Mrazek - framing exotica - are you sitting comfortably?

Gotta take risks to get the image you need:

There's a revealing warning reported in what is a really excellent book by Rudolph Mrazek (from 2002, called Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony (Princeton, Princeton University Press, on P. 108) where the author relates the story of a colonial era photographer of Indonesia who advises caution when necessarily using quite large 'doses' of flash powdor in the dark 'easily inflammable' native huts of the dyak people. In addition, he noted that insects, bacteria, sweat and "primitive people not accustomed to sitting still" are also difficulties for the colonial photographer. Awww.
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WPRM

Subscribe to WPRM_BRITAIN
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The people of the whole world are confronted with a global challenge by imperialism aiming to solidify and expand a world-wide empire. They have declared their right to use military force to intervene anywhere and everywhere, to destroy peoples and their lands, to slander the people's struggles as "terrorist" in order to legitimise snuffing out any resistance to their vicious military, political, and economic order.
The World People's Resistance Movement has been formed to help the struggles all over the globe flow together into a mighty torrent. The WPRM provides an international vehicle to promote and facilitate the world wide unity against imperialism. Today people of the world need to oppose the imperialist crusade carried out under the sign "war on terrorism".
The WPRM does not seek to supplant or compete with any other people's organisation on a national or international level. All those on the same side of the barricades are welcome.
Help us to build WPRM everywhere in the world. North and South, East and West, unite the people's struggles! http://www.wprm.org

Kennington and Oval

Today, avoiding real work that is piled up on my desk, and waiting on the gas inspector to check my pipes and tell me what I already know - ie that my listed Edwarding building is not allowed to have a gas boiler outlet sticking out where it does - for shame... well, I thought a leap into local history would redeem my (actually my landlord's) crimes against heritage listings... so I have been reading about the neighbourhood. Strange stuff, for example, I live on Kennington Park Road just down from the Oval - site of the first Ashes test (heh, cricket eh?) - where the following wartime incident from the VauxhallandKennington site amuses:

"The Oval Airman

There was an interesting incident near the Oval. The largest and last of the daylight raids on London took place on 15 September 1940. Over 180 German planes were shot down and a German airman, Robert Zehbe, baled out of his stricken Dornier bomber and landed in front of Alverstone House in Harleyford Road. Pieces of his plane came down elsewhere in central London, including in the forecourt of Victoria Station. Zehbe was attacked by a mob of furious women but was rescued by the police and driven across the Oval's turf and Vauxhall Bridge to the Millbank military hospital, where he died next day. There was a suggestion that he had been seriously injured by the Oval mob, but it is equally likely that he was badly injured before he landed.

Information about this incident was provided by historian Martin Smart. ... Pieces of the bomber are now in the RAF Museum, Hendon."

Its not all stirring battle of Britain/mob of furious women stuff though, reminding me that Kennington park is a site of all manner of horrors - used for hangings as well as political meetings, charged down by the police and corn law incidents, the Chartists, and, if you follow up the article I cite from here, you can find out all you need to know about Kennington:

"Fascinating information and stunning revelations including Public Executions,A Radical Black Methodist, The World's First National Labour Movement - The Chartists * the Significance of 10th April 1848 * The World's First Photograph of a Crowd * the Occupation of Our Common by the Royal Park * The Horns Tavern and Charlie Chaplin * The Princess of Wales Theatre * The Scandal of the Unmarked War Grave * The Squatters * 'Red Ted' * The Return of the Commons Spirit" - From Working Press: Kennington Park - birthplace of British democracy

and - pushing the political meetings theme a little:

"'Red Ted' Knight’s socialist council started the annual fireworks displays in the Park. By 1984 the park was again being used for political gatherings. The demonstrators on the Anti Apartheid Rally of that year used the park as an assembly point. In subsequent years the park has hosted many important political gatherings including; Gay Pride (starting 1986), National Union of Students (1986), Irish Solidarity Movement (1986), Vietnamese Community event (1989), Anti Poll Tax March (1990), Kurdistan Rally (1991), Integration Alliance (1993), TUC (1993), Nigerian Rallies (1993), Campaign Against Militarism (1993) and Reclaim the Streets (1997). These events often reflect key moments in the political history of the time and are an important part of the democratic process". From: Kennington Park - birthplace of British democracy

... well, there's lots more to write on this. For now I will just also go back to note that theunmarked war grave is now marked, however minimally. So minimally that I did not know that the south field of the park, where in summer people laze about not going to demos and where there is often a 'funfair', was also tragically the site of the largest single bomb loss of life in the Blitz when an air raid shelter was hit on 15 October 1940 (again from VauxallandKennington):

"The shelter was large enough to accomodate hundreds, and maybe thousands, of people, and it filled the whole of the south field in Kennington Park - the field opposite what is now the cafe. The outline of the buildings can still be seen from the air, especially when the ground is very dry - see the photo. But the shelter was an unpleasant place, and people only went there because the government stopped them going down into the nearby underground stations. One witness reported that “The public shelter was horrible, smelly. It had a mouldy slab of concrete for a roof. But you couldn’t go anywhere else - the Oval Station was full of barbed wire … they wouldn’t let you near it.”"

I've included the picture and you can indeed see the evidence - the ill-defined area to the south of the trench pattern shows where the bomb hit. There's more on the bombing here (a pdf file). More to read... And with this I give notice of the start of a thread, sort of, on wartime stories that I'll come back to soon so as to relate the adventures of grandfather Thomas Mouat Tate... Stay tuned...

Spectrum - I'll Be Gone (1971)

For Sunita Narayan

In solidarity with bookseller Sunita Narayan, this is from WTW:

"India: What is a “terrorist” book?

20 November 2006. A World to Win News Service. A contingent of 70 armed police invaded the Chandrapur Book Fair and surrounded the stall of the publisher Daanish Books 15 October. They made a list of some 200 books they found “objectionable” and “anti-national”. Among the authors were Clara Zetkin, Bhagat Singh, Che Guevara, Baburam Bhattarai, Li Onesto, Anand Swarup Varma and Vaskar Nandy. These books are not banned in India; they can usually be bought anywhere. Yet the police surrounded the bookstand for three hours. On the initiative of the Superintendent of Police, they returned the next day to seize 41 titles and arrest the owner, Sunita Narayan.

She was interrogated for 14 hours and finally charged under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a law passed two years ago when the new government came in that was presented as a step away from the widely hated (and US/UK-inspired) Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). The section under which she is charged states, “Whoever conspires or attempts to commit, or advocates, abets, advises or incites or knowingly facilitates the commission of, a terrorist act or any act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.” The authorities have made it very clear that her “terrorist act” was publishing progressive books.

Although Narayan was released three days later, after protests locally in the state of Maharashtra and on the national level, she was given written notice to present herself if and when the police summon her.

At a 20 October press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, a dozen independent publishers, half a dozen organizations and individuals condemned this arrest. In their statement, they pointed out that this was not an isolated incident:

“Similarly, a few weeks back, the performance of a play dealing with the history of Mumbai mills was forcibly stopped in Nagpur and the theatre group harassed.

“We are also concerned with the increasing menace of vigilantism by right wing groups in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa, and the tacit or open support provided to them by the state agencies. This spells danger to the free exchange of ideas and the freedom to read, write, publish, disseminate and perform.”

end item"

So now we at Goldies anticipate controversy over our Mao Workshop even though we are not selling any of these revolutionary books by old retired Naxals and Che etc - but we already had some curious mail, including from India wondering why we were doing a conference on Maoism (a journalist from The Telegraph). Timely though - yesterday I was slightly dismayed to see that already the publishing machine that is Slavoj Zizek is introducing a new edition of Mao's "On Contradiction" in January with Verso - in some small way our efforts will help prepare the ground for that I guess, and Verso will profit - I am remembering with poignancy that it was the Black Panthers 40 years ago today that sold the Little Red Book as a fundraiser... in these times commodification of Mao expands exponentially.

Come to our workshop. Details here.

Global Warming in New Cross??

Neil of New Cross writes on Notes from an Island (a forum that will no doubt be one of those blogs eventually bought up by the multinational corporation that is Lonely Planet - we should start writing the people's own travel guide now, beachfront development plans are clearly afoot...) ...

"Work
We like to think of the Island as a place which has abolished work, but the other day we did come across somebody in a fluorescent yellow jacket clearly engaged in paid employment there. He appeared to be counting the traffic passing the Island, with others of his colleagues sitting on the corner of Pepys Road doing the same. In a recent chat with Ken, landlord of The White Hart, we discovered that there is a proposal to change the traffic flow and possibly even join up the Island with the mainland by the pub. Presumably then it wouldn't be an Island anymore. We would be prepared to surrender this sovereignty in the interests of reducing traffic accidents, but only if the conditions on the Island can be extended to the New Cross mainland - no borders, no prisons, no violence, lots of flowers..."

Visit the Island, virtual tour.

Words of Advice For Young People

"The gadgets are gone!" - Burroughs Adding Machine Ad.

I have long been misguided by the wise counsel of Bull Lee, whether it be on school, school recess, or the world of gainful employment. Viddy these links below to see-hear his routines on America, world, atomics... the fight against control is sure to leave you in hearty cheer.

Thanksgiving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Z_08o108E

Cut ups yes hello
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrmw3Rr9SQM

Ah Pook nuke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-cGJDvOY4k

ah pook 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd8SESU8Xpw

Apocalypse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvB76AymiY


My favourite Burrough's quotes include (do the drawl):

"I don't know if its Marxist or not, but its the truth"

"We are all black centipedes at heart"

"Words of advice for young people"
(check this out on the Disposable Heroes mix on "Spare Ass Annie")

"A Johnson minds his own business"


The accompanying picture is of Grandpa Burroughs' 1954 version of the Adding Machine. The text says:

"Because it's built with a "memory," here's a calculator that does for you what a calculator should do. The all electric Burroughs Calculator with Memory Dials gives you instantaneous answers in one register, and automatically accumulates those answers in a second register (the Memory Dials) - for grand totals or net results. There's no rehandling of figures ...no chance for pencil and paper errors.
But that's not all. This new Burroughs calculator has the distinctive advantage of combining this answer - saving feature with the day in, day out advantages of a simplified, instant - action keyboard. The gadgets are gone! Every key is "live" and every key stroke counts. Finally, this truly extraordinary calculator has a very ordinary price tag. It's as easy to buy as it is to operate - just call your Burroughs man. Or write to Burroughs Corporation, Detroit, Mich".

Long Sunday

This blogger blogging on blogety bloggery is elegant at the end, and starts off with choice Teddy, the cuddly critic who is always super sharp, like the razor's used so well on Sunday Too Far Away.


short sunday long - by CR

jane dark's sugarhigh not only has some swift Adorno for us (especially good for LS) -

"The consciousness of the unfreedom of all existence, which the pressure of the demands of commerce, and thus unfreedom itself, does not allow to appear, emerges first in the intermezzo of freedom. The nostalgie du dimanche is not a longing for the working week, but for the state of being emancipated from it; Sunday fails to satisfy, not because it is a day off work, but because its own promise is felt directly as unfulfilled; like the English one, every Sunday is too little Sunday. The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday".

- but there's also a new term for us to learn today:

"The anxiety of having to pay the rent, having to show up for work on Monday, is now only a start. There is a new anxiety into which that anxiety now hemorrhages. It's no longer enough to find happiness is being always at work; that fades over the long Sunday. One must place that work within the space of flows, within the interlocking, competing and colluding organizations of interstatal politics and transnational capital, and this knowledge comes with a price: weltsystemangst, 'world system anxiety.'"

The pleasure of the world-wide accessibility of your texts. The sense that you type into Burma, Moscow, Brazil's backwater-ranches, Central Park West. The unbearably light weight of the whole that you move with your insomniac fingers. The job well down, everywhere all at once. And what drives it, what need it fulfills, what hole it fills.

The international-access - and international-labor - of the blog (especially as voluntary work) remains under-theorized...

Whatever. I must admit, I fantasize at times about international business travel. That I will be called to present in Sao Paolo, Cape Town, Copenhagen, and yes, above all, Shanghai. That it will be all Lost in Translation, all the way down. Laptoping myself towards the sublime.
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Skyhooks - Whatever Happened To The Revolution (Live, 1974)

And this...

Skyhooks - Horror Movie (1975)

The 'hooks - from the first countdown and they were the first band I ever saw live, though it was in Sydney the year before this. "Shocking me right out of my brain" (the lyrics for that album, Living in the Seventies, were all great, especially Toorak Cowboy).
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Gagarin grooves

This looks like space-fun for every day of the week, not just Sundays:

++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++
Sunday 19th November 6pm – 1am Radio Gagarin: Experiments in Sunday Socialism
+++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++
Notting Hill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate, London W126pm – 1a.m. £5.

London's only Balkan/Russian/ Baltic/Gypsy/Klez/ Mash/Thrash/ Trash/KULTURKlash!!!

Radio Gagarin's' bi-monthly Experiments in Sunday Socialism sessions fill Notting Hill Arts Club to overflowing with a tundra melting mix of live music, digital DJ prowess, performance art, east European cinema, poetry, puppetry, poverty, latkes, blinis and vodka. Live acts have included Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, Oi Va Voi, DJ Shantel, Sophie Solomon, Nayekovichi, Babar Luck, Mama Matrix, Luminescent Orchestrii, Geoff Berner, Ghetto Plotz & Mukka. The Commissar continues to pledge exclusive new music from DESTROYERS -100% Balkan Mania, EMUNAH …The Cut Chemist Crew of NW London' and The Langham Research Centre Musique Concrete, performance from Friends of Gagarin, Marxist-Leninist alienation from art/animation/video installations for the Proletariat from state artists Adrian Philpott & Cathy Gale; frozen vodka & rakiya galore and resident DKs (Dancefloor Komissars) Max Reinhardt & Misha Maltsev sweating it out in the Gypsy Diskoteka til' the road of excess has led us to the place of wisdom. Early evening come to feed your soul with autumnal home-cookin in the Kitschen and take a rest from your fight for Revolutionary Determinism for a few moments in the Kinodrom with new and classic shorts from Eastern Europe.
Co-Produced by YaD Arts / Adrian Philpott/ Oi Va Voi / The Shrine
For more info: tel 020 7629 5555
http://www.nottinghillartsclub.com/
www.moralsupport.org.uk/productions_FoG.html
www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin
www.marxists.org/archive/ trotsky/works

Transcult Brit...

This should possibly go in my what's on section, but as its also an 'interest' and a cite, its here.

Transcultural Britain is the 17th annual conference of the Association for the Study of British Cultures. Its held in Magdeburg at:

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität
Universitätsbibliothek (Gebäude 30)
lat:52°08'20"N long:11°38'50"E
[I do like that they broadcaast their location in the way that boats signal distress!]

The rubric for the conference begins: "More often than not, discussions of multicultural Britain have focused on ethnic minorities and migrant or diasporic communities in their difference from and – tense or productive – relation to the dominant 'white' British culture. However, what exactly does that presumed core culture consist of? Does 'British culture' really exist as that self-enclosed, autonomous formation which its advocates try to propagate? Has it ever existed in history? Our conference starts from the assumption that Britishness has emerged through histories of cultural transactions with multiple others: colonial, Celtic, continental, trans-Atlantic, diasporic ... These others were, and are, constitutive in the process of consolidating the myth of a purist national culture that paradoxically has, at least from the Renaissance onwards, continuously been characterised by the incorporation of 'foreign' cultural inputs. Britishness, in short, is itself fundamentally hybrid. However, one of the most striking responses to this condition seems to consist in the intensification of efforts at re-essentialising cultural identities in terms of 'race', ethnicity, religion, region, nationality".

My talk for it is:

Topic: "Diasporic Music in a Time of War: from the trade in hybridity to the tirade of Terror"

Abstract: A discussion of new work by diasporic world music stalwarts Fun-da-mental and the drum and bass outfit Asian Dub Foundation, relating to insurgency struggles, anti-colonialism and political freedom in the UK. The presentation will argue for an engaged critique of "culture" and assess a certain distance or gap between political expression and the tamed versions of multiculturalism accepted by/acceptable in the British marketplace. Examples from the music industry reception of 'difficult' music and creative engagement are evaluated in the context of the global terror wars.
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Sputnik Monroe

I had to repost this from comrade Renegade-Eye - I normally never notice wrestling news (that will surprise some of you) but its a sport with heros, and here clearly is one of them. Good for Elvis-Sputnyk-pretty boy - etc etc.

And so thanks Renegade Eye for the obituary - sure its sad to only hear of him now the old bloke has gone, but still instructive, and he does look a bit like my dad...

"Afro-Americans in Memphis often have three portraits hanging in their homes, Jesus, Martin Luther King and wrestler Sputnik Monroe.

The wrestling legend who was born with the name Rocco Monroe DiGrazio, died on Friday in a Florida nursing home at 78 years old. He had been ill several years, including having half of his lungs removed. His father by blood died in an airplane crash before he was born. His mother remarried, and at 17 years old, he became Rock Monroe Brumbaugh.

His first wrestling name was Pretty Boy Roque, when he started grappling in 1945. His first gimmick was using the name Elvis Rock Monroe. If you say it fast it is Elvis Rock-N-Roll. Once on the way to a booking, he picked up an Afro-American hitchhiker, and brought him to the arena, where he was wrestling. He was walking arm and arm with him. A racist fan saw that, and called him names. The wrestler kissed the Afro-American hitchiker on the lips. The worse thing she could call him was Sputnik. It was the time the Russians sent Sputnik into space. The promoter kept the Sputnik name, for cold war heat reasons.

It was wrestling in 1957 Memphis, Tennessee where he made history. Until the late 1960s, professional wrestling in the southern USA, was segregated. Afro-Americans only wrestled others. The Afro-American fans sat in the bleachers. According to National Public Radio "Sputnik wasn't about to change anything about himself but his name. He continued to build friendships within the black community, and soon had a huge following. He was a heel, or a bad guy in wrestling parlance, but to his fans, he was a hero. Walking into the ring at Ellis Auditorium in downtown Memphis, he would be booed by many whites, but as soon as they were finished, Sputnik would turn to the top seats, the segregated top balcony, raise his arms, and bring down a groundswell of cheers. Sputnik wanted more of his fans to get into the auditorum, so he bribed a door attendant to miscount the number of African Americans admitted. Soon, there was no place else to sit but in the white section. Whether fans were black or white, promoters could see nothing but green, and with little fanfare, seating at Ellis Auditorium was integrated. Later, he tag-teamed with an African American, Norvell Austin. Many fans said it was the first time they ever saw a black wrestler in the ring."

His 1959 feud with Billy Wicks, set attendance records in Memphis that were never broken until recently.

His work against segregation was honored by the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum. They have one of his ring outfits on display

Sputnik was an authentic tough guy who boxed, wrestled in carnivals and in arenas. He had his last match at near 70 years old. He never left an opponent feeling better after a match with him. He made Memphis better.

Addendum: In the 1960s on television was a western called "Bat Masterson", starring Gene Barry. He was a gambler, and outlaw fighter who wore a derby and carried a cane and a Derringer pistol. Sputnik was in attendance, when the actor was doing a personal appearance. The wrestler took the cane, and broke it".

See: Sputnik Monroe on NPR

RENEGADE EYE
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DisOrient X

You've read about some of this on my main site which is called Trinketization so I'm also posting it here just to try to achieve blanket coverage in my own claustromaniac world. Details in text and on the flyer as jigged by the design team that is Anamik Saha.

Dis-Orient X - friday 17 November

Ten years after the book Dis-Orienting Rhythms: the Politics of the New Asian Dance Music (zen books 1996) we've decided to have a party (or a wake) and discuss, and dance, about the new world disorder.

Workshop Goldsmiths Cinema - 3pm - 6pm

speakers - Sonia from ADFED, Anamik Saha of Goldsmiths, Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk, Aki Nawaz showing the new Fun-da-mental video, & panel discussion chaired by Ash Sharma...
finish 6pm

Then...

From 7.30pm (after hungry folks have eaten at a local diner):

Dis-Orient X club night New Cross Inn 7.30 - 12.

New Cross Inn is on New Cross Rd next to "the venue"
with Aki Nawaz from Fun-da-mental and SPARK! on the decks

- a benefit for the 1857 Indian war of Independence Commemoration Committee
(donation at the door)

All welcome
(special discount offer on the controversial F-D-M album "ALL IS WAR" on the night)

Come along. Bring friends.
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BSG Circles

You'll find lots of interesting stuff on Ange's blog 'Sometimes', but I must confess I was surprised to find she's a BSG fan - her compendium/aggregation of BSG posts from elsewhere is the best I've seen.
Check: here

But these sorts of interests can cause havoc in the US - here my good friend Ted gets grief from the Right in Arkansas. Ted is a prospective BSG fan, a 'post-terrorist' (!!!) apparently, and he posts as frequently as I do about FDM.
Point your RSS reader at: this.
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Ashis "ahast" but having fun

English, the Mother Goddess
By Shashwati on History

A rather vivid account of Lord Macauley’s 206th birthday celebration in the Indian Express. The event was organized by Dalit leader Chandrabhan Prasad, which included the unveiling of a portrait of English, the Mother Goddess:

Dalit poet Parak sang a couplet to the portrait - a refashioned Statue of Liberty, wearing a hippie hat, holding a massive pink pen, standing on a computer, with a blazing map of India in the background - "Oh, Devi Ma/ Please Let us Learn English/ Even the dogs understand English", to cheers and laughter, even as Lord Macaulay’s portrait, looking the perfect English buccaneer, gazed below.

Alas, I haven’t been able to find an image of the portrait. Prasad’s reveres Macauley because:

…his insistence to teach the “natives” English broke the stranglehold of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic teaching, a privilege of only the elite castes and, he argued,for the European kind of modern education, with focus on modern sciences. “Imagine, if we had only followed indigenous study,’’ said Bhan, “we would be like Afghanistan or Nepal today.’’……“Today, English-speaking Dalits and Adivasis are less disrespected, therefore, empowered by Goddess English, Dalits can take their place in the new globalised world.’’

An interesting contrast to the view of Hindu Nationalists, for whom “Macaulay’s Children” is a favored insult for members of the English speaking Indian intelligentsia:

"They are not real people, but zombies programmed by Macaulay to act like the Caliban, the slave".

Much as I enjoy the irony of using Shakespeare to advance the Hindutva agenda, I am much more inclined to sympathize with Ashis Nandy who seems to have had a jolly time at the party:

“I certainly do not agree with some of Bhan’s thesis,’’ said an aghast Nandy, “but I certainly support every oppressed community or individual’s right to pick up any weapon, be it political, academic or intellectual incorrectness, to fight the establishment. It’s the sheer audacity of it that makes it so forceful.’’

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Iwo Jima outrage

In respect of the white-washed sands of Iwo Jima (suburb of Hollywood, made by Clint into a fantasy space where all American heros are John Wayne clones, an ideological confit that is ever so totally unrealated to Vietnam/Iraq type losses and the national trauma that arises therefrom). That historical cliches can be reworked with white actors only (director says 'its true to the book' - which makes us wonder about the director not just the book, right?). Anyway, its an outrage, but angular as ever, this post from Shashwati makes some really good connections:


Unknown Soldiers
I have been on the National Archives web page for the last couple of days, researching films and photos. While looking around, I found this photo:



“Rickshaws are almost as common in India as they are in China. Some of the…troops are on their way to see `Tarzan’s New York Adventure’—in India…”
African American soldiers going to see a Tarzan film in Calcutta. What can you say about that? It was interesting to find this in conjunction with the rumbles about the new Clint Eastwood film about the battle for Iwo Jima, where the absence of Black soldiers has been noticed by those who took part in it, like Sgt. McPhatter:

…almost 900 African-American troops took part in the battle of Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter…..”Of all the movies that have been made of Iwo Jima, you never see a black face,” said Mr McPhatter. “This is the last straw. I feel like I’ve been denied, I’ve been insulted, I’ve been mistreated. But what can you do? We still have a strong underlying force in my country of rabid racism.”

And here is a tidbit about the newsreel footage from that time, from auhor Melton McLaurin:

“One of the marines I interviewed said that the people who were filming newsreel footage on Iwo Jima deliberately turned their cameras away when black folks came
by….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 1:10 am

I WANT MORE Korean frisson/fission

Thanks to Sarah for pointing this one out. Its a bomb!
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'Combating Terrorism by Countering Radicalisation'

Comrades,

For information purposes (or should that be dis-informations proposals) ... Regarding meetings in British Universities to discuss new gov.terror research programs. Our very own Camelot, yet again.

Meanwhile, today even the Generals are talking mutinous talk it seems, perhaps....

J

> Dear all,
>
>
> This is the information relating to the third item on the agenda that
> I have just circulated. Some of you know about this already, but now
> that the scheme is coming to fruition and projects are to be funded, I
> think that it is essential that we discuss and reflect on the implications
> of these developments. The matter has been raised with me most recently by
> Martha Mundy, David Seddon and Glen Bowman, and
> Martha and David have already taken up the issues with the UK Middle
> Eastern Studies Association. I have copied in a circular letter that
> Martha has drafted on the problems that the scheme and its mode of
> implementation pose. David attended one of the by invitation meetings to
> which Martha refers yesterday. It was sparsely attended and pertinent
> questions from david and other participants did not produce satisfactory
> responses or assurances from the Programme Director or ESRC officials. If
> you read Martha's letter and then examine the attached ESRC call for
> proposals and supporting country/region documents, then I think the scale
> of the problems this poses (from conception to execution) will become all
> too painfully apparent.
>
> I would like to promote as wide awareness and discussion as possible
> of this and other manifestations of the "war against terror's" increasing
> influence on academic life (such as the presence of security personnel at
> academic events), so you might want to distribute this to other members of
> staff and maybe discuss it formally before the 28th. I will be happy to
> write to ESRC and AHRC expressing our collective views, perhaps on the
> lines that Martha has already laid out, but assuming that the scheme goes
> ahead as planned that is not likely to be the end of the matter and we
> really do need to consider the deeper and longer term implications
>
> All the best
>
> John
>
>
> Martha's letter:
>
>
> Dear Colleague,
>
> You will find below and in attachment information received by email
> concerning an FCO-AHRC-ESRC research programme entitled 'Combating
> Terrorism by Countering Radicalisation'. For three major reasons this
> initiative promises to be very damaging to the reputation of British
> academic research: because of the design of the programme itself, because
> of the risk to researchers working overseas it entails, and because of the
> lack of transparency in the sponsorship and selection process. I am
> therefore asking you, after reading the appended material, either to write
> yourself to the funding councils or to indicate back to me that you share
> the concerns outlined below and would like to pursue a collective
> response.
>
> Let me briefly summarize the three sets of problems raised by the
> initiative.
>
> 1) The programme entails a series of extremely specific
> intelligence-driven questions that start from the premise of a link between
> Islam, radicalisation (nowhere defined!) and terrorism. It is
> the role of academic research to provide good basic knowledge of the
> various regions; this requires relatively free funding for research, on
> which, of course, intelligence reports will in turn draw. But this
> programme puts the cart before the horse, even on its own terms, and will
> result in poor scientific knowledge about the regions, countries and
> phenomena that the programme identifies as central. Scholars need to
> enjoy a degree of intellectual independence and self-guidance that this
> programme does not allow.
>
> 2) In many of the countries and regions specified in the programme, a
> researcher who attempted on the ground - not from an office-chair in the
> United Kingdom - to conduct research into the questions posed by the
> programme could be placed in physical danger either from local religious or
> nationalist actors or from the relevant state governments themselves. In a
> context where the international reputation of the United Kingdom
> (following recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon) is poor,
> funding British researchers to pursue an overtly security-research agenda
> abroad is likely to endanger perhaps not just their reputation but also
> their physical well-being. As Doctoral Programme Director in the
> Anthropology Department of the LSE I regularly countersign the
> ethics and risk-assessment statements of our doctoral researchers. Should
> they propose research of the kind required by this programme in a country
> such as Nigeria or Sudan (two of the selected countries), it would be
> contrary to my professional ethics to ignore the possible risk the
> doctoral candidate would face. Presumably the programme was written by
> security studies experts who have little or no experience of field
> research in the areas Dear of South-East, Central and South Asia, The Arab
> World, and relevant African countries concerned by the
> initiative. In relation to both the current world-class status of British
> research and the personal security of researchers in the field, this
> initiative is problematic as potentially threatening both.
>
> 3) Inquiries to the ESRC by Professor David Seddon reveal that this
> programme has not been openly advertised but was designed by an invited
> group of academics meeting July 10th ; on October 12th/13th meetings are
> to be held in London and Edinburgh to which certain academics are invited
> (I myself happen to be on the list presumably because I was
> major panel member for the Arabic Language funding initiative of the two
> councils last year). Closing date for proposals will be November 8th and
> decision will be forthcoming in January, a 'Commissioning Panel of
> academic and user experts to be convened' [see attached Call for
> Proposals.doc]. The programme is not to be openly advertised; rather,
> selected applicants are to be invited to proceed with final applications
> for the funding. Apparently the funding derives largely from the Foreign
> Office and the AHRC. Given this fact, it would be appropriate
> that Foreign Office (as the US State Department has done in offering
> research grants) take over the direct administration of the programme.
> Such a programme should be neither funded by, nor administered through,
> the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social
> Research Council, as it violates the principles of open advertisement
> and transparent competition which guarantee the excellence and independence
> of British council-funded research. If the Foreign Office believes that
> programme is in its interest, then it should administer the grants itself,
> and academics choosing to participate can do so under that body. But the
> rest of British university research overseas and the good practices of the
> funding councils must be safeguarded against direct association with
> intelligence-gathering exercises.
>
>
> Martha Mundy
> Reader in Anthropology
> London School of Economics>
_______________________________________________
[note: I have not yet seen the 'attached call for proposals.doc, funnily enough -J]
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Multicultural Encounters

Sanjay's book is out. Yaaay - congratulations Sanjay - this is great.

'Multicultural Encounters provides a unique insight into the complexities of teaching a multicultural curriculum in today's university. Sanjay Sharma's book is a crucial resource for all those who aspire to a theoretically informed but practically achievable anti-racist pedagogy.' - Professor Les Back, Goldsmiths College University, UK

Description
Multicultural Encounters develops a radical cultural and media studies by confronting the challenge of difference for rethinking everyday multiculture. It proposes both a theory and practice of a critical pedagogy of popular culture through an analysis of contemporary media and film. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars committed to a critical practice for transforming the politics of representation and otherness.

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
PART 1: EDUCATING IDENTITY
Introduction: What's Wrong with Multiculturalism?
Borders, Agency and Otherness
Teaching Difference: Representation and Rhizomes
PART 2: MULTICULTURAL PRAXIS
Reading Racial Crisis
Critical Practice: 'Minor-Popular' Film
Diaspora Pedagogy: Working with British-Asian film
Epilogue: the Problem with Pedagogy
Notes
Bibliography
Index

£45.00 - 1403935564

Author Biographies
SANJAY SHARMA teaches at the School of Social Sciences and Law, Brunel University, UK. He has published in the areas of multiculturalism, anti-racism, diaspora youth cultures and is the co-editor of Dis-Orienting Rhythms: Politics of Asian Dance Music.


[Its hardcover so it costs bit (makes me want to suggest people go for the five finger discount if you see it in a shop like Borders - but not from any decent shops K)]

1857.org.uk - Commemorate the 150th anniversary of 1857 uprising from a peoples perspective

The 1857 uprisings were a part of the war of national liberation in South Asia
· India and South Asia are still going through this struggle
· We need to link the history of our people to what is happening today

Aims and Objectives

· Commemorate the 150^th anniversary of 1857 uprising from a peoples perspective

· Organise a series of events and activities around 1857 uprising

The themes that we wish to promote through these events and activities include:

· Historical significance of the 1857 uprising in South Asia and Internationally.

· The significance and implications of 1857 uprising to contemporary events and struggles in South Asia and Internationally

· The significance and affect of the 1857 uprisings to the UK and its reactions then and its reactions to current events now:

o anti colonialism

o anti terror issues.

4) What were the affects of 1857 uprisings on culture, then and now, and what can we learn from them.

5) Why celebrate the 1857 events in South Asia

· It is one of the first struggles against colonialism and imperialism and it represented a focal point for the struggles that developed subsequently against colonialism and imperialism in South Asia and internationally. In today’s context it bears similarities to the global events of today and the struggle against re-colonisation and imperialism.

4) Plans and activities for the Commemoration

a) Publication

We agreed to produce a publication. This would be a final piece that would be launched at the public event in Sept/Oct 2007. The publication will follow our set objectives and themes

b) Films on 1857

Organise films that we can take around to events that are happening around the UK. These could also be shown at the public event.

c) Exhibition

Prepare an exhibition that we can take around to events that are happening around the UK. A suggested theme was to do a comparison between 1857 and 2007.

d) Website

Launch a website which will host all materials which support our objectives and themes. It is anticipated that the website will encompass a discussion forum and allow contributions from others.

e)Cultural Aspects

The group agreed that it will also explore cultural aspects to the 1857 uprisings. These could then be encompassed within other activities.

Final Day Event marking the 1857 in October 2007 –

This would be a multi-venue and transnational event encompassing countries from South Asia, Britain and possibly other South Asian settlements in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australia. .

We would like to hear from all peoples in participating or contributing to the commemoration. Contact us to help and or join the committee. Next meeting of the Committee is organised for the 15^th October 2006 at the SOAS details to be available soon.

Visit www.1857.org.uk

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News from the makers of 'Injustice'

News from the makers of 'Injustice' - the radical feature length documentary film about the struggles for justice by the families of people that have been killed by the police in the UK. www.injusticefilm.co.uk

1. 'INJUSTICE' CD - now available!
The INJUSTICE music CD was launched successfully in London and Birmingham recently (a report of the event will be up on http://www.4wardever.org/ soon!). The final line-up includes shortMAN, Princess Emmanuelle, Hillz Yungsterz , Aricka Douglas & Dub Judah , Yaz Alexander, Jimmy Chiozo, Ebele, WattsRiot feat. Scalper & Mr. Sparkes , Dee, Warhouse, The Tribunes feat. Judy Green & Poetic Justic, Lowkey and Sebastian Jamison. The CD will help raise the profile of the family campaigns for justice, after its launch there will be a touring 'Injustice Roadshow' with the Injustice film, family campaign speakers and live performances from the artists. The aim of the tour is to organise, raise awareness and raise funds to support the different family campaigns.

The CD includes some radical rap, hip-hop, roots, spoken word, r&b and much more! If you can help with distribution of the CD or want to host the road show then contact: info@injusticefilm.co.uk The CD is available through our website at http://www.injusticefilm.co.uk/ as well as in record shops in Birmingham, London and beyond.


2. Special screenings of 'Injustice'Its now five and a half years since Injustice was launched and the film continues to be screened on a regular basis and continues to ahve an impact! In this month alone there are six screenings planned. Details of all public screenings are on the website www.injusticefilm.co.uk

Every year we screen the film to school children as part of National Schools Film Week.
If you know of any schools in the South London area they can see the film free as follows:
17th October 2006 Ritzy Cinema, Coldharbour Lane, LONDON, SW2
10.00am schools only screening followed by Q&A with families & film maker.

Please note this screening is for National Schools Film Week and is not open to the public.
Schools wanting bookings please call: 020 7439 4880 www.nsfw.org
A big thanks to Film Education who organise NSFW for their continuing support.


3. INJUSTICE DVD - translation help needed.We are preparing a new DVD which will include 'Injustice' as well as extras covering reports on the film and the family campaigns. We are looking for people that can translate the film into German, Arabic and Farsi.
Get in touch if you can help info@injusticefilm.co.uk


4. United Families & Friends Campaign Annual ProcessionThe United Families & Friends Campaign invites all to this year's Remembrance Procession in memory of those who have died in police custody, in prison and in psychiatric care.

Saturday 28 October 2006
Rally at Trafalgar Square, Central London
€ Assemble at 1pm for a march to Downing Street.Nearest tube: Charing Cross
Further details: http://www.uffc.org/ or read the following article: www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?i=2296


5. United Families & Friends Campaign leaflet available
UFFC, with the support of the Churches Commission for Racial Justice, has recently launched a new leaflet about their struggles for justice. If you can help distribute these leaflets let us know and we can get the leaflets to you. info@injusticefilm.co.uk or call 07956 629 889

To read about other Migrant Media productions log onto http://www.injusticefilm.co.uk
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[pic is of Jasmine Elvie, mother of Brian Douglas]
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Trinketisation in The Statesman - Lahiri

Durga in THEMELAND - 5 october 2006

The attempt to package a spiritual experience often finds the goddess getting lost in a crowd of disparate ideas, connected at random without any attention to the religious narrative. Ranabir Lahiri writes on how mass tourism has blurred the line between the fake and the real

The trinketisation of ethnicity and folk culture is widespread in the theming of Durga Puja in Bengal. This cultural addition has been immensely popular to tourists. Nowhere in the world has the sacred space of a people been so thoroughly invaded to turn it into a huge spectacle without origin, without history. There are only multiple themes and motifs that displace the traditional image of Durga. Devi is truly lost in a crowd of disparate themes, connected at random without any attention to the central religious narrative. The theme puja has turned out to be the most subversive of popular cultural practices by foregrounding and commodifying the spectacle.

.Link

.

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Rogue Celebrity - more glitches in the system (3 cheers)

"The Arrogant, the Misguided and the Cowards: Out of Iraq, Out with Bush"

By Sean Penn

We the people of the United States have a unique opportunity. We can show each other and the world that what the Bush administration claims is their mission is not ours. And, by leading our country as a citizenry and demanding of our government an immediate end to our own military and profit investments in Iraq, display for the entire world that democracy is a government of the people.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15218.htm
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China Power Serpentine (Assembly reprise)

This Serpentine event looks pretty great. But there's a double take involved at the end - the invite says 'photography not allowed/wear waterproof clothing' - are the developers gonna hose us down to wreck our plans to snap and blog the latest China craze? I've written before (The Assembly catelogue) about the ways 'art' marks space for regeneration projects, but this old joint built to scale after that famous Pink Floyd album cover ('what Jimmy, you say there once was proper industrial work done there - hard to believe') has been pretty important - especially as the set for the film version of "Richard the Third" - winter of discontent indeed, Ian McKellen's best role...

Anyways. This looks worth a look...:

8 October – 5 November 2006

Serpentine Gallery presents China Power Station: Part 1 at Battersea Power Station

Co-produced by The Red Mansion Foundation

Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 7pm. Admission £5

A major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art, architecture and sound
Site and exhibition tours, tea room, shopping, events

For five weeks this autumn, the Serpentine Gallery will take up residence in Battersea Power Station with a presentation of Chinese culture.

China Power Station: Part I is a unique opportunity to visit the iconic Battersea Power Station before it is redeveloped. It will also be the first chance to see the work of an extraordinary and vibrant new generation of Chinese artists and architects installed at this remarkable site.

Battersea Power Station echoes post-industrial art venues in China and the works on show have been chosen to activate the enormous scale of its spaces. The exhibition will be filled with sound and moving images, arguably the most prolific and strongest type of work being created in China today. There are three floors to visit and the art will engage with each of these distinct areas. … This is the Serpentine Gallery’s first large scale, off-site exhibition project. It will embrace and celebrate the power of the building as well as the buoyant developments in Chinese contemporary culture. ./snip…

We recommend wearing waterproof clothing

Photography is not permitted

Link

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Patti

I've been trawling about wanting to find some sort of confirmation of the glorious rumour that media baron William Randolph Hearst (and his gun-toting, John Waters' films cameo starring, socialite grand-daughter) was somehow tied up with the ongoing presence of an American Naval base - and dastardly prison/detention/concentration camp we know as Guantanamo - on Cuba. What is the US doing on Cuba at all? Fidel must have a view on this.

Then I found: Robert Rodvik, who writes:

"Without going through its many Articles, the one that interests me the most is the infamous Article VII - the piece of US-inspired legalese that maintains sovereignty in US hands, rather than the suggested moral goodness of US declaration. As stated in Article VII: "To enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the Cuban Government will sell or lease to the Unites States the land necessary for coaling or naval stations, at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States. On June 12, 1901 the Platt Amendment was added to the Cuban constitution since, to resist, was to declare that pacification had not ended and US troops to stay indefinitely.
This Article of legislation forced upon the Cuban people was the key to establishing the massive US Naval Station Guantanamo."

Old old stuff, now turned into new nasty stuff. Same as it ever was.
.

Comic site of note

http://catandgirl.com/view.php?loc=3

Irwin memorial tickets predicted to sell out in minutes

There is a sting in the tail in this report from the Australian Broadcasting Commission:

'Police expect tickets for Steve Irwin's public memorial service to be allocated within minutes when they become available this morning at9am AEST.

Hundreds of people have been queuing throughout the night at Ticketek outlets in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and Australia Zoo in south-east Queensland.

There is a four-ticket per person limit on the tickets and a headcount by police has confirmed that all of the tickets at AustraliaZoo have now been accounted for.

Five-and-a-half-thousand tickets are being made available for thepublic farewell that will be held at the Zoo's Crocoseum next Wednesday.

Jay-Anne Hughes was first in line at Maroochydore's Ticketek office.

"I wanted to guarantee that we would we were able to go on Wednesdayand I was actually supposed to be having a baked dinner at my mum'shouse, but I saw it on the news that people had started lining up soI missed the baked dinner and shot down here and luckily I was herebefore anyone," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1741527.htm

Disappeared In America

Worth a look, the day after Sept 11 is this project by Visible Collective.

The Gap in New York is also a bit of a rabbit hole:

Disappeared In America:

"DISAPPEARED is a project by Visible Collective/Naeem Mohaiemen that uses films, installations, & lectures to trace migration impulses, hyphenated identities and post-9/11 security panic. The majority of migrants detained in recent security hysteria were from the invisible underclass of cities like New York-- the shadow citizens who drive our taxis, deliver our food, clean our restaurant tables, and sell fruit, coffee, and newspapers. The only time we "see" them is when we glance at the hack license in the taxi partition, or the ID card around the neck of a vendor. When detained and deported, they cease to exist in the American consciousness. This desire to create a sinister outsider with dubious "loyalty" has a long pedigree, witness the World War I incarceration of German-Americans; the 1919 detention of 10,000 immigrants in the Anarchist bomb scare; the 1941 internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans; the trial and execution of the Rosenbergs; the HUAC "red scare" under Senator McCarthy; the harrassment of Deacons For Defense; the COINTELPRO infiltration of Black Panthers; and the continuing rise of the Minutemen militia.

CURRENT INTERVENTIONS Until Dec 1: Above Ground @ Tenement Museum, New York. September: State Of Emergency New York.

Various excerpts from our ongoing projects were presented as installations or lectures in New York (2006 Whitney Biennial; Queens Museum of Art; "Rule of Law" @ Broadway Gallery; Rubin Museum; Location One; Brecht Forum; "Knock @ The Door" South Street Seaport; Cooper Union Art & Censorship panel; "Detained" @ Asian American Arts Center), London (Performance Studies International), Liverpool (FACT Museum), San Francisco (Yerba Buena), Dhaka (Bengal Gallery; Public library), Delhi (Sarai Center/RAQS Media Collective), Houston ("How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?" @ Project Row House), Frankfurt (Staedelschule: "Politics of Image"), Stuttgart, Beirut (Home Works III), Karlskrona Military Museum, Berlin (KunstWerke: lecture by Natasa Petresin as part of e-flux video rental project), Chicago (Artwallah), Amherst (U Mass Amherst), Stockholm (Finnish Embassy), Manchester (Futuresonic), Belgrade, Helsinki (Kiasma Museum; Finlandia Hall) and e-Flux video library (various cities). While our work started in the American context, we have expanded to look at Europe & the Middle East, in recognition that anti-migrant xenophobia, coupled with Islamophobia, is not a new or uniquely American phenomenon. "
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Erowid Nitrous Vault : The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide, by William James

Alexander Bard of BwO fame/glory (and formerly of Army of Lovers) also runs a list called philosophy that while often dormant, is sometimes great. This gem found by Rasmus Fleischer provides an intriguing text, excerpted below, by William James on alcohol, nitrous oxide and Hegel. James writes: "Now this, only a thousandfold enhanced, was the effect upon me of the gas: and its first result was to make peal through me with unutterable power the conviction that Hegelism was true after all..."
It really is worth looking up the whole thing, but one wild para tickled my funny bone...

Erowid Nitrous Vault : The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide, by William James:

"What's mistake but a kind of take?
What's nausea but a kind of -usea?
Sober, drunk, -unk, astonishment.
Everything can become the subject of
criticism -- how criticise without something to criticise?
Agreement --
disagreement!!
Emotion -- motion!!!
By God, how that hurts! By God, how
it doesn't hurt! Reconciliation of two extremes.
By George, nothing but
othing!
That sounds like nonsense, but it's pure onsense!
Thought much
deeper than speech...!
Medical school; divinity school, school! SCHOOL! Oh my God, oh God; oh God!

The most coherent and articulate sentence which came was this:


There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference. "

- James, William. "Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide." Mind. 1882; Vol 7.

This reverie in itself is great; the defence of Hegel an added bonus, I guess, if indeed you need to defend Hegel while gassing up.
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recent questions of note

------------ Forwarded Message ------------
Date: 07 September 2006 12:35 +0100
From: Anna Shaw @ sotelevision.co.uk
To: anthropology@gold.ac.uk
Subject: Tv Enquiry

Dear Anthropology Department,

I am contacting you from a television production company and I was wondering if you might be able to help me. I am developing a series for Channel 4 with our presenter, Justin Lee Collins, exploring unusual and fascinating communities. In a similar vein to the Louis Theroux programmes, it will be more a comedy anthropology series. I thought it would be advisable to contact the experts first off, to find out whether you feel there are any groups of people who would be suitable for such a programme. There is nothing more unbearable than when tv crews charge into remote communities for all the wrong reasons. Any advice or direction you could give me would be invaluable.
Many thanks and best wishes,
Anna Shaw

Ha ha - So Television. Great letter - [my italics].

This person should first make a programme about anthropologists - a strange remote community.

Then make one about TV executives who come up with stupid ideas like
making 'comedy anthropology' programmes.

Can you imagine what the planning meeting on this one was like?

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

J

words of advice for young people... from Mars...

My the world is strange #133....

I got this email below out of the blue a few days ago. Its pretty wild to be thinking, as I am now, of doing something more creative with sound, and indeed I do have a fantasy of some sort of Uncle Bill Burroughs type adventure, but with Mao and hip hop. This label could be ideal - they have some good stuff out already. Would love to do something with Fun^da^mental using some of the texts from my Marx/Representation/Cultural Politics course with acoustic hip hop spoken word mash up. But as its just this surprise letter that suggests the idea, I doubt there would be time to get anything together, or if it would eve remotely work. Actually, I think the idea is totally crazed. So I like it....

>>>Dear John

I've been meaning to contact you since Zoe Irvine
waxed lyrical about you and your work to me earlier this year.

To cut a long question short - do you perform stuff live? Would you be interested in
recording a live set for my strange online label Seven Things http://www.seventhings.co.uk/) at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, preferably 45 mins long, at somepoint on the 18th Nov this year?

We're running a sort of day-long gig at the festival with people like Alessandro Bosetti / Adam Linson / John Butcher playing and recording forus. If in principle this might be of interest, please do let me know and we can talk more about exactly what you might wish to do, with whom, and what the involvement with Seven Things would entail.

With all best wishes
John Harris
Director
--
Seven Things I Daren't Express Ltd
Alison House12 Nicolson Square Edinburgh EH8 9DF UK
http://www.seventhings.co.uk/

Shine Media

Shine Media:

"Orange Life - Latest Issue
Summer 2006: Space for Ourselves
Features:
Revolutionary Tourism
When Nepal does appear in our newspapers and on TV, it's usually to show Himalayan landscapes and Sherpas, complete with references to Shangri-La (the earthly paradise found in a lost Tibetan valley, imagined in James Hilton's 1933 novel, Lost Horizon). Recent political turmoil in Nepal has however brought other images to the forefront: strikes and curfews, the King forced to reopen parliament, a new prime minister, protests in the streets. But in either case, the representation of Nepal raises questions about our perceptions of faraway places, filtered through the lens of our media-driven preconceptions."

- a commissioned piece in the Canadian mag "Orange Life" I did ages back - for some reason I have had a lot of trouble trying to get copies delivered. If they did not seem so nice (Canadians!) I'd be thinking they were deserving of a visit from some tough Mountie type who'd go round their place and duff em up with his sharp hat.
.

What are those things for?

I was asked just recently about the purpose/function/mechanics of those 'subscribe to this' lines that appear at the bottom of the page here, and on the sidebar in my main "diary thing" (called Trinketization where you can also subscribe via email through feedblitz). So, what these are, are basic RSS feeds and the like that let you track new posts rather than having to recall the urls - as explained conveniently - via mainstream press articles - by Jon on Posthegemony: "For more on RSS, see 'The Really Simple Future of the Web' and 'RSS Feed' from the BBC, 'Fine-Tuning Your Filter for Online Information' from The New York Times, or 'Reboot' from The Guardian. RSS Info has a list of suggested RSS readers."
So, now you know. Thanks Jon.
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Attributed to Jean-Luc Godard:

"Tracking shots are a question of morality."

[on Los Angeles] "It's a big garage."

"There is no point in having sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas."

"Every edit is a lie."

"Up to now -- since shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution -- most movie makers have been assuming that they know how to make movies. Just like a bad writer doesn't ask himself if he's really capable of writing a novel -- he thinks he knows. If movie makers were building airplanes, there would be an accident every time one took off. But in the movies, these accidents are called Oscars."

"What I want above all is to destroy the idea of culture. Culture is an alibi of imperialism. There is a Ministry of War. There is a Ministry of Culture. Therefore, culture is war."

"In a house there is the top floor and there is the cellar. The underground filmmakers live in the same house as Hollywood, but they work in the cellar. It's up to them if they like to live in the dark. The Hollywood filmmakers are more intelligent, because they have that sunny top floor."

"All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun."

Speaking at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival about filmmaker Michael Moore: "Post-war filmmakers gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary."

"It's over. There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed"

"In the beginning I believed in Cannes, but now it's just for publicity. People come to Cannes just to advertise their films, not with a particular message. But the advantage is that if you go to the festival, you get so much press coverage in three days that it advertises the film for the rest of the year"
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