Work nonsense…
Feb 26, 2010 etc.
So, believe it or not, at my job things can become a little silly at times. Luckily I have some good peoples here and a small comment can spin out of control to complete hilarity. Today we went from a company email about cleaning out the refrigerator to, well, you would have to be there…
Here’s one from last week.
We were talking about a co worker of mine having bad tats, and someone quickly made this picture:
To which I replied:
I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Scratch that.
I just threw up in my mouth a lot.
To which someone took this pic:
And made it into this pic:
Funny right?
I thought so, but it gets better.
As the email convo deteriorates, someone introduces this clip:
Which produces this:
Another day at the office.
Just like the fact that someone couldn’t come in today because they were in the ER.
Apparently a tranny fell on their chest and now they are having some type of problems.
No lie.
Tags: work
Hard Knock Life
Interesting video with Jay, Mark the 45 King and my man Kid Capri discussing how Hard Knock Life came to be.
Jay deserves a smack for referring to Kid as a “house DJ.”
Tags: Hard Knock Life, Jay-Z, Kid Capri, Mark the 45 King
Big Machine
Feb 19, 2010 books
So I finished up the last book I was reading and just picked up Victor LaValle’s Big Machine at the library. I tend to pretty much stick to non-fiction unless I am reading short stories, but occasionally I break up the routine with a work of fiction.
A fiendishly imaginative comic novel about doubt, faith, and the monsters we carry within us.
Ricky Rice was as good as invisible: a middling hustler, recovering dope fiend, and traumatized suicide cult survivor running out the string of his life as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York. Until one day a letter appears, summoning him to the frozen woods of Vermont. There, Ricky is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard The Voice: a mysterious murmur on the wind, a disembodied shout, or a whisper in an empty room that may or may not be from God.
Evoking the disorienting wonder of writers like Haruki Murakami and Kevin Brockmeier, but driven by Victor LaValle’s perfectly pitched comic sensibility Big Machine is a mind-rattling literary adventure about sex, race, and the eternal struggle between faith and doubt.
Despite what this may or may not say about me, the truth is: I judge books by their covers. Say what you want, it’s true. For me. I was drawn to this cover and something a bout the description on the inside of the book jacket was reminicent of my favotie book of all-time, Horace Afoot. I checked it out and on my way back to the office noticed one of the blurbs on the back was from Mos Def.
“Gabriel Garcia Marquez mixed Edgar Allen Poe, but more than that. Big Machine is like nothing I’ve ever read, incredibly human and alien at the same time.”
Hmh. Interesting.
I cracked the book over lunch and within the first page and a half was hooked. Both story-wise and stylistically. I can already tell I am going to love this.
I always glance at Amazon reviews, usually after I have picked a book, and although they are few they are glowing.
Makes me want to check out other books LaValle has written.
Tags: Big Machine, Victor LaValle
2009 Polk Award for citizen journalism?
Feb 19, 2010 journalism, news, video
So the George Polk Awards in Journalism were announced the other day. Amongst the winners for 2009 there was something curious that I had mixed feelings about. The George Polk Award for Videography.
The anonymous individuals responsible for recording the shooting death of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan at a June protest in Tehran, Iran, and uploading the video to the Internet. The video became a rallying point for the reformist opposition in Iran.
Here is the disturbing and horrifically sad video:
Here is the announcement in full:
The George Polk Award for Videography will recognize the efforts of the people responsible for recording the death of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan at a June protest in Tehran, Iran, and uploading the video to the Internet. Ms. Agha-Soltan reportedly was shot by a pro-government militiaman. The video, which shows the woman collapsing to the ground and being attended to by several men as she lay dying on the street, became a rallying point for the reformist opposition in Iran after it was broadcast over the Internet. Seen by millions as it spread virally across the Web, the images quickly gained the attention of international media.
Here’s what I do like: that it is an award to the anonymous AND it is in effect the first time such a prestigious journalism award has been given to a citizen journalist and not a traditional news outlet or journalist. This is high significant and a HUGE leap in what I believe is the right and inevitible new direction we are headed in.
Here’s what I don’t like: it is the equivalent of awarding the winner of America’s Funniest Home Videos the Oscar for Best Picture. There’s no real skill or talent involved. It was just someone in the right place at the right time with a video camera. (This is to take NOTHING away from or to minimize the life and death of Neda Agha-Soltan or to diminish the bravery it to be and film in Iran at that time and under those conditions. I am talking strictly in a journalistic sense.)
I just feel it does a disservice to the title “journalists.” I feel like it does more to further the idea that just because you have a blog, camera and/or video camera that you are a journalist. Granted, armed with these things you have the potential to be a journalist, but the fact you use them and may even occasionally cover or catch real news does not propel you into the field or earn anyone the title of journalist. I think part of the evidence of this mislead belief being a slippery slope is the sheer number of talking heads on television, news programs and news stations that purport to be journalistic in nature or delivering the news when they are really only their to further their own agenda and there is very little legwork if any to uncover the truth. No, even an expensive camera and expensive suit does not make you a journalist.
I was talking with George recently about the National Enquirer being considered for a Pulitzer for their breaking the news about John Edward’s mistress and love-child. Essentially, he pointed out that just because you break a story doesn’t mean that it is journalistic in nature. Yes, he conceded, National Enquirer got the scoop but he felt that eligibility should hinge on more than just that. A Pulitzer was for the gathering of a story, the craft of putting it together and the disseminating of the assembled piece. Which the Enquirer fell short of. I think there’s parallels between this video and the National Enquirer consideration. (Care to weigh in George?)
So what does make someone a journalist? This question will elicit as many different and varied responses as what’s the best ice cream out there? (Ben & Jerry’s Crème Brulée if you really wanted to know the truth.) I think it simply would have to be someone who knows, believes in and adheres to certain practices and standards of the trade with a commitment to pursue and tell the truth. And I think the brave soul who shot this video does not meet this criteria.
So back to the award. While I do think it was a huge and necessary step in the right direction, one that I would rather have and disagree with than not have at all, while I appreciate the sentiment and nod, I can’t help but feel it might of missed its target.
Tags: 2009, awards, George Polk, George Polk Awards in Journalism, Iran, Neda Agha-Soltan, protest, Tehran
Anatomy of an Assassination
Hold the fuck up.
This is too crazy not to post.
An video of an alleged multi-person hit team, plotting and carrying out an assassination in Dubai.
I came across this at Wired and subsequently in the New York Times.
As someone that reads a fair amount of non-fiction international intelligence and covert operations books, this was breathtaking. Even if you allow for the possibility that some or all of it may not be true, I couldn’t peel my eyes away for the 27+ minutes.
The Wired piece discussed more of the specifics of how this allegedly was carried out. They also pointed out (thank god) the hole in this theory/accusation that you could drive an 18-wheeler through.
I liked the NYT piece because it covered possible political ramifications between countries. And it got extra points for including a quote about passports in a phonebooth… Or maybe I get credit for knowing the reference.
I thought it was interesting because when it comes to international covert operations, you never really can tell the truth from the intentional misdirection. (ProPublica just ran this piece the other day, suggesting “a 50 percent accuracy rate in an intelligence story was pretty good.”) Even when viewing the video for the first time in awe, I thought it was absolutely possible that the mere suggestion of what it was, coupled with some editing and zero percent truth or fact, could lead me to the same conclusion about this alleged assassination squad and their plotting, shadowing, executing and disappearance. The NYT piece went so far as to call the team “clumsy.” Was the team a bunch of bungling agents, or is it simply a sign of the times that an entire assassination plot would be caught on tape in a place like Dubai?
It’s interesting how something such as a videotape, while once thought to be ironclad proof, now often evokes more questions than answers and is rarely the last word.
Tags: assassination, Dubai, Hamas, hotel, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, New York Times, NYT, ProPublica, Wired
Street Shit
Sean P one of the most underrated and underappreciated.
Off of Kimbo Price.
Tags: Kimbo Price, Sean P, Sean Price, Street Shit
Liars’ Scissor
One of my fave bands, but only for one album, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top. Awesome Brooklyn-dust music. Saw them at North Star in 2001 with Jersey Joe.
Tags: Liars, North Star Bar, Scissor, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
