New Music

It is a little late for what feels like a Dia de los Muertos song, but this beautiful canción crossed our path and we had to share it.


DeVotchKa

Madonna in LA

Madonna played to rave reviews in Los Angeles last week. The Clarion Content has long been a fan so that does not surprise us. What was interesting about the show was the special guests Madonna had invited.

Her Sticky & Sweet Tour was playing in the beautiful Chavez Ravine stadium of the Dodgers. The star studded crowd included such luminaries as Drew Barrymore, Rick Rubin, Ryan Seacrest, Heidi Klum, Kate Moss and Fergie. The highly culturally attuned Madonna's visual showcase included many images of Obama, whose election she recognized as cause to celebrate. She is also keenly aware of issues of sexual politics as the LA Times noted, Madonna and her rainbow-coalition dance crew, "enacted that struggle (Proposition 8) on-stage, both figuratively and literally." She was quoted from the stage, "There is one little disappointment, though. I'm sorry to hear that Proposition 8 passed. But we will not give up the fight -- never."

So what about those guests!?! Megastar Justin Timberlake sang "4 Minutes" from Madonna's newest release "Hard Candy." Much more interestingly, long time Madonna fave Britney Spears performed. The Clarion Content, full disclosure, is a huge Spears fan and Spears defender. Britney, noting, she's nobody's f*cking victim joined the divorcing Madonna on stage for the ending chorus of a well received version of "Human Nature." It is our thinking that Madonna hopes to mentor the troubled Spears; the patriarchy has a love/hate relationship with strong women who refuse to deny their sexuality.

Pygmy Tarsiers

One of the smallest primates known to humans was recently rediscovered after 85 years without a sighting. Previously thought to be extinct, these little shubbas, pygmy tarsiers, were recently uncovered in the cloud forests of Indonesia. They weigh about 2 ounces and can turn their heads 180 degrees.

They are also the spitting image of Gremlins. Seriously!


whoa...

Finally, a decent bagel

The Clarion Content has long sought after decent bagels in North Carolina, until recently it had been a trying and ultimately dissatisfying quest. Having northeast genetic stock on our editorial staff, standards were high. You don't bring Bruegger's bagels to the Clarion offices, lest you want to me mocked and derided until you run away cowering and crying. Bruegger's bagels are no more than one tiny half step removed from a frozen Lender's bagel (aka hockey pucks.) Lender's bagels are to bagels what Yugos are to cars, golf pencils are to writing implements, what dial-up internet is to a T1 line. Sure they are vaguely members of the same class, but they are craptastic. A Yugo hardly begins to make one understand the powerful possibilities of the automobile. A golf pencil can be used to scratch something down, but need to erase? Fugit about it. And if you grew up on MontBlanc's, you are never going to believe that someone else considers a golf pencil satisfactory. Really? Really? You are willing to accept that?

So one can only imagine how excited we were after ten long years of searching to finally encounter, not only a decent bagel in the Carolina's, but an excellent one. Previously we had not met a bagel in the state of North Carolina that we would have rated over a 4 out of 10. New York Bagel & Deli of Cary, NC is the diggity. Of course, made from scratch! Their bagels are old school, huge and just the right texture. Not to mention, they are not so blinded by blueberries and other fruits, as to neglect the traditional flavors; garlic, onion, poppy, seasame, pumpernickel and so on. Their staff is top notch, most days owners Tom and Josephine Nurrito* are behind the counter. Even when they're not, the service is always impeccable. And if it is not always delivered with a smile, the gruffness hides some genuine caring about the people and the product. Your happiness is assured, they won't let you leave less than satisfied. Maybe it is just all that experience, they have been a family business for over 75 years. (Most of it elsewhere, as 75 years ago Cary was a field.)

* Josephine always has a delightful smile.

Text Google

google 466453

Did you know that you can text Google at 466-453, or "Google"---it is sweet!

Among the things Google can tell you:

But a few examples:
sports scores, text "NY Rangers score"

weather, text "w Durham"

movies, text "m 27707"

stocks, text "the stock symbol"

local stuff, text "Harris Teeter Durham" (a local grocery store, Google replied with their address and phone number)

define words, text "d tonsure" (the shaping of evergreens by clipping, or a bald spot resembling the shaven crown or patch worn by monks and other clerics.)

flights, text "ua 440"

...and we saved our favorite for last, calculator, text "144*18"

Rest assured there are even more applications depending on just what your cellular device can handle. Follow this link.

The reply is almost instantaneous. The Clarion Content is lobbying the good folks over at Google to support the Google, "I feel lucky" feature via text. It would be such an argument solver to be able to text Google, "23rd President" or "Robin Williams real age"...

from the Hunchback of Notre Dame

Word is Victor Hugo wanted to name The Hunchback of Notre Dame, simply Notre Dame. Upon review that makes perfect sense because ostensibly Hugo saw the cathedral itself as the central character of the story, a very modern angle for his time. One can see how the cast of other characters is an ensemble not a lead and supporting roles, nor simply a hero and a villian. Rather than spoil the story for you, and if you have only seen the movie you haven't gotten the half of it, we will instead offer...

Word pearls from Victor Hugo's masterpiece


"Pride always has ruin and shame close at its heels."


"'And love?' proceeded Gringoire.
'Oh! love!' said she, and her voice trembled, and her eye sparkled. 'It is to be two and yet be one- it is a man and a woman blending into an angel-it is heaven itself.'"


"It was the abuse of impunity going hand in hand with the abuse of punishment-two bad things, which strove for one another."


"The King never grants any boon but what is wrung from him by the people."


"In order to live one must get a livelihood."


"Life without love is but a dry wheel, creaking and grating as it revolves."


"Memory is the tormentor of the jealous."


"which imparted to her profile that ideal sweetness which Raphael subsequently found at the mystic point of intersection of virginity, maternity, and divinity."


"Oh, how hollow science sounds when you dash against it in despair [against] a head filled with passions."


"the blinder that passion the more tenacious it is. Never is it stronger than when it is most unreasonable."


"Montmarte, which had then almost as many churches as windmills, but has retained the mills only; for the material bread is nowadays more in request than the spiritual."

Country Music Awards

Carrie Underwood


Reese Witherspoon

When two of the five most beautiful women in the world are at the same party, you know it is a good one. Congratulations to the 42nd annual Country Music Awards held last night in Nashville, Tennessee. They had Carrie Underwood and Reese Witherspoon in attendance. It doesn't get much better than that, and don't let the people from Cannes tell you any different. A couple of big CMA red carpet surprises last night, at least to the Clarion Content's editorial staff. One, Miley Cyrus? What is Disney mega-pop star Miley Cyrus doing at the CMA's? Just accompanying daddy, Billy Ray? Or is she about to do a country album? Hmmm, something that bears watching. Surprise two, Kid Rock walked the red carpet alone! We don't think we have ever seen that before. Follow this link to 334 red carpet pictures from last night's Country Music Awards. Incidentally, inside the big winners were Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, and Rascal Flatts. George Strait broke the record for most CMA awards lifetime when he won his 22nd for album of the year, Troubadour.

Third biggest Salmon in CA history

hint...way bigger than this guy!

If you have ever fished for salmon you are not going to believe the pictures at this link in the LA Times. The third biggest Chinook salmon in California history was discovered yesterday in Battle Creek in Tehama County, CA. This fish is positively huge! Even better it lived out its natural life and was not killed by a fishermen. As the biologist who found him, Doug Killam, said in the LA Times, "Hopefully, this fish was entirely successful in passing on its superior genetic potential."

Giant handbags

Ladies, one more reason to defend your giant handbags and purses. The Clarion Content has quite a few female friends who feel compelled to sport a large purse or bag to lug all their necessaries around in. Many of these females take shit from folks about just how big their purses are. Little do the critics recall how handy it is to know someone who always has a tissue, an umbrella, a band-aid, an aspirin and a stick of gum, not too mention, their own stuff.

Well carriers of the large bag, there is one more reason to defend it today, from Kristen Seymour of StyleList Blog. In a post titled, "Giant Purses Save Lives," she reports, "Twenty-two year-old college student, Elizabeth Pittenger, was carrying half her life in her bag when a man stopped her, demanding her laptop, purse, and cell phone. She refused and fought him off, but before she could get away, he fired a shot."

It was stopped by the purse. She was unharmed and "nearby police heard the gunshot and were able to apprehend the shooter almost immediately."

You think a handbag with just her id, credit card, and cash, stops that shot? Yeah, not so much...

Internet warning

Beware a spam email message trumpeting President-elect Barack Obama's victory last night. The email will have a link to what is supposedly a website with election results. However, when you arrive there you will be asked install an update to Adobe's Flash Player before viewing a video. Don't do it!

Computerworld magazine explains. What's actually downloaded is a Trojan horse that compromises your PC then floods the machine with more malware. Another good reason to own a Mac, but if you don't be careful. According to Dan Hubbard, Websense Inc. VP of Security Research in Computerworld, "This is very coordinated, with evidence that they planned this, then waited for the election results."

CDCP?

Julie Louise Gerberding, CDC Director

Did you know that the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC in the shorthand parlance of the health community, is really the CDCP? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Neither did the Clarion Content. The name change occurred all the way back in October of 1992. In the intervening sixteen years have you ever heard anyone call it by the full name or use the initials CDCP? Us either. Heck even their website is cdc.gov not cdcp.gov, which incidentally doesn't even a redirect back to their website!

Obviously they are doing a less than stellar job publicizing the prevention portion of their mission. It seems to follow that America has chronic health problems that have worsened to do the persistent lack of a prevention ethos in this country; among them obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and their ilk.

What kind of prevention are Americans doing? Getting a flu shot at Walmart along with their bag of potato chips and corn syrup based soft drink!

Texas Tech Bell Ringer

With Texas Tech playing its biggest football game in eons, it seemed like a great time to break out an oldie but a goodie.

Ladies and Gentlemen,




The Texas Tech Bell Ringer