DOA (Death of Auto-Tune) & Hegemony

I am posting Jay-Z’s newish DOA video because I dig it even though I don’t really listen to a whole lot of rap or hip hop anymore. Some of the lines in there are just ill, and exactly what a multi-millionaire rapper no longer living in the projects should be saying. The jazz  in the background is great. I love how Jay-Z comes up with new yet classic ways to do beats and background (think Big Pimpin & Hard Knock Life).

I really wanted to write about Jay-Z though to link to this amazing piece on Jay-Z’s hegemony in the rap game and the international relations theory behind how he should respond to The Game. I know it is a month old, but I bet a whole lot of people haven’t seen it yet, and it really is a very interesting article. Check it out, and check out the follow-ups responses from some very well know bloggers.

Don’t Panic!!! All Is Well!!!

So the US lost to Mexico in Azteca yesterday. Due to my vacation in Duck, NC and that region’s apparent inability to speak espanol, I was stuck crusing for illegal feeds on Justin.TV. That was almost as disappoting as the loss itself. Especially after the US went ahead first half, but I won’t lie, a loss was what I was expecting. Well it was what I was expecting until about the 60th minute when I thought they were going to pull out the tie. Needless to say I was devastated when Mexico score late in the game to go up 2-1. At least Donovan has a note from the doctor for why he didn’t track back as much as he should have.

That said, the world is not falling and the US is in fine shape to qualify for the World Cup. Maybe not the shape we wish we were in, but anyone who counted on points out of Azteca was being a homer to begin with. Now if we drop any points at home, we are in trouble. But so far the US hasn’t done that, and until we do, it is premature to talk about missing out on the World Cup.

Ron Carlee Is Leaving

Ron Carlee has announce that he is stepping down as Arlington County manager. This is big news in Arlington as the county manager is basically the chief executive of the Arlington County government. Given the importance of the job, it will be very interesting to see who the County Board picks to be the next manager.

Help Villages As Well As Urban Villages

Dan Reed has a good post up at Greater Greater Washington about a little bit of urbanism in far off Damascus, Maryland. He talks about Jimmy Cone, a small soft serve ice cream shop in the middle of town and how it is quintessential community, even out in the land of big cars and big houses.

He asserts that places like this challenge the status quo of suburbia, and maybe they do, but I think it stems not from an urban impulse but from the village impulse that so many urban planners are aiming to mimic in their designs. The village was the largest part of community long before urban planning became chic, and in many places this continues today.

The problem is not a lack of community in many of these places. I would assert that they can teach a lot of urban areas about the meaning of community. The problem is that sprawl is killing that community for connectivity. How many tired main streets have you seen in exurbs or towns where the highways that run around downtown teem with new development and better retail options? With highways, that is the price many of these localities have to pay. But that does not have to be the case, as more developed localities have shown with urban planning based around multiple transit options.

This one of my main issues with sprawl. Not just the traffic and the enviormental impacts but that so many people see connectivity and economic development opposed to community and local flavor. With better planning this is a false dichotamy. Urban planning doesn’t just have to be used to bring back a sense of community to areas that may have lost it. It can be used proactively to save communites that are in danger of losing that sense of community. Hopefully this will lead to greater diversity, greater options, greater choices, and eventually a greater greater Washington.

Arlington’s Smart Growth Journey

This is Part 1 of a documentary Arlington County did on it’s smart growth journey. The whole documentary is less than an hour long and is well worth viewing. It is available separated into parts on YouTube or in full on Arlington County’s website under documentaries.

Mass Transit System Names?

London has the Underground, New York has the Subway, Chicago has the L, and here in Washington DC, we have the Metro. I think it is very interesting how different cities label their heavy-rail mass transit systems differently. Why is this? Is it form of spontaneous order derived from local custom and culture? Is it a type of branding? Something else entirely?

Speaking of names, we really need to figure out a better generic term than “mass transit systems.” Say what you will about the car, at least it is easy to do so.

Dante’s Circles Of Hell Primer

HT: TYWKIWDBI

Bathsheba and Women Cyclists

So Doug Griffin, my (interim) pastor at Rock Spring Congregational UCC gave an amazing sermon on Sunday entitled Bathsheba and The Bond Girls. The homily was literally jaw dropping. It started with Bond, James Bond. Then moved to the Bond girls, and how even when they were fighting or arguing all James had to do was get them close enough, grab them and kiss. And they would melt in his arms. To paraphrase Doug “all the guys are thinking, ‘how does he do that’, and all the women are thinking, ‘yeah right’.”

From there he moved on to Sunday’s reading which was the story of David and Bathsheba. He talked of a devout Jewish woman, married to a soldier fighting for Yaweh, in a period of ritual impurity according her religion, that David’s servants have brought to him. Or as the Bible tells it in 2 Samuel 11:4 “Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home.” Yeah, right.

This hit me especially hard because my name is David and though he has his faults, including sending Bathsheba’s husband out to be killed after this, I have always liked being named after King David. Now I am not so sure.  I don’t really want to be named after someone who is clearly a rapist. Doug gave other contextual analysis to show that this was in fact the case. But then he shifted the sermon.

God punishes David for these transgressions. But what is his punishment? David’s and Bathsheba’s first born (from this rape) was killed. How much must this punishment have hurt the blameless Bathsheba? Doug talked about the women he knew who had lost children and the pain that they went through to the end of their days. Something that Doug did not mention that I thought of is how closely such punishment mirrors some of the sharia law that punishes women for their own rape.

Instead, Doug turned and asked the question, where was Bathsheba’s voice? Who listened to Bathsheba?  He looked at world power, be it political, economic or societal. And how power through its very nature leads to some people being voiceless. Then he brought it forward to the present and asked a question. Who is listening to voiceless today?

I thought of his sermon when I read this article about a women cyclists being harassed. This is one of those things that just doesn’t happen to men that often, if at all. And yet harassment like this is an everyday or weekly occurrence for some women. Maybe not all of them are voiceless, but I would guess that a lot of them are afraid to use there voice every time something happens for fear of being labeled thin-skinned, a complainer, or even that they were asking for it.

I think it is important to not only keep an ear open to the voice of the voiceless but also for people to talk about the injustices they see. I am wary of using my voice to speak up for the voiceless for fear of repeating the same thing I am criticizing. But I do think that people can and should shed light on problems that may otherwise go unnoticed. Transparency and communication are great tools that should be utilized to the utmost. Everyone can agree that harassing women cyclists is wrong, but how many people even thought of it until somebody decided to write about it. I know I didn’t.

DC United News & Notes

DC United and soccer in general is one of the topics that I will cover fairly regularly on this blog. I am a huge fanatico and while I had to cut back on my season tickets in La Barra Brava this year due to money constraints I still fervently follow the team. I used to be one of the bloggers for The DCenters, technically I might still be one, but I haven’t posted over there in a very long time.  Either way I think a little DC United update is in order.

• United Acquires Szetela – Danny Szetela comes back to the United States after leaving the Columbus Crew two years ago to sign with Racing Santander. His move across the pond never really worked out as he was loaned out to Brescia and after some initial playing time was benched by a new coach. So when his contract was up Danny decided to sign with MLS instead of another team in Europe, hoping to get his confidence and game back on track. Szetela is in the US National Team pool so after MLS signed him, he went into a special allocation pool which Dallas had first pick and United had the second. Dallas passed but United jumped on Szetela hoping for some midfield depth as they enter a very busy stretch of the season. I think this is a low risk possibly high reward move for United. Szetela could be a very good addition for United both this season and going forward, but I also agree with Aaron Stoller that United is getting a pass and Danny could be a big bust.
• United’s Academy Team Make Finals – The Finals Week of the U.S. Developmental Academy are currently being played at the Home Depot Center in sunny Carson, California. The Development Academy structure was created by U.S. Soccer in 2007 in an attempt to focus high level youth soccer more on development and less on winning random tournaments. For the 08/09 sesason, 73 of the best teams in the nation played in the Development Academy. The regular season winnows that number down to 32 playoff teams. Of those 32 teams, 8 of them make it to Finals Week at the Home Deopot Center. DC United’s U-17/18 team not only made it to finals week but have made the final of  Finals Week and will play Carmel United live on ESPN Classic at 10:00 pm ET tonight for the U17/18 Development Academy Championship. For more information on the Development Academy and highlights of the Finals Week games check out US Soccer’s Youth National Team Blog.
• United Looks At Trialists – United has two more roster spots to fill after adding Szetela and have brought in two defenders to have a look at. The two players according to Steven Goff are “Jean-Francois Bell, a 28-year-old defender from Cameroon who has played at various levels in Switzerland and David Habarugira, a 20-year-old defender from Burundi’s national team who came through the Anderlecht system in Belgium.” I don’t know if either of these two trialists will be signed but I can’t see both both of them joining United, as the team has needs in other areas. These are probably just the first of a number of players that DC United will take a closer look at in the coming weeks as they try to strengthen their squad.

The Metro Reloaded

So you may notice the blog has a new look. I thought the old format looked way to thin on the typical computer screen. This is a bit wider and hopefully looks a bit cooler. But when changed the theme, I couldn’t change to color of the header back to green. I could upload a photo to use as the header though. I wanted to keep a green header so I went looking for a photo to upload. I found it at the DCist’s Flikr pool where they look for all of their photo’s of the day. If you like pictures of the DC area this is a really cool way to search for them because you get so much more than just the monuments.

In the end I decided on a really cool shot of the Dupont Metro that NCinDC took with a green lens that he entitled The Metro Reloaded.