A few months ago I complained that there were no weblogs that gave you political points of view across the spectrum. Almost all weblogs have a bias to the left, right, or somewhere in between, and rarely, with a few notable exceptions, would these sites cross link or cross discuss.
WatchBlog is the site I’ve been waiting for. It’s a project I hope to see a success.
Schoolkids aren’t the only ones in Philadelphia praying for a good report card this month. Last fall, with most of the city’s students testing well below state averages in reading and math, Philadelphia’s assertive new schools chief, Paul Vallas, handed over control of 45 of the city’s worst schools to seven private operators, including nonprofit organizations, universities and, most controversially, three for-profit companies. Now that the school year is ending, everyone is looking to see how the newcomers have done. Vallas has already given privatization a qualified endorsement by reaching agreements with six of the seven managers on contract terms for next year. This week a critical batch of test scores will provide the first hard data on how students have fared under privatization, a wrenching process that involved new principals, teaching methods, rules and expectations.
Read the rest by Rebecca Winters in Time Magazine.
Carlos E. Perez: How to Survive IT Deflation. Makes some great points.
Oliver Willis is broadcasting his own channel with the konspire2b system. Gotta check this out.
Or so says Tony Nash at AlwaysOn. Too simplistic if you ask me, this is not an all or northing trend, but worth a read.
Check out a related Slashdot thread.
Dave Winer celebrates one year and Bill Lazar two. Congrats to you both. Here’s to better health and money to spend 🙂
I wanted to wish father’s out there a great day.
I couldn’t attend this year, but many of JavaOne’s sessions are available for viewing here.
Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy in The Guardian: Fast Forward Into Trouble: “Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan’s first crime wave – murder, fraud, drug offences.”
Give this a listen:
Even if the belly-baring and exposed-thong set disagrees, Evanescence fans sure don’t. After years of none-too-coy Lolitas ruling the prefab pop realm, rocker girls have finally found someone strong and secure to admire.
“She’s not like Britney,” said Evanescence fan Stephanie Croks, 19. “She doesn’t have to get all slutty onstage and wear stripper costumes.”
Instead, Lee stomps around and pumps her fist in the air as any tough-guy frontman would. Her voice soars to operatic highs above the music’s ominous tones while Moody’s guitar comes on like a snakebite, puncturing the melody with precision then spreading distorted fuzz like so much crippling venom. The dichotic combination offers a fresh take on the played-out n?-metal genre, and it’s allowed the Little Rock, Arkansas, group to be one of the few female-fronted rock bands to hover near the top the charts in the last five years.
I am sooo tired of hearing rock is dead (via dangerousmeta). Every year it’s the same old song and dance.
If ever there was a “rock is dead” moment, it was Woodstock ’99. Attempts at pinning on the music were pointless since Woodstock ’94 was just as heavy, if not heavier. But the culture was certainly different.
Read Melissa of the “Deek and Melissa Show” (Boston radio) on Woodstock ’99:
The newspaper reports and news stories I’ve seen are claiming the violent behavior was a result of high prices. The rioting participants making, “anti-establishment statements,” spurred on by the bands who served as a backdrop for the event. That’s not the case. Unlike at Woodstock of ’69, the youth of today do not have a cause, even a cause as small as overpriced concessions at a really big rock show. The violence and outbursts were caused by boredom, by beer, by a small minority who did not feel the unity, and were determined to ruin it for those who did.
Was the experiment of Woodstock ’99 successful? I think it was. I think it brilliantly demonstrated the problems being seen in the youth culture of today. And once again, the parents, the media, the public, rather than saying they don’t understand, rather than looking for answers, are blaming the music. Woodstock ’99 was the voice of this generation. It represented beautifully a misunderstood youth acting out, and adult population exploiting that anger for sensationalistic headlines and pointing fingers every which way but at hemselves.
Rock survived. I believe the web will be the tool to set the rock musician and fan free. Music lives on far after popular trends come and go. Marketers have done their best at pushing one thing or another, but now the musician can deliver straight to the fan, and the fan can seek out what they want to hear. Now it’s the marketers are who are on the defensive because they are starting to get bypassed.
It’s a great time to rock.