Chuck Brown

Featuring remarkable Afro-Cuban polyrhythms via pounding congas and rototoms, punctuated bursts of brass and Brown shouting out call-and-response phrases alongside grooves that extended many songs to over eight minutes long and, more importantly, almost two or three times that in a live setting Brown& 39;s music was for partying. Though it flirted with mainstream success in the & 39;80s, the music has remained a regional phenomenon, a uniquely American strain of dance music.

But that doesn& 39;t mean its influence hasn& 39;t spread. The rhythms he built were some of the earliest tracks sampled by electronic dance music producers, especially when rave culture was being born in England. Coldcut& 39;s influential 1987 jam ‘Say Kids What Time Is It?’ is built on the back of a Chuck Brown rhythm from ‘Bustin& 39; Loose’ as is the Farm& 39;s breakout rave-pop anthem ‘All Together Now’ from 1990.

Chuck Brown

Fans of Brown spoke volumes about his work in the live setting; I never saw him, so I feel at a great disadvantage when addressing his version of go-go music, because as dance music, it was built to be experienced live, to move a crowd. In her wonderful essay over at the Root, writer Natalie Hopkinson suggests that this allegiance to the live experience is what separated it from the music of hip-hop and perhaps what doomed it in the pop marketplace.

‘It stayed true to time-honored cultural scripts such as live call-and-response, live instrumentation, as well as its locally rooted fashions, slang, dance, distribution and economic systems,’ she writes. ‘Simply put: Go-go never sold out. There is a grit and texture to the music sometimes derided as & 39;pots and pans& 39; that gives voice to the communities where it was created and from which profits are taken.’

If you& 39;ve never heard Brown& 39;s music, a story relayed in Jeff Chang& 39;s history of hip-hop, ‘Can& 39;t Stop, Won& 39;t Stop,’ captures the essence of Brown& 39;s go-go sounds. He quotes Brown producer Reo Edwards, describing the message of the music: ‘I was talking to a go-go songwriter one time,’ Edwards told Chang. ‘I said, & 39;Man, you need a verse here.& 39; The guy said, & 39;The rototom& 39;s talking! Hear the rototom?& 39; Swear to God, he said the rototom was telling the story. & 39;Can& 39;t put no verse there, the rototom telling the story.& 39;’

Photo: In this Jan. 18, 2010 file photo, master of ceremonies Chuck Brown speaks during a program to celebrate the legacy of the late Martin Luther King Jr. at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington. Brown died Wednesday. Credit: Nick Wass / AP Photo.

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Read it all at latimesblogs.latimes.com

Memorial Day

Of those 34.8 million people, AAA reports that about 30.7 million of them will drive to their weekend destination, up from 30.3 million people who drove last year.

Americans are planning to take shorter trips this year, however. Of the remaining 47% of travelers who said gas prices would affect their plans, 9% said they will take a shorter trip, 4% said they will use an alternative mode of transportation, and 34% will try to save money in other ways during the trip.

Memorial Day

‘The overall domestic economic picture continues to improve slightly; however, American consumers faced a new challenge this year as steadily increasing gas prices throughout the spring significantly squeezed many household budgets. Americans will still travel during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but many will compensate for reduced travel budgets by staying closer to home and cutting entertainment dollars,’ Brad Roeber, AAA Chicago regional president, said in a statement.

When gas rises, it& 39;s really only a couple of extra dollars at the pump for the overall fill-up. I spent about an extra $20 a month to fill up a V8 car when gas was in the $4-$5 range. I think gas would have to go past $7 or $8 to really break people.

Problem is that we& 39;re starting to feel like $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon isn& 39;t a bad deal. A few years ago, everyone was outraged when gas prices went up this far.

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Read it all at blogs.cars.com

Nick Stahl

Stahl had been frequenting skid row, and LAPD officials said officers who work the downtown beat have been given copies of his photo and told keep an eye out for him.

Stahl& 39;s wife, Rose Murphy, reported him missing shortly after 10 a.m. Monday to Hollywood Division officers, spokesman Richard French said. Foul play is not suspected at this time, he said.

Nick Stahl

Murphy filed court papers in February, saying that the couple had been separated since January. She asked that Stahl& 39;s visitations with their daughter, Marlo, 2, be limited. She also asked for proof he hadn& 39;t used drugs within 24 hours before seeing her, KTLA-TV reported.

The director who worked with Stahl on the movie ’388 Arletta Avenue’ told People magazine that the actor showed no signs of being in trouble.

‘He was fantastic — not a single problem,’ director Randall Cole told the magazine ‘He was a total professional and knew his lines. There was no diva behavior at all.’

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Read it all at latimesblogs.latimes.com

Solar Eclipse

A solar eclipse happens when the mood positions itself between the sun and the earth. As a result, the moon casts a shadow over the earth. (For our younger audience – the moon is made from special cheese that does not melt in the sun).

Solar Eclipse

The upcoming eclipse on May 20th is a annular eclipse which means that the as the moon’s path crosses between the sun and the earth, it’s shadow will be smaller than the sun, making the sun look like a blazing doughnut.

The following animation from Wikipedia shows where the eclipse will be seen from, and there is a bunch of good info including cities and times over at Time and Date.

It may sound simple, but you would have to be outside to actually see the stuff happening. Preferably in an open place where you have no wires or phone polls obstructing the view. This is where you want to set your tripod.

This is pretty common knowledge, but just to be on the safe side, you do not want to look into the sun. Eclipsed or not. Really dangerous stuff. Really.

Sadly, your camera also does not want to take a bare look into the sun. The best solution I know of so far is to use 14 welders glass as an ND filter. Those filters are cheap and are big enough to cover your lenses. If you wanna know how to mount this thing on your camera, see our tutorial here.

Note that you wanna set everything before mounting the filter on, because 14 stops will make your camera go totally black when not looking into the sun.

The eclipse has three parts, and you wanna be there for all three – before the moon covers the sun,. the coverage, and when the moon slowly goes away. That means that you may wanna be outside before the eclipse starts, take a position and place your tripod. Than you can chill and drink your favorite beverage and shoot as the eclipse advances.

While the entire move is about 6 hours long, the interesting part when the sun becomes a ring of fire is fairly short – about 6 minutes- so get your stuff ready before and use those 6 minutes to shoot.

My “plan A” was to purchase a 12×12 sheet of black polymer solar film ($25) from Thousand Oaks Optical and a couple cheap UV filters in the appropriate size. When the filters arrived I removed the retaining rings so I could remove the glass filters. I laid the glass filter on solar film and used a razor blade to cut out a piece of film in the exact size of the glass filter. I then placed the film between the two pieces of glass after cleaning the glass and dropped them into the filter ring and reinstalled the retainer ring. Took about 20-30 minutes to make each filter.

I also made a solar filter using one UV filter. After cutting out the solar film, I dropped the glass into the filter ring with the film on top. I then reinstalled the retainer ring. I made filters using Black Polymer and R-G solar film in 67mm and 86mm. Much cheaper than buying a pre-made threaded solar filter for $55. I paid $10 for two 67mm UV filters and $25 for a sheet of Black Polymer film which means my 67mm threaded solar filter costs $22.50 and my 86mm threaded solar costs $30.50 ($18 for two UV filters and $12.50 for half of the sheet of the Black Polymer film).

Because I had some concerns regarding the timely delivery of the solar film due to the high demand related to the upcoming annular eclipse, I also purchased some 14 welders lenses as my “plan B” which will work albeit with a green tint.

In anticipation of the transit of Venus in June, I took a few test photos of the sun using a Hoya R72 IR filter and circular polarizer (Panasonic DMC-G3 with Nikkor-Q Auto 135mm via adapter). I stopped the lens down to f/11. I was able to make out a few of the larger sunspots that were active that day (confirmed via NASA/ESA SOHO site). I guess I should probably add a UV filter on top too, but the shots were quick and hand-held as opposed to staring at the sun for a long time.

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Read it all at www.diyphotography.net

Time Magazine

What’s the most surprising thing you learned in reporting Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History?

Bradley Manning has been widely portrayed as a sort of lefty, antiwar activist, or as a bullied, embittered child who lashed out at the Army. I found him to be substantially different from those caricatures, and much more interesting. He’s quite independent minded. And despite his humble beginnings and emotional difficulties his life has been mostly characterized by headlong, bold ambition.

Time Magazine

It was clear early on that Manning was the real agent of change in the WikiLeaks drama. There have always been people willing to accept and publicize secrets, but never before was there a soldier of Manning’s inclinations in a position to leak such a massive quantity of information who took the daring step of actually leaking it.

This leak was, by far, the largest such event in the history of the United States and probably the world. I wanted to know what motivated this young man, where he came from, and who he was. In the first story in Wired that broke the news of his arrest it was pretty clear he wasn’t motivated by money, revenge, or political maneuvering, as are most people who leak state secrets, but by something closer to ideals, which is far more interesting to me. I wanted to understand that.

There’s no doubt Brad Manning was troubled by his experiences in Iraq and unhappy about aspects of life in the military, but he’s far from anti-military or even anti-war. Early in his deployment to Iraq he mulled over re-enlisting and mused about the attractive notion of attending West Point.

He proudly told a close friend that he was being recruited for the United States Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s then-brand-new cyberwarfare unit based at Fort Meade. He spoke fondly of the prospect of getting experience working alongside the NSA. It seems he was most troubled not by American foreign policy in general or even the Iraq war specifically, but by the secrecy with which they were conducted.

Manning’s fairly straightforward, pro-transparency motivation is uncommon among those who leak information to the press, and gets easily lost in the left-right rhetoric that dominates our public life in the United States.

This is a complicated question. At this point it seems extremely likely that Manning was the source of the leaks he’s accused of perpetrating. The question of whether or not he’s guilty of each of the 22 Uniform Code of Military Justice violations he’s charged with is above my pay grade. Though I will say that charging him with aiding the enemy strikes me as a reckless overreaction.

Manning is charged with aiding the enemy for giving mostly-dated classified information to a person who he knew was going to put it on the Internet, where members of al Qaeda could see it. This, to me, is a far cry from something like surreptitiously sending battle plans to the enemy warning him of an incoming assault.

Leaks have become commonplace in this country due to our excessive secrecy. The functioning of our democracy is entirely dependent on leaks of classified information to the press. But by law information is supposed to be classified because its dissemination would cause serious harm to national security and for no other reason; and its only supposed to be made public after it’s been declassified.

From a purely legal standpoint a leak is a leak, whether from Bradley Manning or Leon Panetta. Are we going to start charging every official who leaks classified information, from the President on down, with aiding the enemy, or its civilian equivalent, treason? Charging someone with aiding the enemy for, basically, communicating with the press, needlessly endangers our free-press traditions by taking a perfectly good military regulation and applying it to a situation for which it was clearly not intended.

In a sense the Army is absolutely complicit and at least partly responsible for Manning’s leaks. Information security was dreadful at Manning’s workplace in Iraq. And the chain of command repeatedly failed Manning after numerous incidents when his access to classified information should have been restricted or removed.

But on a more profound level, we citizens of the United States are responsible this is a democracy after all. We tasked the Pentagon with fighting two simultaneous, poorly-planned, poorly-funded wars, yet we are surprised when we learn that the military was spread a little thin by the time Manning got to Iraq? Excessive secrecy and unfunded, unpopular wars are not Army policies, they are American policies.

The more conversations we have about Bradley Manning in which neither of these largely meaningless buzzwords is said, the better off we’ll be as a country.

Nice Washington Post story about how the U.S. is training Ugandan soldiers (along with some from Burundi, Sierra Leone and Djibouti) in Uganda on how to do battle with Islamic extremists in Somalia namely the al-Shabaab group affiliated with Al-Qaida. Both the fear and the hope are encapsulated in a nifty little paragraph:

I am not a veteran and I am not a military family member. But I have had the honor and privilege of knowing many military families over the last seven years. My father served in the Navy during WWII long before I was born. He taught me about service, honor and integrity. And I am the mother of two beautiful girls who enjoy the freedom and security of life in America because of the service of the 1% who defend and protect our country.

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Read it all at battleland.blogs.time.com

Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson

His issue though is that he’s threatened them before (so to speak, Julia Hudson seems like an untrusting leech of a woman). He’s in deep **** either way.

Must be some MEGA contrary evidence the public does not know about. Otherwise, it appeared to be open/shut case and his useless azz should be pre-soaking in crisco for the chair.

George Clooney’s fundraiser for Prez Obama was a huge success — financially … but some celebs ain’t talking about what happened inside. Hmm … Luckily, we have all the details about what went down .. including the $40,000/plate menu! Plus, Howard Stern’s verbal assault on

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Read it all at www.tmz.com

Carl Beane

Beane, the Red Sox public address announcer since 2003, died in a one-car accident in Sturbridge on Wednesday. The 59-year-old suffered a heart attack before the crash.

Carl Beane

‘We are filled with sadness at this tragic news,’ Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said in a statement issued by the team that attributed the death to a heart attack. ‘His legion of friends with the Red Sox and the media will miss him enormously, and all of Red Sox Nation will remember his presence, his warmth, and his voice.’

Gary James, who formerly worked with Beane at WARE-AM in Palmer and now hosts the morning show at WASR-AM in Wolfeboro, N.H., said, ‘I was completely in shock. I was told about the accident, but didn’t really know what happened. I prepared myself for the worst news, and obviously the worst came.’

James added, ‘I remember when Carl called me saying he was in consideration for the PA job. He was completely thrilled when he got the job. I was fortunate I knew him because he introduced me to a bunch of Red Sox people.’

Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. confirmed that Beane’s car, an SUV with a spare tire cover stitched to look like a baseball, crossed the double yellow lines and left the road before hitting a tree and a wall. He was pronounced dead at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge a short time later, according to a release from Early.

‘Carl came in on Monday and said he could give me two days this week, but he had so much fun (Wednesday) that he said he’d come back’ Thursday, said station owner Bruce Marshall. ‘Even though he had a game (to announce at Fenway Park) that night, he said he’d be fine. That’s the kind of guy he was, always willing to help out.’

Even after getting the Red Sox job, Beane continued to do play-by-play work for WARE’s high school football and basketball broadcasts, and he especially loved calling the Thanksgiving Day football games.

‘He always liked to keep his hand in locally, because these were the people that supported him,’ said Wayne Higney, the sports director at WARE. ‘I can’t say how many people called on him to provide some sort of favor. Those little things that he did for people were what mattered.’

‘He was very good to me,’ Higney said. ‘I didn’t know an awful lot about broadcasting. I’d been a coach, so I knew about sports, but he helped me learn the things I didn’t know – the technical end of broadcasting, how to call a game.’

A longtime fixture in the Red Sox media who provided radio reports and gathered sound for broadcasters, including The Associated Press, Beane landed what he called his dream job when he was hired in 2003 from a large field of candidates to announce the lineups and other information at Fenway Park.

‘We had actually talked about the job with the Red Sox many years ago,’ said Higney. ‘He admired Yankees PA man Bob Sheppard, and Carl told me that it would be the greatest job in the world to do that at Fenway. And it came to be for him.’

Beane took the job which had been held most notably by Sherm Feller from 1967 until his death in 1994. Leslie Sterling and Ed Brickley were the public address announcers at Fenway after Feller died until Beane took over.

In 2004, Beane announced the home games of the World Series when the Red Sox won the championship to end an 86-year title drought. With his booming baritone voice familiar throughout New England to the millions of fans who filled Fenway each year, Beane was also hired to work as a master of ceremonies, narrate commercials and announce wedding parties. According to a 2008 interview with Boston Magazine, grooms would tell Beane they were more nervous to meet him and try on his World Series ring than they were when reciting their vows.

‘He’s truly one of the good guys,’ said Marshall. ‘He loved life, loved broadcasting, loved the Red Sox. He got such joy from showing people those World Series rings.’

Even before being hired by the Red Sox, Beane managed a team of Boston media which twice every baseball season played the New York media, once at Fenway and once at Yankee Stadium.

‘I have no coordination at all, so he made me the third-base coach,’ James said. ‘I couldn’t believe how awesome it was to be standing in the coach’s box at Fenway. Carl always thought of everybody.’

Born and raised in Agawam, Beane graduated from the Career Academy School of Broadcasting in 1972 and soon after got his first job broadcasting sports at WMAS in Springfield. He also worked for stations in Pittsfield and Southbridge.

‘He got his big start with the radio station (WARE), and felt he could always come back here,’ said Marshall. ‘He’s always been just a regular guy. This morning we spent chatting about the old days, talking about the business.’

Beane also had done freelance reporting for WBZ in Boston and provided updates and sound for news outlets, including the AP, ESPN and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Beane, who was diabetic, had also served as a spokesman for the American Diabetes Association and a narrator for Talking Books at the Perkins School for the Blind.

‘Carl loved sports, sure, but he loved people most of all,’ James said. ‘It didn’t matter if the person was 6 years old or 80, he was great at interacting with people. A very caring individual, and it wasn’t an act.

‘Those of us who know him are going to miss him terribly, but even for people who don’t know him personally, there’s going to be a giant hole at Fenway Park,’ said James. ‘It won’t be the same there without hearing his voice.’

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Read it all at www.gazettenet.com

Obama

Obama

Supporters on the left were particularly fired up by Obama’s shift, but political observers pointed to Tuesday night’s vote in North Carolina, where voters overwhelmingly opted to define marriage as legal only between one man and one woman, as proof the decision could come back to haunt the president.

GA_googleFillSlot(“ContentSquare_ROS_300x250″); ‘Last night’s vote in North Carolina was certainly a warning and a bit of a cautionary tale for the Obama campaign,’ said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University. ‘They’ve got to be taking notes.’

Senior administration officials said that Obama won’t push for federal legislation on gay marriage and that his acknowledgement on Wednesday won’t be the launch of some big campaign push.

They acknowledged that Vice President Biden’s remark on Sunday that he is ‘absolutely comfortable’ with gay marriage forced Obama’s hand on the issue, something the president even admitted in his interview with ABC on Wednesday.

Voters under 25 were a key constituency for Obama’s 2008 campaign, but Democrats have worried their enthusiasm for the president has waned. Becoming the first president in history to voice support for gay marriage could energize younger voters.

‘You know, when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same-sex equality, or, you know, believe in equality, they are much more comfortable with it,’ he said.

Martin Sweet, a political science professor at Northwestern University, said Obama’s support for the controversial wedge issue could ‘rile up folks on the other side.’

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee acknowledged that while Obama ignited his supporters, he’s ‘going to rile up our folks too. Men and women who support traditional marriage.’

‘While President Obama has played politics on this issue, the Republican Party and our presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, have been clear,’ said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. ‘We support maintaining marriage between one man and one woman and would oppose any attempts to change that.’

‘It was much better for him to take a stand,’ said Steve Elmendorf, a Washington lobbyist who has worked for presidential campaigns. ‘A large group of people, including young people, will be energized that he stood up for what he believes in.

‘It puts to rest the lingering question about Well, why isn’t he?’ ‘ Sweet said. ‘But I don’t see it making a whole lot of headway. It just gets rid of that nagging question. The folks for who it helps were already there. They were never going to vote for Romney.

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Read it all at thehill.com

Ctia

Ctia

* Farewell white pages?: State regulators are considering dropping a requirement that telephone companies distribute residential phone books each year, as people increasingly turn to the Internet to hunt down a phone number or an address.

* Grocery business: After vowing to open more than 1,000 stores selling fresh fruit and vegetables in underserved urban neighborhoods, or “food deserts,” grocers have opened a fraction of them, putting in jeopardy Michelle Obama’s effort to improve food choices for low-income Americans.

* Speaking of food: When it comes to snack food, what’s popular in the U.S. doesn’t always work everywhere. The Associated Press has written an article about the interesting tweaks food companies make to products to help them sell overseas. Think Lay’s potato chips dusted in caviar and crab flavors, and Oreos stuffed with mango and orange cream.

I haven’t used a phone book (white or yellow pages) in years! Whenever a new one is delivered, I might as well just put it right in the recycle bin! Dropping the requirement that phone companies deliver a new book each year is a move that is long overdue.

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Read it all at www.nola.com

Jayson Werth

May 6, 2012 – A dark cloud has emerged over what’s been an incredibly promising 2012 season for the Washington Nationals, as Jayson Werth may have seriously injured his wrist in their Sunday night game with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The injury occurred as Werth attempted to make a sliding catch. As he did, his glove and wrist dug into the ground, bending his arm back at an unnatural angle. He was pulled from the game, replaced by Xavier Nady, and appeared to be in significant pain.

Jayson Werth

The Nationals gave Werth a seven-year $126 million contrast last off-season, a massive contract the right fielder has struggled to live up to in his time in Washington. He is hitting .276 with 3 HRs and 12 RBI this season.

Werth has a long history of injury struggles in his left wrist, which nearly ended his career in the 2005 and 2006 seasons. And with six years still left on his contract, the Nationals will undoubtedly be very careful when it comes to returning him to the field.

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Read it all at mlb.sbnation.com