a couple headlines from today’s news
U.S. currency has the highest traces of cocaine of any currency in the world and the Bush administration had the CIA forge a letter linking Iraq and Al Qaeda.
As always,
Cooper is way ahead of the rest of y’all. Talkin’ this guys-in-kilts bidnis.
Austin Handbill Culture
We are just back from two days in Austin–had a fine time. One of the many things we like about the place is the abundance of odd announcements pasted, taped, and pinned on windows, poles and message boards all over the place. There’s something about the sheer fecundity of it that speaks of life. For instance:
From the mouths of babes
As the balloon lifts and drifts between watchers and the late sun
The children gather and wave - eyes full of wonder and hope.
“See ya fuckers!” they sing.
And all is well with the world.
And all is good.
Rubber Fetish
Makes me wonder who does the cooking and cleaning when he’s at work.
What in tarnation
you reckon folks think about us?
As if we give a rat’s red rear.
Sam in the city
Yeah, I know. Probably the most significant event in the history of online video.
Sorry.
City folk come in droves (to be where the action is)
“City folk come in droves to once-isolated White Rock Lake [in Dallas, Texas]. Some come to picnic, sail or fish, some just to be where the action is.” (April 1972)
Item from [NARA] Record Group 412: Records of the Environmental Protection Agency, 1944 - 2000.
Michael DeBakey, MD
Dr. DeBakey passed away last week. What a terrible loss. Don’t know who Dr. DeBakey is? You or someone you know has probably benefitted from his work. Read more here and here.
2008 San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade
There’s a live stream you can watch of this year’s San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade, and it’ll continue for perhaps another hour from now (now being 4:20 PM or so CDT). (Thanks, Steve.)
From the Chicago Tribune Archives
Set Trial Date for Lenny Bruce, 2 Others
Judge Daniel J. Ryan set trial in Jury court yesterday for Lenny Bruce, comedian, and two other men arrested Dec. 5 in a police raid on the Gate of Horn night club, 1036 N. State st., for Jan. 14. Bruce is charged with obscenity and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and the others with charges of keeping or being inmates in a disorderly house. Charges of disorderly conduct against Roger Pittman, 21, of 2147 78th av., Elmwood Park, and George Carlin, 25, of 20 E. Delaware pl., who were spectators in the club, were dismissed by Judge Ryan. The others charged are Alan Ribback, 34, of 59 E. Bellevue pl., the club owner, and Herbert O’Brien, 33, of 1. E. Oak st., a bartender.
December 1962 item reproduced on page 21 of Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2008.
The Unforeseen — Recommended
Cindy and I saw this documentary at the Angelica in Dallas yesterday. It’s great for those who have an Austin connection–and great for those who don’t. If it’s not showing in your area you might want to add it to your Netflix list.
One of the things I like best about this documentary is the inspiration it offers for those who want to confront the economically powerful. It very clearly makes the point that everything that stimulates the economy is not therefore positive in nature: a train wreck generates the need for clean-up hires and for orders for new train cars to be built. Here you will see the problems that result when short term ambitions collide with trans-generational values. And the film is very well edited: it shows a vast range of desires and the human weaknesses–and courage– that attend the fight to realize them.
Privilege
After many years of Privilege [d. Peter Watkins, 1966] only being available in low quality “grey market” video versions, Universal Studios has finally allowed Oliver Groom at Project X Distribution to release the film on DVD in Canada and the USA. Oliver will be releasing the DVD in conjunction with New Yorker Films on 29th July 2008.
Oh, Ri-i-ick! Rick Nee-e-eece . . . !
From: The Executive Coloring Book by Marcie Hans, Dennis Altman & Martin A. Cohen (1961).
ad to the bone via Coudal.
Crepuscular?
Photo: Weegee/International Center of Photography, Courtesy of Indianapolis Museum of Art.
“Martian Woman on the Telephone” (circa 1955).
Distracting Miss Daisy
And so I came to reflect on the mundane details of traffic-control policies in Great Britain and the United States. And I began to think that the American system of traffic control, with its many signs and stops, and with its specific rules tailored to every bend in the road, has had the unintended consequence of causing more accidents than it prevents. Paradoxically, almost every new sign put up in the U.S. probably makes drivers a little safer on the stretch of road it guards. But collectively, the forests of signs along American roadways, and the multitude of rules to look out for, are quite deadly.
Utah Phillips, 1935-2008
Photo of Utah Phillips by Steven Stone.
U. Utah Phillips, 73, a Grammy-nominated folk singer, rabble-rouser and anarchist whose wild white beard recalled his years as a tramp, died of heart disease May 23 at his home in Nevada City, Calif.
Mr. Phillips, over four decades on the road, combined storytelling with song, describing the plight of the working class, the power of labor unions and the necessity of direct action. He dubbed himself the “Golden Voice of the Great Southwest,” but, like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, his words, more than his baritone voice, carried authority. He had been a soldier, a railroader, a state archivist, a union organizer, founder of a homeless shelter and homeless himself.
Read more.
Too Hip for Words
“Any place that is too hip for words is too hip for me,” replied Cooper.
Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
Courtesy of the National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office.
In December 1950, President Harry S. Truman approved the establishment of a continental nuclear proving ground 65 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada. Between 1951 and 1992, 1021 nuclear detonations took place at the Nevada Test Site — one hundred explosions were in the atmosphere and 921 were underground. It is estimated that the test site employed 125,000 during the Cold War. The photograph [above] shows the De Baca test, detonated on October 26, 1958. Five days later the U.S. and U.S.S.R. agreed to a nuclear testing moratorium which stayed in effect until the Soviets resumed testing in 1961. In 1992, a second nuclear testing moratorium went into effect. Subcritical tests and other national security programs are ongoing at the 1375-square-mile Nevada Test Site.
A woman watches a short movie.
“A woman watches a short movie about Jack the Ripper at the Museum in Docklands, London,” read the caption accompanying this photo from the Telegraph’s Week in Pictures feature. Quite naturally, I thought of Our India and wondered how she is getting on.
Cassavetes, Falk and Gazzara Promote Husbands on The Dick Cavett Show
Ten-minute segment from a 1970 episode of The Dick Cavett Show featuring John Cassavetes, Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara; other chunks available on YouTube. Start here. Plus or minus (depending on your point of view): Inclusion of the original commercial breaks offers cultural context.
(P.S. The subdued brilliance of Dick Cavett still shines. See his NYT blog.)
Wild in the Streets
On the bus out to college some mornings, I would meet Dan Jones on his way to teaching practice. On one occasion he had a 6ft python wrapped round his torso next to his skin, to protect the creature from the cold. He said when lesson plans failed, the python always did the trick.
Read more from Ken Worpole on children’s play and social change.
(The Guardian via ReadySteadyBook and Booksurfer)
a brief history of the thumb
The thumbs up didn’t always mean what you think it means.
The thumbs-up gesture has its roots in ancient Rome, where gladiators would literally live or die by it. Pollice verso is the Latin term for the gesture, meaning “with a turned thumb.”
“It was a hand gesture that was used by the crowd to say if the gladiator should live or die after a fight,” explains Lisa Slattery Rashotte, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
The last thing a sweaty sportsman wanted was a thumbs-up. While in modern times it has a positive meaning, back then it meant “get him out of here,” or death, while a concealed thumb (considered thumbs-down) meant the gladiator lived.
Secular vs. Religious Happiness
In America, the religious are happier than the secular. In Europe, secularization has increased happiness. Kevin Drum’s post on why this may be the case quotes Ross Douthat:
My suspicion is that the difference has something to do with the role of the welfare state as well — that the benefits of belonging to a religious community are greater in the U.S. than in Europe in part because our welfare state is smaller, and religious participation provides both tangible and intangible forms of security that are more valuable in a society where the free market is more freewheeling and the welfare state weaker. If you’re a Christian who prefers the American model, you might say that the Europeans use government as a substitute for God; if you prefer Europe’s path to modernity, you’d probably say something about Americans clinging to churchgoing because it’s the only protection available against the harsh brutality of our jungle capitalism. Either way, I suspect that this symbiosis between high levels of religiosity and economic individualism is at the heart of American exceptionalism — which is another way of saying that libertarians root for secularization at their peril.
clusterflock wall of shame, Elizabeth Perry, Selected Works
Here are selected poems (from memory)
Written in third grade:
The sun is a candle shining bright
It fills our galaxy with all its light
The earth is a ball of land and sea
With room for homes for you and me.
In sixth grade, we studied haiku:
Perky young sparrow
Why are your feathers so dark?
Do you never wash?
Read more