All Links
A nice list (with short audio samples and lyrics) of French music from the past 100 years, 1908 to 2007. Written in both Japanese and French.
A community blog of Russian photographers that started on LiveJournal, now on a new domain. Called 500px since images are sized to a 500-pixel width.
A network of bloggers. Later this week I plan to browse their membership with a notebook on my knee, to jot down ideas to improve my site.
California monastery, offers teachings in Theravadin Forest Sangha tradition, audio lectures.
I’ve just noticed what a nice online counterpart AGNI has, with some works published exclusively online. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry and interviews.
How to torture yourself online. Step 1: Go to blog featuring photos of delicious, frosted cupcakes. Step 2: Subscribe to RSS feed.
Interview introducing the NYC-based Sex Workers Project and its recent analysis of indoor sex work, Behind Closed Doors.
Game played with a standard chess set, designed to be difficult for programs to master. Pieces are initially set up by each player, and are harder to remove from the game. With four moves each turn, sheer computing power has trouble coping.
What it says. Recordings representing various asian traditions taken from rare tapes and LPs. Most songs are long jam sessions (like 15 to 25 minutes.)
Tons of audio dharma talks taken from the Insight Meditation Center. Well, not taken, but given. Hundreds of talks with more each week. I’m a dharma addict myself, so this site will keep me going… maybe forever.
The amazing Tattered Cover Book Store in Colorado now has a podcast of guest authors’ speaking engagements.
Make your own musical instrument for less than a quarter. Dominate the talent show circuit.
Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and labor activist, author of Nickel and Dimed and other books, blogs.
An amazing music blog featuring African music, almost impossible to find. Why? A whole continent of undiscovered music. Updated: New address.
At work I framed a poster of a Bouguereau painting. So I saw it up close. Wow! A tremendous talent… although a bit limited choosing his subject matter. But, amazing nonetheless.
Book-trading community. Earn points for offering books, more for sending them. Trade in points for books. All you pay is shipping for what you send out. Looking into this someday, when I can afford the shipping charges.
Thank you internet! Now I can learn about all those plants I never see… because I’m looking at photos and reading blogs on the internet.
Nuns and monks trained in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. Check out their Dhamma Talks, audio and some video recordings of their weekly talks and meditation practice.
Don’t call it world music… Calabash only sells GLOBAL music. 99 cents per song, or as low as 75 if you buy in bulk. With proceeds going direct (mostly) to the artist. Many great features to help you find new interesting music from around the globe.
If you’re ever in Baton Rouge, Chelsea’s has good food, good music AND good beer. And I designed their website. It’s very orange.
This is the first internet site I ever visited. Retired for several years, and still the authorative resource on Fraggle Rock.
How did this site escape my purview previously? Vegan cooking with a focus on its ethical foundations. Includes a podcast (if you can find the audio files in the news feed.)
English language haibun… that’s haiku with prose, usually as an introduction.
Canadian painter, Emily Carr. An interesting look at an artist’s home.
A large collection of recorded poetry. The purveyors of Fishouse send recording devices to modern authors. Very trusting.
Eerie. Typed in my address, there’s my apartment and my truck sitting next to it. Took a virtual drive down the road to my mother’s office. Who needs to go outside?
As someone who works with toys, I must say I’m impressed with German toymakers, Haba. Colorful, made with natural materials, imbued with imagination, and obviously very fun.
One-minute segments of Canadian history. Apparently, anything longer would be less interesting.
A YouTube vlog with several hundred music videos from Africa. Keep digging, you’ll find something to love. If not, check your pulse. You may be dead.
Three streams of Iranian music, including dance and pop. I listen to the traditional Persian ‘sonati’ station.
Ooh… free 10-minute lessons in the Japanese. A daily podcast broadcasting since Dec. 2005. A few videocasts, too. They even have BitTorrent files for batch downloads. Good stuff!
What the name says. Official podcast of the Jim Henson Company with eclusive interviews and reminders to buy Henson merchandise.
Formerly, Weavebrain. Offers audio teachings by venerable nun, Ayya Khema, of the Theravadin tradition, and her students.
Ooh, ooh, ooh. Pretty iconic artwork with roots in traditional arts. Bold colors.
Archive of old story records for kids, professionally made, and long forgotten. Updated weekly. Free downloads of, now, over a couple hundred short records. Really well done.
Nonprofit org. based around documentary, Born Into Brothels, and book about a photographer’s work with children of Calcuta’s red light district.
Another book cataloging service, but I’m finding this one easy to use, especially good since I have many old and strange books.
Javascript to unobtrusively layer an image over the current web page when the link is clicked. Try out the demonstration to see what I mean.
I’m listening to Richard Brautigan read this poem to a melancholy guitar plinking its bittersweet tune over and over again while I write nonsense.
Internet radio with an eclectic mix of jazz lounge and good vibe world styles. I catch this station on iTunes.
Digital Comic Learning System. Japanese instruction through comics, read out loud and accompanied by explanatory text.
Illustrators have some of the best website designs, and not entirely non-functional either.
Great resource about Japanese cinema. With interviews, special features, film and book reviews.
While wondering why 50+ entries were listed in Miss Snark’s news feed, I realized all of those entertaining entries had been written in the past week! That deserves another exclamation point!
An open, participatory wiki for discussion of (and direct editing of) policy. Rather than pay for focus groups to study the language of a proposal, let the internet have at it. In another decade or two, maybe we won’t need a House of Representatives.
Journalist, Naomi Klein, addresses wide-ranging issues of politics, commerce, and exploitation.
Free radio playing Japanese study sessions, vocabulary and phrases. A weekly podcast, also free, and a store for purchasing MP3s. Giving stuff away… it’s the new business model.
Home of Unshelved, a daily comic about library matters. I’ve always said, to succeed in comics, target the losers.
Wow! I just heard the Web 2.0 odometer roll over. Pick a band or song and build your own radio station. It is even more astounding than it sounds.
Wikipedia article about the French animated film based on Iranian expat, Marjane Satrapi’s life, as told in her acclaimed graphic novels. Now in limited US theaters and soon to be dubbed in English. This will be one of my favorite movies of 2008.
Like photography, but aural. Field recordings with artistic intent. A handful of samples from compilations available.
A 12-piece Oregon-based band/orchestra with all the best ethnic/world/lounge influences. Their latest album has gone gold in Canada, Turkey and Greece. Doesn’t that say it all?
Museum of Mid-Century Illustration. Lots of excellent illustrations. Ah! So much raw talent poured down the drain of the American consumer economy.
Artist Yuka Yamaguchi draws images of children impaled by animals, usually with some form of dismemberment involved. Hey, as an artist, you stick with a formula if it works.
First episode of odd Norwegian puppet show, not translated. Only five episodes made, but re-aired several times before being banned (too dangerous for kids.) Thus was its cult status ensured. Banned in Norway.
Everything you ever wanted to read (and likely more) by French philosopher, Michel Foucault.
An episode from YouTube show Tales from the Pub which spoofs the great old psychological horror TV shows. Middle a bit tedious, but the ending is good.
One of those songs. Stops me dead. By Brit artist Amy Winehouse. Classic sound… i.e. great musicianship.
Folksy, rocksy music lady. Her new record, I’m A Mountain, is one of those albums with a sense of completeness. Great lyrics, great music, great vocals. Plus grassroots environmental advocacy.
An organization defending against attacks on ‘network neutrality.’ Basically communication companies want to sell preferential treatment. Imagine if corporations could buy power over traffic lights for their vehicles.
Blog detailing usage of unusual words in the media. Good to read while waiting for a page to load at Answers.com.
Website for new book by Naomi Klein which details how free market economists swoop down like vultures after major disasters to pass unpopular reforms and pick the bones of democracy clean. Watch the short film for a synopsis.
Read the short, short story, ‘They’re Made Out of Meat.’ Or don’t.
One of the best author sites for a book. Rowan Somerville introduces his first book with wit and a slow descent into chaos. I expect the story (about a journalist in Cairo in search of a story) follows the same pattern.
MP3’s, MP3’s, MP3’s. A large sampling of, you know, that upbeat punk scene. Sort of like, life sucks, so let’s go have a taco.
A newsy magazine where writers write things some people read… I’m feeling non-descriptive.
OMG! A cute cartoon cat who makes you think. What PBS would look like if liberals really were in charge of public broadcasting.
My new favorite public radio program. Even though I can’t eat 95% of the food discussed, I feel utterly superior to the masses while listening to this program.
They Might Be Giants… the one band that has truly embraced the internet. Dial-A-Song, TMBG Clock Radio, and now a podcast. Mating Calls of Turtles in the first episode is hilarious.
Three authors blogging on the subject of Japan. The words witty repartee come to mind. Many interesting facets of Japanese culture are offered for oggling over.
Oliver Mtukudzi, one of my favorite musicians, who I found through the public library. Try the video in the Downloads section, and just listen to his voice.
Had I the money, I would likely buy a computer running Ubuntu, the free Linux operating system designed for mere mortals. Ubuntu means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are.’ Apparently each letter is significant in that word.
Life Explained. On Film. Offers free how-to videos on a wide variety of subjects. Now I finally know how to tie a bow tie. Also solicits user-made videos, but I couldn’t find the ‘How to Make a How-to Video’ video. (found via Rebecca Blood)
Flash simulation of Mac OS 7. Including games like Asteroids, Pong and Breakout.
Collected information about the author of Where The Red Fern Grows, which I’ve finished rereading.
Excellent resource on Witter Bynner… you know, the writer, teacher, activist, translator.
Traditional overtone throat singing with rock inspirations, via Tuva, a Russian republic near Mongolia and Siberia. Great music for night driving. Many free tracks scattered among their CD listings.
Daily yoga video podcast. Episodes run almost an hour with commercials. Quite an undertaking.
Federal Trade Commission’s online brochure detailing how to request your annual free credit report from the big three credit reporters.
The recipe I’ve used for the past few weeks. I’ve never baked better bread.
