Archive for August 2008

Sunday 31 August 2008

one of those moments

excerpt:

last week, barack obama gave an acceptance speech for the ages.
people were shouting, tears were streaming…and that was just on the republican side. democrats were simply ecstatic that they finally had a candidate who would stand up and lead. a candidate who embodies every rags to riches american value ever conjured up by hollywood.
and [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics

Friday 29 August 2008

Is she ready to lead?

By Gonzo | Law & Politics

excerpt:

The hypocrisy of the GOP, the often premeditated willingness to say up is down and black is white, is simply astounding.
“America’s hottest governor”? Hell, everyone knows it’s frickin’ cold in Alaska! This is outrageous!
Seriously, does the McCain camp really expect Americans to simply forget that they said anything about the dangers of a lack of [...]

more Gonzo | more Law & Politics

Thursday 28 August 2008

charles krauthammer is an idiot

By spaceneedl | Law & Politics

excerpt:

right-wing tool charles krauthammer isn’t very observant.
he can’t figure out the imagery behind barack obama’s acceptance speech tonight.
under the headline “has he lost his mind?” krauthammer sneers at the staging, described as “Some [greek] columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington’s Capitol building or even the White House…”
The Berlin folly — in English. The Superbowl Halftime [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics

Wednesday 27 August 2008

atta bill…

By spaceneedl | Law & Politics

excerpt:

“They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more.
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
– bill clinton
say what you will about bill clinton (and if you’re smart, it’ll be that he was the best president in a generation), the man gets it.
he has his flaws. but at the [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics

Tuesday 26 August 2008

maybe i was wrong…

By spaceneedl | Law & Politics

excerpt:

when we were kids, our parents told us we could be anything we wanted to be.
why, we could even be president of the united states.
years later, with kids of my own, it occurred to me that i couldn’t tell them the same thing.
no, son, you can’t be president. you have to be extremely rich to [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics

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 August 2008

Sunday 31 August 2008

one of those moments

Friday 29 August 2008

Is she ready to lead?

Thursday 28 August 2008

charles krauthammer is an idiot

Wednesday 27 August 2008

atta bill…

Tuesday 26 August 2008

maybe i was wrong…

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