Mike Davidson hatches Newsvine. I am curious. Very curious. But he hasn't unwrapped it all the way. Patience grasshoppa!

Finally a renaissance in Hindi movies

Precious little has been mentioned here on Tiffinbox about the devastating earthquake to hit parts of Pakistan and India. I have been swamped at home and at work and have had little time to blog about anything. But when I have come up for air, I have read the likes of Jeffrey Zeldman (aka. CSS God), who says that not much is being done to help a whole lot of people who will be in deep shit this winter. What are you doing about it? What will I do about it? Money and effort, as Zeldman writes, may be what is necessary. Arriving from a journalism background, I would rather support the South Asian Journalism Association's reporting fellowship initiative so that journalists continue to report from South Asia well after the mainstream networks have left the scene.

The Worldwide Adobe Photoshop Competition

Change Me: The Power Of Imagery To Create Change This is a rockin' site where you can get involved. Your participation actually raises $500,000 for DATA (Debt, Aids and Trade in Africa).

PhotoshopTV. The folks who brought us Photoshop Radio are now dabbling online television. Pretty darn cool!

On the weekends, particularly on my drive into work, I listen to Weekend America

I really want to launch a “BLOG OF THE WEEK” feature here on Tiffinbox, but I now rarely stumble upon blogs that I like or have the time to read with great passion. There are some exceptions and I will list those out to you folks to sample from now on. Starting this off is Sean Coon's blog called connecting*the*dots. Clean design, simple writing, interesting stuff all around. And, no, he didn't pay me to plug his site. In fact, I don't even know him. Any more blogs you recommend we read?

Are you an anagram genius?

Get your Penguin Classics Library for a mere $8,000. That is for over 1,000 books. If you ask me, it's quite the bargain. Now to kill my television and have “nothing better to do” as one New Mexican woman put it.

New Year's is about two months away and my annual resolution has always been to diet and exercise with some moderation, so with Thanksgiving around the bend, I have food on my mind. And, lots of it.

Helping me out in this endeavor are two websites that have really whet my appetite. You should know about Sailaja Gedela's blog called Sailu's Food. She covers Indians recipes, home remedies and Ayurvedic cooking. She is just getting started so do be patient.

The other site is by a restaurant based in Dundee, Oregon called Sub Rosa. There is no physical address (just coordinates), unless of course you are specially invited to partake in the food. Its secret location is deliberate and makes it all the more alluring. Recently, writes Linda Lausmann (assuming she either runs the place or was a recent invitee), on the menu there was an entire Thanksgiving spread with an Indian twist. Check out the simple but mouth watering delicacies. They even have a short list of music they listened to when preparing and then later consuming the feast. Ok, Linda, next year when you do this, please send me an invite!

From Lori Epstein
Illustrations Editor, Children's Books
National Geographic Society

I'm writing to ask you to put up another posting for me, this time for a different holiday: Ramadan & Eid Al Fitr. I'm not sure if Deborah told you, but the Diwali book is one in a series of holidays that we're doing, the next is the Muslim holiday of Ramadan & Eid Al Fitr.

Guidelines:
I already have a lot of the basic photos, so I'm looking for ethnic diversity geographic diversity (UK, Australia, Europe, Americas would be excellent), color and emotion. School-aged kids are great, but different generations interacting together is good, too. And if you have a photo that's not on this wish list below, but meets this criteria above, I'd love to see it.

You can send me jpegs for review. My email address is lepstein@ngs.org. If an image makes it to the next round, I'll contact you for a high res or original.

I'm looking for images of kids celebrating Eid with other kids, with their parents, siblings & grand parents. Playing, lighting sparklers, eating fun foods, dancing, singing, etc. Again, we're looking for high-quality images with a global perspective and a lot of emotion.

I thank you in advance for your help with this project. I'm looking forward to hearing back from you and your colleagues.

Best,
Lori

Via Christine Wong, volunteer at Masur Museum in Monroe, Louisiana

Starting in December, the Masur Museum will hold a Chinese exhibitation entitled “Awakening the Dragon: China from Past to Present.” As part of our show, we would like to show photographs of modern day China, from it's people, culture, to modern cities and events. I was wondering if you know of any photojournalist who has a personal collection of such photographs that we could display during our exhibition. Of course, the photojournalist would get full credit, and we would cover the cost of shipping. Could you please send this notice to your AAJA members. Also, if you have any advice or suggestions for a source of photographs about China, please email me at wongrambo@peoplepc.com. Thank you for your help.

Steve Raymer is documenting the lives of the Indian diaspora. I took one class at Indiana University with Steve. I remember a note he took the time to write to me when I completed a documentary essay on Muslims in the Midwest. The word “resolve” kept popping up. Thanks Steve.

Brooks Jensen, LensWork's editor has some short and sweet audio blogs. Give them a listen!

World Press Photo celebrates 50 years

Object of Desire: Apple's Aperture [frm what I have read so far I might have to update my machine too]

Check out the controversial Border Film Project. What is your take on it? Send me your feedback.

If you are any where near Atlanta on December 2nd or 3rd, you should attend the legendary Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar.

Photo District News showcases 20 influential photographers [actually, there are a whole lot more than 20, click the nav bar below]

Andrea Bruce, an award winning photographer for The Washington Post spent some time in India. Varanasi is a natural draw. Do you sense a complete story in her most recent photo essay, Widows on the River?

Tied closely to Andrea's presence in the subcontinent is S. Mitra Kalita's reporting for the same paper. Mitra is also now blogging about her trip at India 2.0.