The End of “As the World Turns” the End of an Era

As_The_World_turns_soap_opera_6The cancellation of daytime dramas is arguably one of the most significant media signs of a shift in American society.  This show was on for 54 years.  The Guiding Light, canceled 3 months ago, began on radio and was on 72 YEARS!  It’s kind of sad to see them go.  My mother used to watch them, sort of, anyway.  She had them on in the house while she did other things.  And once reached an age that the educational programming our local PBS station ran most of the day (Sesame Street, Electric Company, Zoom…) was no no longer of interest to me , it just didn’t get changed.  You’d think serial drama would be hard to follow if you only watched it at most a few days a year when you were home sick from school.  But in fact the plot progresses really slowly on those shows.  The musical queues, angles and camera work enhance the drama to the point that you feel like you can’t miss a day, but in fact you can miss the show for months and catch up in a day.

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Quotation on the Relation Between Economy and Democracy

Quote of the day:

Rain does not follow the plow. Political freedom, whatever the market evangelists may tell us, is not an automatic by-product of a growing economy; democratic institutions do not spring up, like flowers at the feet of the magi, in the tire tracks of commerce. They just don’t. If you are able to get erections while you work on overcoming the core symptom. browse that link cipla generic viagra PDE5 inhibiting agent sildenafil citrate. Some common side viagra cialis on line effects which were noticed in most of the men were headache, a blurred vision, nausea, black outs, cold, etc. If online levitra you were affected using Propecia, you are encouraged to file a Propecia lawsuit. Well, what if you opened up levitra samples free your email inbox and saw a subject line that simply read:”bad news…”?Whoa! That’s right. They’re a different species. They require a different kind of tending.

-Mark Slouka, Dehumanized: When Math and Science Rule the Schools, Harper’s September, 2009

Swiss Minarets, Islamic Feminism and Clash of Civilizations

Right Wing Posters on the Streets of Switzerland

Right Wing Posters on the Streets of Switzerland

Swiss voters approved a ban on construction of new minarets today, a surprise result certain to embarrass the country’s neutral government.

The Swiss news agency ATS and other media said about 57.5 per cent of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the Right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP).

The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the country’s constitution, freedom of religion and the country’s cherished tradition of tolerance.

The government had said a ban could ‘serve the interests of extremist circles’.
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–via The Daily Mail

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Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

Academic Freedom Media Review
November 13 – 20, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

French Academic Appears in Tehran Court
NEAR, 11/19

University Weighs Tighter Limits on Stem Cell Research
Monica Davey, The New York Times, 11/19

Academic Researchers’ Conflicts of Interest Go Unreported
Gardiner Harris, The New York Times, 11/18

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Chicago Public Schools to Expand the Number of Students Learning Arabic

I don’t have a comment to make on this story, but being about the use of technology to extend Arabic instruction to more schools in the Chicago system, it clearly touches on some of my key interests.

More Chicago public school students will have the opportunity to learn Arabic, thanks to a federal grant.

Two thousand students in ten schools are currently learning the ancient language.

A three-year, 888-thousand dollar US Department of Education grant will allow Chicago to expand the program to three more schools….
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…The grant money will go to professional development and expanding the SAFARI-Blackboard program, which uses computer technology to link students and teachers in different schools with web cams.

Read the full story, CPS Students to Learn Arabic.

TeachMidEast.org Includes NITLE ACC Site

TeachMidEast.org

TeachMidEast.org

This evening I was happy to learn that the NITLE Arab Culture and Civilization Online Resource is once again publicly available, generously hosted by the Middle East Policy Council, a nonprofit organization that seeks to enhance American understanding of the political, economic and cultural issues affecting U.S. policy in the Middle East. I was principal editor of the site throughout much of its existence, and was very proud of the collaborative effort that went into building, launching, and nurturing the site throughout its life. At the time of its retirement it was registering thousands of hits on a daily basis.

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Robert Earl Keen, Bruce Robison and Todd Snider in Foxboro

The Rose Hotel

The Rose Hotel

I almost didn’t go to the concert tonight at the Showcase in Foxboro. It’s a school night, the weather is crappy, and tickets are expensive. I’d only recently discovered Robert Earl Keen and had been impressed by his album Rose Hotel, but I didn’t know the other two acts on the bill, Todd Snider and Bruce Robison. I checked out a few tracks by each of them on YouTube and Lastfm, but didn’t have much time to explore more than that. All in all it just wasn’t worth it. Then I got free tickets, and all I had to do was hang some posters and pass out some stickers. Well, I love live music, so what was I supposed to do? Off I went.

I am glad I did. It was a fantastic show. I’d never been to the Showcase before, but it’s nice venue with good acoustics and even decent food. Given that this was an acoustic show, the way a room conducts sound is important. But ultimately it is all about the performers, and these guys were great.

Robert Earl Keen was on the marquee as the headliner.  Known as a singer/songwriter, he is, indeed, an engaging storyteller, not only in his songs but introducing them. It makes for a good show.  Not to mention the fact that their just really good songs.  When man can stand on a stage with just a spotlight and an acoustic guitar and hold the audience’s attention, he’d better hope that he can check off at least three of the following: Continue reading

Grégoire and My Major Company

So what do you think about that song? It was a Top 5 single in France, propelling the album it came from as high as #81 on the album charts, not just for France, but for all of Europe. Grégoire is a rising star. It just goes to show you what happens when you get discovered and a major record label puts it weight behind you.

Only Grégoire wasn’t on a major label when he recorded that album. He was on a label called My Major Company, an online community that helps artists and producers find one another so that good music can be recorded and promoted in a professional manner. The producers are the users of the site who invest sums of their choosing and, in turn, receive a share of royalties just as any other producer would do.

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Grégoire’s rise to fame began in association with My Major Company (MMC), an innovative online music company in France that operates almost entirely outside the major-label music system. He was the first MMC artist to break through to mainstream success when his song “Toi + Moi” was put into regular rotation by the popular radio stations RTL and NRJ. Grégoire’s full-length solo debut album, Toi + Moi (2008), was subsequently released in association with Warner Music France, which had agreed to a distribution deal with MMC earlier in the year. Debuting at number two on the French albums chart, Toi + Moi proved similarly popular in neighboring Belgium and Switzerland, as did the title track, charting at numbers one and nine on the respective singles charts there. In the wake of his breakthrough success, Grégoire was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2009 NRJ Music Awards.

The producers, on the other hand, not only have the possibility of recovering and even seeing a return on their investment, but they also have the satisfaction of literally investing in and enabling the career of an artist they care about with professional produced recordings and national exposure.

It’s a great idea.