Rian Fried, an owner of Clean Yield Asset Management in nearby Greensboro, which has invested with local agricultural entrepreneurs, said he’s never seen such cooperative effort. “Across the country a lot of people are doing it individually but it’s rare when you see the kind of collective they are pursuing,” said Mr. Fried, whose firm considers social and environmental issues when investing. “The bottom line is they are providing jobs and making it possible for others to have their own business.” -- Glide Magazine interviews Calexico's Joey Burns.
On future collaboration with Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, who sings on "House of Valparaiso":
"No real plans right now, but for him, the invitation is always open. I know he's got a ton of projects but he's an amazing musician and writer and painter, and also a great arranger. When I was in Austin some time back we had dinner and celebrated his youngest daughter's first birthday and I told him "If you're interested, I have a couple of songs and would love to have you add some vocals." And "House of Valparaiso" was an easy fit for him—his vocals are so rich and such a wide spread that if he adds three vocals it sounds like six people. He adds so much, and I love that."
-- readwriteweb lists five great books to build your character. -- imeem lists its top 100 songs by popularity and genre. -- The New Yorker features new short fiction by Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl:”
“Professor Dai must miss her students these days,” Siyu said after she and Hanfeng had exchanged greetings, although she knew that it was not the students that his mother missed but the white skulls of mammals and birds on her office shelves, the drawers filled with scalpels and clamps and tweezers that she had cleaned and maintained with care, and the fact that she could mask her indifference to the human species with her devotion to animals. -- makeuseof.com lists the best six sites to get free ebooks.
formed by a few canadians, the lead singer and band director has been in various bands since she was fourteen, including broken social scene.
…[G]irls are girls’ worst enemies. Women-to-women can be some of the most horrible shit you’ve ever seen go down, all the backstabbing, all that shit, which luckily I haven’t really been exposed to too much…When I was running around when I was seven years old in track pants and my brother’s old baseball shirt, that’s also, like aesthetically, how I see myself in pictures, like how I see myself in reflections in the mirror. You identify more, more of a free, fun thing. /elizabeth powell
"If what was supposed to have been destroyed in Paradise was destructible, then it was not decisive; but if it was indestructible, then we are living in a false belief." /franz kafka (more kafka quotes) -- yes:
kind of like a younger, more flushed out tom waits. sounds like a horrific party under a twisted circus tent, but it's an acquired taste and some of the most inventive music out today. the lyrics are wistful and poignant, dealing with heartbreak, happiness, sorrow, sex, and all things weird and lovely manifested through their zillions of odd and unconventional musical (and sometimes not so much) instruments. three of their songs have been featured on "weeds."
A U.S. envoy held talks in Pyongyang trying to convince the secretive state not to restart its nuclear plant, as the two Koreas looked to mend frayed ties on Thursday with their first direct discussions in almost a year.
The talks coincide with a report North Korea may be aiming to ratchet up regional tensions by upgrading a launch site used to test missiles that can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan.
“It was a hideous spectacle of total madness,” said Mickey Boardman, the deputy editorial director of Paper magazine. “It was everything I really love.”
"the [french] revolution began at the top--in the world of fashion, birth, and intellect--and propagated itself downwards." /francis parkman