Links and commentary on media, politics and culture by Steve Rhodes.

 
I went to see an exhibition game between the US Women's Olympic Basketball team and Canada in Oakland Saturday.
Scott has some pictures from the game (the us won 90 to 51).
posted by steve at 8/31/2000 09:56:00 AM

 

I'm still looking for a place to live in SF and staying with http://www.links.net>Justin and Amy, so updates will be rare.

Paper Tiger TV has an http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa/filmseries/paper_tiger.html>installation
and screening series at http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa/filmseries/paper_tiger.html>Pacific Film Archives
in Berkeley through Oct. 15th.
posted by steve at 8/28/2000 07:29:00 PM

 

A piece in the NYT on Ken Kurson and http://www.greenmagazine.com>Green magazine.

I arrive in the Bay area on Tuesday and will stay with Justin until I find a place to live.
posted by steve at 8/21/2000 10:54:00 AM

 

Dan Perkins (Tom Tomorrow) is again posting pictures (with comments) from the convention
frontlines. He did a special This Purposeful World on the
Republican convention for the Village Voice.

Updates have been (and will be) sparse since I've been hired as online editor at the San Francisco Bay
Guardian and will be moving back to SF and looking for a place to live next week. The Guardian is doing special coverage online of the convention.
posted by steve at 8/16/2000 08:39:00 PM

 
Getting to Know You is playing at the Roxie in San Francisco for the next
two weeks.
posted by steve at 8/11/2000 05:22:00 PM

 
The Chicago Tribune
reports on the Illinois
Supreme Court's ruling finding fault with 6 death sentences. Two were overturned because of allegations their confessions
were obtained by torture. The Chicago Reader's articles on torture by the Chicago Police are online including a story on Aaron Patterson, one
of the men who was tortured.

The court also found that international law was violated in one case, but the appeal was too late. Another story is on a former prosectutor who is critical of Gov. Ryan's moratorium on executions.

posted by steve at 8/11/2000 02:21:00 PM

 
Texas is scheduled to execute two people today. It isn't getting much attention. The death penalty is just so
pre-philly con. The New York Times ran a story,
Executing the Mentally Retarded Even as Laws Begin to Shift and an More Texas Executions. But there won't be the
coverage or scrutiny the Gary Graham case received.

You can email Bush to express your opinion. The Times also recently did a piece on the use the web by prisoners. Strangely, it didn't include any URLs.

Dan Perkins (Tom Tomorrow) did a piece on the Republican Convention for the latest Village Voice, This Purposeful World. Dan has put up
pictures he took (some of which
are reflected in the voice piece).

posted by steve at 8/09/2000 12:03:00 AM

 

George W. is starting his speech, so this will be quick.

Last night, a number of news shows had footage of Ralph Nader on the floor of the Republican convention, but you couldn't hear
what he was saying. He got press credentials through Democracy Now, They have
video and audio
of it up. It runs about 13 minutes.
posted by steve at 8/03/2000 07:11:00 PM

 

I actually found myself agreeing with some of Pat Robertson's http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/02/lkl.00.html>comments on Larry King live last night:

It's prepackaged. It is slick. It is homogenized. It is pabulum...

But you have to give people a reason why this party is different from the
other party. What we're saying is we're the good Democrats and they're the
bad Democrats...

I just think there has to be some delineation of how come we want to vote
for this guy besides the fact he's just a wonderful human being, and he's
got a lovely wife, and a great father.

posted by steve at 8/02/2000 02:24:00 PM

 
The NYT has a good piece on how a few people gave the bulk of the soft
money to the GOP and ways the sources of funds were hidden, http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/080200gop-donate.html>
The Few, the Rich, the Rewarded Donate the Bulk of G.O.P. Gifts

Brian Ross has also been doing good reporting on money for ABC including

Political Money Trail
and

Coach Takes on Gambling Industry But Republican Leaders Won't Budge. Another story will be on ABC News tonight. You can sign up to get daily email on what is on ABC News.

Mother Jones has a section on money in politics including past reports on the top 400 donors. They are working on a current list and have a piece on Cheney, Cheney's Multi-Million Dollar Revolving Door. For more on the role of money in politics, see The Center For Public Integrity.

Farai Chideya has a piece Cheney and Mandela: Reconciling the Truth about Cheney's Vote and Joe Conason has a column on it.
posted by steve at 8/02/2000 12:20:00 PM

 
American High debuts on Fox tonight at 9 pm eastern time and runs for seven weeks. The documentary follows 14 students for a year at
Highland Park High School. There were pieces about the show in the http://www.nytimes.com/library/arts/073000tv-teenager.html>Sunday New York Times and Chicago Tribune.

It was created by RJ Cutler who worked on The War Room and A Perfect Candidate and John Hockenberry's short lived http://www.salon.com/aug97/media/media970806.html>Edgewise show on MSNBC. He said he wanted to do a non-fiction version of My So-Called Life. The website is pretty extensive.

TV Tattle and Reality Blurred have links to a number of reviews. Most I've seen have been positive.
posted by steve at 8/02/2000 12:51:00 AM

 
Booksense.com is currently in beta, so there is now another alternative to amazon. A number of independent bookstores are participating. It will officially launch in the next month or so. There is an interview from January with
Len Vlahos director of booksense.com.

There are about 300 stores participating so far (though all of them might now have sites up yet). Some of the stores include
Women & Children First in Chicago, Dancing Rabbit Books in Greenwood, Mississippi, Ruminator Books (formely Hungry Mind) in St. Paul
and Printers Ink in Palo Alto.
posted by steve at 8/01/2000 11:47:00 PM

 
AMC is showing their documentary on early women filmmakers again on Tuesday at 8 pm eastern.

On Thursday, TMC is showing a new documentary on screenwriter Francis Marion.
It kicks off 37 films written, directed or produced by women which will
be shown on Thursdays in August. There is a lot of info at the website for the festival.


posted by steve at 8/01/2000 01:16:00 AM