Lady, singing: 14 November 2011

I wish I knew who this lady is, or what the words are. I used to know some Arabic, but this is difficult for me to interpret. [link]

update: Her name is Amal Maher, and she was born in 1985. Evidently she is a pretty big deal currently in Egyptian music.

the resident: we're running out of chocolate!

Nicole Saba - Ana Tabee Keda / نيكول سابا - أنا طبعى كدة

Brigitte Dale's "How to Be Popular"

Brigitte Dale, the daisytree girl

win·some (win′səm):adjective
attractive in a sweet, engaging way; charming.

the resident: Twitter Sucks (Now)

More world cup

I'll admit I'm not that into soccer myself,
but how can you not be impressed by the enthusiasm of this pair of Paraguayans?

Sunday Morning- from 2003

from the 1st season of Dead Like Me, from the summer of 2003. I never watched this show during its original, brief two-season run, but then again I've never had any premium cable channels, and I think it was on Showtime. Nevertheless, having gotten past the silly intro sequence I'm growing fond of it now, watching it in its second or third life on Hulu.

Ingibjörg Egilsdóttir

Who is Ingibjörg Egilsdóttir? You may well ask. She's Miss Iceland for 2009. How do you pronounce her name? I don't know. In the unlikely event I ever meet her, it'll give me an excuse to ask her that. I wonder if her last name means "Eagle's daughter." I guess I could ask her that too.

Anyway, she's darn pretty, and posting her pic is also an excuse to use fun diacritical marks that don't generally appear in English. I hope you like her photo, and you appreciate my extraordinary restraint in avoiding seemingly obligatory jokes about snuggling for warmth cause she's from Iceland, etc.

40 per cent

This is a video by Brigitte Dale, whom I find very charming. It has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but I liked it. Have a nice Thanksgiving weekend.

"The Office of Letters and Light"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaNoWriMo

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

and now it's Tuesday

I seem to remember that we used to make fun of Abba in my high school days, but now people in their 40s and 50s wax nostalgic over them.

it's time to jump up and down

because today is Mike Gravel's birthday.


check out Eva Mendes's très chic hairdo,


according to the BBC, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed got married in April.

And for your eyeballs

Putting aside my general sense of the polyannish meaninglessness of registering to vote, at least for a national election, I rather liked this little video.

episode 1


episode 2

episode 3

(Embedded above is episode 4, of 4.) For some reason I never realized Rosario Dawson was so, um, pneumatic, as Aldous Huxley would've said.(even though there is a mostly coherent story arc, I don't think the order you watch them in makes terribly much difference-- it ain't Hamlet.)

Zadi Diaz and epic fu-- the middle eastern cable outages ...whatever

I will go ahead and post a video response to Ms. Diaz-- "Epic Fu", formerly the Jetset Show, is yet another example of how we young people are more likely to get news through non-traditional sources. I haven't made up my mind what I think of Zadi's presentational style, with its heavy emphasis on ironic detachment, seemingly communicating at two levels, suggesting underlying significance if you're predisposed to look for it, but just emanating apolitical cool for the rubes. (I never saw V for Vendetta, but my sense from the ads and my conversations with some who'd seen it suggested to me that it was a product of the same sensibility. )

Zadi's "take" on the cable cuts in the Middle East isn't very clear to me, although I'm guessing Roman Space Boy would probably dig it, and maybe suggest I was stuck in the agitprop sixties. Perhaps ambiguity is the new black.

Oh, incidentally: No, Hillary Clinton's people still haven't contacted me with offers of gobs of money, in case you were wondering. Maybe they had this sense that my intimation of support for her was somewhat less than earnest. (Also, I doubt Mike Gravel would shoot the promo with her as I wrote it, although Joe Biden does strike me as someone who'd eagerly hold her cue cards if he thought it meant he might score a cabinet post.)

the gnooze:Marta re Iran

I don't know what it is, but Marta Costello's phunny news shows are growing on me. Plus, it's a way to get phunny news without crossing a virtual picket line(ahem!).

gribby gribby gribby

I confess that I agree w xymphora: if you have to have an online gallery of unretouched photos of HRC looking grotesque or otherwise unflatteringly posed, at least include this photo.



"When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible."-Jomo Kenyatta

Norman Mailer

As you may already know, Norman Mailer died yesterday. So I suppose if there's an afterlife he may well meet Marilyn(the Time cover is from '73. I think you can barely make it out if you're an abnormally good squinter.). Incidentally he came out with a novel earlier in 2007, his 1st in about 10 years, The Castle in the Forest. The stubby Wikipedia entry describes it as

"the story of Adolf Hitler's childhood as seen through the eyes of Dieter, a demon sent to put him on his destructive path. The novel explores the idea that Hitler had no Jewish heritage but was the product of incest."

You can decide for yourself whether or not that sounds promising. (Just based on the description, it sounds to me like psychic displacement masquerading as literature, designed to reassure readers that People are Basically Good and Hitler was a mere aberration. But hey, what do I know. If you've read it, feel free to comment below.)

I take a certain amount of perhaps morbid comfort from the fact that he somehow made it to 84, and lucidly, in spite of not seeming to have taken terribly good care of his health, although I suppose his reputation in that area may be exaggerated. There's an NPR interview with him (from January 2007), here: approx 11 minutes.

9.24

I've been ill, and not so keen to post as a consequence. Last week I mentioned to HZ guest host Rob Payne that I meant to write about Peter Galbraith's recent piece in Tomdispatch, which has since appeared in Salon and the NY Review of Books as well. I will in a day or 2, tops. Incidentally Rob has been very productive this past week, and has a bucket of interesting posts up, including his discussion of the afore mentioned Galbraith essay.



In the meantime, here's the sublime Mélissa Theuriau, the French news anchor called la bombe cathodique (”the television bombshell”) by Paris Match.

I don't know how the news can be that bad when she's the one reading it. The only bad thing about looking at her is how it makes me feel like I'm Moe the bartender from The Simpsons. C'est la vie.

Abbe, limbo

Or, maybe Ms. Abbe's wondering, how low can he go? Actually the photo is from 1955, so GWB hadn't caused much trouble yet and she wasn't wondering nuthin' bout him.*




* On the other hand even this poll is in the (more recent) past, insofar as the congress of late appears intent on catching up(or down) with the president.