Jonathan's blog

While riding the stationary bike yesterday I watched the most interesting documentary that I've seen in a while. It was part of PBS' Independent Lens series titled "HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes." The filmmaker Byron Hurt examines the issues of violence, misogyny, and homophobia in hip-hop and rap music. The musicians themselves tended to make the excuse that they were only responding to market demands, giving the people what they want...or at least giving the record executives what they will pay for. Its sort of a chicken or egg question since we know that marketing tends to shape public demand as much as public demand drives what content companies market.

The Saturday before last Elliot successfully tested for his Taekwon-Do green strip belt. Here are a few photos:

The second episode of The 1/2 Hour News Hour aired last night. I thought it was even less funny than the first episode. On the other hand, there was one segment where the correspondents were discussing various terrorist acts and trying to figure out what was the common thread between them. As the names of the perpetrators were read one after the other, it was obvious that the common thread was that they were all muslim. The joke was that the correspondents had a hard time figuring it out since everyone knows that "Islam is a religion of peace." Lisa thought that segment was quite funny. Me, not so much.

For the last few weeks Elliot's been going to a basketball class for an hour on Saturday mornings at the community center. I know I'm not objective, but so far everything that Elliot has done (school, baseball, soccer, Taekwon-Do, etc.), he's always one of the few best kids in the game or in the class. He's smart, athletic, and competitive, but I think a big part of it is that he pays attention and focuses, listens to the coaches or teachers, and quickly learns how to be successful. Anyway, basketball is apparently no exception. Here are a few photos and videos from last Saturday:

Some of the TV recommendations from this week's issue of The Week:

• Explorer: Inside North Korea, Mon 9 PM, National Geographic Channel
• Last Train from Gun Hill, Fri 8 PM, Turner Classic Movies
• Clatterford, Fri 9 PM, BBC America