| Pop culture feeding on itself
It truly is incredible how pop culture feeds on itself. In the early '90s, when rap changed from an interesting genre to gangsta hip-hop, it was a shock to hear the "N-word." Especially years after the civil rights movement lost its leaders in a move to eradicate all derogatory statements made toward African-Americans and to promote equality. Now record labels glorify the music of thugs and convicts and promote them as music artists. Bill Cosby and other educated African Americans have noted that these greedy record producers have sent the civil rights movement back to the stone ages.
Unfortunately, the media gives the camera and radio to the worst possible role models. Where are Will Smith and Halle Berry when you need them to make a stand for a good cause?
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ambassadors of Japan-China culture and sports exchange year
TOKYO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Famous Japanese table tennis player Ai Fukuhara and pop star Noriko Sakai on Thursday were named good-will ambassadors of the 2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year. Fukuhara and Sakai will take part in almost all of important activities of the exchange year, which aims to enhance understanding between Japanese and Chinese people, especially the youth of the two countries, and to boost bilateral exchanges, said officials from the Japanese executive committee of the exchange year. Under the theme "bringing forth a new image of Japan and the Japanese people to the new Chinese generation," Fukuhara and Sakai were selected because of their image and popularity in China, the committee said.
An Unusual Suspect
Often working behind the scenes, Grace Lee Boggs has intrigued scholars and students with her lifelong mentoring of Black radicals. By Lydia Lum Dr. Wang Zheng wastes no words when it comes to discussing the person she most admires, a 91-year-old Chinese-American revolutionary activist whose lifes work Wang includes in her University of Michigan courses. Wang says she knew very little about Dr. Grace Lee Boggs before the latter participated in an oral history project on campus a few years ago. Wang then read Boggs autobiography, and says she was amazed by Boggs dealings with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights figures. Wang was also intrigued by the longstanding commitment Boggs and her husband, Jimmy Boggs, had to Detroits Black community.
Secret city - fashion finds
THE boys from Melbourne street-wear label Schwipe like to take precautions. Just in case you do, against all odds, notice the small sign that points to their second- floor store and gallery across from the popular lolly shop in the somewhat daggy Royal Arcade, they've made the message clear. They've called the place Don't Come. Opened late last year, Don't Come is the latest in a slew of Melbourne fashion retailers that are rejecting increasingly trashy shopping strips in favour of higher ground. Where once being hard to find was commonly regarded as retail suicide, it's the new black when it comes to fashion in this city. Falling roughly within two categories - "lustrous local label" and "fancy frock flogger" - the so-called "vertical retailers" trade walk-by traffic for the lofty surrounds of obscure upper-storey locations, or for subterranean hideouts where only a semi-concealed graphic or a glimpse of boudoir wallpaper will point alert passers-by to the treasures beneath.
Revisiting the mind of Utah and its Internet search choices
A story published in the Salt Lake Tribune in August, titled "Google Trends: The Mind of Utah," made some interesting and funny, yet unscientific allegations about the Internet searches of area residents. The idea that a city's "cyberspace doppelganger" can be determined by charting its top Internet search terms is an intriguing one, and Google Trends helps make that kind of study accessible. However, the story offered a selection of search terms that seemed aimed at digging up the "mundane, bizarre, ribald, homey, gluttonous, addictive and slightly perverse and surreal world" of Salt Lake City. .
Odds of Three-Way Tie
Karpagam Rajagopal almost made game-show history on July 3, 2000. That's the day "Jeopardy" aired her second appearance, after she won $7,500 on the previous episode. Entering the final round of wagering, the library specialist from Fallon, Nev., known to her friends as "Jeeks," was tied with her opponents at $5,200. The other two bet everything, a typical strategy on the long-running, long-studied TV quiz show. But Ms. Rajagopal feared she might face a pop-culture question in the category "1962," which was 25 years before she emigrated to the U.S. from India. She bet $5,000. All three contestants correctly answered ... .
Morality in Media President Says We Would Have Much Less to Fear ...
"Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in North Central Illinois I often felt left out when friends went hunting for rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, deer and more.
"My dad never took us hunting, even though his father had hunted and even though we had a rifle in the home that he taught us how to use when I was in grade school. After my grandfather passed away when I was in college, we also had a shotgun and handgun in the home.
"Fist fighting among kids was common, but never once did any of us (or our parents) use a gun to shoot someone else. To my knowledge, the community I grew up in was not atypical.
"Not surprising, my own growing up experience makes me wary of those that point a finger at the availability of guns as the underlying cause of the dramatic increase in gun-related murders.
Popular culture movement for DC vote ramping up
From blogs to rock music, District of Columbia voting rights advocates are tapping into popular culture as they seek to educate the public about the city's lack of a full vote in Congress. Web pages on the popular social networking sites MySpace.com and Facebook.com urge students and sympathizers across the country to raise awareness for a D.C. vote. And on Monday, a march and rally on Capitol Hill likely will include more than the city's political establishment. Independent bands and bloggers say they plan to participate, too. The push comes as Congress prepares to take up legislation this month that would give district residents voting rights in the House for the first time in more than two centuries. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, saying the Constitution allows congressional voting representation only to states.
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