MJ Seide talks to her granddaughter Genna Alperin

Tomorrow is the National Day of Listening.

Check out the official StoryCorps site HERE, and enjoy a selection below:

MJ Seide talks to her granddaughter Genna Alperin

Satan, Colleges, Tongues, and a Double-edged sword - or - Jesus is thrilled.

Cantor (R-Virginia) and his failed bid to screw NPR

This corny crap was nipped in the bud today.  Thank gods.  Watch the vid on the YouCut site (below) it's hilarious.  From HuffPost: 

The proposal to defund NPR was the latest winning item on the Republicans' gimmicky YouCut site, which allows the public to pick the cuts they would like to see receive an up-or-down vote on the House floor. In order to get these votes, they try to make a procedural vote on an unrelated piece of legislation the vote on the YouCut item.

Walking man exhibit brightens construction fence in Lower Manhattan

Wandering around the Financial District the other day, I stumbled across these happy little numbers.  Three, four, ninety-nine.  Construction fences along three sides of the future site of the Four Seasons Hotel at 99 Church St., are boasting 99 images assembled by artist Maya Barkai.  More after the jump:

Wait, I'm loving this HUMMER?

I still think that the coolest overlooked option to inject cash and interest back into Detroit's manufacturing base would be to make any auto industry bail-out money contingent on rapid total transition to either a wind turbine company, or a photo-voltaic producer . . . but perhaps there's dollahs in bikes too . . .

As recently reported in the London Evening Standard, European automobile manufacturers are
sensing that trend is favoring livable cities, walking and biking, and ditching dirty transportation options to the obscurity of the century in which they were born . . . and these automakers are BUILDING BIKES!  From TransportMichigan:  more . . .

The Ben Burnank or Quantitative Easing Explained

THIS IS A MUST SEE

Take the 7 to NEW JERSEY??

Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled an amazing new proposal to run the 7 train from the far west side of Manhattan, under the Hudson and into Seacaucus, New Jersey -- where it will connect with New Jersey transit.  The move will double the capacity of the currently overstuffed trains that link the two states, and bring New Jersey directly to Times Square and the entirety of the NYC subway system.  The glorious new idea comes on the heels of NJ gov. Christie scrapping the heavily subsidised and already begun tunnel plan from his state, and the risk it seems is that he will get credit for "big bro" NYC picking up the slack and fixing his greedy tragedy.  From the NYTimes:

"Last month, Mr. Christie, a Republican, put an end to the long-planned Hudson rail tunnel project after the estimated cost climbed to at least $11 billion, from an initial $8.7 billion. The project would have created two new tracks for New Jersey Transit from Secaucus to a new station deep under 34th Street, near Pennsylvania Station. The federal Transportation Department had pledged $3 billion, as had the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. New Jersey was responsible for the rest."

So Christie thumbed his nose at 3 billion from the Federal Gov't, and might gladly accept a similar proposal . . . as long as NYC picks up the tab?  What thinly-veiled slickery.  And if you know Christie, you hardly want to see him thinly-veiled.

Jeff Sheng's striking images of closeted soldiers humanize the debate over DADT

books of Jeff's work along with more images are available @ jeffsheng.com

  more . . .

Tina Fey accepts the Mark Twain award for American comedy - VIDEO

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

Detroit: Rising from Ashes

I recently took a day to tour Detroit, Michigan by bicycle -- armed with my point-and-shoot and a desire to find out if what we've heard was true.  Was Detroit a wasteland?  Was it beyond help?  Was it artistic, scrappy, rising? (UPDATE: HERE is an artistic duo that seeks to re-invent Detroit ruins) What's the feeling on the ground in the Motor City?  I biked for about 5 hours, and was only really able to get a glimpse, but what I saw was:

this picture probably sums it up best . . . next to a completely bombed out crack den of an apartment complex -- Spaulding Court (slated, I understand, for renewal itself), a newly renovated house with a great backyard and cute little fence. . . a few blocks from downtown.  This kind of defiant reclamation, a sort of guerrilla gentrification, is what is exciting and inspiring about this Detroit renaissance.   (UPDATE:  Here's that complex's kickstarter PAGE and home PAGE.)

I started in the vicinity of Wayne State University (Michigan's only urban public research University) located in the Cultural District.  Here's the University's first building, Old Main, behind some massive new de/construction project. 

 

Demolition and construction seem to be not quite as prevalent as apathy and general decay, but change is happening.  

Still near the Cultural District, I passed the Masonic Temple, which is the largest Masonic Temple in the world, and boasts some pretty sharp neo-Gothic architecture . . . some of which was fashioned with George Washington's own tools (famously a Mason himself) brought in from VA for the job.  It opened in 1926, and houses the second-largest stage in the country (in the Main Theatre), a Scottish Rite Cathedral, a Ritual Tower and about 5 million other amazing nooks and crannies.  Those Templars are sneaky.  You know, our founding fathers were predominantly NOT Christians, but WERE Masons . . . Way cooler.  More after the jump . . .