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Political Briefs

  • Glad she finally got her mind around the facts. Now let's see if she finds and fully supports a fearless, independent investigator to run the investigation she just mentioned. Then let's see if she acts on the investigator's findings. In the interim, why has she failed to introduce a resolution to impeach torture enabling memo author and U.S. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee? Who declines to testify... (It's called a subpoena, serve one (as opposed to an "invitation")
  • It's called the Constitution, recall that a few months ago you promised to preserve, protect and defend it. Are you going to bring Bybee and Yoo back to write an opinion that you can ignore the Constitution and the law?
  • As previously reported by PSACOT, the Republicans in general, and in particular GWBush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, George Tenet, and Condi Rice do not understand and never understood much of anything about promoting, maintaining, and preserving national security. Also here.
  • Did George W. Bush and Dick Cheney torture prisoners to protect their political position going into the 2004 election. Apparently, yes. They attempted to elicit "information" through torture that could be used to justify the fact that Bush and Cheney lied to the public and to the Congress on numerous occasions. Why? In order to obtain fraudulent approval to send American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq and to funnel billions of dollars to the company paying Cheney's retirement benefits and in which Cheney had a stock option position.
  • Questions for McChrystal:
    * Is a triple tap a hallmark of a U.S. special operations shooter?
    * Between the day you personally approved Pat Tillman's Silver Star (which only may be awarded for bravery under enemy fire) and the very next day when you warned Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld that Tillman was probably killed by friendly fire (the triple tap in the head as reported by military doctors) and not any type of enemy fire, what did you learn that caused you to change your mind? From whom did you acquire the new information, if any? Were you given any documents supporting the "new information," if any? Why did you allow the government to continue to lie to Tillman's parents about the circumstances of his death?
    * How concerned were you that, as reported, Pat Tillman (just prior to his untimely triple tap death at the hands of U.S. special operations forces - the only soldiers of any type present when he died) was about to leave the service and publicize the ineffectual, wasteful, unlawful, and unconstitutional nature of the nation's military efforts in Afghanistan?
    * Where were you when Tillman died?
    * What contact(s) or communication(s) did you have, prior to Tillman's death, with anyone present on the scene when he died?
  • Robert Reich: Obama should not be allowed to take money from seniors to pay off his pals on Wall Street.
  • The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized The American Right
  • I Oppose Torture, and Kagro X Is My Hero
  • Good Tom Toles cartoon (requires free registration) about derivative nature of Obama policies.

Angels and Demons

3.5 stars out of 5
Well, the summer blockbuster season is here, and who would have thought that sweet, kindly Tom Hanks could carry a tent-pole summer action blockbuster--again. He returns as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon in another of Dan Brown's overwrought potboilers. Ron Howard does his usual professional job directing, the CGI is amazing, most of the other actors are eminently forgettable, (although obviously Ewan McGregor as the dead pope's personal secretary holds our attention for a bit), and the pacing literally took my breath away. Twists and turns galore (no spoiler here, but I counted three false endings), and, alas, a running time of two hours and 20 minutes. For the love of god, a plot this thin could easily have been spun in 90 minutes, and been more exciting still. Amazingly, according to IMDB, some of this film was actually shot in Rome and Vatican City. The total budget--well north of the $125 million it cost to make The Da Vinci Code. We may never know. But, as they say in Hollywood, it's all up there on the screen. Art? No. Entertainment? Yes.


Neal Vitale: Last Day In The Desert

Sunday arrived and we - went home. Marissa and I had been looking at the day's schedule - while there were bands we wanted to see, like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Kills, the line-up was the least-engaging of the three days. The interesting groups were on late, which translated to a post-midnight return home (on a school night). Add in maternal pressure regarding school projects and upcoming tests, homework and tutoring schedules - Marissa had missed classes on Friday - and a forecast of temperatures of over 100 degrees, and we decided to bail. So, when we parked on Saturday morning and the ticket buyers/sellers approached, we sold our Sunday tickets.

We slept late on Sunday, checked out  of La Quinta, and picked up a fast food lunch for the trip home. In the car, we rehashed the festival and counted up the bands we'd seen - approaching 40 between us - and picked our weekend highs and lows, as we hopped around the radio dial looking for a station that we both liked with a listenable signal.

The vibe of the CVMAF was remarkably warm and pleasant. I, for one, will always conjure up visions of Woodstock or Altamont when I think of large outdoor music events, and those images had clearly been a deterrent to me over the years. Coachella couldn't have been more removed from those chaotic earlier festivals. Here, the facilities were clean and well-managed, the crowd  - apparently close to 160,000 over the three days - was mellow, and the performances went off largely on schedule and with a minimum of problems. While VIP connections might have made some of the logistics a little easier and guaranteed better sight-lines, I really had no complaints.

Musically, it had been an interesting and varied experience. Some of the quieter, folky bands (Fleet Foxes) got lost in the open air expanses, but others (Beirut), often in the smaller tents, sparkled. Bar bands (The Hold Steady, Drive-By Truckers) had a difficult time breaking through, but groups that were softer on recordings (Dr. Dog, Blitzen Trapper) beefed up in person and stood out. The dance/electronica scene was wild and vibrant throughout the festival, and clearly was a big drawing card for much of the younger portion of the crowd (case in point - Marissa's top act of the weekend was DJ Girl Talk).

My weekend had more than its share of memorable moments. What made it special was that many of those instances weren't anticipated - it wasn't just a favorite band putting on a great set (TV On The Radio), but rather the unexpected charm of a Jenny Lewis or the captivating warmth of Leonard Cohen as he played to his adoring fans. For me, the pleasure in seeing a terrific mid-afternoon performance by a lesser-known act like Ida Maria or Amanda Palmer was much greater than for the evening headliners on the main stage.

If there was a frustration, it was that there was more to see and hear than anyone could physically do. I had at least half a dozen performers on Friday and Saturday alone - the likes of Band Of Horses, Tinariwen, and The Bug - that I wanted to see, but missed completely; for others, I heard only snippets as I moved among the stages. And, if you hadn't prepped for the festival by researching all the bands that weren't familiar - which I hadn't - you wouldn't know to check out a group like thenewno2 (the band led by George Harrison's son Dhani).

But these quibbles are minor. If you love the indie music scene, Coachella is the place to be. It was a fun weekend - three days in the desert to remember.



iPods in J School, Awkward Family Photos, Star Trek Parodies, Dan Grobstein File

Did you see this tech/journalism/education item?

Kent Peterman writes: kind of makes you appreciate your own family photos doesn't it?

Daniel Dern gets wind of funny Star Trek videos, including Star Trek Meets Monty Python and Steam Trek: The Moving Picture (Star Trek Parody).

Dan Grobstein File

  • TRAVEL
  • | May 10, 2009
    Frugal Portland
    By MATT GROSS
    In this beguiling Pacific Northwest city of artisanal cafes, offbeat museums, funky neighborhoods and food carts from every corner of the world, the good life comes cheap.

  • SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT
  • | May 14, 2009
    Rising Calls to Regulate California Groundwater
    By FELICITY BARRINGER
    While groundwater rights remain sacrosanct, the state government is facing pressure to embrace regulation. [Dan notes: That photo showing that the ground level has dropped 50 feet because of aquifer pumping is amazing. The large photo is interesting too. There are water-saving covered irrigation drip methods which are obviously not in use here. ]

  • N.Y. / REGION
  • | May 15, 2009
    City Room: Number, Please? Phoning in Love Again ...
    By Alison Leigh Cowan
    On the Records: Marlene Dietrich was the reigning sex symbol of her day. But in 1930, she was still, in some respects, just another name in the book -- the Berlin phone book. [Ed. note: I followed the link to the story about Mayor Bloomberg's number being listed; interesting.... I remember Tip O'Neill used to list his number in Cambridge, Mass., and answered his own phone on the weekend...]

  • MAGAZINE
  • | May 17, 2009
    My Personal Credit Crisis
    By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
    How love, subprime lenders and willful self-delusion led one man, an economics reporter, to the brink of foreclosure.


Diabetes Ride in Napa

I've got to stop this every weekend away stuff! My desk is a disaster area. On the other hand, one should grab life with both hands, right? That's what I've been doing on weekends lately. The May Day weekend was a just a swirl of light and action. I went up to Napa Friday night (Vicki followed a few hours later). We brought our bikes and stayed at the lovely Napa River Inn. There are two quite nice on-site restuarants, and the heart of historic downtown Napa is just a two-block walk away. Northern Californians will remember that it rained like heck last weekend.

The plan was for Vicki and I to bike ride for an hour or two on Saturday. The rain discouraged us, so we walked, sharing an umbrella (not out of romance, but because we only had one umbrella). We walked for a couple of hours, stopped for lunch at a Vietnamese place on Main, next to Ubuntu (of which more later). We also stopped at an antique store which had a wonderful used book section. There were some great Herb Caen books, but at $60 each (they were first editions), I wasn't interested. I don't care if a book is a first edition.

Apropos of Caen, however, I ran across a $10 book called My LA by Matt Weinstock. Weinstock, it turns out, was the Herb Caen of LA in the 40s and early 50s, at the late, lamented Los Angeles Daily News (the original peach-colored, oversized tabloid newspaper that published from 1926 to 1954, not the grown-up Green Sheet that goes by that name now). He was a lovely, evocative writer, who, like some many journalists, had his newspaper shot out from underneath him by changing times in December 1954. He went on to the LA Times, but died too young. Anyway, I've ordered his other book, Muscatel at Noon, and can't wait to read it.

That afternoon, the girls came up for an early Mothers' Day celebration (they are both out of town this weekend, in New York and Palm Springs). We at at Ubuntu, the combination yoga studio and vegetarian restaurant where Marlow and I had eaten exactly one year before. The New York Times declared Ubuntu the "best restaurant in the U.S. outside of New York City," which some friends claim is damning it with faint praise. I wrote about it in more detail last year. With four people, we were able to sample more dishes. They were all great. Since it was raining, we couldn't eat outdoors, but the indoor area was not quite as noisy as I had expected, and it was, as I have already noted, stunningly beautiful. It is a very expensive place, but the dishes are both delicious and innovative. We didn't have anything we didn't like. They also have a lovely and eccentric collection of non-alcoholic drinks as well.

Vicki and Rae peeled off Sunday morning and returned to Orinda, while Marlow and I went about the business of the weekend--same as last year. We rode for Team Schwab in the Tour de Cure Diabetes fundraisers. Marlow wanted to do a century--a 100 mile ride. At our rate of 12 miles an hour, that would take eight hours. I simply wasn't up for it, so we did a 50-mile ride this year, as we did last year. We had a lovely time, hit every rest stop, and only had rain for the first half of the ride. Our bikes are filthy, but thanks to our paniers, neither of us got a stripe of mud up our backs. We want back to the Inn, where we paid for an extra night, and got a nap, a shower, and a massage (which really helped those sore, tired muscles). The rain could not dampen our enthusiasm for a delightful and life-affirming event.


What Comes Next After Newspapers

Vicki spotted this in the newspaper last week.

The New America Foundation and Zócalo hosted a panel-including former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll, Slate founder Michael Kinsley, and former San Francisco Chronicle executive vice president and editor Phil Bronstein-to discuss the decline of print media and the future of journalism.

Normally, I don't like to go into the city for weeknight events, especially if they aren't near BART. This was one was at Ft. Mason, impossible to get to by any means other than automobile. So, I left at 5:45 it took an hour to get there. Boy oh boy, do I prefer using BART. The lecture was free, but you were asked to make a reservation. There were hundreds of people there, which surprised me; in essence, I felt sure, everyone in SF who still reads a newspaper was there that night. The hall was crowded and a little warm (which is a good trip in SF by the bay, at night, in May, with the windows open). The speakers were forthright; Kinsely, as usual, was provocative and entertaining. I wasn't taking notes, so I can only leave you with my impression: they were all more optimistic than I expected. Not about home delivery of dead-tree newspapers; those of us who love than have to face facts. That business model is a zombie. It's already dead, and just doesn't know it. What they are optimistic about is that somebody, somehow, is going to continue to perform journalism in this country. As a former journalist, I am intimately familiar with the illusion; you may think that the AP, and radio and TV stations, perform journalism. They do not. They clip the paper each day and produce wire, audio and video versions of the stories they find there. Without the guidance of a newspaper, they don't know what to cover.

Kinsley, in answer to a question of mine, suggested that perhaps (like Britain, although he did not make the comparison himself), we will someday have a half-dozen national newspapers. Fair enough, but who's going to watch the Orinda City Council in a way I trust, and let me know when they have done (or better yet, are about to do), something I care about?

I have this fantasy that my judgment is so wonderful that I could assemble lists of links that would be so good that people would pay for me to "surf the web so they don't have to." This used to be called aggregation, although I understand the new term is "curation." As in, "I am curating a web site of links to other sites." Of course, to do that, you'd need to work the kind of shift people used to work at wire services, getting up at 4am to figure out what everyone else has posted.


Political Briefs


Star Trek

3.5 stars out of 5

J.J. Abrams, creator of TV's Lost, writer of Mission Impossible III, has done a number on the Star Trek franchise, but I'm OK with that. Confession time: I watched the series avidly when it first aired in the 60s, and occasionally in reruns. I liked The Next Generation, but never watched an entire episode of any of the other TV series. I have seen every Star Trek movie, some of them twice. I know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars, but am not, at heart, a canon-loving Fanboy. You want to mess with Gene Rodenberry's sacred time line, that's fine with me. All you have to do is acknowledge you're doing it, and be entertaining.

This film does both. Frankly, when I heard it would feature Spock and Kirk at Starfleet academy, I was expecting a "Goodbye Mr. Chips" sort of romp through their undergraduate years together. There's a tiny bit of that, but basically, they are dragooned into service pretty early on, and for the rest of the film, they're cadets running the Enterprise under the worst possible circumstances.

Of course the explanation for the departure from Star Trek holy writ, "a rift in the space time continuum caused by a black hole" is rapidly becoming one of the most over-used tropes in all of science fiction, but there you are. At least they took the trouble to explain why things were different. And I, for one, applaud the judicious use of Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime (that is, the older Spock), not just in a cameo, but to advance the plot.

The writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman stayed true to the important things about Star Trek--the interpersonal dynamics, the teamwork, the sense of optimism. I think Gene Roddenberry would proud.

Lots of shaky cam. Lots of shiny new lights. The Enterprise finally looks like a 21st century starship. And, at last, it is HUGE inside. Perhaps a few too many scenes of people running down the hallyway, but I'm OK with that. And Kirk clawing his way back from a ledge--interesting once, funny the second time, but a bit much the third time. These, however, are nits. The film hits all the right notes, and despite being too long at two hours, is unflaggingly entertaining.


Neal Vitale: Day Two In The Desert

We got an earlier start on Day Two, Saturday. Marissa, for some reason, wanted to see P.O.S., Minneapolis rapper Stefon Alexander, so we got to the festival for the day's first sets. While this strategy makes for maximizing the amount of music heard, it also makes for an extremely long, hot day - which we would realize that night. We didn't stay long at the Mojave, as P.O.S. failed to enthrall. Ida Maria (Sivertsen), though, next door at the Gobi tent was another story. This 24-year-old rocker from Norway led her quartet through an exciting, energetic, forty-minute performance, centered on punk/pop songs like "Oh My God" and "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" from last year's Fortress Round My Heart. I then caught a bit of Cloud Cult performing on the Outdoor stage, a band I knew nothing about but which hooked me immediately. They are an arty seven-piece group - also from Minneapolis - led by Craig Minowa. A brief snatch of their atmospheric yet tuneful music, channeling bits of Arcade Fire, was beguiling. Which was more than I could say for the loud, atonal clamor from the Bob Mould Band back in the Gobi. Mould is seen by many as a seminal figure in indie rock, thanks to his role in 80s band Hüsker Dü, but, with a need to quickly choose among the many available options, I went elsewhere.

With the experience of spending Friday at CVMAF under our belt, Saturday was a more comfortable time for Marissa and me. Though she ran into classmates throughout the day, she was mostly on her own. Our friends from the day before had left, so Marissa and I would reconnoiter periodically, maybe for a bite to eat, then head off according to our own tastes and text each other about where and when to rendevous. I had expected typical concert concessions, so I was surprised by the quality and variety of the food. I enjoyed such unlikely festival fare as ceviche and a "tandoori quesadilla," the latter served by a girl in American Indian garb - go figure.

The afternoon was non-stop music. On the positive side - strong sets from Philadelphia's Dr. Dog, Portland's Blitzen Trapper, and ex-Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer; disappointments included the story-telling Georgia bar band Drive-By Truckers, the post-punk Liars, and Chapel Hill rockers Superchunk. Young English soul singer Joss Stone turned in a proficient but dull performance (though her evening guest turn with Brit colleague James Morrison was apparently more inspired).  Ex-Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins gave a rambling speech about world events and the festival ("spoken word" in the CVMAF vernacular). And it wasn't even 6pm.

I was fading. One of the bands I was most interested in seeing, Brooklyn's TV On The Radio, was a half hour away. I wanted to be fairly close to the front - they were scheduled for the main Coachella stage - so I headed in that direction early. Saturday was much hotter than Friday and, while short of blistering, the day's heat was wearing on me. I listened to the tail end of Michael Franti & Spearhead's polyglot set, a friendly but jumbled mix of rock, reggae, and hip-hop, and sucked on a lemon slushy in a bit of shade. TV On The Radio is a band that blends hard rock, electronica, gospel, and rap - they may be the current era's Roxy Music, trendsetting and inventive in their powerful, engaging mix of styles. It was a truly physical experience. The bulk of their bass lines in their music are synthesized (Moog), so the sound takes on a palpable, gargantuan quality. I could feel the bass rippling my shirt. The set was high voltage and breathtaking - dare I say a bit spiritual - as they "brought the sun down."

Another group I had focused on seeing was Fleet Foxes, the Seattle quintet known for high, soaring harmonies over elegant country/folk tunes. But the woolen ski cap on one band member's head - in 90+ degree weather - was an ominous sign, as were the reproachful comments from the stage to beer drinkers in the  crowd. While there were moments when Fleet Foxes approached the lovely, crystalline high points of their recordings, they generally seemed overwhelmed by the setting and never quite found their stride.

Veteran Hammond organist Booker T. Jones, now with the DBTs rather than the MGs of "Green Onions" fame, entertained in the Gobi. Eclectic DC-based DJ duo Thievery Corporation got the dance groove going back at the main stage, only to be scuttled once the next act came on. A repeat CVMAF performer, Sri Lankan singer M.I.A. (Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam) was filling in for the immigration-constrained Amy Winehouse and making her first appearance at the largest of the venues. She clearly should have stayed in the smaller tents, as her irritating and shrill set seemed stretched and over-padded for the occasion, little more than flashy lighting, neon costumes, and awkward choreography. Not even closing with her hit, "Paper Planes" from Slumdog Millionaire, could make things right.

But, on the Outdoor stage, it was a different story. Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis gave a wonderfully warm and charming set, knocking out tight, crisp renditions  of songs from her two solo albums, Rabbit Fur Coat and Acid Tongue, In front of an enthusiastic crowd (including, on the VIP stage, Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon). I had expected a good performance, but got a festival highlight instead. Lewis - already recording with the likes of Elvis Costello and Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard - is in a good place career-wise, and a talent to watch.

It was approaching 11pm when Las Vegas band The Killers started their show - the night's closing one on the main stage. Marissa and I reconnected after our second day nibbling at the indie music smorgasbord that is Coachella. The Killers, very much like their hometown, exemplify a musical style that is polished, entertaining, but somewhat overblown, self-conscious - even a bit bloodless. They have a roster of good, memorable songs - "Mr. Brightside," "Somebody Told Me," "Shadowplay," "When You Were Young" - but neither of us were reluctant to begin the trudge back to the car.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS: TV On The Radio, Jenny Lewis

BIGGEST (GOOD) SURPRISES: Ida Maria, Cloud Cult, Dr. Dog, Blitzen Trapper

(Next week - Last Day in the Desert)