RASHOMONIC.com

Friday, May 30, 2003

water tanks

Steve Sailer blogs:

I'm going with Humane Borders at 7am as they fill water tanks to help thirsty illegal immigrants crossing the border and then I'm going to see American Border Patrol fly its new drone around taking pictures of the people the first group is helping to sneak in. It should be quite a day.

:: 12:58 PM [+] ::

superspreader

The Post investigates the power of one:

TAIYUAN, China -- She had been running a 104-degree fever for nearly a week, and the city's best doctors were stumped... So the patient and her family decided to go to Beijing...

Thus did the world's worst outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome begin. Yu passed the virus to her family and friends, to other patients and doctors and nurses, who then spread the disease to countless others ... the first "superspreader" to arrive in the Chinese capital.

:: 6:31 PM [+] ::

eminem club

Fortune reports on Steve and Sheryl:

Steve Jobs loves music. But as with a lot of geeks in Silicon Valley, his tastes are a little retro ... Bob Dylan ... Beatles ...

During the photo shoot with Sheryl Crow for this article, he acknowledged to the singer that he had never really understood what rap music was all about. But ... in recent weeks, he had started downloading some of Eminem's tracks.

"You know, he really is a great poet," Crow said.

To which Steve replied, "Yeah, he's starting to kind of grow on me."

:: 10:49 PM [+] ::

cutting edge

From "Renter Beware" in the Voice:

Buying an African American for labor is illegal, but now whites can rent one for their next business social or rooftop garden party. Or at least that's the promise of Rent-a-Negro.com, a satirical Web site started early this month ...

"The presence of black people can advance a business and social reputation," reads the site's sales pitch. "Those who claim black friends and colleagues are on the cutting edge of social and political trends."

:: 12:14 PM [+] ::

bone juice

The National Marrow Donor Program connects with hip hop:

Superstar rapper Nelly and his sister Jackie Donahue are launching the Jes Us 4 Jackie campaign, a nationwide effort to bring attention to the need for marrow and blood stem cell donors.

Jackie needs a marrow transplant and is searching for a donor. The Jes Us 4 Jackie campaign will help bring hope not only to Jackie, but to the many patients worldwide in need of a marrow or blood stem cell donor.

:: 12:40 AM [+] ::

chocolate factory

Times of London reports:

The film director Tim Burton is to make a new adaptation of the Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s company, Plan B, will produce.

The Edward Scissorhands director is to meet Dahl’s family to confirm the deal, according to Variety. Dahl was unhappy with the 1971 adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

:: 1:38 AM [+] ::

countdown

Slept three hours last night. Time for bed now. Just three more nights before Bonnie returns from Boston. She called to say her interviews went well today, especially at the J.M.S. Community Health Center, a clinic in Allston affiliated with Beth Israel.

:: 11:49 PM [+] ::

farewell

Spent five dollars on a trucker hat last year. Couldn't bring myself to wear it. Now Julia Chaplin says farewell to the fad:

R.I.P. the trucker hat, a fashion statement that traveled from downtown to the mall so swiftly it is still below the radar of most mainstream fashion publications...

"I never would have worn a trucker hat before because they were too cool," said Mr. Zinner, who bought his two weeks ago while on tour in South Dakota. "But now that they are so uncool it's cool to wear them."

:: 4:31 PM [+] ::

positioning

From "Minority Report" by Ta-Nehisi Coates via Prometheus 6:

In positioning the Latino population boom as a challenge to blacks, the country is refusing to grapple with what this means for most Americans, i.e., white people. Not incidentally, it is also doing what the American majority does best when it comes to the black question—change the subject.

:: 10:17 AM [+] ::

bird's eye

Nas tells Vibe:

It's funny how I love birds. We deal with money, cars, smog, pollution, and drugs. But being in the sky, they can fly and look at the world without dealing with our bullshxx. Matter of fact, they shxx on us. I really admire them.

:: 1:10 AM [+] ::

to and fro

Got back yesterday on the overnight train from Boston. Felt dizzy all day. Miss you, Bonnie. Tonight Michelle, Deborah and Rebekah are flying in from Honduras. Deborah has been there since January doing relief work. Joey is there until the end of the month. Miss you, man.

:: 8:30 PM [+] ::

outrageous

From Terry Neal in "Diversity Had Nothing to Do With Reporter’s Deceit":

The plagiarism and deceit of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is an affront to journalism... But why can’t Blair just be one severely troubled guy who did outrageous things? Why are some people using him as an example of the evils of commitment to diversity? ...

Perhaps Blair was coddled and promoted not because he was black, but because his editors were enraptured to the point of delusion by this kid who kept getting such fabulous stories.

:: 6:54 PM [+] ::

roots

From "Black families redefine 'homeroom'" via George:

DURHAM, N.C ... It used to be predominantly Southern whites who taught their kids at home rather than sending them to integrated schools. But today, what's happening in this well-groomed, mostly black subdivision points to a new reality: Thousands of black parents are home-schooling their kids in a growing backlash against America's public-education system ...

The Smiths' flexible class schedule allowed the whole family to turn a Tennessee business trip into an on-the-road lesson on the first Africans in America, including a visit to the gravestone of "Roots" author Alex Haley.

:: 12:05 AM [+] ::

acronyms

Checked out the MFA. Bonnie is thinking about working at BMC. We're getting more enthusiastic and more jittery about moving here.

:: 11:51 PM [+] ::

urban scouting

Arrived in Boston via Amtrak late Thursday. Went to the album release party for Luke the Band. Enjoyed the whole show, including opener Rachel Loy. Tasted five different kinds of scotch courtesy of Paul last night. Bonnie kept an eye on me.

Walked around JP together for several hours today. Not sure that's the right place for us. Going to check out an apartment tonight in Brookline's Coolidge Corner, home of the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

:: 4:43 PM [+] ::

maggie and dave

From a book review via Africana:

In an age when black authors are increasingly rejecting expectations that they address racism in their work, it seems appropriate that white authors should take up the dialogue... Answering the call is British author Maggie Gee with The White Family, a fictional exploration of one English family's struggle with hate...

American readers of The White Family may be struck by how much more refined our racial discourse is. As comedian Dave Chappelle mentioned in his recent HBO special, we have become connoisseurs of racism.

:: 12:45 AM [+] ::

people who level

Found a couple of great articles on the hiring process - "Don't Forget the Goals of Online Job Posting" by Peter Weddle and "Résumés 'That Don't Tell You Anything'" by Bob Levey.

Weddle talks about the differences between "active job seekers (mediocre candidates)" and "passive prospects ("A"-level performers)." Levey quotes a recruiter: "I'm very partial to people who level with me about themselves, from the very beginning."

:: 10:13 AM [+] ::

forty-eight

Went to Visions last night. Saw ten short films from the 48 Hour Film Project, the world's craziest indie film contest.

Friday night @ 7: All film crews receive a list of necessary elements: a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue. Buddy Johnson, Shoe Salesman; Paint Roller; "So, you're the guy with the shoes." Each crew picks a different genre from a hat. Western, horror, musical ... Then it's on.

Sunday night @ 7: Each film, running 5 to 12 minutes, is due in final form. One crew missed the deadline by four minutes. People are saying 48 Hour Film is the next Sundance. It all started in DC.

:: 9:21 AM [+] ::

for the love

The Washington Post has the story on the 42nd International Achievement Summit:

"This is a place where they get to talk to those who've been there and done that," said "Star Wars" creator Lucas. "The true advice is simple and straightforward and most people ignore it: 'Be persistent.' 'Do something you love.' I say it to my kids and they don't listen to me. I say it to these kids and maybe a few of them will."

:: 10:12 AM [+] ::

zona bastarda

All About George links to this from the Bay Guardian:

There's a section of the border wall in Tijuana that's covered in crosses, hundreds of them, white and made by hand, tacked on sheets of industrial metal. The crosses are on the Mexican side ... memorials for migrants who crossed into a world that wasn't the North ...

When Catalan singer-songwriter Pau Dones, leader of Barcelona band Jarabe de Palo, saw the white crosses of Tijuana, he didn't think of Mexico or the United States... "The crosses I saw in Tijuana," Dones sings ... "made me remember the crosses that nobody has put between Ceuta and Gibraltar" ...

Dones isn't the first child of Barcelona to look abroad to Tijuana to comment on Spain's cultural violence against immigrant Arabs, Africans, and Romanies.

The writer mentions a new compilation album titled Barcelona Zona Bastarda.

:: 10:00 AM [+] ::

tattoos and short skirts

The New York Times covers the hot-selling

plastic figures two inches tall that caricature a segment of urban Mexican-Americans ... a phenomenon, finding a place in a postpolitically correct world in which racial and ethnic stereotypes are being embraced in a self-consciously humorous way ...

Walter Ornelas, director of the Yollocalli Youth Museum ... said that Mexican-Americans might be embracing the Homies because they are one of the few representations of Latinos in pop culture, even though they highlight painful stereotypes. The figures — with their tattoos, baggy pants, knit caps, short skirts and tight, midriff-bearing shirts — look like "little hoodlums," he said.

:: 9:32 AM [+] ::

flattering

Got hacked yesterday. Readers who came here mid-afternoon found a white background with a large banner that said "Bezerkely Register" (huh?) and a broken link. The takeover lasted less than an hour.

Called four phone numbers trying to reach Matt, my friend who runs a web-related business. By the time he called back, Rashomonic was up again. Matt guessed it was random. He said hacking doesn't happen to little people very often, so in a way it's flattering. Now I have something in common with Madonna.

:: 1:27 PM [+] ::