February 27, 2012

Chris Rock on Whose Voice Can Play Which Parts in Hollywood

As per an L.A. Times story:

Chris Rock may have unexpectedly best defined the continuing awkwardness of Hollywood and race when he made his presentation of the award for outstanding animated film by referring to his voice work in the "Madagascar" movies and Eddie Murphy's role in the "Shrek" films.

Rock joked that while a fat woman can play a skinny princess, a wimpy guy can play a gladiator and a white guy can play an Arabian prince, "if you're a black man, you can play a donkey or a zebra. You can't play white."

Posted by Anupam Chander on February 27, 2012 at 03:12 PM in Life | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 01, 2012

A Former Slave Writes to his Former Master

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

Well worth reading in full.

Posted by Anupam Chander on February 1, 2012 at 05:26 PM in Life | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Facebook IPO and SOPA

Facebook obliquely references SOPA/PIPA in its disclosure (along with other proposed laws), as a risk factor to its business:

... there have been a number of recent legislative proposals in the United States, at both the federal and state level, that would impose new obligations in areas such as privacy and liability for copyright infringement by third parties. These existing and proposed laws and regulations can be costly to comply with and can delay or impede the development of new products, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, and subject us to claims or other remedies, including fines or demands that we modify or cease existing business practices.

Posted by Anupam Chander on February 1, 2012 at 05:15 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack