Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Didier Awadi and Senagalese Rap

By Hootsbuddy



Radio blogging...I'll make this quick. 
As I was driving this morning I was treated to one of those special segments at NPR's Morning Edition that made me want to pull over and listen. 



Before I knew who she was, I heard the voice of Ofeibea Quist-Arcton many times and looked forward to her reports.  Her delivery of the Queen's English evokes formal British propriety with a twist of Oxford blended in. Not stiff enough to be condescending, but elegant enough to picture a very mature, altogether professional reporter from the Beeb (which she was in times gone by). But with good journalistic protocol her name was only said once, too quick, at the end of the clip, either by her or the program host. It was years before I finally looked it up and learned more about her and she turned out to be even more impressive than I had imagined.

Her subject matter is African. The content is always rich, often about ordinary news developments but sometimes spotlighting social or cultural issues which are her main interest. This morning's little seven minute segment is a gem for anyone who loves language, music and social trends. She interviews a Senegalese singer, Didier Awadi, whose adaptation of rap music to African language is a work of art.

In the same way that Jaza, Blues and Rock and Roll were American musical genres that became international, so, too has Rap. The reader needs to know that I have no appreciation of rap music but this morning's NPR segment piques my curiosity and makes me want to learn more. I don't expect the inspiration to last, but I do expect that from time to time I will go back to this link, like replaying a favorite song, to enjoy the rich blend of languages, accents and rhythms found here. Enjoy.



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1 comment:

  1. adamsonAugust 7, 2009 at 12:51 PM

    I was listening to this, and I was hoping that someone in my blogfeeds would post about it :)
    I know I've heard the rap song played on some promotion before... it was probably from NPR themselves.

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