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Next up a series of music blogs, all of which figure into our growing collection of Culture Blogs. As always, these lists are a work in progress, and if you feel that we’ve missed something great, please feel free to email us and let us know.
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Next up a series of music blogs, all of which figure into our growing collection of Culture Blogs. As always, these lists are a work in progress, and if you feel that we’ve missed something great, please feel free to email us and let us know.
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What partly explains this shift is how the war has been refracted through the Middle Eastern media. Ever since Al Jazeera started airing in 1996 (you can watch it here in English), the Middle East has had its own free media and seen events through its own lens. And, in the case of the Iraq war, it has meant seeing what we don’t see — the unsanitized war, the bodies, the leveled buildings, etc. — but also much more mundane things that shape overall impressions. It means seeing, for example, how tone-deaf US spokesmen in Baghdad show up at journalist conferences in Abu Dhabi (a completely non-military event outside of Iraq) in army fatigues, leaving essentially the impression that the US sees the larger Middle East as a military stage. Pintak knows the region well, and he articulates America’s perception problem in a balanced and thoughtful way. Check it out here: (iTunes — MP3) Also, on a related note, anyone who wants to digg more deeply into Middle Eastern perspectives may want to explore Mosaic: World News from the Middle East (iTunes Feed). This Peabody award-winning podcast provides a daily compilation of television news reports from across the Middle East. The news comes from independent and state-run news services, and it is all translated into English. |
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Over the past six months, we have created a series of resources that let you access university resources for free and on-the-fly. Below, we have centralized these materials in one place to give you quick access:
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Smart music at no cost. Hard to beat.
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Michael Connelly, a crime fiction writer, published an op-ed in the LA Times protesting the move and he paints a dire picture of our cultural future:
Should we blame cash-strapped newspaper companies or a culture that’s shifting away from traditional media altogether? Ladies and gentlemen, start your iPods–to lend reasoned analysis, we now turn to Steven Colbert, who interviewed Salman Rushdie on this subject earlier this week (click below or watch the full show on iTunes): |
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Below, you’ll find a list of 25 fine cinema/film blogs, all for the cinema buff. This list figures into a larger collection of Culture Blogs that we’re putting together over time. It’s a work in progress, so watch it grow. If you feel that we’re missing some extraordinary blogs, please feel free to email us and let us know.
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On Monday night faith and atheism got a verbal workout. Famously vitriolic columnist Christopher Hitchens (a former liberal best-known in recent years for his staunch support of the war in Iraq) faced off against Reverend Al Sharpton in a discussion moderated by Slate editor Jacob Weisberg. Hitchens is a vehement non-believer and the new author of God is not Great (also available on iTunes). Suffice to say that the debate between him and Sharpton was colorful. That should come as no surprise–what makes it worth listening to is that it was also reasoned and intelligent.
You can read a transcript or listen to the debate (RealAudio only), which was held at the New York Public Library.
The two celebrity pundits saved their best moment for last:
“I’d encourage people to buy the book,” Mr. Sharpton said. “I don’t
believe what it says, but it’s well written. He’s a very eloquent and
well-versed person.”“That’s extremely handsome of you,” Mr. Hitchens replied.
As an aside, Hitchens recently appeared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight. In the interview above, you can get a little more insight into Hitchens’ thinking.
Below, you’ll find a list of 20 fine literary blogs. Like our podcast collections, this list will grow over time. In fact, it will become part of a larger list of great culture blogs. Over the coming weeks, we’ll roll out new installments and then mash them together into one larger list. Stay tuned for more.
If you feel that we’re missing some extraordinary blogs, please feel free to email us.
Stay tuned for more to come!
The Supreme Court has long taken heat for being in the technological arrière-garde, a criticism that has seemed fair given its unwillingness to even allow cameras into its oral arguments.
Slowly, however, that perception may be about to change. According to the ABA Journal eReport, the Court has stuck a small toe into the technology waters by providing web access to videotaped evidence that figured into a recent case, Scott v. Harris. The url for the video gets referenced within the written opinion for the case, and a link is provided from the Court’s opinions web page. (You’ll need Real Player to watch it.)
The video itself is nothing special. It features very low quality footage of a car chase taken from the dashboard of a police car, and it’s essentially the same scenario that America has seen played out for almost 20 years on Fox’s COPS. As you watch the video, you can’t help but feel that this landmark moment for the court is a non-moment. But that’s perhaps to be expected when a tradition-bound institution banally enters a brave new world.
When Bill Moyers returned to PBS two weeks ago, his first program took a careful look at how the mainstream media has fallen down on the job when it comes to asking tough questions to politicians. Given this starting point, it seemed logical for Moyers to speak next (iTunes — Feed) with John Stewart, host of The Daily Show. That’s because adversarial journalism is now found more readily on Comedy Central than on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, etc. The interview with Stewart, which is quite substantive and worth a listen, makes reference to John McCain’s recent appearance on The Daily Show and also to Steven Colbert’s famous/infamous roast of President Bush in 2006. You can watch both below.
American television shows have been satirizing politicians for a long time. That’s not new. But what’s new with Stewart is that he’s upending the whole point of television satire. Whether you look at Jay Leno’s tame humor, or the more biting humor of Saturday Night Live, the point of the satire has always been to get a laugh. For Stewart, something else is going on. Watch the McCain interview and you see that the joke is essentially a prop, a convenient means of getting at something much more serious, a way of having a blunt, no nonsense conversation, precisely the kind of conversation that the mainstream media has been largely unwilling, if not downright afraid, to have with our leaders.
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The hydrogen-filled Hindenburg went down in remarkable flames exactly 70 years ago in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Below, we’ve posted the dramatic historical footage. You can read here a decent account of what happened on that day, plus interviews with still living survivors. |