anyone want to go see this?

UPDATED: Brent and I are going at 9:35 on Wed. Join us!

10/12	Sun	2:20, 4:45, 7:10, & 9:35 p.m.
10/13	Mon	4:45 & 7:10 p.m.
10/14	Tue	4:45 & 7:10 p.m.
10/15	Wed	4:45, 7:10, & 9:35 p.m.
10/16	Thu	4:45, 7:10, & 9:35 p.m.

Specificity

Only women & men without heads or people in wheelchairs who have heads can use this restroom in the Minnesota State Capitol. That's specificity in signage.

easily one of the goofiest political photos

from the New York Times

beer ride

yia-yia's and n street and a custom speaker in a custom trailer for mobile music and taking up streets and winding through neighborhoods and not falling in the deep crushed limestone while riding a roadie and stopping for a drink just across the bridge and not going to wal-mart and getting my neck realigned and getting beer poured on my face and making a friend with a light to see the trail better and spelunking for the hidden beers on ice at the end of the trail and james dean skid contests and enjoying the lovely night in the middle of the country and dancing and there was a multi-person spoon i didn't join and mocking sarah palin and trig is down and can't do the dishes and getting back on the bikes with the terror of the limestone again and not falling and not falling and el chapparo and this is why we live in lincoln, nebraska.

h/t conrad for the photo

and, for no good reason

OTSG

We're on the Old Ten-Speed Gallery today!

good stuff

it's good to see some creativity in this political ad cycle.

My favorite cultural detritus meets new lows (heights?)

Bumper Nuts with LEDs hooked up to brake light system.

Thursday's Dinner

Baby bok choy & eggs:

2 eggs, prepped as for sunny-side up, baby bok choy added, covered to steam greens, spiced with shichimi togarashi.

From Mysterious Internet Origin

Sent along by a beloved, recently retired, and sorely missed co-worker, the piece has no citation of origin to be found, so is attributed to the anonymous Public the web allows.

Subject: Our Nation on White Privilege

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a"fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you
ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're
black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives close to Russia, you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose "next door
neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and you let your children be
interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to
the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably looks down on
regular folks.

White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps."

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you "dangerously naive and immature."

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president,
while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

America

Woman Wearing Cow Suit Arrested

Police say 32 year old Michelle Allen was chasing children in the 3100 block of Wilbraham, while wearing the cow costume early Monday evening. Allen also reported urinated on a neighbor's front porch.

and

She reads ALL OF THEM. ALL THE ONES IN FRONT OF HER.

The latest Couric-Palin comedy, from an emailed CBS transcript:

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, "wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

"All of them"? Not just Commentary but Dissent, too? Impressive!

--Michael Crowley

Palin Problem

I didn't think I'd ever want to repost something from the National Review, except perhaps for its ludicrousness.

Even Kathleen Parker is jaded.

so many frames per second

I've wanted one of these super-slo-mo Casio cameras for some time now. Here's another reason why.

Leighton Pierce, Agency of Time

Experimental filmmaker and professor at University of Iowa Leighton Pierce has a small but lovely exhibition of work at the Sheldon right now. Go see him speak Tuesday at 5:30.

Cash-Strapped NPR Launches 'A Couple Things Considered'

the Onion delivers, as always

enough?

from the fantastic poster set Poster Offensive 4 via The Match Factory

Omaha City Weekly/Shannon Hopp!

Check out this article in the City Weekly about Shannon's upcoming fashion show.

Spano Lang by Shannon Hopp

Shannon Hopp was given a task for this show – the task to make the most of gifts from the past. Hopp, who graduated from University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in textile and apparel design in May, has long had an interest in the styles of the ‘30s and ‘40s. She was taught to sew by her grandmothers, and thus her Omaha Fashion Week collection is named Spano Lang, using her grandmothers’ maiden names.

Bellwether boutique owner Jessica Latham furthered Hopp’s mission when she contacted her about a trunk full of vintage fabrics. “A very sweet lady, named Ruth Ann, opened the trunk of her Buick and there were boxes and boxes of things. It was an eclectic collection, probably fabrics from the ‘60s and ‘70s – silk, wool, tweeds – and she passed it on to me to basically for free.”

Actually Hopp paid $20 for the haul, but a few days later she received a thank you letter from Ruth Ann with a $20 bill enclosed to help her with her new ventures.

Hopp will be showing 10 ensembles culled from these vintage sources. She says while she is using all vintage fabrics, she creates her own designs based on patterns and construction methods from the ‘30s. She says the Spano Lang line is comprised of fitted garments that rely on complex structure and seamlines, rather than volume of fabric Read: no mumus here ladies, you might actually be able to purchase a decent dress.

Roomie

This is my housemate having BBQ after a Royals game in KC. Apparently, some other folks decided to go there, too.

Yup, extremely so

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Capital!

Shamelessly reposted from Good Problem, hat tip to Conrad.

Fendered Bike Fends Off Rain

In two nights of work in my living room, I put fenders on my old road bike. I am proud of the accomplishment of having put in the work, and it added a dose into my appreciation of the fantastic work my mechanic Eric and the whole crew at Monkey Wrench does for me. It needs to go in for some adjustments -- and some knobbier cross tires -- before it's totally ready for winter. But for now, at least, the rain is effectively kept off my backside.

Cousins! (and brother)

A Pair of Political Bits

Calculate your estimated tax cut under Barack Obama's plan at ObamaTaxCut.com

Minor Triumph

Using this tutorial from wikiHow, after a few tries, I was able to open an old combination lock I used in junior high. When the lock clicked open, it was the most satisfying of sounds.

How to Crack a "Master Lock" Combination Lock

Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog dedicates his latest film, Encounters at the End of the World, to Roger Ebert -- a film about Antarctica that is not another film about penguins. At one point, however, the question of whether insanity might exist in the penguin world is raised of a long-time penguin researcher. The answer? Footage, accompanied by Herzog's voiceover, of a lone penguin heading not toward the sea nor the breeding grounds, but straight for the mountains and "to a certain death."


All researchers on Antarctica must go through a two-day survival training before being left off the American military base. To simulate white-out blizzard conditions, they wear buckets on their heads as they attempt to "rescue" their trainer, gone missing in a trip to the outhouse.



The underwater footage is stunning, as it is amazing to imagine anything living in water that measures -2℃. Recordings of seals provide the soundtrack, described by one researcher as reminiscent of Pink Floyd.


Encounters at the End of the World, full of the markers of Herzog's own cinematic code, gives a sense of besting David Attenborough at his own game. Herzog travels to a tremendous, alien place and examines its inhabitants with resplendent narration, twisting the trope of nature documentary, this time, by documenting the scientists.

Labor Day 2008 Hay Crew

Molly, I raise you one...

Alternative Fuels

Last night, I got in touch with Lou at FoxWear. He custom makes rain pants that, according to the IceBiker, are amazing. My e-mail correspondence with him gives me great confidence that he's a rad dude in Idaho who will keep my legs warm and dry for my second winter of commuting. In honor of that...





Shamelessly reposted from Good Problem

Spot ON

Molly's right....

silly women

Dinner

Mega-local pizza for dinner:

Crust from Le Quartier
Bed of fresh tomatoes from Mom's garden
Garlic from next-door neighbor Rich's garden
Basil from my front porch
Fresh Mozzarella from Branched Oak Farm

not-so-local:
Grated Romano
Oil-cured olives
Spinach
Olive oil

State Fair

I'm on This Recording today, with correspondence from the Nebraska State Fair.

Zogby, as read by Alex Provan

My friend Alexander Provan has an interesting analysis of John Zogby's new book on polling in the Sept. 15th issue of The Nation.

Well done, and congratulations, Alex!

John Kerry @ the DNC

Hat tip to J-vass for posting this. Excellent speech.

Big Brother's Portfolio

Triple Canopy's Andrew Ti examines Google Street View and the art of photography.

As I do not live in one of the major metropolitan areas, my neighborhood has not yet been "street viewed." I was surprised to find out, however, that the farm has.


And on a perfect summer-stormy-sky day!

David Byrne/Brian Eno Album Stream

Riding

Did 59 miles of the Heatstroke 100 with Felice and Brent today...

Proud Roommate!

I'm so proud of Marika!

Rwanda: Hospital’s Design Keeps Fresh Air in Mind

In the dark corridors and congested waiting rooms of rural hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa, tuberculosis can spread like a rumor in a small town. A patient who comes in with a broken leg might leave with a deadly disease.
...

The hospital’s construction is being overseen by Rwanda’s Ministry of Health; Partners in Health, a nonprofit group based in Massachusetts; and the Clinton Foundation. It was designed by graduate students at Harvard’s design school.

from The New York Times

One of the best headlines ever

McCain unsure how many houses he owns

via Politico

My Criterion Collection (currently imaginary)

If I could spend the $505 dollars it would take to purchase the items in my cart, this would be the Criterion Collection favorites I'd own. Thanks to Molly for the idea.

This list is heavily influenced by my father, and is thus filled with films seen especially in the pre-adolescent years during which he thought I needn't have a social life.

Au revoir les enfants (Louis Malle)

Wonderful cinematography that evokes a child's perspective, and one of the best World War II films. Young boys in France at a Catholic school that's harboring a Jewish refugee; a retelling of Malle's own childhood experience.



I saw this first when I was about the age of the boys in the film, and more recently gave a lecture on it to my father's Facism class at Doane College. (Yes, related to the other Doane -- Mary Ann, my undergraduate advisor -- the college was founded by her grandfather.)

Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus)

Another film I saw quite young. Carnavale in Rio becomes the setting for the myth of Orpheus, and it is a mysterious and frightening rendition.

4 by Agnès Varda (Agnès Varda), mostly for Le bonheur

I took a French film class at UN-L when I was a junior in high school. I was supposed to be taking a French language course, but I argued that there weren't any that fit in with my high school schedule, so I took the film class instead. Basically, we had screenings and then watched more films in class. There was really no discussion. I really liked Varda. Le bonheur was my introduction to feminist film.



Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir)

Another one from the French film class. I just found it funny.

Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch)

I've always liked Jarmusch. This one is so well shot it kind of makes me want to give up trying to shoot something. The film is in black & white, and the production stills from the scene in the canoe with bright green foliage all over make it clear that this is a filmmaker who can really "see" in black & white.

Imagine that's all bright green on the water.

I'll also admit I'm in it for the devastatingly attractive Tom Waits/John Lurie combo.

Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju)

I first watched this with Brian Faas after we'd both been unable to make it to the screening for our class on the close-up. We were both joking around through most of the film but then blown away by the end. Easily one of the best horror films ever.



Fishing with John (John Lurie)

John Lurie takes other hipster actors on ridiculous fishing adventures, and there's totally goofy voiceover added on.

Grey Gardens (The Maysles Brothers)

There's a good bit of documentary on this list, especially of the embedded journalist sort of variety. That's the vein of work I'd like to go for. I just wonder how they find the money for the film stock. Grey Gardens reinforced every stereotype I had about wealthy Northeasterners.



La haine (Mathieu Kassovitz)

This was also part of my French education, though this time around, it was in the context of a language class. Not the Paris you usually learn about in school.



Häxan (Benjamin Christensen)

Mathias brought this over a few months ago, and we had it playing while working on other things. I love the Nordic peoples. This is a bizzaro-documentary history of witchcraft. We may have listened to Witchcraft while watching it, but I don't really know for sure.

Hoop Dreams (Steve James, Frederick Marx & Peter)


This was one of the first documentaries I saw where I remember thinking about it being made. Another excellent example of the embedded sort of filmmaking -- it includes so much about urbanism, education, and Chicago, too.

If.... (Lindsay Anderson)

My father showed this one to me when I was probably 12 or 13 years old. Through this, Au revoir les enfants, and other films, he was trying to explain to me what his school experience as a child in Germany had been like. I think. Well, without the guns.


Also plenty of beautiful young man fodder for the imagination of a teenage girl.

La Jetée/Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)

Mathias and I watched Sans Soleil several times. It usually put me to sleep. I love the Martian children.


My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallström)

This is another film I watched over and over as a kid. I love its simple depiction of formative sexuality, its mild humor, and its young Swedish narrator.


Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)

I mostly like this film because it makes pickpocketing and lock picking look so easy. That makes it an effective film.

You aren't even going to know your watch is gone.

The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff)

There are tons of Fassbinder films in the Criterion Collection, and for the sake of German pride, I probably should have included one, maybe Berlin Alexanderplatz, which my parents watched in shifts while trading off taking care of my infant self. But I'm going to skip Fassbinder altogether for The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel), the film that was constantly referenced in my house when I was growing up. Whenever I'd be obnoxious or whiny, my parents would call me Oskarschen.


This slid nicely into suggesting I was trying for an Oscar.

Triggertown!

What good folks.

looks so unreal

Bet the environment is going to benefit from development like this.

David Hobcote via Gizmodo

Just an observation.

Translation, Please?

From dvblog.org:



Lucia (.mov file linked)
from the Diluvio Gallery, a collaboration of Chileans Niles Atallah, Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León.

Reminiscent of the work of South African William Kentridge, whose work I first saw at an exhibition at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in the winter of 2005 on a trip with Molly, Darin, and Leksi.

Replication

...it's what the Chinese do best!

this is neat...

practice your vocabulary and donate rice through the UN World Food Program

Review of Man's Last Great Invention's first release

From indieville.com:

None is the first release from Nebraska's Man's Last Great Invention, a curious drone band whose music reminds me of Cul De Sac's more experimental offerings. Issued by Public Eyesore sub-project Eh?, this is slow-building, bass-heavy stuff that sounds almost cinematic in nature. Man's Last Great Invention makes heavy use of echoing chanted vocals, which lends the disc an Eastern feel, as well as a distinct melodic tone. The majority of the album utilizes an ambient formula that is somewhat reminiscent of Biosphere material; sparse layers of sound come together to form miraculously organized compositions. The strangely hopeful first half of the album climaxes in a haze of distant chanting on the third track; this makes way for a much darker second half which could best be termed "unsettling." Particularly disturbing is the monstrous final track; it sounds like a swarm of ghosts trying to force their way out of a metal holding cell. Although very different in spirit from the rest of the album, what it lacks in droney sonority, it makes up for in disorienting unpredictability.

Congrats, folks! Buy it here.

On Critical Mass

Excerpted and reposted from Bike Snob NYC:

People do need to see other people out there on bikes. They need to become accustomed to them so they learn to respect them, and they need to see how practical and effective they can be so they consider riding them themselves. Many cyclists illustrate this day after day, not only by riding their bikes to and from work during rush-hour but also by using them for recreation and even racing on them. A driver who sees you zip past as you ride your bike to work, and then sees you riding your bike to dinner later with a date, and then sees you going for a road ride that weekend doesn't realize he's seen only one rider—as far as he knows he's seen a bunch of riders, and he sees them using their bikes successfully. Effectively, you’re a Critical Mass of one. Meanwhile, a mob of people on crappy bikes blocking traffic one day a month isn’t a “mass” at all. At best it's a party. At worst it’s effectively just one big stupid person.

As you may have already seen, an NYPD officer rammed himself into a biker on a recent Critical Mass ride. There is nothing about this I see as proper behavior on the part of the officer -- let me make that clear -- and as a cyclist, the video is terrifying to watch.

And yet, I agree with Bike Snob NYC; Critical Mass rides, instead of raising awareness of bicycles as legal vehicles and entitled users of city streets, rather obscure the good efforts of cyclists (particularly commuters) to abide by traffic laws and operate parallel to automotive traffic.

As the "resident cyclist" in my office, I get a mixed bag of admiration, questions regarding my sanity, and laundry lists of complaints. Bikes swerve too much. Some biker cut off one driver. They don't "get" the bike lanes in Lincoln (placed in the center of the street on only two streets Downtown). They saw a bike go through a red light, and it messed them up, because they started to go, thinking the light must've turned. I've explained the fear of being doored on numerous occasions, the difficulty of building bike lanes as an afterthought rather than part of the city plan, the navigation of potholes when riding on one-inch tires, and the awful feeling of having a car zoom by six inches from your knee as you're trying to accelerate after being stopped at a red light. Do all these questions piss me off? Of course. I often walk in to work after nearly being hit, and it's not a fun way to start the day. But what pisses me off more is knowing that when cyclists are out actively trying to piss off and obstruct car traffic, it makes my life as a commuter more difficult and more dangerous. There's no denying that some drivers will always be assholes. We don't need to actively encourage more of them.

Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady just blogged on sharing the road with bikes in Lincoln, too.

I certainly don't deny the fun of riding with a group. There's something passé though, somehow, about the sort of disruptive activism at the root of Critical Mass. Sort of like the ELF burning down housing developments (again, something that really pisses me off, like having the land next to the farm turned into McMansion acreages), it seems to be showy without getting to the root of the matter. If a so-called critical mass infiltrates city council and planning commission meetings, rules can change, and the vocal are heard. Look at what happened for all-ages shows in Omaha. I digress.

I'd love for more folks to consider biking to work or just around town. Seeing a family out for a ride, a guy on his way to work, a couple hauling groceries home in panniers, or a few bikers out for an evening cruise always makes me happy. And if I see all that in a day, that's a critical mass -- that's everyday folks riding bikes. Besides, you have to be a real dick to not respect street space for a whole family lawfully biking around town.