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Reflecting on Obama's Speech
Posted by horatio on Saturday, August 30, 2008 (16:59:13) (86 reads)
I imagine by now that most people have had a chance to digest the speech Obama gave, and maybe even read reactions and supporters comments afterwards. Well, on a whim I decided to watch the speech at a friends place, and figured I'd offer my two cents as an 'objective' viewer (objective in that I'm neither an Obama or McCain fan). In case you missed his speech, you can watch it here or read it here.
My primary problem with all the back slapping and supporter comments so far is that they lack substance, and are primarily emotional cheerleading lacking critical reflection. I'm sorry, but that was not a "great" speech, either from a rhetorical or an oratorical perspective. I have seen him better present himself on the campaign trail or even in Congress, and with a few exceptions, I really was disappointed. I was expecting a rousing, Dr. King or Fidel style speech where he really marked out his territory and worked the crowd into an ecstatic frenzy. I never saw it, unless you consider the occasional mass booing of Bush and Chaney to by a "frenzy." Geesh, I think I got more goosebumps listening to Aragorn or V or William Wallace.
continued in Read More link...
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Our Official Blog : New York Life - Act I
Posted by horatio on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 (23:12:49) (182 reads)
Well, I've been in town a little over 72 hours and definitely having a blast so far. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm living in the Stuy Town apartments, which basically take up everything between 14th and 20th N/S and the East river to 1st ave E/W. The complex itself is pretty cool, has a nice feel so far, and was definitely not what I was expecting prior to moving in.
Just to give you a sense of the town and my wanderings, here's a few examples of the more interesting events or happenings I've found myself a part of so far. Tuesday morning I had an interview with the editor of the T&V, which is the newspaper for the complex. I've sat in the oval (which is the central part of the complex I live in) and talked with an interesting character named John who reminds me a bit of Fred from Athens, but with more of a hippieish spin, but not look. One of those people who you see sitting in a park talking loudly to seemingly no one. Later that day while having lunch in Union Sq. I ran into a homeless guy named Grant who I had an excellent conversation with. He was selling one of those papers that some homeless writers contribute to, and we had a fascinating conversation about politics, society, life and other stuff, all in about a 20 minute span before he contined on his way. In the evening of that same day back in the complex there was a big kids talent event going on, and I got to watch some kids singing, doing kung-fu, gymnastics and assorted other stuff.
Last night my roommate and I managed to dumpster a bunch of shelves to make more book holding space with, and we are also hoping to do some more scavaging in the near future. So far it has been productive.
I've managed to meet about a dozen people so far, some living here in the complex, and others who were either in my department or were at the NSSR orientation, like those in Soc. or Lib Studies. We've even started our own group, jokingly called the New School Short Bus! Life is really funny, isn't it. Yesterday and today were mostly spent exploring the area around the apartment and class buildings, as well as getting scheduled for classes. I should have a fun semester, and maybe even a possibility of an interesting job working with the journal Social Research, which the school publishes.
Well, more to tell, but it will have to wait...off to meet and greet more folks!
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Our Official Blog : Look Ma, I'm A New Yorker Now!
Posted by horatio on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 (06:10:33) (335 reads)
Well, it's official. I'm a New Yorker, albeit a very new one...
So yeah, for those who haven't been following my life saga very closely, I just moved to NYC to start work on my PhD at the New School in Political Science. So I managed to land a pretty nice apartment in the Stuy Town area, which is a pretty old complex that is really huge--80 acres for just the apartment complex! It's not without it's problems, but it's better than concrete and no greenspace.
I'll be writing more detailed thoughts, reflections, etc soon, but let me just say that so far I am having a blast, met a lot of cool people, and only managed to get turned around once or twice so far! Well, stay tuned for all the latest right here...
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Our Official Blog : Sex is Zero 2 review and clip
Posted by horatio on Monday, August 18, 2008 (05:38:31) (240 reads)
Today has been one of those quasi-productive days. Very productive on some fronts, not so productive on others. On the up hand, I watched a fascinating South Korean movie this evening called Sex is Zero 2, by director Yoon Tae-yoon. Apparently this is the second film, but I haven't seen the first one to compare yet.
Hands down, I would recommend this film to friends. It fast paced, funny, tragic, frustrating, enticing, playful and generally hit a lot of the feelings I think film does well with. It had an almost Woody Allen-esq feel in the sexual overtones and humor. While I'm sure there were some Korean subtleties lost on me (what's the importance of the king card in the game on the beach?), I still related to the film really well, and thought the cast of characters was odd but had good synergy. It's also nice to see films about college-aged youth outside of an American cultural context, even if the US still plays a role in the background.
The basic story follows a group of female swimmers and their boy/friends, some of which are part of a martial arts club (both at a SK university), and the trials and tribulations they go through in their relationships and daily lives over a relatively short span of time. There's karaoke and love songs, fights and double-crossing. Hell, there's even lollipops in the bum and inflatable love dolls behind the dressers. I especially love the slow-motion framing in the twin apartment scene when it finally explodes--amazing!! That's how filmmaking should be all the time. While the social interactions at times seem a bit stretched, other times they are quite real and raw. I wonder how many guys have been in the same spot on an escalator somewhere...? I wonder how many girls would have still got on the place anyway? Who knows. But luckily, for a truly fun film with lots of gusto and play, this one is a keeper. Overall, I would say a 4.5 * film.
You can watch a great promo trailer (no subs, but you don't really need them) here:
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Tainted Beef
Posted by horatio on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 (04:33:42) (192 reads)
Seems like more details are emerging on the tainted beef at Whole Foods, and other markets lately. The NY Times today had a story (Recall Leads Whole Foods to a Change) about changes at Whole Foods, and the larger problems of beef and disease vectors... And considering I've been reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, I have to doubt these incidents are only getting more common, and more deadly...more on this topic later.
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Site Updated !
Posted by horatio on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 (00:09:21) (98 reads)
Boy, glad that is over!
We've just finished a new site install, so please bare with us as we bring more of the site back live. Unfortunately our database backup appears to not have saved properly and we're having some trouble retrieving past news articles at the moment, but we'll keep working on that. Everything else is back up and running, including a revamped interface, new language options, and some more cool stuff that we will roll out in the coming weeks...so stay tuned!
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