Badu comes over for dinner, procedes to shit on table
Neo-Soul, Tyrone-hating singer Erykah Badu has arrived in Israel for a concert on Saturday night. This evening, at a press conference with journalists and fans, she declared her support for the Palestinian cause and defended Louis Farrakhan.
I come from across the water bringing light and hope,” said Badu in her deep, languid voice. She commissioned a poster design especially for her visit to Israel, featuring a large hamsa, a traditional Middle Eastern good luck charm, that appears to be growing out of her hair. At the bottom, the words for peace in Hebrew and Arabic appear side by side.However, Badu could not name any Israeli hip hop artists. She explained that she identified best with the Palestinians and their hip hop scene, saying that they are a part of her tribe of hip hop.
“They use (hip hop) as a form of liberation, as a form of pre-resistance, as a form of therapy,” Badu said.
Badu defended Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who has drawn fire over the years with pronouncements including praise for Hitler in a 1984 speech, for which he was censured by the U.S. Senate, repeatedly denouncing Israel and the Jewish people and calling the pretense for the war in Iraq a Zionist conspiracy.
The Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish group, has labeled Farrakhan’s statements bigoted and anti-Semitic. On its Web site, the ADL lists dozens of Farrakhan statements it considers anti-Semitic.
“(Farrakhan is) not an anti-Semite. He loves all people,” insisted Badu. Her next album, Nu AmErykah will be released February 26, the date of Savior’s Day, a main Nation of Islam holiday.
It would have been interesting to hear how the journalists reacted. Supporting the Palestinian cause is nothing new, but to praise notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan in the Jewish state? I kind of wish I bought a ticket just so I could return it.
Source: Haaretz
missing them
via Ziva who has written far more on this amalgamation of art and activism.
Construction
Library of Congress uploads thousands of photos to Flickr
Photo on Flickr.
The Library of Congress has uploaded over 3000 photos from their archives to Flickr.
From the Library of Congress blog:
The project is beginning somewhat modestly, but we hope to learn a lot from it. Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.
The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.
Photo on Flickr.
Being the Jew that I am, I immediately searched for “Jew” and came upon several interesting photos. This photo I believe to mostly likely be a tashlich ceremony on the Brooklyn Bridge.
You see people? Not all of Web 2.0 is a waste of time. We can collaborate together to wonderful things.
Sunday linkage and commentary.
Daniel Barenboim takes Palestinian citizenship
When can we expect him to give up his Israeli citizenship?
Techcrunch announces second Israel Web Tour 2.0
It only took 16 comments before someone mentioned Apartheid.
Bush calls for an end to the occupation and states support for a Palestinian homeland.
And everyone tells me my support of Obama is misguided.
Religious Jews can’t vote in Nevada Caucus.
Giuliani is in real trouble now.
Neve Tzedek
Unwire Jerusalem has been unplugged
Well, an era in downtown connectivity has ended. Unwire Jerusalem, a non-for-profit organization who brought free wifi to downtown Jerusalem has pulled the plug on the project.
Jacob Ner-David, one of the founders, gives the skinny on why they are shutting down.
My synopsis:
Corporate Israel sucks.
The Jerusalem Municipality sucks harder.
Nir Barkat rules and when he is elected mayor (God willing) every first grader will get a blackberry.
These days there are more cafes and restaurants that have wifi than do not have wifi.
In all seriousness, Unwire Jerusalem was an ambitious project and really ahead of its time and the founders should be commended for providing this wonderful service to both Jerusalemites and tourists for many years. As someone who has an office on Ben Yehuda street I witness dozens of people every single day sitting on the pedestrian walkway with their laptops open, doing work, checking their email, etc. It always gave me a feeling that while Jerusalem is a extremely poor and decrepit city these days, there are things where we are actually ahead of the rest of the country (and in this case, most of the world!)
However, the next time my connection goes out in my Ben Yehuda street office, I will have to actually get up and go to a cafe and not rely on Unwire Jerusalem. Maybe that isn’t so bad.
UPDATE: I just realized we are going to have to update our wifi maps yet again for Jerusalemite. Sigh.
Check out what’s happening at Designist Dream
I have been very busy with work these past few days and all the time I’ve been dedicating to my blog has been adding tags and categorizing my 1000+ old posts. It’s an arduous task to say the least but will have numerous benefits for all involved. Only 500 more to go. Whew.
While I continue to focus on these efforts for the next few days I’d like to invite you to check out Ziva’s blog, Designist Dream. If you haven’t been following her blog here is what you’ve been missing:
Give Peace a Stamp: Franck de las Mercedes’ Priority Art Boxes
Skinning the Surface: Israeli Design Studio Reddish
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