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August 30, 2004
Technorati Covering the Elections
Technorati.com is the place to go to see the latest in what bloggers are saying about the national elections. Their Political Attention Index charts the most popular blog entries in close to real time. What we see on TV and read in the papers is filtered through many layers of editorial oversight. Reading weblog posts can give you a better idea of what issues people are really thinking about. Political bloggers tend to be unabashedly biased and open in their views - not always a good thing in my opinion if it creates more divisiveness in our already polarized country. But, interesting and informative nonetheless.
Kudos to CEO David Sifry and the team at Technorati!
Links:
Wired article on Technorati and politcal reporting
Posted by elise at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2004
Sharlene Hector - I Wish
Coca-Cola Company has scored a winner with a new feel-good ad that's been playing these Olympics. When I first saw the commercial I was riveted. Who was that woman? What a gorgeous song! The answers lie, thankfully, at the Coca-Cola website. Her name is Sharlene Hector; she's a UK singer. The song is I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, popularized by Nina Simone in 1967, composed by Richard Lamb and William Taylor.
The Hector version is not yet available on iTunes (What a missed opportunity Coca Cola!!!). You can buy the imported single from Amazon.com. The Nina Simone song is available at iTunes, plus several other artists' versions.
Continue reading "Sharlene Hector - I Wish"
Posted by elise at 2:16 PM | Comments (6)
August 10, 2004
Film - The Story of the Weeping Camel
The Story of the Weeping Camel is a beautiful little film about a nomadic family in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. When one of their camels rejects her newborn calf, the family summons a violinist from a neighboring village to play music to the mother camel to coax her into accepting her calf. The baby camel, rejected by his mama, is truly pitiful - crying all of the time, alone and abandoned, while all of the other baby camels are nuzzled and cared for by their mothers. It cannot get enough milk being hand fed by the family and will die if its mother continues to reject it. I guess what is so startling about this story is the contrast between the simple, straightforward lives of the herders and our busy modern Western lives. The family sends their two young sons, perhaps ages 7 and 10, on a two day journey by themselves on camel back to get the musician.
Beautiful, quiet, touching story. Here's the trailer.
Posted by elise at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2004
Cartier-Bresson Dies at 95
Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson died Tuesday at the age of 95. I first encountered his work at Symantec's Norton office in Santa Monica. Peter Norton, founder of Norton Utilities, had at one time a large art collection in place in the offices there. Walking the halls everyday I would pass the photo above and stop for a few seconds to delight in the pure joy expressed by the boy in the photo. I had no idea who this Henri Cartier Bresson person was, but the photo so inspired me I wrote down his name for future reference. Later searches on the web revealed that Cartier-Bresson was one of the most influencial, renown photojournalists of the 20th century. The Peter Fetterman Gallery has an extensive collection of Cartier-Bresson's works.
Posted by elise at 10:26 AM
August 1, 2004
Obama's Speech
The network television stations decided they had something better to do on Tuesday than follow the conventions. As a consequence the network news shows that evening missed a speech that may very well have historical significance one day. Barack Obama, candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, gave a keynote speech last Tuesday night that rocked the convention, and anyone of the millions of people watching him on cable. I bet that millions of us thought what I did when I heard him speak, "that man will be president one day, and when he runs, I'll vote for him." Born of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, Obama was raised mostly by his white, midwestern grandparents. he went to Columbia University and then to Harvard law school where he was the first black editor of the law review. He has spent his career to date in public service in Chicago.
The following is a transcript of the speech by Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention:
On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, land of Lincoln, let me express my deep gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention. Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant.
Continue reading "Obama's Speech"
Posted by elise at 9:27 PM | Comments (3)