fewwords

noraleah: It’s Friday — as Erin would say, do a little dance....

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:07:33 -0400

It’s Friday — as Erin would say, do a little dance. And no one does a little dance like Miss Solange.

Video taken at her rip-roaring performance at BAM last month. Shout-out to my ladies Laura, Lori, and Nancy.

Amen. That was such a good time!

Me and Mom, December 1980.

Sun, 12 May 2013 14:16:19 -0400

Me and Mom, December 1980.

At the point I’m reminded that I have plenty of dresses.

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:00:55 -0400

At the point I’m reminded that I have plenty of dresses.

Packing for a trip to Texas finally warranted switching seasons...

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:57:22 -0400

Packing for a trip to Texas finally warranted switching seasons in my closet. New York, can you switch to sundress weather already?

africanfashion: For those of you who criticize Janelle’s...

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:13:57 -0400

africanfashion:

For those of you who criticize Janelle’s signature monochromatic look.

From her speech on “Black Girls Rock”:

“When I started my music career, I was a maid. I used to clean houses. My mother was a proud janitor. My stepfather, who raised me like his very own, worked at the post office and my father was a trashman. They all wore uniforms and that’s why I stand here today, in my black and white, and I wear my uniform to honor them.

This is a reminder that I have work to do. I have people to uplift. I have people to inspire. And today, I wear my uniform proudly as a Cover Girl. I want to be clear, young girls, I didn’t have to change who I was to become a Cover Girl. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.

Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable.” - Janelle Monáe

“…perfection is the enemy of greatness.” I like that.

life: “Ballet dancing,” LIFE magazine told its readers in 1936,...

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:41:06 -0400

life:

“Ballet dancing,” LIFE magazine told its readers in 1936, “is a hard, steady, painstaking job.”

Seen through Alfred Eisenstaedt’s lens, it is also a singularly beautiful pursuit. See for yourself here.

(Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Painstaking indeed. The technique will always be in my bones, even though I never reached professional heights.

newyorker: In the spirit of openheartedness and...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:06:35 -0400

newyorker:

In the spirit of openheartedness and what life is really all about, I’ll go so far as to say that the fear of others may mask some deep-seated desire to understand, and maybe even to love. Because really, what is there to be afraid of? Few people today don’t know—or have in their families—at least one loving couple who are raising children, same-sex or not. And it’s really just the loving part that matters. That same-sex marriage could go from its preliminary draft of “diagnosable” to the final edit of “so what?” must indicate some positive evolution on the part of the larger human consciousness. My wife, being a biology teacher, puts it even more succinctly: “Why are all these people so worried about who everybody else is sleeping with, anyway?” (Score two for Moms.)

—Chris Ware on his cover of the May 13, 2013 issue, “Mother’s Day.” Get the story behind the cover: http://nyr.kr/10d7TyC

wnyc: Brooklyn is showing some gratitude to the late Beastie...

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:26:26 -0400

wnyc:

Brooklyn is showing some gratitude to the late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, known as MCA, by renaming the Brooklyn Heights playground that he visited as kid after the rapper who died of cancer last year.
MORE

Because it’s Friday.

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:18:18 -0400

Because it’s Friday.

happierman: Shiner in NYC

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:55:27 -0400

happierman:

Shiner in NYC

wnyc: WNYC’s Reema Khrais snapped this photo of Building crews...

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:08:19 -0400

wnyc:

WNYC’s Reema Khrais snapped this photo of Building crews hoisted the last pieces of a 408-foot spire Thursday morning to the roof of One World Trade Center. MORE

Talk about a sense of scale.

I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet | The Verge

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:56:03 -0400

I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet | The Verge:

pleasedontsqueezetheshaman:

wooliebear:

Great read.

This guy is the opposite of a lentil person.

Shiner Time explained, with kolaches. Texans understand.

Wed, 01 May 2013 19:08:12 -0400

Shiner Time explained, with kolaches. Texans understand.

The ferry is my favorite.

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:15:53 -0400

The ferry is my favorite.

Central Texas Bluebonnets (a note card hanging at my desk) In...

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:07:46 -0400

Central Texas Bluebonnets (a note card hanging at my desk)

In honor of spring, and Shiner Time (trademark Nancy) tonight.

"I can feel it happening in the way I absorb the news. In my twenties, I devoured the newspaper with..."

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:37:00 -0400

“I can feel it happening in the way I absorb the news. In my twenties, I devoured the newspaper with the fearless zest of moral outrage. No atrocity story was too horrible for me to revel in every last detail—in some way, none of it was quite real. But, over time, indignation gave way to fear. Nothing makes the news more real than having children—it’s as if you lose a layer of skin, and even minor abrasions with the world get infected. On some days, reading the paper is almost unbearable. The Newtown killings hit me in a deeper place than all the wars and genocides of the past few decades. There were certain articles I couldn’t finish, even though I was unable to think of anything else.”

- George Packer, Loose Thoughts on Youth and Age (The New Yorker)

lauraemily: Solange giving Queen Bey a run for her money....

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:11:31 -0400

lauraemily:

Solange giving Queen Bey a run for her money. #crossingbrooklynferry (at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House)

Friday night we danced in the pit, and it was the best.

Meet Thomson Reuters journalist Michelle Boatley

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:32:00 -0400

Meet Thomson Reuters journalist Michelle Boatley:

matthewkeys:

You can read her work at the Australasian Business Legal. You can email her tips and corrections. You can network with her on Facebook.

Just about the only thing you can’t do is take her out to lunch. That’s because Thomson Reuters journalist Michelle Boatley isn’t real.

Journalist and media blogger Jim Romenesko outed Boatley last week as a fake, created from the imaginations of Thomson Reuters editors who apparently used fake bylines on ABL stories to make their newsroom staff look larger than it actually was.

Romenesko published the story last Friday on what must have been a very rough week for Thomson Reuters. Earlier in the week, I published a memo issued by TR managers to me last October after I failed to identify myself as a Thomson Reuters journalist on a parody account created during off-work hours.

Thomson Reuters apparently holds personal Twitter accounts of its employees to a higher standard of disclosure than it does its own journalism, as the company’s policy regarding “misrepresentation” doesn’t seem to apply here.

What an ironic mess. It’s going to take a long time to sort out, but I’m so glad Matthew Keys has union representation and gold nuggets of intel like this.

lauraemily: theweekmagazine: Need something to watch on...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:29:00 -0400

lauraemily:

theweekmagazine:

Need something to watch on Netflix this weekend? We asked our entertainment editor, Scott Meslow, for a recommendation.

Finished with Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and House of Cards, and looking for the next great drama to devour? You’re in luck — Sundance Channel’s Top of The Lake ended just a few days ago, but the entire series is already available on Netflix, and well worth your time. Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss stars as detective Robin Griffin, a woman investigating the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl in a small New Zealand town. Think a smarter, more pointed version of The Killing, and you wouldn’t be far off — and with just seven 50-minute episodes, it’s the perfect weekend binge-watch. — Scott

I’m just going to leave this here.

Oh man. When I finished this last week I felt… deflated, in need of recovery, and pleased with the nuanced storytelling. After you’ve watched it, too, let’s talk.

(Also worth noting: the show holds up much better without commercial breaks. I watched the first two hours live and was jarred — to the point of disliking the show — with all the cuts between content and advertising. I’m glad I stuck with it and started watching in on demand.)

At the Tribeca Film Festival: A message to you from a West Virginia town ruined by Oxycontin

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:46:04 -0400

At the Tribeca Film Festival: A message to you from a West Virginia town ruined by Oxycontin:

The people of Oxyana speak for themselves; Dunne is listening, and the community trusts him, so he has gotten under the suffice of things. He is their message in a bottle. But there is work for the audience here.