May all beings be free from suffering
I hate to post things that are already on the front page of YouTube, but this is just too sweet, thoughtful and funny. I’m also a sucker for acoustic guitar and immaculately performed lo-fi camera tricks, both of which are excellently executed in this one.
Candy Chang points out how the urban grind can make people lose sight of the bigger questions in their lives, and puts those questions on the sidewalk for people looking down:
(more photos at the link above)
This is an amazing idea. Artistic graffiti is beautiful and wonderful, but simple questions like these can be so powerful and visceral for the people who see them, regardless of how they’d normally feel about art or vandalism. I usually use chalk.
(Found via. Spacing Montreal)
I had to. Via lolbots.
Also on the subject of unnecessary electrical violence, this amazing techno/video remix of the original ‘Dont’ Tase me Bro’ student situation. The mix is just so catchy, I saw it a few months ago but still randomly get it stuck in my head. YouTube Link.
A friend of mine pointed out to me that today is the anniversary of the end of prohibition of beer so many decades ago (In the U.S.) Obviously, this is something we should all be happy about, only bad things happened during the prohibition of alcohol and people had access to it anyway (except that the high prices funded organized crime instead of the public trust through taxes).
I like to take holidays celebrating the legality of alcohol as an opportunity to reflect on the stupid, pointless and destructive laws we still suffer against regarding drugs less dangerous and more fun than alcohol. Marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, for example, are completely non-lethal (unlike alcohol), not chemically addictive (and mushrooms aren’t even really psychologically addictive) and don’t make people into violent jerks like alcohol does, yet they remain illegal because a minority of our society cares about what the rest choose to do with those substances.
They are natural organisms designed by [INSERT DEITY] and springing from the earth, but which are illegal to cultivate, a crime against nature and ourselves. I look forward to a time when we can celebrate the day that crime could no longer depend on the masses consuming something safe for their paycheck, until then I’ll just thank my lucky stars I live in a country and province that are sane towards these substances, if inconsistent (by which I mean that we the majority aren’t in direct danger for our habits like we could be in more paranoid and anal-retentive societies, despite the official illegality of our actions).
[Illustrational photo by ashergrey]
When I tell people about my job at Global Voices they tend to get confused, sometimes even after they’ve seen the site. Admittedly it’s a pretty complex piece of journalism, research and community all mixed up together. For those people I recommend this podcast from Open Source Radio, where the host Chris Lydon interviews two of my bosses, Ethan Zuckerman and Solana Larsen about how and why Global Voices does what it does. They make a great argument for Global Voices as an idea and as a reality, and it’s great to hear the voices of people I’m so used to dealing with through text only (There is no Global Voices office, except maybe our irc channel).
It’s kind of long so you might want to actually put it on your “pod” of choice.
Link to episode page. Direct MP3 link (71 min, 33MB).
I’ve been listening to the free weekly podcast of This American Life for about a year now, and it never fails to deliver. It’s a public radio show that tells thoughtful, well-produced stories about relatively average people in the U.S. It always has smooth, catchy musical segues and at least one lough out loud moment per episode. (The most recent episode is always free to download/podcast and you can listen to the archives but not download them without paying)
In the most recent show, the host mentioned an Onion article about the show that cut deep, and if you’re familiar with the show it’s the best summary you’ll ever read.
An excerpt from “This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence“:
Also aiding the [show] were the many contributors to This American Life, who took time from their best-selling essay-writing careers to donate personal anecdotes about dropping out of prestigious art schools, taking harrowing but poignant childhood vacations to the Grand Canyon, and the unique challenges of growing up in families supportive of their homosexuality.
Anyway, just thought I’d take a minute to plug both This American Life and The Onion for being super high quality and super free.
The Onion: American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie – Amazing parody of the “9-11 feels like a movie” phenomenon written in September 2001.
YouTube: POWERTHIRST!!! (via. Sarah)
Amazing video argument against the movie 300 for being racist and homophobic. I’ve defended 300 and Frank Miller in the past as being partially ironic and completely ridiculous, but the video’s creator did a great job with the title cards, and it really summarises the stereotypes that are present in the film, whether they’re dangerous or not. Link
The audio is Rage Against the Machine, it’s actually pretty exciting. (Found with Miro)
