This post is an outsiders view of Chicago during the holiday season with a few photos and a video to boot. If you live there you might not gain a lot from it – on the other hand, you might get a few laughs.
Video
Take Home Candy – A Halloween Tax Parable
This was supposed to go up yesterday but apparently I forgot to hit the “publish” button. *Sigh*
Cover Songs – Ryan Adams on Bob Mould
I have been following the cover song debate here at Chicago Boyz with the mantra “if you are going to do a cover, make it your own.”
Here is Ryan Adams covering Bob Mould’s “Black Sheets of Rain” on Letterman. I always liked Bob Mould and of course Husker Du (just downloaded the new album and will be giving it a spin, sounds great) but I have to say that Ryan Adams improved upon Bob’s version of this great song.
I started the video about at the 2:25 mark… typical of Ryan Adams there is a self indulgent time when he wanders around getting ready to play. But hell, the guy is a genius, so what do I know.
[Jonathan adds: I wasn’t able to get the video to start at the right place. You will have to move the slider to the 2:25 mark to get it to start there.]
Re-Run: Video of Claudio Véliz at the Anglosphere Institute
[Originally posted in October 2006, this post is about a lecture by Professor Véliz that is well worth the time to watch again. I have updated the post by embedding our video of lecture.]
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Now you can watch Professor Claudio Véliz’s brilliant talk on “The Optional Descent of the English Speaking World,” which he gave at the inaugural event of Jim Bennett’s Anglosphere Institute. The lecture was hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.
Professor Véliz discusses the reasons for the global success of English culture and institutions, including meta-parallels between England and Ancient Athens.
The lecture runs about 49 minutes and is followed by another 35 minutes of Q&A that are also very much worth watching. (There is a gap of approximately ten seconds at around 38:25.)
Unfortunately, the last few minutes of the lecture, in which Professor Véliz discusses the importance of cultural self-confidence to the survival of English civilization in its current struggle with radical Islam, were not recorded. However, a complete audio recording and written transcript of his talk may eventually be made available.
You may need to raise the volume on your speakers to get best audio quality.