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August 27, 2011
Pantheon: Lena Calhoun Horne.
1941 photo by Carl Van Vechten
Lena Horne died last year on May 9, 2010. She had natural class and confidence. She lived her life as a work of art. She could sing, dance, act. She could, and did, stand up to talentless arrogance, straight-up bullies and inelegance in all its forms--both before and after she became powerful in her own right. If you're of the greatest generation, you think of her as glamorous. If you're a Boomer, she's the best of the Civil Rights movement.
And if you were born after 1970, you might be curious about a New Yorker who begins life in a rapidly-changing Bedford–Stuyvesant, moves South without parents, heads back up to Brooklyn, becomes a Cotton Club mainstay at 17, breaks records in more than walk of life, and lives to be 92. Start here, here or here.
Add Ms. Horne to our Pantheon.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
Why You Shouldn't Always Text Baby Boomers.
Note to Gen-X and Gen-Y Guys: We know that you do whatever your women tell you to do--and that they like to text. But start using the phone instead. Step up and grow a pair. Call.
Texting is no longer completely cool because it's, well, Way-Poofy, plus:
1. Gadgety yet Highly Inefficient.
2. Slow.
3. Prone to Be Misunderstood.
4. Impersonal. Bordering on Rude.
5. Passive-Aggressive in the Extreme.
6. Dripping in Docility.
7. Completely and Off-The-Charts ShowTunes.
Pick up the phone and call us instead. Note to Gen-X and Gen-Y Guys: We know that you do whatever your women tell you to do--and that they like to text. But start using the phone for what phones used to be designed for. Call. Step up. Grow a pair. We know you you can do it!
Hunter? He texted when it was too noisy to talk.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
My Marrakesh: Mirleft, Morocco--and Life's Big Waters. The Strength and Passion of a Mother's Love.
Do see at My Marrakesh my stalwart friend Maryam's Mirleft, Morocco: and a Tale of Watery Treachery.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2011
It's Friday night again. You really believe Your Wife is out with The Girls?
There's a man down there. Might be your husband. I don't know.
"She took all my money. Wrecked my new car. Now she's with one of my good time buddies. Drinkin' in some cross town bar."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2011
Jorge Luis Borges: Happy Birthday, Old Man.
And sorry we are one day late. No one in the history of letters has ever had your courage or imagination. I read you in Spanish growing up in Ohio--and am still in awe of the ease with which you applied the Mysterious and the Metaphysical to the Mundane World. Drop back in to this plane some time. Tell us How We Humans are Doing. Tell us again Who We Really Are. Spin those Universes once again and all at once.
(August 24, 1899 - June 14, 1986)
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
Washington Post: Earthquakes, U.S. Monetary Policy & the Terrible Wrath of Fiscal Gods.
Last week in Phoenix I met with Mike O'Neil, friend, prof, TV news pundit, doer, fellow politics junkie and Renaissance Man. We both worship at The Washington Post. See Matt Miller's "Earthquake: A Divine Downgrade?"
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2011
House of Barbie: Me love you long time...
Name's Oliver. American. Buy you a counterfeit Heineken? "Iconic" Barbie is now 52 and, in recent years, alive, well and servicing China. Is there really a Shanghai Barbie Store?
"Wanna' date, Joe?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:59 AM | Comments (2)
August 23, 2011
Skip Ad. Turn Up Volume. Get to the Hen House. Dance Hard.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
Broc Romanek: Congress, HR 2759 and Disclosures of "Social Issues" to the SEC.
And, hey, Get the Net. See at The Corporate Counsel.Net Broc Romanek's piece "A Disturbing Trend: Congress Forcing Corporate Disclosure for Social Issues". Excerpts:
Now, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has introduced a House bill entitled the "Business Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act" (H.R. 2759) that would require companies to disclose efforts to identify and address the risks of human trafficking, forced labor, slavery and child labor in their supply chains.
Although these bills are well-meaning, attempting to solve the world's problems through SEC filings simply is the wrong--and very expensive--way to go. How in the world did Congress start thinking they should influence foreign policy, as well as domestic social and environmental issues, through SEC filings?
Well, before Dodd-Frank, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) used an omnibus appropriations bill in early '04 to require companies to disclose business activities in countries designated by the State Department as sponsoring international terrorism (Wolf particularly was targeting Iran). Corp Fin's "Office of Global Security Risk" was born.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2011
Dance, robots, dance.
Ancient Galleries, Ancient Faces. New Haven, 1968.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)