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Archive: June, 2005

Fire From The Left

POSTED: Friday, June 10, 2005, 7:11 AM

Filed Under: Poli Sci

Howard Dean's taking fire from "Left Blogistan," which are Whiskey Bar's ideological coordinates. Whiskey Bar has penned 50 posts over the past months about the Democratic party chairman, whose fund raising and hell raising Whiskey Bar praises. It's not the first time the Philly blogger has questioned the former governor's fitness for the job.

In a time of Republican control and media cluelessness, Whiskey Bar writes , the need for message discipline is more important than ever.

That doesn't have to mean robotically repeating the same hypnotic phrases -- like Bush and his mouthpieces (the world is better off without Saddam; the terrorists are desperate; Democrats don't have a plan, and so on) although we shouldn't underestimate how effective that tactic can be sometimes. But it does mean understanding that words are weapons that can quickly be turned against those who wield them.

Daniel Rubin @ 7:11 AM Permalink | Post a comment

Desktop Savings

POSTED: Thursday, June 9, 2005, 11:32 AM

Filed Under: Modern Times

PostSecret wants to hear about something unmentionable. Mail in your secret on the back of a hand-crafted postcard. No return address. No identifying marks, hence the ransom-note lettering that shows up from time to time.

"I just refuse to worship a God, reads a typed note pasted over a yellow flower, "that would let my grandfather HURT me like he did."

Or, illustrated with some crime-film iconography and a portrait of JFK, "I say I don't like the food but really I hate Hooters because.....I'm gay."

Daniel Rubin @ 11:32 AM Permalink | Post a comment

Live 8, The Wired One

POSTED: Thursday, June 9, 2005, 6:41 AM

Filed Under: Music

For personal reasons, I've kept my Live Aid video. The reception for some reason was lousy on the tape my brother made for me, and Tina and Mick seem to be singing from the middle of a snow storm. Didn't matter though. I watched it more than the Farm Aid videos. It had sentimental value: My wife and I'd watched parts of it live, from a Paris hotel lobby on our honeymoon. Best part: the tape was in stereo.

Skip ahead 20 years. In this digital age, AOL is seeking to be to Live8 what MTV was to Live Aid. The entire event will be carried live, and streamed across computers, free. For the following six weeks, the shows will be available to view on-demand. AOL will be wiring a to-be-determined number of computers along the Ben Franklin Parkway so those attending the July 2 concert can check in on what's been happening in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome shows.

Daniel Rubin @ 6:41 AM Permalink | Post a comment

Get Your Blinq On

POSTED: Wednesday, June 8, 2005, 3:17 PM

Filed Under: Web, Tech

Found a new definition for Blinq: "A contraction of blizzay n Wanna Be Gangsta and yo mamma."

Just as we thought.

This is thanks to a site called Gizoogle.

Daniel Rubin @ 3:17 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Smokin'

POSTED: Wednesday, June 8, 2005, 1:31 PM

Filed Under: Food and Drink

Here's another way to stamp out smoking in Philadelphia bars and restaurants:

Ask the people.

A columnist at the Daily Pennsylvanian - one who hates eating while people light up around him - thinks it's the right thing to do.

Daniel Rubin @ 1:31 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Anonymouse

POSTED: Wednesday, June 8, 2005, 6:00 AM

Filed Under: Weblogs

Is she serious?

That's my wife, the teacher, who asks. I'm telling her about this anonymous blogger whose rants about teaching in Philadelphia I found myself reading. Under the name girlfiend she writes about having dropped acid, having an affair with her teacher at boarding school. She'd rather be doing something else.

Maybe blogging is her therapy. She's working in the inner-city. Comes from leafy Connecticut. You try to empathize.

Daniel Rubin @ 6:00 AM Permalink | Post a comment

The Heat of Battle

POSTED: Tuesday, June 7, 2005, 11:05 AM

This morning I left on my first mission since arriving back in Iraq. All the usual pre-mission stowaways were there. The tumbling unease. The feverish flood of endorphins. The dark memories of bent and twisted men and steel. But all these rumblings seemed almost inconsequential because there was a new companion in their shared misery the heat. Heat is an empty word it doesnt even begin to describe the temperature here.

I found out about the blogger who calls himself 365 And a Wake Up as I was following a fight on The Guardian's newspaper blog. Lots of left-write cant, but untouched by either side's swipes was the unmuzzled strength of the soldier's posts. His web site gives a little bio. He describes himself as a member of the California National Guard. He's a newlywed. He enlisted to pay for college. He grew up outside L.A., mountain bikes, hikes and skin dives. He loves the Shawshank Redemption, Jackie Chan movies, coffee and his wife.

You think it's hot here? Over there, it's 111 in the shade.

Daniel Rubin @ 11:05 AM Permalink | Post a comment

Sir Bob and the Bloggers

POSTED: Tuesday, June 7, 2005, 7:17 AM

Filed Under: Music | Poli Sci

It's beautiful when boomers of all stripes can do business. Political bloggers from both ends of the spectrum connected yesterday for a giant, hour-plus conference call/love-in with Sir Bob Geldof to talk about the former Boomtown Rat's Live8 campaign and concerts to hook industrialized countries into helping Africa. The headline over at Power Line, a conservative site of long-ago Dartmouth grads put it:

An Aging Rocker Impresses an Aging Blogger, wrote John Hinderaker.

Hinderaker, a Minnesota litigator, said that Joe Trippi, the former Howard Dean campaign manager and Web wiz, had approached the week before, asking if his Power pal could line up 20 or 25 conservative bloggers while Trippi took care of the liberals.

Daniel Rubin @ 7:17 AM Permalink | Post a comment

Sinking Stones

POSTED: Monday, June 6, 2005, 1:58 PM

Filed Under: Movies

Is Rock School sinking before its local debut?

PhillySound: new poetry posts an email from the two Philadelphia filmmakers whose documentary about the Paul Green School of Rock Music opens here on Friday.

The movie, they fear, is dying.

Daniel Rubin @ 1:58 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Philadigger

POSTED: Monday, June 6, 2005, 12:29 PM

Filed Under: Web, Tech

Blogdigger introduced a new service last week that will let you search for all bloggers by city or zip code, a promising way to learn about the blogger next door.

Except only two posts for the last two days show up when you type Philadelphia.

Glitch aside, Blogdigger did introduce us to singer-songwriter Ben Garvey, whose picture posting suggests he's got a future in product-development should songs like "I Hope I Die on the Moon" not take him far enough.

Daniel Rubin @ 12:29 PM Permalink | Post a comment