The Conspirator: Wok n’ Roll Rebel

Mary Surratt: “You want rice with that?”

Robert Redford’s movie about the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, “The Conspirator,” will premiere in wide release this week. The film depicts historical events that are particularly meaningful for Washingtonians, since they all took place around here. 

The conspirators included Mary Surratt, the only woman among the ten who were tried for conspiring to kill the President. The Surratts had a farmhouse in Clinton, Maryland, which they used as a tavern. After her husband died, Mary Surratt rented it out and lived in the family’s house in the District, where she took in boarders. The DC house was where the conspirators met.

Today, you can visit the Surratt farmhouse, now a museum.  It’s near Andrews Air Force Base. And the Surratt boardinghouse? It’s at 604 H Street, NW. Try and visit at lunch time. It’s a Chinese restaurant called Wok n’ Roll.

 

See the movie, get a free tour of the Surratt House Museum Details here. And read the excellent book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson.

Image mashed-up by Mike Licht. T-Shirt from Ringleader Clothing.

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It’s Bittman vs Lady Gaga at Time Magazine

Food writer Mark Bittman is pitted against Lady Gaga over at Time Magazine. No it’s not about her meat dress. They’re both finalists in the Time Top 100 Poll.

The online poll aims to determine the 100 most influential people of 2011. Every home cook in the known universe has a spattered copy of Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, and if that’s not influential, we don’t know what is.

Vote for Mark here – http://ti.me/fgtvDm
Select “Yes,” enter the word code and click on “submit.”

Pass it on. Right now Mark is ranked below Michael Vick but above John Boehner.

 

Short link: http://bit.ly/hyesBf

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Ai Weiwei Held in China

Chinese artist and designer Ai Weiwei was detained by police at the Beijing airport before he could take a flight to Hong Kong yesterday. Even if you haven’t seen his current exhibition at London’s Tate Modern or those at Munuch’s Haus der Kunst and Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, you still may know his work.  Ai Weiwei helped design the “Birds Nest Stadium“ for the 2008 Olympics, the National Stadium of the People’s Republic of China.

30th Birthday of the Portable Computer

30 years ago this week, Adam Osborne released the Osborne 1 computer and the portable computing age was born. Weighing in at a svelte 23.5 pounds, the Osborne shuttled between home and office and was lugged into the field by anthropologists, journalists, and naturalists. Movers and shakers peered into the tiny 5-inch monochrome monitor and used the most advanced software of the day: MBasic, Wordstar,  SuperCalc,  dBase II. Zowie!

Unfortunate management and competitors like Kaypro and Compaq put Osborne out of business, but PCs had left the desk top, and there was no turning back.

More:

 ”Osborne!” Harry McCracken, Technologizer.com

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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The Internet, Democracy, and Repression

Everybody knows that social media challenged or overthrew repressive regimes in North Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Everyone knows that the Internet promotes Democracy, right? Not so fast, says Evgeny Morozov.

Mr. Morozov emphasizes that networked digital tools can be used to maintain political power as well as challenge it, and recently spoke to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) about this. The video of his complete lecture is here, but this short animated excerpt is easier to follow and more fun:

Bryn Mawr Announces Intergalactic Partnership

April 1, 2011

Pennsylvania’s venerable Bryn Mawr College launched itself into the 21st century today by announcing a new partnership with the Bithnian University of Science and Technology. Many U.S. colleges have international programs but, as Bryn Mawr President Jane McAuliffe observes, ”Global partnerships are so 2010.”

“Bryn Mawr is simply beyond global, and we are boldly going where no college has gone before. Our students need to learn to be intergalactic citizens.”
–”Bryn Mawr leads intergalactic Age With Bithnian Partnership” (Press release).

Best Bass Players?

 

“Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Top Ten Bassists of All Time.” See it here, with video clips.

Rolling Stone asked readers to vote on the top ten bass players of all time, and the results demonstrate the weakness of the “crowdsourcing” concept. Even limiting the selection to Rock/Pop/R&B players of the electric bass, a list without James Jamerson, Bootsy Collins, Leland Sklar, or Bob Babbitt simply cannot be taken seriously.

 

Image (“Sir Nicholas Carew Plays Reverse Thunderbird Goth Bass, after Hans Holbein the Younger”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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