from Paris, Cecile Schott aka Colleen's "Everybody Alive Wants Answers" likewise addresses drift, entropy, afternoon sleepiness, broken toys, distant shunting graveltrucks, snails heaped in a wheel rim planterbox.
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Marlon Brando as 19th century colonial adventurist and Emperor of Nicaragua William Walker in Gillo Pontecorvo's "Quemada!". Last year's discussions (and White House viewings) of the same filmmakers' "Battle of Algiers" made me hope that its often ignored (and arguably more immediately relevant) sequel might get some overdue attention.
Friday, July 02, 2004
Gary Indiana on the Clinton memoir--
"Presuming the reader is old enough to cast his or her mind back to the poisonous social atmosphere that prevailed before the expulsion of George the First and dissolved for eight years under Clinton despite the grotesque efforts of the hard right to remove him from office, and again, presuming our reader has not been sufficiently hypnotized--by the prospect of an even larger plasma TV screen, a space-shuttle-size SUV, and a cell phone that gives you an enema while booking you into a fancy restaurant--to ignore the stench of malaise and hopelessness that a few years of our Dry Drunk and Compulsive Liar in Chief, George the Second, have poured over all but the very, very rich and very, very psychopathic, it should be easy to credit most of Clinton's book with abundant goodwill, a fair amount of wit, and far more reflection and intelligence than any of the recent literary effusions of G.W. Bush's hagiographers and anorexic cheerleaders have evidenced, despite the fascinatingly demonic abandon they have brought to their exhibitionism. "
"Presuming the reader is old enough to cast his or her mind back to the poisonous social atmosphere that prevailed before the expulsion of George the First and dissolved for eight years under Clinton despite the grotesque efforts of the hard right to remove him from office, and again, presuming our reader has not been sufficiently hypnotized--by the prospect of an even larger plasma TV screen, a space-shuttle-size SUV, and a cell phone that gives you an enema while booking you into a fancy restaurant--to ignore the stench of malaise and hopelessness that a few years of our Dry Drunk and Compulsive Liar in Chief, George the Second, have poured over all but the very, very rich and very, very psychopathic, it should be easy to credit most of Clinton's book with abundant goodwill, a fair amount of wit, and far more reflection and intelligence than any of the recent literary effusions of G.W. Bush's hagiographers and anorexic cheerleaders have evidenced, despite the fascinatingly demonic abandon they have brought to their exhibitionism. "
Quarry find reveals hippos and hyenas once roamed Norfolk
"The great beasts would have had huge, prominent eyes which served as periscopes in a river system which would once have flowed from Norfolk into Wales. "
"The great beasts would have had huge, prominent eyes which served as periscopes in a river system which would once have flowed from Norfolk into Wales. "
Michael Moore, Cause for War?
"'a massive array of evidence,' 'a detailed and persuasive case,' 'a powerful case,' 'a sober, factual case,' 'an overwhelming case,' 'a compelling case,' 'the strong, credible and persuasive case,' 'a persuasive, detailed accumulation of information,' 'the core of his argument was unassailable,' 'a smoking fusillade . . . a persuasive case for anyone who is still persuadable,' 'an accumulation of painstakingly gathered and analyzed evidence,' 'only the most gullible and wishful thinking souls can now deny that Iraq is harboring and hiding weapons of mass destruction,' 'the skeptics asked for proof; they now have it,' 'a much more detailed and convincing argument than any that has previously been told,' 'Powell's evidence . . . was overwhelming,' 'an ironclad case . . . incontrovertible evidence,' 'succinct and damning evidence . . . the case is closed,' 'Colin Powell delivered the goods on Saddam Hussein,' 'masterful,' 'If there was any doubt that Hussein . . . needs to be . . . stripped of his chemical and biological capabilities, Powell put it to rest.'"
"'a massive array of evidence,' 'a detailed and persuasive case,' 'a powerful case,' 'a sober, factual case,' 'an overwhelming case,' 'a compelling case,' 'the strong, credible and persuasive case,' 'a persuasive, detailed accumulation of information,' 'the core of his argument was unassailable,' 'a smoking fusillade . . . a persuasive case for anyone who is still persuadable,' 'an accumulation of painstakingly gathered and analyzed evidence,' 'only the most gullible and wishful thinking souls can now deny that Iraq is harboring and hiding weapons of mass destruction,' 'the skeptics asked for proof; they now have it,' 'a much more detailed and convincing argument than any that has previously been told,' 'Powell's evidence . . . was overwhelming,' 'an ironclad case . . . incontrovertible evidence,' 'succinct and damning evidence . . . the case is closed,' 'Colin Powell delivered the goods on Saddam Hussein,' 'masterful,' 'If there was any doubt that Hussein . . . needs to be . . . stripped of his chemical and biological capabilities, Powell put it to rest.'"
Thursday, July 01, 2004
at Phillysound Buck Downs answers questions about his new book "Golden Taters"--
"Talking about Southern Writing makes me crazy like those dudes who collect photographic evidence of Bigfoot. Does it exist? Did it ever?
But then I do lose my nut whenever I have to talk about 'poetry' in terms other than 'what I'm doing'. So yeah, I have no clew what the fuck is up with the New Southern Writing. But it's not like anybody else does either, so I feel like I'm in the right place where that's concerned."
Barrett Watten's Tribute to Zukofsky
"It turned out, I thought, that Zukofsky had better be read as a Marxist. That would put his sense of particulars right back down on the ground, back in the world where they came from and we are, if belatedly. Our reading was not originary, and not in homage to any original. It was, however, always at the beginning of a series of acts, from that one until now, as we are only just finding out. "
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Reagan Pyramid Nears Completion
"'Buried with Reagan will be his finest treasures,' Meese said, 'including 2,500 MX intercontinental ballistic missiles, 15 stealth bombers, a golden chalice of jelly beans, and his most prized servant, former president George Bush Sr.'
Bush told reporters, 'It is my honor and duty to have my sinus passages ceremonially packed with sand before my still-living, pain-racked body is forever locked with my leader's within the Great Reagan's final resting place. Let us all praise Osiris.'"
"'Buried with Reagan will be his finest treasures,' Meese said, 'including 2,500 MX intercontinental ballistic missiles, 15 stealth bombers, a golden chalice of jelly beans, and his most prized servant, former president George Bush Sr.'
Bush told reporters, 'It is my honor and duty to have my sinus passages ceremonially packed with sand before my still-living, pain-racked body is forever locked with my leader's within the Great Reagan's final resting place. Let us all praise Osiris.'"
heartiest congratulations to Jean Crowder, who Daph & I helped to vote in on Monday. She replaces the odious retiring Reform MP Reed Elley, who (having read the writing on the wall?) left office after mailing a bitter diatribe to his constituents. The only reason the NDP didn't get 50 seats was that their program was mostly co-opted by the Liberals. The main thing is that the Hard Right will never have a better shot at power in Canada, and they blew it. Those who enjoy the sight of sputtering conservative fury are urged to check out various columns at Nealenews.
Matt Taibbi
"If even one network, instead of cheerily re-broadcasting Pentagon-generated aerial bomb footage, had risked its access to the government by saying to the Bush administration, 'We're not covering the war unless we can shoot anything we want, without restrictions,' that might have made a difference. It might have made this war look like what it is--pointless death and carnage that would have scared away every advertiser in the country--rather than a big fucking football game that you can sell Coke and Pepsi and Scott's Fertilizer to."
"If even one network, instead of cheerily re-broadcasting Pentagon-generated aerial bomb footage, had risked its access to the government by saying to the Bush administration, 'We're not covering the war unless we can shoot anything we want, without restrictions,' that might have made a difference. It might have made this war look like what it is--pointless death and carnage that would have scared away every advertiser in the country--rather than a big fucking football game that you can sell Coke and Pepsi and Scott's Fertilizer to."
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Fire the Bastards! Jack Green takes on contemporary reviews of William Gaddis' "The Recognitions"--little has changed, and this is still the best reverse primer on book reviewing ever.
Friday, June 25, 2004
review of The Open
"In 1964, Giorgio Agamben, then just twenty-two years old, played Philip the Apostle in Pier Paolo Pasolini's film The Gospel According to St. Matthew... "
I just watched this. Everybody in that movie looks like someone you know anyway.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
good review of Rev. Billy's book, which I also liked.
"Talen's belief in the power of literature and storytelling is rarely encountered in activist circles. Throughout "What Should I Do", he posits that our culture is constructed on a foundation of stories, but those core cultural myths are increasingly peddled and copyrighted by a few giant corporations: 'merchandising vehicles that...never have the qualities of a well-told story, because such a thing would compete with the selling of the products.' According to Talen, 'A really powerful story is not easily controlled as it passes into the rapt audience. A real story must have in it...the Unknown.' "
the late Robert Urich as the vaguely Clintonesque Jake Spoon in "Lonesome Dove"
(Larry McMurtry on Clinton's book)
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
How the Bloc Will Save Canada
"They will hold the balance of power, and that will allow them to either block the Conservatives' Bush-like agenda, or force the Liberals to make good on some of their promises.
Either way, with separatism on the back burner, it's good news for the majority of Canadians."
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Dictionary Don "Sources said another memo signed by Rumsfeld authorizes forcing detainees to stand for up to four hours at a time. 'I stand for eight hours a day,' scribbled Rumsfeld at the bottom of the page..."
Monday, June 21, 2004
Rumsfeld and the Dictionary
"'There is no wiggle room in the president's mind or my mind about torture,' he said.
'That is not something that's permitted under the Geneva Convention or the laws of the United States.
'That is not to say that somebody else couldn't characterise something in a way that would fit what I described,' he added.
He noted that some have described the indefinite detention of suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a form of mental torture.
'Therefore, that word is used by some people in a way that is fair from their standpoint, but doesn't fit a dictionary definition of the word that one would normally accept,' Mr Rumsfeld said. "
from the OED:
TORTURE
1. The infliction of severe bodily pain, as punishment or a means of persuasion; spec. judicial torture, inflicted by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority, for the purpose of forcing an accused or suspected person to confess, or an unwilling witness to give evidence or information; a form of this (often in pl.). to put to (the) torture, to inflict torture upon, to torture.
1551 Acts Privy Counc. (1891) III. 407 Assisting to the sayd Commissioners for the putting the prisoners+to suche tortours as they shall think expedient. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 131 You did deuise Strange Tortures for Offendors. 1608 D. Price Chr. Warre 21 To punish the bad, and to prouide some sharpe and fearful tortors for them. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. iv. 10 We put the Captain and Pilot to torture, who instantly confessed. 1708 Act 7 Anne c. 21 §5 After [1 July 1709] no Person accused of any Capital Offence or other Crime in Scotland, shall suffer, or be subject or liable to any Torture. 1769 Blackstone Comm. (1830) IV. xxv. 326 They erected a rack for torture. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xxv. 393 Pisander moved that the persons+should be put to the torture, that all their accomplices might be known. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. (1871) I. 16 According to law, torture+could not+be inflicted on an English subject. 1882 Gardiner Hist. Eng. (1884) VI. lxv. 359 note 2 Torture had been allowed [in England] by custom as inflicted by the prerogative, but not by law.+ Torture was inflicted as late as 1640 by prerogative.
2. Severe or excruciating pain or suffering (of body or mind); anguish, agony, torment; the infliction of such.
c1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 269 Doe you preferre the horrible tortures of warre beefore tranquillitee? 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1287 And that deepe torture may be cal'd a Hell, When more is felt than one hath power to tell. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 185 Pain and torture of the intestines. 1659 H. More Immort. Soul ii. x. §6. 220 Who would bear the tortures of Fears and Jealousies, if he could avoid it? 1734 Bp. Petre Let. in E. H. Burton Life Challoner (1909) I. 93 He wasted away by degrees under the torture of the Strangury. 1744 M. Bishop Life & Adv. 52 They were in such great Torture, wishing they had never come to Sea. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ii, He determined to relieve himself from the tortures of suspense. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 353 As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they.
"'There is no wiggle room in the president's mind or my mind about torture,' he said.
'That is not something that's permitted under the Geneva Convention or the laws of the United States.
'That is not to say that somebody else couldn't characterise something in a way that would fit what I described,' he added.
He noted that some have described the indefinite detention of suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a form of mental torture.
'Therefore, that word is used by some people in a way that is fair from their standpoint, but doesn't fit a dictionary definition of the word that one would normally accept,' Mr Rumsfeld said. "
from the OED:
TORTURE
1. The infliction of severe bodily pain, as punishment or a means of persuasion; spec. judicial torture, inflicted by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority, for the purpose of forcing an accused or suspected person to confess, or an unwilling witness to give evidence or information; a form of this (often in pl.). to put to (the) torture, to inflict torture upon, to torture.
1551 Acts Privy Counc. (1891) III. 407 Assisting to the sayd Commissioners for the putting the prisoners+to suche tortours as they shall think expedient. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 131 You did deuise Strange Tortures for Offendors. 1608 D. Price Chr. Warre 21 To punish the bad, and to prouide some sharpe and fearful tortors for them. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. iv. 10 We put the Captain and Pilot to torture, who instantly confessed. 1708 Act 7 Anne c. 21 §5 After [1 July 1709] no Person accused of any Capital Offence or other Crime in Scotland, shall suffer, or be subject or liable to any Torture. 1769 Blackstone Comm. (1830) IV. xxv. 326 They erected a rack for torture. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xxv. 393 Pisander moved that the persons+should be put to the torture, that all their accomplices might be known. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. (1871) I. 16 According to law, torture+could not+be inflicted on an English subject. 1882 Gardiner Hist. Eng. (1884) VI. lxv. 359 note 2 Torture had been allowed [in England] by custom as inflicted by the prerogative, but not by law.+ Torture was inflicted as late as 1640 by prerogative.
2. Severe or excruciating pain or suffering (of body or mind); anguish, agony, torment; the infliction of such.
c1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 269 Doe you preferre the horrible tortures of warre beefore tranquillitee? 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1287 And that deepe torture may be cal'd a Hell, When more is felt than one hath power to tell. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 185 Pain and torture of the intestines. 1659 H. More Immort. Soul ii. x. §6. 220 Who would bear the tortures of Fears and Jealousies, if he could avoid it? 1734 Bp. Petre Let. in E. H. Burton Life Challoner (1909) I. 93 He wasted away by degrees under the torture of the Strangury. 1744 M. Bishop Life & Adv. 52 They were in such great Torture, wishing they had never come to Sea. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ii, He determined to relieve himself from the tortures of suspense. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 353 As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they.
Canada 2004 - Election Prediction Project nice to see they agree with my call on Nanaimo-Cowichan...
The Naked Maja has a thoughtful (I'd never made the "Sunday Morning"/"Northern Sky" celeste connection, for instance) list of favorite British records including the song that haunted my fifth year, until replaced by Gary Lewis & the Playboys "This Diamond Ring".
"The Tornados' "Telstar," number one everywhere in the autumn of 1962, seemed to come from a place that the Shadows were unable to reach; unquestionably futuristic, slightly threatening but ultimately one of the saddest pop records ever made."
I could never quite hate Margaret Thatcher as much when I heard it was her favorite record, too. (more on "Telstar" auteur Joe Meek ) here.
Arctic explorer tabby cat honoured
" Mrs Chippy, who became the ship's mascot, took great delight in leaping across the kennel roofs of the sledging dogs, tantalisingly out of reach. " (thanks Daphne)
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Chapagetti has wonderful thick potato-based noodles and a strong, sweet fermented brown broth & also comes with a wee envelope of onion oil. All for less than a dollar.
The Early Days of a Better Nation
"When the President claims for himself powers outlawed in every country issuing from the English Revolution, and last exercised when James the II & VII personally supervised the splitting of Presbyterian shins, I guess we have to admit that in the long run the English Revolution failed.
Oh well. Freedom can always choose another people. "
"When the President claims for himself powers outlawed in every country issuing from the English Revolution, and last exercised when James the II & VII personally supervised the splitting of Presbyterian shins, I guess we have to admit that in the long run the English Revolution failed.
Oh well. Freedom can always choose another people. "
Ed Dorn on Milton at Black Mountain--
ED DORN: I'm glad you noticed that, because aside from the literature I got there--and I've had to go back, frankly, and really repair leaks in the plumbing, because at Black Mountain it wasn't a thorough education, it was a fanatical education. It did cover a lot, but there was a lot also they didn't cover. Nobody had heard of Milton there, for instance. You get out in the real world of literature, and you haven't read Milton, it's like a joke.
EFFIE MIHOPOULOS: Though you're probably better off, not having read Milton.
ED DORN: That was the point encouraged at Black Mountain, but I found that later to be quite untrue. Ignorance is NOT bliss.
lovepundits
BROKAW: Tim, we've been pals and we've been colleagues, but I say this in the most unalloyed fashion. I'm really proud of you, and I'm especially proud of the book that you've done because it's a gift not just to your family, but it's really a gift to our time. And so congratulations.
RUSSERT: Thank you, pal.
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