Summertime is rock concert season, when any act that can afford to be on the road rolls across the country to perform in theatres, clubs, parks and arenas. For music fans, even a bad rock show beats a good night of just about anything else. But every time I pass through a turnstile and have my $120 Ticketmaster ticket scanned by a uniformed guard, I can’t help but wonder: Who scrubbed my rock show clean?

 

Volumes have been written about George Washington, the father of our nation —  many of them, it turns out, by George Washington himself. Whenever he found a little time off from commanding regiments, crossing rivers and ratifying constitutions, the original George W. liked to log his random thoughts. History may remember him best as the nation’s first president, but he also deserves an honorary Webby for being America’s first blogger.

 

Are you too busy? Overscheduled and under-rested? Have you been that way all of your adult life, despite a nagging awareness that you could be a better, happier person by building in more downtime?

A thoughtful piece in NYT this weekend entitled The ‘Busy’ Trap reads like an enticement to cut the ties that bind.

 

There are two problems with people who live in New York City:
   1) They think New York is the center of the universe.
   2) They’re kind of right.

As artist Jason Polan can attest, it’s the people themselves that give the place a gravitational pull.  

After just three 3 minutes of flipping through fashion magazines, about half of all teenaged girls wish they were as thin as a model. Girls are consuming media —TV, Internet, mags, music and movies — at an average rate of 10 hours and 45 minutes per day. What's the cumulative effect? Who will America’s teenaged girls really grow up to be?

 

More than a third of all Americans believe UFO’s exist and about half the population is still undecided about who or what might be zooming around the night sky, according to a new poll by the National Geographic Channel. Yet we have no clear indications of alien visitation beyond Octomom and the last hairdo on Björk.

 

Alex Banayan has a formula for success, which he summarizes in The 5 Traits of Radically Successful People. Who is Alex Banayan, and why should you care? Fair question. Turns out he’s just another 19-year-old punk with a seat at a venture capital firm and a major book deal. Big whoop.

 

UPDATED 6/26/12

Not everyone thinks the Atlantic cover story on super moms, which we discussed here yesterday, is so super. The magazine is keeping readers updated on the debate so far, and has had the integrity to run rebuttals including a particularly cutting commentary by a fellow Atlantic writer. 

Being both a mom and a professional is possible — as long as you’re self-employed, super rich, or superhuman.

So says Anne-Marie Slaughter writing this month’s cover story for The Atlantic, an essay that aims to untangle the work-versus-family issues that have tied the first post-feminism generation of women up in knots. It’s a thought-provoking read for anyone with an hour and a half free of family and work to read about family and work.