Great Economic News!

George T. Stagg, aka the really good stuff.

Source: mgaffney

Ok that's a bit of a misnomer, to be sure, but seriously, it seems there's at least one industry that's not in the tank: the bourbon industry. Obviously, this pleases me. According to the article, the company that makes Evan Williams and Elijah Craig "recently spent nearly $4 million boosting capacity 50 percent at its distillery in Louisville." Not impressed yet? Wild Turkey's "$36 million expansion near Lawrenceburg will nearly double its production" (mmmm, Russell's Reserve!). You want more? Maker's Mark is expanding for the second time, and my go-to Jim Beam "is in the midst of a $70 million expansion in Kentucky." Heck yes. Here's to many more raised glasses of bourbon.

Sarah Handel

10:47 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Good For You Foods

To your very good health: Swiss chard.

Source: bucklava

By now you may have caught on that I love lists. They're everywhere -- I know I'm not alone in this -- so here's my favorite one for today: The Best 11 Foods You Aren't Eating.

It seems like every day there's a new list of the superfoods we should all consume daily (I'm a big fan of berries and broccoli and spinach, oh yum!), or news that oh wait, awesome-food-X is actually bad news, or, my favorite, news that a vice is now a virtue! But the cool thing about this particular list, which Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times had Jonny Bowden compile, is that folks often overlook these items when they're thinking of healthy foods. In my oh-so-scientific poll (one person polled: myself) of whether this list is revelatory or just another superfood re-write, I found that actually, I don't consume those 11 foods very often, and of the 11, I'd be perfectly happy to incorporate 9 of them (sorry, sardines and beets. Yuck and double-yuck, according to the poll). So take it from me, list-lover, healthy-food-lover, and poll-taker extraordinaire, if you like such things, this list is worth a peek.

Sarah Handel

11:09 AM ET | 07- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Girl Talk Rock

Girl Talk rocking NYC in 2006.

Source: brandon king

 

I've had a rough couple of months. My sister and her fiancee have been great throughout, but yesterday they really went above and beyond. I stopped by their place for a quick dip in their sweet pool, and on the table they had a gift for me: Girl Talk's new album Feed the Animals. I slid it into the CD player on my drive back to the District, and for the duration, the clouds parted. If you don't know Girl Talk, he's a Pittsburgh dj/artist named Gregg Gillis who nerds out by day and rocks crowds by night with the most insane collages of pop music ever.

To me, it's not fair to say he does mash-ups, or just remixes songs. He has an uncanny knack for taking a dozen incredibly familiar commercial radio hits (like, say, Ace of Base's "The Sign," or Soul II Soul's "Back to Life"), stripping them down to their most key elements, and building them back up with MCs pulled from elsewhere (Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot). It's already genius, but then he drops in something relatively obscure but beloved, like Yo La Tengo's "Autumn Sweater." It's always danceable, but when it really succeeds is when that unexpected element hits, and you in your car shriek, or the packed crowd at the Otto Bar shrieks, in collective recognition. It's insane, it may be illegal, and it's absolutely addictive. Don't believe me? Listen here (but beware: you will hear bad words), and check out as-yet incomplete lists of the zillions of samples in each composition here. If you do give Girl Talk a listen, let me know what you think: Is the music, as Gillis contends, new compositions ("we stand by the fair use law; that we do recontextualize the source material into a new whole"), and thus legal? Or is this plain old theft of others' work? Either way... did you get that thrill when you heard a sample that seemed hand-picked for you?

Sarah Handel

10:31 AM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Lakers: What Happened?

Paul Pierce celebrates the Celtics' NBA Finals win with his MVP trophy.

Source: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

Umm... I don't even know what to say. 131-92. I've never been a diehard Lakers fan, but come on -- 131-92?! That's just embarrassing. I'm a native Angelenos, and I wish I could say that I cheered them on 'til the bitter end, but sometime during the second quarter last night, I fell in love with the Celtics. Maybe it was their costumes. Maybe it was their defensive prowess. Maybe it was Pierce's smile.* Or, maybe, it was that they simply killed -- 18 steals overall (Rondo!) and record-setting 3-pointers (Allen!) -- how could you not love them?

So, Celtics fans, how does it feel? And all you Lakers fans out there, how are you handling the defeat?

* Is that sexist?

Ashley Grashaw

10:27 AM ET | 06-18-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Iowa Under Water

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Friday, June 13, 2008.

Source: MsPatt

 

Here at Talk, we're having a hard time figuring out how to address the floods in the Midwest. We did this segment last week, and heard from listeners like Ellen, who described a basement so full of water it burst the foundation; and Charlie, who reported "several car dealerships lost their entire inventories just to softball-sized hail last week." And it's still not getting any better. Iowa's been particularly hard-hit, and somewhere in the middle of my somewhat passive consumption of the story, something hit me: a good friend of mine hails from there, and while she's safely tucked away in the U.K., her family still calls Iowa home. Of course, as soon as I fully realized that, I wanted to send an email, but it's sort of a strange one to send... I finally decided to be brief, and I hope to hear back from her soon with good news. In the meantime, I'm checking out the Flickr photo groups established to document the water, citizen-journalism style -- Iowa Floods of 2008, Iowa City/Coralville Flood 2008, and another from Cedar Rapids. Maybe there's another Talk segment on this in the future, but for now, letting the photographs tell the story just feels right.

Sarah Handel

10:53 AM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Uprooted in the Storm

Collateral damage.

Ashley Grashaw/NPR

 

I swear I was struck by lightning the other day. Well, maybe not literally. But it flew right by my nose. I was crossing the street, when a bolt zoomed past me and this lady carrying a bundle of FedEx packages. She almost lost them all to the curb. On second thought, maybe it wasn't lightning -- maybe it was just McFly jetting back to the future. Okay, that was lame. But you get the idea.

This tree was also a victim of DC's thunderstorms. There's something magical about it. I couldn't help but snap a few shots. It feels like something we'd see in a Guillermo del Toro film...or maybe Tim Burton a la Sleepy Hollow. (Oh, Johnny.)

What's the craziest/coolest collection of debris you've seen after a thunderstorm? And have you ever been struck by lightning? How did it feel?

Ashley Grashaw

10:39 AM ET | 06-12-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Berserkley

Students rally against the War in Iraq on the steps of Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley.

Ashley Grashaw/NPR

 

A counter-demonstration to protest a tree sit-in. Followed by another counter-demonstration to counter the counter. Only at Berkeley.

Even though I never held the megaphone or carried the signs when I was an undergrad, I always tried to be present for the major protests on campus, if for no other reason than to snap a couple choice shots for posterity. (See above.) And although I don't exactly identify as an activist, and I've never achieved the Birkenstock/hemp/tree-hugging trifecta, I can't help but take a certain amount of pride in the historical goings-on of Sproul Plaza -- whether it was Mario Savio leading the Free Speech Movement or Joan Baez crooning.

Were you ever involved in a protest on your college campus, or have you ever witnessed one? What was it about, and how was it resolved?

Ashley Grashaw

10:40 AM ET | 06- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Indy's Back!

Yes, I own one too.

I can remember when Star Wars: Episode II came out in theatres. I was a senior in high school at the time, and the cool thing was to camp out to get good seats for the midnight showing on opening night. The massive line of eager fans outside the theatre could've easily been mistaken for a Halloween block party. Teenage boys and grown men alike were dressed like Obi-Wan and Skywalker, and they staged full-fledged lightsaber battles. There was a grandma sporting plastic Yoda ears, and girls with Leia hair buns. My favorite, though, was this guy who had a voice modulator that made him sound like R2-D2.

This weekend, Hollywood gets a visit from its favorite archaeologist/adventurer -- Indiana Jones -- with Spielberg's latest installment, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So far, it's received mixed reviews, but there's no shortage of excitement among Indy fans. I'm expecting fedora hats, bomber jackets, and, of course, the leather bullwhip. Should be a fun spectacle. So how will you celebrate Indy's return? As for myself, I'll be camping out, old school style, camera in hand, eagerly anticipating Harrison* in DLP.

* Still foxy, after all these years. How does the man do it?**
** Must be the earring.

Ashley Grashaw

10:59 AM ET | 05-21-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Those Silly Graduates

Graduation season is fast upon us. The kiddies are growing up! In the final months and weeks of collegiate life, graduates have a lot on their plates. There's navigating the unsteady job market, pulling all nighters for exams and dissertations, figuring out grad school potential, and, if you're lucky, planning that graduation trip to Europe with your friends. But the single most important task in the lead up to commencement is the consideration of graduation attire. There's the standard Hawaiian leis, the creative "will work for food" slogan taped on the top of graduation caps, and, of course, that one craaazy art major who streaks across the stage in nothing but his robe and flip flops. The coolest ensemble I saw when I graduated was a guy who wore clown shoes and shaved "Cal" (go bears!) into the side of his head. If you're graduating this year, what fashion statement do you plan to make? And, if you've already graduated, what's the zaniest outfit you've seen at a graduation?

Ashley Grashaw

10:14 AM ET | 05-14-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Sex in the Wrong City and I'm a Cliche

Yes, they're adorable, but why is that hat in London?!.

Dave Hogan/Getty Images

 

Yes, I'm a cliche. I love Sex and the City. I quote the series liberally, watch certain episodes repeatedly, and crash through various fashion disasters loosely based on Carrie et al (exposed bra straps, faux flowers, randomly tied scarves). It's really irritating, I'm sure. Whatever. I'm not going to apologize for certain loves -- like the delicious raw quail eggs on top of my tobiko (not a weird euphemism) or SATC. Moving on. Why on earth did the movie -- the preview to which I've watched so many times, so closely, I'm surprised I haven't had a &^%$ fashion seizure -- premiere in London!? The fifth gal in that series is NYC (speaking of cliches -- sue me), and though I've got nothing against London or Brits en masse, it seems a betrayal that the world premiere would happen in the shadow of Big Ben, and not the Chrysler building. It's like we caught the girls drinking Pimms instead of cosmos. Sigh. Back to trying to figure out the entire plot from this one little preview.

Barrie Hardymon

10:42 AM ET | 05-13-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post