culture

From Al Jazeera: Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Cape Verde, ending her seven-nation tour of the African continent. Clinton, who started her journey in Kenya, flew from Liberia on Thursday to Sal, one of Cape Verde’s islands, and was due to meet Jose Maria Neves, the prime minister, at a…

From CNN: Michael Vick, recently reinstated to the NFL after being freed from federal prison after a dogfighting-related conviction, has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, according to his agent, Joel Segal. The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback reports to Philadelphia on Friday, Segal told CNN. Details of the deal were not immediately available…

Forty years ago, several hundred thousand people (an exact number will never be known) gathered in Bethel, N.Y., for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Nearly everyone who was anyone in rock—Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Richie Havens—played at that mud-soaked music fest. And…

The first time I heard about the South Asian Spelling Bee, the conversation sounded something like a vaudeville routine gone wrong: “Did you hear about the South Asian Spelling Bee?” “You mean, did I hear that South Asians keep winning the national spelling bee …” “No, I mean did you hear about the spelling bee…

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair. Hundreds of thousands of folks journeyed to Max Yasgur’s 600-acre farm to hear 32 rock acts, withstanding interminable traffic jams, monsoon-like thunderstorms, mud for days, sub-par sanitary conditions and a dwindling food supply—without resorting to anarchy.   It was—as is evidenced by the…

In the opening scene of the first season of Mad Men, Don Draper, sitting in a swank restaurant, gets a light from a black busboy and then strikes up a conversation about his smoking and brand preferences. As this is 1960, an older, white, waiter comes over and asks if Draper is being bothered. Draper…

From CNN: Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94. Paul died in White Plains, New York, from complications of severe pneumonia, according to the statement. Paul was a…

From Adam Serwer at The American Prospect: After profiling Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the two Air Force psychologists who helped develop the Bush administration’s torture program, the New York Times takes a look at the CIA’s secret prisons, the construction of which were overseen by disgraced former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, now doing…

From WSBTV Atlanta: A third man was taken into custody Wednesday night in connection with the shooting death of ex-boxing champion Vernon Forrest. U.S. Marshals picked up Charman Sinkfield about 9 p.m. driving a black sedan on Interstate 20, wearing a wig that gave the appearance of dreadlocks, said James Ergas of the service’s fugitive…

Plantation, sugar cane fields, chattel house. These words evoke powerful images of slavery and antebellum America, and even now they are laced with unpleasant racial sensitivities. However, in a recent trip to Barbados, these loaded words were part of my daily itinerary. On the small island are plantation houses surrounded by acre upon acre of…