Forget for a moment the content on a website. Ignore whether or not the site is handsome. Focus on the actual site itself. whether or not the site is handsome. Inand instead focus on the site itself. How does it respond to your click?… Read full post »

I'm proud to see that my generation is getting really, really good at respecting the Fair Use provisions of  Intellectual Property Law to remix the tasteless & bizarre ludicrousness of what passed for "culture" in the 1980s & 90s to produce hilarious satire.  As… Read full post »

via Robert Edward Auctions

Photo taken yesterday at the Gallery Pl-Chinatown METRO Station in Washington, D.C. by Pablo Manriquez

 FYI: All of the fotos I post here are licenced CC-BY-ND  Read full post »

Paul Cezanne's Boy in a Red Vest
Photographed yesterday at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
by Pablo Manriquez Read full post »

By Mark Twain:  As concerns tobacco, there are many superstitions. And the chiefest is this--that there is a STANDARD governing the matter, whereas there is nothing of the kind. Each man's own preference is the only standard for him, the only one which he can accept, the only one which can/…

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This morning, I stumbled--or rather, Tumbl'd--across this incredible piece of digital Dylan that I can't help but share with y'all. Read full post »

On Tuesday, I ducked out of the Potomac rain into a Mexican burrito dive on 14th Street where fine food is served warm sans plates, but snugly wrapped in aluminum foil; and the decor is true Americana:  wobbly plastic lawn furniture, tissue-paper flowers, and crayon-drawn effigies… Read full post »

David was lanky, acned, and autistic; and The Bulls were manufactured to win the 1998 district basketball championship for Zumwalt South Middle School.  And so David got put on The Bulls, my team. 

The move made things less unfair to the other South Middle School teams during the Regular Se… Read full post »

My comments sometimes outnumber my "thumbs".  Why?  Thumbs inspire confidence.  Isn't nice to have your confidence inspired?  Well, do unto others, no?  But even if you're a dick, thumb anyway.  Karl Rove would.  It's free, fast, & effortless self-publicity/… Read full post »

By Pablo Manriquez:*  No one I've met from the Walter Cronkite era of broadcast journalism has claimed to me that they did not trust his reporting to be accurate and significant.  And at the heart of the public's confidence in Mr. Cronkite's reporting, I'm told, was that his name, his… Read full post »

I post this video for two reasons.  The first is as a follow up to my post yesterday  featuring animated love & war in France.  Two posts; two videos; two romances; two songs; two shades of love.  Huzzah!  This post's film is called Notte Sento and it i… Read full post »

Tonight, I stopped a while on Facebook where I found posted on a friend's profile this fantastic animation that flashed me back to a quest at dawn with my childhood sweetheart for crêpes au beurre et sucre along the awakening rows of cafés and kiosks that line the narrow Parisia…

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Please note that the video is extremely graphic:

The video is now on YouTube & Facebook with the following account of what happened, but at this time, no one has claimed its authoring:

Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests At… Read full post »

Be advised. This video is EXTREMELY graphic, and just as tragic. 

To me this girl, this photograph, stands for everything that was until now missing from mainstream Western discussions about Iran and Iranians. Like most Iranians, she is young.  And like many Iranian women, she is bold and beautiful...perhaps even mischievous.   Is there mischief i… Read full post »

I just read this on a Facebook group's discussion board, but have yet to verify* whether or not it is true:

If anyone is on twitter, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. "Security" forces are hunting for people blogging about the current abuses of… Read full post »

Last Friday I ran an errand to a doctor's office along Mexico Road in St. Charles County, Missouri—a road with which I have been well-acquainted since my family first moved to the area in 1987. Only  back then, Mexico was just a road, two lanes, unimpressive, dirt in some places,… Read full post »

Having adventured extensively around the country, I've always felt that, apart from the Bald Eagle, there is no two-legged creature from sea to shining sea that is more distinctly-American than the Missourian.   This is the point that I set out to photograph on Saturday Night at the Immaculate C… Read full post »

 UPDATE: Related resources that may be of interest:

• Kurzweil’s Law (aka “the law of accelerating returns”)
• This scene from the film "Waking Life" [video] 
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April the 20th is celebrated for three important reasons (in no particular order): 

• it is my half-birthday
• it is Snoop Dogg's half-birthday
• it is the international day for smoking marijuana illegally

And so the irony was not lost on me tonight when, while searching my Picasa albums for/… Read full post »

The Washington Post broke the story, but it's the only paper not to lead with " bailout king" AIG's plans to pay out about $165 million in bonuses to 400 employees in its financial products division. Yes, the New… Read full post »

In September of 2004, I lived off Edgware Road in London's Little Lebanon and worked behind a bar at a pool hall pub for Arab gangbangers and kingpins, swinging the occasional sterling surge promoting high-end night clubs as partner-in-crime to a Palestinian diplomat's flamboyant primogenitur… Read full post »

The game was Hazelwood West vs. Zumwalt South at Hazelwood West High School in St. Louis, Missouri.