"Interview" doesn't describe this...

So the interview that was scheduled for Thursday ended up materializing on Friday morning (part of the reason why this post is late going up), but it turned out to be anything but.

Caracas update

Sorry to anybody who might have been waiting for a new post the last few days.  The truth is I haven't been doing very much worthy of posting; I've settled into a nice little rut for the time being (which for now is rather welcome) - watching the World Cup matches in the morning, doing a bit of walking around in the afternoons, and working in the evenings.  I haven't been quite as productive as I'd like, but then again I think I set rather high expectations for myself in this regard.  I've gotten some practical things done, like getting a cell phone (not easy with a foreign passport) and figuring out how to exchange money and get food without too much hassle.  Mostly, though, I've been doing a lot of walking around, something that's not particularly practical but that I can more or less successfully rationalize to myself as such :-).

Chavez and Bashar

I'll have a longer post on the way later tonight or early tomorrow, but I just wanted to post some quick thoughts on Chavez's appearance with Syrian Bashar al-Assad that is ongoing as I write:

Of Carlos Marx and Barbie Girls

No matter how much you read about it, the polarization – or, better yet, schizophrenia – of Venezuelan society is plain to see the moment you step out into the streets. Below my window to the left are buildings with flecked exteriors and roofs of corrugated metal; looking out to the right, one sees only sleek glass-and-steel skyscrapers.

First post from Caracas

As anyone actually reading this blog probably already knows, I arrived in Caracas the other day to do research on community media and government-run information technology access centers called “Infocentros” [A good, if possibly overly flattering, overview can be found here]. I’ll have more specifics to post about my work next week as I (hopefully) begin talking to some officials and get a better idea of what I’m looking at/for.

Of course when you’re in a foreign place for the first time (and for me Caracas is about as foreign a place as I’ve ever been) you have to expect that you’ll make a certain, probably very large, number of mistakes.

Thom Yorke Covers Joy Division

Care of Pitchfork:

Fina-fucking-lly

S.E.C. Sues Goldman Over Housing Market Deal: "In a civil suit filed Friday, the S.E.C. accused the investment bank of securities fraud over deals in which Goldman profited from bets against products it sold to customers."