Category — Culture

Finally, one of the more incisive commentators on television finally will be getting her own show on MSNBC. Rachel Maddow will replace the show Verdict with Dan Abrams at 9pm with her own show of opinion on politics and other items. She is scheduled to premiere on Sept 8th after the Republican convention.

In the months she has been on MSNBC providing commentary on the primary results along showing up on the various opinion shows like Hardball, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Verdict. In the past month, she has been the Countdown guest host giving her practice in hosting on a show of her own.

Rachel has been a strong voice for progressive politics on television. While other commentators try to straddle some line of objectivity, she is out there telling how it is and providing a strong counterbalance to other commentators. Her battles and takedowns of old-time conservative Pat Buchanan are legendary.

With Keith Olbermann as the lead in to her show, progressives like myself have a definite place to go through this political season to November.

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I am a Olympics junkie. For the past twenty years or so, I have been an interested devotee of the games and for most of the events no obscure it may be.

It has been quite a change from how I track the games events and results from 1988 to 2008. Back then, I was reliant upon whatever the CBC/CTV or the American networks carried on their braodcast which usually was just snippets of clips and focus on whatever the stars were for the event. If I was lucky, I could read about other events and see the stats for the events in the paper even if I knew the results well ahead of time.

Over the years, as computers and the Internet became more prevalent in our lives, I found it was easier to catch up with the results. In the late 90’s, the websites associated with the Olympic games or the network sites would have some stories posted along with the results. Not in real-time but usually ahead of what was printed in the paper the next day.

By this time, the games were seen as rating gold especially for NBC, and we start seeing more around the clock coverage allowing the viewers to see more sports even if was just the gold medal final.

By the 2000 Olympics, I had become throughly immersed in the Olympics as the games progressed checking on the results with a relentless spirt. With faster Internet speeds, seeing video whether live or even just highlight clips became a useful tool.

Now, in 2008, what do I have access to?
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Sunday, I watched an episode of the Simpsons (something I should do more often but don’t) called “Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind”. As usual, it was another excellent episode of this long running show (20 seasons apparently). There was one scene that I was throughly fascinated with and it was the one where we see Homer progress through the years.

I like the montage effect but what got me was the music behind the piece. A very Philip Glass-like piece of minimalist instrumental. So I looked up the episode to find the source of the music and I found it was written by Carly Comando as the soundtrack to one of the most popular videos on Youtube, Everyday by Noah Kalina where he takes a picture of himself everyday, starting from the year 2000 through to 2006 but as a project is one that he maintains on his own site. To do this for several years, requires plenty of discipline but he has managed to do just that. A remarkable blend of music and video.

So I found my music which was available on iTunes and found something else truly wondrous to watch.

Saw the list of the 600 Starbucks location that are closing in the United States over the next several months. With 12 locations scattered throughout the city with most of them opening in the past three years, it was with some surprise that the only location Winston-Salem location closing is the one at Harpers Commons shopping center. When we lived in that area of the city, I used to frequent that location regularly.

As far as shopping centers go, this is a good one. Anchored by a Harris Teeter grocery store, there is a good mix of restaurants and shops and services there that always brings in a crowd. Like many people, a typical time there would be going to one of the restaurants (Japanese, Deli or Mexican), followed by a trip to the grocery store for the week’s groceries then pick up a snack whether it be a coffee & pastry from Starbucks or ice cream for the kids from Cold Stone Creamery to take home.

Not sure why this location is closing because it seems that traffic was always steady in the evening and weekends but there is probably a good reason for it.

Seems typical with the economy in a virtual recession that we are seeing more businesses especially in the food trade closing shop. Higher food prices and the cost of the gas are just two of the factors that are leading to this troubled times. The Cotton Mill restaurant, an upscale restaurant featuring Southern cuisine and located at the Brookstown Inn, is closing shop this week. Run by the same people behind Sweet Potatoes restaurant on Trade St, the Cotton Mill was done in by poor location and timing. People will not go out of their way for expensive meals right now. Had the owners persisted in making a go of it there, it may have cost them Sweet Potatoes as well and that just can not happen as that restaurant is a true gem of downtown dining.

Fabians is gone again, victim of higher food costs. There are others though not closing as of yet, are teetering. It will remain tough in the food trade for awhile here in Winston until the economy turns around. I just hope that for all of the hard -won success that the downtown restaurant program has brought to Winston, that it does not all disappear in just a few months.

This  weekend is the annual Heavy Rebel Weekender here in Winston-Salem. While the main focus is showcasing the various bands that are on stage from Friday night to Sunday night, for me it is the cars that are as much of the event as anything else. Saturday from 9am-4pm, cars from custom jobs, classic vehicles, from all eras will be on hand.

Band Schedule:

Friday

4:45 p.m. SouthPaw
5 p.m. Atomic Drops
5:30 p.m. Wink Keziah & Deluxe Motel
5:45 p.m. Blue Diablo
6 p.m. The Keepers
6:30 p.m. Pete Yorko
7 p.m. Drop Tops
7:30 p.m. Dead City Dealers
7:45 p.m. Kings of Hell
8 p.m. Gojira-X
8:30 p.m. Hick’ry Hawkins
8:45 p.m. Motorpsychos
9 p.m. Reverend D-Ray and the Shockers
9:30 p.m. Los Rudos
9:45 p.m. Blacklists Royals
10 p.m. the bo-stevens
10:30 p.m. Jimmy and the Teasers
10:45 p.m. Guitar Bomb
11 p.m. Crank County Daredevils
11:30 p.m. Lords of the Highway
Midnight Dexter Romweber and The New Romans

Saturday

9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: HRW Car and Bike Show, Mud Wrestling
5 p.m. High Rollers
5:30 p.m. Bad Mothers
5:45 p.m. Mean Mean Man/Brass Knuckle Band
6 p.m. Filthy Rotten Sex Machine
6:30 p.m. Soul Reapin’ 3
6:45 p.m. American Speedway
7 p.m. Joecephus/George Jonestown Massacre
7:30 p.m. TBA
7:45 p.m. Luxury Pusher
8 p.m. Mad Tea Party
8:30 p.m. Big Spank
8:45 p.m. The Butchers
9 p.m. Wet Wifebeater Contest
9:30 p.m. Designer Drugs
9:45 p.m. The Cheats
10 p.m. Speed Crazy
10:30 p.m. Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival
10:45 p.m. Sasquatch and the Sickabillies
11 p.m. Red Hot Poker Dots
Midnight Rocket 88

Sunday

2 p.m. Nanner Puddin’ Eatin’ and Beer Drinkin’ Contest 2:30 p.m. The Black Knots
2:45 p.m. 220 Short
3 p.m. Adam the First Real Man
3:30 p.m. The Defilers
3:45 p.m. The Big Bad
4 p.m. Deadneks
4:30 p.m. The Flat Tires
4:45 p.m. TBA
5 p.m. Upright Bass Slapdown
5:30 p.m. Locke and Load
5:45 p.m. The Hottdamns
6 p.m. Crossroads Guitar Contest
6:30 p.m. Sandanistas
6:45 p.m. The Buzzards
7 p.m. Psycho Devilles
7:30 p.m. Matt Walsh
7:45 p.m. Lust
8 p.m. Killer Filler
8:30 p.m. The Straight 8’s
8:45 p.m. Pee Wee Moore
9 p.m. Truckstop Preachers
9:30 p.m. BuzzKills
9:45 p.m. Billy Joe Winghead
10 p.m. 7 Shot Screamers

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Just nine weeks to go before the commencement of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing China. This Olympics may prove to be somewhat controversial on many fronts whether it be the fact that China is not a free society, the issue of its government and its policies in particular Tibet, and finally the issue of the pollution that seems endemic to that part of China which may affect athlete performances.

But all of that is to be talked about by others. What I am more interested, as always, is the performance of Canada’s athletes at the games.

There has been a real switch in emphasis in high caliber athletics in Canada. Where once it was the Summer Games that garner the attention of Canadians, it is now the Winter Games that receive most of the attention. There are many reasons why this is so. First of all, it is helpful that athletes actually start winning medals at the highest level in sports and for the past two Olympic cycles, it has been the Winter Games athletes that have been winning more medals than the Summer Games athletes despite the face that the Summer Games has over four times as many opportunities to win medals. Why have Canadian been more successful? Government sponsorship has been key in sports funding and the push to get a Winter Olympics selection, successful for 2010 in Vancouver, meant that Canada wanted to ficus on athletes that have the greatest impact and since Canada is a winter nation, it only stands to reason that the winter sports would start to get more attention. People who have aspirations for Olympic glory even at an early age can determine which sports will get the most funding and attention from government and corporations. More funding means better venues and training facilities and better chances to compete at the international level. But Canada is not a nation that fund every sport out there in the manner that will produce Olympic caliber athletes. It has to be selective and more often than not now, it is the winter sport that will get the preference over a summer one.

Still there are some great athletes for the upcoming summer games. Unlike the winter games where Canada can dominate a sport like speedskating, the summer games, with perhaps with the exception of the rowing an canoe events, are most individual achievements like Ty Christopher in the 400m or Simon Whitfield in triathlon. They will also be relatively few in number but consistent with past Olympics where Canada’s haul somewhere between 10-16 medals. It should be no different this year.

Much like what I did for the winter games two years ago, I will be providing bios of the various athletes for Canada in advance of the Games and provide daily commentary of the results with a focus on Canada’s achievements. It may turn out that there may be days between medal results for Canada but that is something that we just have to accept.

A big partner in my drive to write about the Olympics will be the NBC network. Being in the summer means that network will be providing heavy coverage throughout the day using its variety of networks: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen and its Spanish speaking networks. The key network will be NBC as it will be on the HD signal. Of course, being 12 hours in time difference will mean that most broadcasts in prime-time will be tape delayed and I will probably will know the results well in advance. As for the various allocations on what network will carry what sport is still yet to be determined.

Just can not wait until it gets here.

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While I still not have the leap to go to High Definition for video even though my television is quite capable of handling it, there may be other reasons to consider Blu-Ray.

One reason to switch to Blu-Ray is its ability to handle high definition music. It is no secret that MP3′a, iTunes downloads even many CDs are inadequate to reproduce the fidelity of the original recordings. Compression in its many forms compromises quality in most respects.

Blu Ray discs along with some solutions coming our way , allows as a virtue of its high storage capacity to accommodate more bits per tracks especially to those notes and tones which are virtually undetectable to the ear yet unconsciously we can hear them giving the music its warmth and depth.

That is the one thing I have been missing with the music I have been hearing of late. I download plenty of music these days yet after listening to it for awhile, mainly for the novelty of hearing a new song, I rarely return to the music. It always felt lacking.

At work, as I code away, I listen to my iTunes library but instead of listening to it directly from the computer, I send the signal through another device that attempts to restore some of the sound that was lost in the translation so to speak. It is very good and it really makes listening to the music quite acceptable.

In the car, it is not quite the same though the extra wattage of sound along with an impressive bass reflex does compensate. But the sound is not same.

Now with DVDs and Blu-Rays able to handle more music and reproduce it better, we may be in a new age of music appreciation and start to hear the music as it should be.

to Fedex Office. From my experience with the business, it is actually quite good in getting copies taken care of along with other parcel needs. But for me, Fedex Kinkos will always be associated with one of the all favorites of commercials for me.