Every once in awhile someone comes along who just makes a lot of sense, and Elizabeth Warren is one of those. I’ve been listening to her for several years now — previously as she worked s a financial reform advisor to the Obama White House; now in her new incarnation as a Senate candidate in […]
Since 1985 Denise Herzing and the Wild Dolphin Project have been breaking new ground by studying a group of approximately 100 dolphins in the Bahamas in their natural habitat — tracking their lives, relationships, offspring, and studying their communication and socialization. Think of her as the Jane Goodall of dolphins and you’ll have a […]
It looks like it’s going to be very busy on the boxing scene the next couple of months with the ongoing brouhaha over Mayweather-Ortiz-Cortez and the buildup to Pacquiao-Marquez, so out of deference to those readers who are NOT boxing fans, I’ve decided to give the boxing posts a home of their own at MS-Boxing.com […]
I finally found a video clip of Floyd Mayweather’s post-fight rant against Manny Pacquiao and I have to say, watching it is quite a bit more revealing than just reading the words. This is a few minutes before Mayweather burst into tears and you can already hear the catch in his voice that’s a clue […]
Referee Joe Cortez has been getting plenty of heat from all sides since Saturday night’s controversial finish to the Mayweather-Ortiz fight. As Sunday wore on, the concensus seemed to be growing that it was Cortez who should bear a significant portion of the blame for the debacle, for not giving clear instructions to the boxers […]
There is plenty of blame to go around for the bizarre and disappointing finish to the Mayweather-Ortiz fight. This morning I’ve been looking online for clear explanations of exactly what happened, and more importantly, exactly what the role of fight refereee Joe Cortez was in the debacle. While it is true that “protect yourself at […]
Manny Pacquiao’s advisor Michel Koncz emerged from a Manila Hotel where he watched the Mayweather-Ortiz fight with Manny Pacquiao and provided the first insight into Pacman’s reaction to the bizarre ending to the fight in which Mayweather sucker punched Ortiz while the latter was apologizing for head-butting Mayweather in the fourth round of the fight […]
The Mayweather Ortiz fight is over in bizarre fashion, producing a moment second only to Mike Tyson biting a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear in terms of outlandishness. Although Mayweather was the author of the bizarreness, to be sure, the sequence started with Ortiz head-butting Mayweather in apparent frustration as he pummeled Mayweather in […]
The air show accident yesterday in Reno is still reverberating — at this writing, the death toll has risen to 9 including pilot Jimmy Leeward, and with the high number of victims in critical condition there will clearly be more loss of life. Since this began to unfold yesterday afternoon, I’ve been thinking not only […]
The Dutchman was written by Michael Peter Smith in 1968 and became a minor but intensely appreciated hit (in folk/acoustic circles anyway) in America by Steve Goodman — over the years it has gained a following, to the point that’s now become a true folk song, sung and loved around the world, with cover versions […]
I was browsing youtube videos of Ralph McTell and found that there were clips of him singing his classic “Streets of London” during pretty much each decade of his life from the he wrote it — 70’s, 80’s, 90’s — and then a nice interview of him in 2008 talking about the song and what […]
Freddie Aguilar is by no means the only Filipino artist on my short list of Filipino musicians I admire. I’m a big fan of Aegis, a Filipino girl band (sisters Juliet and Mercy Sunot headline it) who, like Freddie, bring forth music that seems to use an international vibe to create a “tunay na pilipino” […]
The just concluded promotional tour that saw Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez travel from Manila, to the US, then Mexico City, has prompted a flurry of articles (most, but not all, by Filipino writers) to the effect that Manny was welcomed with an open embrace by Mexicans, who showed him as much love as […]
The Presidency of Barack Obama
[Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the Houghton-Nguyen-Acevedo 12th grade American History high school ebook text published in 2111)
The Bush Presidency, with its aggressively militaristic response to the Al Qaeda attacks and anti-intellectual bent, left Americans ready for a change of tone and approach in Washington, and […]
Just as Freddie Aguilar was there singing “Bayan Ko” at the EDSA Revolution for Cory Aquino, and just as John Stewart was there singing songs of hope for Bobby Kennedy — so too was the extraordinary Tunisian singer/songwriter Amel Mathluthi (alternate spelling Amal Mahluthi) at the barricades for Tunisia last January in support of the […]
Out of nowhere, a few minutes ago, I was browsing Youtube for more John Stewart songs (scroll down one post and you’ll see why), when all of a sudden there was a song that had completely flown out of my consciousness — but which had been one the very very original songs that made me […]
Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of John Stewart, the legendary songwriter who inspired me on more levels that I can begin to explain. He left us in 2008 but he’s not gone: his voice, his spirit and his ideas continue. I originally wrote this tribute on what would have been his 72nd […]
There’s only one reason to watch the Dodgers this year — it’s the incredible, soothing, oh-so-human voice of Vin Scully who has been calling Dodger baseball since 1950. That’s not a typo — it was 1950 when Scully as a 23 year went to work for the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Scully is unique on so […]
Fareed Zakaria, during his “my take” section this morning, made the case that there is something fundamentally inadequate about our Presidential system (particulary when burdened by the supermajority requirement and rampant filibustering) when it comes to getting reforms enacted. He starts from the observation that of the 17 countries who have AAA credit ratings — […]
A few years back during a Christmas visit home, I rooted around in the attic and found boxes of pictures going back multiple generations in our family. I took the pictures with me back to California, and they stayed in a box for several more years until tonight, when got out the box, and a […]
It’s probably been at least 20 years since I looked at, or even thought about, the Muppet Movies, and today I stumbled across The Great Muppet Caper on cable and decided to watch for five minutes. I was hooked, laughing more than I do at most comedies, and found myself blown away by the creativity, […]
Love this clip. 25 great famous scenes that were unscripted. You could work your whole lifetime as a film-maker and never get one of these to happen.
The returns are in — Rise of the Planet of the Apes brought in $54m its first weekend and far exceeded expectations which were in the mid 30m range. Word of mouth is clearly helping the pic tremendously — and a lot of that word of mouth is all about Andy Serkis (“Gollum” from LOTL) […]
Francesco Quinn, who played the title character “Vlad” in my first film as a director and who was a good friend and great man, has died tragically and unexpectedly at 48. A health nut who kept himself in great shape, he died of a heart attack while running near his home on Friday […]
I’m a news junkie, political junkie — the works. I feel incomplete if I don’t get a full dose of the news everyday. But I have to admit, the debt ceiling negotiations pretty much did me in — I started tuning out, I just couldn’t take it any more.
So now the debt ceiling fight […]
At a time when watching the news is just painful because of 24/7 coverage of the debt ceiling fiasco, Shree Bose popped up on a CNN report and totally inspired me with the story of how the 11th grader won the Grand Prize at the first ever Google Science fair with a Science Project that […]
There has been something distinctly inspirational about the way Norway — from Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg to teen survivors to parents of those killed–seemed to instantly grasp the real threat from the attack was not to the security of Norway’s citizens — it was a threat to a treasured way of life, an open culture […]
