Paul McCartney’s Meatless Mondays
When I was a kid I was always a little confused by Fishstick Fridays. (And no, I really don’t like fishsticks, but thanks for asking.) Growing up in WASP-y Oregon, I didn’t make the Catholic connection until my teens. I eventually married a vegetarian of Irish-Catholic descent, and together we produced a couple of baby…
This American Phish
Forget about Phish 3.0. For a long time I reckoned there were only two Phish eras: the Clinton years and the Bush years. Having seen the band all three nights at Madison Square Garden last week, however, I’m forced to update that notion. Phish has now fully entered their – and our – Obama phase….
How To Legalize It by Speaking New Jersey
The Garden State is shaping up to be the next state to legalize medical marijuana. Back in February, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act passed 22-16 in the NJ Senate, and the NJ Assembly health committee passed an amended version of the bill in June. NJ Gov. Jon Corzine (D) said he supports…
Chris Jordan’s ‘Running The Numbers’
Hundreds of books have been written about visualizing information, how we transform abstract data into images and concepts that actually mean something to us. Seattle-based artist Chris Jordan takes photographs of common objects, even garbage, and digitally manipulates them into larger statements about mass consumption and waste. The work seen above, for example, is called…
Taqwacore: The Novel, The Movie
In 2002 Michael Muhammad Knight published a remarkable novel called The Taqwacores, which portrayed a fictitious scene inhabited by Islamic punk rockers. The two groups aren’t so different, he writes. “Both began in tremendous bursts of truth a vitality but seem to have lost something along the way – the energy, perhaps, that seems to…
HeadCount To Host SXSW Panel
HeadCount will host a panel at the South by Southwest Music Conference titled “Effecting Social Change via Music and Technology.” SXSW is the premier US music-industry event, attracting up-and-coming musicians, filmmakers, promoters, executives, and entrepreneurs to Austin, Texas, for a week of music, meetings, and revelry. Selected and elected from among hundreds of candidates,“Effecting Social…
How To Create Millions of Clean-Energy Jobs
As Andy Bernstein pointed out in his report from the White House Clean Energy Economy Forum yesterday, the Obama administration appears willing to look at any and all options to create jobs, particularly in the green sector. The question is, How fast can they do it? A simmering populist unease at the hundreds of billions…
In The House
What do you get when you mix four White House cabinet members, a slew of campaign-workers-turned-staffers, and 120 or so young climate activists? Something to tell your grandkids about. I had the privilege of attending the White House’s Clean Energy Economy Forum yesterday. The name doesn’t quite reveal the nature of the event. Most of…
Cannabis In America: A Timeline
Check out this timeline of marijuana’s history in the United States. (Use your cursor to enlarge the images.) While most people are warned about the dangers of pot, few have any idea about how long the plant has been illegal, or even why it was prohibited in the first place. Did you know that cough syrup…
Too Much Joy Singer Spills Beans On Digital Royalties
I get a kick out of learning how the sausages are made in the business called music. As the old-fashioned recording industry sinks slowly into the sunrise, it’s not surprising to discover that the competition for flotsam and jetsam to hang onto runs pretty high. Take for example the digital royalty statement recently received by…