Audio Brain Food

For the last month or so I've been temping, most recently on a placement which involved a lot of brainless data entry. After a week or so I decided that (1) my hands didn't really need my brain's supervision any more, and (2) my brain was dying from neglect. So I downloaded a variety of podcasts and radio programs. Over the next couple weeks, I discovered some gems, mostly from the CBC. Here's a selection:

Radio Economics is something that I thought I would love, until I heard the voice of the presenter - he speaks in a monotone that you would not believe. I haven't gotten more than 40 seconds into any of his interviews. But this episode redeems him. It's a guy named David Jones speaking at Columbia University about urban poverty. Fast forward through the first 20 minutes, because that's how long the introduction is, and listen to what he has to say about the links between sub-standard education, unemployment and racism. It made me almost too angry to type.

The Best of Ideas collects highlights from Canada's most intellectual public radio program, and some of it is truly dull. But I was curiously taken with "The Ideas of Mary Pratt", the unstructured memories of a 70-something East Coast painter. She talks about her childhood, and how she started painting, but the bit I was most taken with was about how she kept painting while raising four children. (Here's a hint: she woke up at 5am.) It was also cool to hear her talk about the way she perceives the world, in light and colour and beautiful messy beds. It made me wish I was more visual.

Writers & Company is growing on me. There's an interview up with Margaret Atwood that made me laugh and feel homesick. She told an anecdote about a Saturday Night contest to complete the sentence "As Canadian as..." with something equivalent to "As American as apple pie." The winner was "As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances." As you might imagine, no one in Edinburgh finds this as delightful as I do.

Finally, I usually follow Dispatches very closely, but I had fallen behind. It's a little folksier than I remembered, but still full of stories I haven't heard before or since.

LesbianDad

I've added LesbianDad to the link list on the right, mostly because of this post about the open nature of queer families. It got me thinking; you should read it.

Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Our latest ridiculous violation of civil liberties - Heathrow seeks a court order against five million members of UK environmental groups. The ban could keep people off local motorways, and even parts of the London Underground, though Ken Livingston is threatening to sue over that - it's really none of BAA's concern who goes on the Picadilly line. Details are pretty fuzzy on this, and I wouldn't be surprised if the British Airport Authority withdraws the request once it realises how many people are involved. More from the BBC and The Independent.

Barren Ambition

I can't fathom why, but I have now seen the first two episodes of Courtney Cox's new (to the UK) series Dirt. I wasn't expecting to like it, mostly because it's a whole show about trash - Cox plays the ruthless editor of a Hollywood gossip mag.

The show is all sex, betrayal, and career-ruining front covers. Celebrities examine the viciousness of celebrity culture - this is supposed to be edgy, I think. Some prof is quoted here, saying, obnoxiously enough, "This sort of thing is why the word postmodern was invented."

Except Dirt is the same old story. This show is about how women can't be motivated or successful without also being crazy and dead inside. Case in point:

Scene A:
Cox is in bed with the sweet musician boy she picked up last episode - he's the only remotely likable character in the show so far. Cox's character is bored, and tells him that she won't have an orgasm, pretty much whatever he does - she needs a vibrator. He seems mildly offended, but offers to make her pancakes and play her guitar. She sends him on his way, because she has "lots of work to do". "You're just like a guy!" he exclaims, on his way out the door.

Scene B:
Cox has printed three huge stories, sold her idea for a new magazine to her boss, and saved her job, all in one week. In bed, she flips open this week's magazine, switches on the vibrator, and...

...she only gets off on work! Get it?

Late Night Shots, and... Polo?

This article, about a social networking site for DC's young elite, is making a bit of a splash on the US liberal internet. (See it linked here, here, and with some interesting observations here.) None of the article surprised me, particularly, but one bit is sticking with me:

In June, she attracted a crowd to the Courage Cup, a polo match in Virginia that raises money to teach disadvantaged D.C. youths to play polo. Although the charity receives a fair amount of scorn (several posters asked why anyone would teach poor kids to play a game they can’t afford), it was one of the early summer’s most popular events.

Imagine the community consultation that went into that one. No, we don't want health care, quality education or career opportunities other than dying in Iraq - we really wish we could try riding around a field on horses, carrying a big stick. (Okay, my knowledge of polo is entirely from Archie comics.) Sometimes I wish there was a useless-and-out-of-touch clause that could deny groups a charity number.

Order of the Phoenix

I saw Harry Potter last night, and I'm not afraid to say so...

I thought it was great, maybe the best so far. The pace was a bit rushed at times, but that's the nature of this beast - condensing Rowling's increasingly rambling novels will be more and more of a challenge as the series goes on. It was fun, it was funny, and even the final fight scene managed to engage me, though I'm usually bored by action.

I felt actively ashamed reading some of Book #6, bits of it were just that badly written. If things continue along these lines, the Potter film franchise might soon surpass the books for quality...

Regretting the Error

Yesterday morning was more fun thanks to a story near the top of the Guardian - see a synopsis of it here:

The footage, a trailer for a fly-on-the-wall documentary, made headline news around the world after it showed [Annie] Leibovitz apparently asking the Queen to remove her crown because it was too "dressy".
The Queen was shown saying: "Less dressy? What do you think this is?"
In the next shot, the Queen was shown apparently storming out of the room, with a footman following behind, as she complained: "I'm not changing anything. I've done enough dressing like this, thank you very much."

This story was almost immediately retracted. (But still check it out here, for the fantastic screen cap of the Queen looking pissed off.) It seems like a case of misleading cuts in a trailer - run of the mill for blockbusters, sure, but riskier when you've finally been allowed to do an unprecedented documentary about the royal family. It turns out that the 'storming off' shot was actually a shot of the Queen on her way to the photo shoot.

Today's Guardian story is all about how embarassed the BBC is - apparently it's worried about losing the right to televise major state events. The Guardian even goes so far as to claim that "some insiders [are] fretting that it could damage viewer trust, already eroded by a series of scandals in recent months, including the Blue Peter phone-in incident".

I'm wondering why the print media doesn't show a bit more embarassment themselves. They printed a story based on a few seconds of a documentary trailer, and a claim from the group that made the documentary. Sure, it's tough to check this stuff with the royal family - but I bet Annie Leibovitz is more accessible.

Skyline

From person al blog

I went for a walk before sunset a few days ago, up the crags.

Presidential scholars v Bush

From Feministing - high school students use their White House photo op to hand over a letter condemning the US government's use of torture. It sounds like about a third of this year's presidential scholars signed the letter. Check out an interview below.



When I was around this age I was doing a lot politically, much more than I am now, certainly. The energy and fearlessness that I found in youth activism just hasn't been duplicated in any of the grown-up radical left. We don't give that age group enough credit.

Of course, now they're doing the talkshow circuit, which is a little tacky. I guess it's where political debate happens in the states right now, though.