Media Bytes - Werewolves of London Edition

By Libby

Song in my head stolen from Atrios today. I love Zevon. Saw him live in a small venue in lovely downtown Noho about ten years ago. He rocks in person too.

Mostly light fare for today's edition. No real heavy reading. I have this short profile of my friend Marc Catone and a short article on a really interesting UN project in Africa. Dr. Congo, who is just one guy with a low wattage radio station trying to convince the resident rebels to go home peacefully, before they're blasted to smithereens.

And this is just a quick point and click favor for a new friend. Please vote for Sue. She's on the left and apparently could make a little money if she wins the vote. She's losing right now so please help by voting between now and Aug. 11. You can vote once a day if you feel ambitious.

Moving on to the video segment of today's edition, CSPAN archived some of the big speeches at Netroots Nation. If you scroll to new programming you can see it in its entirety.

And this one is time sensitive. I got the link from Molly and the explanation from Mary at a different blog.

I’m not a musical person, I’ve seen bits and pieces of Buffy and Firefly and am not a Whedon fangirl, but I loved this. It gets pulled tonight at midnight, so take some time out of your Sunday to catch this. If you miss it, it’s $1.99 per act on iTunes (yes, even internationally).

I don't get the references being woefully uniformed on pop culture but I did watch some of the first segment already and Dr. Horrible's sing-a-long blog is funny. It was apparently created during the Hollywood writers strike in an attempt to circumvent the studio stranglehold on distributing creative work. It's worth supporting for that alone.

This next video, sent to me by George Lessard is apparently based on the true life effects of Congolese children accused of witchcraft. It's really moving, and even though it's subtitled in French, it's easy to follow and the music is infectious. It's sad in the beginning but it has a happy ending so stick through to the end. "Enfant Dit Sorcier" ("Child Accused of Being a Witch").

Speaking of witch hunts, my friend Dave Borden has been fighting against the prohibs in the war on some drugs for many years. Here's video of an interview he did that aired on a news network that broadcasts primarily to Arab audiences across Europe and the Middle East. It's about 25 minutes long.

Finally, for today's eye candy, a very cool gallery of fungi photos. I can't pick a favorite. Loved them all.

And this is a live web cam of theCorpse flower at Smith College greenhouse. It's just been sitting there for days but it look like it is finally going to unfurl today. I don't know how fast it goes but today's definitely the day to check it out if you're looking for action shots.

Update: The corpse flower is completely open and it's lit up so you can see it at night. Be glad you don't have to smell it. I understand it gives off a foul odor.