For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/business/economy/20older.html?src=me&ref=homepage
The Angry Rich By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: September 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/opinion/20krugman.html?src=me&ref=homepage
ooohhh, the poor rich…
Myth and Madness By MAUREEN DOWD Published: September 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/opinion/19dowd.html?src=me&ref=homepage
Treats for Gear Heads By ALICE RAWSTHORN
Cars which were designed and manufactured in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the 1930s by R. Buckminster Fuller.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/arts/20iht-design20.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Quote of the week
Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison
Christine O’Donnell: “I Dabbled Into Witchcraft”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nECxQUi_pr0
Recent Republican primary winner in Delaware talks with Bill Maher.
Uravan, Colorado. Several stories worth reading.
New Yorker article by Peter Hessler: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/09/13/100913fa_fact_hessler
Video: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/09/video-uravan.html
Also an interview on today’s Colo. Public Radio (9/20/10) with Peter Hessler, a Ridgway resident and author of the Uravan piece which is very good and pertinet for all of us living in western Colorado. JR
CPR interview http://www.cpr.org/category/news#load_article|Uranium_Ghosts
The E-Textbook Experiment Turns A Page by LYNN NEARY
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129934270
For a few years now, people have been expecting electronic textbooks to take off in a big way: They’re cheaper than traditional textbooks, easier to carry around in a backpack, and seem like a natural progression for students who have grown up playing and working with digital devices. NPR interview
‘Boardwalk Empire’ Drinks In Days Of Prohibition-new HBO series on the mafia (old days)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129926422
“Boardwalk Empire” is set in 1920 Atlantic City just as prohibition begins to change the landscape for mobsters, politicians and opportunists of all stripes. Starring one of my favorite actors Steve Buscemi. NPR interview.
‘Swimming To Cambodia’ – Spalding Gray (Primary Contributor), Jonathan Demme (Director)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEL9m6qd1yQ&feature=related
Swimming to Cambodia is fundamentally an autobiographical monologue, and one only peripherally connected to the (excellent) film that inspired it, The Killing Fields. Those unfamiliar with Spalding Gray’s works may be perplexed by his self-centered, occasionally manic or depressive, and deeply personal ramblings. Gray’s monologues are meant to be watched, not read. It’s difficult to imagine his drawling New England accent, the ironic and self-deprecating humor, and the incredible honesty with which Gray would sit at a table with a glass of water and share, fundamentally, himself. Jonathan Demme’s film does justice to the Spalding Gray live experience, with minimal-but-powerful use of props and sound effects.
Swimming to Cambodia is not the first of what became his signature internal dialogs, but as it is the earliest work available on film, it’s a good place to start. Those who may recognize him from his work in small film roles (Beaches (Special Edition), King of the Hill), or theater (including a much-loved role as the Stage Manager in Our Town) may be surprised to learn of his collection of solo stage work. Some are available only as a manuscript (Sex & Death to the Age 14), others as a sound recording (It’s a Slippery Slope), and three have been filmed (Monster in a Box: The Movie,Gray’s Anatomy), including this piece. Gray’s work should be explored as a whole; the narrative of his life informed and expanded on continuing themes of anxiety, his mother’s battle with mental illness and early-middle-aged suicide, his relationships with women, his eventual fatherhood. His final, unfinished monologue, Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue is accompanied by the epitaphs of those who knew and loved him, and who were saddened by but understood his final succumbing to depression in 2004. Start at the beginning, and get as close to the live versions of his works as you can.
If you’re looking for insight into the political history of Cambodia, or deeper meaning in the Oscar-winning film based on a true story about the friendship between an American journalist and his Cambodian counterpart, you’ve come to the wrong place. Gray does address topics like the sex trade in Cambodia (often graphically), and his experience filming The Killing Fields in Thailand, but he weaves these in with his thoughts on his adopted home town, New York, or a train ride from Philly to Chicago. But if you’re interested in the opportunity for an honest (and often humorous) glimpse into the mind of a brilliant, insightful, and emotionally complicated performer, this is the beginning. Spalding Gray blurred the lines between life and performance, and so I urge you to experience his work as a living process, the way he shared it.
Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson by Jann S. Wenner & Corey Seymour-9/19/07
The current issue(Sept. 19,2007) of Rolling Stone features an excerpt from the oral history Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson which will be published by Little, Brown on October 31st. Photos of the writer as a young man (and images of Thompson with the Hells Angels, his boyhood home and more) plus testimonials from those who knew him from the time he was a child in Kentucky through his triumph with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Here’s a taste of the story: Gene McGarr, who lived and worked with Hunter in New York after Hunter was discharged from the Air Force, recounts, “The last thing he did, in November 1957, was to write up a press release describing a riot that took place at Elgin when the enlisted men attacked the women’s quarters and the officer’s mess – stole all the booze, got drunk as shit, attacked the women, beat up two officers. It was a very funny and colorful story – completely fictional, of course – and he sent a copy of it to the AP and to UPI, left a copy on his captain’s desk, then drove like a son of a bitch for the gate.”
The Spill, The Scandal and the President-Rollingstone article-6/24/10
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965
The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years – and let the world’s most dangerous oil company get away with murder
Operation Dark Heart, by Lieutenant Colonel Anthony A. Shaffer
Big news today in our nation’s continuing War on Books: The New York Times is reporting that the Pentagon has plans to “buy and destroy all 10,000 copies” of a new Afghanistan-war memoir.
Will the Pentagon Buy All 10,000 Copies of a War Memoir Before You Get the Chance to Read It?
Onscreen, Ishiguro’s Sci-Fi Novel Is No Mere Clone-the new movie-’Never Let Me Go’
Very good interview tonight on NPR- All Things Considered.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129880145
Woody Allen on Faith, Fortune Tellers and New York: NYT interview
At 74, Mr. Allen, the prolific filmmaker and emblematic New Yorker, has hardly found religion. But the idea of faith informs his latest movie, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” which Sony Pictures Classics is to release next Wednesday. In the film, as the marriage of a London couple (Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones) unravels, the wife seeks comfort in the supernatural, which has unforeseen consequences on the marriage of her daughter (Naomi Watts) and her husband (Josh Brolin).
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/movies/15woody.html?_r=1&hpw
Big Mama Thornton – ‘Ball & Chain’-film clip
Janis Joplin’s mentor and inspiration. Big Mamma’s last seen performance. JR
Texas Tornados ‘Esta Bueno’! new music CD review
http://popdose.com/cd-review-texas-tornados-esta-bueno/
I thought the Tornados were gone forever after the deaths of Freddy Fender and Doug Sahm…but here’s a tribute album with great energy. Sahm’s son joining the original gang and a couple of Fender songs (voice too) before he died. Give it a listen. JR
‘Chico & Rita’, animated film set in Cuba, 1948
An animated film from Spanish director Fernando Trueba (Belle epoque) about a young couple who meet in Havana in 1948. Chico’s a talented jazz pianist, Rita’s a sultry singer.
If you love 40′s/50′s Cuban music, history of the island with a love story thrown in, then you’ll dig this animated film shown at the Telluride Film Festival a few weeks ago… JR
‘Never Let Me Go’-Telluride Film Fest movie & Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed 2005 novel.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129838461
This Premiered ? at Telluride Film Festival & created a lot of talk. NPR review.
Son House “Death Letter Blues” Old film clip of Robert Johnson’s contemporary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdgrQoZHnNY&a=GxdCwVVULXeOrYM9LjK10HYjo9Xgjb-n&list=ML&playnext=1
Classic footage of one of the original Mississippi Delta bluesmen playing a National steel guitar (made by National Cash Register Co.).
Muddy Waters – Hoochie Coochie Man – (1970) film clip & interview…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO4A6xx65WU&p=B6484D907EBABEAD&playnext=1&index=6
Muddy Waters performing Hoochie Coochie Man and She’s Nineteen Years Old
‘Dear Jack, Dear Allen’. Published: Sunday, August 26, 2010 – NYT
As with all collections of literary correspondence, “Jack Kerouac andAllen Ginsberg: The Letters” (Aug. 8) is a supplement to the authors’ published books; a historical record providing insights into their influences, relationships, travels and travails. Through his work as an archivist, bibliographer and biographer for Allen Ginsberg, Bill Morgan has made significant contributions to Beat scholarship, and he and his co-editor, David Stanford, have made astute selections. This collection illuminates the unique lifelong relationship between two of our most influential modern American authors. More than 50 years after the publication of “On the Road” and “Howl,” their work — and the work of their biographers — deserves more than a condescending review that pays more attention to the authors’ lives than to the value of their art.
A magical hour of Denis Johnson reading from The Incognito Lounge and Jesus’ Son.
http://benhasten.tumblr.com/post/48912269/go-here-to-download-a-beautiful-magical-hour-of
“Prostitutes and drunkards and petty criminals populate his tales the way they populate the songs of Johnny Cash.”
Jerry Roberts
