Itching to see a good documentary for free? Check out POV tonight, PBS’s point of view documentary series. The film tonight looks to be awesome - it’s called Campaign and it deals with Japanese electoral politics and offers an inside view into how the system works:

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Sudan Leader Charged with Genocide: What Are the Reactions? by Wendy Cohen

Inconvenient Truth of the Day: Al Gore Speaks on Climate Change by Joshua Tremblay

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Nicole Hughes:

“Farms in the Sky” a Solution to Global Food Crisis?

Wal-Mart Launches Eco-Bling Project

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Andy Kondrat:

NYC To Bring in 300 Hybrid Taxis Per Month

Coolio To Educate Students On Climate Change

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Jon Popham:

Pickens’ Plan for Energy Independence

On “Rent” Closing, the East Village, and Gentrification

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Gina Telaroli:

Batman Morals: Top 5 Lessons from the Capped Crusader’s Films

Emmy Nominations Kick “The Wire” to the Curb

“Rent” the Broadway musical portraying the bohemian life in NYC’s East Village in the early 1990’s is closing this September. This passing in the cultural life of the city and an article in today’s New York Times examining the changes that have occurred in New York City since the times the show was set in have me reflecting on my own tenure in the Big Apple.

I should start by saying I never saw “Rent“. I’m not much for musicals and in fact have never seen a single one since I moved to New York in 1994 for college. But what I’ve shared with Jonathan Larson’s bohemian epic is a neighborhood: the East Village. A neighborhood that has constantly changed since my arrival in New York City at a speed I never dreamed possible for a piece of land. The East Village intimately introduced me to gentrification, a force that has been a constant throughout my adult life, and a fitting associate, seeing how I fast realized after moving into the area that I was a gentrifier.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Nicole Hughes:

Should Drive-Thrus Be Banned?

Eco-Moms Mad About “Greenwash” Barbie

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Andy Kondrat:

Home Depot Will Recycle Your CLF Bulbs for Free

Department of Energy Predicts 50% Energy Increase By 2030

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Jon Popham:

NYC Waterfalls Installation Starts This Week

Capt. John Smith Is Back…and Running for President

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Giulia Rozzi:

Yoga Across the Border

Emile Norman: By His Own Design

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Gina Telaroli:

Silverdocs 08: A Post-Fest Wrap-Up

Human Rights Watch 08: Letter to Anna

Monday night the film Emile Norman: By His Own Design debuted on PBS. Emile Norman is a self-taught California artist, who at age 90 is still working on his craft. 

The film tells the story of Norman’s independent spirit—how it developed from his early days on a walnut ranch in the San Gabriel Valley and brought him success in New York City in the 1940s and

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The Onion’s AV Club has a great list up of 19 awesome one scene wonders - or scenes where an actor comes in just for that scene and completely steals it. And while the choices on their list are great and include some of my favorites, they also missed a few - so here are 5 more one scene wonders along with takepart links so you can act.

1) Crispin Glover in Dead Man - you have to wait a little while for it, but it is completely worth it!

takepart and learn how you can help save the buffalo today

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Montreal, Canada has released its new Public Bike System (PBS) on its wacky two-languaged public.  The system is actually quite innovative in its implementation and ease of use.  From the PBS website,

It employs cutting-edge technologies to their best advantage: the entire system is solar-powered and uses wireless communication. All the components are modular. With no need for permanent installations or external energy sources, the technical platforms that constitute the base of the stations can simply be dropped off at any desired location without incurring expensive infrastructure work. No need to excavate or anchor the platforms to the street. And no need to install electrical or communication cables.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Brigitte Bardot Fine: Top 5 Bardotisms That Got Hot Sex Symbol In Hot Water

Obama Pound: In Historic Moment, White People Exposed To “Fist Bump” For First Time

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Nicole Hughes:

Get a Job: Top 10 Guides to Finding the Perfect Eco Career

Schwarzenegger Declares Drought in California

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Andy Kondrat:

Barcelona Fines Citizens for Using Drinking Water in Pools and Gardens

Coal Power Plants Waste Two-Thirds of Energy Input

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Jon Popham:

Megabus Expanding to the East Coast

Egyptian Blogger Freed from Prison

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Giulia Rozzi:

Diamonds In The Rough: A Ugandan Hip Hop Revolution

Cluster Bomb Ban

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Gina Telaroli:

Interview with Nina Davenport, Director of Operation Filmmaker

KidZui : Internet for Kids (and Those Young at Heart)

The Obama pound, exchanged between Michelle and Barack on Tuesday night marked a historic moment. Yeah, there’s that whole first black nominee for president thing. But perhaps as exciting, is the fact that the pound is finally being introduced to mainstream culture. I hope people not familiar with the pound will now realize that when the New York Times’ Ashley Parker wrote about Reggie Love “offering closed-fist high-fives to members of the news media….” she was not describing a painful caveman greeting, but the pound. But I think the Times owes Reggie a correction.

I can’t find an official history or definition of the pound, but here is what I found on Ubrandictionary.com

1. pound: a greeting between two mutual friends. In reality, a fist from one person is “pounded” against the fist of the other person, accompanied by both persons saying “pound.”
2. Pound: The knocking of fists as a form of greeting, departure, or respect
   see daps
3. Dap: The knocking of fists together as a greeting, or form of respect. He gave me a dap when we greeted.
4. dap: a fist-on-fist greeting, front-to-front as if each person is punching each other on the hand. He gave me a dap when we greeted
5. dap: The Dap includes simple to very intricate series of rhythmic hand slaps, clasps, hand and arm gestures exchanged between two persons as a sign of personal greeting, respect and group solidarity.

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Frontline: Hot Politics examines the United States goverment’s failure to act on the biggest environmental problem of our time, Global Warming. The award winning PBS series details how for decade after decade the Federal Government has avoided real action on Climate Change through methods ranging from parliamentary tricks, false scientific reports, suppressing real science, making excuses, P.R. spin, failing to ratify its own treaties, failing to enforce its own existing regulations and adopting half measures that have no hope of solving the problem - and that’s just for starters.

There is plenty of bipartisan blame to go around and it is spread over each Presidential administration dating back to George H.W. Bush’s in 1988. Interviews with Newt Gingrich, Frank Luntz, NASA Scientist James Hansen, former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman and many others depict an institution that is broken when it comes to fixing the enormous environmental problems that confront it.

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