Spin

I really should stop posting Comedy Central videos, seeing as it sort of goes against my siding with the writers, but this one from John Stewart on how the media's spinning the way we understand the election candidates is too good to pass up...



And at this point, I have to agree with Greg Sargent over at Talking Points Memo in saying that the Obama Campaign is definitely winning the spin war right now in playing the "victim" card against the Clinton campaign.

Black and White

Everybody's talking about race and gender in politics these days, but I want to talk a little bit about image and identity in another sense: dress.

Now, I know people do sometimes wear white ties, but let's be honest, it's not that common. So, am I the only one that finds this picture below just a little bit weird? (and yes, I realize the tie is not totally white, but still consider the general whiteness of the portrait)



What kinds of images and ideas does this very clean white picture evoke in you?

Perhaps at best it fosters of sense of redemption and hope for a better future where the wrongs of the present will be made right? Perhaps. Yet I couldn't help several other images also flashing through my mind, such as...

"Geez! Does this guy have a Messiah- or God-complex or what?"



or "Hmm. Is that really the way to show you're the man for the job?"



or finally, "Wow! It's Mr. Clean!"



I'm assuming enough people must like it though, since it also dons the top of his campaign website and his Facebook profile page. Regardless, it gives me the creepies, and far more so than your typical cheesy campaign photo, of which there are plenty to go around. Bill Clinton's "fairy tale" accusation may have been over the top, but I think it's hard to deny this picture having a surreal, "fairy tale" feel to it. That's just my two cents though.

That being said, this post is merely meant to raise a few questions in humorous fashion about the way Obama may or may not be perceived by his supporters (personally, I think that intentional "messiah" symbolism is highly probable), those who support someone else, and those who remain undecided about the candidates (I fall into this latter category). Therefore, please don't take it to mean anything more than that (i.e., it is not meant to be a criticism of his overall campaign and stances on issues).

Let My People Go!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I will be pissed if the Academy Awards don't happen this year, so the WGA strike better be settled by then, with the writers also getting everything they've been asking for from those greedy, money-hoarding studios.



And speaking of the Oscars, here are some of the nominees for the major categories. I know it's kind of early, but does anybody have any favorites (or recommendations for a guy like me who's just now trying to watch many of these films)?

Best Picture:
• "Atonement"
• "Juno"
• "Michael Clayton"
• "No Country for Old Men"
• "There Will Be Blood"

Actor:
• George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
• Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
• Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
• Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"
• Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"

Actress:
• Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
• Julie Christie, "Away From Her"
• Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"
• Laura Linney, "The Savages"
• Ellen Page, "Juno"

Supporting Actor:
• Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
• Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
• Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"
• Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"

Supporting Actress:
• Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"
• Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"
• Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"
• Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"
• Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"

Director:
• Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
• Jason Reitman, "Juno"
• Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"
• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
• Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"

Foreign Film:
• "Beaufort," Israel
• "The Counterfeiters," Austria
• "Katyn," Poland
• "Mongol," Kazakhstan
• "12," Russia

Animated Feature Film:
• "Persepolis"
• "Ratatouille"
• "Surf's Up"

Documentary Feature:
• "No End in Sight"
• "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience"
• "Sicko"
• "Taxi to the Dark Side"
• "War/Dance"

Oh Chuck!

With all the annoying political games going on between Clinton and Obama, it's nice to see Chuck Norris speaking up and giving us all something to laugh at...



By the way, if you haven't seen them yet, Colbert's interviews with Huckabee over at the Report are definitely worth your time.

And while I'm at it, his "Esteban" interview with Lou Dobbs last week was also great!

What the World Eats...

A few photographs from part I of the new TIME magazine photo essay, "What the World Eats":



United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken




Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna

Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Family recipe: Pig's knuckles with carrots, celery and parsnips



Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo

Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Family recipe: Potato soup with cabbage



Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat

The images come from a relatively new book called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. Check out the rest of the photo essay over at TIME magazine online.

Yael Naim's got soul!

What better way to kick off my new blog than with a fun song I just discovered called "New Soul." I first heard it in the premiere commercial for the new MacBook Air:



The song is by Yael Naim, an artist that has increasingly impressed me over the last couple of days with her beautiful vocals, musical and instrumental versatility, and vibrant imaginative spirit. On top of that, she even sings some of her songs in Hebrew! Her video for "New Soul" (in English) is a lot of fun and definitely worth checking out:



Is it any surprise that she has roots in Paris? (By the way, some of her songs are in French as well.)

At the moment, you can download the song legally over at Aurgasm, a wonderful site for exploring new music -- don't wait too long though, as these free offers are typically only temporary. If you listen to the other song available there for download, "Pachad", you'll discover that her music isn't always so happy either.

A couple other songs from YouTube, "Puppet" and "Paris," help to further show the diversity of her musical interests:





With a sound reminding me at times of Feist or Regina Spektor, yet a style still very much her own, I expect great things from Yael Naim and I can't wait to get her 2007 self-titled album.

UPDATE: I just came across an interesting story on her background: "Cinderella Song". Apparently, among other things, her recent eponymous album is one of the top selling records in France right now.