Who else to review Chinese Democracy, but Chuck Klosterman. Not sure how I missed this in November, but here it is and it's excellent. Makes me want to listen to the album.

Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom?

'We're All Gonna Die' is a photograph by Simon Høgsberg that is 100m X 78 cm. That's not a typo, 100 meters. "There are 178 people in the picture, all shot in the course of 20 days from the same spot on a railroad bridge on Warschauer Strasse in Berlin in the summer 2007. Only few of the people on the photograph seemed to know I was taking their picture.” I hope this gets installed somewhere sometime. It would be amazing to see. Check it out.

Some of Simon's other projects look really interesting also.

Another big event calls for another look at the Facebook Status Stream or FaStStream (get it? get it?). This one's even in chronological order as opposed to the 273 Facebook Status from Election Day.

You can see the waves again, from mood to mood, more subtle this time. From eagerness the night before, to some folks waiting in line on the Mall, to when CNN/Facebook started up (those status messages are tagged), to when Obama was speaking and peeps were calling out their favorite quotations, to Rev Lowry calling for an 'Amen', to people getting ready to go out to Inaugural Balls.

One surprising absence is commentary on Chief Justice Roberts' flubbing the oath (it's been confirmed that the 20th Amendment makes the Oath a formality, so Obama IS officially the President). And it's hard to tell that anyone was watching the parade (even the viewing stand was empty by the time it started). CNN was making references to the ceremonies running late all day and I hope, hope, HOPE, they don't turn this into a 'theme' of the Administration. We'll see. I watched the ceremony in a conference room at work on ABC via Slingbox. There were about 30-40 co-workers watching as well. Those are my memories from the day, what did you catch?

I'm exhausted and the Obamas still have 4 more balls to get to as of 11:46PM on 1/20. Not sure how they're still going.

I'm going to lay it out right now. Facebook/Twitter needs to allow for exporting of these streams, or someone's going to have to build the tool, because I don't have the time to format these bitches every time we come together as a nation to celebrate the election of a transcendent figure. Got it?

Without further adieu, below are 208 Facebook Status Messages from my friends in 24 hours including the Inauguration.

BK is celebrating the final night of the worst 8 years our country has seen -- at least in my lifetime. on Monday
JA has acquired his inauguration tickets. We're in the back in the silver zone. Can't wait till tomorrow! on Monday
EL is so excited for tomorrow i can hardly focus on anything! holy schmoley! we will finally have an inspiring leader! on Monday

More messages after the jump.
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"Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy."

I don't know how to say it any other way. Today feels different. Hopeful, not cynical, proud. We're getting a capable administration, one that believes in a government that can help. Congratulations to America. That's it for now.

Here's the Election Time Capsule I put together in November.

Introduction
Celebrate! - A run down of the celebrations.
WINS! - A list of 38 sites and their winning posts.
Winners and Losers - 18 lists of election winners and losers.
Turnout, Voting, and Polling - Articles and stories about voting, polling, and turn out.
Reactions - Reactions from the world, pundits, and celebrities.
How Obama Won - Some thoughts on how Obama won.
Why McCain Lost - Some thoughts on why McCain lost and what next for the GOP.
Expectations and Advice - There are a lot of people with expectations and a lot of people with advice.
Race - Obviously electing the first black president is going to bring up comments on race.
Money and Business - What will the impact on your money and you business be?
The Media - Without the media, wherever would we be!?
Humor - Without the humor, wherever would we be!?
Miscellaneous - Without the miscellaneous, wherever would we be!?
Personal Stories from Friends - Just what it says.
273 Status Political Status Messages in 27 Hours - Just what it says.
Via - Here’s a list of all the sites I used in putting this together – the sources.

Last week, I found '24' to be surprisingly good. That is, I had expected it to be awful, and was pleasantly surprised to find it watchable. Now, we're entering a time where the quality will need to step it up a bit to ensure the cliffhanger suspenses from week to week do not fall flat.

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On April 5th, 1968, the day after MLK was assassinated, riots flared up in cities all over the quiet. While Boston had been relatively quiet, there had been isolated looting and assaults. James Brown was scheduled to perform at a sold out show at the Boston Garden. For more on the concert's back story, and how it was canceled before being allowed to proceed check this article in the Globe from 2006.

This video opens with a comedian until about 7:30 in when James Brown comes on and torches the stage for about 25 minutes. He brings the tempo down for about 10 minutes before introducing a female singer. At 1:05:30, Mayor Kevin White is introduced and he addresses the audience, beseeching the 2,000 people who had shown up, and the tens of thousands watching on TV across the city, to honor Dr. King by remaining peaceful.

JB starts up again and at around 1:34:00 some audience members begin climbing onto the stage. This escalates for 10 minutes until black audience members are being pushed off the stage by white police officers every few seconds. There's one point where the tension seems about to boil over, the stage is filled with people and James is being swarmed. He asks the police to step back and let him handle it. And they do. And he does. And I can't imagine the disaster that was averted. In trying to avoid riots, the city almost televised the beginning of one live.

I think this video is the raw footage from the television broadcast. It's grainy as hell and the sound is awful, but there are wide swaths of this performance that transfixed me. The band is unbelievably tight, starting and stopping and swinging. Amazing.



There's a DVD of the evening with the same title of this post.

And WGBH the original broadcaster of the concert has this page where you can listen to the audio of the concert and watch their documentary of the evening, The Politics of Soul.

About 45 years old and still sends chills. It's worth watching at least once a year and especially more poignant today in relation to tomorrow's festivities.

Somerville is a city that LOVES its snow emergencies. We've had a snow emergency for every snow storm this year, during which, you can only park on the odd side of the street. The City LOVES them. Sometimes, they call a snow emergency the morning of the day before a storm. We love our snow emergencies so much, there's even a Facebook Group in appreciation of Tom Champion, the guy who records the snow emergency phone messages. This past week, we even had a cold emergency. There weren't any parking restrictions, but Tom Champion didn't want us going outside unnecessarily.

Except for a couple hours this afternoon, it's been snowing ALL day, and yet no snow emergency. You'll get'em next time, eh, Champs?

Eric Massa wanted to drive a hydrogen fuel cell car from NY to his swearing in in DC. Hydrogen fuel cell cars go 200 miles on a charge, but DC is 300 miles from his district. Shades of Auto CEOs taking private jets to Congress to ask for help. FAIL:

Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV [Chevy Tahoe] towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car [which I assume was towed to the half way point sometime earlier so that it would be waiting for the environmentally-conscious congressman]. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.

(Via Boing Boing)