RED SHADOW

What would make Marx better? How about an economics Rock Band! (That's Red Shadow kids!)



Thanks to the ever cognizant Jake, who recommends only wonderful things.

Globalization

As we enter these later days of GM's existence, it's worthwhile to pause and consider just how much better the Asians do everything that Westerners think they can do. (And without the help of the government either!)

Further Adventures in Choirs

This is a superb idea:

In the same key as Mournful Oatmeal

This needs more work before it becomes the masterpeice it wants to be. But still.

Stuff that's good

Finals week presses closer and everything shifts into wierdly comfortable stressful-freakout. In lieu of more substantive and interesting posts, here are some good things to look at:

1.) Good profile in the Times of Lewis Hyde, author of The Gift and more recently proponent of copyright reform. It's really really good. (Props to Eagan for pointing it out.)

2.) A piece from the Atlantic about Reinhold Niebuhr and his legacy... super interesting, particularly given Obama's admiration for the guy's thinking.

3.) Yes, it is in fact possible to mention derivatives and aporia in the same article.

4.) Awwwwwwwwwwwww!

Winter in Toronto has so far been a stop-again-start-again kind of thing. Usually it will snow and then rain and then be merely cold, and nothing gets particularly pretty. That is, until this morning, when it started snowing and everything looked beautiful and I got off the subway and wandering between the victorian buildings, decided I live in paradise.

Run on sentences.

This weekend I am going to go take pictures of my daily haunts. So stay tuned to this channel, kids!

Riddle

Q: What has two big eyes, beautiful hands, and a preference for a nocturnal lifestyle?

My ideal woman?

Close.

It's the real thing?

Oh to be German.

Pharisees

If you ever wandered what they look like, check here, here and here.

Good riddance.

"snapshots from an annihilated city"

Design Observer has some amazing photos from the aftermath of Hiroshima.

Thanks Condi

Dear Condi Rice,

Where would we be without your sage advice? (Or with it?)

The United States is not an N.G.O., so it’s not as if we throw out every other interest or every other concern with a country because it’s authoritarian. And sometimes we aren’t able to effect change as completely as we like. It has to be indigenous change.

Only a few more months....

Gehry strikes again!

This happened a few blocks from my dorm.

Cool.

Night of Three Syllabls

After the election results have come in, I wander over to Eaton Center, Toronto's downsized attempt to mimic Times Square. People have already gathered; loud music, bad techno music, is playing. People have booze, a slight smell of marijuana in the air. Some have got American and Canadian flags, and they are dashing around the edges of the crowd. A shorter bearded man has a megaphone. "O-bam-a!" he yells, "O-bam-a" replies the crowd. "Yes we can!" he chants, syncopating now. "Yes we can" they (we?) chant back in time with the music. It goes on like this for the next hour, more people arriving and other drifting away. Champagne is sprayed. Many people with cameras are there; I grab their attention and make them take a picture of me with my sticker. I want to be there when they show people years later and say, see, this is what this was like when Obama became president.

The street people gathered at the edges too, looking on in silence, maybe in apathy. It's impossible to tell with them. As I am leaving the gathering with Dan, a friend from New Zealand, we stop to buy food and immediately there's a man at my shoulder, asking for a hot dog. An awkward moment, but I buy him one and wish him good night. I feel justified: it's a gift, not a handout. And it's a good night for giving gifts.

First post on the election

There are actually people in the streets here. Cheering. Waving the flag. Dancing like mad people.

This is awesome.

I am really proud to be an American.

I'll have more to say tomorrow.