mclatte

dionne distills.

African slavery is so much the outstanding feature of the South, in the unthinking view of it, that people often forget there had been slaves in all the old colonies. Slaves were auctioned openly in the Market House of Philadelphia; in the shadow of Congregational churches in Rhode Island; in Boston taverns and warehouses; and weekly, sometimes daily, in Merchant's Coffee House of New York. Such Northern heroes of the American Revolution as John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin bought, sold, and owned black people. William Henry Seward, Lincoln's anti-slavery Secretary of State during the Civil War, born in 1801, grew up in Orange County, New York, in a slave-owning family and amid neighbors who owned slaves if they could afford them. The family of Abraham Lincoln himself, when it lived in Pennsylvania in colonial times, owned slaves.

The North failed to develop large-scale agrarian slavery, such as later arose in the Deep South, but that had little to do with morality and much to do with climate and economy.

WhatEVER--Okay, I apologize

awaiting a new paradigm

if we had a humor page id put this cavett blog there

an article about a company that makes blu-ray mastering equipment

The part that caught my eye was the comment about neither blu-ray nor hd-dvd winning the format war. It will be all about downloads. It would be a shame if the video disc goes the way of the dodo. There is absolutely no form of video available to consumers that is anywhere near the quality of a well-mastered high def digital disc. Until we get fat pipes like they have in Korea, downloads will be much lower bit rate, and visibly lower quality.

If enough people get big ass displays, which will allow the average consumer to see the difference, physical media may retain a foothold.

netflix to introduce set top box.

cooking with grappa

wild frozen blueberries

great for pancake sunday mornings! (and smoothies)

i only caught the tail end of the dems debate last night because i didnt realized there was one. but i did see stephanopoulos and sawyer call this hillarys worst moment and josh marshall posits that it was either an impassioned or enraged response depending on your point of view. i see it as a marginally honest assessment wrapped in cherry picked factoids. noone is willing to completely come out and say that the notion of "change" is campaign rhetoric. who the hell isnt for change? only those who wish to "stay the course." its pretty much an either or proposition. what you plan to do to effect change is all that matters not that you are for change. that said, i dont see how anyone could view hillarys response as anything but impassioned. now is not the time for sitting on your hands and modulating your response so as not to ruffle the heathers feathers.

counting on electronic voting machines

Ring bearing Barn Owl
via Birdchick

some unnamed visitor didnt know who jane wyman was, or that she was ronald reagans first wife back when he was a new deal democrat. tcm has a bloc of wyman today celebrating her birthday. the movie she and reagan met on is playing now on tcm, brother rat, also starring a young eddie albert.

couple of hollywood-style lsd counterculture inspired flicks late night on tcm. skiddoo and the love-ins.

pretty momentous night of political theater last night. as far as coverage went, the democrats certainly seemed to be center stage while the republicans were almost an afterthought. maybe thats because the conservative who won doesnt have any institutional support so noone wanted to push his brand. and romney disappeared himself by giving his speech at exactly the same time as huckabee insuring that he would not be covered live. doesnt seem very smart. ron paul, of course, got the wheres waldo treatment, despite his respectable 10% showing. he got no coverage and barely no mention, whereas mccain at 13%, still the media darling, was mentioned at every turn. in fact, msnbc desperate to promote mccain had him as #3 most of the night (they only showed the top three in their graphics) despite the fact that he was in fourth behind deputy droop-a-long, fred thompson. thompson must have taken the night off knowing he was on the way out because he got about as much facetime as bill richardson, which was none, and only mentioned in the context of throwing his support to st. mccain. also, despite beating hillary by the hair on his chinny chin chin, edwards wasnt considered viable down the road by the poobahs. probably true but it seems the media would like to make this a self fullfilling prophecy.

my favorite moment of the night: some pundit trying to explain the chuck norris ironic appeal to interpups.


also great to see rachel maddow of air america given space at the msnbc pundits table. kudos to msnbc for having a true liberal voice. i thought she acquitted herself quite well.

so obama gives good speech. i was nearly as taken with edwards populist cant but you cant deny obamas presence. hillary was pretty gracious in defeat but i cant say i wasnt just as happy as the odious chris matthews to see some fresh faces take center stage. oh, and obama wins on art direction as well. instead of the claustrophobic backdrop of family and supporters huddled onstage, he was set apart. it was very bushian, in fact, but effective given his victory.

someones avatar. seemed very tree-like.

Be afraid, be very afraid -- but don't let it show.

tcm premiere at 8pm of Things to Come, a 1936 film adaptation of an hg wells book.

New Orleans wins, or, almost wins, again.

turned on the tube and i thought i recognized a person from the coffeshop days on avenue a being interviewed about her movie, the savages, in some fox movie channel filler material. i was even able to confirm the cafe connection. i always found her annoying but nice enough. and if slums of beverly hills was autobiographical than you cant blame her.

Had my first and last Burek from these guys , was tasty but i dont need a pile of filo and oil with a smidge of cheese and spinach.....these folks serve the Serbian and Bosnian types.....I predict the Bay Ridge Branch (#4 for them) will fail, as so much in Bay Ridge sadly does.....

Linda/Alex what did you think??

brit com : too many crooks (1959)

What are your favorite British comic films? I like most of the usual Ealing suspects: Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, and Man in the White Suit. I've never warmed to The Ladykillers, and Whiskey Galore made me laugh only once. As for non-Ealing comedies, Heavens Above with Peter Sellers really struck me as well done. I'm All Right, Jack was also good. Smallest Show on Earth was quite charming, and Belles of St. Trinian's took me by surprise and made me laugh.

The men who ruled the world in the late 1950s, or at least six of the men who ruled publishing, rejected Peg Bracken’s manuscript, “The I Hate to Cook Book.” It would never sell, they told her, because “women regard cooking as sacred.” It took a female editor at Harcourt Brace to look at the hundreds of easy-to-follow recipes wittily pitched at the indentured housewife and say, “Hallelujah!” Since its publication in 1960, Bracken’s iconic book, which celebrated the speedy virtues of canned cream-of-mushroom soup and chicken bouillon cubes, has sold more than three million copies. That helped lift her spirits, her daughter, Jo Bracken, said, about her $338 advance.

Bracken had the nerve to say then what so many women felt: They liked cooking fine, as long as they didn’t have to cook all the time. There was scant takeout in postwar America, no prepared foods, certainly no men rushing home from the office to don an apron and help out. The job of a wife and mother was to put food on the table, three times a day, seven days a week. And not just like it — live for it.

worst name for a college football bowl game:

the san diego county credit union poinsetta bowl or the gaylord hotels music city bowl?

Had the chance to watch a bunch of new releases over Christmas. I am the worst movie critic ever, so not sure why I'm even bothering, but here goes.

Atonement: beautifully shot, and much more intriguing than I thought it would be with a lot of jumping around in time. But I'd have to see it again to really know if it hung together on a deeper level and I don't have any desire to see it again. Really beautifully shot though.

Bucket List: Pretty fun although I'm embarrassed to say it. Pure fluff.

Juno: About as awesome as a comedy about teenage pregnancy can be. The Juno character is cast spot on.

Talk Radio Talk To Me: Interesting history lesson about an interesting figure - Petey Green - who I knew nothing about. Probably worth it for that. And I love Don Cheadle. But no way best picture.

Savages: Didn't get through it.

Valley of Elah: A smart look at some of the very negative repercussions of our crazy adventure in Iraq once these kids come home. Tommy Lee Jones is great. So I support this movie, I just wouldn't recommend it so much.

American Gangster: This must have been written with Denzel in mind it fits so well. I'll give it props for reaching for something truly great - but it falls short of that. And in that sense it's sort of overly long and falling apart. No way in the same class as Godfather and Goodfellas (I guess obviously,) and there's no way not to compare it to those. But still worth watching if you're into that sort of thing.

Michael Clayton: Probably my favorite of the bunch. Clooney is good. Interesting plot. A few nice twists. Nothing amazing, but pretty perfect Hollywood movie. Doesn't overreach like American Gangster.