How to get thrown into a Chinese prison
How to get thrown into a Chinese prison | Politics and Law – CNET News
How to get thrown into a Chinese prison
Related link to slideshow of non-destructive graffiti and tagging
A Biblical Seven Years
Op-Ed Columnist – A Biblical Seven Years – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com
After attending the spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics and feeling the vibrations from hundreds of Chinese drummers pulsating in my own chest, I was tempted to conclude two things: “Holy mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.†And, two: “We are so cooked. Start teaching your kids Mandarin.â€
Moving Targets
Moving Targets – NYTimes.com
During morning rush, the teeth-gritting of drivers is almost audible, as superbly fit cyclists, wearing Sharpie-toned spandex and riding $3,000 bikes, cockily dart through the swampy, stolid traffic to offices with bike racks and showers.
Who needs a $3,000 bike to outrun a car in the city.? Most clunkers can do that.
Bike Racks
David Byrne, Cultural Omnivore, Raises Cycling Gear to an Art Form With Bike Racks – NYTimes.com
David Byrne is an installation artist, author, blogger, recording executive, photographer, film director and PowerPoint enthusiast. He’s even been known to dabble in music. But in certain New York neighborhoods he may be most visible as a bicycle rider, a lanky figure pedaling around the Lower East Side, or from Bay Ridge out to Coney Island in Brooklyn or up to the Bronx Museum of the Arts.In recent years his interest in bicycles has expanded from riding them to thinking seriously about the role they play in urban life, as he has started making connections with politicians and international design consultants keen to keep cars from taking over the city. So when the Department of Transportation asked him to help judge a design competition for the city’s new bike racks, he eagerly agreed — so eagerly, in fact, that he sent in his own designs as well.
I do like that tag “Cultural Omnivore”…
The city of Santa Fe should hold a design competition for bike racks – especially in view of the upcoming 400 year anniversary of the city. Might even include a pink howling coyote bike rack. Ha!
Here is what I saw in Park City, Utah.
Music Critics
soiveheard.com – Questions and Answers
The situation right now is at its worst. Not only because critics are losing their jobs right and left, but because the field is being pared in so brutal a fashion. It is far worse for a city to end up with one single critic, no matter how competent or how well-positioned, than none; the only way for criticism to work is as a forum of some sort, whether it be four guys on the NYTimes or me versus Mark Swed in L.A.. This network of small dictatorships reduces the field to a lot of interlocking blather. All these blogs right now are a kind of Babel, but the small-talk guys, the guys that used to shoot off in the record stores and now have access to websites, will soon run out of steam, and the few worthwhile websites – Alex’s, best of all – will survive as the new source for musical intelligence. The fact that schools like USC are actually training arts critics these gloomy days is a good sign; there’s a chance that the art will survive.
This is not limited to classical music critics.
Sony buys Bertelsmann
In giant music biz news, this just in…
Sony buys Bertelsmann out of Sony BMG – home to Mark Ronson and Bruce Springsteen | Business | guardian.co.uk
Japanese electronics giant Sony is buying its partner Bertelsmann out of their Sony BMG music joint venture, home to artists including Mark Ronson and Bruce Springsteen, in a deal worth $1.2bn (£614m) to the German media group.
Sony just got even bigger…
