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Showing posts from March, 2015

Sombrero

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You can read about some of my adventures researching conjunto 45 labels in San Antonio that was generously funded by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections  here in their most recent newsletter . (scroll down to page 9)
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An old friend of mine named Tara Linhardt has a very cool project called the Mountain Music Project linking traditional musicians from the Appalachians with traditional musicians from Nepal.  They made a film which you should see .  Some of the musicians she works with are in the U.S. doing concerts of sarangi, tabla, and mandolin. Here are a couple of video. There are more videos here
This is a truly astonishing story:  China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th Century. . The images accompanying the atory are pretty good too.
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have a nice spring break, whether you are spending it in the US or in Kyrgyzstan
oh yes, she understands "how the video must appear." Is there another possible reading to it?

end run

I don't see how the Republican letter to Iran can be seen as anything other than bad politics and an un-constitutional insertion into foreign relations.   Peter Spiro argues persuasively that it is also likely criminal under the Logan Act .  (read the comments too, they are interesting).
NPR has quite a good little piece on Mexican style polka for Flaco's birthday today, Give a listen here: "How Mexico Learned To Polka"
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For your Friday pleasure, a polka, a huapango, and a nice verison of 'Danzon Juarez" from the great Oscar Hernandez
Kind of amazing that ancient cities can still be discovered, including this one from a "vanished culture" which "has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists don’t even have a name for it."

all good questions

These are all the right questions to be asked, from Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post some samples: 1. Why did you make the decision to use a personal email account rather than government email upon becoming secretary of state? ... 4. Would it have been appropriate for others working for you at the State Department to use personal e-mail for official purposes? If not, why does a different standard apply to the secretary? ... 11. Specifically, C.F.R. 1236.22, which dates from 2009, provides that “agencies that allow employees to send and receive official electronic mail messages using a system not operated by the agency must ensure that Federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency recordkeeping system.” What steps did you take to comply with this requirement? 12When e-mails were turned over to the State Department last year, who in your office determined what e-mails constituted official business and what standards did they use to m
They moved the Cabin Fever bluegrass festival to just down the road from the college. It used to be up in Hampton, then Chesapeake for several years, nice to have it around the corner. Though why did they pick this tune for the homepage I wonder?
There is vaguely sinister when groups use facebook as their platform for social justice actions. I know there is the whole concept of meeting people where they are, but it does cut out access from the small group of people who haven't bothered to sign up for it. For example, Food Not Bombs Norfolk has a facebook page, but you can only look at it and find out what they are doing if you are on facebook. This seems deeply counterproductive. There is not even a non-facebook email. Though more useful than the Food Not Bombs main page , which lists a defunct email address and a MySpace page! Should any group (or any idivdual) really be relying exclusively on Facebook? You already know the answer.
Next time I am in San Antonio I hope my time there will overlap with one of these steel guitar jams . Yup, the San Antonio Steel Guitar Association is on facebook .