We just got back from seeing Brazil’s 65-year-old Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil put on an amazing concert at UC Berkeley. I’m sure that Daniella Thompson will be writing about the show soon. Here are two tracks I recorded on my cell phone (and they sound like it):

The habit was as common as it was annoying. Every day someone would walk behind the counter of the neighborhood coffeeshop where I worked. Behind the counter and into the kitchen. I would look up, exasperated, with a serrated knife in my hand that I wanted to plunge into my trespasser’s gut. But not this [...]

Some people, sometimes, say I have good taste in clothes, in how I present myself. Others think just the opposite. This is true of you as well. Some people like the way you dress, others probably mock and despise it. If I may introduce you to four different guys, all in their late 30′s. You’re [...]

In prompt response to Sparsh’s request for quote-unquote more music and less blabbering, I present you with the latest installment of the Sparky and Oso Podcast. If you don’t laugh at some point, you’re clinically depressed.

The salt stuck to my skin like Gulf War I camouflage. My shoulders were red. Later, my legs would be even more red as would my feet save a white calligraphic ‘V’, kept pasty white by my Haviana sandals. The problem was that we had no destination and an adventure is not an adventure without [...]

I spent the last block of my walk to Peet’s in deep contemplation. Did I want a small (10 oz.) or a medium (12 oz.)? The difference was neither two ounces nor 15 cents; it was purely psychological. It’s like potato chips. You know that the small bag of chips is plenty, that you’ll feel [...]

It was social entrepreneur day at Stanford University on two Sundays ago as part of “Entrepreneurship Week” at Stanford. I wanted to go for a number of reasons. Global Voices is in the process of incorporating into its own Non-Governmental Organization. There are lots of NGO’s with weblogs, but I think we’re probably the first [...]

It’s that time of year when what seems like half of the US blogosphere is partying it up in Austin, TX for South by Southwest. This is the first SXSW with Twitter, which, methinks, doesn’t play well with alcohol. Around 2 a.m. Central Time, I’ve been entertained over the past couple days with a steady [...]

I’ve never really been a smoker, but that isn’t to say that I’ve never smoked. The first time I was 16, sitting on the south-facing, rust-colored sandstone bluff in Del Mar that faces the San Diego River mouth and, beyond, Torrey Pines State Beach. Those who have watched a sunset from that perch, or one [...]

Originally posted at Global Voices. Is there any method to the madness of who becomes a celebrity on YouTube? Should there be? Should the Hollywood stars of the global, digital era consist of an overweight adolescent falling into a creek, two guys arguing on a bus, Darth Vader shopping in a super market, and, of [...]