At ‘Breastaurants,’ Business Is Booming

Published on Mar 21, 2013
While many restaurant chains are struggling, Twin Peaks, Tilted Kilt and others are thriving.

MEGAPOST: Cigarette and Cigar Commercials 1940s, 1950s, 1960s

1949 TV commercial from Camel cigarettes.

MEGAPOST – HSBC “local knowledge” ads – culture, socialization, norms

Parallel parking in Germany vs. France.

“Weird” Al Yankovic – Amish Paradise (1996)

MEGAPOST: German-Jewish Heritage Around the Globe

Jewish Artists – The Influence of Exiles | Arts 21

Uploaded on Nov 13, 2011
It’s well known that many Jewish scientists and artists fled Nazi Germany. Less well known is their cultural influence in the countries that took them in. A major study by the Moses Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam focuses on just that. We spoke with the Center’s Director, Julius H. Schoeps.

A Quick Lesson on Southern Linguistics

MEGAPOST: Modern Polygamy – Our America with Lisa Ling

Spotlight on a Young Polygamist Family

Uploaded on Oct 24, 2011
Lisa visits Isaiah and his two wives to determine if what she sees in this young and modern family’s daily lifestyle will change any of the preconceived notions we have about polygamy.

Deleted Scenes: Housewife to Sister-wives

Uploaded on Oct 24, 2011
Lisa Ling visits Joanne’s birthing center in Centennial Park, where she discovers the unexpected gains – and losses – of being born in polygamy…

Deleted Scenes: Teresa’s Divine Revelation

Uploaded on Oct 24, 2011
Teresa tells Lisa Ling what it’s like to find out you’re spiritually contracted to marry someone…who already has a family.

The Story Continues: Modern Polygamy

Uploaded on Dec 5, 2011
Find out what has happened since Lisa Ling and the Our America cameras visited polygamist families in Centennial Park, Arizona.

Dr. Drew – Lisa Ling – Inside polygamist compound

Published on Dec 3, 2012
On Thursday night, Dr. Drew was joined by journalist Lisa Ling who was invited into the “Centennial Park” polygamist compound, with cameras, to talk with their leaders and families.Her special “Our America with Lisa Ling, Modern Polygamy” airs on OWN this Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET.In this clip, watch as Dr. Drew examines a group that claims they have nothing in common with the Warren Jeffs’ community with respect to forced marriages and men having sex with underage girls.

Man Eat Dog World: VC2 – Vietnam, culture, food

In some countries there are firm social taboos against eating the same animals that are commonly kept as pets, such as cats and dogs. But in dozens of other countries around the world, if you can catch it, you can eat it. Chris Tran goes for lunch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and learns that eating fried dog, green dragon and cobra heart supposedly do wonders for a man’s virility. Taste is another matter entirely.

Ethneezy raps about social issues – conscious hip-hop

Ethneezy – Hands of Time (2012)

Published on Dec 4, 2012 by orchardmusic
Music video by Ethneezy performing Hands of Time. (C) 2012 FOTO

Published on Aug 14, 2012 by KevinNgongo
Directed by Kevin Ngongo
Produced by Morfius

Stop & Frisk: Ever been frisked by the cops? – criminology, policing, race

Published on Aug 13, 2012 by TotallyBiasedFX
Stop & Frisk: Ever been frisked by the cops? Follow Kamau’s advice and make that unfortunate experience fun! Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell

Chicken McNuggets and Exploitation on The Wire – capitalism, conflict theory

D’Angelo Barksdale: Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down to the basement and say, “Hey Mr. Nugget—you the bomb. We sellin’ chicken faster than you can tear the bone out. So I’m gonna write my clowny ass name on this fat-ass check for you.”

Shit. Man, the nigga who invented them things? Still working in the basement for regular wage, thinking of some shit to make the fries taste better or some shit like that. Believe.

Why Do British Singers Sound American, Like Adele on “Skyfall”? – culture, language

Published on Nov 30, 2012 by slatester
For the newest James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” English singer Adele recorded the title song. Adele speaks with a strong English accent (her speaking?) but her singing voice sounds more American than British (her singing?). Why do British vocalists often sound American when they sing?

Because that’s the way everyone expects pop and rock musicians to sound. British pop singers have been imitating American pronunciations since the Beatles and the Rolling Stones began recording in the 1960s. These musicians were largely influenced by the African-American Vernacular English of American blues and rock and roll singers like Chuck Berry. Imitating an American accent involved both the adoption of American vowel sounds and “rhoticity”: the pronunciation of Rs wherever they appear in a word.

Linguist Peter Trudgill tracked rhoticity in British rock music over the years and found that the Beatles’ pronunciation of Rs decreased over the course of the 1960s. The trend also went in the opposite direction as new genres developed: American pop-punk vocalists like Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day took on a British-tinged accent to sound more like seminal artists such as Joe Strummer of the Clash.

Contemporary singers tend to adopt accents according to their genre: Keith Urban, who is Australian, sings country music with a marked Southern accent.

Even when singers aren’t trying to imitate a particular vocal style, regional dialects tend to get lost in song: Intonation gets overtaken by melody and vocal cadences by a song’s rhythm. Which makes the British Invasion seem a little more American.

Totally Biased: It’s a great time to be an Indian American

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by TotallyBiasedFX
It’s a great time to be an Indian American (unless you piss off Hari Kondabolu). Join Hari as he celebrates his people’s success by pointing a few of their failures

George Carlin – The American Dream

“You have no choice. You have owners.”

“It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Mexicans seek spiritual solace amid chaos

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 7, 2011
As Mexico’s drug-related violence continues, some are finding comfort in spirituality.

It is a mainly Catholic nation, but as Al Jazeera’s Franc Contreras reports from Mexico City, many are turning to religious figures rooted in Mexico’s indigenous past.

One alternative is the saint of death, also known as Santa Muerte.