Business journalist Michael Lewis, best known for his scathing tell all about his time as a Wall Street trader at Solomon Brothers in the 1980s, Liar’s Poker, has penned a very insighting article for lay people about how the investment firms of today caused the current economic collapse. Read the article in Portfolio. Just added: Scandalized former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer, a renegade regulator during his tenure, weighs in on the problem.
There is a new documentary out about Emmanuel Jal called War Child, about the Sudanese child soldier turned East African rap star. His music fuses traditional Sudanese, even Arab vibes with hip-hop, and his verses, of course, are shockingly biographical. I interviewed him a few years ago for Global Rhythm, and penned this article about the young phenom.
This is a great story from NPR about how gun enthusiasts, despite the gloomy economy, are out in droves buying guns in preperation of greater regulation under an Obama administration. Apparently, the need to purchase automatic weapons and assault rifles has increased exponentially, since an Obama administration would likely regulate gun sales. (File under: Only in America).
Man, talk about the world going nuts on Obama. Even Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe has indicated he’s ready to sit down for a chat with the new, half African U.S. prez, to discuss U.S. relations with the country Bob has all but ruined. Seriously, Mugabe is the LAST guy on Obama’s list of important people to sit down and chat with. That’s not to say the situation in Zimbabwe isn’t in need of American attention. Indeed, it’s the hope of Bobby Strange that Obama will build on what was perhaps Bush’s only positive foreign policy success – Africa.
A close next to last person is Iran’s Amadinejad, or this (politically articulate) Hamas spokesman.
Here is a picture I took of Mugabe at the African Union summit meeting in Accra, Ghana, in 2007. He’s reading an article called, “How to ruin a country, alienate your people and become an international pariah.”
The Financial Times last week profiled the one and only Palestinian brewery, Taybeh Brewing Company, which we visited when in Ramallah. You can see my pictures below. The owners are Palestinians who had spent quite a bit of time in Boston (it’s future brewer is a fellow graduate of Boston College), and were inspired to some extent by the success of beer brands like Samual Adams. Recreating such a brand in the occupied West Bank, of course, presents a number of challenges, from getting its fresh beer to market on time despite roving and permanent Israeli road blocks and checkpoints, to selling in a primarily Muslim part of the world. At the end of the day, quality speaks for itself, and considering myself a well-traveled beer connoisseur of sorts , I can attest that this is indeed the best beer in the Middle East.
The election of a new president has inspired music selectors to compile mixes dedicated the spirit of the Obama campaign and promise of a new kind of American politics.
Barack is gonna make it real funky for you (Paris DJs
DJ Richard Brown gets down on political hip-hop (Brownsoundz)
Everyone is jacked in Jerusalem. Even these monks had at it over one of Christianity’s holiest sites, the Church of the Sepulchre. We were forwarned of such unruly activity in our recent trip to the Holy Land. Our Palestianian and/or Arab Israeli driver put it best when he said, “Bless them all, big and small, down by the wall,” which he quickly followed with the alternative version of the sweet phrase, “#$&*@ em all, big and small, down by the wall.”
Bob’s Blog is back – nobody heard a me, I’m a new man, I’m brand new man - meaning this is a whole new spot for musing and music.
Gimme a few to get this old house into new order.
