Free speech

An email forward from a friend: a secular Arab speaks on Al-Jazeera.

More blogs. Bibliography

music

Acada

Inexistence
Geocentric Universe
Ah Yes, Medical School
Higher Cohomology Is Inevitable

Michael Nielsen
Shtetl-Optimized
Sidharth Jaggi's most excellent adventures

Some Words To Not
X in Vogue: Very Stylish Math
Caolionn O'Connell


Development and criticism

Money Talk
Global Voices
French Money Talk
Ekiti Legislature

GlobLog
Robert Reich's blog
Seb's Open Research
SJ's Longest Now

Bjorn Staerk
Oslogirl
pleasure pure madmen know
The Embedded Revolution

Arabia and around

A Family In Baghdad
Cinnamon Zone
Moments in Words from Hadhramout
TIME: The Middle East Blog

The Arabist
CNL in Uzbekistan
Rasheed's World
Sleepless in Sana'a

Me vs. Myself
Riverbendblog
Syria Exposed

Nigeria

Bella Naija
Fausset Nigeria
Adaure's Weblogazine
Nigeria. What's On?
Yola++

Chelsea Rules. Ok?
Musings of a Naijaman
Shola's Webspace
Naijablog

Aaron Rowe
Giant of Africa
Nick in Nigeria
Generation Nubian
Wazobiacrazy

Film, music, books

Erik's choice
Frances Uku
Wordsbody
Daily Dancer
Iram Parveen Bilal

Tennis, dreams, boys, and gist

ATP Tenistas
Down The Line
Women's Tennis
Forty Deuce
Tennis Served Fresh
Tennis Talk

LA Rag Mag
Post Secret
Raj's world
Waiter Rant

Dooce
Like A Wheel within a Wheel, archives
Possumqueen

not blogs...

Sarah May Photo
Thibaut Photos
The Guardian on Gender
This guy named Kim
womenswrite Journal

This post exists so I can keep my main blogroll very short, while keeping track of places I like to visit on the web.
All the blogs that have been on my main blogroll, past or current, are listed...and a few secret pleasures.
Some of the first blogs I ever read - parentheses was perhaps the first - and a few that I just noticed, are here.
Some are no longer being updated...some have been newly revived.
I like most of them very much.

January 27,2007 update: list now in rough categories, but still expect to be surprised.
February 28, 2007 update: adding directories, such as findnigeria.

Big screen, little screen

music

Hiam Abbass stars in Satin Rouge, a movie by Raja Amari that I've wanted for years and just ordered recently.
Coincidentally, I started watching the movie on Tuesday just after I'd seen Munich, in which she also appears. She's also in Paradise Now, which I haven't seen yet, but will like to watch soon.

In the past week, I also saw
Mrs. Brown, with Judi Dench playing Queen Victoria,
Madame Sata, a story about a Brazlian rebel,
Sexual Life, an American ensemble piece in the tradition of Things you can tell Just by looking at her;
In Good Company, a nice drama/comedy about love and work, it's realistic, touching, and higly recommended,
Private Benjamin, a sweet, sweet movie, which is now one of my very favorite,
Strictly Ballroom, directed by Baz Luhrman; when you're a ballroom dance fan, you gather with friends to watch this classic, the dancing is by no means fantastic.

I would note how expertly Munich is done - cast, located, shot, directed - it is a movie-making Master Class, but perhaps taken for granted because it's done by a master and holds no surprises. I saw it twice, so far. It has a few words in Arabic, which I try to pick out. Syriana had conversations in Arabic as well. Yay! for Arabic in the movies.

Satin Rouge is said to be in Arabic, but apparently Tunisian Arabic is peppered with French.

In the three-and-a-half weeks before the last, I saw only a few movies. (By now, this gross deficiency has been repaired. )
Walk The Line, the only movie on my Paris-Los Angeles half-day flight worth watching,
Ladies in Lavender, a very slow-paced, pretty movie and more Judi Dench goodness,
Brokeback Mountain, which is not about elderly British ladies,
Head in the Clouds, in which Charlize Theron does high glamour,
Festen (English title: The Celebration).

I'd wanted to see Festen for months because I liked Arven/The Inheritance, another Danish movie with Ulrich Thomsen, so much, but I found it sad and dark without good excuse.