METRO | Roger Baker vs. Mayor Leffingwell at CAMPO! They sparred over Roger’s take on the proposed light rail plan.
Thorne Webb Dreyer, Editor
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FILM | Scarlett Johansson gets ‘Under the Skin’ (Ouch!)
What a muddled mess this movie is. It gives you the same feeling you might get while watching a drunk trying to cross an icy street.
Under the Skin: Even painful to look at.
I’m not sure a movie could be more appropriately named than Under the Skin. This thing will get under your skin while watching and make you wish to excise it before the credits roll. I found it painful to even look at, like a splinter under the skin. Please rid me of this foreign body.
One thing though, I did realize while leaning into a glass of sauvignon blanc at the Alamo Drafthouse, everyone wants to kiss Scarlett Johansson. There is something about the fullness of the lips, her vulnerable eyes. Man, woman, the family dog, we all want to kiss her, even when she is a heartless alien stalking hapless Scottish men on the streets of Edinburg like the Green River Killer or any other garden variety serial murderer.
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Posted in RagBlog
Tagged Bob Simmons, Film, Jonathan Glazer, Nudity, Rag Bloggers, Scarlett Johansson, Science Fiction, Under the Skin
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METRO | Melanie Scruggs : Houston’s regressive trash burning proposal
The global Zero Waste movement is actively opposing Houston’s proposed ‘One Bin for All.’
Rally to Recycle, Houston City Hall, February 25, 2014. Photo by Caitlin Murphy.
HOUSTON — The environmental community in Texas has organically cultivated an unofficial division of labor that allows us to collaborate on issues while specializing in different areas of research and advocacy: some of us work on water conservation, others on renewable energy or food policy. Others focus on environmental justice and how pollution affects communities of color and concentrates health problems in high-risk areas.
I work in the movement called “Zero Waste,” devoted to reforming how we manage municipal solid waste, sustainable product and packaging design, and diverting waste from landfills and incinerators through waste reduction, recycling and compost programs. Anything trash-related is the focus of my organization’s full-time work and advocacy as we do our part to curb pollution and protect natural resources.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog
Tagged Environmental Activists, Houston, Melanie Scruggs, Metro, One Bin for All, Rag Bloggers, Recycling, Renewable Energy, Waste Disposal, Zero Waste
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METRO | Melanie Scruggs reports that Houston environmentalists are trashing a regressive ‘One Bin for All’ plan.
Posted in RagBlog, RagBlurb
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BOOKS | Gordon Young’s ‘Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City’
‘Teardown’ has the kind of heart that once made Flint, Michigan, a center of trade union and labor activism.
Teardown is a grim portrait with heart.
[Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City by Gordon Young (June 2013: University of California Press); Hardcover; 288 pp; $29.95]
Gordon Young’s book about Flint, Michigan, Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City, might have been a depressing read. After all, the facts and the figures about crime and about poverty are likely to keep any sensible family from moving there. They might also persuade longtime residents to get out when they still can and locate somewhere else. Like San Francisco, where Young himself now lives.
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Tagged Books, Flint, Gordon Young, Jonah Raskin, Michigan, Rag Bloggers, Rust Belt, Teardown
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People’s History of Egypt, Part 24, January-February 11, 2011
In early February 2011, massive street protests opposed Mubarak and called for democratization and economic justice.
Sunset on Tahrir Square, February 2011. Image from c-Blog.
[With all the dramatic activity in Egypt, Bob Feldman’s Rag Blog “people’s history” series, “The Movement to Democratize Egypt,” could not be more timely. Also see Feldman’s “Hidden History of Texas” series on The Rag Blog.]
According to James Gelvin’s 2012 book, The Arab Uprising: What Everyone Needs To Know, in Egypt “youths between 15 and 29 make up…30 percent” of the population and “youth unemployment in Egypt is 43 percent.” The same book also noted:
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Mother’s Day in prison
Many wonderful articles appeared about mothers in prison as we celebrated this Mother’s Day.
Photo by Lucy Nicholson / Reuters.
Nancy Mullane, on the blog she co-founded, The Life of the Law, interviewed Veronica Martinez at Folsom Women’s Prison in California. There you can listen to or read about Martinez, to learn how she was shackled during birth and had to give up her baby after three days — luckily to her family. In spite of that horrendous experience, Martinez also points out the amazing support of the other women in the jail where she was at the time:
My bunkie had a collage of babies pasted. She had pasted it with toothpaste, cause that’s what we used. In the county jail, you don’t have tape or glue or any of that so she took toothpaste and she pasted all these pictures of cutout magazines and baby feet and babies and stuff. And she made a little sign, ‘It’s a Girl’ on my bunk.
Posted in RagBlog
Tagged Incarceration, Jean Trounstine, Mother's Day, Mothers in Prison, Prison Reform, Rag Bloggers, Women Behind Bars
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‘Hamish Macbeth’ is a very charming small-town Scottish comedy starring the incomparable Robert Carlyle
Suspense, comedy, drama, and delightful locations mix in this Caledonian TV gem.
Robert Carlyle stars in Hamish MacBeth.
[In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TV dramas, mysteries, and comedies from Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, and Scotland. Most are available on DVD and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]
Hamish Macbeth is a Scottish comedy-drama TV series that ran for three seasons (1995-1997) and 20 episodes, 19 of them on Netflix, including this one. The series was nominated for a BAFTA Best Drama Series award, and star Robert Carlyle was nominated for four Best Actor Awards, winning those from the UK Royal Television Society and the Scottish BAFTAs.
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Posted in RagBlog
Tagged Alan Waldman, Criticism, Hamish MacBeth, Rag Bloggers, Robert Carlyle, Scottish Television, Shirley Henderson, Vintage Television
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The devil went down to Georgia
After Georgia’s new gun law, euphemistically called the ‘Safe Carry Protection Act,’ takes effect July 1, all bets are off.
Political cartoon by Mike Luckovich / Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Image from Sky Dancing.
“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.” – Robert Frost 1920
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – POGO Walt Kelly 1970
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” – Barack Obama 2008
Georgia’s new gun law goes into effect July 1, allowing firearms in bars, nightclubs, and government buildings without security checkpoints. Georgia churches can permit parishioners to come armed to services.
Euphemistically called the “Safe Carry Protection Act,” the new law lifts restrictions on individuals convicted of certain misdemeanors from obtaining a gun permit. Gun dealers are no longer required to keep sales records. A stand-your-ground law will expand and police will not have the right to ask armed citizens whether they have a license.
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Posted in RagBlog
Tagged American Society, Georgia Gun Law, Gun Culture, Gun Laws, James McEnteer, Rag Bloggers
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VIDEO | Dan Rather and Robin Rather in lively, far-ranging, and funny Rag Radio interview
Video captures the legendary newsman and the pioneering Austin environmentalist in their first father-daughter interview.
Video by Alan Pogue and William Michael Hanks.
Alan Pogue and Mike Hanks have just posted this excellent video filmed during my Rag Radio interview with legendary newsman Dan Rather and Austin environmental activist Robin Rather. The show — their first-ever father-daughter interview — is one of my all-time favorites from the six-year history of Rag Radio.
The incisive, far-ranging, and frequently very funny session was originally broadcast on September 27, 2013, on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin, Texas. The video was shot by internationally-known documentary photographer Alan Pogue, who was staff photographer for the original Rag, Austin’s pioneering underground newspaper, and was edited by award-winning filmmaker and writer William Michael Hanks. The video can also be found on YouTube.
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Posted in RagBlog
Tagged Alan Pogue, Austin History, Broadcast Journalists, CBS News, Corporate Journalism, Dan Rather, Environmental Activists, Houston History, Interview, Rag Bloggers, Rag Radio, Robin Rather, Save Our Springs, Television News, Thorne Dreyer, Video, William Michael Hanks
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On becoming a living fossil
David may have been ahead of his time, but he was late to pick up Muriel Lester.
Radical pacifist Muriel Lester.
NEW YORK — This past Friday I went up to a Unitarian Church here in Manhattan to take part in a series of interviews for a film project of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Virginia Baron had been there just before me, and Leslie Cagan was arriving as I left. The chances are good I may have been, at 84, the oldest of those interviewed.
On the way up I had thought of a story involving the late Muriel Lester, but as I got to the church her name had escaped my mind. I realized, as I sat waiting while the lights were adjusted, that none of those working the cameras would have the slightest idea of whom I might be thinking. They were all young, and Muriel was long dead. (She has an all-too-brief entry in Wikipedia and Richard Deats, whose health has recently not been good, edited a book about Muriel several years ago).
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Rape, rape culture, and the problem of patriarchy
I don’t believe feminists are unfair or crazy. In fact, I believe the only sensible way to understand these issues is through a feminist critique of patriarchy.
Image from Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER).
By the end of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, two key questions were on the table for those who not only are aware of rape but would like to end men’s violence against women.
First, do we live in a rape culture, or is rape perpetrated by a relatively small number of predatory men?
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Posted in RagBlog
Tagged American Society, Feminism, Male Dominance, Patriarchy, Rag Bloggers, Rape, Rape Culture, Robert Jensen, Sexual Violence
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