I wanted to write an elaborate post on my thoughts on the Gaza flotilla raid and its consequences but it was too hard for me to express them in writing, so I decided to postpone it for now.
However, I did want to share a story with you. It was broadcast on This American Life – a weekly public radio show I listen to as a podcast.
The section I decided to present deals with the tunnels in and out of the Gaza strip. It’s Act 2 of episode #407 entitled ‘The Bridge’, originally aired on 05 July 2009:
In the Middle East, hundreds and hundreds of tunnels connect the Gaza strip and Egypt, allowing supplies to bypass the Israeli blockade against Hamas-controlled Gaza. Producer Nancy Updike speaks with Ira about the tunnels, and plays tape from an interview she conducted with a tunnel owner.
This American Life – #407 The Bridge: Act 2 – Bridge and Tunnel
Every episode of This American Life has a theme and a “variety of stories on that theme. It’s mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. There’s lots more to the show, but it’s sort of hard to describe.”
The American Time Use Survey asks thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. Here is how people over age 15 spent their time in 2008.
Arcade Fire & David Bowie – Life On Mars? (Live at Fashion Rocks)
Greetings!
Life on Mars? is one of David Bowie‘s best and most moving songs. Appeared for the first time on the album Hunky Dory from 1973, BBC Radio 2 later called “a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dalí painting”. The attached version is a recorded performance of David Bowie together with Arcade Fire (featured last week) at Fashion Rocks on 8th September, 2005 in New York. [click to continue…]
For this Monday’s Tune I’ve chosen to include the song “Halfway Home” by TV on the Radio, who were featured on Monday’s Tune last year.
The song is from the album ‘Dear Science’ which was named the best album of 2008 by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Spin Magazine, Consequence of Sound, MTV, Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork Media’s readers poll, and was ranked 7th in Q Magazine’s list of the 50 best albums of 2008, where it was described as “art rock with a human face”. [click to continue…]
Israel is not one of these countries, and I’m quite annoyed at this.
The most annoying thing is that Israel’s neighbours – Jordan and Egypt will get the iPhone. How ruthless can Apple be? People will stand on the other side of the border with their 3G iPhones laughing at the Palestinians and Israelis, who will fight each other just to get a glimpse…
Countries like Liechtenstein [pop. 35,365], Macau [pop. 520,400] and Guinea-Bissau [pop. 1,586,000] are going to get the iPhone.
Hello!!! The glorious people of Israel have already jailbreaked more than 25,000 iPhones. Bought in American and European Apple Stores and brought to Israel in deep pockets, or bought in one of the dozens private importers of the iPhone to Israel, without the consent of the valid distributor iDigital.
Israeli entrepreneur Ouriel Ohayon says: Who cares?
Today’s featured band is ”Formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo”, AKA Flight of the Conchords, or - Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement.
They are witty, funny, honest, and have a great observations on life…
The duo’s comedy and music became first the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series [HBO], which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords.
The song I attached is called ‘Ladies of the World’, from their studio album, released in April 2008, and is just great (and very sexy…)
Listen to their words, watch the videos, enjoy the music…
Here are some videos…
Robots (The Humans are Dead) -- Early Live version….
The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room) -- song starts at 00:40
The post-punk revival is a movement in alternative rock of the 2000s where bands draw from of the original sounds and aesthetics of the post-punk sound of the late 1970′s, some also taking cues and influences from various genres…
The song ‘Read My Mind’ is from The Killers’ second album Sam’s Town.
Today’s special feature is the video for Goldfrapp‘s new single ‘Happiness’ [released 14 April 2008]
Goldfrapp are a British electronic music duo, consists of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals/synthesizer) and Will Gregory (synthesizer).
The video was directed by legendary pop video director Dougal Wilson, and pays homage to a scene in the 1953 film Small Town Girl.
The new Rambo film is out, and includes a basic plot: John Rambo joins a group of mercenaries to venture into war-torn Burma, and rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by the ruthless local infantry unit.
But now it seems that Sylvester Stallone is taking the film back to reality and has a message for the Burmese military government, via Reuters. :
“Why don’t you invite me over? Let me take a tour of your country without someone pointing a gun at my head and we’ll show you where all the bodies are buried.”
But not only that, according to news reports
the Burmese have “gone crazy” over bootleg copies of the film, and the line “Live for nothing. Die for something” is being used as a rallying cry by dissidents. “This movie could fuel the sentiment of Myanmar people to invite American troops to help save them from the junta,” one Yangon resident told Reuters.
The new 
