this song does really make you want to go to the roller rink. that's something i need to do more of i feel. although it wouldn't be the same place as compared to what it was in the 70s and 80s. the glory days, it would seem, in this context. artist: vaughn mason & crew
from awesome african music-oriented blog Benn Loxo Du Taccu, we find this song, Tchop Tchop, by artist Humbertona. i'm totally obsessed with it right now.
it's traditional-based cabo verdian folk from the 1970s (for lack of a better description). apparently the album was banned by the portugese, as it was released prior to independence, and the colonial overseers were trying to suppress expressions of indigeneous culture. rereleased now by Morabeza Records. original post from Benn Loxo is here. enjoy!
ah, technology...via el stence, the top 15 unintentionally funny comic book pages. hilarity. although jughead should have made an appearance somewhere it seems. iirc there was a lot of bizarre innuendo around his eating habits that made it into those archie comics.
to reflect all that it is that i am, gonna start doing some mp3 bloggery up in here.
first, today, a track that i listen to almost every day when i get to work. i've gained such an appreciation for anthony hamilton, and desperately need to get his other albums besides 'Ain't Nobody Worrin.'' he's at the top of my music listening for last week, as you can see on the right (at least this week anyway).
courtesy of next-level web file sharing from divshare, you can listen to this inline on the blog, and download it straight from here. track is 'Can't Let Go,' sorry title is obscured. will adjust file renaming accordingly. hotness! enjoy.
despite a thorough addiction to television as a child, i have only just watched the princess bride today. maybe it was that i didn't have cable until i was almost in college. apparently the movie was played on tv nonstop during the early 1990s. despite this deprivation, i still managed to somehow know and use the inigo montoya revenge line though.
so apparently dc law has it that you have to clear the sidewalk in front of your property. of course, the dc government hasn't managed to do that quite yet for a lot of city properties or areas with ill-defined property rights, a week after our "big" snowstorm. but that's not what we're talking about here.
occasioned by my running loop, i head down massachusetts avenue down embassy row. the only delegation on my route that has yet to clear the snow from the sidewalk in front of it's embassy is venezuela. you'd think a country that gives out free/discounted heating oil as a sign of it's goodwill towards the poor could manage to shovel off the sidewalk. after all, the people walking skew poor. power to the people indeed.
browsing around free darko the other day and came across their euro guide. awesome stuff as always, especially the illustrations.
this one especially. he only needs a cig.
so, i was reading about the power sharing government that's been formed between Hamas and Fatah. given the terms, and the lack of concessions that Hamas has made towards Israel (namely, recognizing it), denouncing violence, etc., i'm not so sure how effective it will be at quelling violence in and around Palestine. looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for some meaningful developments in the middle east.
one thing stuck out in the article:
The agreement calls for Hamas to control nine government ministries, the most of any party, followed by Fatah with six.this got me to thinking. wouldn't it seem that some of the failures of democracy in other countries is that they still operate in ways akin to some sort of spoils system? the spoils system was how the American system operated in the 1800s, where whichever party was in power distributed civil service jobs to friends, contributors, etc. now of course we have a non-partisan civil service, except for the higher level positions which are political appointees in executive branch agencies.
since i've moved to dc, i've been talking about changing the height restriction. now it looks like some scholars from the brookings institution are saying the same thing.
for those who don't know, buildings in dc can't be higher than 130 feet (which i believe is the height of the capitol building). now, some people have told me that this makes dc more aesthetically pleasing. while i do like the row houses, i'm not sure if i totally agree with that sentiment. i certainly don't agree with that sentiment in the face of skyrocketing rents and home prices.
i usually think of this issue in terms of the effect of the policy on home prices and apartment rental rates, but the brookings scholar Christopher B. Leinberger was talking also in regards to the price and supply of office space, which seems also to be an issue. all the more reason.
dc is such a low density city, and the height restriction is one of the problems. if you've ever travelled out to NOVA or seen the MD suburbs, you've seen some of the consequences. concentrating the region's growth within the district has any number of advantages, including reducing driving (with the reduction in road construction outlays, pollution, gas consumption), reducing sprawl, and making the city more affordable, among other things.
unfortunately, for the expansion in housing supply to have the full impact and to attract families with kids, the dc public schools need to improve considerably. the leadership of the city, however, is well aware of this and how it factors in to the city's ability to retain the high tax base young couples (read: yuppies) who have moved to the city in recent years. whether or not they can actually achieve anything in the schools remains to be seen.
some sort of sensible policy that keeps the restriction in place for the areas around the mall and the capitol seems like an appropriate solution. this would allow the historic areas to retain the gravity they have now, while allowing larger development in other areas of the city. with so much of the city's row houses designated as historic, you'd save large portions of these homes while still allowing for larger development on fallow or underutilized land. the key here is sensible, which sometimes is a foreign term for the dc bureaucracy. and some upgrade in the architectural designs of the new developments (compared to what we're getting now...yeesh) would be nice, and might help dispel dc's image as an unimaginative cultural wasteland (which isn't entirely untrue).
i couldn't finish this without commenting on the quote at the end of the wapo piece.
"Rosslyn has tall buildings and views of the city, but if you change the height limit and someone builds in the air rights above the Watergate then you've blocked that view," said Don Kreuzer, a dentist who has lived in Foggy Bottom for 35 years. "D.C. is beautiful because of the height limits. If you change that you're going to ruin the view."who cares what the view from rosslyn (i.e. virginia) looks like? i'll agree that the height limit does make dc somewhat more pleasing and manageable, but a maximum 12 stories for buildings is just ridiculous (in our nations capital no less!). for the most part, people who live in dc don't have a view of dc, it's only there for the people in the suburbs. i suspect that this guy lives in one of the few high rises in foggy bottom that actually have a view of the lincoln memorial, and he's just phrasing it in a manner that seems less self-interested. furthermore, if you keep the restrictions in place around the mall, the capitol, and the monuments, then this wouldn't even apply.
so, despite the fact that we haven't even come close to figuring out the first mess that we started, as josh marshall points out, the true question right now in american foreign policy is unfortunately whether or not we will attack iran. the administration can't even be bothered to stay focused on staying the course. hawks are out insinuating that iran was behind the recent attack on US forces in Karbala (although they are now apparently saying that it was actually a bunch of iraqi generals).
meanwhile, i'd say things were going from bad to worse in iraq, but i think we've past the point where such a statement is actually meaningful. it turns out that we're fighting an ever fractious group of enemies, and that, sadly unsurprisingly, the mahdi army has been using the iraqi defense forces as a way to equip and train their members. i think most people thought this was a problem, but not on this scale.
with the new national intelligence estimate on iraq released today, we find the intelligence community extremely pessimistic about the possibility of success for the president's surge plan, and for the future of iraq generally. basically, it finds that even if the surge plan could pacify baghdad to a significant degree, such that political dialogue could even be possible, it wouldn't make a difference. the political and sectarian gridlock is just too insurmountable. the sunnis can't adjust to their new role, the shiites can't make any concessions or accept any affronts to their majority status, and the kurds and their play for kirkuk could have drastic consequences (and lets not even mention the situation with turkey).
not only that, but the NIE explicitly rejects the possibility that iran can have any significant influence, given that iraq is already rending at the seams. i guess that might be the only positive thing about it. but then again, that probably won't even matter to the contingent pushing for confrontation.
Update: James Fallows has a gret piece about how while the choices in iraq are hard and necessitate losses and sacrifices, the choice concerning iran is straightforward and unambiguous: No war with Iran.
lately, i've been listening to a lot of willie nelson, and although i'd listened before, it all really came about over christmas when i borrowed my mom's car. yes, normally i would never be taking musical cues from my parents (especially not my mother, who usually has the same 6 cds in her car for months), but that's how it happened.
now at certian moments of extreme pain or embarassment, you'd be willing to trade lives with anyone. as a rule though, the list shortens when you aren't under duress. i try to shy away from this kind of thinking, but if i could trade lives with anyone, i think willie nelson's life would probably be the most interesting, if not necessarily the most enjoyable. make great music, meet interesting people, travel all over the country and the world, consume large quantities of drugs and alcohol, and still be kicking around and respected, with enough movie cameos to allow me to never play another concert should i so desire. i would take all that, even with the bankruptcy/tax evasion problems.
then again, i think it's somewhat of a sign of a weak human being if you'd be willing to throw away all your experiences to have someone else's life. i guess it becomes palatable if you've had a somewhat boring existence, but i'm not sure i qualify. so maybe this particular instance points to my inherent weakness, although as i added i try to avoid this kind of thinking. you be the judge.
seeing as how i have become quite fascinated with films and see quite a lot of movies (part of the manifestation of this movie fascination i will explain shortly), a good running feature that i've decided to implement is the movie of the week. on occasions where i see more than one that week (or in this case since it's the first feature and i've got a backlog), i might give a short synopsis of multiple pictures in one post, as you'll see below.
ah yes, a manifestation of this movie fascination. so, i've got quite a burned dvd collection that i am building, and i've got a serious Netflix queue and monthly bill; i just had to downgrade to five at a time, as needless to say, they're coming in faster than i can watch them. an rss feed to the top five in my queue is off to the right. anyway, on to the movie(s).
stalag 17
classic flick from the 1950s. Robert Strauss and William Holden star, the latter winning an Oscar for his role as the hard nosed Sgt. Sefton. Set in a Nazi POW camp for Americans in WWII, it's a fantastic mix of comedy and drama, with the ensemble cast of POW characters spanning the broad cross section of the American diaspora.
Billy Wilder, who I'm not extremely familiar with, directed. Some have complained that this didn't gel with Wilder's other work (Sunset Boulevard for example) as far as being too dark, but I don't think that's a legitimate criticism. The film did minimize the atrocities of the Germans a bit, especially considering how recently the war had ended, but American POW camps were, from what I understand, bastions of calm among the chaos and genocide of the other German prisoner operations.
Holden's character is fantastic...never yielding to anyone, and never letting you be sure if he's doing the right thing because of moral or fiduciary considerations. He's a classic anti-hero who provides no moral redemption to his fellow POWs and no easy answers for the audience. The cinematography is pretty decent considering the period, and the traditional overacting of early American movies is considerably muted.
The blend between comedy and drama/tragedy can be uneven at times, with the movie decidedly front weighted with comedy, but during most of the film, as the suspense builds, it strikes a great balance and provides an amazing range of emotions rarely found in concert.
overall, an excellent movie. highly recommended.
I've seen some other movies recently in the theatres, so I'll put a little bit about those as well.
The Painted Veil - Ed Norton is one of my favorite actors, so I was excited for this. I'm not familiar with the book (by W. Somerset Maugham), but from what I understand this version, that Norton has been trying to make since the late 1990s, looks more at the politics of the times and further develops some of the romantic elements. Despite occasional forays into areas of overwrought drama, it was quite a good picture. Some interesting concepts, aside from the obvious story about how people truly come to love one and other, are the idea of games that people play, as well as the readily apparent contradictory sociopolitical conceptions put forth by Norton's character. The few complaints I had revolved around: a) the passage of time, as portrayed, often felt disjointed, and b) the movie was shot on location in China, but the cinematographer chose to shoot mostly very tight shots, not giving a sense of proportion or really allowing the beautiful countryside to affect the movie in any significant way. This overly tight framing also found it's way into much of the rest of the movie, but my aversion in this respect may be more personal preference as far as filmmaking goes. Overall, a very good flick.
Volver - putting aside an pejorative connotations, if any movie deserved the label "chick flick," Volver certainly is it. There are only a handful of male characters, and the only one of any consequence (it spoils nothing to reveal this) makes an early exit. I had my issues with this movie, but it was quite funny and engaging nonetheless. Penelope Cruz is excellent in her role. A primary complaint was the final plot twist, which I just found far too outlandish. But still worth seeing, particularly for Cruz' performance.
Children of Men - despite the fact that it usually seems that Clive Owen is always playing the same character (maybe it's the accent), i always enjoy his performances (see Closer: "why? because i'm a fucking caveman, that's why!"). This was a really interesting movie, and the second half is really thrilling and pulse pounding. Sci-fi always requires a bit of suspension of disbelief surrounding the original premise or situation that led to the particular future condition experienced by the characters, but i still felt that the writers could have provided a bit more information on the background of the time period, rather than asking the viewer to accept it on faith. they dole out information in small doses, but ultimately it's not enough. i also found the documentary style camera work to be annoying in the early stages of the movie, but as the action develops it ceases to become a concern, as there is enough going on on-screen to distract from it. the ending i felt was great, with the sharp cut to the credits and the end score setting a great final tone for the whole feature. good, and worth seeing as well, despite my complaints.
so that's that. happy movie watching. more next week.
dj drama and don cannon busted for making mixtapes. i think the riaa is finally really off their rockers, as most of the "bootleg" music used in mixtapes comes direct from the major labels, who use these things to promote artists (see jeezy, t.i., etc.). read about it here, here, and see it on youtube here. Note the copious amounts of ridiculous innuendo in the fox tv report, and the deep, soulless glaze to the riaa guy's eyes. i don't think they could be more clueless if they tried. guaranteed that drama had tons of contracts with labels to help promote their artists.
so i started this more just as an outlet, so if it ends up being a tree in the woods kind of thing, then so be it. but i'd been meaning to start a blog as a place to collect my thoughts, and this is the result. the other day at work i got a snappy idea for a title, and for the URL, like i mentioned, and i then spent 5 minutes on blogger and got it running.
of course, part of it is that humans like to hear ourselves talk (or think), and i guess this is the 21st century equivalent. and obviously we perceive our insights as important. and partly because i've got a lot of random crap on my mind.
so we'll see what comes out of that combustible mix.
smart people of course can deduce quite a bit from the title and URL of this blog (assuming you know a bit about washington, dc) , and may in fact come to some additional conclusions that may in fact not be unwarranted.
the title and URL came about as my lamentations about my neighborhood have grown greater. just something that had been on my mind, and served as a snappy title and whatnot. needless to say though, this will not be some lame neighborhood blog about all the random crap that annoys me, or something that will be full of NIMBY-esque proclamations about what should and shouldn't be going on in columbia heights.
rather, this will just be a lame blog generally (aren't they all these days. especially those that are started in 2007!); general interest i guess would be a category, and by general interest, i mean my interests.
that being said, i do have some forthcoming posts about columbia heights related stuff. so stay tuned.
