USA TODAY linked to this picture today:It’s from a digital archive of 9/11 images, stories and audio. It is basically community journalism at its best-getting the people who were there to tell their own stories in their own words, using the things they saw and heard. The archive is really deep and some of the artifacts are really moving and unusual-very personal, although the navigation system could use some work. It could bring up the question of whether or not the internet will/can take over journalism- and it’s even more interesting to read the little link at the bottom of the site — “How do you know these objects are true/real?”- where the site architects said that as with any research, you should check your sources, and that even newspapers need to be read with that in mind. Will a time come when people trust the internet (their peers) more than their local newspaper?
I saw Little Miss Sunshine this weekend, and it was wonderful. I was falling out of my seat laughing almost the entire movie, please go see it. The soundtrack is pretty good too, featuring DeVotchKa and a couple of tracks by Sufjan Stevens.
This weekend Vanessa, Lisa, and I checked out the Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art, which were both wonderful. Unfortunately we had to leave the gallery b/c it was closing, so we only got to see part of Rousseau’s “Jungles in Paris” exhibit. The Museum of Natural History was really detailed and fascinating. We went through the dinosaur and insect exhibits. The dinosaur bones are really amazing. We saw hundreds of species of bugs and a bunch of tarantula’s with super-cute names like “pink-toe” and “orange-leg” (i think orange-leg, not sure.. maybe orange thigh? orange foot?). All the insects looked like sticks and leaves, we felt like we were in the jungle. Wild.
We also had a little fun, we went to the Liberation Dance Party at DC9, where Vanessa got all her drinks free (not so for the rest of us), and we danced some crazy dances.
I have also added a link on the right panel to the excellent website Pandora. It’s a site where you can listen to a radio-like jukebox that figures out what songs you like based on your suggestions of favorite music. It makes some pretty cool suggestions that can introduce you to new bands. The only annoying thing is that because of licensing issues it will only let you skip a certain number of songs and it won’t let you go back or request specific songs.
Less than one week until I start the new job! If you know of anyone in DC that is looking for a roommate, let me know!