THIS is a CLOSE-UP?

What's an oxymoron? A Tea Party Democrat. Here's two perspectives on our Fox News approved racists: "The week before the health care vote, The Times reported that births to Asian, black and Hispanic women accounted for 48 percent of all births in America in the 12 months ending in July 2008. By 2012, the next presidential election year, non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The Tea Party movement is virtually all white. The Republicans haven't had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935. Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded." Frank Rich "A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday took a look at the Tea Party members and found them to be just as anachronistic to the direction of the country's demographics as the Republican Party. For instance, they were disproportionately white, evangelical Christian and 'less educated ... than the a

I know nothing of Diesel, aside from the fact that they are Dutch. The only thing I know is that "Sausalito Summernight" (which cracked the lower reaches of the Top 40 in 1981) is one of the catchier tracks to have fallen through the cracks of my DJ brain. When I heard it a few minutes ago (after randomly scrolling through my iTunes library) and heard that guitar hook that drives the song, I felt a rush of happiness and regret: happiness that I heard one of my favorite '80s tracks after many years, and regret that I couldn't drop it into a DJ set list or radio show so that someone else could share my enthusiasm. The joy of re-discovery dampened by the awareness of the passing of time, the ten-year-old boy who first heard that tune only dimly recalled by the man who's staring down 40 towards the end of the year. But so is life. It can't be summer all the time, especially when you're Dutch. But it's going to take a while for me to push "Sausalit

Come with us to the North Pacific Gyre to see what just a half-century of relentless production of plastics has given the ocean. And realize that the ocean is us. Can you reduce your plastics use today? And will it even matter in fifty more years?

Sébastien Tellier - Look from Record Makers on Vimeo . I'd forgotten how much I liked Sexuality by Mr. Tellier, and it took a typically French animated booty to remind me. A fine record from a fine Frenchman.