I'm kicking myself for not knowing that this event was happening in my city! Check it out: three MIT grads remix the debate in real-time to help visualize linguistic patterns that emerge over time. It's coming to NYC and Washington DC, so maybe if you're lucky, you could get to one of the debates!
Diddy/Obama Blog #16: Diddy's incredulity knows no limit.
Some thoughts/questions:
Diddy saying "Alaska, motherfucker?!?!" is delightful.
Assuming this is Diddy's backyard, does he have a merry-go-round back there? I like to think that he's riding on the shoulders of one of his assistants and that any time he wants to spin faster or change directions, Diddy spurs him in the kidneys. The prospect of him just spinning in a circle by himself in the backyard while he shouts into a video camera is also exciting.
Would choosing Michelle Obama as his running mate have clinched the election for John McCain? That would have been a pro wrestling caliber strategic move.
I like when Diddy gets distracted by a passing airplane in the middle of his impassioned get out the vote plea.
This folksy DIY approach to electoral commentary is far more enjoyable than that ludicrous Vote or Die campaign Diddy ran last time.
excerpt from a rough draft of a letter to a friend, 7/29/08 (unsent but suddenly afforded new relevance):
... i thought i'd vote obama, because he's skinny and left handed, but it doesn't mean that much to me and given leave i'd rather vote for pretty girls in glasses.
John McCain tells Maryland Republicans "I know how to win wars." Which ones? I'm sure we're all very grateful for Mr. McCain's service over the years but this is like Sergio Garcia saying "I know how to win majors*."
*for non golf fans, Sergio Garcia is a Spanish golfer who despite playing in many majors over the years - and acquitting himself exceptionally well in several - has never actually won one.
For several months now, illustrator Steve Brodner has been creating a series of short videos that combine clever animations, live political cartooning, and thoughtful campaign analysis for the New Yorker's online only section. Each short artfully interprets a specific campaign issue or political concept; for example, with the aid of a marker board Brodner shows how an "intellectual" candidate like Barack Obama can be transformed with only a few strokes into Abraham Lincoln, Adlai Stephenson, or Woody Allen in the public eye.
Some of Brodner's shorts are a little too clever for their own good (straight talk egg-spress salad flavored with Hamas...) but usually his low-key analogies and visual interpretations of campaign issues come across as both educational and amusing. The entire series is available here at the New Yorker site.
New Curriculum Designed to Unite Art and Science ...a few scholars of thick dermis and pep-rally vigor believe that the cultural chasm can be bridged and the sciences and the humanities united into a powerful new discipline that would apply the strengths of both mindsets, the quantitative and qualitative, to a wide array of problems. Among the most ambitious of these exercises in fusion thinking is a program under development at Binghamton University in New York called the New Humanities Initiative. Read the full article here
...also of interest in today's Times:
On The Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama ...some unofficial rules have emerged between the candidate and his aide. From Mr. Obama: “One cardinal rule of the road is, we don’t watch CNN, the news or MSNBC. We don’t watch any talking heads or any politics. We watch ‘SportsCenter’ and argue about that.” Read the full article here
As the summer movie season is already in full swing it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the fact that rather than suffering through the bloated, special effects laden superhero blockbusters of yore we can now depend upon comic book films to deliver both balls out action AND compelling melodrama in a single package.
After the Batman & Robin debacle, studios had every right to throw in the genre towel (like they did with westerns and musicals) and search for a new direction; however, luckily for summer film goers everywhere, studios continued to green light new franchises and in the hands of capable directors and talented actors, the superhero blockbuster has (with some exceptions) been elevated from forgettable escapist pap to thematically complex and emotionally engaging cinema. This summer is bookended by Iron Man and The Dark Knight, serious, big budget productions featuring awards caliber actors in the title roles; not too long ago the best we could have hoped for was George Clooney playing cute in a rubber suit.
Whether you enjoy superhero films or not, there is no denying that the increased care and attention that has gone into their production has yielded surprisingly high-minded and well-made results.
Jump back to 2002. Yearning to be taken seriously, the producers of Spiderman 2 brought an early draft of their script to Pulitzer prize winning author Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) for a rewrite. According to Chabon, the original version featured numerous costumed villains and suffered from a lack of focus. Chabon did a full rewrite, paring the narrative down to just two costumed characters, Doctor Octopus and Spiderman, and offering a more thorough treatment of their respective alter egos, Otto Octavius and Peter Parker. The script would undergo more revisions before filming but many of Chabon's key plot points remained intact (he was given a credit for screen story) and Spiderman 2 stands as arguably the most compelling and fully realized character study in the superhero film pantheon.
Recently released for a limited time as part of a promotion for his new non-fiction book Maps and Legends, Chabon's script lacks certain memorable scenes such as Mary Jane's disappointing attempt to recreate her upside down kiss or Peter gratefully accepting a piece of cake from Mr. Ditkovich's niece, but as a whole it is a more elegant and serious treatment of the film's basic themes of identity and duty.
Development of some of the side characters is lacking - Harry Osborne and Aunt May feel penciled in almost as an afterthought - but Peter and Dr. Octavius both benefit from Chabon's more thorough attention. Octavius especially comes across as a much more intriguing character and his romantic relationship with Mary Jane would have added an interesting dimension to the film. Chabon also authors a more graceful and physiologically plausible explanation of how Peter loses and eventually regains his powers.
Spiderman 2, for all its considerable merits, is admittedly uneven and at times benefits from an indulgent viewer's willingness to forgive certain inconsistencies and extrapolate meaning from subtexts that are very thinly explored. Fans of the movie will find much to appreciate in Chabon's script as it more candidly addresses some of the film's darker qualities and provides a more consistent and carefully considered view of Spiderman's world. Michael Chabon's Spiderman 2 script - it really takes off about halfway in...
I understand that this script may be of limited or no interest to many Dinner on the Molly patrons; so, for the rest of you, here is Michael Chabon offering up his eloquent - yet strangely twitchy - endorsement of Barack Obama:
I’ve always been fascinated with handedness. Only 10% of humans are left-handed, and being left-handed has some consequences for how the brain is organized. In lefties, language, a normally left-hemisphere dominant function, is more lateralized between both hemispheres of the brain – some even show a right-hemisphere dominance. While it is still unclear what effects these differences in cortical organization have on everyday functioning, it is possible that lefties, being wired a bit differently than 90% of the population, may have a few extra tricks up their sleeves.
With that being said, I was reading a popular press article about the handwriting styles of the candidates. While this stuff is probably a bunch of bunk, I thought it was fun to see that our two nominees (for all intents and purposes) are both left-handed. And, that four of our last six presidents were left handed (the exceptions being Bush Jr. and Carter).
Now we just have to hope that the left-leaning lefty becomes the next president.
More than any policy that I personally oppose, and even more than his chilling attempts to raise his arms, I am terrified by John McCain's dependence on teleprompters. Here he is "passionately" reacting to Obama's declaration of McCain's toughguyism.
I fully understand that a lot of campaign speeches are carefully constructed by enormous teams of strategists, but this method is unnerving. The way he turns his vehemence on and off is embarassing. Are the people in attendance really convinced that he is formulating what to say in his head? And even scarier, are they really pacified even if they know that he isn't?
The democratic race has been painful to watch, and after today, the votes will be counted and, for what it's worth, it'll be basically over for the voters. Sadly, I've contracted the voter fatigue that critics think may do in the democrats' chance of winning this election. Because this race has been so tight for so long (which isn't a bad thing per se - it shows that our democracy is working), the candidates have resorted to pandering to blue collar workers and the middle class (i.e., the type of family many of us reading this blog are from). In some ways, it's nice to see the candidates showing that they can relate to the common people. But, it'd be more sincere if the candidates told it like it is: "Hey, show me what you do around here. Tell me what concerns you in this town. What do your kids do for fun? How are the schools?" Obviously, the candidates are now VERY far removed from the everyday lifestyle of a blue collar worker, even if that's where they came from originally.
I can't remember if it was Colbert or Stewart who talked about Hilary's fake Southern accent now that she's campaigning in North Carolina. I tried finding it on YouTube, but I haven't located it yet. Check it out if you can; it's pretty funny.
Panama Girls, 1910
For several months now, illustrator Steve Brodner has been creating a series of short videos that combine clever animations, live political cartooning, and thoughtful campaign analysis for the New Yorker's online only section. Each short artfully interprets a specific campaign issue or political concept; for example, with the aid of a marker board Brodner shows how an "intellectual" candidate like Barack Obama can be transformed with only a few strokes into Abraham Lincoln, Adlai Stephenson, or Woody Allen in the public eye.
New Curriculum Designed to Unite Art and Science
On The Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama
As the summer movie season is already in full swing it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the fact that rather than suffering through the bloated, special effects laden superhero blockbusters of yore we can now depend upon comic book films to deliver both balls out action AND compelling melodrama in a single package.
I’ve always been fascinated with handedness. Only 10% of humans are left-handed, and being left-handed has some consequences for how the brain is organized. In lefties, language, a normally left-hemisphere dominant function, is more lateralized between both hemispheres of the brain – some even show a right-hemisphere dominance. While it is still unclear what effects these differences in cortical organization have on everyday functioning, it is possible that lefties, being wired a bit differently than 90% of the population, may have a few extra tricks up their sleeves.
The democratic race has been painful to watch, and after today, the votes will be counted and, for what it's worth, it'll be basically over for the voters. Sadly, I've contracted the voter fatigue that critics think may do in the democrats' chance of winning this election. Because this race has been so tight for so long (which isn't a bad thing per se - it shows that our democracy is working), the candidates have resorted to pandering to blue collar workers and the middle class (i.e., the type of family many of us reading this blog are from). In some ways, it's nice to see the candidates showing that they can relate to the common people. But, it'd be more sincere if the candidates told it like it is: "Hey, show me what you do around here. Tell me what concerns you in this town. What do your kids do for fun? How are the schools?" Obviously, the candidates are now VERY far removed from the everyday lifestyle of a blue collar worker, even if that's where they came from originally.