Displaying post 1 to 13 of 13
"Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China."
James Fallows on how the trade deficit between China and America works and what it means for the future.
posted to MetaFilter by afu
at 12:30 PM on September 30, 2008
(41 comments)
When the Rolling tones recorded an old blues tune called
You Gotta Move on
Sticky Fingers back in 1971, it was another instance of a tune by an old black man, known only to blues aficionados, suddenly becoming part of the consciousness of a gazillion people who probably never would've heard it otherwise. But let's pay a little visit to the man who originally wrote and recorded the song,
Mississippi Fred McDowell, shall we? Here's a jumping version of
Shake 'em On Down, his haunting
Going Down to the River, the gospel blues of
When I Lay My Burden Down,
Highway 61,
My Babe (you'll note the similarity to "This Train"),
Louise, and his version of the American folk/blues standard
John Henry. And don't miss the beautiful 1969 documentary featuring McDowell at Internet Archive,
Blues Maker, which features some superlative acoustic performances, and footage of the people and environment of the Mississippi delta country.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite
at 6:00 AM on September 23, 2008
(40 comments)
myopenbar.com
(Chicago link) is a dandy little site that lets you know where to score free and/or cheap eats and/or drinks on any given night in your area (assuming 'your area' =
NYC,
SF,
LA,
Honolulu,
Miami, or the aforementioned
Chi-town). The places are rated, and visited personally by the website's
bloggers, but who cares? It's free booze.
posted to MetaFilter by shakespeherian
at 9:20 PM on July 15, 2008
(6 comments)
Even if you're one of those "I don't like jazz" folks, the iconoclastic multi-instrumentalist
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936-1977) is probably someone you can dig. For one thing, he wasn't afraid of using a fat
backbeat, more akin to soul/R&B than most of the jazz of his time. And how can you say no to a guy who passed out little flutes to his audience members, inviting them to join in, saying
"What about a blues in W, in the key of W". Or who played 3 or 4 horns at once, followed by a nose-flute solo? God bless you,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite
at 4:30 AM on August 7, 2007
(50 comments)
Jazztube.com
has hundreds of great jazz performances in one place
posted to MetaFilter by petsounds
at 7:12 AM on February 19, 2007
(9 comments)
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