The Kinshasa Symphonic Orchestra
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about art for the sake of art. I love the smile on the barber after he’s done singing. [via Michael and Elia]

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Map of El Nula, a small village in the Venzuelan state of Apure along the Colombian border.
One of the world’s lesser-known conflicts has endured for over a decade along the Colombia-Venezuela border. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants’ latest report:
Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries, together with the Fuerzas Bolivarianas de Liberación [...]

Earlier this year I was sitting with Michael Naimark at Cubus in the new Ars Electronica center. The restaurant, decked out with speedy wi-fi and attractive waiters and waitresses, feels like it is floating over the Danube River and the rest of Linz.

Michael and I took turns pushing around the mouse of his computer. And [...]

Mario’s asking me for “some links to some oakland blogs on the street.” Something that “captures the block.” So here you go Mario:

This and other amazing citizen media from Oakland youth is available on Youth Radio. Learn more about Youth Radio here. And listen in on their music and radio features online.

Like most middle class white people my grooming habits can be a bit lacking. When stateside, I’m lucky if I get my hair cut every two months. But when I’m traveling I look for a haircut in just about every new city. It is one of the best ways, I’ve found, to get in with [...]

Photograph by the talented Kathleen Flynn

I know, I know. There are so many countries in the world and so few hours in the day. But there are a few special reasons – especially for Americans – to invest some time in getting to know Liberia. First of all, as all Liberians will tell you, America and Liberia have a common [...]

I’m back in Liberia with Kathleen Flynn and Ken Harper to help out with some media workshops around town. Today Kathleen and Ken led a workshop at the American embassy library here on photojournalism. (Speaking of photography, what a difference a portrait can make. The US embassy with photographs of Obama looking down at your [...]

Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April, in [Seventeen] Seventy-Five, Paul Revere, a silversmith, took off on his horse heading northward to warn American patriots of the impending British advance which officially kicked off the American Revolution. Revere tirelessly spread the word from [...]

This isn’t going to be the comparative review I’d like to piece together (I’m short on time, without an internet connection, and without copies of either book), but if I don’t write something now I probably never will.
I first discovered Ta-Nehisi’s blog thanks to @cbracy. I was out of the country and Ta-Nahisi’s daily posts [...]