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-- Win Rosenfeld
5:00 PM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: The Best Song In The World Today
I'm second from the left.
The night I got taxed. When I was 14, growing up in New York City, my favorite band was Operation Ivy . They were a California punk band, famous for their simple, driving power-chord riffs and rabid distrust of all things establishment. In a way, maybe it isn't so curious that they spoke so strongly to an East Coast, middle-class, turtle-necked nerd like me.
After all, music has long inspired teenage boys to experience their hormones in a powerful way, and I was no exception.
Operation Ivy gave me a way to feel like a bad-ass without having to commit to metal spikes and mohawks. But it was more than that for me, too. Listening to that album helped me get through fights with my parents, stress at school and many a bad pimple. I'd put that disc in, and it would pump me up to go out and blow off some steam -- in my own deeply non-rebellious way.
At 14, though, blowing off steam in Manhattan presented its own problems. We couldn't get into bars or clubs, and sitting in the middle of a pre-Giuliani Central Park wasn't wise unless you were packing mace.
So when my friends and I found out that a "club for kids" had opened up on the Upper East Side, we were thrilled. It was a big townhouse filled with pool tables, Dr. Pepper and moody lighting, designed to be a safe place for teens to hang out in a drug- and alcohol-free environment.
One Saturday evening, a few of my buddies and I drenched ourselves in Drakkar Noir and headed over. I put on my Operation Ivy and steeled myself for what was to be a night filled with teenage excitement. Of course that didn't happen.
The party itself was pretty anti-climactic, and we spoke to no one, except each other. After an hour of pounding silver cans of Nestea, we decided to call it a night.
We set off around the corner to get bagels with cream cheese and jelly. But we never got that far.
That night, I was in for robbery, police chases and the end of my love affair with Operation Ivy.
-- Win Rosenfeld
1:29 PM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: Book Club
Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys
Unlike some other book clubs that shall remain nameless, the BPP Book Club is not a one-trick pony. We like to mix it up. So far we've brought you the story of a boy coming of age inside authoritarian Libya (Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men The God of Animals
This time out, we'll be reading Anansi Boys
If you've never read Gaiman before (I hadn't), here's your chance to find out why people are so crazy about him.
Our online discussion of the book will happen on Wednesday, June 4, and we'll be talking to Neil Gaiman shortly after. So get the book (available in paperback , audiobook , or Kindle editions) and get reading.
Bonus: Announcing the pick .Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts .
-- Sarah Goodyear
12:02 PM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: Links From the Show , Video
-- Win Rosenfeld
12:02 PM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: Stuff We Love
Today's segment about the Chinese version of American Idol reminded me of this recent Web gem, taken from the Bulgarian version of American Idol . You may have seen it before, but it really never gets old.
Bonus: A corresponding Wikipedia page that's hilarious in its own right.
-- Dan Pashman
11:21 AM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: News , Personal/Private
BPP video producer Zena Barakat as a four-year-old.
I was born in Lebanon in 1980, in the midst of the civil war, and my family moved to Nashville when I was six years old.
From time to time, I remember flashes of my childhood in Beirut, and this morning, they came back to me as I read the Washington Post
"Hezbollah militants, some carrying assault rifles or rocket-propelled grenade launchers, patrolled outside Starbucks and other shops in the mostly deserted commercial strips of neighborhoods normally controlled by Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-backed Lebanese government. Masked armed men in civilian clothes set up checkpoints and asked passersby for their identity cards..."
It's a different time -- but it's a disturbingly familiar scene. That mention of Starbucks tells the story of the brief period in last few years when things seemed hopeful, open, and safe in Lebanon. No more.
Continue reading "My War-Cursed Country" »
-- Zena Barakat
9:02 AM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: News
Modern rural youth in San Yuan Li
Courtesy of Karin Chien
Don't you love it when you meet a cool person doing cool things at a cocktail party? At a recent fête I met Karin Chien, a New York-based film producer who's launching her own company called dGenerate Films . Her goal is to bring more images of contemporary life in mainland China to the U.S. -- not like the films we usually see out of Hong Kong or Taiwan that feature martial arts or Dynastic-era glorifications. This summer she'll debut 15 independent Chinese films that show a slice of everyday life in the PRC.
We spoke to her and one of the filmmakers she works with on the show today . If you happen to be in New York City tonight, you can catch dGenerate's free screening of contemporary films from China at New York's Center for Architecture.
After the jump, check out a clip from another independent flick coming soon to the States called Raised from Dust , by Gan Xiao-Er.
Continue reading "Exit the Dragon: New Views of China" »
-- Angela Ellis
8:44 AM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: News
2005 Super Girl contestant
Hunan TV
Jian Yi on gender-shifting in Chinese culture .
On the show today , we spoke to Jian Yi, independent filmmaker and director of Supergirls! , a documentary following 10 of the 80,000 teenage girls trying out for China's most popular TV show ever, a version of American Idol . Contestants in the Super Girl Singing Contest
But what's most striking about of a lot of these girls is how much they look like boys. Jian Yi told us one reason for the cropped hair, baggy jeans and big shirts is that most of the call-in voters on the show are girls, and looking like a cute boy in this all-female competition can make a performer more appealing. But he also says there could be a deeper cultural motivation behind it. Take a listen to the clip from our interview with him.
-- Angela Ellis
8:34 AM ET
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05- 9-2008
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Filed under: Links From the Show
A British bird called the great tit seems to be doing fine in the changing climate. Great tits feed on caterpillars, which in warmer weather have been emerging sooner. Great tits in the Netherlands haven't adjusted as well, the BBC reports.
Science. Ahem.
It's the Most .
Rush for 23-cent pizzas closes Papa John's stores / Great tits cope well with warming / Acting Mexican police chief killed / Omaha man uses steak knife to perform self-tracheotomy / Can you become a creature of new habits?
-- Laura Conaway
7:08 AM ET
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05- 9-2008
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