Audio – Page 81 – Citizen Reporter

Straight Outta Compton

Inappropriate Brian works in the television biz, here’s how our conversation started today:

Inappropriate Brian: so guess who was on the show… well u would never guess…

bicyclemark: who who?

Inappropriate Brian: Ice Cube and guess what i played him.

bicyclemark: what what?

Inappropriate Brian: Nina Gordon’s Straight outta Compton.

bicyclemark: hahah had he heard it?

Inappropriate Brian: no.

bicyclemark: holy shit where has he been; what did he say?

Inappropriate Brian: he looked at me and said: white girls with guitars can do anything.

bicyclemark: hahahaha

Inappropriate Brian: im like I KNOW! he laughed and left. dont think he took her name. he didnt ask come to think of it.

bm113 Reproductive Rights, After South Dakota

South Dakota found its way into the news earlier this month with its ban on abortion. So what other states might follow? What are the ongoing battles within the question of reproductive rights, and what issues will emerge now that power has been consolidated within the supreme court? Amanda Marcotte, direct from Austin, Texas, blogs at pandagon.net and joins me to discuss these issues and more.

AudioCommunique #113 (mp3)

Music:

Stars – The Very Thing
Sweet Honey & the Rock – Your Children
Antony and the Johnsons – Man is the baby

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Personal Media to Increase Understanding

Last night at the “little” Dutch Vlogger Meetup, I rehashed a topic that I began talking about during the bloggers in Amsterdam roundtable a few weeks ago. The topic involves a personal belief of mine that producing personal media: blogs, podcasts, vlogs, photoblogs; and sharing them with people around the world, increases incultural exchange and therefore decreases the likelihood of using violence to resolve international disputes.

Did I lose you? It’s pretty basic, and some people might label it as naïve or wrong, but I simply believe that by reading blogs, for example, from people in Iran, we are getting to know Iranians on a very personal level. By knowing them and reading their thoughts and work, this helps defeat any propaganda that might be pushed by a government or a media that wants to sell you the idea that, say – Iranians are dangerous and tyrants and the answer is to bomb the shit out of the country. Readers, listeners, and viewers of Iranian pesonal media would immediately dispell such fairy tales, and insist that whatever methods are used to resolve a disagreement, violence is not an option – EVER.

When I brought this up, asking if the bloggers believed in this possibility, I think it was Ezra or Amanda, who saw it as unlikely, stating that for every Iranian blogger that might blog about peacefully resolving a conflict, the a warmongering Iranian blogger in the US or wherever, would emerge to support the opposite.

Amongst others last night, Gabe was an especially outspoken supporter of this idea, that if more people watched vlogs and were consumers of personal media across borders, the less propaganda that promotes violence, mistrust, and hatred would ne believed.

I think the biggest disappointment factor in all this is that we are still a long way from this being a reality. You reading this post are still a small fragment of the world’s population, as is the case for all personal media – most people still don’t understand or use it. Despite the fact that we may have the key to more peace in the world, we’re not even close to being able to save any lives.

For more on Iran in particular, I like to read Juan Cole. And of course, the granddaddy of the Iranian blogosphere – Hoder.

bm112 A Serbian in Lisbon

Only a few days after the death of Milosevic, I walked in to my favorite pizzeria in Lisbon to enjoy a meal and visit with a Serbian friend. While I was there he could hardly contain the rush of thoughts and emotion about what had happenned. These are his thoughts and the story of that evening, based on what I remember.

AudioCommunique #112 (mp3)

Music:

Lots of Random Fado
José Afonso – Coro dos Caídos
Ala dos Namorados – Loucos de Lisboa
Elvis Costello – The Judgement
Waldemar Bastos – A Minha Terra

*at the start of the program I make a error when I call it “my favorite pizzeria in Amsterdam” obviously I meant Lisbon.

Landed Back in Siberia

I felt dumb walking around with a coat under my arm on the way to the airport in Lisbon this afternoon as it was a summer-like 22 degrees C. Then I got off the plane and zoomed out of the airport here in the Netherlands and felt dumb for not having more layers.

So it goes. PT journey is over. Lots more video, audio, and written text thoughts to come; especially about how wonderful my family and friends and Portugal are, but not tonight.. the clock says 335 am.

Echoes of ’68

One weekend of being nearly disconnected from the world and man oh man did alot happen in the world in the last 72 hours. I want to start with the one that has me most alarmed as trusty Portuguese TV news has been showing tons of footage from it: the student strikes at the Sorbonne.

First of all fuck the French government, especially Sarkozy since his signature of iron fisted police aggression is all over this one. Prime minister Villepin has also proven to be a complete coward who consistantly fails to represent people who never elected him in the first place. (the man has never run for public office!)

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself condemning leaders instead of explaining what has been going on, for those who weren’t informed. Basically France passed a new law that allows youth (under 26) to be hired for 2-year contracts during which companies will be completely free to fire them at any time without any explanation. Apparently the idea is to enourage companies to hire young people without fear of having to keep them. Students, naturally, do not like this idea, and as a response, have gone on strike. To which the government has responded with brute force in the form of scores of riot police busting skulls.

Now depending on where you live, you’re probably thinking – so what, lot’s of us young people get fired after 2 years, or even 1… that’s life. Indeed it is a reality I have seen in various countries. But for the government to actually pass a law sanctioning this practice – that’s basically spitting in the face of every student who’s working hard to get that degree and build a career. For that reason alone, I say build the barracades, close the Sorbonne and all the universities in France, DO NOT ALLOW BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Last time I checked the Sorbonne had been forcibly evacuated. I saw police beating up students, many of which were either running for their lives or trying to defend themselves by whatever means they could find (rocks, bottles, etc.) It reminds me of the stories some of my old professors at Willy P used to tell, from the student strikes in Paris, 1968. Those strikes began with the students and soon spread throughout the country… maybe that is what this government needs in order to remember who it works for.

Off I go to sing Les Mis songs in the shower.