The new website is up (obviously) and I’ll be working today to try and get it all set up. I’ll use this post to detail some of the more important changes for our writers. Also, if you have questions or problems, leave them here as a comment.

We’ve been having some problems with the website, bear with us as we work out the kinks.

Bad News: The images are gone, gone, gone. Any new images will stick though.

Details after the jump.

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Another day of mass demonstrations in Iran as more details emerge of the right-wing coup.

Catch up on the details:
Iran’s Policital Coup
Stealing the Iranian Election
Ayatollah Calls for Investigation into Election Fraud
Twitter feed
HuffPo’s Live Blog

More Videos after the jump…
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With climate scientists producing increasingly dour predictions re: the impending doom, Ken Ward of Gristmill.org believes the reason we’re not doing anything different is because we’re suffering from a form of dementia … Continue Reading

(Democracy Now!) “Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has canceled a controversial last-minute Bush administration attempt to auction off nearly 150,000 acres of wilderness in southern Utah. We speak to university student Tim DeChristopher, who was able to delay the sale by posing as a bidder and buying up thousands of acres. ”
More at Democracy Now! »

ROCK OPERETTA ABOUT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
—ONE NIGHT ONLY—
THURSDAY, JANUARY 29 AT 7:30 P.M.
AUSTIN ARTS CENTER, TRINITY COLLEGE

HARTFORD, Conn. (January 8, 2008)—A new generation of performing artists was inspired by the courageous speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., to create “The Last Year in the Life of
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as Devised by Waterwell: A Rock Operetta.”

Waterwell is a New York-based theater collaborative that will perform the work on Thursday, January 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Austin Arts Center at Trinity College.

“The|King|Operetta” focuses on Dr. King’s stance against the Vietnam War and his mobilization of the “Poor People’s Campaign.”  The compelling drama, which is rendered in plain speech and song, alternates with political satire aimed at President Lyndon B. Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, and liberals and conservatives alike.

“We seldom hear Dr. King’s radical speeches from his final year,” said director and Waterwell co-founder Tom Ridgely. “Unlike the earlier ‘I Have a Dream’ or ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail,’ King’s protests against our nation’s militarism and materialism need to be revisited because they have been unheeded,” he concluded.

New York Magazine wrote, “Credit Waterwell with having the wisdom to revive a true moral hero, and the guts to wrestle not just with his oratory but his doubts, nightmares, failings, and passion (in both sacred and secular senses).”

The cast of five features Rodney Gardiner (“Gem of the Ocean” at Los Angeles’ Fountain Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival) as Dr. King, while the others portray two major characters and act as a chorus. Waterwell’s artistic director and co-founder Arian Moayed  (“The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East,” “Masked,” “The American Pilot,” “Homebody/
Kabul”) plays Lyndon Johnson and Jesse Jackson. John-Andrew Morrison (“The Tooth of the Crime” at La MaMa ETC) takes the roles of Ralph Abernathy and Huey P. Newton. Kevin Townley (“Shockheaded Peter” and “My Deah”) is J. Edgar Hoover and James Bevel. Hanna Cheek (“Hostage Song” and “The Pumpkin Pie Show”) portrays Joan Didion and Coretta Scott King.

The original, energetic rock and blues score was composed and is conducted by Lauren Cregor (a singer-songwriter who regularly appears at Joe’s Pub and Don’t Tell Mama). Lighting design is by Stacey Boggs (current national tour of “I Love a Piano” and lighting supervisor for Ailey II), costumes are by Elizabeth Payne, and choreography is by Lynn Peterson.

For more information about Waterwell, visit www.waterwell.org.

Tickets are $15, $10 for seniors and students, free with Trinity ID.

For information about tickets, directions, and parking, please call the Austin Arts Center Box Office at 860-297-2199 or visit www.trinity.edu/artsattrinity <http://www.trinity.edu/artsattrinity>