Akkam’s Razor

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Via Journalist Fight Club:

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If only our liberal media could somehow find the strength to channel this vibe…

And adding another mini-series to the list… John Adams on HBO.

The full trailer:

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A longer (8-minute) background piece from HBO:

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Our art and culture is speaking to us, if only we’d listen.

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So I decided on Glengarry Glenn Ross [IMDB, Wiki].  The film was originally a David Mamet play subsequently turned into a movie.  The title refers to two investment properties mentioned in the film - Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms.

Pretty rich film, when you get down to it.  Incredibly obscene, it was referred to by the cast as "Death of a F*cking Salesman". 

The clip is set in a Real Estate office with tired, gray men, on a miserably rainy evening.  Alec Baldwin's character, Blake (coincidentally, acting in a part that was originally written for fellow co-star Al Pacino) comes in to 'motivate' the sales staff. 

I have to present a film clip demonstrating Organizational Politics and Power in film.  I'm intentionally excluding the low hanging fruit, like A Few Good Men.  Most of the references in the academic literature also refer to 12 Angry Men, so that one is out.  I was hoping to find something with an easily accessible clip online.  The film I'd most like to use is The Caine Mutinty, but I can neither find a relevant online clip or an accessible hard copy.

One of my peculiar fetishes is with found photographs.  I can’t help but wonder who these people are, where they are now, what happened to them, and what was the story behind the pictures (and how did they come to be discarded, to be found on the street or at flea markets).

Here’s a small collection of sites that peddle in found photos and other miscellaneous found human debris.

Updated again on 11/6:  Blink notes that this conspiracy, courtesy of FOXNEWS, is false.  It appears that a Cumulus Media did 'something', but Clear Channel, at least on this issue, is in the clear. 

Updated Again:  I'd be remiss not to point out that the starting point for these allegations came the paragon of Fair and Balanced Reporting, FOXNEWS, as reported by Roger Friedman:

Alas, there’s a hitch: Radio will not play "Magic." In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from "Magic." But it’s OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as "Dancing in the Dark," "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA."

[…]

Clear Channel seems to have sent a clear message to other radio outlets that at age 58, Springsteen simply is too old to be played on rock stations. This completely absurd notion is one of many ways Clear Channel has done more to destroy the music business than downloading over the last 10 years. It’s certainly what’s helped create satellite radio, where Springsteen is a staple and even has his own channel on Sirius.

It’s not just Springsteen. There is no sign at major radio stations of new albums by John Fogerty or Annie Lennox, either. The same stations that should be playing Santana’s new singles with Chad Kroeger or Tina Turner are avoiding them, too.

Updated: I've recently received an email from 104.5 management stating that this is most-definitely NOT-TRUE and that they have even been offering downloads of Springsteen.

I saw this at Down with Tyranny last night and again via Attytood this morning.  Pro GOP-radio outlet Clear Channel has allegedly blacklisted Bruce Springsteen as being "too old" for their demographics.  Much like with the Dixie Chicks in 2004, this probably has more to do with pleasing the Strong Daddies of the GOP who will continue to allow more media consolidation than it is out-and-out corporate censorship.  Of course, if you're a wingnut who has deeply internalized the conservative ideology and are reacting to your lizard-brain's fight, flight, or flee instinct to everyone of the failures of the last six-years, I can certainly see how you wouldn't want a mainstream guitar-slinger pointing out the obvious, with lyrics like these, from azlyrics:

Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
The last to die for a mistake
Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake

The wise men were all fools
What to do

The sun sets in flames as the city burns
Another day gone down as the night turns
And I hold you here in my heart
As things fall apart

The local Clear Channel owned stations are WDAS (105.3), WIOQ (102.1), WISX (106.1), WRFF (104.5), WUBA (1480 AM), and WUSL (99.0).  The only station that would conceivably play Springsteen is 104.5 FM. 

An email sent to their request line (email) and to General Manager Manuel Rodriguez (email) has not been returned or replied to as of yet. 

And as a privately-owned, publicly-traded entity, Clear Channel is  well within their right to program as they see fit.  You, as a listener and consumer, also have the right to listen to someone else and inform their advertisers of your displeasure.

It started with an announcement that Google was going to delay the announcement of their social networking plan so as to not get lost in the noise surrounding Facebook's pending debut of their advertising (and AdSense) competitor for their own platform.

The Wall Street Journal (via Mashable ) later announced that Google was actually about to announce their plans for the gPhone (previously), with other rumors indicated Verizon (US) had been courted, along with British carrier '3' and German carrier T-Mobile, as well as Chinese hardware manufacturer e28 (who produces handsets for LG and HTC - you'll recall an earlier rumor that Google was going to supply 50,000 units produced by HTC to developers around Christmas-time).  e28 most recently has had a GSM-WLAN-VOIP Linux-powered phone, the R2821, before the FCC for approval.

Also of interest is the focus on inter-operability between the various Google Products, and the possibilities as to how they may converge in the mobile space (think Picasa + Talk + Maps + Docs + Gmail + Open Social). 

The keystone of their plan may be that of Open Social implementing a bundle of open API (application programing interfaces) for interoperability between several networking platforms (such as Marc Andreeson's Ning, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster) and related services (such as iLike, Plaxo, and Slide).  This new platform, codenamed "Maka-Maka" as reported by TechCrunch (more links via Buzzfeed) will tie these services together and more importantly, as stated by GigaOm, provide a common authoring language to make application development easier.

There's naughty language here, but as usual, Penn and Teller are correct, and Frank Luntz is an asshole.

Bad Religion, from the Empire Strikes First (Amazon), Los Angeles is Burning (lyrics):