tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304478287693374522024-03-13T21:11:35.249-07:00Gloss Vopi you Shch evo naStashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-89912993897085721302011-02-25T18:44:00.000-08:002011-02-28T23:36:38.168-08:00White South African farmers are being invited to buy <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12599987">land in Georgia</a>!Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-47226805765538528772011-02-12T17:28:00.000-08:002011-02-12T22:09:54.931-08:00Polina Barskova, a talented Russian poet ( living in the States) <a href="http://www.openspace.ru/literature/events/details/17912/">writes</a> about a new Russian turn to the literature and archives of Leningrad blockade.<br /><br />In the Russian city of Tver', a presentation of a roman-a-clef <span style="font-style: italic;">A Conspiracy of Apes</span> (Khodorkovsky is supposed to be the real referent of the book) was canceled, after a phone call to the regional library from the regional ministry of culture, <a href="http://www.openspace.ru/news/details/19910/">reports openspace.ru</a>. The publisher is a Czech <i>VT-World Communication Agency. </i>Print run is just 3,000. The author, Tina Shamrai, is listed as a resident of Tver', but that name is supposed to be a pseudonym.<br /><br />On Feb. 4, there was a break in into the office of Cyril Tuschi, director of a film about Khodorkovsky. The film is about to premier at the Berlin festival. The film itself was not taken, but all additional materials were deleted from Tuschi's computer. (Reported by <a href="http://www.openspace.ru/news/details/20336/">openspace.ru</a>,<br />based on information from the livejournal blog of <a href="http://yasina.livejournal.com/623859.html">Irina Yasina</a>, a member of the Presidential commission on human rights).<br /><br />Meanwhile, the artist <a href="http://www.openspace.ru/news/details/19998/">Andrey Loskutov</a> is to be prosecuted for offending a cop in Novosibirsk.<br /><br />Sergej Samburov, a grandson of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky">the Russian founding father of space rocketry</a>, is suing the state for his grandfather's archive, <a href="http://marker.ru/news/3345">reports Russian business site, marker.ru</a>Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-3232762186303494392011-02-12T15:52:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:42:08.827-08:00Feb. 8, 2011. <a href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/586/why-egypts-progressives-win">Paul Amar at Jadaliyya</a>:<br />"...as if America’s puny $1.5 billion in aid (which all must be recycled back as purchases from US military suppliers anyway) really dictates policy for a regime that makes multi-billion dollar deals with Russia, China and Brazil every month, and that has channeled an estimated $40-70 billion into Mubarak’s personal accounts".<br /> <a href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/516/why-mubarak-is-out">Amar's Feb. 1 post</a> is very informative on the emerging configurations of power in Egypt.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-76043559353768576872011-02-07T22:44:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:42:46.140-08:00A politically motivated <a href="http://www.newappsblog.com/2011/01/a-politically-motivated-attack-on-philosophers-in-hungary.html">attack on intellectuals </a>in Hungary. If Agnes Heller was not involved,
<br />this probably would not have made as much of a splash outside of Hungary.
<br /><a href="http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/2011/01/the-hungarian-academy-and-its-institutes.html">Some prehistory.</a>
<br />And <a href="http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/2011/02/no-let-up-in-the-case-of-the-hungarian-philosophers.html">some more</a> developments.
<br />A fact to be aware of: in Hungary, various scholarly institutes are bureaucratically subordinated to a mandarin Academy.
<br />Names: József Pálinkás (senile authoritarian, Orban's stooge); György Gábor (an honest philosopher of religions at the Philosophy institute); János Boros (a provincial outsider, Palinkas' man); M. István Fehér (right-wing philosopher).
<br /> The disgusting thing is that, with all its anti-Communist talk, and the very excessive veneration of Hungarian suffering during Soviet era, Orban's program, under the guise of pragmatism, is reproducing the worst features of a, o well, police state.
<br />
<br />More on Egypt. A friend forwarded me this interview with Gilbert Achcar. Some high points.
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">...most of the Egyptian opposition, starting with the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood" target="_blank">Muslim Brotherhood</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, have been sowing illusions about the army and its purported “neutrality,” if not “benevolence.”</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The model they aspire to reproduce in Egypt is that of Turkey, where the democratization process was controlled by the military with the army remaining a key pillar of the political system.</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The regime conceded a lot to <</span>Muslim Brotherhood<span style="font-style: italic;">> in the socio-cultural sphere, increasing Islamic censorship in the cultural field being but one example.</span>
<br />
<br />Rached Ghannouchi's Tunisian Nahda movement <span style="font-style: italic;">"has much less influence in Tunisia than the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt" because"the Tunisian society is less prone than the Egyptian to religious fundamentalist ideas, due to its higher degree of Westernization and education, and the country's history."</span>
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67351/joshua-stacher/egypts-democratic-mirage">Here's </a>Joshua Stacher at <span style="font-style: italic;">Foreign Affairs</span> about the army:
<br />The <span style="font-style: italic;">regime remained cohesive throughout by pursuing a sophisticated strategy of unleashing violence upon the people and then saving them from it. </span>Sophisticated!? Stacher's pessimism, when combined with such placid neutrality of language, is a questionable proposition.
<br />He mentions two Egyptian activists, who drew attention to Mubarak's (or is it already Soleiman's?) game: Hossam el-Hamalawy and Mahmoud Salem.
<br />Interestingly, he says that those who met Soleiman on Sunday <span style="font-style: italic;">broke ranks with the protesters.</span>. He may have something there.
<br />Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-51964591716120527982011-01-22T13:25:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:47:42.287-08:00It is illegal in Illinois ( also in MAryland and Massachusets) to record the police doing their thing on the street. Also the rules on selling art on the streets are pretty strict in Chicago.<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/world/23clarridge.html?_r=2&hp<br />note his connection to Brad Thor, author of an anti-islamic Da Vince Code rip-off, frequent guest on Glenn beck show.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Crane<br />one time advisor to Nixon, prominent Muslim convert. very curious.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-89662564968446278402011-01-21T14:46:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:40:34.566-08:00Here is a <a href="http://www.chapatimystery.com/archives/optical_character_recognition/a_big_leg_of_mutton_or_how_to_consume_and_translate_tamil_pulp_fiction_.html">cool post at Chapati Mystery</a>, about translating Tamil pulp fiction.<br /><br />A new DVD of Jodorowski's Santa Sangre, with hours of extra material is coming out soon from the <a href="http://www.severin-films.com/2010/12/09/final-specs-for-santa-sangre-revealed/">Severin Films</a>.<br /><br />Baby Doc is back to Haiti. How strange. Perhaps, now <a href="http://thehaitianblogger.blogspot.com/2011/01/president-jean-bertrand-aristide.html">Aristide will return</a> as well.<br /><br />In Tunisia, <a href="http://nomemoryspace.wordpress.com/">Slim Amamou</a>, a web activist and a member of the Pirate Party has received the post of a State Secretary of Youth and Sports, a semi-ministerial position in the new transitional government. Reported by <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/arrested-pirate-party-member-becomes-tunisian-minister-110117/">torrentfreak</a>.<br />Meanwhile,<a href="http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article236969.ece"> the emir of Kuwait is handing out</a> $4 bilion in cash and free foood for 18 months to its citizens (80 % of Kuwaiti workforce are employed by the state, making an average of $3,500 a month), ostensibly in celebration of some upcoming jubilees. The food will probably be used to feed a variety of household slaves (Kuwait employs 2 million of mostly South Asian migrant workers). James Traub, at Foreign Policy, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/21/the_post_tunisia_world">sees this</a> as a reaction to recent events in Tunisia.<br />Obviously, Egypt is a place to watch. There have been self-immolation there in recent days.<br />The unemployed youth is a demographic that these authoritarians are reluctant to engage with, and events in Tunisia remind the aging dictators that the new generations must be taught the fear, or temporarily placated.<br /> Hilary Clinton, as can be expected, warns Arab leaders that 'extremists' will fill the void of political power, thus coloring the image of Tunisian uprising with the hues of terrorism. While it might be more instructing to compare what's happened in Tunisia with the riots in France a few years ago, or with the disturbances in Moscow last month. In both cases, it was a death of a young man, an iconic martyr, that served as a trigger for general uprising.<br /> Obama's problem now is how to deal with autocratic governments of those states which are the supposed allies of US in its 'war on terror'. But radical militant Islam is only one of the agents of reaction to the unjust social state in these countries. US finds it easy to criticize just that, because suggesting to the Arab leaders that democratization a la USA is what's needed there can only be taken ironically by those leaders, who know full well that USA has only a sham democracy. Everywhere it is the rule of the rich. This is what Obama administration will try to preserve, most likely. It would be nice to hope for something different, but foolish to actually expect it.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the Druze leader decided to side with Hezbollah on the issue of UN tribunal to investigate the death of Harari the elder in 2005. On January 18th, the tribunal passed its sealed indictments to a pretrial judge. Hezbollah denies involvement and condemns the commission as working against Lebanese unity.<br /><a href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/276/gynecology-honor-and-the-special-tribunal-for-lebanon">Here is </a>one Lebanese woman's take on the tribunal and other matters.<br /><br />(Which may well be true: the<br />idea of international law is premised on the idea that there are laws and goods which transcend nationhood. But law is not a science: there is no equivalent in it for the universally binding mathematical formulas. Until there is no such equivalent, an insistence on universal human rights is open to two types of criticism: on the level of critique against a particular person who propounds it; or on the more fundamental level, where one simply doubts that such global discourse of human rights is possible at all. However, the latter may turn out to be be only a way of pessimism, of the stupid reconciliation with reality. It is stupid to reconcile not because resistance is futile, but because it is only most likely futile. Individual life is too short for us to not feel drawn to those who would decrease their own chances of comfortable life by fighting universal battles.<br /><br /><br />Wow, i feel impressed with myself. But I should, at least, state my own preference, my own view.<br />be suspicious of heads of repressive states drawing the nationalist card. And watch out: try to catch them when they end up justifying as part of national character something that turns out to be a European importation of the colonial era.<br />( at this point I should write only after having read <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3xHrvcBXXo4C&lpg=PP1&dq=pierre%20Legrand&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">this</a>. The book is worth $150 bucks on Amazon, so it is bound to have some correct answers, right? One of its editors is A Sorbonne law prof. Pierre Legrand, whose name pops up in the table of contents for <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wWLkHGkryR4C&lpg=PP1&dq=nation%20language%20and%20the%20ethics&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false">this</a>.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-10129512029143323792011-01-16T22:56:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:47:07.665-08:00"When Preval came out of hiding, he set up shop at a police station that backed directly onto the airport runway", <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=132526207&sc=tw">writes</a> Associated Press' Jonathan Katz about the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. (In that story, note the picture of a cramped, pressurized line of people waiting to get some parcels of aid, and recall recent deaths in India at a religious stampede).<br /> Fucking Sean Penn: relocated people to a camp, poorly built on private company's land. Thus government had to pay Nabatec Development instead of spending money on food and water.<br /><br /> Remember Kars? Coelho's Iranian editor proudly admits to having been one of the first few doctors who rushed to Kars in 200.???????<br /><br /> Our favorite South African blogger Mbambi likes <b><font color="#666666" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3">Ithiel de Sola Pool. </font></b>Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-32673464465226271262011-01-15T12:28:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:46:35.274-08:00Confucius is <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/statue-marks-a-major-rethink-in-chinas-attitude-to-confucius-2184291.html">rehabilitated</a> in China.<br /><br />Canadian Broadcast Standards Council <a href="http://www.cbsc.ca/english/decisions/2011/110112.php">proscribes</a> the original version of 'Money for Nothing' (Dire Straits) for its use of the word 'faggot'.<br /><br />Michel Gondry is making an animated film documentary about Noam Chomsky. I wonder if <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEIrZO069Kg">this bit</a> of William Buckley's suave nastiness makes in.<br /><br />The story of art group Voina (pronounced 'Vi-' as in 'vi-king' + 'nu' as in 'nutty') is now partially presented in English <a href="http://en.free-voina.org/">here</a>. On January 14, Leonid Nikolaev was <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.openspace.ru%2Fnews%2Fdetails%2F19859%2F">denied bail</a> on the grounds that<br />his certificate of emplyment lacked official letterhead, and that the party providing the bail money was unknown to the court.<br /><br />Also, openspace.ru <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.openspace.ru%2Fnews%2Fdetails%2F19839%2F&act=url">reports</a>: The Prosecutor's office in Perm will likely impose a fine on the Perm Museum of Modern Art (PERMM) because of the recent exhibit by Leonid Yuschenko which depicts cops doing silly things. Technically, the depiction of the Russian flag is in question; indeed, it would be just too ridiculous if the same article of Criminal Code was used as the one imputed to Voyna (aggression against specific social group). Perhaps, defense can adduce as an exculpatory evidence <a href="http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B3_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BE%D1%84.jpg">depiction of God the Father</a> in some Russian churches.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/102-pilgrims-killed-in-stampede-at-indian-festival-2185331.html">102 pilgrims die</a> in a stampede at a religious ceremony in India, when a car ran into a human multitude on a narrow forest path.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-85754642565065058092011-01-11T14:19:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:45:36.851-08:00Eliot Weinberger <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n01/eliot-weinberger/damn-right-i-said">reviews</a> the fake memoir by our previous president. An enjoyable read, but I wish he'd carried the Foucaldian comparison to the end of the piece.<br /><br />Since the Arizona shooting the sales of Glock pistols in particular ( and of guns in general) <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/11/arizonans-flock-up-the-bl_n_807517.html?ref=fb&src=sp">have jumped</a> significantly in several states. We also note, with a curious surprise, that the three states, which do not require a permit to carry concealed weapons are Alaska, Arizona, and... Vermont.<br /><br />For those of you who have been following the Khimki forest story, <a href="http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/3700/yes06.3f/0_13dfd_89aafa0f_XL.jpg">here is a shot</a> of the current rail to Sheremetevo. It would be nice to get a shot of what the same spot looks from a passing train.<br /><br />Iran puts Paolo Coelho's books on the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/10/paulo-coelho-iran-bans-books">proscribed</a> list. (As of January 11, it is a rumor, rather than official pronouncement from Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.) Perhaps, John Gray's books, <a href="http://www.ibna.ir/vdcjhyem.uqeytz29fu.html">a huge bestseller </a>in Iran, are next? Coelho's Iranian editor is <a href="http://arashhejazi.com/en/2011/01/paulo-coelhos-books-are-banned-in-iran/">Arash Hejazi</a>, otherwise famous in the West from appearing in the footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan in June 2009 post-election protests. Coelho promises to make Farsi translations of his works freely available online. Recently, I watched about half of Kirby Dick's <a href="http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/This-Film-Is-Not-Yet-Rated/70043954?strackid=10a324b389b10fdb_0_srl&strkid=419174652_0_0&trkid=438381#height2040">documentary on MPAA</a>. Somebody says in it that in no other country is a comparable certifying body staffed by anonymous members. The Iranian ministry is an obvious exception.<br /><br />update, Jan. 16<br />Iran <a href="http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/01/14/note-from-the-embassy-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-in-brazil/">denies</a> banning Coelho's book. The note from Iranian embassy in Brazil calls Hejazi a prime suspect in the death of Neda Agha-Soltan.<br /><br />Incidentally, the National Society of Film Critics criticizes both MPAA and Iran in its recent report. In December, film director Jafar Panahi was given a 6- year jail sentence. His first arrest arrest in Itan was at Agha-Soltan's funeral in 2009. But it is important to remember that in April 2001 he was detained at JFK. Ironies abound. The Wikipedia article on Panahi incorrectly implies that the JFK incident occured in 2003. Panahi's lawyer, Farideh Gheirat, is preparing the appeal. Panahi is reportedly on hunger strike. <br /><br />Update, Jan 20. Farhad Pouladi of <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jftXkJsCNAd6S9zP5YPaQK-e8nug?docId=CNG.cf3f9df69d3ee50f7a0a62316dbb5b65.7c1">AFP reports</a><br /><span class="snap_noshots">Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, says that Panahi's sentence is too harsh, quotes Iranian Shargh newspaper. The pro-government newspaper Kayhan registered disagreement with Mashaie.<br /><br /></span><br />While we are on the subject of Iran, I'd like to state that the U. S. hikers should be considered hostages of Iranian state in the absence of the speedy trial against them. The fact that they were critics of US politics in the region does not, by itself, prove that Iran has no case against them.<br />However, if there was a case, one would think that Iran would by now produce some evidence.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-30498157948812051682011-01-06T00:26:00.000-08:002011-02-12T17:44:21.017-08:00Mining on my mindOn January 4th, Bob Hopper <a href="http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page32?oid=117903&sn=Detail">died</a>. On January 3rd, Judy Bonds also <a href="http://www.crmw.net/crmw/content/remembering-judy-bonds">died</a>. Today we also learned about the practice of blow top mining, a sort of scalping of the mountains: a quick returns operation, which is safer for the miners in that it doesn't really need them. All you hear is: "BP this", "Gulf that". What about the poisoned streams, Mr. <a href="http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/as-coal-king-retires-to-12-million-mine-safety-struggle-goes-on">Blankenship</a>?<br />And what about <a href="http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page504?oid=117918&sn=Detail">La Oroya?</a> Say, Ira Rennert, the junkie extraordinaire, junk bonds are supposed to be risky but high paying, right? What did it mean, then, when Greece's something or other was graded as 'junk' recently? Was someone invited to speculate straight away?<br />It is important to know the richest men of one's nation, and Ira Rennert is quite a man.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-18325482098938952082010-08-21T23:01:00.000-07:002011-02-12T17:44:01.638-08:00"we might have confused in the past two entirely different meanings of the word<br />“correspondence”: the first seems to rely on a resemblance between two elements<br />(signs on the map and territory, or, more philosophically words and worlds); while<br />the second emphasizes the establishment of some relevance that allows a navigator to<br />align several successive sign posts along a trajectory. While the first meaning implies what<br />William James called a salto mortale between two, and only two, end points through a<br />huge gap, the second defines what James called a deambulation between many<br />successive stepping stones in order to achieve the miracle of reference by making<br />sure that there are as little gap as possible between two successive links (James,<br />1907). Both are depending on correspondence, but one engages the mapping<br />impulse into an impasse (ironically recorded by Borges’ fable: is the map similar to<br />the territory?) while the other allows to move away from it and deploy the whole<br />chain of production that has always been associated with map making —as we<br />recognized above.<br />To make clear the difference between the two meanings, we are going to call<br />the first one the mimetic interpretation, and the second the navigational<br />interpretation of maps."<br />Bruno Latour et al.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-35924446221121504252010-07-19T00:24:00.001-07:002010-07-19T00:31:07.332-07:00peppi<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6902754-peppi-dlinnyichulok-povest-skazka" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Peppi Dlinnyichulok povest-skazka (in Russian)" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1279524375m/6902754.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6902754-peppi-dlinnyichulok-povest-skazka">Peppi Dlinnyichulok povest-skazka</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3089192.Lungina_L_Lindgren_A_">Lungina L. Lindgren A.</a><br /><br />My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/112289840">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br /><br />I heart Peppi, or Pippi, if you like. When I was in elementary school, the Soviet television version came out (1982) and to watch the premiere, i would have had to miss school. (That makes no sense to me, but is true. Perhaps, it was a case of one of those silly occasions, when a weekend was declared to begin on Friday, and all the Soviet citizenry had to put in a day of work on a Sunday following. Or maybe the anti-authoritarian streak in Peppi was deemed slightly dangerous: not quite dangerous enough to prohibit, but suspicious enough for the censorious television programmer not to grant it the primest spot.<br /> Somehow I convinced my mother to let me stay home that day. At the time, I was just becoming friends with a prettiest girl in my class. ( at least that's how I remember her). Things weren't going well with my then girlfriend Olya, and I was eager to cultivate Oksana, who was the 'starosta' of our class (something like an honorary student, perfect grades, neatest demeanor and costuming, a model of disciplined young pioneer, who was responsible for reminding the other nine year olds to behave and to study). I lived in the old part of Baku, and every morning Oksana would come by my house, and i would take her to school always by a different route, through a different winding little alleyway, except on the day of Peppi the Movie. As I tried, leaning out the window, to blame the elaborate hoarseness of my voice on yesterday's ice cream (oh, how different from those other occasions when the real cough, initiator of a bronchitis, had to be concealed from the parents: "No,no, just choking on my saliva"), Oksana stomped her feet, and shouting like one who is being betrayed: "Liar! You just want to watch Peppi!", she raced away. That romance withered. Peppi is a zealous mistress and brooks no opposition.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/392269-stas">View all my reviews >></a>Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-9747824418205658162010-07-18T21:48:00.000-07:002010-07-18T21:49:15.384-07:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7077041-istorii-iz-moei-sobstvennoi-zhizni" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Istorii iz moei sobstvennoi zhizni (in Russian)" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41iU8WccG2L._SX106_.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7077041-istorii-iz-moei-sobstvennoi-zhizni">Istorii iz moei sobstvennoi zhizni</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/468818.Ludmilla_Petrushevskaya">Ludmilla Petrushevskaya</a><br/><br />My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/111005701">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br /><br />The first part, describing her childhood in the 1930s and 40s is amazing. Moody, bizarre, scandalous, terrible, touching, gripping. The rest of the book is very informative, but has a different tone.She is forever in my personal museum, (excuse me, memory palace, with refreshments, flirting, light jazz, fountains, and all, although she is also guarding some pretty wicked trap doors in there) for having helped Yury Norstein with the script for "Tale of Tales'. I like her short stories quite a bit, although I know her more recent fairy tales better than her older, more naturalistic stories. But it may be that she is most important as the playwright of 'Cinzano'. I reserve judgment until i find a volume of her drama. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/392269-stas">View all my reviews >></a>Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-40555471135726110362010-06-06T13:52:00.000-07:002010-06-06T13:54:03.683-07:00died in JuneDavid Markson<span class="UIStory_Message"><br />Arie "Lova" Eliav</span>Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-6508152608053856732010-05-30T23:11:00.000-07:002010-05-31T19:29:05.935-07:00diedMay 2010<br />Leslie Scalapino<br />Peter Orlovsky<br />Paul Brown's cat<br />Dennis Hopper<br />Gary Coleman<br />Louise BourgeoisStashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-12955096992042300112010-04-03T17:39:00.000-07:002010-04-03T17:47:45.901-07:00Dmitry Gorchev - "Alcohol"Dmitry Gorchev is a writer who mostly published in the net. He died recently. I translated this piece called "<a href="http://www.gorchev.lib.ru/txt/by1/alc.shtml">Alcohol</a>" using Google translator and edited it a bit.<br /><br />--<br /><br />How wonderful is a drunken man! When he lies with his pants down on the pavement near the entrance to the railway station, any passer by will surely feel a sense of pride. Pride for himself, not for the drunken man, but so what? Who is more free in this world - he who comes home from his hateful work, who with regularity pulls its rigid strap, bears his splintery cross, and pays his exorbitant rent, or the one who, knowing no worries, freely sprawls in a stinking pool?<br /><br />Suppose that he is despised, dirty, driven away from any employment, lonely and not much to look at. Yet it was he who took Bastille, and the Winter Palace, wrote the opera 'Khovanshchina', the epic 'Moscow to End of the Line', and the poem 'Golden grove had said its piece''. While the teetotalers gave the world Hitler and Chikatillo.<br /><br />Here's a drunken man wading knee-deep through the see like he was on dry ground; while everybody else has long been drowned, he is on his way somewhere in the underwater City of Kitezh looking for beer.<br /><br />There he goes on foot to the sky, but he stumbled and fell, straight at the enemy bunker. And the enemy chokes on his own bullets, then twisted out and turned into a policeman. And our hero came to under a shivering lightbulb of the law.<br /><br />Drunken man is always pursued. Demons with eagles' heads hunt him relentlessly, they lie in wait for him while he, barely dragging his feet, is returning from his nightwatch. They press him to the ground and drag him to their hell. There they torture him till morning to make him reveal a Classified Information, but to this day not one prisoner revealed it, and that is why we are all still alive. Shaking with anger, the demons chase the hero out from Hell, back under the cold and hateful (to them) morning sun. Who among you, the sober ones, ever in your life had seen a sky over a detox center? Not one, because it is not for you that this sky was moved there directly from the lost paradise.<br /><br />A sober man is a liar and pragmatic. He will sell the Motherland and slaughter a child, if it is profitable for him, and will deftly cover up the traces. A drunk will do the same in a fit of inspiration, quite unselfishly, and when sobered up, will be horrified. When two drunken men are kissing, it does not mean that they are ready to get married - it just means that they genuinely love and respect each other. Can a sober man with all his heart love the first passerby, having known him only half an hour? Never.<br /><br />But it is in the time of profound hangover that the drunken man becomes completely beautiful.<br /><br />A superficial hangover brings with it only nausea and headache, which are quite accessible even to those who do not drink at all. But the profound hangover is accompanied by an equally profound comprehension of the fragility of the surrounding world. A hungover man gently puts his foot on the pavement, knowing that beneath its thin layer lies a bottomless pit that leads to nowhere. He heroically focuses his gaze and thus keeps from disintegration and disappearance the city which surrounds him, this city populated by unsuspecting old men, women and children. The leaden sky is pressing down on his shoulders, and under his feet the cracks slither. And alone in all the world he sees and carefully carries all this, taking care to not drop and accidentally break it.<br /><br />And so: will anybody raise a monument to our quiet hero? Hang on his breast a round medal? Pour him a mug of beer, at least? No one. Bastards.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-32327848582840537502010-02-28T23:21:00.000-08:002010-03-01T00:44:48.695-08:00"Our duty to music is to invent it"<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><div><br /></div><div><div> "...why we love to fall in love. Beauty spins and the mind moves. To catch beauty would be to understand how that impertinent stability in vertigo is possible. But no, delight need not reach so far: to be running breathlessly, but not yet arrived, is itself delightful, a suspended moment of living hope."</div><div><div><div> "Who ever desires what is not gone? No one, The Greeks were clear on this. They invented eros to express it." </div><div><b>Anne Carson</b> </div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>"Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,</div><div>which show like grief itself , but are not so...</div><div>...so your sweet majesty,</div><div>Looking awry at upon your lord's departure,</div><div>Finds shapes of grief more than himself to wail."</div><div><b>Shakespeare</b></div></span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">"Desire...evokes lack of being under the three figures of the nothing that constitutes the basis of the demand for love, of the hate that even denies the other's being, and of the unspeakable element in that which is ignored in its request"</span></b></div><div><b>Jacques Lacan</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>"...fantasy space functions as an empty surface, as a kind of screen for the projection of desires: the fascinating presence of its positive contents does nothing but fill out a certain emptiness."</div><div><div><div>"The fundamental point of psychoanalysis is that desire is not something given in advance, but something that has to be constructed...<i>through fantasy, we learn how to desire</i>." </div><div><b>Slavoj Zizek</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div> "...you should never cease to be aware that all aspects of the learning you have acquired, and will acquire, are possible because of their relationship with negation - with that which is not, or which appears not to be. The most impressive thing about man, perhaps the only thing thing that excuses him of all his idiocy and brutality, is the fact that he has invented the concept of that which does not exist."</div><div><div><div> "...invention is, in fact, a cautious dipping into the negation that lies outside the system from a position firmly ensconced in system." <b> </b></div><div><b>Glenn Gould</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>It would be subreptitious of me not to admit that I lifted the Lacan quote from the same Carson text, and Shakespeare's words, obviously, from Zizek. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-36419984137670907072009-05-16T01:07:00.000-07:002009-05-16T01:20:57.024-07:00Moses the EgyptianIn 1786 <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/karl-reinhold/">Karl Leonard Reinhold</a> wrote an essay on the subject of Moses the Egyptian, which, according to Jan Assmann, "forms the missing link between Spencer and Freud". That's John Spencer (1630-1693), an English Hebraist. Assmann says those old Christian Hebraists knew their stuff better than an average Old Testament scholar today.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230447828769337452.post-61246839377498818932009-05-09T14:57:00.000-07:002009-05-09T15:08:28.997-07:00Yesterday, I went to a C.O.V.E.R.T. event organized by <a href="http://www.markgrowden.org">Mark Growden</a> and <a href="http://johnlaw.laughingsquid.com/">John Law</a>. It was pretty cool. I'm not supposed to talk about it.Stashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346611477781787174noreply@blogger.com0