Calvin Trillin: About Alice

I just listened to this interview at the 92nd Street Y. Very funny and touching. I don't think anyone makes me laugh out loud as much as Trillin does, and with so little effort. At least it seems effortless. I never knew I loved poetry this much.

Trillin claims he wrote the shortest poem of all time, it is about the social implications of the OJ Simpson case:

OJ
Oy vey


Below is an hour long interview between Charlie Rose and Trillin right around the start of the Iraq war. At one point Trillin talks about getting thrown out of dinner parties because of his views about the war. Hard to remember when that was such an unpopular position.

TEDtalks are terrific

TEDtalks

Coldplay

Sometimes I find them hokey -- but irresistible (as is this movie)

Byrne

Podcasting

It really has enhanced my life. I hardly ever listen to music when I go for my walks. I download various shows and interviews, usually through Itunes, but occasionally through the websites that the shows are themselves broadcast. And mostly for free. You can subscribe to most NPR (Fresh Air, Leonard Lopate and This American Life to name a few) and C-Span book shows, and the podcasts will automatically update. Many of those shows will charge a fee if you try to download them later, though not a large one. One does not have to have an ipod to take advantage of this, the files can usually be transferred to a competing device.

Lately I've been delving into Itunes U -- and am currently going through some interviews sponsored by the 92nd Street Y (NYC). They have a few interviews that touch on science between Robert Krulwich and various writers and researchers. I listened to his interview of Oliver Sacks, played by Robin Williams in Awakenings. Krulwich is a science reporter for NPR and co-hosts the Radiolab show.

I must say I look forward to my walks -- and don't feel as deficient in my reading. I am also a convert to listening to interviews, I don't feel a need to see the person. In fact, walking seems to allow me to listen without distraction. My only complaint is that some of my best thoughts seem to come in go while I am on my walks, and while I return, the thoughts leave me.

Interesting Article about Technology, Social Networking and Teens

Teenagers' Internet Socializing

Below is the researcher talking about her findings.

REM -- Reveal

They were my first concert, 1984 at Radio City.

These songs are from the album Reveal -- came out the same year as U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, and while I liked that album, I loved this one. It didn't really get any play, though. Stipe never played the game in the same way as Bono. He has charisma, but nobody plays in Bono's league. And when I think of where REM started -- they are probably where they always wanted to be.

Poppy ska

Not sure how they chose this to open the concert . . .

but it was perfect.

Public Relations -- Knicks -- Marbury

Marbury is an odd duck, and has alienated every teammate and coach he has ever had. He's getting paid millions to do nothing, doesn't have an agent and has made poor decision after poor decision on and off the court. He is incapable of masking what he is thinking. It is this lack of guile, however, that serves him in this situation. His ability to say, do you really think they wanted me to be the starting shooting guard. I am sure D'Antoni offered it to him. I am sure Marbury sneered in response. That sneer was what the Knicks hoped for.

Yet, somehow, the Knicks have managed to be the villain in this. That is one talented PR team. They think they are smarter then they really are. And that the public is stupid. Sadly, I think that is what PR has become.

It is as we say it is, rather then what it really is. The problem is, when you lose credibility, you lose the ability to disseminate real information, thereby making your role the antithesis of what it was originally meant to be.

Singalong Junk

From the above album -- not a fun video, just a picture, but a beautiful melody. Paul does write some beautiful instrumentals.

Mike and the Mad Dog

Some good info on their breakup from Neil Best. He has about ten blog posts from a long interview he had with Francesa. Most people wouldn't read all ten blog posts, I am not most people.

I must say that I was very happy not to receive more then one or two calls about the break-up when it happened. It made me feel like my life had progressed.

Unitl mid-December

Franken -- Coleman

Tom Friedman - Energy Technology

I haven't read Friedman's book, Hot, Flat and Crowded. And I was annoyed by Friedman for a long time for his "suck on this" rhetoric in support of the Iraq war, and his consistent insistence that the next 6 months would tell the story in Iraq got old after 36 or 42 months of the same.

But I don't like to hold grudges, and cut off good ideas just because I have had issues with the person speaking them. He also warmed my heart after the Republican Convention by pointing out the absurdity of people chanting "Drill Baby, Drill." He made the analogy to someone in the late eighties chanting "IBM Selectric Typewriters" in the face of the internet revolution.

Friedman has some very good ideas about the United States moving into a Energy Technology revolution. I drove to Cape May yesterday and listened to a podcast of Friedman speaking at the London School of Economics. You can download or listen to the address at the site I linked to, the powerpoint he used is also available. In a way I think Friedman is trying to reform himself -- and knows how poorly he performed in the early 2000's. If this is his path to redemption, I welcome him.

Ph. D. programs

Instructional or Educational Technology

Southern Miss -- not clear if completely online