Idols's looooong goodbye

I'm watching the final show on tape, so right now am 2 hours behind everyone else. It's a bizarre start--the two of them in white, standing there staring at each other. Ryan claims it's the closest competition ever, which isn't true, given that Ruben and Clay both overloaded the phone lines and thus were in a statistically tie.

97.5 million votes came in, says Ryan. Smashing the old record by over 23 million. 56% to 44% he says. Ah, Micalah is back, in Kansas City with David Cook's crowd; she looks good. Some guy is with David Archuleta's crowd, they're all crazy--and very white.

They bring back the top 12, with the You Think You Can Dance crowd. Everyone's in white; the two Davids are nowhere to be seen so far. Very odd camera choices, no close ups. How much you wanna bet they hype the Idol summer tour at the end of this....

I'm glad the season's over, since it feels like it's been going on forever; but I also think it was definitely better than last year's, and the right two people are standing here at the end.

The two of them come out to sing Wings of the Eagle, it's okay. The crowd is totally going crazy, screaming the entire time. Cook looks a bit tight, Archuleta is just floating on air. There's an embedded commercial for some white guru movie, starring Mike Myers. The whole thing is dumb, he shows up to give them 'advice'. Cook starts cracking up when Myers tries to shave him; shows up live on stage, it's just idiotic.

The crowd will cheer anything, apparently. His little thing goes on too long, it's just idiotic. Syesha comes back, sings Waiting For You--whoah, she looks different, more grown up in the course of a week. Seal is her singing partner--why?! The whole thing is dumb, although Syesha seems to be having a great time. Maybe this is like Katie Holmes growing up to marry Tom Cruise? It's very disjointed and they totally don't mesh, like they didn't practice enough.

Jason Castro does Hallelujah for the third time; it's still good, just not great anymore. I guess they're going to let everyone perform in backwards order. Castro is actually really good, a lot of emotion; and he's relaxed now. Wonder what Josiah's doing now.

They do a montage of the Ford commercials, with some outtakes or something; it's relatively entertaining. Hmm, they're standing there, looks like they both get new Fords--for some reason some people in the audience stand up, Ryan teases Archuleta, makes sure he has his license.

Six women doing Donna Summer songs--man, this is so bad, they look ridiculous in red and it's super-cheesy. Then--wow, Donna is literally walked down the stairs by two assistants, like she couldn't do it on her own. She looks plastic and stiff; her voice isn't bad, but the whole thing is so pointless, like she must have paid Idol a ton, otherwise why would they ever pick her? There's some dancer who looks vaguely like Ryan, so that's funny to watch. Man, she's singing another song, this is going on FOREVER. She gives her mike to Syesha at some point, which is cool; Syesha is having the best time, it's fun to watch.

There are all sorts of vaguely famous people in the audience, too bad I don't know any of them. Whoah, they sneak in a short commercial break; Ryan says the next two left before their time, it's Carly Smithson and Michael Johns singing The Letter. She looks scary, it's like she got a hate note or something; I don't like this, they're just powering it out, muddying it up. A total mess, it's all shouty and just not pleasant to listen to.

Ah, the plug for the Idol tour. Jimmy Kimmel comes out, a bit odd given that he's ABC's man. 19 weeks of karaoke singing, says Kimmel; he makes fun of everyone, it's actually weird given that he's not a member of the family and this has been such a celebratory thing. There's a funny segment of Simon's putdowns put to music; hmm, nothing about Ryan. What a weird thing, this show really has no interior logic.

Top six guys, hey it's a good song with Johns rocking the start--Summer of '69. Castro lets down his part; but everyone else totally rocks, it's really good actually, this is the best group sing of the year.

Then the two Davids come out and they shift to an off-key Cook doing Heaven; Archuleta is really good, though. And then--Bryan Adams! He's like totally subdued and cleaned-up; this is such a weird show. Why these particular people?! It's a total mishmash. I guess in some ways it's just an extended commercial for Idol Tours. Adams is up there for way too long, it's just pointless.

We're getting a lot of show tonight, the segments are super long. Back, with Jordin Sparks. Yaaay; oh no, it's to shill the Idol experience at Walt Disney World. Oh well, fun seeing her. Cook does Sharp Dressed Man, fronting ZZ Top. This is actually awesome, hilarious seeing him among the long beards. His voice can carry it too. Wonder if these guys have their beards insured, it's such a part of their identity. Seems like it's a stripped down version of the song for his benefit; he must be living his dream right now though.

Back to Kansas City, people are cheering. Crosby, Stills and Nash's Graham Nash, doing Teach Your Children with Brooke White. Why didn't Castro get to sing with anyone? The two of thme are pretty good together, her voice fits the song. It's a good performance, the best of the duets so far, by far.

Back, some boy band, maybe the Jonas Brothers or something, who knows. It's like a junior high version of the Beatles/Partridge Family. The song is just unmelodic, their performing is amusing to watch but that's about it. Everything is so mannered, and yeah--they're super white.

Ryan's up on stage with some totally random old lady plucked from the audience, complete with her matching red purse. They show some of the worst people from the auditions round. Somehow it's worse watching this with a live audience, you feel bad laughing in unision. They show the I Am Your Brother guy, cool. Should've been the remix version, though; and... they bring him out on stage!

Awesome! He comes out in his full outfit, he sings his song--and they bring in cheerleaders and a marching band. This is great, by tomorrow this song is going to be in everyone's head.

Oh my gosh, it's the USC songbirds and marching band! Only the best--then Paula comes out and totally does her crazy dance in her low-cut gown, with Randy too, before off they go to commercial. Wow; they may as well go off the air now, they will never top this moment!

Apologize, performed by One Republic. This really is like a madcap variety show; someone should remix it with old Ed Sullivan clips. Archuleta comes out to sing with them, it's okay; his parts are kind of shoehorned in, whereas Brooke was totally organic with Nash. SLC is cheering for Archuleta, his grandparents are there too. Hmm, they do something cool, interview both grandparents, translate it into Spanish for his mother's father, then back to english--just one question/answer, but yeah, this country is changing.

Jordin Sparks, doing One Step At a Time. She looks great in gold; such high heels, looks like she's stalking across stage on her tiptoes. It's totally impressive, actually. I'm enjoying her performance; she has the utmost confidence; yo, Blake Lewis is in the house, singing along.

They digitally splice Jack Black, Ben Stiller and some other idiot into a Gladys Knight and the Pips performance--it's not that funny, it's interesting that they chose three white guys; pretty disrespectful, actually, given that she's literally not in on the joke. Her voice is great, too. The audience is pretty quiet throughout, this thing just goes on too long. Ah, the other guy is Robert Downey Jr.

Carrie Underwood next, doing Last Night. She looks like a million bucks; but in a very white trash kind of way, like it's a aspirational interpretation of glamour that doesn't quite get it right. I like her though, she is who she is and has totally made her way to the top. Man, she has on a short skirt. It's an interesting song, it's like rap country. She gets a rapturous ovation; now that's a star.

Top twelve, for the last time before the results, promises Ryan. Hey, a great song, by the women first, I Gotta Have Faith. That Glockson chick sounds horrid, the rest are pretty good. Then the guys come out, man did George Michaels pay up too, it's Father Figure; everyone's pretty good, especially Chikezie and David Cook. And then they all do Freedom. Wonder if there's gonna be a Prince moment this year.

And then, George Michaels of course comes out--yo, Idol, it's no longer the 80s! He's actually still got a good voice, singing Do They Think We Have Time. Hey, there are people in the audience getting emotional over this--it's by far the best guest performance of the night, his record company got their money's worth. The song is long, and he keeps doing the same type of hand gestures, but the audience is enraptured, and he's really putting his all into it. He gets a standing ovation from the judges, and many in the audience; and coincidentally he's going on tour. That was pretty cool, it might be the only Idol guest performance ever that gets remembered on its merits.

We're back, the two Davids are standing there, I guess we'll find out now. I really have no idea who's going to win; based on recent results it should be David Cook, based on last night David Archuleta. Randy says you're both winners; Paula says she's honored to be here, it's the beginning of something great for both of you; Simon says it wasn't quite so clear-cut as he thought last night, says he was almost disrespectful with Cook and apologizes, you're both triers, first time ever don't care who wins. It's a very nice moment, actually.

Hmm, some unknown vote management company, Telescope. So the envelope, the lights go down; this is pretty exciting. People are screaming, and the winner by 12 million votes is... David Cook. Wow! Everyone's going crazy, Cook looks very serious in clapping for Archuleta, Cook is covering up his face in emotion, it's a very great moment. He's totally crying, it's amazing. He's really a good guy, I'm glad he won.

He's just listening to the applause, his mom comes up, he says it's amazing, thank you. They hug, his brother comes up too, it's a great moment. Time of My Life, David sings us out with everyone else on stage too. Song's not bad, amazing that he's able to sing after all the emotion; he goes over and toussles Archuleta's hair, it's great. Past some scary looking bodyguards, out into the audience, he looks so happy.

This is what I wrote about David Cook the first time he auditioned:

A bunch of rockers next, not necessarily all from Omaha. David Cook, who physically and the way he holds himself reminds me a bit more of Blake Lewis than Chris Daughtry. Sings Living on a Prayer; he has a really interesting, different voice; rough, but his cadence is so deliberate. Simon says not bad, Randy says perform or something, Paula agrees. He could do really well.

Here's what I wrote about him after his Hello performance

David Cook, who apparently has had some guitar issues. Moment was forgetting a song as a kid. In black; hey, I like it, a slow, rock version of Lionel Ritchie's Hello--then speeds it up, it's amazing, it actually works.... I really like it; the song itself is great, his take on it--including the screamed I Love You!--is true to it. This might be my favorite guy performance of the season so far, down to the eye flutter at the end. Randy says he loved the emo take on a pop song, it could be a hit; Paula loves him every time, calls it fabulous; Simon calls it very brave, and says he loved it.

And here is after he did Billie Jean

David Cook, born in 1982. Her mom seems cool, talks about his guitar. Oh gosh, doing Billie Jean... my gosh, he's nothing if not creative. Slows it waaaaay down, turns it into almost a ballad, emo. You know he's gonna rip into it in a sec, there's tension--it's actually quite good, he's letting it unspool as a story. Almost unrecognizable; her comes the chorus, it's good, he can really sing. Man, totally building the tension, and... interesting, he doesn't wail, just builds it louder and stronger. This is really, really good--this could totally be on the radio. The girls are screaming. Wow. Randy says you're the most original and bold contestant we've ever had, you might be the one to win the whole lot, blazing, molten hot. Paula says she's blown away, you're so smart and brave, right to the edge--you can win this. Simon says that was brave, it was amazing.

So a worthy winner; he had two of the five most memorable performances of the season, and really grew throughout the competition. Curious to see what he does from here on out--and now, freedom on Tuesday and Wednesday nights!

David vs. David

It's the big night.... Am blogging live for the final two of their three songs.

Oh gosh, they start and bring in that idiot boxing announced, Jim Lampley from HBO, the them is going to be a three-round boxing match. Wow, they actually have them coming out in boxing robes; David Cook looks ok, David Archuleta looks like he's in his bathrobe.

Ryan must be thrilled FOX decided he's not good enough to open the big show. It's the big theater, Ryan looks like he's got extra makeup on. Big David and Little David Ryan calls them; Lampley opens the video part, this is really dumb. The weird thing--does FOX even carry boxing?! 7,000 people says Ryan; training will be key claims Ryan--so Clive Davis and Andrew Lloyd Webber are going to advise them.

Dare that little bit more and you'll win, says Webber. Davis thinks this will probably be the most-watched performance competition in history. Okay... I doubt the ratings will hit last year's, or the one before. Not to mention Eurovision.

Archuleta won the coin toss, will go second; smart. Ryan is just peppering them with questions, Cook says he has a tall order trying to keep up with this kid. Every cliche is trotted out by Randy; hmm, they must be contractually obligated to mention the Nokia theater, Randy says it, then Paula too. Simon says you have to hate your opponent, to laughter. Ryan asks Archuleta if he has anything to say to Cook, he says he's awesome; Cook says Archuleta has been consistently one of the nicest people.

Ahh, Cook after the break; so they learned from last week. Really, Ryan is wearing a ton of makeup; Clive chose I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for Cook; Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me for Archuleta. Cook starts out well, I like how he bends the lyrics, it's cool; he's not changing too much, which is good. Then rocks it in the second half, still very in control, goes into the audience; I like it, not electric or anything but well done. Randy says not bad; Paula says you've arrived, in great voice; Simon says you looked tense and emotional, calls it phenomenal.

David Archuleta, Clive picked well for him too I think. He's a bit nervous, the song isn't just soaring; ah, but then the chorus... wow, he really just explodes into it, high energy, voice is good. Man, he's really into it, the kid's in it to win it tonight; it's infectious as he bobs up and down on stage--his voice really isn't strong enough yet to really wow on this song, but it's really good. Audience is totally into it; Randy oddly talks right over them, Simon is saying let them cheer, Randy says one of the best performances of the year, flawless and unbelievably hot; Paula says her heart is still pounding, chills, David looks like he's going to cry; Simon says easy to get overexcited, last week you were okay, tonight was arguably the best you've done so far, Archuleta looks stunned, Simon says you won round one.

Oh no, next is their choice... it's all so over the top, the video intro is just dumb (and poorly lit).

Dream Big, David Cook from the song competition; song's not great, the lyrics fit but it's just okay, at best. He totally seems like a star, and the song has good energy; but it just sounds like something you'd have on in the background as you're jogging. Crowd likes it; Randy says song was just okay, but the voice was strong; Paula says we're all mesmerized, made an unknown song ours; Simon says bit of a lightweight, end was ok, not a winning moment. The arena's totally dark, 6.5 says Simon.

Ooooh, four hours to vote tonight. 'Archy' after the break says Ryan. David Archuleta doing In This Moment; both of these songs are just melds of popular ones--it's okay, nothing memorable. Good choice for his voice, but there's only so much you can do with a not-great song. Randy says not a great song, but sung well; Paula says another heartfelt performance, on fire tonight; I think Archuleta's trailing in the vote totals so all the judges are going to pump him up tonight. Simon says you win round 2 as well, such an egotistical song though.

One song left says Ryan. Cook's doing The World I Know, which he says he's never sung before. Archuleta's doing Imagine, again. I really hate the crazy videos; you don't have to overhype something that's truly good. Cook seems out of it tonight, like it's not just flowing out; can't understand his lyrics, song's not that great. He's emotional when he finishes, the crowd cheers, Randy says a nice sensitive side, you can make this kind of record; Paula stands up for him; Simon says you are one of the nicest, most sincere contestants ever, beautiful song but the wrong song choice tonight, you should've sung Billy Jean or Hello. He says he didn't want to do something he's already done, the whole thing's been a progression. Yeah, but sometimes you go back to build upon it--he has a lot of integrity, I wonder if it's cost him the crown.

Archleta's good on Imagine; it's something that's going to motivate his peeps to get out and vote a billion times, I think because he was smarter about it he'll win. It's not great, but good and very representative. Randy says it's great it's the two of them, you were so good tonight, exactly what this show's about, you're the best this year; Paula says I'm speechless, you were stunning, as the audience applauds again; Simon says this show is about finding a star, tonight's been one of the great finals, but Archuleta came out tonight to win, and it was a knockout.

Ruben Studdard gets trotted out to sing us out; it's okay. They show highlights from the season behind him... man, and what a long journey it's been. One more night, and then we're free!

Oregon-bama

Wow.

The New York Times: A crowd estimated at 75,000 gathered on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland on Sunday to see Barack Obama.

AP photos by Greg Wahl-Stephens and Chris Carlson

Dr. Who?

Shaila Dewan sets out in the New York Times to examine the controversy over a new MLK sculpture proposed for the national mall in Washington D.C. in Larger Than Life, More to Fight Over . But a startling line detracts from an otherwise interesting, well-reported piece:

In a flourish that the commission secretary now says he regrets, the letter also said that the statue made Dr. King look “confrontational.”

From the Washington Monument on, no memorial has been erected on the Mall without a bruising debate. But there is something about Dr. King that makes the simple act of commemoration a thicket of controversy.

Yeah, I wonder why it is that commemorating Dr. King comes with some much controversy.

Maybe we should ask John McCain.

Starving children

Every so often you read a statistic that just makes you say Wow!

New York Times, Andrew Martin, One Country’s Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal : As it turns out, Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study — and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American.

Grocery stores discard products because of spoilage or minor cosmetic blemishes. Restaurants throw away what they don’t use. And consumers toss out everything from bananas that have turned brown to last week’s Chinese leftovers. In 1997, in one of the few studies of food waste, the Department of Agriculture estimated that two years before, 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food in the United States was never eaten. Fresh produce, milk, grain products and sweeteners made up two-thirds of the waste. An update is under way.

The study didn’t account for the explosion of ready-to-eat foods now available at supermarkets, from rotisserie chickens to sandwiches and soups. What do you think happens to that potato salad and meatloaf at the end of the day?

A more recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each year, which is about 12 percent of the total waste stream. All but about 2 percent of that food waste ends up in landfills; by comparison, 62 percent of yard waste is composted.

Our world

There's a very interesting New York Times article by Alexei Barrionuevo, Whose Rain Forest Is This, Anyway? :

For as long as most can remember, Brazil has gazed nervously at maps of the vast, mostly uninhabited territory of the Amazon rain forest.

In the 1960s and ’70s, generals here saw the colonization of the Brazilian Amazon, which is half the size of Europe, as a national security priority. Ocupar para não entregar — “occupy it to avoid surrendering it” — was the slogan of the day. Highways were built, and Brazilians were offered incentives to conquer the land in the Amazon and transform it in the name of development.

There was more behind the nervousness than idle conspiracy theory. Even then, such a unique and vast repository of riches stirred imaginations worldwide. Herman Kahn, the military strategist and futurist, pushed the idea of establishing a freshwater lake in the Amazon to transform the area into a center of agricultural production.

Now, with the world focusing on the promises of biodiversity and the perils of global warming, a chorus of international leaders have ever more openly declared the Amazon part of a patrimony far larger than that of the nations that share its territory. “Contrary to what Brazilians think, the Amazon is not their property, it belongs to all of us,” Al Gore, then a senator, said in 1989.

Ah, a world of 'us', excluding 'them', the Brazilians.

I can extrapolate a future where Western countries seize land in the Third World, citing the worldwide environmental importance as an overriding factor over national sovereignty.

The Western countries would, of course, be immune from any such seizures themselves, since most of their environmental legacies have already been consumed to feed their power.

Code pink

Kate Zernike set out to write a piece about when a woman might be elected president; I wish she had spent more time trying to write a decent article about when a woman might be elected president.

From tone to facts, the entire piece, She Just Might Be President Someday, is riddled with the stereotypical starry-eyed tone women running for president have to overcome.

It's more cheerleader than quarterback:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton may or may not become the first female president of the United States, but if fate and voters deny her the role, another woman will surely see if the mantle fits.

Deny her the role? As if it was rightfully hers, and those meanies aren't giving it to her because she's a woman?

Caveats abound: as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, emphasized last week, this thing is not over. And these predictions may prove as false as any by the time the first woman takes the oath of office — whether in 7 months or 9 years or 9.

Is Zernike serious? She goes out of her way to write 'caveats abound' about Clinton not winning the presidency this year? Really? I don't think it's a statement that needs to be qualified, unless you live in Hillaryland.

With all that said, there are few obvious candidates, particularly among Republicans, perhaps because there are about twice as many Democrats among women in elective office nationwide. Sarah Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, is on many lists — she’s known as a reformer as well as for riding a motorcycle and referring to her husband as the “first dude.” On the Democratic side, the names that come up most seem to be Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Obama supporters.

Asked to name a potential first woman as president, though, even the shrewdest political strategists said they couldn’t think of anyone. Most people disqualified their prospects as soon as they identified them — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for example — for one reason or another.

Wait, are there obvious candidates, or not? She lists some, then says even the smartest analysts couldn't think of any. So are these names coming from dumb non-experts? Or herself? Or what?

Mrs. Clinton has won 17 primaries. She has soundly defeated the assumption that a woman could not raise money, or that women would not donate (they make up about half of her contributors).

Emily's List has been around for decades, but it was Clinton who put to rest the notion that women can't raise money? If that notion still exits, how would anyone explain all the high-profile female politicians, including both senators from the nation's most expensive media state?

But almost anybody — and particularly women — will discount the idea of a woman as dark horse.

“No woman with Obama’s résumé could run,” said Dee Dee Myers, the first woman to be White House press secretary, under Bill Clinton, and the author of “Why Women Should Rule the World.” “No woman could have gotten out of the gate.”

Women are still held to a double-standard, and they tend to buy into it themselves.

Yeah, attractive, amazingly intelligent woman with an unbelievably charismatic speaking style and superb organizational skills are routinely dismissed by our society... sheesh.

Identify a female politician with Obama's astonishing traits first, before saying that person couldn't make it with his resume.

Mrs. Clinton easily cleared the bar with many voters on her ability to be commander in chief, making it easier for people to see a woman in that role. Still, most people assume that the burden will fall on women to prove toughness — of a certain kind.

Mrs. Clinton seemed to have the most success in the last months, fighting like a mama bear for her cubs.

If voters thought Clinton really was fighting for her cubs rather than herself, this race wouldn't be over. And she's had the most success in the last months? Not back when she had the delegate lead?

On other wish lists is Maria Shriver, with the Kennedy allure, a strong following among women, and a husband who is said to eye the White House but can’t run because he was not born in this country.

And of course, some Democrats dream of Chelsea Clinton, who has revealed herself to have her father’s ease and her mother’s discipline.

Who is Zernike talking to? Who out there is pining for celebrity reporter Maria Shriver to be president?

And Chelsea Clinton? Someone who refuses to answer large blocks of questions when she's out there rah-rahing it up for her mom?

But for many women, whether or not they support Mrs. Clinton, the long primary campaign has left them with a question: why would any woman run?

Many feel dispirited by what they see as bias against Mrs. Clinton in the media — the “Fatal Attraction” comparisons and locker-room chortling on television panels.

“Who would dare to run?” said Karen O’Connor, the director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University. “The media is set up against you, and if you have the money problem to begin with, why would anyone put their families through this, why would anyone put themselves through this?”

For this reason, she said, she doesn’t expect a serious contender anytime soon. “I think it’s going to be generations.”

It's ultimately this type of language that makes sexist voters question whether a woman can be president.

'Dare to run'?! Come on, the type of women who otherwise would want to be president are going to not run because they're afraid of the campaigning?

Give me a break--as if all the other things that come with the presidency pale in comparison to people being mean to you when you're running.

Zernike's piece, which in tone and logic reads like it belongs in some cheery woman's magazine, is a disservice to its cause. It's almost as if in printing such a weak sister piece the Times signals it isn't taking the subject seriously.

Which is a shame, since it's a topic that certainly merits sober discussion.

Going backwards

Philip Taubman has an ill-thought-out piece in the Times, When the Kremlin Tried a Little Openness:

A dash of openness can be a dangerous thing in an autocratic state.

Mikhail Gorbachev discovered this two decades ago when his campaign to inject some daylight into Soviet society doubled back on him like a heat-seeking missile.

Now China’s leaders are playing with the same volatile political chemistry as they give their own citizens and the world an unexpectedly vivid look at the earthquake devastation in the nation’s southwest regions.

China has had the fastest-growing economy in the world for the past decade; comparing that to the moribund Soviet economy of the 80s is weird at best, stupid at worst.

It's fashionable to bash China, but at least pick the right sticks.

Glossing over the obvious

The omnipresent Sewell Chan writes Immigrants’ Children Find Better Lives, Study Shows off a panel presentation by the study's authors he moderated, that raises a question:

A decade-long study of adult children of immigrants to the New York region has concluded that they are rapidly entering the mainstream and doing better than their parents in terms of education and earnings — even outperforming native-born Americans in many cases. ...

It focused on five groups: Dominicans, Chinese, Russian Jews, South Americans (consisting of Colombians, Ecuadoreans and Peruvians) and West Indians, defined as immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean, including Belize and Guyana. The researchers also interviewed native-born whites, blacks and Puerto Ricans (those born on the mainland) in the New York area for comparison purposes. ...

The authors acknowledged that it was hard in some cases to explain why some of the five groups studied appeared to do better than others. The relative success of Russian Jews seemed clear: They immigrated with high levels of education, benefited from government programs because they came as refugees and received aid from established Jewish organizations.

The authors said it was more difficult to explain why “Chinese youngsters have achieved the greatest educational and economic success relative to their parents’ often humble origins.” The Chinese have a fairly cohesive community with “a high degree of social connection between its better- and worse-off members,” the book argued, while ethnic newspapers, churches and media served as a link between middle- and working-class immigrants and helped share “cultural capital,” like information on how to get into the city’s best schools.

Finally, Chinese parents were less likely to divorce, and they encouraged their children to put off marriage and children until their education was completed.

Sure, those are all reasons--wonder why the famously productive Chan doesn't also note that maybe the Chinese Americans kids just worked harder, too.

They've got the time, after all, as Dylan Loeb McClain's article, Brooklyn Public School Is a Big Winner at National Championships alludes to:

At the elementary school national championships in Pittsburgh last weekend, public schools won many of the top prizes. ...

Among the public schools that did well was Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn. For the second year, the school won the section for players in kindergarten through the sixth grade. ...

Elizabeth Vicary is the school’s chess coach. She worked for Chess-in-the-Schools but is now on staff at I.S. 318, where she teaches English and chess.

“I am not sure that this will come across the way I mean it,” Vicary said, “but there are some advantages to teaching kids who don’t have a lot of opportunities in their lives. They are not also going to soccer games.”

Well

Stating the obvious

Jan Hoffman's article in the Times about suburban white people being laid-off, The Language of Loss for the Jobless , ends with a bizarre sequence of sentences that make me wonder if her reporter's notes got mistakenly posted on the website.

A PUBLIC tennis court in the suburbs reverberates with gruff thwacks, the players almost all middle-aged men and women. It is 10 a.m., on a Wednesday. “How’s it going?” “Tough.” “Yeah.”

Don’t ask? Ask? How? Three monosyllabic words — “How are you?” — take on a spectrum of inflections. Breezy (“How are ya’!”). Earnest (“How are you?” — sotto voce). Funereal (“How are you?”). And, more recently, they translate as polite code for, “Lose your job yet?”

Patty Nigro, a hairstylist in West Caldwell, N.J., whose salon chair can double as a therapist’s couch, says that these days, she doesn’t ask. “It’s a sad, sour time for people, and it’s a touchy subject,” Mrs. Nigro said. The appointment is their opportunity “to escape their worries, to have a treat.”

The hair salon as economic indicator: “The haircuts and hair color, those are the necessities because they’re looking for work,” Mrs. Nigro continued. “But all the extra feel-good things about yourself — the massages, the facials — those are being cut.”

Experts suggest that people take a gentle, open-ended approach: “ ‘Well, how are you doing, what’s new with you,’ ” recommended Ms. Baber, “Not, ‘Why are you here in the middle of the afternoon, are you taking the day off?’ ”

The replies can deflect or invite pity parties, create entree for further questions, provide cover.

The new euphemisms: “They freed me up for my future!” “I got a great severance package.” “I’m between successes!” “We’ve been a two-career family for so long that we decided one of us should stay home with the kids.” “I’ve decided to take my career in a different direction.” “I got tired of the commute so I’m working out of the house.”

Many people remain uncertain about whether a call intended to express concern will be interpreted as condescending or intrusive. But an investment banker from Manhattan who has seen many colleagues laid off recently recommended erring on the side of being helpful:

“Call! Say: ‘Hey, I have no idea what you’re going through or what you need, but I’d love to have coffee with you. Maybe there are a couple of introductions I can make,’ ” said the banker, Joshua Schwartz. “Even if you can’t be helpful or they don’t take your offer, it’s the right thing to do.”

Five colons within nine paragraphs?!

Whatever happened to integrating your quotes in with the story?

Europe, no longer frozen in time

There's so much dreary jingoistic writing in the Times travel section that the exceptions leap out at you. Here's Dan Barry, whose thoughtful article is only slightly undermined by its American-centric headline, Does the ‘Real’ Ireland Still Exist? .

It's one of the few articles in the Times as a whole that acknowledges our antiquated notions of what a Frenchman looks like, what makes a German dish, who lives in an Irish city, only works if you ignore the impact of economic and demographic changes over the last few decades.

(Now if only the Times could start publishing articles like this about non-Western countries!)

Yes, you can find a thatched cottage here and there, if you try. Yes, you may even encounter a white clot of sheep blocking your rented car’s path, raising from musty memory some postcard caption about Irish Rush Hour. But to wander about, looking to bag with a digital camera some approximation of a time-faded Irish postcard, is to miss the complexities of a country that is thoroughly enjoying its wealth and adapting to its European Union membership while at the same time trying to preserve its dreamlike landscape and proud cultural heritage.

You may indeed hear a young Irish woman suddenly break into song in Kinvara. But you may also walk around the corner and be served dinner by a young man with an Eastern European accent instead of a brogue. Travel 10 miles up the road to Gort and you might wade into a celebration of Brazilian culture, staged by a transplanted community that is now an integral part of that old market town.

There you have it: delightful, post-millennial Ireland. ...

A change in infrastructure is one thing; a change in culture is quite another. And nowhere is this change more strongly felt than in Gort, about 40 miles northeast of the cliffs and just a dozen miles from Kinvara. My mother grew up on a farm near there, and I’ve been visiting Gort since the 1970s. I have watched it gradually grow from an aged and insular town to a bedroom community for Galway City, some 20 miles away. Farms I remember are now Levittown-like subdivisions.

The real change, though, is in Gort’s new and sizable Brazilian community, attracted in part by job opportunities at a local meat-processing plant. The impact has been extraordinary: Brazilian music nights in one of the pubs, Brazilian necessities — from maracuja to mandioca — in the shops, and a Sunday Mass said in Portuguese. There has been the usual awkwardness in this marriage of two distinct cultures, but for the most part the newcomers have been warmly accepted; for example, when carbon monoxide from a faulty oil burner killed two Brazilian men nearly three years ago, townspeople banded together to raise money to help the families.

And every June, Gort serves as host to a traditional Brazilian festival called the Quadrilha. The town center comes alive with folk dances and passionate sambas that could never be confused with an Irish step dance, while the air fills with the aroma of Brazilian cuisine that could never be confused with brown bread and tea.

I do wish Barry had made some acknowledgement that the 'Brazilians' are in many cases by birth now Irish; and I'm sure the 'usual awkwardness' glosses over some pretty ugly patterns; but at least he's trying.

James Cuno, master of your universe

Jori Finkel's portrait of the Art Institute of Chicago's director, A Man Who Loves Big Museums, starts out with one of those telling anecdotes journalists are so fond of:

WHEN James Cuno stepped into his job as director and president of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, employees were a touch nervous. The departing director, James Wood, had begun the most ambitious expansion in the museum’s history. But ground had not yet been broken. And although he had raised $120 million, at least twice that would be needed.

It was a pivotal time, and after 24 years at the museum Mr. Wood was handing the reins to a man who had led the Courtauld Institute in London for less than 24 months.

Then late one afternoon, one employee after another caught sight of Mr. Cuno moving into his office — by himself. Although the museum has a staff of nearly 600, he was carting and carrying stacks of books on his own. It was an early sign that Mr. Cuno, who goes by Jim and not James, would be a down-to-earth, hands-on leader, one with a deep commitment to recent art-historical scholarship.

“I’m a bit compulsive about my library — the way it’s organized, which is rather intuitive,” said Mr. Cuno, 57. “And physically putting the books away helps me to remember where they are.”

So far, so good. But then there's this startling sequence:

This month he can add a new title of his own to those shelves: “Who Owns Antiquity?,” published by Princeton University Press. While it is far from his first book (he has written about Jasper Johns and Joseph Beuys, among other artists), it is his first dedicated to the political minefield of cultural patrimony. A condemnation of cultural property laws that restrict the international trade in antiquities, the book doubles as a celebration of the world’s great border-crossing encyclopedic museums, among them the Art Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. ...

Mr. Cuno contends that “the accident of geography” should not give nations exclusive claims on archaeological material that happens to be found within their borders. He asserts that a country’s cultural patrimony policies reflect its political or diplomatic agenda more than a commitment to preserving culture. And he argues for the revival of partage, a practice in which museums or universities aid the excavation of an archaeological site in another country in exchange for some of the artifacts.

“People will assume my argument in favor of partage is a thinly disguised argument for imperialism,” he said. “But partage helped to create not just the university museums and encyclopedic museums in this country, but also museums locally on site — like the national museums of Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Yeah, an accident of geography! As if artists and craftsmen are somehow free agents, who pop up fully-formed in cultures, their creations unsullied by all that surrounds and nurtures them, nothing taken therefore nothing owed.

It's really an insane argument; Cuno's essentially arguing hey, if there's a group that's strong today--Western collectors and curators--there's no problem if they strip what they want from people who at this point in time can't outbid or defend their heritage.

That this universal class of masters of the universe should of course take precedence over the 'accidental' possesors of art.

And hey, after all, it's not like the rich are taking everything--they're leaving behind what they don't want in museums for the natives!

Sheesh.... It makes you reinterpret the opening anecdote.

Maybe the reason Cuno carried his own books in was to keep someone from coming along and taking them.

Times photo by Peter Wynn Thompson

Missing the face in the mirror

There's an interesting piece in the Times about the English-language cable channel available in the U.S. financed by the Russian government, Russia Today-- A Voice of Mother Russia, in English .

The piece delves pretty deeply into the channel, but pays scant attention to the premise behind it and the other similar channels it names--that Americans get such a xenophobic version of what's going on in other countries that those countries need to pay for their own news channels here to 'balance' all the toxic coverage.

Yeah, of course it's not good to have a channel paid for by the government trying to 'cover' itself--but at least it's obvious what's going on there.

I'd say what's worse is that most Americans are oblivious to how skewed the coverage in American media can be. If someone doesn't even know they have a problem, it does make it tempting to smack them upside the head to try and open their eyes.

Stephen Heyman: But several of Russia Today’s journalists said they were earnestly trying to tell Russia’s story. “No one is telling me what to say,” said Peter Lavelle, the effusive host of “In Context.” Nevertheless, he said, the channel does take certain views. “Part of our mission is public relations,” he added.

Some of the channel’s specials seek to expose and correct Western biases about Russia. An episode of “Cracking the Myths” about Russia’s economy opens with Jay Leno-style street interviews with Americans, who guess that most Russians subsist on penny-a-day incomes or wait in line for hours to get bread (Watch the Video). The show then offers scenes of Russian prosperity, like a shopping mall brimming with members of the expanding middle class.

Mr. [Andrei] Richter [the director of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute and a journalism professor at Moscow State University] said that this tendency to shape opinions reveals one of the channel’s flaws. “The idea of Russia Today is that our country is in a very hostile media environment,” he said. “The idea is very rotten because if you believe you’re in a hostile environment, you want to persuade others that what they think is not true.”

The concept of state-sponsored news aimed to viewers abroad is not new. During the cold war Western-financed radio stations like Voice of America, which began broadcasting in Russian in 1947, existed in part to counter Soviet spin. Russia Today has inverted the recipe, broadcasting in English from Russia in the hopes of improving Russia’s increasingly ominous image in the West. And it is but the first in what has become a veritable parade of state-financed anglophone news channels.

Since Russia Today’s debut Iran (Press TV), China (CCTV-9), France (France 24) and Qatar (Al Jazeera English) have created their own English news networks. Al Jazeera’s English spinoff is clearly the leader of this pack, drawing on the credibility of its Arabic-language counterpart and the deep pockets of the emir of Qatar.

Ben O’Loughlin, an international relations professor at the University of London’s Royal Holloway campus, studies the emergence of state-financed news channels jockeying to have a voice in what he calls “the anglosphere.”

“The journalists at Russia Today probably don’t see themselves as political pawns,” Mr. O’Loughlin said. “They might say their goal isn’t objectivity, it’s balance — having both sides. If we’re interested in a pluralistic global media, then in many respects this could be a good thing, but that’s very provisional.”

For at least one viewer the question of the channel’s independence is irrelevant. Alexandr Polin, a Manhattan event planner who left St. Petersburg in 1991, said he considered it propaganda, but not in the Soviet style. “I watched a documentary yesterday about AIDS,” he said. “In Soviet times they would never say that people were sick somewhere.”

Mr. Polin said that Western news coverage often eclipsed the good things happening back home: “It’s not only Mafia, Red Square, vodka and prostitutes.”

Groping for the dragon

So the NYTimes has launched a new blog, Rings, which "covers the 2008 Beijing Games from every angle -- the politics, the arts, the culture, the competition."

Hmm, let's see--so far none of the 14 points are from an Asian or Asian American, and contributor George Vescey's recommended 4 books to read to understand China are all written by Western journalists.

Wonder if they know the Chinese proverb, about the blind men and the elephant.

Can Syesha stop David vs. David?

They're playing games with the time, as Idol starts at an odd 8:30 p.m. EST. Ryan says it's the closest race this show has ever seen... ok. There are no facts on this show anymore, only hype.

All are in various aspects of black; one of my favorite shows, actually, where the judges pick, the producers, and the contestants. Syesh's in glittery gold, really stands out among all the black. "Good luck to you guys, and girl" says Ryan.

David Archuleta's mayor in Utah, with a crazy mustache; Billy Joel's So It Goes, chosen by Paula. She wants him to showcase his vocals, and his high level of difficulty. I'm not sure about this, it's kind of a tricky song to appreciate. Wow, soars at the start, a capella; hmmm, maybe Paula was right. Audience is quiet; I'm thinking Fields of Gold would've worked even better; but this is a pretty good choice. No shrieking from the fans until the end, and its extreme close-up; then they go nuts, at least in the front row--a tough song to get into. Randy says Paula chose a dope song, you're in the zone; Paula calls it pure and stunning, says he was a storyteller; Simon says no surprises, very good but not outstanding.

Back, Randy/Simon mess with Ryan, mocking his pitchman role along with Paula; Syesha's in Tampa, Randy picks Alicia Keyes' If I Ain't Got You, who she loves. He says she could make a great record like this. I think it's okay; the song isn't great, start is hard to get into. Picks up in the chorus a bit, and she sings it well, I'm just not that into the song. Not a great pick; Randy says she did an amazing job, happy that you're peaking at the right time; Paula says hard to do a song so tied to an artist, you look stunning; Simon says you sang it well, wish Randy had picked something not so tied to someone but not bad. She tells Ryan she's finally over her nerves and comfortable, does this weird "be my self, you know" line.

David Cook in Kansas City on the local FOX affiliate, Simon picks First Time Ever I Saw Your Face--wow, now that's an interesting pick, the anchors are surprised by a Roberta Flack song. He says it's one of the great songs of all time, wanted him to do something original off it, tough song but you can do it. Wow, Ryan banters with the judges right next to David until a second before he sings; he takes command right away, it's his own version, plain and unspooling. Man, I really wish he had more of a cushion, but this is pretty mesmerizing. It's the closest anyone's come this round to a Somewhere Over the Rainbow moment, a great pick. Again, it could've been even better if Ryan hadn't been talking right until it started, as it is the audience loves it. Randy wanted something less predictable, more rocking, but liked it; Paula says great job; Simon says one of your best performances to date, round one goes to Cook and Cowell. Everyone's in a great mood tonight, maybe because all three are legitimately up there.

Archuleta's second song is his pick, not sure why this song isn't last. With You, by Chris Brown, hasn't done it for a while and worth a shot, says it was hard to learn. Ryan says get ready to sing, confuses David a bit, waits until he's in position, then Ryan kicks it to him. I guess they learned from the Cook debacle. It's a fun song, definitely contemporary song; lots of screaming. Not my thing, but it seems to go well for him. He seems to be swallowing his words, good passion but I don't know, just doesn't do anything for me; then again, teen hearthrobs aren't aiming for me. Randy says something new and young, but not the right song; Paula says actually perfect for you, another part of you, just don't extend the phrases; Simon says nice shot, but song's too big for you, not really you, awkward with the dancing and all.

Syesha up, doing Peggy Lee's Fever. Hmmm... she likes the vibe, wants to use the chair, work it a little bit. Her personality is really starting to come out, she's definitely not normal. Vamps it up, playacting definitely is her thing; the lighting is horrible on her face, she's in shadows. Another case where the song isn't great; I think Syesha's happy to be where she is, this wasn't a go for it song, it was a celebratory choice, nothing memorable. Randy says interesting song choice, sung well; Paula surprised by the choice, not sure it shows who you are as an artist; Simon says you'll regret this choice tomorrow, you had a choice to show your contemporary side, instead it was a lame cabaret performance.

David Cook's choice, I'm expecting something good. Doing Switchfoot's Dare You to Move, which I've never even heard of, says the lyrics wrap up his experience. Oh oh, those things are never any good, nobody's listening hard for the message! Ryan gives him time to walk across stage, does a quick promo as David sprints, then he's off. Oh god, it's his usual emo indulgent choice, spools it out slow at the start; he's like half cool, half dork; kicks it up in the second half, when it becomes pretty enjoyable. He's like a step behind Blake Lewis and Chris Daughtry, doesn't always quite connect. Randy says not your best, a little pitchy baby; Paula says hard to chop a song down, ran out of time; Simon says it was fine, not the best melodic song, all three of you guys were okay.

Archuleta's producers choice, which they get right to after Cook, is Longer, it's ridiculous--totally syrupy and karaoke and just so irrelevant to today's audience. It's like they were kicking around ideas, wouldn't it be cute if he sang this.... The lyrics are just silly, I am in love with you; ugh. Randy says another interesting song choice, Paula says lovely, Simon says bad choice by the producers, absolutely horrible, so gooey, like something you'd chose for a 90-year-old; but I think you'll be in the finals. I have no idea why anybody would choose that song for Archuleta, it's like they're trying to sabotage him.

Syesha's last chance says Ryan, doing Hit Me Up with a lot of attitude, fun, runs; hmm, this is actually a decent choice, she's showing off her range, gets the crowd into it. Dances well too; she looks like a star, like a low-level version of Beyonce. Randy says not bad, just okay; Paula goes off on some tangent, did the song well, not your type of song, maybe not good enough to get into the finals; Simon says better than the second song, your best moment was last week, nothing has topped it and no big moment.

David Cook closes it out, still waiting for something great tonight. Ryan's in a crowd of plastic people, really, where do they find these audience members. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing; eh, it's okay; he milks it for everything it's worth, the song just isn't very good, takes forever to build to his screaming moments. The crowd loves it, for some reason; Randy says loved the song, performance just okay, very predictable; Paula loves it, songwriter's in the audience, Paula says see ya in the finals, that's what I predict; Simon says you win the night.

Really, it's sad this is the final three; Cook's first song was the best of the night by a long shot, and even that wasn't amazing. Oh well; maybe something crazy will happen next week.

David Cook, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
David Archuleta, So It Goes
Syesha Mercado, Hit Me Up
David Cook, Dare You to Move
David Cook, Don't Want to Miss a Thing
David Archuleta, With You
Syesha Mercado, Fever
Syesha Mercado, If I Ain't Got You

Idol tries to rock

With Obama about to knock Clinton out of the race for president, Ryan tells us tonight we must vote.

Ah, David, David, Syesha or Jason... it seems like this season's gone on forever. I can't imagine it being 3 guys at the end, so I'm assuming this is it for Jason. They're singing songs from the Rock Hall of Fame, or something weird like that.

It's essentially an extended commercial for the museum; at least David Cook's happy. He kicks things off, doing Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran. Not a great choice I don't think, but he can probably make it good. He looks like a star, leather jacket and cool hair and all. Song really isn't that strong, he makes it seem like an event, but it's just okay for me. Randy says it's okay, Paula likes his overall growth, Simon says not bad, a bit copycat but okay.

Syesha chats with Ryan about the tour, and meeting all her fans. She's doing Proud Mary--jeez, why? Oh well, at least we know it'll be a good song. She's totally got the attitude down pat, though; gotta risk big at this point, I guess. Her interpretation is very different than Tina's rough style; it really isn't memorable, just not bad. Because it's an intrinsically good song, it's fun to listen to, but she's just okay. Randy says you're in the zone, nice going, have been surging lately; Paula says the same, Simon says just a bad, shrieky impersonation. Randy says afterwards let's see, he's from England I'm from Louisiana--we're in differnt places.

Jason Castro next, he's singing one of the rare songs he knows, I Shot the Sheriff. He's doing this fake reggae Bob Marley thing, I don't like it, his voice is thin. Just no real flow, his tone is totally gone. Randy says that was bad, nothing special, gotta wow us, not good. Paula says you performed well, but wasn't crazy about it. Simon calls it utterly atrocious, you messed it up, like a first-round audition massacre, I don't know what you're thinking.

David Archuleta, doing Stand By Me. Should be a great fit for his tone. He speeds it up a bit, it's actually good. Like my favorite song by anyone in weeks. It's compelling, personal, smooth. Even if he closes his eyes. Very heartfelt, though, the crowd goes nuts. Randy really likes it, enthuses about how hot it was; Paula says you really delivered; Simon says not tough competition after Jason, struggled a bit at the end, but the best performance so far. Ryan says you always look like you're out of breath, he says the judges faces scare me, I don't know what they're going to say. The shrieks are deafening; he was good, though.

David Cook next, this is already way better than his first effort, doing the Who's Teenage Wasteland. Slow, powerful, totally in control, kicks it up in the second half of course. Could be a big seller on the radio, vintage Cook. Randy says that's more like it, Paula wants more and is humbled watching his soul, Simon says welcome back.

Syesha doing A Change is Going to Come, really good from the opening notes. Hmm, getting a bit weaker, tentative rather than definitive. Better on the drawn out notes, very strong emotion; she's too weak on the soft parts though, like too smooth or something. Big finish though; a really interesting performance, she showed what she's capable of, even if she didn't entirely deliver. Randy says I didn't love it as much as the first, didn't like the arrangments, messed with it too much; Paula just stands up and applauds, liked the vocals, welcome to your dream, as Syesha cries; Simon says he has to be fair, agrees with Paula. Simon says Randy totally wrong about that, you sang that really well. Syesha is just crying, tears all over her eyes, says she found out so much about the song and the civil rights movement, meant a lot to me, I feel like I've changed a lot. Ryan says Randy, thanks for the buzz kill, Simon keeps saying you've made Syesha cry.

Jason Castro; jeez, poor guy, gotta follow this. Doing Mr. Tambourine Man though, a great song. Great pick, fits his vocal style and the way he looks; ooh, a killer--forgets the lyrics. His run on Idol is over. It's a tricky song unless you really get the lyrics, poor Jason. Randy says what do you think, he says well I lost some lines, Randy says not sure what's going on; Paula says you've got your niche, still like you; Simon says I'd pack your suitcase.

Archuleta doing Love Me Tender, a good pick for him, says he hasn't sung a romantic love song on the big stage yet. Gosh, you know he's syrupy, but such a good voice. Thousands of teen girls are going to play this over and over again. It's a bit different from Elvis, not nearly as good, but interesting. Randy loved how he caresses each word, Paula says one of my faves, Simon says you crushed the competition.

I don't know, if Syesha can put it together for a whole song, and pick something that she's emotionally connected to, can you break up the David/David finals?

David Archuleta, Stand By Me
Syesha Mercado, A Change is Going to Come
David Archuleta, Love Me Tender
Jason Castro, Mr. Tambourine Man
David Cook, Teenage Wasteland
Syesha Mercado, Proud Mary
David Cook, Hungry Like the Wolf
Jason Castro, I Shot the Sheriff