Thursday , March 28 2024

Culture and Society

Bad Juju at Indymedia

In a story of international intrigue, the FBI confiscated hard drives from a pair of servers in England hosting Indymedia (the self-described “democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate tellings of truth”) websites, owned by the Texas-based company Rackspace Managed Hosting. Got it so far? Okay, …

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Blogs, Politics, and a Very Small World

Some of the best coverage of the blogosphere in the mainstream press is coming from Chris Seper of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A blogger himself, Chris brings a sophistication and depth to his blog coverage that comes from living the life as opposed to dipping into the scene now and …

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A Club In Your Computer

Super idea well-executed: DJ Sets offers audio streams of extended DJ sets by a host of well-known (primarily)house and techno DJs – currently 74 sets are available. Some of the most recent sets submitted for your listening and palpitating pleasure include Kelly Sylvia (Soulful, Funky, Deep, Vocal House, Dirty, Sleazy …

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The Sound of One Yap Flapping

Those who know me personally know I can talk almost ceaselessly for extended periods of time without appearing to breathe – I can talk underwater and in my sleep. We were at a party last night at our excellent friends Carlo and Karen’s, and I held four conversations simultaneously by …

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Sobering Bono

U2 has a new album coming out in November (Brendan Creecy reviews the single “Vertigo” here, Damon Muma here), was just nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Bono has other things besides music on his mind – he spoke at the UK Labour Party Conference yesterday: …

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Talking With Studs

I recall the gut-punch impact Studs Terkel’s book Working had on me when I read it as a teenager: I had never realized so many people actually worked in “menial” jobs, nor that there is dignity and self-respect in dong ANY job well. It meshed neatly with my understanding of …

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Ancient Bodybuilders Harold Zinkin and Jack LaLanne: One Gone, One Going Strong at 90

I love these crazy old bodybuilders and fitness freaks – they carved out a niche in the culture when bulging muscles and a serious fitness regimen was considered freakish and obsessive, and they were inventors and entrepreneurs as well. The first “Mr. California” and inventor of the Universal exercise machine, …

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Webmaster’s Dream

With almost 19,000 posts in just over two years, I shudder to think how many dead links we have festering in our archives – imagine trying to fix them all. This sounds like a blogger’s dream come true: Peridot, developed by UK intern students at IBM, scans company weblinks and …

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