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Main page April 30, 2007Virtual Providence: screenshot; Watch Tenet, Moyers' 'Buying the War' online; John Sinclair's 'Guitar Army' reissued
Virtual Providence in Second Life: Screenshots from Arnell Milhouse's presentation at Wednesday's Providence Geeks meeting at AS220. That's a computer-generated Second Life "avatar" wearing a Providence Geeks T-shirt, at top, and the virtual Biltmore Hotel. Milhouse, president of the President of the Downtown Merchants Association, and Founder of interactive media services company Eyegloo, intends to recreate downtown, building by building, in the virtual world. (Launch is still a couple of months away.) Brian Jepson interviewed Milhouse after the presentation. Here's the video. Kicked out the jams: The blurb at Amazon: "Guitar Army was our manual for revolt. It's a rainbow-colored Howl, still resonating today with the singular value of idealism."-Michael Simmons  · JohnSinclair.us
· The John and Leni Sinclair Papers at U.Mich. · There's a hometown review by Terry Lawson in the Detroit Free Press, 35 years later, Sinclair's still a poet · Alt-review at Znet: Kickin' Out the Jams: A Review of John Sinclair's Guitar Army (Feral House 2007 Monday links: The George Tenet “60 Minutes” interview video at Crooks and Liars. Text transcript at CBS. Most People Are Depressed For a Very Good Reason at Violent Acres Need an icon? Take your pick. When the WSJ's Walter Mossberg bought a new PC, he was shocked by the unwanted software that arrived with it: Using Even New PCs Is Ruined by a Tangle of Trial Programs, Ads. But The PC Decrapifier promises to remove much of it, for free. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 28, 2007155 classic short stories onlineLater: Shelley Powers suggests two stories from the link below (in Links for the Senses), and offers an illustration. Short reads: Classic Short Stories is a superb collection of complete short stories online -- 155 tales by authors such as O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Dorothy Parker, Shirley Jackson, H.G. Wells, E.B. White, Poe, Twain and many more. When I was making the transition from children's books to adult fiction, short-story anthologies were the bridge: I could work my way through the easier ones, work up to the tougher going. I still love to spend an afternoon with a collection, reading a few paragraphs of each, continuing with those that grab me. Science fiction and mysteries, especially, lend themselves to this buffet treatment. These are pre-vetted -- no first experiments here -- and might be worth printing and compiling into your own e-book for the bathroom or the road. A few titles: The Lady, or the Tiger?--Frank Stockton The site also has a fine page of links to other short-story sites -- mystery stories, Jewish stories, children's stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald... Unfortunately, there are no illustrations, but I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't floating loose around the Web somewhere, illustrations in search of a story. Weekend search: A typical line in my referrer log, especially on weekends: "Google Search: is there any way to cook frozen pot roast" For everybody who didn't plan ahead, here's Crockpot recipe: Frozen pot roast with Jack Daniel's again. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 27, 2007Candid images from last night's Dem debate; Bill would roll back Net radio royalty rates; Street art
Thanks to the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, it's possible to flash back to an earlier election season. In November 2003, Politics New Hampshire launched a contest to find the perfect wife for Dennis Kucinich: "Who Wants To Be First Lady Contest". But that is not how it happened. Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (now vanished from that site, but kept alive elsewhere), How Kucinich Found Love by Evelyn Theiss begins: On May 4, Elizabeth Harper walked with her boss into Dennis Kucinich's Capitol Hill office for a meeting and immediately noticed three things. In the reception area, she saw a visiting nun in white robes. In his inner office sat a shelf bearing an illustration depicting "light consciousness" and a bust of Gandhi.
A bill introduced in Congress Thursday aims to overturn a controversial royalty fee increase that Internet radio advocates say threatens to cripple their services. SaveNetRadio asks you to enlist your own rep as a co-sponsor. Background: Web radio clobbered again: David Byrne explains the irrational royalty mess, April 18. Art that makes you look: Street Installations Grin and bear it: Quentin Tarantino: I'm proud of my flop. Said flop is Grindhouse, whose trailer is here. Posted by Sheila Lennon Iraqi blogger Riverbend leaving Iraq; MTV drops FlashIn a post titled The Great Wall of Segregation, Riverbend of Baghdad Burning ("Girl Blog from Iraq") wrote today that her family is leaving Iraq: I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night. Backstory: Friday, June 04, 2004 Noted: MTV Drops Flash Site in Favor of (Boring) HTML Posted by Sheila Lennon April 26, 2007Update: Video of Democratic debate is online at msnbc.comUpdate: You can still watch the entire debate online here at msnbc.
All eight declared candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nominate are to meet tonight in Orangeburg, S.C. for what's billed as the "Path to the Presidency" Democratic Debate. Produced by NBC News, the debate will air live on the MSBNC cable channel and also stream live at the msnbc.com Web site. ''NBC Nightly News'' anchor Brian Williams is the moderator for the 90-minute event, which is hosted by the university and the South Carolina Democratic Party. The Orangeburg Times and Democrat is all over it. Posted by Sheila Lennon What an ants' nest looks like underground; 100-year-old photo blog'; Mp3s: Prince, Super Bowl 2007Emptying the vacation notebook:
What an ants' nest looks like: All we see is the little hole on the surface. Here are the tunnels below. The nest architecture of the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius explains, "Each group was penned in an escape-proof enclosure for 4 days, after which workers coming to the surface were recaptured, and a plaster cast of their nest was made." Shorpy is a photo blog about what life a hundred years ago was like: How people looked and what they did for a living, back when not having a job usually meant not eating. But at the moment it's about TV, leading with Leave It to Beaver: 1958. Somebody enlarged a typewritten letter -- a prop -- that served as a note from Beaver Cleaver's teacher, and transcribes it. It begins, My Dear Mr. Cleaver:
Links: Noted: The Reddit headline vs. the actual headline: MSNBC: Quick study! Teen to graduate college after year Reddit -- a social bookmarking site -- labeled the same story, "19-year-old misses the point of college, aims to graduate in single year." Posted by Sheila Lennon April 25, 2007'Sex, Drugs and Soybeans': The Farm commune at 36Old hippies, earth day, and Iraq: Liz Donovan at Infomaniac puts a crop of interesting links under that headline, leading with, This month's Vanity Fair -- which is full of Earth Day-related stories -- has a feature on The Farm. With a slide show and some lovely photos of Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, it's called Sex, Drugs and Soybeans, by Jim Windolf. The Farm, in Summertown, Tenn., has long been the most famous of the communes -- intentional communities -- and perhaps the most willing to live a public life. Its members lived on a frontier way too edgy for most; back-breaking pioneer life and soybeans at every meal weren't part of the urban counterculture. And the West coast seemed more fertile ground for homegrown gurus.
So here's how Vanity Fair leads into the story: In 1970, pot-smoking guru Stephen Gaskin, a former U.S. Marine, led his band of acolytes on a mystic trip out of San Francisco and into the American heartland. But a funny thing happened on the way to enlightenment: Gaskin's hippies learned the ancient virtues of hard work, good hygiene, and crop rotation. Deep in the Tennessee woods, they formed a spiritual commune called The Farm, which has morphed over its 36 years into a high-tech eco–think tank. (Unfortunately, this is also repeated atop each of the 18 photos in an otherwise interesting slideshow of then and now.) New Yorker Windolf could have blown this off into caricature but he doesn't: "When I watched Family Ties, I sided with Michael J. Fox against his parents. But I was curious that a place like the Farm had managed to survive." He turns out an interesting exploration of how a Utopian idea grew, rooted and morphed over decades. The Farm attracted more than 10,000 visitors per year. Some were seeking a reasonable alternative to modern life. Others were whacked out of their minds. Those on gatehouse duty would tell them the rules, as summed up by Figalo in his memoir: "No animal products, no tobacco, no alcohol, no manmade psychedelics. No sex without commitment, no overt anger, no lying. No private money, no large pieces of private property. Accept Stephen as your teacher …" Although his focus is primarily Stephen Gaskin, he acknowledges that Stephen's wife, Ina May, is the better known by those who have encountered her books. Ina May's first book, Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth edition, prepared me for childbirth better than anything else I read back then. She has another, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. Ina May is internationally known in obstetric and midwife circles, serving as a Visiting Fellow of Morse College at Yale University, according to a Wikpedia bio. In 1999, Katie Allison Granju wrote a bio of Ina May for Salon: The midwife of modern midwifery. (This link has been squirrely, as though this older interview is stored elsewhere now. It works consistently if I go to Salon.com and paste it in, but with the printer version you only have to do that once.) Stacy Fine went to The Farm to give birth in 2003, and did this email interview with Ina May that focuses on birthing, and midwifery. Interesting advice: What are 3 things you tell your pregnant clients?
It is startling to learn that Stephen Gaskin is now 72; Ina May was born in 1940 in Marshalltown, Iowa. The most interesting recent photo I found of them includes the detail above, from Earthdance 2006 last September, where both spoke. Here Stephen is talking and Ina May seated beside him. It's uncredited, on on this page by Skip Stone. Bonus: Children of the Farm: Windolf writes, Rena Mundo was born on the Farm in 1972. Her father was Motor-Pool mechanic (and Farm-School track coach) José Mundo, a Puerto Rican immigrant out of the Bronx. Her mother, Jan, was a Berkeley graduate from Beverly Hills, a nice Jewish daughter of a prosperous surgeon. Farm midwives attended Rena's birth and also those of her brother, Miguel, and her sister, Nadine. In the past five years the Mundo sisters—now Brooklyn-based filmmakers who have worked at MTV's news-and-documentaries division—have amassed 250 hours of footage; some archival, some from their own interviews with current and former Farmies. By summer's end they hope to have a cut ready to submit to Sundance. The working title is Commune. There's a loft party in Brooklyn April 30 which doubles as a fundraiser and sneak peek. Feature creep: The adventure has been going on for 36 years, and as part of their efforts toward autonomy, they've long been wired. Third Planet Report by "hippielawyer Alan Graf" offers podcasts from The Farm. Stephen has his own site, as does Ina May. It's not hard to find folks who stayed awhile, left and moved on to building Whole Earth Catalog publisher Stewart Brand's virtual community, The WELL -- Matthew McClure, Cliff Figallo and John Coate (the last two pictured here at The Farm in Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy: The WELL and the Origins of Virtual Community by Stanford professor Fred Turner in the journal Technology & Culture. It's more readable as a pdf.) Sidebar: The Tennessee State Library and Archives hits the highlights with a page of images as part of what is apparently a long tradition of Searching for Utopia in Tennessee: The label head is The Happiest Days of My Life. Here's the very brief overview of The Farm in that long parade. Liz has other good links on that post, but I'm on vacation so I'm going to let you riff on them yourselves. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 24, 2007N.E. Journal of Medicine calls abortion ruling "practicing medicine without a license"New England Journal of Medicine online: Published April 23, 2007 PERSPECTIVE Partial Death of Abortion Rights From the last, Government in Medicine, by pulmonary specialist Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D. ...In 2005, we all saw the disastrous consequences of congressional interference in the case of Terri Schiavo. In that case, the courts wisely decided that Congress should not be practicing medicine. They correctly ruled that wrenching medical decisions should be made by those closest to the details and subtleties of the case at hand. Such decisions must be made on an individual basis, with the best interests of the patient foremost in the practitioner's mind. Related: it is important to articulate the several reasons why a woman who wishes to terminate her pregnancy might wait so long. (From Defending A Woman's Right to Have an Abortion Through the Second Trimester of Pregnancy at the abortion-rights group Life and Liberty for Women) Do you think that has changed much over the last 20 years? Unintended consequences: "Where women's access to safe, legal abortion is denied, some women will seek to terminate their pregnancy by other means." - Irish Family Planning Association. No court in Washington can change the circumstances that lead women to seek abortions, circumstances its male majority can never face or personally fear. American women are again facing the possibility of a return to backstreet abortions. Don't let that happen. Response: Abortion ruling spurs reply By Alicia Mundy Seattle Times Washington bureau WASHINGTON — In response to the Supreme Court's narrow decision limiting abortion on Wednesday, Rep. Jim McDermott and Sen. Patty Murray are co-sponsoring bills to preserve abortion rights. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 23, 2007Virtual Providence in Second Life: demo Wednesday; Web guru at Brown today; Ginsburg's abortion dissent: Equality is crucial...The monthly Providence Geeks meet Wednesday promises a unique presentation:
Arnell Milhouse -- Providence Geek, President of the Downtown Merchants Association, and Founder of interactive media services company Eyegloo -- will give the first (and an extremely early) public sneak peak of Eyegloo’s ambitious "Virtual Providence" project. The casual gathering runs from 5:30-9 p.m. in the storefront of AS220, 115 Empire St. Bonus tip from the Geeks: Today at 4 p.m. at Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer St., Ethan Zuckerman -- Geekcorps founder, Tripod and Global Voices co-founder and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law -- speaks. Don't miss Ethan's recent Advice for travelers to Accra, Ghana, where he once lived for a year on a Fulbright, on his blog. Equal say: IN THE LONG RUN, the most important part of the Supreme Court's ruling on "partial-birth" abortions may not be Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's opinion for the majority. It might well be Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissent, which attempts, for the first time in the court's history, to justify the right to abortion squarely in terms of women's equality rather than privacy.
At Virginia Tech, in September 2005, poet Nikki Giovanni had Cho removed from her class at Virginia Tech after female students complained that he was using his cell phone to take pictures of their legs underneath the desks; some refused to come to class while Cho was there. The paradox of the paternalism of the Court to which Ginsburg alludes and pervasive violence against women is hardly unique to America, of course. Related: Nikki Giovanni's speech at Virginia Tech touched a troubled world Posted by Sheila Lennon April 22, 2007Vacation: A week in neutralI'm on vacation, but it won't feel real till tomorrow. Friday was a deadline scramble all day. It was my brother's birthday, and I baked him a cake before work. My plan to frost it and be done tanked when I saw I didn't have three cups of confectioners sugar. After a workday filled with weekend site chores, vacation handoffs and a few advance projects, I bought the sugar, made the frosting, changed clothes and raced downtown with the rest of the family to meet the birthday boy at Pot au Feu, only a little late. He ordered a bottle of red zinfandel -- a new taste for me, dry and light -- and the vacation began. Later, at my house, the cake happened:
Yesterday, I bought pansies in bloom for the window boxes on the street side of the house, read a mystery novel and played Jardinains 2. Today, I'll plant, finally -- lettuce and spinach seeds and broccoli seedlings in the raised bed outdoors, peas along the fence, shallots around the roses. (My master gardener friend says her mother promises the late cold won't matter, that everything will catch up by June.)
We planted garlic in that bed in the fall, sets a colleague gave us. They came up immediately, and grew till January, about four inches. The late arrival of winter after that browned the tips and stopped the growth, but they're going again now, alongside daffodils ready to pop and hyacinths whose flower buds are just showing. Giant alliums (allii?) are pushing up leaves that looked, last week, like shiny, forest-green pineapple tops. Today, after a few warm days, they're huge. Indoors, seeds of tender annuals such as tomatoes, peppers and basil will go in peat pots in trays on the warm top of the fridge. After that, I see unstructured time. The weather looks promising -- balmy now, a bookworm's rain after that.
Posted by Sheila Lennon April 20, 2007Gonzales hearing: Sen. Whitehouse's chart details flow between White House, Justice Dept.R.I. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a former U.S. Attorney who defeated Republican Lincoln Chafee in November, was among those on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioning Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales yesterday, and he brought a chart. Here's how senior editor Dahlia Lithwick at Slate described it (Al, the President's Man): ...One of the finest moments comes when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., busts out a big, big chart. Which happens after almost everyone has gone home. The chart compares the Clinton protocol for appropriate contacts between the White House and the DoJ on pending criminal cases with the Bush protocol. According to Whitehouse, the Clinton protocol authorized just four folks at the White House to chat with three folks at Justice. The chart had four boxes talking to three boxes. Out comes the Bush protocol, and now 417 different people at the White House have contacts about pending criminal cases with 30-some people at Justice. You can just see zillions of small boxes nattering back and forth. It seems that just about everyone in the White House, including the guys in the mailroom, had a vote on ongoing criminal matters. Here's the chart:
Over at Findlaw, Watergate-era White House counsel John Dean fills in the background (Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's "Reconfirmation Hearings": Why, In the End, They Will Change Nothing): ...Senator Whitehouse said he had found correspondence in the files of the Senate Judiciary Committee from the days when Orrin Hatch was chairman relating to an investigation of the relationship between the Clinton White House and the Justice Department (under Attorney General Janet Reno). Hatch was concerned about the independence of the Department of Justice, so he wanted to know who in the White House could speak with whom in the Justice Department. The correspondence showed that four people in the White House (the President, Vice President, chief of staff, and White House counsel) could speak with three people in the Justice Department (the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney and the Associate Attorney General) - period. Will 447 subpoenas for emails come out of this? You can read the entire exchange on the last third of the last of 15 pages of the hearing transcript at the Washington Post. (As junior member of the Committee, Whitehouse speaks last; his questioning, which came near the end of the five-hour hearing, begins here.) Plus: Earlier: Judiciary Panel's Courtroom Presence: Early Verdict on Whitehouse Favorable, April 13 Washington Post. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 19, 2007Web-savvy Joe Trippi joins Edwards campaignJoe Trippi, campaign manager in the last Democratic presidental primary season for Gov. Howard Dean, will work for former N.C. Sen. John Edwards this time. The veteran campaign consultant made the announcement this afternoon in simultaneous posts (I'm signing on, I'm signing on) at his own site and at the John Edwards 08 blog.
These Netroots techniques are crediting with bringing many new people into the political process and helping to level the field for the outsider former Governor of Vermont, now chair of the Democratic National Committee. Trippi's Web-savvy presence on this bandwagon seems a good sign for the Edwards campaign.
 AP Joe Trippi and Howard Dean before the New Hampshire presidential debate, Jan. 22 2004. Trippi announced today he has signed on with the campaign of former Sen. John Edwards, Democrat of North Carolina. Posted by Sheila Lennon Ladies home Journal of 1900 foresees 2000: Black roses, TV, bullet trainsTaking a break from disaster... Predictions of the Year 2000 from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900 at The Yorktown Historical Society. "There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet." Huh? They did foresee TV: "Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span." "Trains will run two miles a minute, normally; express trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour." "Aerial War-Ships and Forts on Wheels. Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities." Because of automobiles, "The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today." Big flowers and vegetables interested them: "Strawberries as Large as Apples...Peas as Large as Beets." Why? They didn't do too badly, except that they thought flies and mosquitoes would have been exterminated, and "Storekeepers who expose food to air breathed out by patrons or to the atmosphere of the busy streets will be arrested with those who sell stale or adulterated produce." They didn't foresee salad bars. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 18, 2007Web radio clobbered again: David Byrne explains the irrational royalty messThumbnail: At PC World Monday, Internet Radio on Life Support Again: The Copyright Review Board dealt a serious blow to Internet Radio today, when it denied a request to reconsider its March ruling that would greatly increase fees broadcasters pay to copyright holders. The original ruling called for a serious escalation of fees, to the point where most small, medium, and even large Internet radio broadcasters would not be able to afford to continue broadcasting... This makes no sense to blogger Eric Dahl: While broadcasters form groups like SaveNetRadio and the appeal process gets under way, I'm left with more questions than answers. Internet radio and sites like Pandora and Last.fm have become popular, useful tools for finding new music. So why are SoundExchange and the RIAA pushing for a structure that would shut them down?
... My own streaming web radio would be affected, and since I derive no income from it, that, among other things, makes this an issue of personal interest. Check out his lucid explanation of why this makes no sense, especially if you're not clear on how this royalty-rate stuff works. Here's the crux of it, without the numbers: With streaming web radio, information on the exact number of listeners accessing the stream at any given moment or period is available, and easy to obtain, unlike broadcast radio which is just out there and no one knows how many people are listening (so how do they determine ad rates?) The more listeners you have the more you pay in hard costs — some server’s gotta host the stream....Of course stations like mine and the network of NPR stations that have no commercial revenue eventually run into a financial wall once that audience figure reaches a certain amount. Catch 22: Web radio pays more royalties than commercial AM or FM radio. The more listeners Web radio has, the more it costs. The new rules further penalize listening. To keep costs down, Webcasters should turn away listeners. If this sounds nutty, it is.
Who is this agency that is proposing making this change? They are not an elected body — the Copyright Royalty Board is made up of a few people appointed by the Library of Congress Copyright Office. They used to be a group of arbitrators but since 2004 they are a group of judges. (I wonder if Gonzales, Cheney etc. have any pals in there?) Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle like music, and it's no easier for them to find music they like than it is for you and me. And most would find this disturbing -- okay, make it stupid --: Success could make a nonprofit public radio station go broke. Think Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would read David Byrne? Who else? Would some of you reading this care to find out? Political asides aside, Byrne points to a petition at SaveTheStreams.org, sponsored by many of the streaming stations, large and small, who would be affected. More info there.
Searching, I keep stumbling onto awful quotes from the record industry.."The exec who eventually signed Britney Spears, Jive Records' Jeff Fenster, said he based the decision not on a song in particular, but on a picture of the then-teenage Spears. She was sitting on a picnic blanket, wearing cutoffs and cuddling a puppy, Fenster said. "She looked like the sweet, All-American girl that you just wanted to defile and do bad things to, and that appealed to me." Is it any wonder there's nothing to listen to on the radio, if airplay isn't actually about the music but about record execs' fantasies? Here's the intro and a quote from The Day the Music Died, Part 118 by Mike Felten, this time at BigO: " 'I often fantasize about a young Bob Dylan stepping out into an American Idol audition and watching the substitute bass player for Journey, Laker girl and Mr. Teletubby rip him apart. Springsteen would be singing She Bang on You-Tube. Even I can't imagine Hank Williams or Robert Johnson or Woody Guthrie making round one.' So says music fan and retailer Mike Felten, on how the music was chased out by the biz": ...It doesn't matter about downloading. It does matter if we do our job. The music buying public is lost in an American Idol wilderness. They are being told that this download sold 800,000 ringtones and it is what you should be listening too. A few ringtones later and they get up from the table bored.
SAVE INTERNET RADIO! Listen to nonprofit East Village Radio while you can. Or Pandora, SomaFM, or Radio Paradise, all of which the U.K. Guardian recommended Sunday. Or any of the other Web stations on the blogroll of SaveThe Streams, such as Folk Alley. Or pick your favorite NPR station. They're all sniffing death row. There's another petition to sign, and Congresspeople to contact, at SaveNetRadio.org. Bottom line: The public interest. There are a lot of bad things going on in America now that you can't do anything about. If you can educate your reps about the damage about to be done to the public culture by our own government, you might just be able to avert this one. Later: Linux Journal editor and Cluetrain co-author Doc Searls links to this post (No stay of execution for Internet radio), and suggests an alternative: A Public Market for Public Music. Sidebar: What it means to Live 365: Your favorite Live 365 stations may be silenced. The ruling ignored webcasting community proposals and set out the SoundExchange proposed "per performance" rates (below) and a $500 minimum fee per channel per year. With around 10,000 stations playing over 250,000 artists each month, that would mean an additional $5 million per year for Live365 and our broadcasters. Kurt Hanson, Radio & Internet Newsletter, has owned this story for years. He sees a ray of hope from Marketwatch (Copyright Royalty Board rejects appeals from Web broadcasters): Jonathan Potter, the head of the Digital Media Association, which represents several large Webcasters including Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN network, said his group was not currently in talks with SoundExchange but may be soon. He said his group and other Webcasters would be turning to Congress, where he said he sees "a lot of legislative support." The next sentence -- a point that David Byrne strongly makes -- may have you scratching your head: The royalties in question only cover digital transmissions of music, and don't apply to terrestrial radio stations, as traditional radio play is seen as a benefit for record labels by promoting sales of recorded music. Live 365 and many other radio stations offer a link to download the music you're listening to at Amazon or iTunes. Doesn't that promote sales, especially instant impulse purchases? And especially sales of music you won't hear on commercial stations? Can we tear this up and start over? Posted by Sheila Lennon April 17, 2007The 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning stories and photosUpdate: The Pulitzer Prize 2007 site does all of what's below and more, including links to the editorial cartoons Walt Handelsman actually won for, but no Ornette Coleman mp3s. Oh, well... Yet later: NPR has some cuts from Coleman's winning CD, Sound Grammar. National Reporting: Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe - Boston.com Richly deserving of the award, Charlie Savage revealed the presidential signing statements that President Bush has attached to more than 750 laws, "asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution." The series is at the link above. Feature Writing: Andrea Elliott, New York Times, for the series, Muslims in America. Public Service: Wall Street Journal, Perfect Payday: CEOs Reap Millions by Landing Stock Options When They Are Most Valuable International Reporting: Wall Street Journal, China's Naked Capitalism.
Breaking News/ Photography: Oded Balilty, Associated Press. From AP, AP's Oded Balilty wins Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography: Associated Press photographer Oded Balilty has won The Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for his picture of a lone Jewish woman defying Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Breaking news: The Oregonian won for its coverage of the The Kim Family Saga. James Kim, 35, a senior editor at CNET, died of exposure and hypothermia as he set off alone to find help for his snowbound wife and children in the Oregon wilderness. Investigative Reporting: Brett J. Blackledge, "for his 14-month investigation of Alabama's two-year college system, in which he reported corruption, cronyism and nepotism on a wide scale." That summary tops links to some of his winning stories are at the Birmingham News.
Later: That caught my eye among recent cartoons. These are the ones he actually won for, at the Pulitzer site. Handelsman on How Animation Helped Him Win the Pulitzer for Cartooning by Dave Astor at Editor & Publisher. Local reporting: Debbie Cenziper, Miami Herald: Cenziper led a reporting team that did more than 30 articles in the 2006 series House of Lies, which revealed developers took millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build affordable housing for the poor, but failed to deliver, leaving thousands without their promised homes. The series led to massive changes in the county housing agency, which had lost $12 million to developers who didn't keep their promises to build homes. Three developers have been arrested... Here's House of Lies.
Here's how one -- headlined The Devil's Own Steak House: The Lodge -- begins, Do I love The Lodge for its double-fisted Tanqueray martinis or for the thick-cut pepper bacon put out like peanuts at the bar? For the big chunks of blue cheese in the house chopped salad or for the onion rings as golden as the bangles on a Brahmin woman’s arm? For the dripping-rare New York steak or for the bone-in rib-eye as big as some models of compact car? For the sommelier, Caitlin Stansbury, who seems to purr like a cat when you order her favorite Madiran or Spanish Syrah on the wine list? When this dining room was Tiny Naylor’s, my mom used to take us here for patty melts when she didn’t feel flush enough to spring for the onion rings across the street at Ollie Hammond’s. When it was reborn as an upscale coffee shop, at least one of the waitresses used to slip punk-rock dudes warm beer in teacups after the bars closed. And now that it has been reinvented as a wood-paneled post-Googie ski lodge, I find it pretty hard to get a reservation. It must have something to do with the bacon. Explanatory journalism: Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling and Rick Loomis, Los Angeles Times, for Altered Oceans: A five part series on the crisis in the seas
"Byer, 48, chronicled the dying days of 11-year-old Derek Madsen, who was battling cancer, and the anguish of his mother, Cyndie French, as she fought to save him." The Sacramento Bee celebrates and links the story and photos: Read "A Mother's Journey" / View a gallery of the award-winning photos
Others: 2007 Pulitzer Prizes for Letters, Drama and Music winners are detailed and well-linked by the Times. Notable: The Music prize went to alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman for 'Sound Grammar.' Clips at this Amazon link. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 15, 2007Updated: Ken Lyon concert: Photos and a video clipOriginally posted 3:30 a.m. Updated throughout, 11:49 a.m. Popups fixed, 12:44 p.m.
I shot these with a little digital camera ( a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01, for the photo geeks) at full telephoto from my seat far from the stage, and over the heads of the couple in front of me. You are there. Full IDs The photo above is just as it came out of my camera, uncropped, but reduced to 200 pixels wide. You can open it (in a new or popup tab/window) at 600 pixels or 1200 pixels to see it larger. The images below are cropped and/or inexpertly enhanced to make the people more visible. There's lots of background on the concert, Ken Lyon and these friends in the Thursday post previewing this concert. My only complaint: Nowhere to dance.
Ken Lyon, in the hat, his oldest son Josh playing guitar to the right of him, and, at far right, his nine-year-old grandson Ezra on drums. Click the photo to enlarge it. Onstage, from left to right: Vocalists (Lori Martin, not visible), Brenda Mosher Bennett, Betsy Listenfelt; mostly hidden, pianist Mark Taber; guitarist Gary Gramolini; saxophonist Michael Antunes; Ken Lyon, guitar and vocals; Don "D.C." Culp, drums; Josh Lyon, guitar; on the stage floor, two late Tombstone members are represented, guitarist Paul DiChiara's guitar and hat, and a photo of Sybilla; Jon Samuels, bass; Rick Bellaire, guitar; Ezra Lyon, drums.
Brenda Mosher Bennett, who went on from Tombstone to work with Prince, and appear in the movie Purple Rain, sang strong and low. Click photo to see it larger. Onstage, Betsy Listenfelt, Mark Taber, Gary Gramolini, Michael Antunes, Brenda, Don "D.C." Culp, Josh Lyon, Ken Lyon.
From Beaver Brown, Gary Gramolini (partially hidden at far left), John Cafferty, far right, and saxophonist Michael Antunes sat in -- that man can wail. Onstage, Gramolini, Ken Lyon, Antunes, Don "D.C." Culp, Josh Lyon, Ezra Lyon, Jon Samuels, Cafferty.
Lori (Lacaille) Martin plays in Ken's newest band, Shoe Fly Orchestra, a neo-jugband. She also sang in the girl chorus with Brenda and Betsy, visible only in the uncropped images linked in the first paragraph. (Given the dim light, we get an Impressionist's view of Lori.)
I love the look on Ken's face here. He was obviously having a great time. At 66 -- yesterday was his birthday -- he's comfortable with himself, surrounded by friends and family playing the music he loves. He's refueled now. I didn't think this would come out, but it did: a bit of video -- 16 seconds in wmv or mpeg format. Great show, fine fun. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 13, 2007Vonnegut quotes, art; Weekend game; Why news needs paper; Ornette Coleman, 1971; Photoshop tips
The best part is they're all on one page. I read, way back, "I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center... 'Big, undreamed-of things -- the people on the edge see them first," and recognized it. The edge is the only place that's any fun. The quote is from his novel Player Piano, published in 1952, the same year as the photo, which comes from The Vonnegut Web. Bonus: Kurt Vonnegut's Artwork and Art show
Weekend game: The 9-year-old and I are both hooked on this Arkanoid clone -- with garden gnomes: Jardinains 2. From a review at JayIsGames, with comments and a walkthrough. The little extra something in Jardinains! is the presence of 'nains—giggling little garden gnomes that will hurl potted plants at your bat, paralysing it and causing you to lose points. You can get your own back, though—if you can break the pot you win the points you would have lost, and if you can knock the giggling little bastards off their perch, you can bounce them on your paddle to get points and power-ups. If they spawn too fast, you'll end up stuck with a big stack of flowerpots on your bat and seemingly hundreds of them giggling inanely at your misfortune. It's like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but with garden gnomes. Catch the FAQ if you want decide to download it. Addicting. Powerless press: Why news needs paper "Journalism will move entirely to the Web" --photojournalist Molly Bingham told an audience at the University of Kentucky. I'm hearing this sort of thing predicted all over. Back in 1990, I went to a meeting of Rhode Island computer bulletin board operators. BBSes were the precursor of the Web -- accessed via dialup modem, a modest computer in someone's home offered downloadable files, forums and chat. These "sysops" had gathered to explore setting up an emergency network during hurricanes and other disasters. While the intention was laudable, the part I got stuck on was this: The first thing to go in a hurricane is the electricity. Modems and computers wouldn't work. The same problem sours the concept of Web-only journalism. In a crisis -- hurricane, blizzard or attack -- the news organization might be able to generate power to publish online, but who could read it? Laptop batteries last only a few hours, and could not be recharged; cellphone batteries are scarcely stronger. When we need news the most, how could we spread it, how could we read it? Prepare to switch to emergency telepathy? Headphones month: 6th annual Deep Wireless, May 1-31, 2007. Here's one of them: It was painful to realize that in my language I was smart, but I sounded stupid in English. Example: while walking with my Canadian friend one day by a church, he started talking about the architecture of that particular building, and while I wanted to say a few things about how I liked the Gothic details on the arch at the entrance, and how I admired the intelligent choice of stones, all I could squeeze out was, “Yeah, it’s cool”.
Free jazz: Ornette Coleman, Belgrade 1971 at BigO, Singapore. Here is Ornette Coleman with a stellar band comprising Dewey Redman (tenor sax), Charlie Haden (bass) and drummer Ed Blackwell live in Belgrade in 1971. Crib sheet: 101 Hidden Tips & Secrets For Photoshop Posted by Sheila Lennon April 12, 2007Ken Lyon Retrospective concert: All the notes fit to blog, and Tombstone Blues video too
The man: Ken Lyon... Bluesman. His site. The story: Ken Lyon concert will honor super career Rick Massimo today in the Journal:
 the singing of Old MacDonald in Slater Park, Pawtucket, at a city arts event. (Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson)
The Big White House, Dot Records single, 1960; unknown studio musicians. Tombstone mp3s: (Tombstone) started in July 1967 with Lyon singing, Mark Taber playing piano, Al LoBello playing bass and Tommy DiQuattro on drums, with a revolving cast of guitar players (including a Duke Robillard who wasn't even called "Duke" yet) and harmonica players (with Lyon's brother Don giving way to Steve Nardella), playing at Bovi's.
My Baby's So Evil (full song) and Who Do You Love. WLIR-FM radio show recorded and broadcast live at Ultra Sonic Studios, Hempstead, N.Y., 1974. Ken Lyon, bass guitar, lead vocals; Mark Taber, piano; Brenda Mosher, backing vocals, percussion; Sybilla, backing vocals; Paul DiChiara, lead guitar; Thom Enright, lead guitar, bass guitar; Michael “Squeaky” Quinn, drums, percussion. Ken has mp3s online of his most recent work with The Shoe Fly Orchestra -- Lori Lacaille, Richie Calitri, Greg Andreozzi and Pendragon’s Bob Drouin. Video: This is a concert split into four parts (YouTube has a 10-minute clip limit) recorded from a ,show at the Church House Inn by, and as a fundraiser for, Creative Television of R.I. (bandwidth warning, video there loads with page) Intro (1:39) and opener: Ken Lyon & The TombStone Blues Band_CTRI 9:39 Ken Lyon & TombStone Blues, Shaky Ground Part 1 7:59 Shaky Ground Part 2 5:44 . (Shaky Ground is the second song on Part 1. The break comes while the band is introduced.) Ken Lyon & TombStone Blues, Killer Kane 4:06 Respect: Rick Bellaire emailed this in response to a question about Ken, I like to think of Kenny as the "John Mayall" of the Rhode Island scene. Witness the outpouring of support from John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band! Kenny was their template: stick to your guns, get what you want, get what you need, otherwise, it's not worth it. Kenny may have been, perhaps, overly generous as a leader with shared lead vocals and instrumental space, but I know he doesn't regret a minute of it all. Just look at the alumni association:  the forces behind Saturday's concert. What, when, where, how much? An Evening with Ken Lyon: A Musical Retrospective happens Saturday night at 8 at the Stadium Theatre Performing Arts Centre, 28 Monument Square, Main Street, Woonsocket. (map) Tickets are $20 and $15; call (401) 762-4545. More, more: If you're interested in deep detail, here are the concert's set list and program notes, and an annotated list of all the cuts on The Best of KEN LYON Vol. 1.: NOTES FROM THE PROGRAM (PRINCIPAL PLAYERS, ORGANIZERS, CREW) EARLY DAYS THE MARK TABER TRIO PENDRAGON THE SHOE FLY ORCHESTRA ACT TWO: Saturday Night at Gulliver’s KEN LYON & TOMBSTONE PRODUCED BY ----- MUSICIANS ON CD The Best of KEN LYON Vol. 1 KEN LYON 2. Fallen Idol ORPHEUS KEN LYON 5. Rock Island Line THE TOMBSTONE BLUES BAND KEN LYON KEN LYON & TOMBSTONE 13. My Baby’s So Evil KEN LYON & THE TOMBSTONE BLUES BAND KING COTTON Source: Rick Bellaire Posted by Sheila Lennon April 11, 2007Pet foods not on recall list; more info, pet food recipes; Egyptian geese-herding catThe Pet Food List: Pet foods NOT on the recall list. Pet Food Tracker: Pet foods that have been recalled. Pet Connection, source of a weekly column syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, and staffed by media savvy pet pros, leads with this blog post right now (Pet-food recall: Get the food off the shelves), with links to their recall-related pages, a request for volunteers to help get recalled food off shelves, and links to other good sources: Every day since the first recall was announced on March 17, we here at Pet Connection have been informal members of a team of Web sites whose owners wanted to help. None of us ever heard of the other before, but we all somehow found our niche and together, we provided more support than any one of us alone could have. Itchmo, Howl911, PetFoodTracker and more — we’ve all pitched in together to get the information out there... The Pet Food Recall Help Page at pet blog Itchmo has a current chart of recalled foods. More pet food recipes: Stream Valley Veterinary Hospital in Broadlands shared recipes for homemade cat and dog food with the Loudon (Va.) Times Mirror. It's salmon, chicken heart, beef kidney, turkey breast, chicken liver, sardines, virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup broccoli and spinach, plus vitamins and taurine. Sounds like quite a restaurant dish. Far simpler, Concerned pet owners share their homemade food recipes at the Arizona Republic sounds more like home cooking. Two recipes, each with four ingredients. Meaty Loaf is baked ground beef, grated carrots and celery and cooked brown rice. No word on taurine there. Scared of Poisoned Pet Food? Here Are Homemade Pet Food Recipes at the Toronto daily News has more simple recipes. This expands the recipe collection begun April 3 in this post. While there are warnings from many vets about the nutritional balance of home cooking, that concern is not universal. From AP, Dr. Donald Strombeck said the Amazon.com sales rank for his book "Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative" jumped from below 60,000 to about 1,000 after the recalls. In ancient Egypt, lore has it that cats ate scraps left by grateful villagers grateful for their rat-hunting. But art shows it might also have been their skill at geese-herding: This is from Pat's Cats, Australian teacher Pat Shaw's Arts and Crafts Activity page, part of a curriculum on cats. Don't miss the Egyptian mummy cats in the Research section. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 10, 2007When to plant veggies in R.I. gardensMy colleague Paula Constantine, The Journal's Home, Garden and Cars editor, just dropped a chart in my hand that's pure gold for a gardener: The R.I. Vegetable Planting Chart at the URI Master Gardeners site The site leads with a Spring "Garden Planner - April" that includes this spring bulb tip: "When you see the flower stalk emerging from the foliage, it’s time to fertilize" and "Plant seeds in the garden for beets, carrots, chard, endive, kale, lettuce, green onions, peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips." The chart assumes a last frost date of May 15, but your microclimate may vary. Ladies and gentlemen, start your peas. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 9, 2007The dangers of covering Iraq, snorting ashes and, for the White House staff, of having GOP laptopsQuick links on a Monday. Obstructed View "Extreme danger and sky-high security costs have diminished the press corps in Iraq and severely limited access to a deepening morass. The result is a clouded picture of perhaps today’s most important news story." Sherry Ricchiardi produces a sobering piece in American Journalism Review:
Should I Snort My Dad?The dangers of inhaling a cremated parent. at Slate. Keith Richards is probably in no more danger than usual, if he did that. GOP-issued laptops now a White House headache. L.A. Times. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 7, 2007Geek Easter; 9 Inch free; TV free too?; UV photos; Google 411; Record store owners' NYT Op-EdAn old-fashioned links dump, after a week of practical links for those who make holidays memorable. Invisible light: 
Secret Garden by Bjørn Rørslett Digital Ultraviolet photography Here's the site of this Norwegian nature photographer, and the Flowers in Ultraviolet Arranged by Plant Family index, where photos of the flowers in visible light are followed by their UV images. For example, here's the page of Potentilla anserina, a familiar yellow flower.  And the same plant shot with invisible light:  Here's how his tutorial begins (All You Ever Wanted to Know About Digital UV and IR Photography, But Could Not Afford to Ask): Ultraviolet and infrared radiation have one thing in common: Our eyes cannot see these areas of the spectrum. Fortunately, these esoteric light rays can be recorded by other sensors, such as the CCD or CMOS found in digital cameras. Free by the earful: Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero. Hear the entire new CD at their site. Woo, don't sue: Spinning Into Oblivion Two record-store owners write an op-ed in the New York Times blaming record labels and RIAA for the end of their industry: The sad thing is that CDs and downloads could have coexisted peacefully and profitably. The current state of affairs is largely the result of shortsightedness and boneheadedness by the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the opposite of everything they wanted in trying to keep the music business prospering. The association is like a gardener who tried to rid his lawn of weeds and wound up killing the trees instead. The authors are Tony Sachs and Sal Nunziato, owner of NYCD indie record store, which is now NYCD online. Here's their blog. Got concept? Geek Orthodox Easter Gadgets and Gear. Virtual Easter Eggs -- hidden add-ons to programs, sometimes left by programmers for fun. The Easter Egg Archive devotes its life to collecting them. Magic carpet graphics:  Mohammad Ehsaei poster, Iranian Artists in Bologna, 1977 Iranian Typography Now at Ping Magazine. Working with Farsi, roots in ancient Persian calligraphy. Google speaks: Goog411: Google Voice Local Search. Use your telephone. As reported at TechCrunch, Goog-411 can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411. The product is completely automated and there is no way to talk to a human for additional or clarifying information. You tell it your city and state, and then ask for a specific business or business category. In my tests the product was excellent. Although the voice recognition was only working at about 70% efficiency, I just said “back” and retried when it didn’t understand what I said. Results are spoken back or text messaged back to you, and you are automatically put through to the phone number requested. Legal, and free TV online; the more people who use it, the faster it gets. Everybody watching it is also distributing it: The vision: universal TV, running on a hybrid P2P platform—millions of exquisitely networked PCs fortified with traditional video servers. Free to viewers who download the player app. Friendly to content owners, thanks to industrial-strength encryption. Delightful to advertisers, adding pinpoint targeting to their all-time favorite medium. Everyone’s a winner!Mashup news:O'Reilly Radar > Google Launches MyMaps. That's the explainer. Here they are. I'm wondering if this would be easier than updating my R.I. beach map the way I made it, using latitude and longitudes in a spreadsheet at Mapbuilder. I'll find out next month when I tweak it, adding minor beaches and 2007 parking fees. FREE USELESS TRIAL! Walter Mossberg: Using Even New PCs Is Ruined by a Tangle of Trial Programs, Ads Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, dean of tech columnists, buys a new computer, and got the same bad surprises you did: The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don't act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products. I hope he played some of the games before he trashed them. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 5, 2007Easter parade: Eggs of the States; decorating tips2007 State Easter Eggs at Whitehouse.gov. The 2007 Easter Egg Collection continues the tradition that began in 1994 where each state sends a decorated egg to the White House for display. Artists from across the United States created the decorated eggs, which represent each state and the District of Columbia. Each year the artists vote amongst themselves to select the artist to create the following year's commemorative egg which is presented to the President and First Lady. The collection is coordinated by the American Egg Board. White House photos by Lynden Steele. Where to begin? My favorites, from Ohio...  ...and Kansas:  Florida goes for the postcard look:  I'm not sure where West Virginia is going with this one:  Here's Rhode Island's, by "egg artist Joan Kramer":  And then there's Tennessee:  The rest are all at the link. If you think you'd like to become an egg artist, check out the International Egg Art Guild, and its nested photo galleries. You'd think this was a sweet, simple story, but tempers are boiling over Wyoming's egg. Related: Posted by Sheila Lennon April 4, 2007New garden blogs
Maybe gardeners in warmer places are too busy planting to write. If you're a garden blogger who'd like to be on the list, email me at the link on that page. Posted by Sheila Lennon April 3, 2007Easter recipes for new cooks, new recipes for old onesProjo.com's food section -- as well as every other news org's -- tosses up new recipes every Easter. For old time's sake, here are a few others from 2001: Easter feasts Italian style and Easter eggs, ham, and spuds -- made easy -- a primer for first-time holiday cooks. Easter at Epicurious makes me hungry: Leg Of Lamb Stuffed With Greens And Feta involves white wine, scallions, fennel, oregano and assorted greens such as spinach and beet, whatever you have or like best. Roasted Potatoes With Garlic, Lemon, And Oregano accompany it. A Southern menu serves up an easy Glazed Ham With Pineapple Mustard Sauce Martha Stewart does Easter, bigtime. Easy: Bourbon-Glazed Ham; Herb Crusted Leg of Lamb, with garlic, oregano, lemon and brandy. Ham 101 has tips you might be glad you read, if you're cooking one. My favorite lamb recipe is "butterflied" -- peeled back flat from the bone and trimmed of fat. My husband gets into it, but you can ask the supermarket butcher to do it when you buy your leg. It's flavorful and not a bit greasy, and doesn't at all resemble the gray, stringy mystery meat of my childhood.
Should you need a printable lamb stencil, here you go.
Tips: How to Boil Eggs for Eating or Decorating.
Asparagus And Pesto Filled Egg Halves are at the other end of the spectrum from the sugar eggs. These eggs would be a big surprise in anybody's basket. It's from Lucullian Delights, a food blog in Tuscany, Italy. Several blogs, including Lucullian, are participating in a food-blogging event that aims to bring separate bloggers together for a joint post focused on a single theme: Waiter, there's something in my ... Easter basket! The results, with a couple of dozen food blogs from around the world contributing, are spectacular. Often, the recipes offered are treats from the bloggers' childhoods. Just a few: Beautiful Fake eggs of coconut panna cotta and banana chip puree from Evelin of Bounteous Bites in Tallinn, Estonia. Dowd Family Coconut Cream Eggs. Deborah Dowd of Newport News, Va. writes that it's her mother-in-law's recipe and, "I know a lot of people buy their eggs from church groups, but at least once you should try making them yourself.... they put the commercial ones to shame." Pansyshell Cookies from South Africa. The Plum Tart comes from Allen of Eating Out Loud, who grew up on a farm in Michigan.
1 tbs grand marnier or cointreau liquor Mahleb = sour cherry pits. There's a good gram calculator at GourmetSleuth, to help with the other conversions. Here's a simple, traditional recipe for this tsoureki -- Greek Easter bread. There's another at Martha Stewart: Diane's Greek Braided Easter Bread and a Ukrainian Easter Bread recipe there, too. Alt-Easter: So you don't like ham. Or lamb. You want all-natural. And you frown on sugar. Or you don't eat meat. Veganizing Easter and Passover Celebrations, with recipes. Easter Recipes from the Vegetarian Society. Make Chateaubriand (Beef tenderloin), or Herbed Roast Beef Tenderloin. Redo Thanksgiving: Here's my turkey recipe blogavaganza. The Busy Cooks page at About.com offers dozens of Alternative Easter Menus. Easter Candy Alternatives: It's Not All About the Sweets Coloring Easter Eggs: Natural Alternatives Check out the Passover recipes I blogged this morning. Crossover is indeed possible. Posted by Sheila Lennon Passover recipesLook for the Yellow Cap and the OU-P Symbol to ID Passover Coke. Coca-Cola is made with high-fructose corn syrup, but for Passover they make a special batch with the real thing -- plain sugar. Roasted Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar. Author Kalyn Denny has also written a nice post at BlogHer with recipe links and links to several more Passover recipe sites: Spotlighting Recipes for Passover.
Mediterranean Passover at Bon Appetit includes a Passover podcast by cookbook author Joan Nathan and these recipes, all at that link: Dried Fruit and Almond Haroseth Vegetarian: Matzoh Lasagna, Passover Vegetable Cups, Asparagus and Caramelized Onion Matzoh Farfel and Hearty Vegetarian Motzah Ball Soup, all at RecipeZaar.
Passover Coconut Cookies, with photos, at tastingmenu.com From the same source, Passover Stuffed Boneless Chicken Breast with Apricot Jam. Mock Chopped Liver and Nigella Lawson's Spinach at Amateur Gourmet. Plus, Shank Bones and Gefilte Fish: Chronicle of a Second Night Seder. Exotic Rack of Lamb with Spiced Quinoa at Martha Stewart: Passover Feast: A Traditional Seder Dinner, Spring Celebration, Passover Dessert Buffet, and a Passover Brunch. Sweet & Salt Relish. A Perfect Passover Garnish... at KQED. Shuna's Passover Chocolate Torte.
Biscotins - Passover Desserts at 18thC French cuisine Passover Salt Fix: Baked Potato Chips at words to eat by. And Easy Passover Lunches, by this blog's author, Debbie Koenig, at Weight Watchers magazine. Haroset, Charoses, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off. It's a chutney, says Nosheteria. Market Basket Matzo Brei. A matzoh and egg scramble. Posted by Sheila Lennon Recipes for homemade pet food; Congress tackles e-voting; Botched U.S. raid led to Iran hostage crisis?With the confusion surrounding recent pet food recalls, what's safe to feed the family animals? If you're looking for a way to ride out this storm until all the facts are in, here are some recipe sources if you're willing to cook for furry family members: 5 home-cooked meals for pets from The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash. Face it, dogs are easier. But "Chicken paprika for cats and people" sounds pretty good. For the cats' portion, add cooked rice, brewer's yeast and bone meal. Pet food recipes at mega-recipes site Cook's Recipes. Making cat food and recipes at catnutrition.org.
How to Make Homemade Cat Food at eHow includes a couple of dozen comments from pet owners on what worked and what didn't. How To Make Your Own Pet Food Recipes Warning: Do not feed cats onions! Hound Hash and more from Holistic Hounds. Meanwhile, here's the latest: Pet Food Recall at the Food and Drug Administration. PETA -- People for the ethical treatment of Animals -- is all over this, with Ingrid Newkirk, president of the Norfolk-based group, calling for the resignation of Food and Drug Administration commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach: FDA Hiding Info In Pet Food Epidemic, PETA Says Recall of pet food could expand, says USA Today. The mystery persists: "Aminopterin persists in the liver of animals for months at levels that are readily detected," said Barton A. Kamen, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Pediatric Oncology at UMDNJ. "Whatever is causing the renal failure, it is not Aminopterin." National Ledger (Pet Food Recall: First Dog & Cat Food, Now Possible Human Food Recall?): Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine... said melamine is "an ingredient that should not be in pet food at any level," but he warned that the FDA is not fully certain that the chemical caused pet illnesses. Related: Also from the Toronto Daily News, Contaminated Pet Food Causes Human Food Scare Many shipments of fish products from China and Vietnam had been refused entry into the U.S. because of contaminants found in the fish. Karl's numbers? Congress finally considers aggressive e-voting overhaul at Ars Technica. Rep Rush Holt (D-NJ) has emerged as the leader of the e-voting reform movement in Congress. He is the lead sponsor of HR 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, which has garnered dozens of co-sponsors. Undiplomatic: The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis Exclusive Report: How a bid to kidnap Iranian security officials sparked a diplomatic crisis, from The Independent (U.K.) Posted by Sheila Lennon April 2, 2007A weekend of code and cake
Fooling around: Some of the silliest April Fool tricks at The Guardian (U.K.). Blown away: Letters at 3AM: Red State Blues in the Austin (Texas) Chronicle:
I've finished revamping SoxBlog, projo's very first blog, just in time for today's season opener. Sliding the new code in under it worked well. Some other ideas didn't work at all, but I can file them under "Player to be named later." There is a cold mental architecture involved in juggling code, a metallic cathedral of the mind that's far from the near-channeling of writing. A tiny error and everything goes bad. Enough of this and I want to paint, let shape and color be what they will and call it okay. Instead I made a cake. It had been so long since the last cake that I forgot to wait for the frosting to cool before spreading it -- it poured and hardened, and the strawberries between the layers oozed out. Delicious in its imperfect homemade squat goodness, it's all gone. Posted by Sheila Lennon |
Bizarre detail, from James Ridgeway at Mother Jones (
In Dean's campaign, Trippi pioneered the successful use of a blog (
Not in our name: Fred Wilhelms, an attorney for musicians and songwriters -- rock writer 
In more than 40 years of making music, Ken Lyon has gone from pre-Beatle popster to solo acoustic bluesman to blues-rock titan to traditional folkie and back again. And on his 66th birthday at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, he’ll recap the whole thing.
my passport photo blogging since 2002 garden blogs archived headlines  Sheila Lennon is features & interactive producer of projo.com, the Web site of The Providence (R.I.) Journal Rhode Island |
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