The other day RISD grad Shepherd Fairey took a break from bathing in piles of money to talk to some folks about his Obama poster:

[BoingBoing, via Hustler of Culture]

Look who’s on Page Two of the Providence Journal! That’s our own Eric Smith (in a different picture we can’t use.) Rick Massimo has a piece about the intersection of music, politics, and the Dose this past year. DJs spin every night in the Tap Room of Local 121, and on Tuesdays it’s always the Cold War DJs featuring Eric, Pete Lima, and Kevin F. Leavitt. Tuesday nights have been significant this past year.

“I don’t know what it is about Tuesdays and politics,” Smith says, but in addition to Election Night, the Rhode Island primary and some of the bigger debates of the primary and general-election seasons happened on Tuesdays.

And now Smith, who also is a cofounder of the Web site Providence Daily Dose, and his co-DJ, Pete Lima, are anchoring the Inauguration Jubilation at 121, a day-long celebration of Barack Obama’s ascent to the presidency. . .

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Every week at the Guardian John Crace reads a horrible-sounding book and hilariously breaks it down for you, sparing you the trouble of actually having to read it.  This week, he tackles Kaylene Johnson’s book about Sarah Palin; as usual with anything written about Palin, the line between ridiculous and possibly true is completely non-existent:

Faith has always had a profound influence on Sarah’s life. Like her siblings she was baptised a Catholic but she went on to find a more meaningful path to God after joining her father on an expedition to Mount McKinley. “We came across a perfectly preserved dinosaur skeleton that was only 3,000 years old,” she explains. “I realised the creation story must be true and I joined the Wasilla Assembly of God.”

[And if you're wondering, yes, I did choose this excerpt as an excuse to use this picture again.]

[via bookslut]

I know you’ll all be partying tomorrow night, so I’m getting this out of the way now.

It’s my favorite video of the week of things we’ll miss and things we *really* won’t miss from 2008. It’s set to the song “New Lang Syne (Thank God It’s Over)” by Jim’s Big Ego and was created by a group that stirred some controversy a few years ago with a Bush/Cheney montage set to JBE’s song “Asshole” (at least when a teacher showed it to his classroom of what I think were maybe 8th graders).

As of yesterday, Al Franken was 48 votes ahead in the Minnesota Senate race. Jewish Minnesotans (both of them) are still on shpilkes. Gentiles are quoted as saying “Enough already.”

More shirts.  MoveOn.org has a new line of Obama T-shirts for sale. For a donation of $12 or more ($14 for the long-sleeved) you can be wearing one of these on Inauguration Day. (They can not be delivered for the holidays.)  If I may speak to girls for a moment, I got their earlier election T-shirt and I can tell you, it’s pretty sweet. These are American Apparel shirts, and yes I know that that guy is a creep, but the fact of the matter is he really knows how to cut a shirt. This one fits real nice — the sleeves are cut right, and the artwork and printing is good. Guys, you are on your own. These are sold as unisex, so I don’t know what to tell you. I’ll bet these are sold mostly to chicks anyway.

… just what I needed. Convicted felon Ted Stevens found out on his 85th birthday that he had lost his senate seat to democrat Mark Begich.  We can start thinking nice thoughts about Alaska again.

Although Sarah Palin might be preparing to retreat to the Alaskan frontier until she executes her plan for world domination, let us never forget the most beautiful moment in the Palins’ entire foray into national politics:

Considering that it’s one of the smaller towns in the state, why does it seem lately that so much weird news comes out of Richmond?

Voting is usually a multiple-choice experience, but several spots on Richmond ballots were a fill-in-the-blank test, and in Charlestown a former Town Council president who wasn’t running for anything this year was surprised to learn she had won a seat on the Chariho School Committee.

Deborah A. Carney, who served from 2002 to 2006 on the Charlestown council, some as president, got unofficial word yesterday that about 13 voters had written her name where there were no names on the ballot for Chariho School Committee Town of Charlestown.

Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?

Charles de Gaulle’s plaintive question — “How does one govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?” — is well considered in this time.

History is painted heavy with the woeful tales of shattered nations. Yet while we dramatize war and destruction, social upheaval, and economic downfall, much less do we romanticize the quiet, constant work of those who attempt to rebuild countries in ruin. And rarely do we celebrate the courage of the hard, often unpopular choices forced on them.

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My understanding is that these totals are officially official, and that Chuck Levesque — champion of civil liberties, a fair criminal justice system, and immigrants’ rights — has pulled it out.

Either in spite of, or with the assistance of, those terrible flyers from last week.

I’ll just link to Pat’s post.  But our previously-expressed concerns that the Senate would lurch rightward have been allayed with the ascension of Paiva-Weed and Connors to the leadership posts.

“If you are incapable of mustering pride in this moment, and if you cannot appreciate how meaningful this day is for millions of black folks who stood in lines for up to seven hours to vote, then your cynicism has become such an encumbrance as to render you all but useless to the liberation movement.”

Good, and Now Back to Work: Avoiding Both Cynicism and Overconfidence in the Age of Obama.

Worth reading, I think.

This is consistently almost really funny:

For those who are wondering: It appears that the Rhode Island House of Representatives will head back into session tied with the Hawaii State Senate for lowest proportion of Republican representation in a state legislative chamber — each body with only 8% of seats held by Republicans. (There are no chambers with remotely similar levels of Republican dominance: Idaho’s Senate was tops last term, with 80% of seats held by the GOP.)

–Cue the electoral reform rant–

None of this should be surprising — it’s a natural consequence of our electoral system. Legislative membership in plurality-based, two-party elections tends to follow the cube rule. The membership ratio will be approximately equal to the cube of the ratio of support for the parties in the general population. If the ratio of support is 1:1 you’ll tend to end up with an evenly split legislative body. In yesterday’s races for Congress and the US Senate in RI, support broke around 70-30 for Dems. Cube 7:3 and you get the 12-1 ratio that we see in the RI House. more »

Well, it’s utterly beside the point and unimportant but… that dress really didn’t work.  Created by American designer Narciso Rodriguez, it was actually difficult to look at and created an unflattering silhouette.  But she usually nails it, and by all reports doesn’t care all that much about fashion which makes her even more endearing, and I love her and can’t wait for them to move into the White House.  Hurry up January.

(Photo by Doug Mills. Article and slide show in NYT).