La Blogothèque's Take Away Shows!

La Blogothèque has an awesome collection of live, impromptu video performances of well-known indie bands. Their Take Away Shows feature bands performing on street corners, in front of cafes, in courtyards and in apartments. It's as if La Blogothèque's crew grabbed the bands from backstage and took them busking. Judging from some of the site narrative, that's probably not too far from the truth. Check out the cool performances from The Shins for a good sample of what you're in store for.

Connexions - Building Communities and Sharing Knowledge

This is an interesting Google video presentation on Connexions that talks about stove piping and dis-integration that prevents collaboration in education. For anyone who has spent over $150 on a textbook, it is revolutionary, and had me saying "a-ha" almost immediately. Folks have been doing this in Web 2.0 for a while, and it looks like forward thinkers in education are getting on board.

Think Open Source textbooks; the subjects are all over the place and include science, math, humanities, etc. I just looked at a great music quiz this morning, complete with mp3 listening samples.

Status Anxiety

I'm really enjoying reading Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton. De Botton presents the causes of and solutions to the anxiety inevitably caused by comparing ourselves with our peers. The whole concept is very interesting, and it rings true; check out the Wikipedia article for a precis. I highly recommend the book, and you can watch video excerpts from the television special on de Botton's site.

[Edit 6/22/07] This article in the Seattle Times is really kind of sad, but it made me think about the theory that the rich support our economy with their lavish spending on non-essential items. Very thought provoking.