randomWalks

Sturtle on what he, as a non-New Yorker, thinks of New Yorky stuff like eating while walking that you only tend to notice after being here a while:

"New York is so hip to walking, they've made it okay to eat en route. Most of America is kinda funny about eating away from the table. We'll consume lunch in the car if we've just hit the Burger King drive-through, and we'll even eat on our feet at carnivals and such, but other than that, there seems to be an aversion to eating on the go. In Europe it's even worse; there, if you're not actually seated at a goddamn table in the beer garden and you so much as pop an M&M in your mouth, they'll extradite your ass and put you on the next plane headed west."

That's definitely the kinda thing I noticed after living here a while (here's another: the ubiquity of Goya. I don't know whether they even had it in Kansas, but it's all over the damned place here). What sorts of idiosyncratically mundane stuff have you noticed that's unique about where you live or places you've stayed for a spell?

originally posted by Chris

Posted by Adam at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Dining Out With Babes -- babies, that is -- in and around DC.

Posted by Adam at 10:09 PM | Permalink

Racial profiling does exist, inside and outside our borders. More from the ACLU, about.com, Yahoo, and the LA Times.

Posted by David Jacobs at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Monkeyfist's WEF Protests News and Chronology links to a report of five women arrested in lower Manhattan for a banner drop ("Bush and big biz agree that people with AIDS drop dead").

If you want to follow the WEF news at one site, this Monkeyfist page is probably your best bet.

Posted by Adam at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Fuck Corporate Groceries: "so i decided to spend the next [while] not shopping at corporate grocery stores, living instead on food purchased at neighborhood places. i figure this way i'll save money, explore chicago's independent food sellers, eat better(?) or at least, more interesting food, and i won't be supporting the man."

Posted by Adam at 2:54 PM | Permalink

Lance Knobel is blogging Davos from the inside at DavosNewbies.com.

Posted by Adam at 1:45 PM | Permalink

The Guardian interviews and philosophises with Evan Williams, Blogger creator. Thanks, mefi.

Posted by David Jacobs at 12:58 PM | Permalink

Did you know?

This weekend in New York City:

• 4,000 cops (in riot gear and undercover) as well as contingents of FBI, and Secret Service agents will be greeting tens of thousands of men, women and children who don't think that the wealthiest and most powerful 0.0000005% of humanity should make decisions that will affect 6 billion people behind closed doors and without accountability.


• Cops will be protecting Gap and Starbucks locations throughout the city.


• Cops will be enforcing an unconstitutional 1845 state law barring people in groups of 3 or more from wearing masks.


• Some protestors are planning to wear the surgical masks which are commonly used by those who live or work near ground zero.


• Protestors carrying signs and large puppets, sitting, chanting, singing, and dancing the tango will likely be attacked in assaults -- either unprovoked or triggered by undercover agents of the state -- by cops who have been training and threatening for weeks to brutalize innocent people, if dozens of anti-corporate demonstrations worldwide are a reliable indicator.

Posted by Adam at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)

The WEF is a private member organization comprising representatives from 1,000 of the world's largest corporations including Microsoft, Monsanto, Nike, General Motors and, until recently, Enron. Originally formed in 1971 as the European Management Forum, the Swiss-based group has grown into a major global agenda setter and a leading proponent of corporate globalization. Until this year, the organization held its annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort town of Davos.

The exclusive meeting is open to members - who pay upwards of $30,000 in annual dues - as well as selected politicians, journalists and academics. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are both expected to be among the 3,200 in attendance. While the WEF helps set global economic and trade agendas that affect the entire world, the group predominantly includes European and American businesses.

Posted by Adam at 7:40 AM | Permalink

• Yahoo photos
• nyc imc breaking news
• monkeyfist: wef news
• Yahoo Full Coverage: WEF
• the Village Voice
• The New York Times: WEF

Posted by Adam at 7:35 AM | Permalink

• Another World Is Possible
• Anti-Capitalist Convergence New York
• International A.N.S.W.E.R.
• Students for Global Justice

Posted by Adam at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

• Socialist Worker on the WEF
• Public Eye on Davos
• WEF home page

Posted by Adam at 7:32 AM | Permalink

The World Social Forum is a gathering of the international left meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil this weekend. Indymedia is covering both the WEF and the WSF, and ZNet has backgrounders on some prominent WSF attendees.

Posted by Adam at 7:31 AM | Permalink

The Nation: WEF/WSF Protest

The Nation and the Nation website will be featuring reports from the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil; from the expected protests in the streets of New York City; and from the suites of the Waldorf hotel in New York, where the World Economic Forum will be meeting. Watch this space starting January 31.

Posted by Adam at 7:30 AM | Permalink

Wil Wheaton swept the 2002 Bloggies. This is, somehow, appropriate.

Posted by Adam at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

First off let me state that this is the coolest looking amp I've seen(for anywhere near its price)...you can't help but like the diamond blue tolex, stove top chicken head knobs,chrome chassis,and the killer chrome "Ampeg" logo on the front of the amp! O K you ask but how does it sound?

originally posted by david rees

Posted by Adam at 11:49 PM | Permalink

Excellent -- nay, essential -- coverage of the State of the Union over at Craig's booknotes.

Posted by Adam at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Stop spreading lies about Saruman! It's bad enough the spin doctors led by Galadriel and Gandalf completely rewrote the real history of the War of the Ring.

Pay attention, for here is the TRUTH!!!

Posted by Adam at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Can someone please explain exactly what this is?

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

New Lynda Barry comic, how #1! Plus, archives!

Posted by Adam at 9:37 AM | Permalink

Well, who the hell else should be guarding the chicken coop but the foxes?

Since its inception, the board has been criticized as being ineffective and one-sided. Of the 258 sworn complaints it has received, 14 have resulted in recommendations of discipline, said board executive director Elizabeth Pittinger. Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. has acted on seven of those recommendations. City Patrolman Eugene Grattan Jr., president of the Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1, said the $400,000 the city spends annually to operate the board would be better spent in the Office of Municipal Investigations, a city-run internal investigations unit.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review article by David Conti

originally posted by elihu

Posted by Adam at 3:42 AM | Permalink

Speaking of long trips:

"Staring at The Map on the 1 train, I saw the veins and arteries of a city so huge and complex you could never know it all, and I got that feeling in my stomach again. But it dawned on me that the New York City subway system is not quite like heaven. It doesn’t go on forever. I could go to all those places. Why, it might not even take that long, providing I didn’t actually get out of the train at each stop. I could maybe do it in a weekend."

In "38 Hours to Canarsie" (published a couple of weeks ago in the New York Press), Craig Coley goes for it.

originally posted by Chris

Posted by Adam at 4:36 PM | Permalink

"We will starve druggies of education, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue families that provide aid or safe haven to druggies. Every family, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the druggies." (Apologies to Mr. Bush's fine speechwriters.)

Posted by Adam at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty (washingtonpost.com)

More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half of them officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israel's occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians.

"We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people," declared a petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel's best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Posted by Adam at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Adam didn't even read this to the end, but he urges me to post
about the Nas/Jay-Z battle. I was talking
to an ex-student of mine (who now possesses my old turntables) last night and I asked him if those knuckleheads on the west coast
still think Jay-Z is better. He said "No, but the Takeover beat was incredible." Come on dude, that was not Jay-Z, that was the Talking
Heads! If songs keep sampling new wave hits from the late 80s, late 20 and early 30 somethings will begin to react like
the "older" generation did - "I only like the original, blah blah."


Why hasn't there ever been a March madness-style hip-hop rhyming tourney set up by Russell Simmons, the RZA, Puffy, or any other
hip hop mogul with juice? Open it up with an old schoolers bracket: Roxanne Shante, the Real Roxanne, Big Daddy Kane (comeback attempts notwithstanding), Kool Moe Dee, Schooly Dee, Monie Love, Queen Latifah, KRS and MC Shan.
Canibus could meet LL in the sweet 16. Mos v. Talib? Q-Tip v. Phife? Ghost v. Raekwon? Black Thought v. Malik?
Do we have to let the West Coast in? My final 4: Mos, Q-Tip, Nas, Common. Shit. I mean: Rakim, Butterfly, Ghostface & OC.


I'll stop now.

Posted by David Jacobs at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

I can't wait to listen to some of these homebrew mp3 remixes, a.k.a. bootlegs.

Posted by Adam at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This honorary soul took the infamous Chinatown Bus to Boston and back in one day for a taste of - the best burrito in the country? Could it be in Boston? What is the farthest you've ever travelled for a Burrito?

Posted by at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

For God's sake, do not kill us! We surrender!

Posted by Adam at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)

Hip Mama Anti-Racism FAQ

What do you MEAN, reverse racism doesn't exist?



As white people, we're all raised to assume that anything in the world is ours by right, and that other people are treated the same way as us. The truth is that as white people we're given many things that are not given to people of color - anything from jobs to smiling welcomes wherever we go. We come to think of those things as ours by right, and when we lose them, we think we've experienced racism or discrimination. Usually what we've really lost is a piece of unearned race-based privilege, which we're not used to being without.

Posted by Adam at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

"This looks like a very murky business in which a big American corporation has admitted giving money to Labour in return for access to ministers. Subsequently those ministers made important changes to energy policy."

Posted by at 4:57 AM | Permalink

Vice President Cheney yesterday said he would not give congressional investigators records from the administration's energy policy development, inviting what legal experts say would be the highest profile court fight between Congress and an administration since Watergate.

...

U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, who heads the GAO, had said he would begin legal proceedings this week if the administration did not provide the information. "I've said it will be this week, and I intend to deliver on that," Walker said in an interview yesterday.

Posted by Mike at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dear Mailing List,

I hope you're well.

I'll discuss "get your war on" and "get your enr on" on National Public Radio's "The Connection" on Tuesday, Jan. 29th from 11:00 to noon. The show's topic is political cartooning in the wake of September 11th.

Does your local NPR station carry "The Connection"? You can find out at http://www.theconnection.org. You can also listen to the show online.

What are "get your war on" and "get your enr on?" They are comics I made about current events. You can see them here: http://www.mnftiu.cc

***You should know that these comics are profane***

Thanks for your interest,

David Rees

Posted by David Jacobs at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The real Tourist Guy has been found. Also,
all your tourist are belong to us.

Posted by Go Vegan at 7:27 PM | Permalink

The Arizonan and Harper's Magazine each have an opinion regarding the economy of Florence, Arizona.


From the Arizonan:

There are so many attractions to go visit when you are in Florence. The McFarland State Park is the
first courthouse built in town. The courthouse held many historic trials. Today you can learn more
about those trials and about the one of the largest POW camps that was located near town. The park was named after Ernest W. McFarland, who represented the state for many years. The Pinal County Historical Society Museum has lots of exhibits ranging from Indian artifacts to descriptions of life as a prisoner in Florence. There is also a display showcasing 100 varieties of barbed wire.

Since 1982, the town has repeatedly expanded its border to include prisons being built beyond them,
inflating its census count and thereby its state and federalfunding. In the meantime, five new prisons have opened or expanded within town limits. Today, three fourths of Florence's 21,000 residents are incarcerated, though little of the money they bring in is spent on them [see back page of Harpers for more -dj] ... Money, however, isn't the only prize. Although in forty-eight states prisoners cannot vote, their numbers influence the drawing of congressional and state districts. And the resulting power shifts can be dramatic, given that most prisoners are minorities from urban, Democratic areas and reside in typically white, rural, Republican enclaves hundreds, even thousands, of miles from home.

Posted by David Jacobs at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (48)

Dipping into the randomWalks books mailbag:

Can you possibly give me or point me in the right direction to the definition of a literary device?

Rick Pena

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. A literary device is something that can write an entire book without any human input and just 2 AA batteries. Just kidding! A literary device is something like a metaphor, a simile, irony, foreshadowing, etc., etc. -- and if you don't know what those things are, it's kind of difficult to explain. Basically it's something a writer can do to be writerly, if that makes any sense.

--nedlog

Hello

My name is Michael. Can you recommend me the most hideous and scary book ever written.
I just love horror books and movies, big fan of S.King too.
Please contact me
bye for now.

Michael Yeruhimovich

I don't often read scary books, to tell the truth. When I was a youngster I read a book by Raymond E. Feist called "Faerie Tale" that was lurid, disturbing, and nasty. Also, my cat jumped on my back while I was reading it and I almost asphyxiated from terror. Maybe you should give it a try.

Another thing that gives me the creeps is "The Metamorphosis", by Franz Kafka.

--nedlog

Posted by Mike at 11:10 PM | Permalink

Go Vegan once posted, or maybe just showed me, or maybe has never seen but will really like The New York That Never Really Was hosted by Echo NYC.

Posted by at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In case you missed it or perhaps neglected to send a card or maybe a nice gift-basket full of rusty chastity belts and rabid indignation to your favorite perky abortion protester, our fine antichoice president declared this past Sunday to be National Sanctity of Life Day. Isn't that charming? Take the rest of the day off or something. Forget we're killing innocent people in Afghanistan. Go buy some condoms. Right there under the yawning and war-jaded media radar it slipped, Bush Jr. following in the famously antiwomen footprints of his disturbingly asexual father by actually telephoning the leaders of the antichoice movement during their march on Washington. To thank them. For being so... helpful.

Posted by at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Happy Republic Day. The Bhuj earthquake took place a year ago today in India.

Posted by Go Vegan at 1:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore called the decision "another ruling aimed at eroding our American culture" and said he will appeal the case to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court.

Posted by Go Vegan at 1:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

baxter of enron found dead.

this latest sad development has spurred me to look back in time a bit (thanks UFE). what enron was doing was beyondwrong way before this latest bit o scandal:

Between 1996 and 1998, 41 large, profitable corporations used special tax breaks to reduce their corporate tax bill to less than zero, receiving outright federal tax rebate checks, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. (In contrast, the current rebates are paid only to people who paid income taxes.) As a group, the CEOs of these firms averaged pay hikes of 69% in the year of the rebate, far above the typical CEO raise of 38%. In six cases — Black & Decker, Praxair, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Enron, and McKesson — the CEO’s raise entirely consumed his company’s tax rebate for that year.

originally posted by elihu

Posted by Adam at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Blather: The Alan Moore Interview features more chapters than Watchmen.

Posted by Adam at 2:15 PM | Permalink

Amazon.com: buying info: Chris Ware Lunch Box "Decorated with popular images from the new serial beginning in The Acme Novelty Library series of picture books and pamphlets, this one is sure to be just the thing to display for a short time, put in a closet, and then eventually throw away." There's nothing like cheesedip.

Posted by Adam at 2:12 PM | Permalink

Science Fiction Weekly: Nalo Hopkinson uses SF to probe the inner and outer worlds of alienation

Before I put fingers to keyboard, I must first figure out how to express the race of my characters, if they are non-white, because I have to think about how I'm going to perform that task of wrenching the center over to the margins. I've had white writers tell me that they don't feel they have to think in those terms when they are creating white characters. Often they don't think about the fact that the characters are white. I suspect that most writers of color in this part of the world are quite aware of the ethnicities of their characters of color.

When white writers write almost exclusively white characters, that usually passes without comment. When writers of color create mostly characters of color, it's seen as something remarkable. I try to write from my center. In order to do that in a literary milieu that presumes ground zero to be white middle-class experience, I have to shift the reader's vision over to the margins. Even if that reader is from a marginalized community, the worldview they will have been used to seeing reified in literature, in popular culture, in the media, is for the most part the "normalized" one. By performing that shift, I'm not moving and I'm not taking over the privileged position; I'm wrenching the focus over to my context. I just tell my story.

Posted by Adam at 1:34 PM | Permalink

"My daughter recently asked me, 'Dad, is your next film going to be about people just talking and talking and talking?' And I had to tell her, 'Yeah, probably.'"

Posted by Adam at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Pierre Bourdieu has died.

Posted by at 11:07 AM | Permalink

This site aims to have the largest collection of Moustaches on the internet

originally posted by dm8k

Posted by Adam at 10:42 AM | Permalink

J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is my all time favorite book.

I'm going to try and present the bulk of the story in Lego format.

This is going to take a long time, so check back regularly.

Posted by at 5:18 AM | Permalink

American Gulag - "Infoshop.org announces a new weblog dedicated to news concerning prisoners, prisons and prison abolition. This new service will allow activists to post news and resources and will be managed by a working group of prisoner support activists."

Posted by Adam at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Rebecca Walker is speaking tonight at 7:30, at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble. She's supporting her new book Black, White and Jewish. She's also a co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation and edited To Be Real, one of my favorite books.

Posted by at 6:34 PM | Permalink

Georgette Blau leads an NYC tour of Sex and the City haunts.

She also gets around to discussing the way Parker's Carrie lives way beyond her means.



While Carrie makes roughly $50,000 a year as a columnist, she pays about $2,500 a month in rent, or roughly $30,000. Plus, she's bought five pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes, at about $450 a pair, or $2,250; five pairs of Manolo Blahniks at $500 each, or $2,500; three diamond horseshoe necklaces by Mia & Lizzie at $2,400 each, or $7,200; a vintage Chanel suit, $1,200; a Prada black linen duster, $1,120; a Keiselstein-Cord red alligator bag, $5,900; a Keiselstein-Cord snakeskin purse, $1,035; and an Apple computer motherboard, $395.

Posted by at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

'Cantilever olestra' is a googlewhack
with a score
of 1,165,500,000 -- not too shabby. Have you found any?

Posted by Adam at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (98)

Donkeymon writes:

In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens." And the nation hurtles one step closer to destruction. Sometimes I think that Asscroft and Osama Bin Laden are secretly the same person, in the same way as the seemingly benevolent Senator Palpatine is also the evil Sith lord and future Emperor in Episode I of Star Wars. More poetically, they are like two sides of a knife blade thrust into the heart of democracy and freedom.

Posted by Adam at 11:40 AM | Permalink

I always liked listening to Madden & Summerall more than I liked watching the games themselves. What a team. NFL football just won't be the same.

Posted by Go Vegan at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

If you're not doing anything next weekend, please come to New York City. Thanks.

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 4:26 PM | Permalink

"What did it feel like to suspect you'd killed your own husband with your art?" Fresh Air? How about Lurid Speculations? It's like Dr. Laura for people with bachelor degrees. Car Talk has more intellectual content.

Posted by Adam at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Kaz was the first white person my sister and I played with. He was one only white person (besides his parents) who ever came to our house. After a few visits, Kaz developed an affinity for Indian food. My parents had to have a pitcher of water ready for him when the spices hit his taste buds. After being friends with him for a few months, I realized that white people smelled funny...

Posted by Adam at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

this is me by georg bush.

Posted by at 3:31 AM | Permalink

Rural Life in Central Asia: A Photo Essay by Vladimir Syomin.

Posted by at 3:24 AM | Permalink

The Whitbread prize has just gone to this children's book, based on Paradise Lost. Allegedly.

Posted by at 6:00 PM | Permalink

Never fear, we're keeping on top of the pot beat even in xowie's wake. It's true, you can drive stoned in Idaho, in case you were wondering.

Posted by Mike at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Cameron LaFollette of Eugene, Ore., while treasuring her unique perceptions, says she sometimes suffers from sensory overload. While we spoke, the woman next to her poured tea that LaFollette described as cedar-colored, which for her makes the sound of middle C. When living in New Jersey, she tried to avoid taking New Jersey transit trains because their interiors are pale blue and pink, colors that made her feel cold.

Nature is a temple where the living pillars
Sometimes emit confused speech;
Man passes through the forests of symbols
Which watch him with familiar gazes.

As far off echoes from a distance meld
In a shadowy and profound unity,
Vast as the night and vast as the light,
Perfumes, colors and sounds correspond.

There are perfumes fresh as the flesh of infants
Sweet as oboes, green as meadows,
--And others, corrupt, rich and triumphant,

Having the expansion of infinite things,
Like amber, musk, benjamin and incense,
Which sing the transports of the spirit and the senses.

Posted by Mike at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

That's the whitest tie I've ever seen.

Posted by Adam at 12:08 PM | Permalink

Creator Michael Hoerman calls this a "short video-poem" of Jack Kerouac Park in Lowell Massachussetts.

Posted by Adam at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Fornication," he says. "Because you can't hate your own kids. The browner we get as a society, the better off we'll be."

Posted by Adam at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Miami Herald: In bigot versus bigot, white racist is winner

Let's allow that black folks can, indeed, be racist. Or prejudiced, intolerant, biased, bigoted or any other word that floats your boat. Black people are, after all, members of the human race and, as such, are heir to all the idiocy by which human beings are beset.

But with that established, let's also say this: It's an affront to common sense to suggest there is equivalence between black-on-white bigotry and its opposite. As an aggregate, bigoted blacks have much less power to injure whites than vice versa. They also have less history of doing so. These are incontrovertible facts that render hollow the yowling demands that the racism of blacks be accorded a place in the national consciousness commensurate with that of white people.

Hey, when you find a black bigot, feel free to censure and ostracize him or her as the circumstance warrants. Just don't pretend the transgression is what it is not. Don't claim it represents a significant threat to the quality of life of white Americans at large.

Posted by Adam at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Happy birthday to Mr. Ned Log. He's the champ.

Posted by Go Vegan at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Palestine is really hard to come by, for some reason. Apparently they got several copies in at 7th Avenue comics, but they sold out within three days. I have to go back on Wednesdays if I want to buy it.


I also saw Zadie Smith standing outside of the McSweeney's store. It was definitely her. I kep turning around in hopes of getting a longer look. She was with some white dude.

Posted by at 6:36 PM | Permalink

also on rWmain page: Becky Thompson's A Promise and a Way of Life.

originally posted by hcog

Posted by Adam at 6:15 PM | Permalink

"A Promise and a Way of Life is a first: a detailed and highly engaging history of white people who have spent their lives fighting white supremacy, instead of embracing or ignoring it. Thompson provides dynamic new ways to understand the links among seemingly divergent movements such as Black Power and multiracial feminism. A Promise and a Way of Life is a groundbreaking, inspiring achievement." Barbara Smith, author of The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom

originally posted by hcog

Posted by Adam at 6:05 PM | Permalink

White America Misuses MLK Day. "For white America, King's soft-focus image often reinforces white supremacism. " Thanks to beXn for the link.

Posted by Adam at 10:46 AM | Permalink

We the corporations of The United States, in order to make more money, establish our profits with campaign contributions and lobbying, insure a revolving door of greedy executives, provide pink slips for our employees and steal their retirement, promote theft from our shareholders, and secure the hatred of the people of the world through economic exploitation, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Corporations of the United States.

Posted by at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Terry Eagleton Class War Toby Jugs.

Featuring well-known hate-figures from this distinguished academic's career. Set of six includes The College Porter, the Toffee-nosed Don, the Middle-Class Git and the Catholic Nun (latter includes detachable moustache). Sparkling Eagleton epigram (sample "Someone had to do the shit jobs") stamped on the base.

Posted by at 6:31 AM | Permalink

• 4,500 US troops have been asked to leave Saudi Arabia;
• 58 asylum seekers in Australia sew their lips together in protest;
• 45 have died in Turkish prison hunger strike to date.

Posted by at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"The X PRIZE has got to be the capital idea of the century! Space tourism, and space itself, is the future of humanity. We can prove it and we can show you how."



modeled after aviation prizes from the early part of the last century, the x prize is a race into space!

originally posted by oldwabbles

Posted by Adam at 5:12 AM | Permalink

Michael Chabon's writing technique is well-suited to word processing.

Posted by Adam at 10:46 PM | Permalink

Mediarights.org has an index of independent media responses to 9/11, especially oriented towards film and youth.

Posted by David Jacobs at 4:23 PM | Permalink

Scrabble® is essentially reductionistic and mechanical, and ultimately sterile. It is a game for bookkeepers and pedants, not creative persons. Last, and most damning, the game and its layout are trademarked, and its corporate owners have decided to suppress any further innovation and evolution in the game by independent developers.

Consider this a proposal for replacing our aging, beloved word game with a new, innovative game of word construction and mind expansion. An idea-and-concept construction game, an intense adventure in thought-play, a game that flirts with delirium and madness, a raging engine of creativity, a pastime worthy of kicking off a new millennium. A game free-form and wide ranging in its style. A game encouraging intricate expression of strategy, even artistry in play. A game crystallizing into a near-infinite kaleidoscope of forms and patterns, a mosaic of never-when and might-have-been. A game with mystical overtones of the all-consuming "Glasperlenspiel" (Glass Pearl Game) in Hesse's masterwork, Magister Ludi. An exploration expanding the mathematical possibilities of Conway's Game of Life. A game that exalts its participants, that places self-development and spiritual growth ahead of naked competition. A game that honors brilliant play ahead of greedy point accumulation. A game that values intensity above victory. A game that belongs to no one, and to everyone - nonproprietary and in the Public Domain. A game that people can still make a living from, if they must, but that cannot become the exclusive possession of a megaconglomerate, to be squeezed and exploited as a corporate property to the detriment of its players and devotees. A game that will endure through the ages, long after Scrabble® has mercifully been forgotten.

Posted by Mike at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

The Absolute Elsewhere: Fantastic, Visionary, and Esoteric Literature in the 1960s and 1970s.

Posted by Adam at 11:30 AM | Permalink

• 17 women face jail for abortion in Portugal. Mass trial takes place in a sports stadium. Could have been a job for Women on Waves.
• Norway jails neo-Nazis for racist murder.

Posted by at 5:03 AM | Permalink

With talk over on rW books about reading Palestine, I am reminded of the only other comic I've read, Watchmen. Reading it was a total mind experience. This satire of Watchmen, and 1988 winner of best satire of the year from the Seattle Comic Book Review, should be fun.

Posted by at 1:27 AM | Permalink

I have been
	vegan,
		vegan,
			vegan
				for exactly 8 years.

Posted by Go Vegan at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (38)

Two things to do in New Haven next month:

• Rebellious Lawyering Conference (check out the agenda)


• Mamoun's Falafel

Posted by Go Vegan at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

What's that in the doorway?

Posted by Adam at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

If we do end up reading Palestine, we won't be the first book club to discuss comics. So who's down?

Posted by Adam at 11:04 AM | Permalink

I came across a couple of amusing pieces about getting back in the job way -- grooming and etiquette tips for "fuck-ups like me" :

1. Jessamyn's So You're Back on the Job or Tips for the Newly Re-employed


2. Scott Rahin's Emergency Wardrobe Alert

Posted by Adam at 10:22 AM | Permalink

Muhammad Hurani and Amir Tadmor, both 49, are positively fizzing with ideas, waving about project proposals and funding applications. One plan calls for playgrounds in border areas between Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods, encouraging children to play together as friends rather than enemies in the making. Another wants to bring Israeli and Palestinian history teachers together - forcing each side to confront the wildly different versions of the past they convey to their children, and to work on a new, "common understanding" both nations might teach in the future.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink

A plaque intended to honor black actor James Earl Jones at a Florida celebration of the life of Martin Luther King instead paid tribute to James Earl Ray, the man who killed the black civil rights leader.

How can something like this happen?

originally posted by dm8k

Posted by Adam at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am concerned about Mr. Go Vegan.

originally posted by dm8k

Posted by Adam at 3:50 PM | Permalink

The projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project is a collection of independently-produced books and zines traveling and exhibiting across North America in a vintage Airstream trailer. The project is accepting submissions for the 2002 tour which will visit the west coast of Canada and the US.

Posted by Adam at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Last week I wasted my money on some People Cards.

Posted by David Jacobs at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I just heard on the BBC World Service that the human rights group Global Exchange has sent a group of victims' relatives and survivors of WTC to Afghanistan to express solidarity and encourage reconciliation. There's a fund for the Afghan victims of war, but where's the mention of any of this on the BBC site? Whatever, you can listen on Real Audio to today's 1400 GMT news from the world news site.

Posted by at 9:22 AM | Permalink

"To me, I don't know what period this is, but whatever it is, it certainly doesn't reflect Brooklyn," new Borough President Marty Markowitz said Monday.

Markowitz says one of his many goals is to make Borough Hall reflect Brooklyn by making it more accessible, warm and inviting. And so, some of the first things to go are the chandeliers and the artwork.

Posted by David Jacobs at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

He's an underprivileged devious cat burglar who dotes on his loving old ma. She's an orphaned wisecracking doctor with a song in her heart and a spring in her step. They fight crime!

Posted by Adam at 10:44 PM | Permalink

"How does grilling work in the text of your life? Would charcoal have interfered with the process of social bonding?"

Posted by Adam at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The NY Daily News invites everyone to New York City to protest the World Economic Forum.

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ghost Story.

Posted by Go Vegan at 9:19 AM | Permalink

Rock and roll! GWB passes out after eating a pretzel. His regime is described as being one of 'rigorous fitness', although I wouldn't have chosen those words myself.

Posted by at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I'm not waitin' for y'all, y'all gonna catch up.

Posted by Adam at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's Dr. Bronner vs. the DEA as the Hemp Industries Association challenges a DEA order banning the sale of food products containing hemp, effective February 6th. It may be your last chance to stock up on: "Healthy Hemp Sprouted Bread. Hemp Plus Granola. Hempzel Pretzels. Hempseed Energy Bars. Hemp Chips. Hempsi Hempmylk." If you're in the DC Metro area, the Washington Post helpfully offers, "hemp products can be found at Fresh Fields/Whole Foods, Yes Organic Market, My Organic Market and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Food Co-op."

Posted by Adam at 11:52 PM | Permalink

Miniature gardens like Kathy Swenson's fairy garden are blossoming big time in the garden world. Not only are they a creative way to cultivate, they're perfect for people who are limited on space.

Since the initial planting, the garden has grown to become the largest all-American rose garden in Colorado and the only garden in the country maintained by prison inmates.

originally posted by Greer

Posted by Adam at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My friend Kris's dad is an expert on Rough-Terrain Unicycling in Seward, Alaska.

Posted by Go Vegan at 12:42 PM | Permalink

A person can only cry so long with nobody listening before suicide becomes an answer...

We must scratch the media surface and see that the Israeli occupation has become more entrenched and brutal with every passing year since 1967--even after the Oslo accords were signed. Systematic oppression breeds horrible responses. It has always been so.

Welcome home, T.

originally posted by elihu

Posted by Adam at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Word Balloons: Comics projects to aid victims of terrorism (The Oklahoman)

Posted by Adam at 12:43 AM | Permalink

Today's newspoem: cheap flags.

Posted by Adam at 12:37 PM | Permalink

Reinventing Money

Posted by Adam at 5:34 PM | Permalink

Impressions of Amsterdam after the 2001 Cannabis Cup by Spider Robinson.

Posted by Adam at 5:27 PM | Permalink

TiVo deals, badass baby clothes, lefty war links, race book reviews, ancient beer.

Posted by Adam at 5:02 PM | Permalink

Watching one of my classmates type her notes inspired me to discover In Her Hands.
Also, ISO on IMF.
Has anyone seen Xowie lately?

Posted by Go Vegan at 3:57 PM | Permalink

So whatever happened to talking about Roy? Me, I admit that I followed Doris Lessing's (and darlin clementine's) credo and did not finish The God of Small Things. One night I sat down and started reading it and realized, yuck, I simply don't want to read this anymore. I didn't care about whatever it was that was going to happen at the end and was so exgaganizingly foreshadowed over and over again. I just didn't care. So I quit, and read some interviews with Edward Gorey instead.

And since then I've also read Haruki Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart, which was excellent, and surely much more pleasurable than the rest of TGOTS could have been for me. And now I'm reading Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which is a disgustingly well-written non-fiction book about a Hmong family in California and their epileptic daughter. As I sit here and try to write too many articles in too little time, I wonder how Fadiman is able to so eloquently dispense so much information in such an interesting way, and always seem to know exactly where the details should go so they flow in the best way possible. I'm clueless, totally clueless.

Anyway. It would be nice if everyone else would discuss Roy, and I could just snipe from the sidelines.

Posted by Mike at 12:29 PM | Permalink

Ask Me

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

From Rita Dove's last Poet's Choice column.

Posted by Mike at 7:20 PM | Permalink

America

America, you ode for reality!
Give back the people you took.

Let the sun shine again
on the four corners of the world

you thought of first but do not
own, or keep like a convenience.

People are your own word, you
invented that locus and term.

Here, you said and say, is
where we are. Give back

what we are, these people you made,
us, and nowhere but you to be.

Posted by Mike at 7:10 PM | Permalink

In addition to a new coach and general manager, start shopping for a new name.

Posted by David Jacobs at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The best pizza I've ever had was at Antonio's in Amherst, MA. We just recently discovered the best pizza in No. VA at Stone Hot Pizza. And there was just always something about Tony's pizza on 5th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Other bests in the Amherst/Northampton, MA area:
• falafel and pita at The Greek Olive (best pita bread I have ever tasted)
• burritos at Bueno y Sano (not burrito brothers, but the sauteed spinach and garlic is oh so good)
• pasta at Fresh Pasta Co. (the beginning of my love for the caper)
• donuts at Atkin's (apple cidery goodness)
• hot chocolate at Haymarket (served in these really cool glass mugs)

Other bests in NYC:
• jamaican veggie patties and cocoa bread at Christie's on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn (even though I once found a piece of glass in one. I ate most of it and went back for another one that's how good)
• fries at Pommes Frites (2nd Ave at 8th St)
• soup at Soho Made Soups (170 Varick St, 3 blocks from the holland tunnel, the jalapeno cornbread is also excellent. )

Posted by at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Prescription: Euphoria by Carla Spartos (The Village Voice)

Taking one or two pills of pure MDMA over the course of a lifetime may be safe for some people, but it's not so attractive to pharmaceutical companies. After all, drugs like Prozac turn a profit -- and lots of it, since patients need to take them every day. Unlike struggling researchers, the wealthy manufacturers can afford an army of Capitol Hill lobbyists to turn politicians' heads the other way.

Posted by Adam at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Okay Mr. Koongooz, I like this game, so I'm going to play along.

New York City:
• bagels: New York Hot Bagel (3rd Ave and 88th St)
• falafel: Mamoun's (best on the planet)
• pizza: Palisades Pizza (Yonkers) or Cafe Viva
• vegan ice cream: Michael & Zoe's
• vegan club sandwich: Quantum Leap
• Mexican: Mary Ann's
• soy shake: Veg City Diner
• Indian: Vatan or Madras Cafe
• Chinese: VP3 or Vegetarian Dim Sum House
• burritos: everywhere

DC area:
• Chinese: Harmony Cafe (DC) or Vegetable Garden (MD)
• Indian: Udupi Palace (MD)
• falafel: Quick Pita
• burritos: Burrito Brothers (obviously)
• overall: Soul Vegetarian

I like food.

Posted by Go Vegan at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (54)

How about some "best-of" type lists? What are people's favorite (for example)
pizza, falafel, ice cream, sushi, whatever places? Where can a man get a
REALLY good cup of coffee in NY? The City Bakery has decent joe.
So does Porto Rico, of course. Let's hear your thoughts.
(BTW, Mamoun's gets my vote for best falafel, though Zaytoon's in
Brooklyn comes pretty close)

originally posted by dm8k

Posted by Adam at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If it were in our national security to deploy to South Africa under apartheid, would we have found it acceptable or customary to segregate African American soldiers from other American soldiers, and say, 'It's just a cultural thing?' " McSally asks. "I don't think so. I would hope not."

Posted by Adam at 10:10 AM | Permalink

These alternate Apple MWSF home pages are hilarious.

Posted by Adam at 10:04 AM | Permalink

It's through debate that people begin to understand each other.

Oooh how I love José Bové.

originally posted by judlew

Posted by Adam at 3:01 PM | Permalink

To make sure that Caitlin grew up with the right priorities, I created huge padded rainbow apples, the early Apple logo, to go at each end of her cot.

Posted by Adam at 5:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm glad to see everyone's fired up about the Roosevelt Island tram, but it was scheduled to be out of service for maintenance from November 24 until December 19, and was still closed on December 23rd when I searched the island for old fire hydrants. For whatever reason, this is not listed on the official web page.


Please come back, Xowie.

Posted by Go Vegan at 2:58 AM | Permalink

Do You Want to Play?

If these rules make sense to you, we could quickly cross the line from words to action, both on the Web and in neighborhoods and villages around the world, by inviting people and organizations that support these goals to meet and work together, locally and face-to-face -- in schools, community centers and houses of worship -- or online and across any cultural or national border.

Posted by Adam at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

One of my hens -- who goes by Lucy, Lulu, or whatever I'm in the mood to call her -- laid her first egg today. She's six months old, and her hutch mate, Valerie, has been laying like clockwork for months; I thought she might turn out to be a barren little bird, so it was a cause for celebration. I gave them extra handfuls of sage from the garden. It was a nice, brown egg. I used it to make french toast.

I'm mentioning this here because I believe I got the idea to keep chickens from somebody's link to a Georgia gardener's Web site on randomWalks. Now I think everyone should keep two hens: They weed, they fertilize and they make lovely barnyard sounds. They add a certain bucolic charm to the garden. And if you haven't gone vegan, you can't beat the eggs.

originally posted by judlew

Posted by Adam at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Between October 7 - December 6, U.S. aerial attacks on Afghanistan had killed an average of 62 innocent civilians a day

originally posted by judlew

Posted by Adam at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

A week-long trial begins Monday in a class-action lawsuit brought by more than 300 inmates over brutal conditions at the "Supermax" prison in Youngstown.

The case, filed on behalf of the inmates last January by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the New-York based Center for Constitutional Rights, broadly challenges many aspects of incarceration at the Ohio State Penitentiary, the only super maximum -- "Supermax" -- security prison in the state.

"This prison was supposed to house the worst and most violent inmates in the state," said ACLU of Ohio Legal Director Raymond Vasvari, "but that seems never to have been the case. Who gets in, who stays in and for how long is all a matter of luck. That is more than unfair: it is unconstitutional."

Posted by David Jacobs at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My backstage pass to the future arrived today, way beyond the rumor sites, big (even for me) - not a flat panel iMac, iPod, iWalk, segway/ginger/IT/megway or even my busted ass fucking powerbook - it's the SoyaJoy soymilk maker. It comes with instructions, a small pouch of soybeans and a cleaning powder. Should I be cavalier enough to add some vanilla extract or Droste cocoa on the first try?

Posted by at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My backstage pass to the future arrived today, way beyond the rumor sites, big (even for me) - not a flat panel iMac, iPod, iWalk, segway/ginger/IT/megway or even my busted ass fucking powerbook - it's the SoyaJoy soymilk maker. It comes with instructions, a small pouch of soybeans and a cleaning powder. Should I be cavalier enough to add some vanilla extract or Droste cocoa on the first try?

Posted by David Jacobs at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

[T]hey weigh 14 pounds apiece, and yet spend inordinate amounts of time drinking Cosmos and eating lunch and dinner. If I had girlfriends like this, I'd be 1,400 pounds in no time, and they'd drop me for not being thin enough to fit into a banquette.

For another thing, they always say "gal." Who the hell says "gal" in 2002? They sound like Dale Evans.

So, when you think about it, Carrie and company have no choice but to be friends with each other, because who else could tolerate them?

Posted by at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hamed Karzai worked as a consultant for the huge US oil group Unocal, which had supported the Taleban movement and sought to construct a pipeline to transport oil and gas from the Islamic republics of Central Asia to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

Posted by Adam at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Five Things We Will Do in 2002 (washingtonpost.com): "In the spirit of renewal, Home section staffers share our personal struggles against clutter and disorder, and our resolve to gain the upper hand against overcrowded closets, teetering stacks of books, messy nests of paperwork, photographs and batter-spattered recipes."

Posted by Adam at 9:06 PM | Permalink

Listen to this "All Things Considered" segment about vending machine guy Gerard Woodward, author of August,. He has interesting things to say about identity, memory, and fiction. I look forward to reading this book, which is his first published novel and winner of a Whitbread nomination.

Posted by at 5:07 PM | Permalink

Dig Steinbeck?

originally posted by xowie

Posted by Adam at 5:07 PM | Permalink

recent finds relating to murals:

• Rich Puchalsky's great collection of L.A. mural photos
  
• kinda taking the "public" out of "public art," there's the impressive SPARC - warning: very flash & java heavy, hard to find actual murals...
  
• a few really cool pieces photographed (like the detail above) by Amanda, now posted at movementbuilding.org
  

originally posted by elihu

Posted by Adam at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Freenets Getting a New Lease on Life via mediageek.

originally posted by elihu

Posted by Adam at 11:25 AM | Permalink

The roof of 77 Water Street has long been a mystery to me. Randomwalks editor Go Vegan and I used to look out our bosses window, just a level above what appeared to be this fake plane on a fake runway.


But thanks to the book "New York 1960, Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial," we now know that the model sopwith camel plane was built "solely for the delight of denizens of neighboring skyscrapers." Also, in case you've ever wondered about the weird area surrounding 77 Water: "At street level, in addition to water pools traversed by bridges, the designers provided a replica of of an old fashioned candy store that would provide a functioning symbol of an earlier, more personable urbanism. The Corchia-de Harak firm also designed 'heat trees.' illuminated metal umbrellas that would render the open space under the building more usable in the winter." Part of this "candy store" includes handsome round payphone booths that I've always enjoyed using.



Some of this appears to have been motivated by an honest desire to create a nice space for the "people," but there was also the small matter of an entertainment zoning restriction.

Posted by at 2:52 AM | Permalink

Seed.

Posted by Adam at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mark your calendars: May 4th, 2002 is Free Comic Book Day!

Posted by Adam at 4:46 PM | Permalink

Aw shucks, randomWalks won an O.Dub award. Great work, team!

Posted by Adam at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

2002 just speaks for itself. . . . It's a thing of beauty. An aesthetic joy.

originally posted by judlew

Posted by Adam at 2:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)