Cities of the Plain

Culture Club: Catching up with the interwebs

Before I get to the links: the election, protests and killings in Iran are the biggest stories in the world right now, and while you all have your preferred methods of getting news, I urge you to follow the #IranElection hashtag on Twitter for up to date information. Also, Salon had a good breakdown on why we shouldn’t (and should) trust the elections results. It goes without saying that what’s happened since the election (and with the election, perhaps) has been terribly tragic and our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have suffered and are suffering in Iran and their families and friends.


Music
-On a lighter note, the forever rumored Jim James, Conor Oberst and M. Ward collaboration has come to fruition and they’ve decided to call it Monsters of Folk. The self-titled album is due out September 22
-P4k has loads of good Bonnaroo coverage
-Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit’s collaboration The Very Best will release a proper album titled The Warm Heart of Africa later this fall. I can’t wait to see their live show at P4k Music Festival in a month or so
-Two Hypnotic Brass Ensemble links: a filmmaker will be putting out his documentary on the group next summer, but a clip is available online and here’s the Chicago Reader’s 2003 feature on the group (both via @sashafrerejones)
-Jonah Weiner of Slate wrote an interesting take on Lady GaGa, namely that her control of her message is surprising considering her popularity as a performer

Non-Music
-The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel 2 just ended and Bonnie Vaughan discusses the show’s addictiveness. I don’t watch all that much TV, but RW/RR: Duel 2 was 70s-style appointment viewing for me. It’s crap, and yet still a thoroughly enjoyable show to watch between the partying, the stupidity and the competitiveness. This show is all kinds of dumb, but I IMPLORE YOU TO WATCH the spelling bee episode; it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in the last 6 months
-Also from Slate, Farhad Manjoo writes on Google’s Android operating system which will soon be available on netbooks; it’ll be interesting to see if Android succeeds and whether its free, open source platform will remove the necessity for netbook manufacturers to provide a Linux option available on purchase. Speaking of netbooks, my school recently purchased a bunch of HP Minis…they’re okay, limited obviously in power and hard drive space, but their Linux OS MIE is quite good. Check it out if given the chance…done blabbering, sorry
-Two photography links: JPG imagines what Disney’s princesses lives would have been like if their stories hadn’t gone the way of their movies and Robbie Cooper has a new series of photos taken of people watching porn (both via Kottke)
-The Guerrila Drive-In is a fantastic project where a group projects movies at secret locations
-Check this solid interview with photographer Estevan Oriol
-The AV Club spoke with Dana Carvey and Robert Smigel, pretty interesting stuff about the Dana Carvey Show