March 23, 2007

Build it and they will come



My mom's friend Sylvia who lives in Canada took this picture outside of Banff. They had to build the elk and deer their own crossing because after the highway was built there were lots of collisions (this was where their original path was before the humans invaded). Sylvia says it didn't take the animals long to learn that this was their "road."

I have often wished our government would spend the money to build these crossings. I heart Canada.

March 11, 2007

21-year-old Lily Allen, speaking to the AV Club, on the effect of how women musicians are portrayed in the media:

AVC: You've talked a lot about way women in rock tend to get patronized as "the female version of this male artist," instead of being written up for themselves. And you took on NME over a comment about how you can rock "even in stilettos." Why do you think there's so much of a problem finding positive ways to talk about female musicians?

LA: I don't know. I'm really saddened by the whole situation. It makes me really, really angry. I think that there's a view of… I think that as long as women are parading around on television, taking their clothes off to sell records, then guys will be able to take the piss out of us. That's what it comes down to. I have a little brother, Alfie, and he has a very poor view of women, and I think the only explanation… He's got three incredibly strong women surrounding him in his home life, yet he's so affected by the stuff he sees in the media and the way women are portrayed. And I think until TV programmers are more responsible about putting these slutty women on TV dancing around, that's the view that kids are going to have. Ultimately, that's my only explanation.

March 1, 2007

A couple of public service announcements:

I finally stopped in at Dominican Joe's, the new coffee shop in that corner strip mall at Riverside and S. Congress, and I highly recommend it! Reluctant Texan and I dropped in while walking back from the Barack Obama rally, and I was pleased to find that it was not a cheesy knock-off corporate coffee chain of some sort, but rather an independent venture that collaborates with a local non-profit to buy the coffee directly from the growers. Plus it has a calm atmosphere and plenty of tables, breakfast tacos if you get there early enough, and toasted bagels and cream cheese. From their website:

Dominican Joe's primary coffee is purchased from Makarios, an Austin-based non-profit organization doing educational development work in the Dominican Republic. Skipping the large corporate middle-man, Makarios works directly with farmers in the region and pays them higher wages and supports their communities in an effort to develop self-sustaining skills for the future.

One thing they fail to mention is that Makarios is a faith-based organization, so there may be some word-o-Jesus-spreadin' going on in the DR. Not sure how I feel about this.

The second promotional item is a cool-sounding SXSW day show taking place on Thursday March 15 at Lovejoy's. It's co-sponsored by Three Imaginary Girls.