Alt-J: Breezeblocks

So this video is wicked cool without the song. Add the song and it is that much better. These guys are from Britain and beyond that, I only know that they make some seriously cool music and that their name shares  a keyboard shortcut. Seriously liking this song on a standard rotation these days.

Do you know where the wild things go
They go along to take your honey
Break down, now sleep, build up, breakfast
Now let’s eat, my love, my love love love
She bruises, coughs, she splutters
Pistol shots hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks
She’s morphine, queen of my vaccine, my love, my love love love

Boogie Man - The Lee Atwater Story

The latest documentary that made the rounds here is Boogie Man, the story of Lee Atwater, who was an advisor to President Reagan and Bush Snr. He was Karl Rove's mentor and chairman of the RNC. This movie explores Atwater's rise to power, his influence on modern politics, campaigns and the political rhetoric of our times. The movie is not as polished as some other documentaries I have seen recently, but the story and the background you get from watching it overshadow that fact by far. Also, fair warning: it doesn't necessarily paint the Republican party in a positive light be be forewarned if you are of that persuasion and decided to give it a shot. Ebert gave it solid reviews; and it gets solid marks on IMDB as well.

I recommend this for anyone who wants to understand some of the roots that make up the divide we live in today... Dig in and see "how the sausage is made..."

Namesake

Jozy's namesake is Jozy Altidore. The other day I walked by my office door and found her day dreaming about the Champion's League.

Don't Default to that Django

I love finding new music via year end lists from some of my recurring musical reads. I've seen this one on a few different sources so I cannot attribute it to a specific source. Django Django are a Scottish band based out of London and I'm guessing that this song Default is anything but the norm for most of your daily fare. Check it out.

Inside Job

Continuing on the documentary theme, we watched Inside Job this past weekend, a...

...2010 documentary film about the late-2000s financial crisis directed by Charles H. Ferguson. The film is described by Ferguson as being about "the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption." In five parts, the film explores how changes in the policy environment and banking practices helped create the financial crisis.

I don't have much to say about this film that will not include a superlative. It does a remarkable job of making a complex web of financial instruments easy to understand. So easy that after you understand it, and the greed that triggered their creation and manipulation, you are left disturbed, educated and of course, entertained. If you're a lay person and you want to understand how we got to where we are today with the financial crisis, this movie is a must. Trailer below.

Looking for a great book on the subject? Try The Big Short by Michael Lewis.

A Catalan NY Times-Picayune #Longread

I shared this link on Twitter a few days ago but wanted to post it here as well. This movie just seemed especially relevant after watching the 60 Minutes report this past weekend on Sunday on the cutbacks and focus on digital media that has caused an uproar related to the Times-Picayune, established in 1837 (!).

As someone who has refocused my reading on paper based books this past year, I have an emotional attachment to the idea of a newspaper I guess. Although the concept of reading physical paper books is not something I switched back to for simply emotional reasons. And truth be told, when I watched the 60 Minutes story, I found myself reflecting on the fact that paper-print journalism is not the only way to achieve quality journalism...

Anyways, here is an excellent documentary on The New York Times as it grapples with the similar pressures that led to these changes to the Times-Picayune. Highly, highly recommended.

PS:  Semi-related, I find myself wondering sometimes what it says about our attention span as a society that multi-page articles have led to the introduction of the phrase #longreads into our vocabulary. 

PPS: ...and for you soccer fans out there, did you catch the Barca piece on 60 Minutes as well?!? Cool stuff. Ives posted it here in case you missed it. 

Happy New Year!

My wife was backing up her iPhone to upgrade the OS and I found this photo below in our iPhoto library after the import. It's a pretty cool photo of me and Jozy in the snow in Arkansas this past Christmas.

It's been a great holiday season. We were able to visit my family in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, spend time in Arkansas with my wife and her mother for Christmas, visit with our friends Mark and Karen who came back home from Arizona for the holidays, took lots of time off work, etc. Great food, wine, company, snow and some real fun Christmas gifts added some icing to the cake.

To top it all off in spectacular style, my brother and his wife just had twins! Eloise and August were born on 12/31/2012. Happy New Year to all of them (now a family of 5!) out in Arizona and Happy New Year to anyone one who happens to still come by this small space I've created out here in the world. Looking forward to 2013.