Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Glenn Greenwald on Tom Friedman & the keyboard kommandos---
...The sociopathic lust of a single war cheerleader can't fairly be projected onto those who are actually prosecuting the war. But one can't help noticing that this "teach-them-a-lesson" justification for civilian deaths in Gaza appears with some frequency among its advocates, at least among a certain strain of super-warrior, Israel-centric Americans -- e.g.: Marty "do not fuck with the Jews" Peretz and Michael "to wipe out a man's entire family, it's hard to imagine that doesn't give his colleagues at least a moment's pause" Goldfarb -- who love to cheer on Middle East wars from a safe and sheltered distance...
...The sociopathic lust of a single war cheerleader can't fairly be projected onto those who are actually prosecuting the war. But one can't help noticing that this "teach-them-a-lesson" justification for civilian deaths in Gaza appears with some frequency among its advocates, at least among a certain strain of super-warrior, Israel-centric Americans -- e.g.: Marty "do not fuck with the Jews" Peretz and Michael "to wipe out a man's entire family, it's hard to imagine that doesn't give his colleagues at least a moment's pause" Goldfarb -- who love to cheer on Middle East wars from a safe and sheltered distance...
the great Merle Travis on the manse electrohome this morning--
Nine Pound HammerCannonball RagLost JohnDapper Dan From Dixieland
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
people who may be curious about my book of poems The Age of Briggs & Stratton but are either too hesitant or broke to actually fork out the dough can find it here for FREE in PDF as part of New Star's handsomely refurbished web site...Monday, January 12, 2009
diggin' Kensington Market
The group mixed many clearly Canadian sounds and arrangements into a sometime psych-pop, sometime folk, sometime Cream-acid-rock format which was always entertaining.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Robert Fisk
I was in Toronto when I opened the right-wing National Post and found Lorne Gunter trying to explain to readers what it felt like to come under Palestinian rocket attack. "Suppose you lived in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills," writes Gunter, "and people from the suburb of Scarborough – about 10 kilometres away – were firing as many as 100 rockets a day into your yard, your kid's school, the strip mall down the street and your dentist's office..."
Getting the message? It just so happens, of course, that the people of Scarborough are underprivileged, often new immigrants – many from Afghanistan – while the people of Don Mills are largely middle class with a fair number of Muslims. Nothing like digging a knife into Canada's multicultural society to show how Israel is all too justified in smashing back at the Palestinians...
The Captivity and Restoration of Patty Hearst
One juror, reflecting on the decision to convict, noted that Hearst's postcaptivity interest in radical feminist tracts like Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex, which she read under the SLA's sway during her captivity, was "more important than some things" in arriving at the
verdict. The jury considered the intellectuals and their insistence on the limits of free will, and blanched; speaking for American culture as
a whole, the jurors had tired of elite discourse's flirtation with the complexities of the protean, overdetermined self...
One juror, reflecting on the decision to convict, noted that Hearst's postcaptivity interest in radical feminist tracts like Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex, which she read under the SLA's sway during her captivity, was "more important than some things" in arriving at the
verdict. The jury considered the intellectuals and their insistence on the limits of free will, and blanched; speaking for American culture as
a whole, the jurors had tired of elite discourse's flirtation with the complexities of the protean, overdetermined self...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Samuel Fuller's "White Dog"
Fuller’s hyperbolic ALL CAPS sensibility, for humor as much as for so-called humanity, saves all this (all his films) from the possibility of devolving into a soapbox statement/thesis. It’s a weird move, really, and tough to pull off with any grace—but that’s just it: Fuller denies grace. The edits and the angles and the performances and the dialogue, all his materials, remain rough to the end. Yet, his vision is not simple cynicism; rather, he sees the world as stew, a bog of trained idiocy, and all we can do is form tactics for survival. It’s all about trying. Try Keys does. After his delayed introduction (about 30 minutes), White Dog becomes his movie, not Julie’s nor the dog’s (as much as the film is always all about the dog), and we watch this strong and contradictory man work to make things right one experiment at a time...
Fuller’s hyperbolic ALL CAPS sensibility, for humor as much as for so-called humanity, saves all this (all his films) from the possibility of devolving into a soapbox statement/thesis. It’s a weird move, really, and tough to pull off with any grace—but that’s just it: Fuller denies grace. The edits and the angles and the performances and the dialogue, all his materials, remain rough to the end. Yet, his vision is not simple cynicism; rather, he sees the world as stew, a bog of trained idiocy, and all we can do is form tactics for survival. It’s all about trying. Try Keys does. After his delayed introduction (about 30 minutes), White Dog becomes his movie, not Julie’s nor the dog’s (as much as the film is always all about the dog), and we watch this strong and contradictory man work to make things right one experiment at a time...
Friday, January 09, 2009
in the field w/...Matthew Herbert
On this record, I did more sneaky, unauthorized recording than previously. For example, I didn’t get official permission to record inside the Houses of Parliament, or vocals at a landfill site, so I had to have something small that could fit in a pocket. Nagra makes great-sounding recorders but the operating system is a minefield...
Since being rescued 20 months ago from the dogfighting ring financed by Michael Vick...
It's impossible to say what Jasmine saw while circling the axles deep in the woods, but dogs can hear a tick yawn at 50 yards. The sounds of the fights and the executions undoubtedly filtered through the trees...
It's impossible to say what Jasmine saw while circling the axles deep in the woods, but dogs can hear a tick yawn at 50 yards. The sounds of the fights and the executions undoubtedly filtered through the trees...
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Neoconservatism dies in Gaza...
The Gaza War of 2009 is a final and eloquent testimony to the complete failure of the neoconservative movement in United States foreign policy. For over a decade, the leading figures in this school of thought saw the violent overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the institution of a parliamentary regime in Iraq as the magic solution to all the problems in the Middle East. They envisioned, in the wake of the fall of Baghdad, the moderation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the overthrow of the Baath Party in Syria and the Khomeinist regime in Iran, the deepening of the alliance with Turkey, the marginalization of Saudi Arabia, a new era of cheap petroleum, and a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on terms favorable to Israel. After eight years in which they strode the globe like colossi, they have left behind a devastated moonscape reminiscent of some post-apocalyptic B movie. As their chief enabler prepares to exit the White House, the only nation they have strengthened is Iran; the only alliance they have deepened is that between Iran and two militant Islamist entities to Israel's north and south, Hezbollah and Hamas...
Adam Harrison - 52 Studies
MONTE CLARK GALLERY
PRESS RELEASE
ADAM HARRISON | 52 STUDIES
01. Palette, 2009, pigment jet print, 28 x 37 cm
Monte Clark Gallery announces 52 Studies, a new web-based project by artist Adam Harrison. Every week during the course of 2009, Harrison
will produce and present a new photograph that deals with or introduces new aspects of his practice.
52 Studies continues a strain in Harrison's work that explores temporally based image production and the web-based distribution of
photographs. This began with his daily online project 356 Sketches in 2005, and continued with the 2007 project Four, a collaborative
website with Evan Lee, Christopher Brayshaw and Jamie Tolagson. Since Harrison's pictures are often planned and conceived beforehand, he has
utilized this practice similarly to the painter's use of sketching or studies to create a space for experimenting with new subject matter
and pictorial strategies.
The ideas around the structures of production that such projects intrinsically evoke are central to Harrison's practice, which is
generally concerned with depicting situations that relate directly to the creation and reception of art itself. Where he often photographs artists and artisans in the process of making their work, these
studies themselves can be simultaneously viewed as in-progress, cursory traces of art production, as well as resolved and autonomous artworks that reflexively deal with their own independent concerns.
The photographs will be posted each Thursday by 11:00 a.m. PST to
http://www.aharrison.com/52studies/.
They will also exist as unique prints in an edition of 1, available through Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver and Toronto.
Please include this information in any capacity possible; contact Monte Clark Gallery if you have any questions or are in need of further material.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday10:00am to 6:00pm.
Email: info@monteclarkgallery.com:
Website: www.monteclarkgallery.com

MONTE CLARK GALLERY
PRESS RELEASE
ADAM HARRISON | 52 STUDIES
01. Palette, 2009, pigment jet print, 28 x 37 cm
Monte Clark Gallery announces 52 Studies, a new web-based project by artist Adam Harrison. Every week during the course of 2009, Harrison
will produce and present a new photograph that deals with or introduces new aspects of his practice.
52 Studies continues a strain in Harrison's work that explores temporally based image production and the web-based distribution of
photographs. This began with his daily online project 356 Sketches in 2005, and continued with the 2007 project Four, a collaborative
website with Evan Lee, Christopher Brayshaw and Jamie Tolagson. Since Harrison's pictures are often planned and conceived beforehand, he has
utilized this practice similarly to the painter's use of sketching or studies to create a space for experimenting with new subject matter
and pictorial strategies.
The ideas around the structures of production that such projects intrinsically evoke are central to Harrison's practice, which is
generally concerned with depicting situations that relate directly to the creation and reception of art itself. Where he often photographs artists and artisans in the process of making their work, these
studies themselves can be simultaneously viewed as in-progress, cursory traces of art production, as well as resolved and autonomous artworks that reflexively deal with their own independent concerns.
The photographs will be posted each Thursday by 11:00 a.m. PST to
http://www.aharrison.com/52studies/.
They will also exist as unique prints in an edition of 1, available through Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver and Toronto.
Please include this information in any capacity possible; contact Monte Clark Gallery if you have any questions or are in need of further material.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday10:00am to 6:00pm.
Email: info@monteclarkgallery.com:
Website: www.monteclarkgallery.com

Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask
What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I'm afraid, it was. After covering so many mass murders by the armies of the Middle East – by Syrian troops, by Iraqi troops, by Iranian troops, by Israeli troops – I suppose cynicism should be my reaction. But Israel claims it is fighting our war against "international terror". The Israelis claim they are fighting in Gaza for us, for our Western ideals, for our security, for our safety, by our standards. And so we are also complicit in the savagery now being visited upon Gaza...
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Gaza Israel Palestine
Israel is "defending itself" against a people that it dispossessed and
has occupied for decades, and specifically by bombing a densely
populated territory that it has been collectively punishing for a year
and a half. Collective punishment is illegal under the Geneva Conventions. By bombing universities, mosques, lines of graduating police recruits, farms
and houses filled with women and children, Israel is violating the law
of proportional response. It is the same strategy it pursued in its
disastrous 2006 war against Lebanon, when it fired thousands of cluster
bombs into civilian areas in the south so as to force a Shiite
population transfer, and piling up heaps of corpses with the purpose of
"bolstering its deterrence."
Such actions, in which civilian casualties are accepted or even pursued
in the interests of achieving strategic goals, are a textbook form of
state terrorism, and under the circumstances of Israel's vise-grip on
Palestinian lives, no more morally justifiable than Hamas' repellent attacks. America should not be supporting such actions, whether they are carried out by an ally or not...
Israel is "defending itself" against a people that it dispossessed and
has occupied for decades, and specifically by bombing a densely
populated territory that it has been collectively punishing for a year
and a half. Collective punishment is illegal under the Geneva Conventions. By bombing universities, mosques, lines of graduating police recruits, farms
and houses filled with women and children, Israel is violating the law
of proportional response. It is the same strategy it pursued in its
disastrous 2006 war against Lebanon, when it fired thousands of cluster
bombs into civilian areas in the south so as to force a Shiite
population transfer, and piling up heaps of corpses with the purpose of
"bolstering its deterrence."
Such actions, in which civilian casualties are accepted or even pursued
in the interests of achieving strategic goals, are a textbook form of
state terrorism, and under the circumstances of Israel's vise-grip on
Palestinian lives, no more morally justifiable than Hamas' repellent attacks. America should not be supporting such actions, whether they are carried out by an ally or not...
Monday, January 05, 2009
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