Cheesespread
Last Thursday, local musician Dan Cohen celebrated his 50th birthday by performing a concert that sparked a massive dance fest in a crowded Mr. Lucky. The usual 21 Jump Street meets Hooker magazine ambiance was magically transformed into a raging rave party Ibiza style as soon as Cohen (sporting a spiffy Albertson’s Santa Claus sweatshirt) began jamming his sexy, house party classics. Tight-clad hoochie mamas clawed for his 19th-century trousers as soon as the band broke into the party favorite, “Barrio,” while thug-life scenesters boogied in the wings and chanted for more. I’ve never seen so many people packed onto a schweaty dance floor. A group of local hip-hop fans screaming for an encore were greeted with a stunning rendition of Cohen’s ode to old age in Paradise, “Retirement Community.” He was later presented with a gold swatch and a key to the city for advancements in support of modern dance.
Hey kids! New videos from the Media Education Foundation!
I used to think it was a cop-out when my grade school teachers would show a videotape during class (most kids just went to asleep). I imagined that my teacher was hung over or just unprepared or unwilling to teach that day. Anyway, a recent catalog I received made me reconsider the usefulness of classroom videos in our sorely under-achieving school system; check out some titles:
Constructing Public Opinion: How Politicians and the Media Misrepresent the Public (Justin Lewis)—Looks at polling data as a means to construct public opinion by corporate-owned media.
Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood and Corporate Power (Chyng Sun): A look at Disney’s power to shape mass culture through race, gender and class in Disney films.
Toxic Sludge is Good For You: The Public Relations Industry Unspun (John Stauber): Examines the hidden sphere that helps secure growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
McLibel: Two Worlds Collide: Dramatic and inspiring true story about two ordinary people who took on McDonald’s, one of the most powerful corps in the world (in one of the longest trials in British history).
The Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News (Chomsky and Herman): Reveals systematic structure of news media subordinate to corporate/ conservative interests.
For more titles and info, check out www.mediaed.org or call (413)-584-8500
Weekly props
1. Bin Laden/Bush family picnics from the ‘80s
2. La Tigresa, topless poet of the Redwoods (way to stop the loggers!)
3. Christopher Hitchens’ Letters to a Young Contrarian
4. Robert Cray at Feather Falls (12/4)
5. Ken Kesey R.I.P.
