From a forwarded email about voting fraud in Austin: Yesterday a friend voted early at a polling location in Austin. She voted straight Democratic. When she did the final check, lo and behold every vote was for the Democratic candidates except that it showed she had voted for Bush/Cheney for president/vice pres. She immediately got a poll official. On her vote, it was corrected. She called the Travis County Democratic headquarters. They took all her information, and told her that she wasn’t the first to report a similar incident and that they are looking into it. So check before you leave the polling booth, andRead More →

To order Baudrillard’s Ecstasy of Communication for next semester, I went to Amazon to get the facts of publication and ISBN number. Amazon does not have a picture of the book’s cover. Unlike most cases where there is no picture of the book’s cover, there is not even a picture saying the picture itself is unavailable. Indeed, if you click on the blank space where a picture usually sits, you are taken to a blank page (not an error message, just a blank page). How Baudrillard is that?!!!!

An article ran in the paper a couple years ago about an obese cat who liked to eat waffles and the diet and exercise plan that the family put him on. I’m reprinting it here (illegally) because it’s very funny and also very meaningful to me. We have a saying in our family now, derived from the story. The first time we used it was when we were car shopping and I felt uncomfortable looking at one of the Toyotas because of how much money it would cost. The husband said, “Dip the waffle in the milk, Laura. It’s ok.” So now this is whatRead More →

Mira Nair’s films evoke the feeling of lush reds and yellows. That is such a prevalent visual theme in the four films I’ve seen by her: Mississippi Masala (1992) Kama Sutra (1997) Monsoon Wedding (2002) Vanity Fair (2004) I saw Vanity Fair last night. It was better than expected, and better than the critics rated it. But then, I LOVED Kama Sutra. Of those I’ve seen, Kama Sutra is my favorite, mostly that’s due to the director’s commentary. On the one hand, Kama Sutra is somewhat inaccessible to American audiences. OTOH, I love this film because I do find it most accessible compared to someRead More →

When Rolling Stone heavily promotes a new group or singer, something suspicious has gotta be going on. They liked Avril Lavigne’s new album, right? So when they went ga-ga over Los Lonely Boys, well… CMT played their video, showing a group of three Mexican-American men, one with long hair and sunglasses. Now, that is not something you see very often on CMT. After listening for three or so seconds, I stayed because the tune was so resonant. Their style resembles Santana with just a little bit of a country kick. On their website they describe themselves the same way! “It’s kinda crazy, we’re like theRead More →

The latest Rolling Stone (my main news source these days, it seems) has an article on Clear Channel. Here is what Clear Channel owns in Baton Rouge: Radio Stations: 96.1 The River 102.5 WFMF 1150 WWJBO News Radio 1210 AM The Score 1380 AM Talk Radio 101.5 WYNK The only one on my dial is 102.5. That will be changing this afternoon. Thank goodness they don’t own 104.5. They own the Seanger Theatre in New Orleans 🙁