Archive for February 2006

Tuesday 28 February 2006

The Left Hand of God

By Gonzo | Law & Politics ~ Literature & Writing ~ Religion & Folklore ~ Seattle

excerpt:

The overriding reaction I had to Rabbi Lerner’s talk was that he simply will not give up. He’s been basically saying many of the things he said Sunday over and over again since the late 1960’s, when, as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington, he was arrested during a anti-war demonstration, one of the Seattle Seven, and soon after referred to by J. Edgar Hoover as, “one of the most dangerous criminals in America.”

more Gonzo | more Law & Politics ∞ Literature & Writing ∞ Religion & Folklore ∞ Seattle

Monday 27 February 2006

another brick

By spaceneedl | News and Talk ~ Pulpits & Soapboxes

excerpt:

if our politicians are truly representative, america must be populated by imbeciles and idiots.
what other explanation can there be for the u.s. house to pass a measure to build steel walls along the mexican border?
the chinese had the great wall. the french had the maginot line. remember hadrian in britain? the soviets in berlin?
make way [...]

more spaceneedl | more News and Talk ∞ Pulpits & Soapboxes

Floss Chat

By flossblog | Floss Chat

excerpt:

A new feature here at Transcendental Floss, each Monday we’ll provide a post* for open discussion in the Comments. Think of it as a chance to mingle, to connect, to engage one another on any topic you choose.
So, welcome to Floss Chat. Come on in!

IOW, this feature is not yet a chat room or a [...]

more flossblog | more Floss Chat

Sunday 26 February 2006

bye-bye, bode

By spaceneedl | Comedy & Jokes ~ Sports & Games

excerpt:

how long do you think it’ll take nike to boot bode miller?
how happy do you think team nike was to see miller come away with zero olympic medals, run his mouth like a washed up ski bum, give the bird to the world, then loudly proclaim he “rocked the olympics”?
“Man, I rocked here,” Miller said. [...]

more spaceneedl | more Comedy & Jokes ∞ Sports & Games

Friday 24 February 2006

Woody Lives!

By Gonzo | Arts and Leisure ~ Film & Movies

excerpt:

My great love for Woody Allen is in direct proportion to my enormous disappointment in his work over most of the last 10 years. 1999’s Sweet and Lowdown is the last film that I remember enjoying at anywhere near the level that I liked his earlier work, and I have to go back as far as 1989’s Crimes and Misdemeanors for something approaching greatness.

more Gonzo | more Arts and Leisure ∞ Film & Movies

FlossQuotes

And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of the American people in three simple words — yes, we can.
– Barack Obama

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Naturally
If anyone's been paying attention, I listen to a wide variety of music, only a fraction of which I've reviewed here at Transcendental Floss. I tend to go through phases when I'll be stuck on a particular artist or genre, really immersing in it for a few weeks at a time, and what I find so interesting and exciting is that during each phase I have this experience where I feel like there's no better music than what I'm listening to right then and there. Well, I've just discovered Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and I can say with complete confidence that this is the best music I have ever heard. Seriously, this is magical stuff. Brooklyn, New York's Daptones Records have managed to produce record after record of fine R&B/soul/funk music using vintage musical equipment and analog recording techniques in the ultimate homage to the legendary Motown and Stax catalogs. The Dap-Kings, serving as the Daptone house band, are the modern day equivalent of Stax's Booker T & The MGs, laying down the tastiest grooves, sweetest guitar riffs, and of course the horns that make this music so electrifying. Sharon Jones is the quintessential soul singer, able to capture moments of tenderness just as easily as moments of gritty passion. Enjoy!
— Gonzo

Van Morrison - His Band & The Street Choir
As much as I love the 1991 movie The Commitments, Van Morrison, some 40 years earlier, had already proven that the Irish have plenty of soul. Perhaps my favorite album of his, His Band & The Street Choir could easily be said to share some DNA with the music of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (soulful crooning, grooves, horns, etc.), yet with a decidedly unique twist that is all Van The Man. This music simply makes me feel good on a deep, deep level. What's so great about Van Morrison is that he's covered such a variety of genres, from soul to blues to country to jazz to celtic to a kind of meditative, almost new age sound that is all his own, and so as I move from phase to phase of musical immersion he's very often right there with me.
— Gonzo

Be Kind Rewind
I was not prepared to love this movie nearly as much as I did. While I've liked a lot of Jack Black's work, he's a guy with limited range who I can easily see wearing out his schtick. However, teamed with a very sweet and funny turn by Mos Def, an equally sweet Danny Glover, and under the direction of the mad genius of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep), Black's occasionally formulaic performance does nothing to keep this film from achieving success as a comedy and a bittersweet slice of life in Passaic, New Jersey. I was surprised over and over again how Gondry unapologetically went sentimental, eschewing so much of the cynicism that passes as gritty realism these days, which is music to my unapoligetically sentimental ears. I laughed. I cried. I learned that Mos Def is by far the best artist to crossover from music to acting that I've seen in a long, long time.
— Gonzo

Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
I work at a university where I supervise a team of student employees. One employee, in painfully embarrassing hindsight, reminds me an awful lot of me, but before this hindsight came into focus he was a big, fat pain in my ass. Relentlessly sarcastic and arrogant, yet brilliant, this guy pushed my patience to the limit. Then, one day, I saw him sitting under a tree on campus reading Franny & Zooey and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I know this kid. I WAS this kid. So, I stopped to talk to him about the book and about Salinger in general. He'd read The Catcher in the Rye first, then moved on to Nine Stories, which, with the story A Perfect Day For Bananafish, introduces the reader to the inimitable Glass family. Franny & Zooey, then, becomes the natural next choice, with Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenter & Seymour: An Introduction to follow, and this was exactly the same sequence that I followed 20+ years earlier. Ever since, while we're not buddy-buddy, there's been a new-found understanding between us, a sense that I'd been his shoes, that we shared some interests. Oh, and I went back and re-read Catcher, Nine Stories, and am currently falling in love all over again with Franny & Zooey.
— Gonzo

Lick your chops and chip through the nuggets of past Floss Aid recommendations.
— floss aid

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Archive for February 2006

Tuesday 28 February 2006

The Left Hand of God

Monday 27 February 2006

another brick

Floss Chat

Sunday 26 February 2006

bye-bye, bode

Friday 24 February 2006

Woody Lives!

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