Archive for January 2007

Tuesday 30 January 2007

libby burning

By spaceneedl | Law & Politics ~ News and Talk

excerpt:

the smell emanating from a washington, d.c. courtroom is scooter libby being fried by his former friends.
so far administration lackeys cathie martin, ari fleischer, david addington, and propagandist judith miller have poured fuel on the pyre, merrily dancing before libby’s unbelieving eyes.
“valerie plame?” libby protested. “never heard of her…before my july 10, 2003 conversation with [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics ∞ News and Talk

name floppers

By spaceneedl | Law & Politics ~ News and Talk ~ Pulpits & Soapboxes

excerpt:

why do george bush and dick cheney think it’s so cool to quote joe lieberman?
JUAN WILLIAMS: Now, you’ve got a vote tomorrow in the Senate to consider a resolution opposing the troop buildup. Vice President Cheney said last week that vote would validate the insurgents’ strategy. And so, do you agree?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, there’s a [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics ∞ News and Talk ∞ Pulpits & Soapboxes

Monday 29 January 2007

the good news and the bad news

By spaceneedl | Media & Advertising ~ News and Talk

excerpt:

air america is saved.
air america is screwed.
on the one hand, the liberal radio network appears to have a buyer to rescue it from bankruptcy. on the other hand, al franken is leaving.
what is air america without franken? hard to say. thom hartmann, randi rhodes and company are solid on-air talents with impeccable liberal credentials. but [...]

more spaceneedl | more Media & Advertising ∞ News and Talk

permission rescinded

By spaceneedl | Life and Society

excerpt:

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.- Ayn Rand, The Nature of Government
george w. [...]

more spaceneedl | more Life and Society

You can count me in, space

By Gonzo | War & Peace

excerpt:

Reading spaceneedl’s post about Molly Ivins, particularly this bit:
this is a baton [speaking out against the Iraq War] we all should pick up and carry–not after ivins is gone, but now. while she’s still with us. at a time when her voice may be faltering, there are tens of millions of us who can help [...]

more Gonzo | more War & Peace

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 January 2007

Tuesday 30 January 2007

libby burning

name floppers

Monday 29 January 2007

the good news and the bad news

permission rescinded

You can count me in, space

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