Whiskey Geeks Keep Moonshine Tradition Alive

Making moonshine has gone from a backwoods black art to a high-end hobby practiced by "whiskey geeks" with a taste for top-shelf hooch.

Unlike their bootlegging predecessors, who cooked up big batches of white lightning and distributed the illegal booze out of the backs of cars, today's moonshiners focus on quality rather than quantity.

"It took me years, but with practice and dedication you can make any spirit every bit as good as a commercial distiller," says Dave Robison, 42, owner of Pioneer Spirits, a single-batch distillery in Chico, California. "You might not be able to reproduce it exactly, but it will be as good as anything you can buy on the top shelf."

Home distillation of liquor used to be the province of backwoods bootleggers. Up until 1974, when the world price of sugar skyrocketed, commercial moonshiners throughout the Southeastern United States made enough money making hooch that it was worth the risk of getting caught by federal revenuers.

Today, making your own liquor is as illegal as ever, and a lot less lucrative. In fact, it's considerably cheaper to buy it off the shelf.

As a result, today's home distillers are quintessential do-it-yourselfers. Many are engineers and techies, much like the liquor connoisseurs who attend the Whiskies of the World Expo each year in San Francisco. "We have a whole audience that we refer to as the whiskey geek," event founder and organizer Riannon Walsh says. "I think 90 percent of them are techies."

John Spidell misses the moonshine tradition. A former federal revenuer, the 65-year-old spent the first half of the '70s "busting up" illegal stills in North Carolina. His job sometimes required living in a sleeping bag under a piece of canvas for weeks at a time, watching a big still, waiting for the owner to appear. Smaller stills got less attention.

"A five- or six-hundred-gallon outfit wasn't worth wasting time on," he says. "I'd go back to my vehicle, get the C4 explosives and blasting caps, and I'd blow it up. There were only so many of us, and only so much time."

Spidell was blowing up simple pot stills, which were used to distill mash made from sugar, water, yeast and hog "shorts" (corn feed for hogs). After it was fermented, the mash would go into the boiler, where it was heated.

Because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, the vapors that rose from the mash contained more alcohol than the mash itself. Those rising vapors traveled through an angled lyne arm to a condenser, traditionally made of copper coil. The condensed spirits were collected and redistilled until they reached a sufficient proof, then bottled in quart-size mason jars or gallon-size plastic milk jugs.

Bootleggers delivered the illicit liquor to "shot houses" in the cities on Wednesdays and Thursdays, ensuring they were stocked for the weekend.

Today's home distillers are more likely to build a small reflux still and hide it in the garage. Unlike a pot still, the vapors rise through a column packed with copper wool or another high-surface-area material before being directed into the condenser. A beer keg makes a good boiler, and a homemade column and condenser are within the reach of anyone with basic welding and soldering skills and access to copper pipe.

The packed column makes the reflux still more efficient than a pot still, so it produces a higher-proof spirit on the first distillation. Still, the average home distiller isn't making any money on the endeavor.

"People are trying to keep a tradition alive," Robison says. "They're not selling it. That's looked down on in the home distilling crowd. Most people I know aren't making more than a gallon at a time. Some people on the forum come from the moonshiner tradition, and we've learned a lot from them. But I've never met anyone who makes it for money."

Robison runs the popular Home Distiller forum with more than 2,000 registered users and 50,000 unique visitors per month. Other online home distilling resources include Smiley's Home Distilling and American Distiller.

Depending on the efficiency of the still, home-distilled alcohol can vary from 120 to 192 proof, or 60 percent to 96 percent pure alcohol.

The concept may be simple, but high-quality home-distilling isn't exactly easy. The moonshine tradition spawned a lot of misinformation, which Robison tries to rectify on the forum. First and foremost, he makes it clear that home distillation of liquor is illegal in all 50 states and just about every country, save New Zealand.

Besides being illicit, white lightning has earned a reputation for blinding and killing people who drink it. Many sources attribute these effects to methanol ("the heads"), which boils off naturally during an early stage of the distillation process.

"The heads will make you blind if you drink it, but I defy you to try to drink it," says microdistiller Michael Heavener, co-owner of Highball Distillery in Portland, Oregon. "If it doesn’t make you wince when you smell it, it's probably not going to make you go blind."

The real culprit in poison moonshine was usually radiators, according to Spidell. "Copper coils are not the most efficient condenser. If you're making 10,000 to 25,000 gallons at a time, you might immerse a truck radiator in the water. Chemicals in the moonshine leach out lead salts from the soldering. As a result of that, here comes the lead poisoning."

Made properly, home-distilled spirits are as safe to drink as any commercial liquor. Still, Heavener warns, "I'd be more concerned with the danger of explosions."

Most stills are heated with propane burners. Purified ethanol is highly flammable, and its clear blue flame can be difficult to see under certain conditions. Open flame plus high-proof alcohol equals one potentially explosive combination.

Even innocent mistakes -- such as using lead soldering or plastic parts in the still - can lead to serious consequences. So Robison encourages would-be home-distillers to do their homework first and make liquor later.

After all, he says, "This ain't stamp collecting."

Vintage Japanese Robots Storm Sci-Fi Museum
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Though made for children, Japanese toy robots can catch the eye of even the most discriminating adults.

Iconic graphic designer Tom Geismar, whose firm Chermayeff & Geismar has created memorable logos for Mobil, PBS and other U.S. institutions, has been collecting the shiny bots for decades.

The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle will exhibit toys from Geismar's collection in Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels through Oct. 26. The vintage robots on display reflect Geismar's trained eye. "I've really restricted myself to ones that appealed to me as interesting, imaginative designs," he says.

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"I continue to find the straightforward and somewhat naïve appearance of the early toys to be most appealing," Geismar says of this vaguely Victorian robot.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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Geismar's fascination with robots began in 1970 while he was working on the U.S. pavilion for the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan. In local stores, he came across zinc die-cast figures like manufacturer Popy's Chogokin King Joe, based on a villain from the Ultra Seven show in the Ultraman series that aired in the late 1960s. "They were all made of metal and painted terrifically. And they were very imaginative," Geismar says. In those days, boxes often featured the names and pictures of the toys' designers. "Obviously they put a lot of effort and care into making these intricate things," he says, "but they were just in stores for kids to play with." The holes in each arm fire black, three-fingered claws and yellow missiles.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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This DX Tetsujin 28, literally Iron Man No. 28 in English, was based on the 1963 Japanese anime of the same name. Some of the episodes aired in the United States the next year, under the title Gigantor.

"This handsome form is one of my favorites," Geismar says. "As a designer, I tend to like things that are reasonably simple and clear, straightforward." Like many robots, it comes with a small model human, in this case the boy who controls the flying man by remote control in the cartoon.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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The Takara company's highly articulated Abitate T-10B, also called Blockhead, is a die-cast mecha based on a character from the 1981 Japanese series Fang of the Sun Dougram that never aired in the States. The models did reach U.S. shelves, however, and a smaller-scale version of this body armor, the T-10A, came in a box featuring the intriguing slogan, "We never approve your independence from our federation."

For Geismar, the most captivating thing about the models is the details, like Blockhead's menacing red hands. "When you go to a very different culture where you can't even read any of the signs, you see things in a very different way," he says. "You see it for what it looks like. Only later did I learn that most of the toys were representations of characters in popular Japanese films and television shows."

Find great scans of box art for the Sun Dougram series (and many others) at Alen Yen's ToyboxDX.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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Robot toys hit a peak of mainstream popularity when Hasbro introduced the Transformers, but the roots of those bots lie in designs like Popy's Chogokin DX Sun Vulcan Solar Combination from 1981. The transforming robot turns into the triangular Cosmo Vulcan jet and the stocky Bull Vulcan tank. In its humanoid form, the mecha carried a huge sword and shield, and tied into the TV show Solar Squadron Sun Vulcan.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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Another transformer, Popy's Chogokin Goggle V GB-76, turns into a yellow truck and was later reissued in the Etarnal [sic] Heroes Series. This bot's tie-in live-action show was part of the great three-decade lineage of Super Sentai TV series. Check out the Goggle V opening credits and learn from whence the Power Rangers came.

A collector of naïve figures from around the world before he came across robots, Geismar compares models like this to folk art. "In the World's Fair pavilion in Japan, there was a major exhibit of Native American masks, many from the Pacific Northwest. When we went to install them, the workers already knew them and they really related to them. They are very similar to a number of Japanese cultures' masks. I think, in a sense, there are masks involved with these robots. The mask behind a mask, or face within a face."

Photo: Richard Nichol

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Although they usually take a humanlike form, the Japanese robots can take any shape. Take, for instance, this Outer Space Spider. "Whether they were men or bugs or flying saucers or whatever they are," Geismar says, "there seemed to be very few creative barriers to the designers doing them."

Photo: Richard Nichol

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First starring in Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot went on to appear in everything from a Columbo episode to Earth Girls Are Easy, becoming a popular and endlessly reproduced emblem of robotkind. Once wound up, this Action Planet Robot version of Robby takes clumsy steps and shoots sparks under the red mouth shield below its head grill.

Before the zinc mecha craze began in the 1970s and '80s, Japanese toy robots were simpler. Made of tin or plastic during the country's post-World War II industrialization, they were also more fragile.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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Some Japanese toy robots, like this one, remain anonymous.

"I would find robots like this in souvenir shops in Times Square," Geismar says. "Very simple windup or battery-operated mechanical men. They weren't based on stories and didn't have names. I always liked their sculptural quality."

Photo courtesy Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

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The designs of early bots from the 1950s and '60s have been reinterpreted over the years with more sophisticated finishes. When switched on, this Horikawa Silver Astronaut, probably from the 1980s, walks forward, pausing every few steps to spin its torso with its green canons leveled at all attackers.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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It wouldn't be a robot collection without Mechagodzilla, the kaiju monster that aliens built to do battle with the real Godzilla in 1974. Released in 2003, this model comes loaded with features like pop-off knee missiles and an opening mouth and chest hatch.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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To wring as much profit as possible from their molds, model companies cast the same robots multiple times. Sometimes, as in the case of this Cosmobot, the molds would change hands and models would come out under other brands with only new names or slight differences of detail to distinguish them.

"They'd change the feet or change the color," Geismar says, "or just do anything to say it was a new one. You clearly recognize over many years the same molds with only slight variations." Thanks to a tread on his back, Cosmobot changes into a tank.

Photo: Richard Nichol

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The Golden Warrior Gold Lightan makes an unusual transformation: From the form of a classic robot warrior, it folds into a small cigarette lighter. Released in 1981 (when else?), it naturally had its own anime series.

"The funny thing about all these images," Geismar says, "is that when they're photographed like this you have no sense of the scale. That lighter is not more than 2-and-a-half inches high." In an effort to replicate the larger-than-life roles these toys have played in children's (and adults') minds over the years, the Science Fiction Museum will include giant enlargements as part of the exhibition.

Geismar approves. "They are scaleless in a sense," he says. "You want to make them human-size."

Photo courtesy Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

Mechanical-Limbed Runner OK'd for Olympics. Game On
Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who sprints with mechanical limbs, has been cleared by arbiters of the sport to compete for a spot on the South African team for the Beijing Olympics.

Krusty the 'Simpsons' Clown Gets His Own Roller Coasters
The silly shill with the fuzzy green hair and the oversize shoes expands his empire with a pair of theme-park rides.

Air Hostesses of Yesteryear
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From "sky girls" to "stews" to "flight attendants," the story of the airline stewardess is an evolutionary tale. Originally established as an in-flight nursing corps, the earliest stewardesses also served as waitresses, baggage handlers and auxiliary ground crew. As commercial flying grew up, the role of the stewardess changed. Along the way, she reflected her time, evolving from novelty to workhorse to sex symbol, yet always serving with professional competence.

For more on the origins of what we now know as female flight attendants, see This Day In Tech.

Left: In the days before computer check-in, the stewardess kept a passenger manifest on her clipboard.

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Miniskirts, hairspray and polyester, the official look of the 1960s air hostess.

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With a stew's welcoming smile and casual manner, how could flying possibly be scary?

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These waving TWA stews pose in front of the distinctive tail of a Constellation, a workhorse in the 1950s and one of the more successful planes in the history of commercial aviation.

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Remember walking across the tarmac and boarding the aircraft from the rear door? This TWA stewardess does.

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United Airlines stewardesses were prized for their manual dexterity. At least, that's what this ad from the '60s would have you believe.

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Working hard, yet fresh as a daisy. Notice all those stops along the way home.

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Which do you prefer? High hair with hot pants, or the more restrained miniskirt?

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No carrier traded on the female charms of its hostesses quite like Pacific Southwest Airlines did. The neon-colored micro minis were regulation, as were those unfortunate hats.

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Southwest Airlines did not staff each Boeing 737 with a dozen stewardesses. This is merely a publicity shot.

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In the 1960s, regional carriers used sexy stews in hot pants to lure passengers aboard. This one appears to be rolling a joint, although she probably isn't.

Landline Use Falls Off as Mobile Usage Grows
Three in 10 Americans now do most, if not all, of their talking on cellphones, a study finds. A growing number, mostly the young and less affluent, use mobiles exclusively.

Alt Text: Workin' at the Internet Cafe -- Laptop Dilemma

I love internet cafes. Given that my job requires hours of sitting and typing, sitting and drawing, or sitting and procrastinating, a change of scenery is welcome, allowing me to be around people without actually having to interact with them, listen to them or acknowledge their existence beyond sharing a power outlet. To me, a cafe is like a large desktop image that dispenses caffeinated beverages and scones.

However, as any science-fiction writer can tell you, with any new technology come new problems and new sex acts. I haven't gotten to the sex act part yet, but the problem is quite apparent: What do I do with my laptop when I have to use the bathroom?

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Solution 1: Leave it there on the table

Yeah, great idea. I'll just throw my credit cards and loose change on the table, too, maybe carve my Social Security number and bank password into the wood to maximize the convenience of anyone who wants to ruin my life.

Solution 2: Ask the person next to me to keep an eye it

It's not that I think the guy next to me is going to steal my laptop -- he's already got one, and his is generally nicer -- it's just that I don't think he's going to do a damn thing if a desperate-looking hood and/or thug walks right up and grabs my iBook. Hell, if he's like me, he won't even notice. If I were the sort of person who paid attention to his surroundings, I wouldn't be bringing a laptop into public spaces.

Solution 3: Bring it in with me

The easiest thing would be just to tuck it under my arm and head to the head. And yet ... I feel like that raises questions. "Why is he bringing a laptop into the bathroom? Has he been overwhelmed by the erotic power of superheroine porn? Is this some sort of sick YouTube stunt? Who said he could do that? Why won't somebody stop him?" I don't trust people to say one word if a pod of roving computer thieves leaps from a running van and grabs my laptop, but I'm sure someone will tackle me at the knees to prevent me from carrying it into the john.

Solution 4: Bring everything in with me

OK, this doesn't even make sense to me, but here's what I often do: I put my laptop back into my satchel, put my iPod back into my coat and bring my entire life with me into the bathroom. I don't know why I feel this is more socially acceptable. What do I want them to think is in there? A makeup case? A wide selection of hygiene products? Maybe I'm trying to fool them into thinking I'm just stopping by the men's room on the way out. If so, it works, because I generally come back to find my coffee cup in the bus bin and my seat taken.

Solution 5: Lock the thing up

I haven't tried this, but it would be the very avatar of simplicity to get one of those laptop locks and attach my laptop to the table or chair. I'm reluctant, though, because I don't want to come across as one of those twitchy people who obsess about extremely unlikely crimes and devise elaborate schemes to foil largely fictional criminals. However, looking back over this, I guess I am one of those people. I should probably just blog from an underground bunker in rural Montana, pausing every three paragraphs to re-oil my shotgun. I'd probably get more work done.

- - -

Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a Beat poet, a beatboxer and a beat frequency.

Pop Artist Robert Rauschenberg, 82, Dies
The pop art pioneer turned everyday objects into art, sometimes bizarrely so, but he was also an accomplished painter, sculpture and choreographer, a major 20th century American artist.

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
Your earthquake preparedness kit is well-stocked, but are you ready for a zombie apocalypse? Make sure you have what it takes to repel an undead army should one appear on your doorstep. Follow our guide and submit your own tips on Wired's How-To Wiki.

They That Go Down to Sea ... on a Permanent Basis
An underwater cemetery off Key Biscayne, Florida is touted as the perfect final resting place for lovers of the sea. It's also turning into a pretty popular dive spot.

WYATT MASON—Weekend Read: “Ayenbite of inwit”
The week began with the forgotten Josiah Mitchell Morse, (who as of May 14 has been granted his Wikipedia page) and ends with the very few sentences from his typewriter that are remembered online. The first is a bonbon, a letter Morse wrote to the New York Times, in 1989: . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Blogger Roundtable Coordinator: Let’s find people to “carry our water”
Once more I’m going to return to the topic of those blogger roundtables organized by the Pentagon, which I have discussed several times since last summer and most recently last month. In that last item, I discussed the New York Times story that revealed how the Pentagon worked with retired military officials and prepared them to serve as supposedly independent media “analysts.” That was part of a broader Defense Department media program that included the blogger roundtables, and which looked for “surrogates” to whom Pentagon talking points could be fed. . . .

MR. FISH—A Cartoon
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KEN SILVERSTEIN—The G.O.P.’s Summer Collection
From the Star-Tribune: . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—McDonald’s: Baku Hot Spot
A few weeks back I posted an item about a 2005 Senate trip Barack Obama made to Azerbaijan during which he lobbied dictator Ilham Aliyev on behalf of McDonald’s and complained about obstacles faced by the company in opening restaurants in Baku, the Azeri capital. A Westerner residing in Baku subsequently sent me the following note: . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Disturbing Sex Scandal Involves Swift Boat Family
Will Perry is the son of Bob Perry, a major funder of the Swift Boat Vets and the G.O.P. Will is also a G.O.P. donor, although he gives less than his father. From the Fort Bend Star: . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—On That Hillary–Hitler Video: The verdict is in
A number of readers complained to me or to Harper’s about that delightful Hillary-as-Hitler video I posted the other day, which was created by comedian James Adomian. But the public has spoken (or rather, clicked), and the critics appear to be in the minority: . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Was U.S. Private Security Firm Spying for Kazakh Government?
That’s the question raised by this terrific Wall Street Journal story. The firm is GlobalOptions, an extremely well-connected company run by, among others, former FBI and CIA officials. The Kazakh government apparently retained GlobalOptions to monitor, and possibly seek to derail, a Justice Department investigation into James Giffen, an American oilman who is suspected of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to President Nursultan Nazarbayev. . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Convicted Scammer is Donor to Clinton Campaign
I know Hillary Clinton is hard up for dough, but should her campaign really have taken money from a suspected (and subsequently convicted) kickback conspirator? In June of 2007, attorney Melvyn Weiss donated $4,600 to Clinton’s campaign, the legal maximum. By then Weiss was reportedly under investigation for paying kickbacks to people who served as lead plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits that netted his New York law firm hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. . . .

WYATT MASON—“Afraid To Go To the Toilet”
Some readers of Martin Amis’s new collection of essays, The Second Plane: Terror and Boredom (Alfred A. Knopf), have found the marriage of nouns in its subtitle a consternation, an inglorious instance of Martin Aimless. “[H]e repeatedly draws a nonsensical analogy between terrorism and boredom,” wrote Michiko Kakutani, . . .

Replies
From: Gary McCardell Subject: Exclusive Video: Hillary in the Führerbunker, by Ken Silverstein, May 12, 2008 . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Major G.O.P. and Democratic Donor Questioned in Israeli Corruption Probe
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Sheldon Adlelson, a major donor to the G.O.P., has been questioned by police as part of a corruption probe. S. Daniel Abraham of Slim-Fast, a big Democratic donor, is also being questioned. Worth reading. . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Tip to McCain: To promote reform, bag your national finance co-chair
The Washington Post reports today that Barack Obama and John McCain are both working to . . .

WYATT MASON—Inherently Subversive
Josiah Mitchell Morse was blessed, by birth, with a beautiful American name, but such luck hasn’t been enough to ensure him and his work a place in the cultural memory. As of this morning, for example, a Wikipedia search assures us of Morse’s insignificance, offering only a grim ‘there is no page titled…’ alert. Using an earlier measure of a culture’s indifference to the strenuous exertions of its members, we might gauge Morse’s irrelevance, thus: none of his serious, funny, learned, angry, angering books has remained in print. . . .

SCOTT HORTON—Six Questions for Sidney Blumenthal, Author of The Strange Death of Republican America
Sidney Blumenthal has written for The New Republic, the Washington Post, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, and most recently served as Washington editor to Salon.com and as a contributor to The Guardian. He is one of America’s foremost political commentators, and also has a noteworthy track-record of political engagement. He served as an assistant and senior advisor to President Bill Clinton and is currently a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton. He was also executive producer for the Oscar Award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. Blumenthal has just published a collection of essays entitled The Strange Death of Republican America. I put six questions to him on the subject of his current book. . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Obama, Hamas, and “Nuance”
Barack Obama recently severed all links with Robert Malley, an informal Middle East policy adviser, after the latter “confessed” that he had met with the Palestinian group Hamas. And in a recent interview, Obama said, “We don’t do nuance well in politics and especially don’t do it well on Middle East policy…It’s conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, ‘This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein, and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he’s not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,’ and that’s something they’re hopeful about. I think that’s a perfectly legitimate perception as long as they’re not confused about my unyielding support for Israel’s security.” . . .

SAM STARK—Weekly Review
The military junta in Myanmar put the official death toll from last week's Cyclone Nargis (Urdu for “daffodil”) at 28,458, while foreign observers, taking into account that heavy rains were expected to continue, with malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, and dysentery to follow, expected that as many as 100,000 people would die. Before distributing foreign-aid packages, the junta re-labeled them with the names of its generals; a referendum on a new constitution that will perpetuate the junta's rule was not delayed. “Let's go cast a vote,” sang two female pop vocalists on state-run television. “With sincere thoughts for happy days, let's go cast a vote.” Reuters India The New York Times Irrawaddy US State Dept. The Christian Science Monitor BBC The New York Times Der Spiegel BBC Popular Science John Goodyear, whom Senator John McCain had chosen to manage this year's Republican convention and who once managed public relations for the Myanmar junta, stepped down, and one in four Republicans voted against McCain in primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. Newsweek Politico Senator Barack Obama crushed Senator Hillary Clinton in the North Carolina Democratic primary, lost by a small margin in Indiana, and then took the lead in pledged superdelegates. Clinton pointed out that she still enjoys support from hard workers and white people. “A woman is like a teabag,” she said, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt. “You never know how strong she is until she's in hot water.” New Yorker via MSNBC USA Today ABC The Los Angeles Times The Washington Post The Hill Chicago Tribune The New York Times One hundred seventy-eight House Republicans voted against a resolution “celebrating the role of mothers in the United States,.” The Washington Post and Yup'ik-speaking voters in Alaska demanded better bilingual election materials, citing a 2002 ballot in which “natural gas” had been rendered as “this gas in the stomach.” Anchorage Daily News . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Exclusive Video: Hillary in the Führerbunker
Well, I may be soft on Hillary, but this is very funny. (Not safe for work or for the easily offended.) . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—McCain’s Burma Connection
Doug Goodyear, who had been picked by John McCain’s campaign to run the G.O.P. convention this summer, resigned over the weekend after Newsweek reported that a lobbying firm he heads once represented Burma. The DCI Group–Goodyear is its CEO–“was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma’s military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today,” said Newsweek. . . .

Machiavelli—On Communing with Greatness
Venuta la sera, mi ritorno a casa ed entro nel mio scrittoio; e in sull’uscio mi spoglio quella veste cotidiana, piena di fango e di loto, e mi metto panni reali e curiali; e rivestito condecentemente, entro nelle antique corti delli antiqui huomini, dove, da loro ricevuto amorevolmente, mi pasco di quel cibo che solum è mio e ch’io nacqui per lui; dove io non mi vergogno parlare con loro e domandarli della ragione delle loro azioni; e quelli per loro humanità mi rispondono; e non sento per quattro hore di tempo alcuna noia, sdimentico ogni affanno, non temo la povertà, non mi sbigottisce la morte: tutto mi transferisco in loro. . . .

Akhmatova—For the Memory of a Friend
И в День Победы, нежный и туманный, Когда заря, как зарево, красна, Вдовою у могилы безымянной Хлопочет запоздалая весна. Она с колен подняться не спешит, Дохнет на почку, и траву погладит, И бабочку с плеча на землю ссадит, И первый одуванчик распушит. . . .

SCOTT HORTON—Taxi to the Dark Side at Princeton on Saturday Afternoon
Saturday May 10th 2:30PM: You are invited to a free screening of the 2008 Academy Award winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side at Princeton University, 100 Robertson Hall, Princeton, New Jersey. The screening will be followed by a discussion with: . . .

MR. FISH—A Cartoon
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KEN SILVERSTEIN—More on Hillary the Bloodthirsty Monster
A number of readers emailed about yesterday’s post on why, for reasons I myself find baffling, I’ve started feeling sympathetic toward Hillary Clinton. None of the emails were friendly, but they raised a lot of good points. (I would note here that I said I sympathized with Hillary for certain reasons—mostly because the media, in general, hate her. I didn’t say I preferred her to Obama. Even though I’m not sold on Obama, his politics are far more interesting than Hillary’s, and the latter’s 2002 vote on Iraq was unforgivable, as I’ve written before. Beyond that, the idea of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton is too much to bear.) Below, I include a particularly interesting note, from a reader who wished to remain anonymous, that makes a strong case against Clinton and for Obama. . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Why I Like Hillary: She’s a bloodthirsty monster
I’ve received quite a few complaints in recent months from readers who think I’m pro–Hillary Clinton and anti–Barack Obama. In fact, I believe Obama has better politics than Clinton, is personally more honorable, and that his victory would represent an important generational shift in American politics. . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Kurt Andersen and the Media’s Obama Crush
The most honest and insightful piece yet on the media’s love affair with Obama: . . .

KEN SILVERSTEIN—Africa’s Worst Dictator: No, it’s not Mugabe
The situation in Zimbabwe is an outrage and I can understand why the Bush Administration, and the entire Western world, is appalled by President Robert Mugabe’s anti-democratic depredations. As has been widely reported by the American media, opposition parties won control of the national assembly in a March balloting, and Mugabe finished second behind an opposition leader in presidential voting, triggering a run-off as neither candidate won an absolute majority. The opposition is threatening to boycott the run-off, since it says that its candidate won the first-round election outright and “has ended Mugabe’s 28-year rule over the once prosperous country whose economy is in ruins.” . . .

GEMMA SIEFF—Weekly Review
Cyclone Nargis tore off roofs, shredded trees, overturned cars, and killed more than 10,000 people in Myanmar. Local 6 Tens of thousands of Somalis rioted in Mogadishu over the high cost of food, CNN President Bush pledged $770 million in international food aid, BBC and an inmate awaiting trial for murder sued an Arkansas county jail for underfeeding him after he shed 105 pounds from his 413-pound frame. “About an hour after each meal,” he stated in a complaint, “my stomach starts to hurt and growl [and] I feel hungry again. We are literally being starved to death.” CBS The sister-in-law of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian electrician accused of locking his daughter in a basement dungeon for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, told the Associated Press that Fritzl hadn't had sex with his wife in many years: “I believe it was because my sister had been getting bigger,” she said. “He never liked fat women.” AP via Google Police in Germany discovered the bodies of three dead babies stored in a freezer in the cellar of a family home, after two of the family's older children went rummaging for a frozen pizza, CNN and a former Mr Gay UK charged with murder was accused of carving up, dicing, cooking, and eating his victim's leg. BBC Telegraph UK Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of the circle of plotters who attempted to kill Adolf Hitler with a briefcase bomb, died at the age of 90. CNN . . .

SCOTT HORTON—Dirty Money
Can a lawyer be indicted for issuing a bad legal opinion? This evening, Philippe Sands and I will be discussing this issue at NYU Law School, in Lipton Hall, from 6—8 p.m. However, Alice Fisher, the head of the Bush Justice Department’s Criminal Division—whose resignation was just announced—apparently believes the answer is “yes,” because she signed the charges against Miami lawyer Ben Kuehne. Among other things, Kuehne had previously advised Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 Florida recount litigation. Read my analysis of the case in the current issue of the American Lawyer, just out. . . .

SCOTT HORTON—Loser Take All
You are cordially invited to a presentation . . .

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The Jammys - Theater at MSG, NY, NY 5.7.08
Photos by Eric Townsend of the 7th Annual Jammy Awards held at the Theater at MSG in New York City on May 7th, 2008.

New Monsoon - Mercury Lounge, NY NY 5.3.08
<span style="font-size: 12pt">On tunes like &ldquo;Other Side&rdquo; and &ldquo;Water Vein,&rdquo; featuring vocals from keyboardist Phil Ferlino, the bright, mostly major-key improvisation explored interesting territory without falling off the rails.</span>

Radiohead -"Nude" (YouTube)

Foals - Antidotes
ust when you the thought the dance-rock thing had hit overkill, Foals tries to one-up the angular, jangly guitar movement. The Oxford quintet lists Steve Reich, Public Image Ltd and Afrobeat as key influences, but Gang of Four rings hard on their debut &ndash; <span style="font-style: italic">Antidotes.</span>

Tegan and Sara - Bogarts, Cincinnati, OH 5/9/08
Canadian born identical twin sisters, Tegan and Sara Quin have invaded America and gained a cult following without much help from MTV or radio. Now working to promote their latest, yet almost one year old album, The Con, these girls brought their brand of acoustic pop to Cincinnati for the first time in quite a few years. These young ladies brought together many different walks of life inside a venue that was far too small and put on a very respectable performance

Mudhoney- "I'm Now" (mp3) The Lucky Ones

Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Vols. III and IV Air and Earth
<span style="font-style: italic">The Alchemy Index: Vols. III &amp; IV Air &amp; Earth </span>marks the completion of Thrice&rsquo;s foray with experimenting with the four elements of nature. Overall, the newest <span style="font-style: italic">Alchemy Index </span>displays Thrice&rsquo;s explorations with instrumentation, rhythm, and feel.

Mason Jennings - In The Ever
Mason Jennings has always done things his own way. Jennings forged a loyal cult following as one of the most talked-about new independent singer-songwriters, while selling his homemade CDs out of the back of his van without the help of a major label publicity department.

My Morning Jacket - "I'm Amazed" (SNL)

John Butler Trio - Live Coachella 2008 (YouTube)

Perpetual Groove - Highline Ballroom, New York, NY 4/25/08
Though they never caught fire, P-Groove showed that even on what seemed to be an &ldquo;off&rdquo; night, they still provide one of the best small-theater rock shows out there<br />

She & Him - Volume One
Zooey Deschanel (She) is best known for her roles in <span style="font-style: italic">Elf </span>and <span style="font-style: italic">Hitchhiker&rsquo;s Guide To The Galaxy,</span> while M. Ward (Him) is regarded as a guitar vitruoso amongst the new-wave of indie rockers. <span style="font-style: italic">Volume One</span>, their debut album as She &amp; Him, is a throwback to old country and pop that reflects in Jenny Lewis&rsquo; recent old timey project with The Watson Twins.

Carlene Carter - Stronger
It&rsquo;s been some years since Carlene Carter began her music career consorting with Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and The Rumour back in 1979. In fact, Stronger is her first album of original material since 1995, a work of renewed creativity inspired in its own way, like that of sibling once-removed&nbsp; of Rosanne Cash&rsquo;s Black Cadillac, by personal tragedies to which the cd title refers.<br />

A Twisted Conspiracy
<span style="font-size: 12pt">The upcoming Twisted Conspiracy Tour, coming to Boulder, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in May, represents the fusing of two eclectic underground dance music scenes from Europe and America.</span>

7th Jammy Awards - Breakdowns & Insight - Wamu Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 5/7/08
It was the tightest Jammys show in at least three or four of them-thetype of night for which you&#39;re tempted to use the word lean but pull back only because that might under-represent such a high quality of talent assembled. Tight, tight tight, with changes from the past few Jammys were subtle, but essential: slightly fewer acts with longer stretches devoted to each, giving time for collaborations (most, anyway) to marinate a bit and really suss out some value and excitement.

Review: 'Reprise'
Clear away the annoying avant-gardism and you have a powerful movie about a writer on the brink.

Review: 'Noise'
This black comedy's a one-note movie – but it's a resonant one.

Review: 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'
'Narnia' sequel delivers good family entertainment, but it's just a little too much of an action film.

Review: 'Turn the River'
Powerful in places, this Famke Janssen film becomes a standard fatalistic misfits-on-the-run movie.

Prague's soundtrack factory
Skilled musicians – and favorable economics – lure filmmakers to this ad hoc symphony for new scores.

India's health minister hits at on-screen drinking
But others see hypocrisy in last month's call for a Bollywood ban.

Hazy screens: Is Hollywood pushing marijuana?
A raft of films has some observers citing a generational shift among filmmakers.

Gamers tinker with power chords
Bands and DJs hack into video-game gear to create instruments.

Creative writing for extraterrestrials
A college class, funded by a NASA Space Grant Consortium, contemplates what to say to E.T.

One town uses the arts to revive after hurricane Katrina
Bay St. Louis, Miss., taps painters and the cultural community nationwide to become a rare post-Katrina success story. Why are residents yelling 'Stellaaaaaaa?'

Music transforms kids and towns in remote area of Bolivia
Inspired by a biannual baroque festival and the legacy of missionaries, young people join choirs and take up the violin and Vivaldi in parishes across the country's eastern lowlands.

Noteworthy: The best in recent kids' CDs
From Brian Setzer's orchestral fun with classical music clichés to a Parents' Choice Award winner by Dr. Noize, these albums will delight young ears.

Noteworthy: A roundup of recent pop releases
Neil Diamond sheds the schmaltz; Lenny Kravitz – inspired throwback or tired mimic?; Madonna delivers on dance; Santogold's belated debut.

Noteworthy: A roundup of recent jazz releases
Former Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner returns for an elegant romp, Bill Dixon's all-star orchestra explodes, and Nicole Mitchell does the unthinkable: make flute-led jazz a force to be reckoned with.

'The Fall': Tarsem Singh's take on a complex friendship
Some of the set pieces are ravishing, more often they're ravishingly clumsy.

'What Happens in Vegas': Annoying, and incompetent
Kutcher, Diaz comedy tries to get by on star power where none really exists.

'The Tracey Fragments': Angst in a thousand shards
Ellen Page comes through with a performance despite distracting directorial stylings.

'Speed Racer': out of gas
Wachowski Brothers' movie tries for a family-values focus but veers into frenetic, sometimes cheesy effects.

The last 'Parandero'
In Belize, musician Paul Nabor preserves an indigenous sound – and awaits a successor.

Beijing not alone when it comes to Olympic disputes
Controversy – from Black Power salutes to boycotts – is often what's remembered.

Cricket's Indian revolution: fast play and more pay
The Indian Premier League is altering the game and pulling in the best players from around the world.

Kazakhstan seeks identity on the big screen
The Central Asian nation throws Borat a counterpunch.