June 21, 2009 Email Calendar Archives
I spent the last week watching the events in Iran and trying to understand how Twitter works and why it couldn't be blocked. Andrew Sullivan has been one of the best sources of information and he says this about Twitter: It is a kind of journalistic pointillism. And from a distance, it gains heft. It is history rendered in the collective, scattered mind. and it has never happened before - millions upon millions of tiny telegram messages sent to the entire world. and he quotes this bit of Auden from a poem called September 1, 1939
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
And Clay Shirky (Here Comes Everyone) pronouncing "it seems pretty clear that … this is it. The big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media." Fascinating and ongoing.

To Railroad Square last evening with Vicky and Larry to see Easy Virtue, a bit of Noel Coward fluff, but it did have a Tango scene. It reminded me of other movies with tango scenes:

For showing chemistry between characters and for placing that dangerous chemistry in its social/plot context (the dance is always public; who's watching is just as important as who's dancing), the Tango scene is almost always better than the sex scene.

Why are so many flowers pink, violet, lavender, purple? What does nature like those colors so much? blue iris in Shirley's old garden

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