Spielberg vs. Warhol

In case you hadn't seen this yet, a perfect internet sensation taking off right now:

"I Had Radio in My Teeth!": When Spielberg Met Warhol

Andy Warhol "interviews" Andy Warhol as Bianca Jagger looks on. Very weird.

Friday Music - Early and late

Just a great music recommendation: Forro in the Dark. They opened for Gogol Bordello last night at Webster Hall and were amazing. Check them out: http://forrointhedark.com/


-dr-

Friday music - The Go! Team

This week's list features a great band I discovered via NYC TV's New York Noise: The Go! Team.

Dance-y rock with harmonicas and clapping thrown in. What's not to like? Great for a depressing / frustrating Friday.

Enjoy:
http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=93445a212a

Birth / pregnancy articles

A slew of pregnancy articles I've noticed lately:

• NYT Magazine: Her Body, My Baby
• WSJ op-ed reponse: Rent-a-Womb Is Where Market Logic Leads
• NYT Motherlode blog: 70-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth

Also, not quite sure how this happened, but eclampsia beat out blahojevich on Google trends yesterday. And then parthenogenesis and virgin birth came in at #3 and #5....what's going on?

Google Hot Trends Dec 9:

1. eclampsia
2. blagojevich
3. parthenogenesis
4. rod blagojevich
5. virgin birth

---

**UPDATE 1**
From the Business of Being Born website:

Ricki Lake and producer Abby Epstein visited Anna May Gaskin on "The Farm":
http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/blog/2008/12/09/down-on-the-farm/

Friday music 12/5

Getting in the Christmas mood. Have my yule log screensaver going, lights are up, listening to a Pandora jazzy xmas station (sponsored by HP and Intel, awww yeah).

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh46856701647164846

Green birth

Here's a link to ecomii's section on green delivery:
Weighing the Options of How to Deliver

See towards the bottom of this page for info on choosing a midwife. They say:

Many women find that they can fulfill their desire to have a green birth more easily with the help of a midwife rather than with a physician, simply because the midwife often has more control over the environment in “her” birthing room. Unlike a busy physician, who usually is attending to other patients while a woman is in labor and under the care of hospital staff (and then pops in to deliver the baby), a midwife may stay with the expectant mom throughout the entire process and therefore be able to ad­vocate with the staff and supervise the implementation of her green labor and delivery.

Do people really think of their environmental responsibility when considering birth options?

Friday music 11/28 - halfhearted thanksgiving mix

Thanks, enjoy:

http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=a58b6b15be

Items in car

Here's a list of the items found in friends' cars that either Vaiva or I have carsat in the past month:
- shoes (not pairs of shoes, but just random shoes with no matches)
- Masquerade ball mask
- 7 cups
- Broken ipod
Sleep mask
- Button featuring a picture of brother in wrestling gear
- Playing card of wrestler brother
- Dallas cowboys bobbly helmet
- silver star necklace
- Mold
- Coffee stains
- bicycle rack
- Dentyne
- tissues
- sunflower seeds
- rubber bands

Tragedy in Mumbai

Ellen and I were at all the places where these attacks occurred just a little under a year ago:

Gunmen kill at least 82 in rampage across Mumbai

-dr-

Two Anniversaries

First off, my own engagement anniversary was Monday. Very fond memories:
mrsellen

ALSO, yesterday was the 225th anniversary of the evacuation of New York, by the Red Coats!

Via Gothamist via CityRoom, George Washington wrote a letter to New Yorkers returning to the city from Nova Scotia, where many were exiled:

"Great as your Joy must be on this pleasing Occasion, it can scarcely exceed that which I feel, at seeing You, Gentlemen, who from the noblest Motives have suffered a voluntary Exile of many Years, return again in Peace & Triumph to enjoy the Fruits of your virtuous Conduct.
"The Fortitude and Perseverance which You and your suffering Brethren have exhibited in the Course of the War, have not only endeared You to your Countrymen, but will be remembered with Admiration and Applause to the latest Posterity.

"May the Tranquility of your City be perpetual. May the Ruins soon be repaired, Commerce flourish, Science be fostered; And all the civil and social Virtues be cherished, in the same illustrious Manner, which formerly reflected so much Credit on the Inhabitants of New York. In fine, may every Species of Felicity attend You Gentlemen & your worthy fellow Citizens."

The letter is being auctioned at Sotheby's next month.

New Yorkers were as nice back then as they are now, and thanked Washington with the following letter:

"Permit us to Welcome you to this City, long torn from us by the hard hand of Oppression, but now, by your Wisdom and energy, under the guidance of Providence, once more the seat of Peace and freedom; we forbear to speak our gratitude or you Praise"

The language still seems relevant today.

onion wishes

sometimes i wish that the onion audio bits were articles instead:

[audio] Fit Of Anger Turns Dairy Farmer Into Beef Farmer
Onion Radio News - with Doyle Redland
http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~3/459247311/fit_of_anger_turns_dairy

Mashable's Open Web Awards

Vote in the Mashable Open Web Awards. I did.

Friday music 11/21

Quick and easy list this week, based off of seeqpod recommendations featuring:
- Los Abandoned
- Felice Brothers (**)
- Darker my Love

http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=f4aed2840f

Google Life Photos

Well, THIS takes the Library of Congress Flickr page concept to a whole new level.

pirate tales

mateys: all these pirate stories are making the news exciting again, i must say. much more so than thee elections did, arrrrrrrr. makes me wish i were still reading tai pan.

but as much as i would like to thank the pirates for their news-invigorating actions, rest-assured i'm squarely aligned with the anti-pirate league. pirates = terrorists of the high seas.

way to go india:
------------------
Indian Navy Says It Sank Pirate Ship

The Indian Navy said it battled would-be hijackers in the Gulf of Aden, sinking one vessel and forcing the pirates to abandon another.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/africa/20pirate.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com

Friday music 11/14 - merry swanksterized

This week's playlist comes courtesy of some clicking around on Merry Swankster. Features:
- OMD
- Sophie Ellis Bextor
- The Monochrome Set (awesome!)
- Times New Viking

Enjoy:
http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=f04f7c0de5

Friday music 11/7 election style

Last week's Friday music list was pretty weak, which is why I'm posting it a week late (right). Election theme:
http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=556078723d

Homebirth and midwives in NYT!

Lead story in today's NYT home section (with accompanying slideshow):

Baby, You’re Home

SQUATTING in an inflatable pool in the open kitchen of her apartment in Astoria, Queens, a very pregnant Alecia White Scharback, nude except for a bathing suit top, groaned in pain. It was 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, and Mrs. Scharback, 29, an actress, had been in labor for more than 36 hours. The contractions had been only mildly painful at first, but had grown increasingly fierce as a second night gave way to morning.

Here's the slideshow:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/11/13/garden/20081113-BIRTH_index.html

-dr-

Tapedeck

Listening to cassettes Is awesome!

Ellen and I are carsitting for our friends who are off to Thailand, and while we'd rather be with them in Thailand, watching their car is fairly sweet.

Except for the parking part. And the driving through Manhattan part. But being able to jaunt up to Sleepy Hollow or breeze out to Montauk on a whim are great pluses.

PLUS, it's got a tape deck!

We usually only ever drive rental cars, and those are typically pretty new (XM, CD, etc). But boy oh boy, now I have a use for that old French celtic rap mix I stole from Vaiva, I can listen to Emi's old ska band, and that Green Day Dookie cassette tape will meet the magnet for the first time in a decade.

There was a short-lived website out there called Muxtape, which tried to re-capture this experience online...until the RIAA took em down.

Which reminds me, my friend Liana and I had agreed to make mix CDs for each other a while back. I'm way overdue. Time to get mixin.

Voting

Holy crap there are a lot of people who also thought it would be a good idea to vote at 630am to get it out of the way here in Brooklyn.

The last time I tried to vote for a president was Bush/Gore, when Boston University had purged me from the voter rolls. I didn't get to vote, but the polling place was empty.

My last vote was cast in the Bronx for NYC Mayor. Granted, a mayor is no president, but it was empty there too, and I broke the voting machine and had to vote by affidavit. Fun!

All that happened in less time than I've already spent standing in line. And there's plenty of time to go. So, here are tips for voting (similar to tips for visiting the department of motor vehicle):
- bring a book, an iPod, and a phone you can blog from
- don't stand in any lines until you are absolutely sure you're in the right one
- trust no one
- check the board of elections site before you go
- skip the coffee, you'll break a machine
- nod friendily to other people blogging/tweeting from line
- make sure to negotiate up the price of your vote
- memorize your election district number (no one cares about the other district numbers)
-stick it out and make your vote count!