Archive for February 2008

Friday 29 February 2008

vote for me or your children die

By spaceneedl | Uncategorized

excerpt:

when did hillary clinton hire karl rove?

you have to do a double take to see if you heard right. and you want to say, “wow, that’s straight out of the gop playbook.” but democrats have played the “so-bad-it’s-almost-parody” terror-porn card as well.
remember johnson in ‘64?

you almost want to hope this hairball wasn’t coughed up [...]

more spaceneedl | more Uncategorized

Thursday 28 February 2008

marsupial justice

By spaceneedl | Uncategorized

excerpt:

what kind of justice system doesn’t allow acquittals?
the ever-popular inquisition? the salem witch trials? some latin american or sub-saharan hell hole?
pfft, no.
it’s the u.s. justice system!
“When asked if he thought the men at Guantanamo could receive a fair trial, Davis provided the following account of an August 2005 meeting he had with Pentagon general counsel [...]

more spaceneedl | more Uncategorized

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Once…more

By Gonzo | Film & Movies ~ Music & Noise ~ Theatre & TV

excerpt:

If you’ve noticed my mini-review of the film Once in our right sidebar, you’ll know that I’m quite fond of it. I didn’t watch the Academy Awards, but I was happy to hear that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won the Oscar for best song.
And, as if the movie and the music hadn’t already [...]

more Gonzo | more Film & Movies ∞ Music & Noise ∞ Theatre & TV

the allure of politics

By spaceneedl | Uncategorized

excerpt:

didja ever wonder why so many people in politics have so much trouble keeping their hands off other people in politics?
this explains much…
The brain has hard-wired systems that control attention and learning in processes that motivate us, including hunger, sex drive and social involvement. An interest in politics can stimulate these systems in the brain, [...]

more spaceneedl | more Uncategorized

what was she thinking?

By spaceneedl | Uncategorized

excerpt:

what was hillary clinton thinking when she mocked obama last weekend? how did she feel about insulting his supporters?
was she proud of this moment? did she think celestial choirs would raise up her campaign and bring his down?
was this a case of bad advice, or bad judgement? note: those aren’t mutually exclusive.
tsk, wait. i know. [...]

more spaceneedl | more Uncategorized

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 2008

Friday 29 February 2008

vote for me or your children die

Thursday 28 February 2008

marsupial justice

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Once…more

the allure of politics

what was she thinking?

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