwards with long-term contracts, one of the most respected minds in the game put himself in line for some rare criticism.

There are undoubtedly benefits to trading Webber, who has three years and more than $60 million left on his contract. Although he continues to play at an All-Star level, it's clear to anyone who watches Webber that, besides turning 32 next week, he's essentially playing on one leg after serious knee surgery.

Then there's the bigger benefit: Webber's departure will undoubtedly please Peja Stojakovic. Peja has been quietly miserable this season with his muted role in the Kings' offense, in the wake of his offseason trade demand and Sacramento's struggles late last season after Webber returned to the lineup.

However …

You had to assume a GM as shrewd as Petrie -- widely regarded as one of the league's best -- would get Glenn Robinson's expiring contract as part of a Webber package in the interest of salary-cap relief. Instead Sacramento acquired three smallish power forwards (Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson and Brian Skinner) who possess deals that aren't cap-friendly.

Worse yet, Stojakovic will still be a free agent after next season, and as long as Vlade Divac remains with the Lakers, Sacramento's hated rivals will have a shot at luring Peja away. There remains a possibility that the Lakers could trade Divac before Thursday's trading deadline, but that's because Divac is injured and can't help them. Chances are Divac will be retired by the summer of 2006, putting him in position to move into a Lakers front-office role … and thus putting Divac in prime position to recruit his best friend to Hollywood.

At first glance, then, you have to like this blockbuster much more for Sixers president Billy King than Petrie. Look at everything King accomplished here:

# With Shaquille O'Neal's health suddenly in question, King added a big-name big man who, if he can stay healthy, instantly makes Philadelphia the favorite in the Atlantic Division and a factor in the East playoffs.

# Within weeks of Allen Iverson voicing concern about the direction of the franchise and the lack of help around him, King found a sidekick AI will love.

# King accomplished the the first and second task without parting with Big Dog's contract or any of his prized youngsters: Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver and Willie Green. Which means Philly can keep Dog for the rest of the season and let the contract expire at season's end for some cap relief, or King can move Dog before the deadline for more help -- a deal for the retiring Jamal Mashburn and Rodney Rogers, for example, has been discussed with New Orleans. Also don't forget that, before the All-Star Game, Philadelphia was close to trading Robinson to Minnesota for Latrell Sprewell, with the deal breaking down when the Wolves also insisted on Green as part of the swap.

Of course, such is the respect for Petrie around the league that the first few executives we reached to discuss the evening's big news all had a similar reaction: Petrie must know something we don't.

As in: Webber, perhaps, is in worse shape than his numbers suggest.

There's no disputing Petrie's contention that it'll be easier to rebuild the Kings with three players earning the same salary as Webber does alone. In other words, packaging Thomas or Williamson or Skinner in future trades will be easier than it was to find a Webber taker.

You can likewise agree with the Kings' contention that they have some role-player depth in the short term to complement what still qualifies as a decent foursome: Mike Bibby, Brad Miller, Cuttino Mobley and Stojakovic.

Yet that's about all we can endorse from the Sacto end. It's difficult not to focus on how giddy Iverson must be; winning the All-Star Game's MVP trophy was apparently just an appetizer.

Sources close to Webber indicated late Wednesday that Webb, too, is happy with the move. Bittersweet as it must be to leave a franchise he lifted to prominence, Webb is said to be pleased to have a chance to win in his new city and leave a club (and an increasingly frustrated fan base) that didn't want him.

Yup. The suspicion here is that the biggest smiles Saturday, when the Kings visit the Sixers, will all be on the Philly side.

Kings Nation will accept the deal for now because Petrie made it, and because he has unquestionably earned that kind of trust. But since this is a good-as-your-last-deal business, that trust is at risk.

For the first time anyone can remember.

There comes a time...

2005-02-22T20:30:00.000-05:00

...in every young man's (well at least this young man's) semester, where a decision must be made. This decision is related to the hair which starts to envelop the tops of one's ears and impedes clearer thought (well not really)....To cut or not to cut the locks. That truly is the question. Wait till you come home so someone who knows how to cut your tornado head...or give in and get it cut. At one point, I considered going back to buzz-cut..I thought better of it and held off. I have yet to make my big decision yet, but I know one thing...Curtis/"Live" by Curtis Mayfield is one of the (live) albums I have heard. With a smaller backing band, the subtleties of his music shines threw and the small club atmosphere adds an indescribable element to his performance...give it a listen.

Mother Earth flexes her muscles

2005-02-22T18:44:00.000-05:00

As my geology education progresses, it becomes clear that life in California is one filled with hazards. Why so many people live close to an tectonically active fault is beyond me. Today, In Environmental Geology, my professor proclaimed that California has the highest amount of hazard risk in land. Now this...

ABC News
Calif. Storms Spawn Tornadoes; Six Dead
Series of Deadly Storms Spawn Tornadoes and Landslides Across California, Leaving Six Dead

The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES Feb 22, 2005 — A deadly series of storms across California spawned everything from tornadoes to avalanches, flooding freeways with steady rain and sending rivers of mud crashing through homes.
At least six deaths have been blamed on the storm, including a woman buried by an avalanche north of Lake Tahoe and others who were victims of landslides, traffic accidents, falling trees and flooding.
Mudslides forced Amtrak officials to suspend service from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara at least through Tuesday. Service between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo wasn't expected to resume until next Monday. During the weekend, Metrolink also had canceled rail service for parts of the area because of flooding.

Forecasters said Tuesday that the long-lived storm system would bring at least another inch of rain to Southern California but was losing strength and could move out of the region by Wednesday afternoon. A flash flood watch remained in effect Tuesday for much of Southern California.
"I think we've probably seen the worst of the storm," said Ted MacKenchnie, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Dozens of homes were evacuated or red-tagged marked as uninhabitable because they were threatened by sliding hillsides, authorities said.
Northern California also was hit by severe thunderstorms, hail and at least two afternoon tornadoes in the Sacramento area that uprooted trees and damaged roofs and fences.
The California Highway Patrol reported more than 300 crashes in a 14-hour period in Southern California, compared with 50 to 75 accidents on a normal, dry day.
A section of the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down for several hours late Monday because it was flooded by as much as 5 feet of water.
The wild weather came from a series of storms that began battering the state on Thursday, dumping 6.5 inches of rain in downtown Los Angeles.
A total of 31.40 inches of rain has fallen since July 1, the start of the region's annual "water year" measuring period, the fifth wettest on record. The record is 38.18 inches, set in 1883-84.

Who's that the primate who likes certain parts of the female anatomy?...oh yeah, Koko

2005-02-22T01:02:00.000-05:00

This one is out of right-field...from NBC4:Columbus

The two fired caretakers of Koko, the famous sign-language-speaking gorilla, are suing their former bosses.

"Their boss was asking them to expose (their) naked bodies ... for the enjoyment of Koko," said the women's attorney, Stephen Sommers.

The lawsuit said the women were pressured to strip on several occasions, sometimes in situations where co-workers could have seen their bodies.

According to the lawsuit, the women never undressed.

Before filing the lawsuit against the Gorilla Foundation, the women had lodged a separate a complaint with the state over what they claim were unsanitary working conditions.

They were fired the day after inspectors visited the facility.

"We unequivocally deny these allegations," a lawyer for the Gorilla Foundation told The Associated Press. He said the foundation is "confident this case lacks merit."

The women are seeking more than $1 million in damages.

Innovator and Legend, Jimmy Smith passes away

2005-02-09T14:59:00.000-05:00

from MTV.com

Jazz organist Jimmy Smith passed away Tuesday at the age of 76, apparently having died in his sleep during an afternoon nap.

The legendary musician was a hugely influential figure in music, whose style of play affected not only his own genre

but others, including hip-hop. DJs and producers often sample his soulful riffs; among the songs on which Smith's music appears are the Beastie Boys' "Root Down" and A Tribe Called Quest's "Push It Along."

Smith played piano before switching to the organ in the early 1950s, and his innovative style of playing the Hammond B-3 organ helped revolutionize the sound of jazz while he was recording for influential record labels like Blue Note and Verve.

Smith's manager, Bob Clayton, discovered the musician's body at around 1:30 p.m. at his Phoenix-area home, where he had taken a nap while watching television. He said Smith had been in generally good health and that the night before he seemed in positive spirits.

The body is being flown to Philadelphia, where the musician was born and raised. Details on services will be announced by the family shortly.

— Joseph Patel

Updates Galore

2005-02-05T13:08:00.000-05:00

As you may notice, I have given the blog a little bit of a facelift. Check YouDee out. I also have uploaded a couple beats that I made over break and during the beginning of the semester. One might call them BREAK beats...Although they are all Note'able...here are my top five: (1) Angel Eyes (2) Tainted Love (3) White Room (4) Hold On and (5) I'll Be A Fool. Honorable Mention: False Hoods with Tricky Dick and Curious George W. Listen to these and other new ones on Soundclick.com.

Kanye West Helps "College Dropout's" while Wyclef helps his homeland

2005-02-03T21:12:00.000-05:00

both stories from hiphopdx.com

Kanye West Helps "College Dropout’s"
Wednesday - February 02, 2005
Deniece Mason

Although he was the original “College Dropout”, Kanye West wants to help lower the school dropout rate. Kanye West has established the Kanye West Foundation in effort to help raise awareness about the value of education and fight the rising number of students that are dropping out of schools around the country. At his first reception for the new foundation on February 10th, Kanye will be discussing how he hopes to help add more music programs into schools.

According to MTV, the organizations first effort will be “Loop Dreams” a quest to bring more instruments back into schools and help at risk students learn how to read and write music. For Kanye being a college dropout proved to be a success, but he realizes that life won’t be so easy for everyone else. Along with his ten Grammy Award nominations (the show will air live on February 13th), Kanye is working on his next album “Late Registration” which will hit stores later this year.

Wyclef Jean Continuing to Support Haiti
Thursday - February 03, 2005
Deniece Mason

Continuing to bring hope to his homeland Wyclef Jean has established the Yele Haiti program. The Yele Haiti program is an effort to bring aid and attention to Haiti as the continue to go through what Wyclef calls a “mini civil war” between Aristide loyalists, police and guerrilla gangs. Formed by Wyclef and his cousin Jerry Duplessis, Wyclef wants to see the impoverished children gain a better educational standard. “With Clef, he’s like the Bob Marley for Jamaica, the Beatles for England, Elvis for America”, Jerry said to MTV. “People trust him”.

The programs first initiative is to give one hundred and thirty four scholarships to the Sports Academy that offers educations, soccer training and hot meals to students after school. The Yele project will also help to rebuild over twenty schools and provide more than 3,600 other scholarships to people in the city of Gonaives. Although there have been violent outbreaks throughout Haiti, Wyclef is making plans to do a “world festival” that may include a performance by the Fugees.

All hope for hockey season lost...(tear...whimper...weep)

2005-02-03T19:48:00.000-05:00

From ESPN.com

Announcement could come as early as today
ESPN.com news services

An NHL team owner requesting anonymity said that, barring a major, unforeseen turnaround, he expects the league to announce either later Thursday or Friday it is canceling the 2004-05 season, EJ Hradek of ESPN the Magazine has learned.

This comes just one day after the NHL players' association rejected the league's latest salary-cap proposal. However, the union did invite commissioner Gary Gettman and players' association chief Bob Goodenow back to the table Thursday after the leaders sat out the previous five sessions over a two-week span. The meeting in New York began around 1:30 p.m. and was still going on over four hours later.

If the season in canceled, the NHL would be the first North American sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute. The Stanley Cup has been awarded every year since 1919, when a flu epidemic wiped out the final series between Montreal and Seattle.

Players turned down the NHL's offer on Wednesday, sticking to their vow that they will never accept a salary cap.

The main sticking point remains the NHL's commitment to getting cost certainty and the players' association's vows never to accept a salary cap. The union flatly turned down the somewhat flexible cap -- which the league termed a "floating team payroll range" -- formally proposed by the league this week.

The 4½-month lockout reached its 141st day Thursday, and it has forced the cancellation of 772 of the 1,230 regular-season games, plus the All-Star Game.

Neither side expressed optimism on Wednesday that the philosophical differences could be bridged, but Bettman and Goodenow were needed in the room before any deal could possibly be reached.

The NHL proposed a six-year deal that contained a cap that would force teams to spend at least $32 million on player costs but no more than $42 million -- including benefits. The union needed only a few hours to turn it down.

There were other components to the offer, such as a profit-sharing plan, reduced age for unrestricted free agency, a raise of the minimum salary, and the continued conclusion of guaranteed contracts, but the issue has always been about a salary cap.

Bettman has said that teams lost a total of more than $1.8 billion over 10 years and that management will not agree to a deal without a defined relationship between revenue and salaries.

Last season's average salary was $1.8 million, and the NHL wants to push that back with a salary cap. The latest offer would give players between 53 and 55 percent of league revenues.

An economic study commissioned by the NHL found that players got 75 percent of revenues, but the union has challenged many of the league's findings.

The NHL has been operating under the same collective bargaining agreement since 1995, when the last lockout went 103 days before a 48-game season was played.

What I do with my spare time

2005-02-03T09:50:00.000-05:00

When I don't have class, I like to relax and do some homework or listen to music or watch some tv...or answer the phone every 5 minutes and deny a telemarketer to pleasure of taking my money and time. I so enjoy answering the phone and waiting for the voice on the other line to come in and say in Joshua there....or may I speak to Chris. Today I woke up at 8:00...and I have already recieved 5 calls. I just want to thank Denison for selling our information. Without them it wouldnt be possible. I so enjoy being interrupted by those jovial telemarketers. I am so fed up with them that I finally registered with the Do-Not-Call registry about 15 minutes ago. My registration was quickly followed by a courtesy call from another phone monger...I was happy to inform him that this would be his last call to this number for another five years...finally...maybe I will have some piece and quiet.

My take on the State of the Union

2005-02-02T22:17:00.000-05:00

While, the final moments of the speech were admittedly...very touching (the mother of a fallen soldier embracing an Iraqi woman)...It is my hope that those final moments of the speech do not overshadow some of Bush's shaky comments during the speech. One of the most frustrating statements that Bush has made during his re-election campaign and again during the state of the union, is that somehow a great difference in our approach to spreading democracy and freedom with violence and force and the "terrorists" also violent approach. The idea that we have a mandate to spread "freedom" is a bit self-rewarding and self-serving. He said that "the United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." That could be the most bold-faced lie I have ever hear him say. It frustrates me so much...that i can write no more.

Depressing News from Seymour Hersh

2005-01-25T23:36:00.000-05:00

via The New Yorker
ANNALS OF NATIONAL SECURITY

THE COMPANY WARS
by Seymour M. Hersh
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.

Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17

George W. Bush’s reëlection was not his only victory last fall. The President and his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state. Bush has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for using that control—against the mullahs in Iran and against targets in the ongoing war on terrorism—during his second term. The C.I.A. will continue to be downgraded, and the agency will increasingly serve, as one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon put it, as “facilitators” of policy emanating from President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. This process is well under way.

Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the Bush Administration has not reconsidered its basic long-range policy goal in the Middle East: the establishment of democracy throughout the region. Bush’s reëlection is regarded within the Administration as evidence of America’s support for his decision to go to war. It has reaffirmed the position of the neoconservatives in the Pentagon’s civilian leadership who advocated the invasion, including Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, the Under-secretary for Policy. According to a former high-level intelligence official, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after the election and told them, in essence, that the naysayers had been heard and the American people did not accept their message. Rumsfeld added that America was committed to staying in Iraq and that there would be no second-guessing.

“This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”

Bush and Cheney may have set the policy, but it is Rumsfeld who has directed its implementation and has absorbed much of the public criticism when things went wrong—whether it was prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib or lack of sufficient armor plating for G.I.s’ vehicles in Iraq. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for Rumsfeld’s dismissal, and he is not widely admired inside the military. Nonetheless, his reappointment as Defense Secretary was never in doubt.

Rumsfeld will become even more important during the second term. In interviews with past and present intelligence and military officials, I was told that the agenda had been determined before the Presidential election, and much of it would be Rumsfeld’s responsibility. The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon’s control. The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books—free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A. Under current law, all C.I.A. covert activities overseas must be authorized by a Presidential finding and reported to the Senate and House intelligence committees. (The laws were enacted after a series of scandals in the nineteen-seventies involving C.I.A. domestic spying and attempted assassinations of foreign leaders.) “The Pentagon doesn’t feel obligated to report any of this to Congress,” the former high-level intelligence official said. “They don’t even call it ‘covert ops’—it’s too close to the C.I.A. phrase. In their view, it’s ‘black reconnaissance.’ They’re not even going to tell the cincs”—the regional American military commanders-in-chief. (The Defense Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on this story.)

In my interviews, I was repeatedly told that the next strategic target was Iran. “Everyone is saying, ‘You can’t be serious about targeting Iran. Look at Iraq,’” the former intelligence official told me. “But they say, ‘We’ve got some lessons learned—not militarily, but how we did it politically. We’re not going to rely on agency pissants.’ No loose ends, and that’s why the C.I.A. is out of there.”

For more than a year, France, Germany, Britain, and other countries in the European Union have seen preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon as a race against time—and against the Bush Administration. They have been negotiating with the Iranian leadership to give up its nuclear-weapons ambitions in exchange for economic aid and trade benefits. Iran has agreed to temporarily halt its enrichment programs, which generate fuel for nuclear power plants but also could produce weapons-grade fissile material. (Iran claims that such facilities are legal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or N.P.T., to which it is a signator, and that it has no intention of building a bomb.) But the goal of the current round of talks, which began in December in Brussels, is to persuade Tehran to go further, and dismantle its machinery. Iran insists, in return, that it needs to see some concrete benefits from the Europeans—oil-production technology, heavy-industrial equipment, and perhaps even permission to purchase a fleet of Airbuses. (Iran has been denied access to technology and many goods owing to sanctions.)

The Europeans have been urging the Bush Administration to join in these negotiations. The Administration has refused to do so. The civilian leadership in the Pentagon has argued that no diplomatic progress on the Iranian nuclear threat will take place unless there is a credible threat of military action. “The neocons say negotiations are a bad deal,” a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) told me. “And the only thing the Iranians understand is pressure. And that they also need to be whacked.”

The core problem is that Iran has successfully hidden the extent of its nuclear program, and its progress. Many Western intelligence agencies, including those of the United States, believe that Iran is at least three to five years away from a capability to independently produce nuclear warheads—although its work on a missile-delivery system is far more advanced. Iran is also widely believed by Western intelligence agencies and the I.A.E.A. to have serious technical problems with its weapons system, most notably in the production of the hexafluoride gas needed to fabricate nuclear warheads.

A retired senior C.I.A. official, one of many who left the agency recently, told me that he was familiar with the assessments, and confirmed that Iran is known to be having major difficulties in its weapons work. He also acknowledged that the agency’s timetable for a nuclear Iran matches the European estimates—assuming that Iran gets no outside help. “The big wild card for us is that you don’t know who is capable of filling in the missing parts for them,” the recently retired official said. “North Korea? Pakistan? We don’t know what parts are missing.”

One Western diplomat told me that the Europeans believed they were in what he called a “lose-lose position” as long as the United States refuses to get involved. “France, Germany, and the U.K. cannot succeed alone, and everybody knows it,” the diplomat said. “If the U.S. stays outside, we don’t have enough leverage, and our effort will collapse.” The alternative would be to go to the Security Council, but any resolution imposing sanctions would likely be vetoed by China or Russia, and then “the United Nations will be blamed and the Americans will say, ‘The only solution is to bomb.’”

A European Ambassador noted that President Bush is scheduled to visit Europe in February, and that there has been public talk from the White House about improving the President’s relationship with America’s E.U. allies. In that context, the Ambassador told me, “I’m puzzled by the fact that the United States is not helping us in our program. How can Washington maintain its stance without seriously taking into account the weapons issue?”

The Israeli government is, not surprisingly, skeptical of the European approach. Silvan Shalom, the Foreign Minister, said in an interview last week in Jerusalem,with another New Yorker journalist, “I don’t like what’s happening. We were encouraged at first when the Europeans got involved. For a long time, they thought it was just Israel’s problem. But then they saw that the [Iranian] missiles themselves were longer range and could reach all of Europe, and they became very concerned. Their attitude has been to use the carrot and the stick—but all we see so far is the carrot.” He added, “If they can’t comply, Israel cannot live with Iran having a nuclear bomb.”

In a recent essay, Patrick Clawson, an Iran expert who is the deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (and a supporter of the Administration), articulated the view that force, or the threat of it, was a vital bargaining tool with Iran. Clawson wrote that if Europe wanted coöperation with the Bush Administration it “would do well to remind Iran that the military option remains on the table.” He added that the argument that the European negotiations hinged on Washington looked like “a preëmptive excuse for the likely breakdown of the E.U.-Iranian talks.” In a subsequent conversation with me, Clawson suggested that, if some kind of military action was inevitable, “it would be much more in Israel’s interest—and Washington’s—to take covert action. The style of this Administration is to use overwhelming force—‘shock and awe.’ But we get only one bite of the apple.”

There are many military and diplomatic experts who dispute the notion that military action, on whatever scale, is the right approach. Shahram Chubin, an Iranian scholar who is the director of research at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, told me, “It’s a fantasy to think that there’s a good American or Israeli military option in Iran.” He went on, “The Israeli view is that this is an international problem. ‘You do it,’ they say to the West. ‘Otherwise, our Air Force will take care of it.’” In 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s Osirak reactor, setting its nuclear program back several years. But the situation now is both more complex and more dangerous, Chubin said. The Osirak bombing “drove the Iranian nuclear-weapons program underground, to hardened, dispersed sites,” he said. “You can’t be sure after an attack that you’ll get away with it. The U.S. and Israel would not be certain whether all the sites had been hit, or how quickly they’d be rebuilt. Meanwhile, they’d be waiting for an Iranian counter-attack that could be military or terrorist or diplomatic. Iran has long-range missiles and ties to Hezbollah, which has drones—you can’t begin to think of what they’d do in response.”

Chubin added that Iran could also renounce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. “It’s better to have them cheating within the system,” he said. “Otherwise, as victims, Iran will walk away from the treaty and inspections while the rest of the world watches the N.P.T. unravel before their eyes.”

Continued...

Try this out, it's worth it.

2005-01-20T13:42:00.000-05:00

After seeing a sign of a inauguratal protestor, similar to this picture , my roommate and I wanted to see if we could find any merchandise with this logo emblazoned on it. So I did the following and I recommend you all do the same.

Follow these steps:
1. type in the phrase, "worst president ever" into the Google Search Engine.
2. Click the "I'm feeling lucky" button

sit back and laugh or cry at the resulting page.

At least We, the people, are not paying for it all....

2005-01-20T13:27:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of corporate and private donors (from Inaugural05.com)who paid for a portion of the outrageous bill associated with the archaic presidential inauguration. One would think that during this time of war in addition to the recent natural disasters, that the money could be spent for a more worthy cause.

ACS State & Local Solutions, Inc. Washington DC $250,000
A.G. Spanos Stockton CA $250,000
AFLAC, Incorporated Columbus GA $100,000
AFLAC, Incorporated Columbus GA $150,000
A. J. Scribante Omaha NE $100,000
Alan B. Fabian Cockeysville MD $100,000
Al Hoffman, Jr. Fort Myers FL $100,000
Alagem Capital Group, LLC Beverly Hills CA $250,000
Alexander F. Treadwell Westport NY $100,000
Altria Corporate Services, Inc. New York NY $250,000
American Bankers Association Washington DC $25,000
American Chemistry Council Arlington VA $25,000
American Financial Cincinnati OH $250,000
American Health Care Association Washington DC $50,000
Ameriquest Capital Corporation Orange CA $250,000
Amgen, Inc. Thousand Oaks CA $100,000
Andrew C. Taylor St. Louis MO $100,000
Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc. Washington DC $100,000
Argent Mortgage Company Orange CA $250,000
AT&T Washington DC $250,000
Bank of America Corporation Charlotte NC $250,000
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, LLC Washington DC $25,000
Bensco, Inc. Metairie LA $100,000
Benson Football Metaire LA $100,000
Benson Mineral Group, Inc. Denver CO $100,000
Beverly Enterprises, Inc. Fort Smith AR $50,000
Beverly Enterprises, Inc. Fort Smith AR $20,000
Bill G. Hartley Tyler TX $25,000
Blank Rome, LLP Philadelphia PA $200,000
BlueCross BlueShield of Florida, Inc. Jacksonville FL $100,000
Bob Tuttle Beverly Hills CA $25,000
Boone Pickens Dallas TX $250,000
Bradford M. Freeman Los Angeles CA $100,000
Bristol-Myers Squibb Washington DC $250,000
Broadcast Music, Inc. Nashville TN $25,000
Burlington Norhtern & Sanata Fe Corp. Topeka KS $250,000
Burton J. McMurtry Portola Valley CA $50,000
California Farm Bureau Federation Sacramento CA $100,000
Carl H. Lindner Cincinnati OH $250,000
C. Edward McVaney Greenwood Village CO $100,000
Century Homebuilders, LLC Miami FL $100,000
Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Coral Gables FL $25,000
Charles D. Miller Pasadena CA $100,000
Cherie and Robin Arkley Eureka CA $100,000
CheveronTexaco Concord CA $250,000
Cinergy Corporation Cincinnati OH $250,000
Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose CA $100,000
Clearwire Corporation Kirkland WA $100,000
Computer Associates International, Inc. Islandia NY $100,000
Corporate Capital, LLC New Orleans LA $250,000
Cove Partners, LLC Santa Monica CA $100,000
Cove Partners, LLC Santa Monica CA $25,000
Credit Union National Association Madison WI $50,000
CSC Federal Sector Headquarters Falls Church VA $25,000
David Girard-diCarlo Washington DC $50,000
Direct Supply, Inc. Milwaukee WI $25,000
Donald J. Carty Dallas TX $100,000
Dr. Miriam Ochshorn Adelson Las Vegas NV $250,000
Duane Acklie Lincoln NE $100,000
Dwight C. Schar McLean VA $100,000
Edison Electric Institute Washington DC $25,000
Edison Electric Institute Washington DC $25,000
EDS Plano TX $100,000
Elliott Broidy Los Angeles CA $250,000
Entrepreneurial Capital Corporation Newport Beach CA $100,000
E-Team Communications Austin TX $50,000
Exxon Mobil Corporation Washington DC $250,000
Fairfax Reality, Inc. Salt Lake City UT $100,000
FedEx Corporation Memphis TN $250,000
First Data Corporation Greenwood Village CO $250,000
Ford Motor Company Dearborn MI $250,000
Frank Baxter Los Angeles CA $100,000
Frederick R. Meyer Dallas TX $25,000
George Richmond Earth City MO $50,000
GMAC Horsham PA $100,000
Golden Eagle Industries, Inc. Charlotte NC $250,000
H. Edward Baher Bluffton SC $250,000
Horizon Bay Management, LLC Tampa FL $25,000
Hratch Kaprielian New York NY $25,000
HSBC USA Inc. Mt. Prospect IL $25,000
Hunt Consolidated, Inc. Dallas TX $250,000
Hunter Engineering Company Bridgeton MO $100,000
Ilene L. Flaum and David M. Flaum Rochester NY $100,000
Independent Community Bankers of America Washington DC $100,000
International Paper Memphis TN $100,000
International Traders, INC Nashville NC $30,000
Intervest Construction, Inc. Daytona Beach FL $100,000
J. Ronald Terwilliger Key Largo FL $100,000
Jack Overstreet Englewood CO $100,000
James A. Haslam, II Knoxville TN $50,000
Jerome V. Ansel Boca Raton FL $100,000
JM Family Enterprises, Inc. Deerfield Beach FL $25,000
John Elliot Associates Charleston WV $30,000
John L. Kemmerer, III Morristown NJ $100,000
John W. Childs Boston MA $100,000
JPMorgan Chase Houston TX $100,000
KB Home Los Angeles CA $100,000
Kenneth J. Kies McLean VA $25,000
Kojaian Ventures, LLC Bloomfield Hill MI $250,000
Lawrence Auriana Greenwich CT $100,000
Lawrence Lacerte Dallas TX $25,000
Leach Capital, LLC San Francisco CA $100,000
Linger Longer Development Co. Greensboro GA $100,000
LMD Properties, LLC High Point NC $50,000
Lockheed Martin Corporation Arlington VA $100,000
Long Beach Acceptance Corp. Paramus NJ $250,000
Lydian Asset Management Westport CT $25,000
Marathon Oil Corporation Houston TX $25,000
Marc S. Goldman Hoboken NJ $100,000
Marc S. Goldman Hoboken NJ $150,000
Marna D. Schnabel Los Angeles CA $100,000
Marriott International, Inc. Washington DC $250,000
Marriott Vacation Club International Washington DC $250,000
Matthew R. Simmons Houston TX $100,000
Max M. Fisher Detroit MI $100,000
MCI Ashburn VA $25,000
Michael W. Murphy El Dorado AR $25,000
Microsoft Corporation Redmond WA $100,000
Morgan Stanley Jersey City NJ $100,000
Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Dallas TX $100,000
Nancy and Rich Kinder Houston TX $250,000
National Association of Home Builders Washington DC $250,000
National Association of Realtors Chicago IL $50,000
Ned L. Siegel Boca Raton FL $100,000
Nelson Peltz New York NY $250,000
New Breed Corporate Services, Inc. Greensboro NC $25,000
New Breed Corporation Greensboro NC $25,000
New Century Mortgage Corporation Irvine CA $100,000
New Energy Corp. South Bend IN $250,000
Nicholas Taubman Roanoke VA $50,000
Northrop Grumman Los Angeles CA $100,000
Nuclear Energy Institute Washington DC $100,000
Occidental Petroleum Corporation Los Angeles CA $250,000
Office of the Commissioner of Baseball New York NY $100,000
Oracle Corporation Rocklin CA $100,000
Peabody Holding Company, Inc. St. Louis MO $100,000
Pepsi-Cola Company Purchase NY $100,000
Perennial Strategy Group, LLC Washington DC $25,000
Pfizer, Inc. New York NY $250,000
Phil Wendel Charlottesville VA $100,000
Pilot Corporation Knoxville TN $50,000
Piper Rudnick Washington DC $25,000
PricewaterhouseCoopers Tampa FL $25,000
Qualcomm Incorporated San Diego CA $100,000
Retzer Resources, Inc. Greenville MS $25,000
Richard Warren Lake Forest CA $100,000
Rick J. Caruso Los Angeles CA $100,000
Robert Day Los Angeles CA $100,000
Robert C. Rhein Interests, Inc. Cincinnati OH $100,000
Robert Frank Pence McLean VA $100,000
Robert W. Johnson, IV New York NY $100,000
Rooney Holdings, Inc. Tulsa OK $250,000
R. T. Farmer Cincinnati OH $100,000
S. Davis Phillips High Point NC $250,000
Sallie Mae, Inc. Reston VA $250,000
Sam & Marilyn Fox St. Louis MO $100,000
SBC Communications, Inc. Washington DC $100,000
ServiceMaster Memphis TN $25,000
Sheldon G. Adelson Las Vegas NV $250,000
Southern Company Atlanta GA $250,000
Stanley P. Whitcomb, Jr. Bonita Springs FL $25,000
Stephen A. Schwarzman New York NY $100,000
Stephens Group, Inc. Little Rock AR $250,000
Strongbow Technologies, Corp. Burtonsville MD $250,000
Susan and Michael Dell Austin TX $250,000
TC Management Partners IV, LLC Washington DC $100,000
Terry & Jane Semel Beverly Hills CA $125,000
The Boeing Company Arlington VA $100,000
The Coca Cola Company Washington DC $100,000
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. New York NY $100,000
The Home Depot Washington DC $250,000
The Limited Service Corporation Columbus OH $100,000
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC Chevy Chase MD $250,000
The Shaw Group, Inc. Baton Rouge LA $100,000
The Timken Company Canton OH $250,000
The Washington Post Washington DC $100,000
Thien H. Nguyen Redington Beach FL $100,000
Thomas F. Petway, III Jacksonville FL $100,000
Thomas F. Stephenson Atherton CA $225,000
Time Warner New York NY $250,000
Titus Electrical Contracting, Inc. Austin TX $100,000
Tom Benson Metairie LA $50,000
Town and Country Credit Irvine CA $250,000
Toyota Motor North America, Inc. New York NY $25,000
TRT Holdings Inc. Irving TX $100,000
Tyson Springdale AR $100,000
Union Pacific Corporation Washington DC $100,000
United Parcel Service Roswell GA $250,000
United Technologies Hartford CT $250,000
UST Inc. Greenwich CT $250,000
Valhi, Inc. Dallas TX $100,000
Vernon G. Buchanan Sarasota FL $100,000
Wachovia Corporation Jacksonville FL $250,000
Washington Group International Boise ID $25,000
Washington Television Center Washington DC $250,000
Waste Management Service Center Houston TX $100,000
Well Care Health Plans, Inc. Tampa FL $100,000
William Earl Riggs Pleasantton CA $100,000
William O. DeWitt, Jr. Cincinnati OH $100,000
Williams & Jensen, PC Washington DC $50,000

Everybody Loves A Fart Joke

2005-01-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

From the "an(n)als" of the 2 blowhards

The Fartiste

Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --
Have you ever run across the 19th century French music-hall star Joseph Pujol? He was quite a phenonemon, a huge star who was known as "le petomane," or "the fartiste." That's right: Pujol was a specialty act, and virtuoso farting was his specialty. He had a long and busy career, and performed his act all over France. He had his greatest success at the Moulin Rouge, where he outgrossed (if that's the right word) the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt.

Here's a description of Pujol's opening night at the Moulin Rouge:

Then Le Petomane performed some imitations, using the simple, honest format of announcing and then demonstrating. He displayed his wide sonic range with tenor, baritone, and bass fart sounds. He imitated the farts of a little girl, a mother-in-law, a bride on her wedding night (tiny), the same bride the day after (loud), and a mason (dry-- "no cement"). He imitated thunder, cannons ("Gunners stand by your guns! Ready-- fire!!"), and even the sound of a dressmaker tearing two yards of calico (a full 10-second rip). After the imitations, Le Petomane popped backstage to put one end of a yard-long rubber tube into his anus. He returned and smoked a cigarette from this tube, after which he used it to play a couple of tunes on a song flute. For his finale he removed the rubber tube, blew out some of the gas-jet footlights from a safe distance away, and then led the audience in a rousing sing- along.

Here's one account of Pujol; here's another; here's a third. Those funky Frenchies: Marseilles even commemorates its native son with a "Rue Pujol."

All this reminds me of a passage in Jean Renoir's biography of his painter father. (A wonderful book, by the way.) Jean, who spent many childhood hours hanging around his father's bohemian models -- lucky boy -- wrote that one thing he recalled about the bedrooms of these legendary 19th century love goddesses was that they often smelled of full chamber pots.

Best,

Michael

Shortie, but a Goodie

2005-01-18T11:04:00.000-05:00

As my historical geology professor described the 6 days which he spent without power as a result of the numerous weather systems that traveled through Ohio, he theorized that losing power during Christmas was God's way of punishing Ohio residents for voting Red in November's election.

Real Man of Genius

2005-01-10T21:24:00.000-05:00

peep the legwear...oh yes...shorts

Anatomy 101 is now being taught by NFL

2005-01-10T20:53:00.000-05:00

From the people who bring you painful and informative injuries like T.O.'s recent leg injury (these valuable educational tools arecommonly put into song..."leg bones are connected to your ankle bone, your ankle bone...etc.") ***,
these same people have taught us how valuable our own head truly is,

the same group who taught the masses about the female body (janet's booby) ***,
is now teaching us all about the human's rear end (via the phantom moon that Randy Moss laid on the Packers fans) (@$$).

Apparently Moss, who did not expose his ass to fans for fear that his buns might be frozen off by the cool Lambeau temps, was alluding to something that Packers fans routinely do to the bus of the visiting team as they pass by.

*** - picture not included...enough already...nobody wants to see that again.

@$$ - picture unavailable...but would like to see this amusing celebration at least once.

Here is the story from ESPN.com

NEW YORK -- Randy Moss is almost sure to be fined for pretending to moon fans in Green Bay during a playoff win, according to NFL rules.

“It's not the kind of thing you want to see on national TV, but I understand what it was all about. ... The fans in Green Bay have
a tradition in the parking lot after the game where they moon the visiting team's bus. ”
— Colts coach Tony Dungy

The league is looking into the star receiver's antics in the Minnesota Vikings' 31-17 win over the Packers on Sunday and will announce its ruling later this week.

When asked for a reaction to the touchdown celebration Sunday night, an NFL spokesman told ESPN's Chris Mortensen: "Randy Moss can expect to be hearing from us."

When asked by AP whether the oft-fined Moss would be penalized again, a league spokesman recited NFL rules mandating discipline for "obscene gestures or other actions construed as being in poor taste."

A fine for the first offense under those guidelines is $5,000. Moss has not previously been fined for such action, but paid a $25,000 penalty in 1999 for squirting an official with a water bottle.

In the last year, the NFL has dealt with a couple of highly publicized situations that many fans found objectionable. There was the Janet Jackson breast-baring episode during the halftime show of the Super Bowl in February and the steamy "Monday Night Football" introduction this season featuring Philadelphia receiver Terrell Owens and "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan.

On Sunday, Moss caught a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and headed toward the goalpost. He then turned his back to the Lambeau Field crowd, bent over and pantomimed pulling down his pants.

"Just having a little fun with the boys," Moss told a Fox reporter as he left the field. "I hope I don't get in trouble by it, but if I do I'll take the heat."

Moss, making $5 million this season, declined comment Monday.

Vikings coach Mike Tice said he spoke Monday with Art Shell, executive director of the players' association.

"The league has called me," Tice said. "I didn't see it until last night."

Tice added he always thought of Green Bay fans as having "a tremendous amount of class" but that he didn't think they acted that way Sunday.

Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said he saw Moss' action and, "I thought it was kind of humorous."

"It's not the kind of thing you want to see on national TV, but I understand what it was all about," he said.

"Anyone who has played in the NFC Central knows what that's about. The fans in Green Bay have a tradition in the parking lot after the game where they moon the visiting team's bus," he said. "It's kind of a unique sendoff."

"I had seen it seven times because when I was with the Vikings, we lost to them seven times up there," he said.

Fox did not show a replay of Moss' display during the game.

"It was inappropriate to replay it in the context of the game," Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said.

ESPN declined to show the replay Sunday because, "in the end, we decided a conservative approach, taking a breath rather than rushing to air, would be prudent," spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.

He added: "In hindsight, we could have shown it once the day it happened while being very mindful of not being gratuitous about it."

Krulewitz said replays were to be shown Monday "conservatively, based on the NFL's and the Vikings' reaction to it."

Last month, Denver quarterback Jake Plummer was fined $5,000 for an obscene gesture.

Randy Moss
Moss

Moss was originally fined $40,000 in 1999 for squirting an official, but it was reduced to $25,000 on appeal.

Moss verbally abused corporate sponsors on the team bus in 2001. That resulted in the team fining him $15,000 and forcing him to attend anger management classes.

In December of 2002, he was fined $1,200 by a judge after being charged with bumping a traffic officer with his car in downtown Minneapolis.

And last week, he was chewed out by teammates for leaving the field before the end of a loss in Washington. Center Matt Birk, one of the Vikings' leaders, confronted him and quarterback Daunte Culpepper also was upset.

Moss, his hair poofed out in a giant Afro, had four receptions for 70 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday's game.

After Moss' second score and resulting show, Birk just shook his head and smiled.

"That's Randy," he said. "You take the good with the bad."

Check Out this Soundboard

2005-01-05T17:36:00.000-05:00

If you are a fan of the Chappelle Show then check out this new and improved soundboard on his Comedy Central Webpage. Many laughs to be had from soundclips of such characters as Rick James, Tyrone, Sam Jackson, Playahaters, Prince, Lil Jon, Dave (himself), Black Gallagher, and Tron.

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards

2005-01-05T17:27:00.000-05:00

Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis and the late Janis Joplin are among those slated to be honored with the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys on February 13th at Los Angeles' Staples Center.

The other recipients are jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, country pioneers the Carter Family, soul hitmakers the Staples Singers, country star Eddy Arnold, jazz drummer Art Blakey, composer Morton Gould and blues pianist Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins.

Songwriter extraordinaire Hoagy Carmichael, Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion and recording artist and radio personality Dr. Billy Taylor will receive the Trustees Award, presented to important figures in music who contribute in a non-performing capacity. Producer Phil Ramone (Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel) will be honored with a technical Grammy.

from The Rolling Stone

Okay Okay Okay...Led Zeppelin, Mr. Jheri Lee Lewis, and the late Janis Joplin are going to be honored...that's fine and dandy...Congrats. Let's hear for Jelly Roll Morton, the Staples Singers, Art Blakey, Hoagy Carmichael, Don Cornelius, and Alfred Lion. These undercard honorees deserve just as many props. Alfred Lion founded one of the most influential Record Labels in the Jazz's history, Blue Note. Check the Staples Singers out on a recent complilation of STAX music. This complilation is simply breath taking. STAX was just as important as Motown was.

Last Night's The Daily Show

2005-01-05T17:13:00.000-05:00

Last night's Daily Show was a good one, I don't know if any of y'all caught a glimpse of the handsome young man sitting in on the inside edge of the third row of the stands closest to the news desk...oh yeah that was me. After much effort was put forth to get the tickets (thank you to me Mum), I attended this years first The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. My Dad and I made the short drive up to New York and visited with my short but still power wielding Croatian Grandmother (his mother) and her two sisters. After a delicious meal and a confusing game of rummy, we headed over to the Daily Show Studios to wait in line for a couple hours. Between the newlyweds behind us and the four men in front of us, entertaining and annoying conversation was plentiful. After being herded into the studio, being hyped up, and a short discussion time with Jon himself, the show began. By the way, the set is quite small, they do wonders with the camera angles. One of the more amusing sights, was the "Spinal Tap" originating and Stonehedge-esque The Daily Show monument. This dinky set of letters looks like a bunch of baby blocks stacked on top of each other. The show was great and as always filled with humor and wit. If your ever in NYC, check the Daily Show out...it's a blast....I recommend reserving the tickets months in advance.

Martha Stewart is straight gangsta'

2004-12-23T20:44:00.000-05:00

It has been quite odd to track Marty Stew's popularity since being convicted and sent off to fed. prison. It seems as though she has become more popular...it may be an attempt to do the Bush-thing...she is just like the common-folk. You know those common folk, who get convicted for inside trading. It seems as though, she has got all the street cred that seemed to elude Kobe after his trial. Much respec Mart S. !

Devoid of Thought

2004-12-23T15:03:00.000-05:00

The end of this past semester was exhausting and as I noted on my last post, my blog has felt the pain. However, as I emerge from the storm, I realize that I have not been as devoid of non-school thought as I previously thought. However, these thoughts have not expressed themselves through writing. For example, my opinion on the Barry Bonds roids situation...who was surprised that the man used roids...not I. I accepted a long time ago that the use of illegal performance products was present in sports, and I was surprised by the media's mini-frenzy, acting like it was big news. I also have had thoughts on Chad Pennington's well-presented and brilliant speech that he made to the NY Jets beat writers. He scolded them for their petty banter that they use to sell papers. I have had many thoughts. But, currently, my thoughts are focused on the holidays. A period of rest, relaxation, family, friends, food, Shaq v. Kobe, Pistons v. Pacers, and sugarplums.

As the official decision maker for MAWHC, or Movies Associated with Holdiay Cheer,In reference to my father's bid to make Diner an official holiday movie, I must reject the movies bid, while it is a great movie, if I remember correctly, the movie does not possess the mandatory, gift-giving scene. Although, a strong case could be made for Modell's recieving other's leftovers.

It is my hope to get my blog back on track...for it has been stopped in one station for too long.

The Blog is Back

2004-12-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

These past few weeks of school have truly impeaded my blogging. I have devoted all constructive thought to school as crunch time arrived. In fact I am risking loss of good though as i type. As school comes to a close, I look forward to being home with the fam for the holiday season. One of the biggest differences between Christmas during the high school years and Christmas at college...is the lack of appreciation for the holiday season. It is not that Denisonians dont appreciate the holidays...it's the three to five week mad dash towards the end of the semester. It's a time for giving assignments and such. I can't wait to watch the patterns that the christmas tree lights make on the ceiling as the sounds of Ella's christmas album resonate through out the Orsic residence. With a 6.5 to 8 hour drive ahead of me on Saturday, my trip playlist will include the New Nas Album, "Street's Disciple"...one of the best all-around hip-hop albums of recent memory, as well as Foriegn Exchange's "Connected", Little Brother's "The Chittlin Circuit", and of course Ella's Christmas, James Brown's Christmas and others. Check out my old high school, the Charter School of Wilmington's non-affiliated blog...as well as CSW's homepage...check out the picture section...who's that to the left? what a scrawny crew...

That New Backpack Feeling

2004-12-04T19:34:00.000-05:00

New and exciting stuff is always fun...but there is something extra special about getting a new backpack. On Friday, my new Jansport Odyssey Daypack arrived in the mail. Take a look at this beauty. My old backpack, which had been my primary lugger of stuff, lasted me a full 6 1/2 years through high school and 2.5 years of college. In my book, that is quite the feat, as many of today's high schools do not allow for students to make locker stops between classes, forcing many scrawny students to drag their books to class. My new backpack is huuuge and I regularly lose my way around it as it features upwards of five sizable pockets (not including the" Hydration-ready sleeve (bladder not included)H2O on the go"). This backpack among fannypacks brags a 2350 cu in / 38.5L carrying capacity by using its 19.5" x 13.5" x 12" dimensions wisely. It is quite a backpack.

As with any new item, you always want to put it to use right away. There is something fun and fulfilling about using a new object for its purpose. However, the relatively short trip from Sheppardson Hall to Olin is not quite fulfilling enough. Just as my trip starts it comes to an end a measly 7 minutes later. With my old faithful backpack, whose strap broke (rendering it a knapsack of sorts), the trip to class wasn't as exciting...But with the new pack, it is excitement city. I think it's even got a HEMI in it.

Back into 5th Gear

2004-12-01T07:18:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving Break came just at the right time. With the semester reaching a fever pitch, I needed some home fixin's and things of that nature. Thanksgiving was filled with delicious food and was served by two little old Croatian ladies, who when stacked on top of each other, might (just barely eclipse my 6'2'' frame. I spent much time with my family and managed to catch The Incredibles and Ray. I highly recommend both of those movies, especially Ray. Jamie Foxx was amazing. It's back to the grind...sorry for the lack of posts over break...dial-up can be a blogging downer...how does the verger do it?

Resignations Galore

2004-11-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

From CBC.ca

U.S security czar to step down
Last Updated Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:54:26 EST

WASHINGTON - Tom Ridge has announced he is stepping down as secretary of U.S. homeland security.

His resignation follows similar moves by a number of senior members of the Bush administration. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman have confirmed that they will be stepping down.

* FROM NOV. 15, 2004: U.S. secretary of state stepping down

The 59-year-old Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania, was named homeland security adviser in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Homeland Security Department was created in 2002 by merging 180,000 employees from 22 federal agencies with the aim of better co-ordinating government resources to further prevent attacks.

Ridge became the department's first secretary in January 2003.

The department was known for implementing a colour-coded security advisory system. Warnings – severe, high, elevated, guarded and low – were issued to the public based on the perceived risk of a terrorist attack.

Ridge presided over six national "orange alerts" (high risk) out of concern that an attack may have been coming.

Some criticized the effectiveness of the warnings, accusing Ridge of using them in the months leading up to the election to boost support for Bush. Ridge denied the accusations, saying, "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security.

-----------------------------------------------------

From NY Times

President of N.A.A.C.P. Is Stepping Down
By MARIA NEWMAN

he president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Kweisi Mfume, said today that he was stepping down as head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group.

Mr. Mfume, 56, a former congressman from Baltimore who became the N.A.A.C.P.'s president in 1996, said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

"I just need a break," he said at a televised news conference in Baltimore. "I need a vacation. I'm just not going to do anything for a while."

The group's legal counsel, Dennis Hayes, will serve as interim president while the organization conducts a national search for replacement for Mr. Mfume, who is to depart on Jan. 1.

Mr. Mfume took over the organization at a time when it was saddled with a $3.2 million debt. He brought fiscal stability by running the operation with a corporate style of management and laying off some staff to save money.

"For the last nine years, I've had what I believe is both the honor and the privilege to help revive and to help restore this great organization," Mr. Mfume said at the news conference.

"In my heart of hearts, I know the job has been done, and I step aside willingly," he said.

Mr. Mfume's resignation comes at a time when the N.A.A.C.P. is facing a review by the Internal Revenue Service that its executives say is politically motivated because of the group's chilly relationship with President Bush.

Mr. Bush declined to speak at the last four N.A.A.C.P. annual conventions. White House officials said the president had scheduling conflicts this year when the group was meeting in Philadelphia. But they also cited "hostile political comments" about Mr. Bush from N.A.A.C.P. leaders in recent years as the main reason he decided not to attend.

In a letter dated Oct. 8, the I.R.S. told the association it was reviewing its tax-exempt status, citing a speech given by its chairman, Julian Bond, at its Philadelphia convention.

In the letter, the I.R.S. said it had received information that Mr. Bond conveyed "statements in opposition of George W. Bush for the office of presidency" and specifically that he had "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush in education, the economy and the war in Iraq."

The letter reminded the association that tax-exempt organizations are legally barred from supporting or opposing any candidate for elective office.

Mr. Bond's speech on July 11 included a long section that sharply criticized the Republican Party, Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for their positions on an array of issues important to black Americans.

In an interview with The New York Times last month, Mr. Bond defended his remarks, saying they focused on policy, not politics.

"This is an attempt to silence the N.A.A.C.P. on the very eve of a presidential election," he said. "We are best known for registering and turning out large numbers of African-American voters. Clearly, someone in the I.R.S. doesn't want that to happen."

Blue Hen's National Title Defense Continues into the Playoffs

2004-11-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

Hens' national title hopes alive
A-10 co-champs' clutch win virtually assures playoff berth
By DOUG LESMERISES / The News Journal
11/21/2004NEWARK -- Villanova had been vanquished, a place in the NCAA Division I-AA football playoffs all but assured, so as 22,045 University of Delaware fans streamed out of Delaware Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the air was filled with ...

"Trepidation," said Hockessin's Stewart Wiggins, a loyal fan who still doesn't know what to think about this year's team.

The Blue Hens completed an 8-3 regular season with a 41-35 victory over Villanova and claimed a share of the Atlantic 10 conference title. The selection of the 16-team playoff field will be announced at 1 p.m. today, and it would be an absolute shock if Delaware weren't awarded an at-large berth. There's a good chance that the Blue Hens will host a first-round game Saturday. If they do, tickets will go on sale Monday.

The Hunt

2004-11-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

Story from ESPN.com

5 hunters dead after Wis. treestand dispute

By Joshua Freed
Associated Press — Nov. 22, 2004

BIRCHWOOD, Wis. — A dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a series of shootings that left five people dead and three others injured, officials said.

Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no additional details.

Several news organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul reported the suspect was 36 years old and from St. Paul.

The incident happened when two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County and saw the suspect in one of their tree stands, County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. A confrontation and shooting followed.

It's not known who shot first, Zeigle said.

Both men were wounded and one of them radioed back to the cabin. Other hunters responded and were shot, he said. Some of the victims may have shot back at the suspect, Zeigle said.

The suspect was "sniping" at the victims with a SKS assault-style rifle, Zeigle said. He was "chasing after them and killing them," he said.

The dead included four males, including a teen-age boy, and a woman, Zeigle said. The man who radioed for help was not fatally wounded. Some of the victims were shot more than once.

All five were dead when officers arrived, he said.

Authorities found two bodies near each other and the other three were scattered around the area, which is near Town of Meteor in southwestern Sawyer County. Two people who stayed in the cabin emerged safely after the shootings.

The suspect, who did not have a compass, got lost in the woods and two other hunters, not knowing the man was being sought in the shootings, helped him find his way out, Zeigle said.

When he emerged from the woods, a Department of Natural Resources officer recognized the deer license on his back, given to police by a victim, Zeigle said.

The man was out of bullets when they arrested him, Zeigle said.

Stern Punishments for Pacers players

2004-11-22T09:39:00.000-05:00

As many people may already know, Pacers players Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jermaine O'Neal were given lengthy suspensions for their roles in the brawl in Detroit on Friday night. I actually saw the brawl live, after I woke up from a long nap after an academic sprint towards Thanksgiving break. As the events unfolded on Friday night, I was stunned. Stunned by the behavior of the fans and the behavior of the players, the entire situation seemed surreal. It is always said that a few bad apples ruin it for the entire group. Their were more than a few bad apples in that crowd at Detroit. While Artest's reaction was a bit rash, the behavior of the fans was inexcusable. While Artest and Jackson deserved their suspensions, O'Neal received a harsh punishment. The two other players attacked fans in the stands, O'Neal attacked the morons that came on the court. It's one thing for players to go into the stands, but for the fans to approach players on the court...they were asking for it. All three players, while they deserve their punishments, have very strong cases to file grievances with the NBA and the city of Detroit. Their exit should have been safe and protected from the chairs, bottles, and cups that were being thrown their way. You can't blame the players for everything...there has to be a way to punish the Detroit Pistons organization and the Detroit Pistons fans. Make them play 3 home games without paying fans or something. I have heard people talking about bringing up charges on the players...do you really think that they will be convicted? Bottomline: the Detroit fans played a huge role in the brawl and they as a group should be punished. Just because you pay 300 dollars for courtside tickets, it doesnt mean that you can throw beer and racial insults at players.

The Grey Video

2004-11-18T05:45:00.000-05:00

Via Boing Boing: A Directory of Truly Wonderful Things:
"DJ Danger Mouse came to fame when he remixed the Beatles' "White Album" with Jay-Z's "Black Album" and called the result the "Grey Album." EMI, who hold the Beatles' copyright, went nuts and threatened to sue anyone who hosted the MP3s. This led to Downhill Battle's Grey Tuesday protest.

The album is stone brilliant. It's at the top of my iTunes playlists and it's what I put on whenever I need a boost. It's made me dig out the White Album again and listen to it with fresh ears. I think it's the most important album of the 21st Century (to date, at least).

Now someone has made a video for one of the Grey Album tracks, "Encore," in which black and white Beatles footage (I'm guessing "A Hard Day's Night") and desaturated footage from a Jay-Z performance are artfully combined with new footage and CGI (Ringo scratching! John breakdancing!) to make one of the funniest, coolest, and most illegal music videos I've ever seen. Go download it now before the lawsuits start. Link"

Floundering in Ignorance

2004-11-17T21:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a post from a delawhere blog Political Tracker showcasing this conservative's ignorance and simplistic thinking with respect to rap and hip-hop culture...this stuff sort of gets under my skin...

Rapper involved in stabbing....

Associated Press: Police Seeking G-Unit Rapper Young Buck

Some rapper named 'Young Buck' stabbed a guy at the Vibe awards last night for puncing 'Doctor Dre'. What a great culture the whole rap world is. I sure hope my kids look up to people like this.

MORE...

Posted by: Ryan on Nov 17, 04 | 6:54 am | Profile

COMMENTS

People killing eachother at the Vibe Awards--who would have thunk it? Worth remembering that there are plenty of degenerates in all genres of music--although I never saw Liberace stab Elton John.

Posted by: Ken on Nov 17, 04 | 9:43 am

"What a great culture the whole rap world is."

Its not the whole thing...I agree it cant be coincidence that Rap award shows often end up in brawls, which is both sad, and ass kickingly funny, but theres plenty of more level headed, smart artists out there.....think Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Outkast, Roots, etc...

Posted by: Neil on Nov 17, 04 | 12:15 pm

Who, Neil?

The problem is, save for Outkast, those artists are not celebrated by the Hip Hop community and condones violence as a legitimate expression.

the Vibe awards, last year, was subject to violence in case anyone forgot

Posted by: Bryan on Nov 17, 04 | 2:14 pm

who, what? I gave at least four examples there...

and without getting too deep into the hip hop thing...These groups like 50 cent, G-Unit, and all this half assed gangsta stuff is not what i'd put under the title of hip hop...Hip hip was born as a culture, a way of life, through music, dance, etc...and in it's inception was "a uniter, not a divider", kinda like Dubya. The artist's i listed above are certainly celebrated acts...they just dont play on MTV 12 times an hour. Truth is, the Media and Radio and MTV is just as responsible for the negative image associated with rap music. The majority of rap today, in my opinion, is junk. Cant stand it. But as long as there is a Black Star, a Mos Def, and Outkast, Roots, Dialated peoples, Black eyed peas, common, etc you have a pool of rap arrtisits who come from a positive outlook, and quite frankly, are more talented and alot easier to listen to. They just dont get the exposure they deserve from the garbage pushers on Radio and TV...(save outkast and the Peas)

Posted by: Neil on Nov 17, 04 | 2:43 pm

I've got XM radio and I listen to like 90% of the music channels. Rock, Country, Jazz, Blues, Latin, Reggae, Classical, Techno, you name it and I listen to it. The only channels that never get used on my XM are the 'urban' genre.

Maybe there are a few groups out there who are worth a listen but in general this type of music is not worth my time.

The point I'm trying to make (in a tired, rambling way) is that these people do not have an exceptional talent, and they are not exceptional members of society; so why does popular culture revolve around them?

Posted by: Ryan on Nov 17, 04 | 3:43 pm

"these people do not have an exceptional talent, and they are not exceptional members of society"

i agree that element exists, no question. I'd just rather we dont lump all these folks together, as it isnt true for all of them by far...

Posted by: Neil on Nov 17, 04 | 3:45 pm

You're right Neil. That does paint them with a pretty broad brush. It just seems like in that industry; the worse your behavior is the more famous you are.

But it isn't much different from professional sports. If you're a total dick, don't know how to play as a team and tend to be at the scene of the big shooting on Friday night then you're most certainly a star. (Ahem, Iverson....)

Posted by: Ryan on Nov 17, 04 | 3:51 pm

It's sad that some people will completely disregard an art form whose origins are deeply rooted in social and political activism. Sure, there is an element of violence in rap music (admittedly some of it glorified), but it serves as an element of inner city life. As rap has become more pop, the socially conscious music has been left behind. Much of the hip-pop is watered down, just as pop country is watered down, pop rock is watered down. I feel sorry for those people who are so ignorant and lazy that they disregard an entire genre of music because it addresses issues that may shock them. Open your eyes and your ears to a life outside of your "white" one...Listen to the Fugees "the Score"...it talks about violence, selling drugs, and hustling...but it also talks about how to avoid those lifestyle choices. Look past the harsh words and you can see the fear, anger, and frustrations of life in the city. there is more to music than the limited one that you are experiencing through your XM radio. make the effort, go out and buy reflection eternal "train of thought" or common "Like Water for Chocolate". In case you are too lazy to do so...i will leave you with a verse from Common's "6th Sense":

Somedays I take the L to gel with the real world
Got on at 87th, stopped by this little girl
She recited raps, I forgot where they was from
In 'em, she was saying how she made brothers cum
I start thinking, how many souls hip-hop has affected
How many dead folks this art resurrected
How many nations this culture connected
Who am I to judge one's perspective?
Though some of that shit y'all pop true it, I ain't relating
If I don't like it, I don't like it, that don't mean that I'm hating
I just want to innovate and stimulate minds
Travel the world and penetrate the times
Escape through rhythms in search of peace and wisdom
Raps are smoke signals letting the streets know I'm with 'em
For now I appreciate this moment in time
Ball players and actors be knowing my rhymes,

Posted by: Ivan on Nov 17, 04 | 9:39 pm

Rice makes me wonder

2004-11-16T16:48:00.000-05:00

As many of you probably have heard, Colin Powell has stepped down as Secretary of State and Condi Rice will most likely recieve the nomination to replace him. Now, while there are much more far reaching implications concerning these events, her nomination makes me wonder what Aaron McGruder will do with his comic strip The Boondocks. Just last year, I believe, McGruder attacked Rice with this strip

Much controversy (1 , 2, 3, 4) erupted over the fact that the Washington Post decided not to run the strip. Who knows what Rice's new position will bring her way. TIme will only tell.

All On Board?

2004-11-15T13:43:00.000-05:00

Where's the faith in the grand supreme leader?

Powell and Three Others Leaving Cabinet

Nov 15, 12:45 PM (ET)

By GEORGE GEDDA and DEB RIECHMANN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell and three other Cabinet members have resigned, it was disclosed Monday, escalating the shake-up of President Bush's second-term team. Senior administration officials said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was most likely to succeed Powell.

Powell's resignation, submitted last Friday, was confirmed Monday, as were those of three others - Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Education Secretary Rod Paige.

With the resignations earlier of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, the departures of six of 15 Cabinet members have been revealed. The musical-chairs act assured Bush a significant Cabinet face-lift with his second inauguration over two months away.

"I believe that now that the election is over, the time has come for me to step down," Powell, 67, wrote the president.

ODB may you RIP

2004-11-14T01:56:00.000-05:00

Uh Oh Dirt Dog....Taking a cue from Logan's Lurch...Let us honor one of the most unique voices in the hip-hop world.

Words out of Wanda Sykes Mouth (on the Tonight Show w/Leno)

2004-11-10T01:14:00.000-05:00

You have to root for Bush because its like the Special Olympics...Come on Buddy....You can do it...Come on

False Threats and Renewed Passions

2004-11-04T20:24:00.001-05:00

For about two and a half years, I have stated that I would move to Canada if Bush was re-elected. I would feel ashamed to a citizen of a country dominated by a population of uninformed and easily decieved persons. I did not want to be associated with that much stupidity. After the election results became clear yesterday, my first action was not looking for apartments in Toronto, Edmonton, or Montreal. My first response was one of surprise, astonishment, disappointment, emptiness, some might say a mini depression. While I am still recovering from those emotions, I have never once thought about Canada. (This is not saying that Canada is a bad place- in fact, Canada is a beautiful country whose beauty is only supplemented by widespread hockey fever.) In no way did Bush recieve a mandate from the results of this election. The people spoke and Bush squeeked it out by around a 3 percent margin. I am aware that it was not as close as expected, but it wasnt a landslide. In the next four years, I hope that our country succeeds, and I hope that the partisan lines are crossed for the good of our country. But, I know in 2008, I want to be here in the US to make a difference...to change the general direction that our country is going in. If I were to move to Canada I would not be able to make that difference with a vote. The United States, fortunately and unfortunately, is the dominant world power and we all have the priviledge to be United States citizens. If I want to help make changes in the way our country is growing, I have to be here to do it. I am not alone in my disappointment with the election results. 48 million people voted with me...thats a hell of a posse.

Specter The Wise

2004-11-04T13:09:00.000-05:00

Arlen Specter is quite the wise man.

Specter warns Bush on high court nominations
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- The Republican expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year bluntly warned newly re-elected President Bush today against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or are otherwise too conservative to win confirmation.

Sen. Arlen Specter, fresh from winning a fifth term in Pennsylvania, also said the current Supreme Court now lacks legal "giants" on the bench.

"When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely," Specter said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

"The president is well aware of what happened, when a bunch of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster," Specter added, referring to Senate Democrats' success over the past four years in blocking the confirmation of many of Bush's conservative judicial picks. "... And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning."

With at least three Supreme Court justices rumored to be eyeing retirement, including ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Specter, 74, would have broad authority to reshape the nation's highest court. He would have wide latitude to schedule hearings, call for votes and make the process as easy or as hard as he wants.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., expressed confidence Wednesday that Bush will have more success his second term in winning the confirmation of his judicial nominees.

"I'm very confident that now we've gone from 51 seats to 55 seats, we will be able to overturn this what has become customary filibuster of judicial nominees," Frist said in Orlando, Fla.

Legal scholar Dennis Hutchinson said Specter's message to the White House appears to be "a way of asserting his authority" as he prepares to chair the Judiciary Committee when Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is term-limited from keeping the post next year.

"What he may be trying to do is say, 'Don't just think that I'm going to process what you send through. I have standards, I'm going to take an independent look, you have to deal with me,'" said Hutchinson, a law professor at the University of Chicago.

When asked Wednesday about Specter's impending chairmanship, another Republican on the panel, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, did not offer a ringing endorsement.

"We'll have to see where he stands," said Cornyn, a close friend of Bush who worked to get all of the president's nominees through the Senate. "I'm hoping that he will stand behind the president's nominees. I'm intending to sit down and discuss with him how things are going to work. We want to know what he's going do and how things are going to work."

While Specter is a loyal Republican -- Bush endorsed him in a tight Pennsylvania GOP primary -- he routinely crosses party lines to pass legislation and counts a Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as one of his closest friends.

A self-proclaimed moderate, he helped kill President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court and of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship. Specter called both nominees too extreme on civil rights issues. Sessions later became a Republican senator from Alabama and now sits on the Judiciary Committee with Specter.

Despite a bruising challenge from conservatives this year in Pennsylvania's GOP primary, Specter won re-election Tuesday by an 11-point margin by appealing to moderate Republicans and ticket-splitting Democrats, even as Pennsylvania chose Democrat John Kerry over Bush.

A former district attorney, Specter also bemoaned what he called the lack of any current justices comparable to legal heavyweights like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo and Thurgood Marshall, "who were giants of the Supreme Court."

"With all due respect to the (current) U.S. Supreme Court, we don't have one," he said.

Though he refused to describe the political leanings of the high court, Specter said he "would characterize myself as moderate; I'm in the political swim. I would look for justices who would interpret the Constitution, as Cardozo has said, reflecting the values of the people."

Op/Ed from NYT

2004-11-04T11:52:00.000-05:00

Living Poor, Voting Rich
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

In the aftermath of this civil war that our nation has just fought, one result is clear: the Democratic Party's first priority should be to reconnect with the American heartland.

I'm writing this on tenterhooks on Tuesday, without knowing the election results. But whether John Kerry's supporters are now celebrating or seeking asylum abroad, they should be feeling wretched about the millions of farmers, factory workers and waitresses who ended up voting - utterly against their own interests - for Republican candidates.

One of the Republican Party's major successes over the last few decades has been to persuade many of the working poor to vote for tax breaks for billionaires. Democrats are still effective on bread-and-butter issues like health care, but they come across in much of America as arrogant and out of touch the moment the discussion shifts to values.

"On values, they are really noncompetitive in the heartland," noted Mike Johanns, a Republican who is governor of Nebraska. "This kind of elitist, Eastern approach to the party is just devastating in the Midwest and Western states. It's very difficult for senatorial, Congressional and even local candidates to survive."

In the summer, I was home - too briefly - in Yamhill, Ore., a rural, working-class area where most people would benefit from Democratic policies on taxes and health care. But many of those people disdain Democrats as elitists who empathize with spotted owls rather than loggers.

One problem is the yuppification of the Democratic Party. Thomas Frank, author of the best political book of the year, "What's the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," says that Democratic leaders have been so eager to win over suburban professionals that they have lost touch with blue-collar America.

"There is a very upper-middle-class flavor to liberalism, and that's just bound to rub average people the wrong way," Mr. Frank said. He notes that Republicans have used "culturally powerful but content-free issues" to connect to ordinary voters.

To put it another way, Democrats peddle issues, and Republicans sell values. Consider the four G's: God, guns, gays and grizzlies.

One-third of Americans are evangelical Christians, and many of them perceive Democrats as often contemptuous of their faith. And, frankly, they're often right. Some evangelicals take revenge by smiting Democratic candidates.

Then we have guns, which are such an emotive issue that Idaho's Democratic candidate for the Senate two years ago, Alan Blinken, felt obliged to declare that he owned 24 guns "and I use them all." He still lost.

As for gays, that's a rare wedge issue that Democrats have managed to neutralize in part, along with abortion. Most Americans disapprove of gay marriage but do support some kind of civil unions (just as they oppose "partial birth" abortions but don't want teenage girls to die from coat-hanger abortions).

Finally, grizzlies - a metaphor for the way environmentalism is often perceived in the West as high-handed. When I visited Idaho, people were still enraged over a Clinton proposal to introduce 25 grizzly bears into the wild. It wasn't worth antagonizing most of Idaho over 25 bears.

"The Republicans are smarter," mused Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat. "They've created ... these social issues to get the public to stop looking at what's happening to them economically."

"What we once thought - that people would vote in their economic self-interest - is not true, and we Democrats haven't figured out how to deal with that."

Bill Clinton intuitively understood the challenge, and John Edwards seems to as well, perhaps because of their own working-class origins. But the party as a whole is mostly in denial.

To appeal to middle America, Democratic leaders don't need to carry guns to church services and shoot grizzlies on the way. But a starting point would be to shed their inhibitions about talking about faith, and to work more with religious groups.

Otherwise, the Democratic Party's efforts to improve the lives of working-class Americans in the long run will be blocked by the very people the Democrats aim to help.

Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself

2004-11-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Logan's Lurch for all of his hard work during this campaign and for this well-written piece. After reading this, I feel it would better for me to just pass it on....

What to do next... The Spirit of Compassion
If this holds up, and it seems like all of the political machinations have it set up to do so, then we need to look deep into ourselves for something bigger than us. I don't want to talk about the President, his failings and his lack of understanding, they are well documented and we will most likely have him for four more years. I have a sense of dread, but its not for me. I am well educated and will find my way. But I feel for the poor soul without health care, without the ability to avoid the military as their way up the social ladder, without the ability to overcome what the deficit will do to them in terms of interest rates and mortgages... it's going to get worse. I don't know how to make it clear, fear and a belief that Bush is somehow spiritually surperior to his opponent, a belief which is simply conceit, does not make us a better nation. It makes us divided and given that we will be in Iraq for who knows how long, it is this fracture that makes me feel as if the worse could happen and the Left would walk away from the tough questions that only we seem to ask: How to be a better, more tolerant community? How to look into the face of our enemy and see the best rather than the worst? How to live with less so others may simply live?

But the elephant in the house is Iraq. How long can this go on? It is the worst of all worlds and I fear for my friends and sisters children who must grow up in a world where we are loathed and a Middle East where we are mired. It is too difficult to imagine that Bush will begin to do the right things in the world, but I have no faith in him whatsoever. If he is our president, I hope he proves me wrong and that the last four years was simply a four-year campaign.

Of course, this is faith and not compassion. To any of you who voted for Bush, ask yourself if you are willing to do the hard work of fixing Iraq, learning about the Arab world, thinking of what it means to think beyond the United States and will become a citizen of the world. To any of you who voted for Kerry think about where you live and who you know. Do not hate the Bush voter... hate only creates distance no matter how close you stand. Talk if they are willing to listen and listen if they are willing to talk. If I have one dissapointment about this campaign it was the way in which I felt that Bush only invited and listened to his supporters in rallies where dissent was systematically quashed and events designed around the inflammation of the passions. This was not the case at the Kerry rallies... dissenters were there and often protested. To me, compassion begins with listening. We, those who voted for Kerry, are not the terrorists. We may speak ill of the President and we have good reasons. Listen to us and I promise to listen. Without that promise kept we can never be better than we are now. We need to agree, if anything else, to be better than we are today.

WHY?

2004-11-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

Revision to the GOP Challengers

2004-11-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

Not so good news from NYT:

G.O.P. in Ohio Can Challenge Voters at Polls
By JAMES DAO and ADAM LIPTAK

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Tuesday, Nov. 2 - In a day of see-sawing court rulings, a Federal appeals court ruled early Tuesday morning that the Republican Party could place thousands of people inside polling places to challenge the eligibility of voters, a blow to Democrats who argued those challengers will intimidate minority voters.

The ruling, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, reversed two lower courts that had blocked the challenges just a day before. It also came as squadrons of lawyers from both parties in Ohio and other swing states from Pennsylvania to Florida to New Mexico were preparing for Election Day skirmishes that will include using arcane laws that allow challenges at the polls.

The lawyer for a pair of Cincinnati civil rights activists who had challenged the Republican plans to challenge voters said he would appeal Tuesday morning's decision to the United State Supreme Court.

But it appeared likely that when Ohio polls open, the Republicans would be able to put 3,500 challengers inside polling places around the state. Democrats also planned to send more than 2,000 monitors to the polls, though they said those people would not challenge voters.

The cases may foreshadow lawsuits that are likely to be filed if the election is close in any state crucial to the Electoral College calculus. Lawyers for both sides are already examining disparities in election policies, nuances in court rulings and potential irregularities at polling places for material that may be used to challenge results in places where margins are paper thin.

The battle over Election Day challenges has been most intense in Ohio, not only because the race here is so close and so vital to President Bush and Senator John Kerry, but also because the Republican Party has announced larger and more aggressive plans to challenge voters here than in other states.

The Republicans contend that challenging - a practice that has been allowed under state law for decades but rarely used - will weed out fraud often missed by election workers. Democrats assert that the challenges would disproportionately single out low-income and minority voters, which Republicans deny.

In their separate rulings in the lower courts, Judge Susan J. Dlott of Federal District Court in Cincinnati and Judge John R. Adams in Akron agreed that procedures already existed to prevent fraud at the voting place. And they said aggressive, time-consuming challenges inside polling stations might create chaos and delays that could intimidate voters or rob them of the chance to vote.

In seeking the delicate balance between preventing fraud and upholding voting rights, the judges said, the scales should tip toward voting rights.

"Voter intimidation severely burdens the right to vote, and prevention of such intimidation is a compelling state interest," wrote Judge Dlott, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Judge Adams was appointed by President Bush.

Mark Weaver, counsel to the state's Republican Party, said: "The goal of the Ohio Republican Party is to guarantee a fair election for everyone. Each time the Democrats remove an additional safeguard, the potential for voter fraud increases."

Mr. Weaver argued that even if voters had been successfully challenged at the polls, they would have been allowed to cast provisional ballots, which are reviewed after Election Day to ensure that the voter is eligible. Democrats and many experts in election law say the rules for counting provisional ballots are varied and unclear, which could lead to valid ballots being rejected.

The Ohio Republicans have repeatedly argued that the Democratic Party and allied groups have engaged in widespread fraud. On Monday, they filed a motion in state court asserting that the Democrats and an independent group, America Coming Together, which supports Senator Kerry, have been contacting Republicans and giving them incorrect information about polling locations and other Election Day issues.

Democrats and the group denied the assertion.

What's your contribution to life?

2004-11-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

either you a part of the problem
or part of the solution
what's your contribution to life
so many people complain, always talk about change yo
but what's your contribution to life
either you with or ain't with it, if it ain't broke don't fix it
yo what's your contribution to life
either you give or you take, make moves and you wait yo
but what's your contribution to life

Jurassic 5 "Contribution"

There is nothing more satisfying than slipping that ballot into the ballot box. It may not be the largest contribution, but it is a contribution for change none the less. Remember to vote or P.Diddy will Kill You. Hats off to Senor de Logan's Lurch for volunteering his time today. Wish I could do the same...but I have responsibilities to myself and my school work. Do as the Verger has done and vote.

Woo Hah! Woo Hah! Keep those Republicans in Check!

2004-11-01T16:06:00.000-05:00

Good News courtesy of the NYT:

Rebuffing G.O.P., 2 Judges Bar Challengers at Polls in Ohio

By TERENCE NEILAN

In a double blow to the Republicans on the final day of campaigning in the presidential race, two federal judges today barred challengers representing any political party from polling places in Ohio during Tuesday's election.

United States District Judge Susan J. Dlott in Cincinnati, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, found that the application of Ohio's statute allowing challengers at polling places was unconstitutional and that allowing any candidates other than election judges and other electors into the polling place would place "an undue burden upon voters" and impede their right to vote.

In a similar case, United States District Judge John R. Adams of Akron, who was appointed by the current President Bush, said poll workers should be the ones who determine if voters are eligible.

The rulings apply to all Ohio's 88 counties, a spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, Carlo LoParo, told The Associated Press. Republicans promptly filed an appealed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which includes all of Ohio.

With the rulings, the two district-level judges made clear that they did not want partisan ballot challengers inside polling places, and that they believed that the disruption that such challenges would create outweighed any potential voting fraud, which Republicans have cited as the reason for the challengers.

Republican Party officials say the watchdog effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the presidential election.

The judges' findings were issued as President Bush and Senator John Kerry planned a last sweep for votes. Mr. Bush was traveling to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico, planning to end his day late in Dallas. Mr. Kerry, after an early morning appearance in Florida, was headed off to Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio.

Before the two contenders left on the last stages of their campaign, Judge Adams said in his finding: "In light of these extraordinary circumstances, the contentious nature of the imminent election, the court cannot and must not turn a blind eye to the substantial likelihood that significant harm will result not only to voters, but also to the voting process itself, if appointed challengers are permitted at the polls.''

Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps on Oct. 22 to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.

One More Day! One More Day! One More Day!

2004-11-01T15:37:00.000-05:00

One more day of constant political bombardment being sent our ways. I think their should be a one-week quiet period before the election. I time-out for the candidates. If you follow either of the candidates campaigns, you are aware that they have been all over the US recently...they are hither and yon...yon and hither across the nation. It makes me wonder if when Kerry is elected, we will have an exhausted president on our hands. Back to the break period. Some may call it the "Quiet Before the Storm", but I believe that in this age of over-saturation of images, sounds, and overall sensory overload, it would be nice to have a week to clear your head and just think, instead of react. Not that I need time to decide, but other people may just need that time. Plus I like time to just BE. Luckily, tommorrow's election means the end of the ads and the beginning of RE-Count '04. REGISTER GREEN. VOTE KERRY.

More Bush and Cheney Website News

2004-10-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

From BBC

ATTACK PROMPTS BUSH WEBSITE BLOCK

Access to the site is blocked

The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for "security reasons".

The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it.

But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective.

Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses.

Hack attack

The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website.

Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: "The measure was taken for security reasons."

He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy.

The barring of non-US visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place.

In early October a so-called "denial of service" attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of PCs. The attack made the site unusable for about five hours.

ALTERNATIVE ADDRESSES

https://georgewbush.com/
http://65.172.163.222/
http://origin.georgewbush.com/

About the same time the web team of the Bush-Cheney campaign started using the services of a company called Akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic.

Akamai uses a web-based tool called EdgeScape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based.

Typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages, video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic.

Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis.

Readers of the Boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain name.

Ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site.

There are now at least three working alternative domains for the Bush-Cheney campaign that let web users outside the US visit the site.

The site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site.

Election Day Guide according to the Onion

2004-10-28T09:42:00.000-04:00

THE ONION's ELECTION DAY GUIDE

Tuesday is Election Day. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when heading to the polls:

* If at all possible, vote before work. That way, you can make smug comments to non-voters all day long.

* The new electronic voting machines are complicated. But don't worry: Octogenarians will be on hand to troubleshoot any technological problems that might arise.

* If your election official hooks you up to a machine via a needle in your arm, you are actually donating blood.

* Tip for those on the go: Voting a straight ticket can save you up to 15 seconds.

* Remember that, as a member of a participatory democracy, you have a duty to make your voice heard on Election Day. If you find that idea hard to grasp, think of it like the lotto: You can't win if you don't play.

* Don't wear dress shoes. They leave black scuff marks on gymnasium floors.

* Voting is no longer considered uncool. Note that it is not cool, either.

* Many newspapers offer sample ballots. Buy 10 copies and practice, practice, practice.

* Remember to vote, or P. Diddy will kill you.

* This is one of the most important elections in recent times, so it's best if you just leave it up to the pros.

* When voting, you don't need to dress up in a scary costume or hand out candy. That happens two days earlier.

* You might think it's funny, but it's disrespectful to submit write-in candidates like "Don Knotts," "Mickey Mouse," or "Michael Badnarik."

* Remember to take the day off to vote. And the day before, to psyche up. And the morning after, to dry out.

* If you are black and a resident of Florida, work out two or three alternate routes to your polling place to avoid police checkpoints.

* The most important thing is to vote your conscience.

* Okay, this is your conscience speaking: "Vote Nader. Vo-o-o-o-ote Nader."

* If you are a Flintstone, make sure to put the granite slab arrows-first into the dinosaur's mouth.

* If you live in Florida, for Christ's sake, look at the ballot very, very carefully this time.

* Education is the issue Americans say is most important. Find someone with one of those to read the ballot to you.

* Keep in mind that the name of every person who votes against George Bush is going to be read aloud on television the next time we're attacked by terrorists.

* If you don't know where the polling place is in your district, just try to remember the ugliest, dingiest, most depressing building in a three-mile radius. That's probably it.

What To Bring
Remember to bring proper identification to the polls.
This can be:

* Driver's license or your chauffeur

* Passport and photos of your boyfriend in Paris

* SuperVoter discount card

* Note from president

* Proof that your grandfather voted

* Retinal scan or your alderman's retinas

* Two Iraqi scalps

* Receipt for your shoes

* Videotape of your first steps

* Halliburton employee ID

* Birthday card from grandmother

* Pint of sperm for DNA-identification purposes

* Casserole dish to pass

* A good friend who can totally vouch for you

* Signed $20 bill

* Autographed celebrity photo inscribed with your name