My neighborhood next week

I'm really looking forward to checking out this fascinating part of Mexico City.

Watch more Mexico City videos at tripfilms.com

Bill Maher interviews Oliver Stone

This is fascinating.

Part 1



Part 2

Michael Jackson

I respect talent. And I really respect exceptional talent. It's an extremely rare commodity. Michael Jackson had a very special gift. He had the ability to mesmerize literally billions of people with his music and his persona. He fed off of the adulation and morphed himself into a caricature. Yes, he was abused. Not only by his father and those around him but also by an insatiable media. Given those circumstances I'll try and comprehend the whole race and gender modification thing. What troubles me most is the repeated abuse of sick children left alone with him. It is well documented what happened to those boys. A single accusation might be defensible. Multiple affidavits citing providing alcohol and pornography to minors followed by sexual misconduct is indefensible. Mr. Jackson paid millions of dollars to his accusers after he was acquitted in criminal court. That is not an action of an innocent man.

Let The Earth Bear Witness

Mike Scott of the Waterboys pays tribute to the Iranian struggle.

"She died in less than one minute."

An interview with a man who tried to save Neda's life.

You Who Wronged

by Czeslaw Milosz

You who wronged a simple man

Bursting into laughter at the crime,

And kept a pack of fools around you

To mix good and evil, to blur the line,

Though everyone bowed down before you,

Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,

Striking gold medals in your honor,

Glad to have survived another day,

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.

You can kill one, but another is born.

The words are written down, the deed, the date.

And you’d have done better with a winter dawn,

A rope, and a branch bowed beneath your weight.

Washington, D.C., 1950

Melody Moezzi on the meaning of Neda

A Revolution in pictures

A great slideshow that captures the essence of this epic fight.

Her Name Is Neda

"At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart.

I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know."

Battle w/ Police - Tehran, Iran - June 20th 2009

The Most Staggering Footage Yet

"And I've seen a lot. Just watch this pitched battle in the streets between a crowd and the riot police (via BBC Farsi). And watch it to the very end, as the police suddenly turn tail and run. Yes, you can hear the shouts 'Hurrah!" and I confess I found myself yelling it at my lap-top as well. Let us hope this is a microcosm of the whole thing. Faced with so many with such determination, the will of the regime will crumble." - Andrew Sullivan

Battle w/ Police - Tehran, Iran - June 20th 2009
by mightier-than

Poem For The Rooftops Of Iran

Tomorrow Saturday is very important; Day of destiny.
Tonight the screams of “God is great” [Allah-o Akbar]
is louder than on any other night.

Where is this place?
Where is this place that all paths are closed? All doors are shut?
Where is this place that no one helps us?

Where is this place that we shout out our words with only silence?
Where is this place?
Where is this place that its people’s only call is to God?
Where is this place that its cry of Allah-o Akbar ["God is Great"]
Grows louder and louder every minute?

Every day I wait to see if at night
The cries of “God is Great” grows louder or not.
I tremble as I hear them getting louder and louder.
I do not know if God trembles too or not.

Where is this place that we the innocents are stuck in [imprisoned]?
Where is this place that no one can help us?
where is this place that we are only shouting out our words with silence?
Where is this place that the youth are killed and people stand in the street and pray?
They stand in the blood and pray.
Where is this place that people are called [vagrants] trouble makers?

Where is this place?
Do you want me to tell you?
It is Iran.
It is my home land and your home land.
It is Iran.

An Homage to Iran's National Football Team

Imagine your country is about to descend into chaos.....



"Just got off the phone with a person who has a lot of insight into Iranian football. He covers Iranian soccer extensively and has interviewed many of the national players in the past few years. He made a great point. He said the 6 people who wore the bands, with the exception of one, are at the end of their careers and, knowing that there will be some kind of reaction, likely took the fall for rest of the team. He firmly believes the 5 older team members who others look up to most likely asked the others not to take the chance and not ruin their professional and financial careers." - Nico Pitney

This is courage.

“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…” - an Iranian blogger, with more courage than most of us will ever know.

Day 6

Quote of the day

It’s just too big, it’s going on for too many days, it’s in too many cities, and it’s too all-embracing. The regime has completely lost control of the space of public politics, and the opposition has been very skillful in taking it over. You can’t allow your opposition to develop a message so simple that everyone can embrace it. When you have a situation where all anyone needs to do to signal they’ve joined the opposition is to step into the street and start walking, where all they have to do is cry “Allahu Akbar” and it means they want the President to resign and cancel the elections, you’ve lost. - Matt Steinglass

Iran's election aftermath in pictures

For some excellent coverage of the on-going turmoil in Iran go to Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.

Timelapse of Franklin St., Chicago, Illinois after the victory.

Timelapse: Franklin Street after the victory from The Daily Tar Heel on Vimeo.

The British National Party

Recently the BNP won its first county council seat as well as two European parliament seats.

Robin Williams on Obama & Bush

Jeremy Hotz

Classic stand-up. One of Canada`s best.

Home - The Adventure with Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Zeitgeist intro - new version

For the full text:

http://www.free-conversant.com/realtruth/2099

Food, Inc.

If you're at all concerned with food and its production...watch this trailer.

Quote of the day

An African-American President with Muslim roots stands before the Muslim world and defends the right of Jews to a nation of their own in their ancestral homeland, and then denounces in vociferous terms the evil of Holocaust denial, and right-wing Israelis go forth and complain that the President is unsympathetic to the housing needs of settlers. Incredible, just incredible. - Jeffrey Goldberg

EARTH: The Pale Blue Dot

I miss Carl Sagan. His visionary voice inspired me. His lessons taught me to see beyond our simple existence and try to understand our place in the universe.

EARTH: The Pale Blue Dot from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Show off.

Autoworkers Compete to Keep Jobs, Livelihoods on New Reality Show

Autoworkers Compete to Keep Jobs, Livelihoods on New Reality Show

Canarias Timelapse

A beautiful time-lapse video of the Canary Islands.

CANARIAS TIMELAPSE from luis garcia de armas on Vimeo.