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June 27, 2005
Reportage from Helene in France
Summer has arrived in the South of France - I've been
enjoying the loud chant of cicadas, late dinners outside and the start
of festival season in France.
The national music festival kick started summer on June 21st with
bands playing in all cities around the country. I was able to hit two
of these celebrations since my hometown, Istres, organized their own
"Fete de la Musique" a few days early this year. So, on June 21st, I
was in Marseille for the real celebration and saw lots of French rock,
reggae and African music bands. In the last few years, Marseille has
become the center of French rap, hip hop and R&B. With influences from
North Africa, Africa and the French Caribbean, there is a real
eclectic mix in the local music scene which does a good job at
representing Marseille's population. A very good friend of mine,
Jessyca whose stage name is Vanyla, recently released an album which
is a great example of this new mix of music.
"13 intime," her album, means very close, it's a play on words since
the word "tres" in French means very and the number 13 reads almost
the same and is the Marseille area zip code's first numbers. She sings
in French and English and talks about a variety of things such as
racism, friendship and how men and women interact. The music is really
catchy and I think the album will do very well. Vanyla does concerts
in the area and sells her album in France right now but if you're
interested in getting it and you're not in the area, let us know.
With the end of the music festival, I'm now thinking about going to
some theatre festivals. The oldest festival in France is the Festival
d'Avignon which I also definitely recommend. The best part about this
one is that you can still enjoy a lot of shows even if you don't speak
French since a lot of the free outdoors shows don't have a lot of
dialogue.
Click
here for more information
- Helene Goupil, editor
Posted by insideoutmag at 02:31 PM
June 23, 2005
Online Television from Around the World
If you've lived abroad, the saddest part about returning home is gradually losing your language skills and losing touch with the current events of country you used to live in. Enter a great website, Squid TV, a site that lists streaming web broadcasts from TV stations around the world. For French news, our personal favorite is France 2, and for Japanese news, Fuji News Network, which has a brief summary in English and then the news story in Japanese. Great if you have some Japanese under your belt but could use some context before subjecting yourself to the fast-speaking news people.
Posted by insideoutmag at 12:14 AM
June 12, 2005
Legal Guide for Bloggers
We know that many of our readers have blogs that you use for everything from keeping in touch with friends and family to highlighting problems in countries you care about that don't get much attention in mainstream media.
No matter what you use your blog for, our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (whose mission it is to keep the Internet safe and free), have put together a handy guide that answers everything you ever wanted to know about blogging from a legal standpoint--there are FAQs on what constitutes "fair use" when quoting other articles, information on how to *not* get sued for defamation, and all of the other little legalities that bloggers should know about. Best of all, the guidelines are straight forward and explain the fine points of the law in easy to understand language.
One caveat is that the guide is written from the perspective of United States laws.
If you like what you see, the EFF is trying to disseminate this information to other bloggers, so feel free to blog about it yourself. Bloggers, unite!
Posted by insideoutmag at 01:10 PM
June 02, 2005
Candles For Burma
Ethical Traveler and the Burmese American Democratic Alliance (BADA) have launched a "Candles for Burma" campaign and created a website to send birthday wishes to Aung San Suu Kyi who will be celebrating her 60th birthday under house arrest.
“By sending a digital greeting, supporters will be letting Aung San Suu Kyi know that people all over the world are standing behind her. Sometimes, that knowledge makes all the difference.” says Victor Win, President of BADA.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest in Burma for most of the past 14 years.
A military junta has ruled Burma since 1988. This junta refused to hand over power to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after her party’s landslide 1990 victory in parliamentary elections. Instead, the junta placed her under arrest. From confinement, Aung San Suu Kyi continues to work for democracy in her country.
Aung San Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her commitment to peaceful change. She is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner in the world currently living under house arrest.
You can upload your greeting here
Ethical Traveler is the first grassroots alliance uniting adventurers, tourists, travel agencies and outfitters — everyone who loves to travel, and sees travel as a positive force in the world. Ethical Traveler feels that all travelers are, in effect, freelance ambassadors. By joining the voices and economic power of travelers, Ethical Traveler seeks to strengthen human rights and protect the environment.
The Burmese American Democratic Alliance (BADA) is an umbrella organization for pro-democracy Burmese activists in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Posted by insideoutmag at 10:41 AM