goddesscafe

Saturday, April 07, 2001 :::

We'll forgive Paul Grabowicz and the Berkeley j-school for naming their conference after a Nelson album. (oh, wait, was it After the Rain?)

Katherine Fulton talked about the "new journalism" being done by NGOs and non-profit organizations:
1. Witness.org -- Peter Gabriel helped found it, and it's a group that supplies DV cameras to people in countries where human rights are being violated.
2. Scorecard.org -- Every statistic you ever wanted on air pollution. Impeccably researched.
3. PublicIntegrity.org -- The Center for Public Integrity is a great watchdog organization. Investigations on government accountability, public service, and ethics issues.
4. CLW.org -- The whole Council for a Livable World site is strong, but their coverage of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is the recommended portion.
5. EWG.org -- Look for the "Chemical Industry Archives" if you really want some dirt on our friends at Eli Lilly.

Aside from the investigative reporting, we were reminded of a few kewl sites which we'd forgotten, like Suck, Plastic, Metafilter (weblogging as an art form, recommended by Ming), and Vault (gossip about politics inside different kinds of offices).

(by the way, while you're hanging out avoiding work, go listen to my radio station! go! listen!)

::: posted by kevin seal at 8:04 PM

Friday, April 06, 2001 :::

Reading Salon this morning...Europeans hate us, U.S. unemployment is rising, California can't find a solution to the energy crisis...I feel like Spider Jerusalem..."I hate it here." Can't we all get a large house on the Mediterranean, guys? Pretty please?

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 10:24 AM

The Consequences of My Tune-the-World-Out Reading Habit: I parked at Ashby BART rather than Rockridge this morning, absentmindedly got on a train (on the correct platform, I just didn't realize that both Fremont and SF trains go by) and didn't look up from my book until I was in San Leandro. Doh! Had to turn around. Was 45 min late to work rather than the 15 I would have been just due to my running late in general, having taken the time to write down this morning's dream, part of which involved these futuristic people (which included Robert Downey Jr. and Grace Jones) in strange clothes trying to get us to use the Universal Energy Supply, but I didn't want to be biologically altered like they were, so I kept turning up the heat instead. Then I watched the process of them being changed, and Grace Jones was kissing a blonde woman and laughing, and the inside of her mouth had turned into female genitalia, all wet and small and perfectly formed, and I remarked to someone that it would make kissing feel quite different if you had a clit inside your mouth.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 9:44 AM

Another interesting tidbit about Eli Lilly...the Quayle family (as in Hello-My-Fellow-Astronauts Dan) made at least part of it's fortune through Eli, *and* guess where George Bush Senior spent his post-CIA days, yes, at a cushy Eli job. Guess he was just repaying the favor by asking Dan to be his Veep.

::: posted by Patricia Rini at 9:14 AM

Thursday, April 05, 2001 :::

Oh oh oh, forgot to share my big Napster discovery: Bjork's not-to-be-released-until-August album, Vespertine, which means relating to the evening. It's BEAUTIFUL. I've only got chunks of it, due to everyone apparently having corrupted files, and also someone tricking many people with obviously non-Bjork songs. This site has 4 (of 10) Vespertine mp3s if you're curious. In a radio interview, she said it was a winter album, like "when you're inside your house at winter time, on your own, and it's snowing outside, and it's sort of you whispering in little corners and sort of cocoon-style, you just get into that trance-like peaceful state, it's sort of euphoric, but very private. I like it when you're in your house and you just put music on that's sort of comforts you in that way...it's like silk clothes and...y'know...pancakes and stuff." One instrumental odd-time-signature song really reminds me of stuff from Radiohead's Kid A. I think she and Thom Yorke should get married, for musical reasons, and so that her name would be...(pause for bad rhyme) :)

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 4:28 PM

Sergio, you rock my world. I knew there was a reason I liked you. How the hell did you find out about the clip art use?

Looked at that lovely TV brainwashing link, and found these two related ones on the same site: how television alters the human brain and the addictive qualities of television. Although my problem was never TV, it was reading. I would read CONSTANTLY, in the tub, at the dinner table, in the car, to the point where I couldn't hear what was going on around me. Its power at tuning me out so thoroughly led to my current practice of reading when I'm in a tense situation and need to relax, of if I'm simply trying to tune out social noise. To learn about the evils of the printed word and how it alters brain function and society, read this excellent book: The Alphabet vs. the Goddess.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 4:13 PM

Kimo recommends the Tuvan throat singers. So do I.

Laura's clip art searches brought up the following idea: Victims of Clip Art Circumstance.
Here's one. First the Onion has her as First Lady of Nigeria, and then, the next thing you know, Indianapolis' finest chemical weapons conglomerate, Eli Lilly, paints her as a schizophrenic. She just can't win.

::: posted by kevin seal at 3:48 PM

Does television kill our brains' beta waves?

::: posted by kevin seal at 3:13 PM

Wednesday, April 04, 2001 :::

http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm

::: posted by Patricia Rini at 3:58 PM

My friend's band, Resinmen, is having a CD release party on Saturday. They rule. Check out their site and get the 411 on the CD release party at www.resinweb.com

::: posted by Patricia Rini at 3:39 PM

So I taught kindergarten yesterday morning. 'Twas through my job's community outreach program, at Malcolm X Elementary in Bayview / Hunter's Point. Gave 'em all kazoos, egg shakers, mini-maracas, and plastic castanets, and got them all playing a beat, then played piano with them.

It was straight out of Sesame Street. Except, of course, for the little boy with the gum infection. A few minutes of kazoo-blowing ruptured the infection, and he was soon running toward the nurse's office, gurgling blood all over the floor, teacher right behind him. No joke. Lots of blood, actually. Pretty disturbing. The rest of the kids didn't really notice, though, and (fortunately) I didn't even see the blood in the hall until after I was done with the class. Poor little guy, hope he's okay. I'd hate to think that such an incident would turn him off from playing an instrument in the future, you know?

Speaking of rupture, why would Rupture.com take you directly to Student Advantage? I don't get it. Bloodbath.com takes you to Kara's XXX Playground, Carnage.com goes to Marvel Comix, and ... my favorite ...

Grisly.com (I love the word "grisly") is a German manufacturer of teddy bears. HA.

::: posted by kevin seal at 2:29 PM

Monday, April 02, 2001 :::

I hate my desk at work. Think they'd get me one of these?

TheForce.net, the mostly official site for all things Star Wars, put up an April Fool's site, saying it was how the page would have looked in 1979. CNN.com also seriously reported the site's joke that Lucas was going to make the last episodes 7,8 and 9 after all.

GrnFaerie in Sacramento points me to this www.yourgoingtohell.com and asks the obvious - "Can you go to hell for misspellings?" Yes, it's a real site, as is the link at the bottom, www.demonbuster.com. They're awfully thorough, these two sites.

::: posted by Alura Allumeuse at 3:58 PM