in a surprise turn of events, i actually did something artsy while i was home for the holidays, thanks to my friend charlie. he wanted to see louisville's spankin' new muhammad ali center, and in louisville's culturally-deficient landscape it's a fairly worthwhile tourist trap, i mean, "destination". the not-quite-completed museum glosses over some of the details about his personal life and misses opportunities to delve more deeply or leave a more lasting impression, but it does a pretty good job of contextualizing his life, in particular the civil rights movement and the vietnam war (which ali opposed and refused to serve in, and as a result was forced to give up boxing for some five years). and although it gets touchy-feely near the end with exhibits for kids about "believing in yourself" and "setting goals", it does give some insight into ali's humanitarian work, inc. his work w/ the U.N. the exhibits have a splashy look to them that will prob. feel extremely anachronistic twenty years from now, and are rather heavy on video clips. among those a highlight is a video explaining some basics of boxing by ali's daughter who is also a boxer. all in all the part i found most worthwhile and which was spotlighted the least were two galleries of ali-related works by leroy neiman. perhaps still in development, these neglected to provide any information about this american artist, but his style is immediately recognizable and worth seeing.

now that i'm back in the land of the living, i have time to find out what's been going on in the world. in today's news it looks like we come out with a score of one to one:

one for the home team "To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect," Judge Jones wrote. "However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions." ... the judge [a longtime Republican nominated for the federal bench by President Bush during his first term] said the evidence in the trial proved that intelligent design is "creationism relabeled." The Supreme Court has already ruled that creationism, which relies on the Biblical account of the creation of life, cannot be taught as science in a public school.

one for the oligarchy Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show. ... the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest. One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

been really pressed for time, so i kind of had to throw this collection of "A"'s together. i'm def. gearing myself up for a more thematic mix, but in the meanwhile there's this hodge-podge of mostly peripheral likes. prob. one of my shortest mixes ever. some middle-aged housewife music that i picked up randomly, some somewhat generic indie, and some electronic-ish stuff. worth noting is the "it" band, architecture in helsinki, track which i got from winnie and which is excellent (although i haven't liked the other tracks i've heard of them), and the absentee track which i got from the BBC collective site (hence the mediocre quality), which is so low-key folky that you may start worrying that they're cadavers. prob. not a keeper mix, but i've been meaning to do a mix like this for a while. and i think the sequel (the "B" team, i suppose) will be much easier. --- when the evenings fall mix collective mix #2: the "A" team 1 architecture in helsinki . one heavy february 2 rick astley . never gonna give you up 3 arcade fire . neighborhood #2 (laika) 4 aphex twin . mookid 5 american analog set . come home baby julie, come home 6 jeff arundel . hey ann 7 ambrosia . a reminiscent drive 8 apollo sunshine . katonah 9 archers of loaf . harnessed in slums 10 geoff abraham . i'll come around 11 tori amos, bt . talula (the tornado mix) 12 a-ha . dark is the night for all 13 arab strap . monday at the hug & pint . glue 14 the album leaf . wander 15 absentee . there is a body in a car somewhere (live)