Weekend tabdump*

• The Sunlight Foundation is yet another nonprofit trying to make it easier to see who's running things, who's paying them, what exactly they're doing and to whom in the dark Washington night.

  One of these days someone will hit the right combination of factors to attract a whole lot of interested citizens to rake through the muck, discover all sorts of heretofore-hidden malfeasance, and cause a lot of trouble for Congress. Who knows, it could be them. See Congresspedia; Podcast and Q & A with The Sunlight Foundation.

  In the meantime, there is at least TPM Muckraker which applies the talents of a few dedicated reporters to that end, with some success so far.

• I was unaware that Lewis Black has a new show coming from Comedy Central, "Red State Diaries" --

  Lewis Black's rants face reality when he takes to the road to find out what is really going on in the so-called red states.

  I've been trying to cut down on watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; I still love them, but they use up valuable time every night/morning (even when Tivoed) that I want to try to put to other uses. This also makes me miss any Lewis Black segments (or maybe he's not doing any right now, I wouldn't know). Luckily Black has a brand new album, The Carnegie Hall Performance. It's on its way.

  I'm sure I'll check out Red State Diaries when the time comes.

• Thank goodness Kellie Pickler is off American Idol; she's been outclassed for weeks now, but has been holding on due to her "wholesome" appeal (i.e. blonde, thin, pretending to be dumber than she is). All the remaining singers are good; my favorite is Elliot Yamin, but I don't expect him to outlast everyone else, because that's just how it seems to go.

  This year's Idol just hasn't been as enjoyable as last year's (I didn't watch any of seasons 1-3). I think the show really needs some new people, the current hosts are way too familiar with (and contemptuous of) each other and too reliant on the same repetitive shticks every week. You can just feel the dysfunctional-family, sick-and-tired nature of it boiling over uncomfortably all around the set.

  Plus: while we're now down to 5 mighty entertaining singers, the journey here was rather lamer than last season's. I still miss Anwar Robinson, Nikko Smith, Vonzell Solomon, Jessica Sierra, and Nadia Turner much more than I will the people who've been voted off so far this season.

  P.S. to the American Idol producers, I would buy an album by any of the above-mentioned season 4 singers (and I am not alone), but you appear uninterested in producing any. You seem to be leaving money on the table; please explain yourselves.

• Two poems by Neil Gaiman: The Day the Saucers Came and POEM (on nudity) @ Spiderwords
  
  
• Secret Wars Re-Enactment Society - very funny short video if you were a Marvel Comics reader in the 80s; also if (like me) you fail to grok Civil War re-enactments. Via Ghost in the Machine.

(* This usage of tabdump is surprisingly uncommon so far given tabbed browsing's steady growth.

In 2004 a journal named Aquarionics used it, and a guy named Bernie Zimmermann whose site now seems down. I recently saw Backup Brain use it, and immediately liked it. But in a brief search I found only a few other occurrences of the term used in this fashion between 2004 and now.

I expect more people will gravitate to it over time as a handy shorthand for "what you do when you want to close your browser but you just can't until you do something with all these damn open tabs".)

    2 comment(s)  

Yes! The word tabdump shall become the standard word for this! And then! I shall! rule! the! world!. Or something. Nicholas of Aquarionics.com
      ...posted by Aquarion on May 1, 2006 5:56 AM

"At the recent Washington Correspondents' Dinner, master comedian Stephen Colbert performed magnificently. With the rapier of wit and the mace of truth, he respectively skewered and censured the presidency of "dum'ass botch". Talk about wonderful lagniappe! Mr Colbert made that nincompoop's lap dogs in our national conventional media run for cover with their tail between their legs. And that's not all our man accomplished. Tucked away in his address to the dinner's flabbergasted attendees, like a ticking time bomb, there was an 'easter egg', which we had absolutely . . . here 'we' is a polite nod . . . NO right to expect. Like the Easter Bunny in a mischievous mood, Mr Colbert camouflaged a bon mot, so profound as to approach philosophical. oh, before I reveal Mr Colbert's casual accomplishment, I should like to preface with a caveat. The appropriate interpretation of that remark requires sagacity an-- . . ." oh, alright (!) already, I'll admit it. The above text is meant to serve as "bait" for the dear Reader's curiosity. Yes, I would like people to visit my blog. And why not?! The average visitor is bound to find one or two startling insights. What's more, it's a good bet that more than a few visitors will discover that I evoke with the written word thought, hitherto more, well, tantalizing than articulated. toodles ...../ .he who is known as sefton http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2006/04/rehabilitation-of-and-by-and-for-right.html . . . oh, yeah, I should add that the full title for that post is "rehabilitation of and by and for the right wing" . . . by the bye, depending on visitor's essentiality, one might be either heartened or dismayed by one, or two, of my easter eggs.
      ...posted by A Alexander Stella on May 12, 2006 7:26 PM

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