“”If they invent a car that runs on stupid jokes, you could go far.”
— Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart
testing
look at blog, michael!
Black History Is American History
Think of Black History Month, and chances are you think in turn of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., maybe Marcus Garvey. It’s a familiar group — and that, says Alex Pierce, is precisely the problem. “It’s become a way to pack a few hundred years of history into one 28-day month of the year,” the Texas-based designer and art director says. And so this month, Pierce launched Black in History, a blog to highlight the accomplishments of influencers like Gerald Anderson Lawson, the inventor of the video game console, Roy L. Clay Sr., the “Black Godfather of Silicon Valley,” and jazz great Nat King Cole. We talked to Pierce about his love/hate relationship with Black History Month.
Your day job is in advertising. Has that made you a cynic?
I would say I’m more sensitive than some to the strange relationship advertising has with black people. It’s not all bad, believe me, but I do cringe when Black History Month comes rolling around and a few brands decide to change their jingles to soul-R&B music and feature more colorful people in their broadcast spots and print ads. My family laughs about it all the time. I get it — it’s a great way to tie your brand to an important message while selling some stuff. I’m not necessarily against that. It’s just when it’s done bad, it’s pretty bad. Black history in a lot of advertising has become a way to say something without really saying anything at all.
Mr Delicious is really into yaki udon and smiling for the camera.
you're here right now: books read in 2012, sorta by subject
I made an effort to keep track of the books I read last year. I don’t know why, I’ve never done that before! I was still in school until mid-May, although working on my final project and not doing the typical volume of assigned reading I had with my classes. After 4 years of not feeling like I had…
I haven’t read it (yet), but I am hoping Seraphina takes the printz!
Boss and his cousin chill out for a few minutes with their electronics.
“Within the souls of the awkward and the overlooked often burns something radiant.”
― Jo Ann Beard, In Zanesville
I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.
(Source: thewhiskeypropagandist, via npr)
“We’re making a sort of ‘real-life’ Pokemon movie. In this scene, he’s trying to weaken me with a stick so that he can capture me.”
That’s awesome.
(Source: humansofnewyork)
npr:
How The Poor, The Middle Class, And The Rich Spend Their Money
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR
Afghan school girls.
These days, it takes more than textbooks and pencils to be a schoolgirl in Afghanistan—it also takes tremendous bravery and tenacity. Since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001, Afghan girls are theoretically free to attend school. But they are stymied at almost every turn by vicious militant attacks, a lack of adequate facilities and teachers, and even their own parents’ reluctance to break from the tradition that says “girls belong at home.”
“The first challenge for girls’ education in Afghanistan is cultural barriers,” said Fazlul Haque, UNICEF Chief of Education for Afghanistan.
The way forward for girls is not easy—extremists in Afghanistan are doing their best to terrorize them out of going to school. In 2008 alone, there were 283 violent attacks on schools, resulting in 92 dead and 169 injured. Despite the obstacles and threats, Afghan girls are hungrier than ever for education. “Over 2.2 million girls are now in school,” said Fazlul Haque, “and we expect a 20 percent increase in primary school enrollment for girls by 2013, with help from UNICEF education programs.”
(via npr)
