We live in the best of times in which we are able to learn about the world and its incredible diversity of cultures/beings/places/perspectives in a way never historically possible. We live in the worst of times when we are able to isolate ourselves completely from anything different from our own narrow view/conception of the world/reality. The choice is yours!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Resources for November 30, 2013
Kevin Brown interviews for History for the Future:
Political Scientist Ron English "On Terrorism"
Historian Jefferson Cowie On the Working Class in the 1970s
Cinema scholar Anna McCarthy "On Television and Citizenship in the 1950s"
Historian Nico Slate on "Colored Cosmopolitanism"
Historian Jay Aronson on "Forensic Science and Criminal Justice in the United States"
Historian Robert Vanderlan on "Intellectuals and the Commercial Media in Mid-20th Century America"
David Edwards for Media Lens: "Electrified Thought Fences - Narcissism: Real And Imagined."
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Resources for Thanksgiving 2013
Anthropologist/Geographer David Harvey outlining the roots of the global financial crisis right at the beginning: "A Financial Katrina – Remarks on the Crisis."
Kevin Brown's Interviews for History for the Future:
Journalist Doug Henwood discusses the global financial crisis: Economy and Politics
Journalist Charles C. Mann: "The Americas Before Columbus
Historian John Enyeart: "John Enyeart on American Social Democracy in the Rocky Mountain West"
Historian Marcus Rediker: On the Slave Ship
Historian John Soluri: "On the Banana in Honduras
Historian Brian Black: "On the Ecology of Oil"
Cultural Historian Heather Steffen: On the Labor of Academia"
a l'allure garconniere on the recent Gap controversy and The Huffington Post's response: "(Culture) Gap"
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Resources for November 27, 2013
Merriam-Webster Word of the Day
insuperable \in-SOO-puh-ruh-bul\
adjective: incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over, or solved
EXAMPLES
Though it had appeared that the visiting team had an insuperable lead, the home team rallied to win in the end.
"The project faced a perpetual lack of funding, constant bureaucratic delays, and, by the '30s, the near-insuperable hurdles of reconciling parts of Tolstoy's work (especially his religious writings) with the state's demands." — From a post by Sal Robinson on Melville House Press's MobyLives blog, October 21, 2013
DID YOU KNOW?
"Insuperable" first appeared in print in the 14th century, and it still means now approximately what it did then. "Insuperable" is a close synonym of "insurmountable." In Latin, "superare" means "to go over, surmount, overcome, or excel." The Latin word "insuperabilis" was formed by combining the common prefix "in-" (meaning "not" or "un-") with "superare" plus "abilis" ("able"). Hence "insuperabilis" meant "unable to be surmounted, overcome, or passed over," or more simply, "insurmountable." The word "insuperabilis" was later anglicized as "insuperable." Related words such as "superable," "superably," and even "superableness" have also found a place in English.
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819)
Robert Koehler for Cinema Guild: "Sweetgrass and the Future of Nonfiction Cinema."
Hand, Judith L. Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. San Diego, CA: Questpath, 2003>
Alinsky, Saul. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. NY: Vintage Books, 1971.
I am literally exploding with geeky joy as a result of this new series from America's Test Kitchen: Cooking with the Classics
Divarication Dithyramb
by Wesley Houp
While reading William Duiker’s
sweeping biography of Ho Chi Minh,
I hear Ken Chenault, CEO and Chairman of
American Express, tout his commitment to
American Small Businesses, exhorting
American People to support their local economies
on Small Business Saturday in addition to supporting
Multinational Corporations on Black Friday,
assuring distant and faceless consumers
that American Express is committed
to serving “a” common good.
And while MSNBC hosts clamor to be first
to express on behalf of a nation of “shareholders”
a profound gratitude for such life and liberty-affirming acts
of selfless sacrifice, generosity, and collective hope,
“Uncle Ho,” the heart and soul
of the long and bloody Vietnamese struggle for independence
from European and American Imperialism,
bends in a grainy photograph, hoe in hand,
to tend his small garden at the edge of the Presidential Palace,
an opulence he shunned for simplicity of a small Stilt House
built in the style of the Viet Bac,
emblematic of a life lived close to the earth
along side poverty and despair and terror and hope
and solidarity with a nation of ten million peasants.
Alan Noble for Patheos: "The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots."
Last minute food ideas for the holiday? Check out America's Test Kitchen
Pope Francis causes a stir: In The Guardian - "Pope Francis calls unfettered capitalism 'tyranny' and urges rich to share wealth." and Joe Weisenthal for The Business Insider - "The Pope Just Published One Of The Most Powerful Critiques Of Modern Capitalism That You Will Ever Read" (on the second one, obviously Weisenthal has never bothered to read Karl Marx or the countless critics of capitalism that followed his important writings)
James D. Schwartz for The Urban Country: "Dad Arrested For Picking Up Kids At School By Foot."
James Mooney in Filmosophy: "The Problem of Evil in Film"
Belle Beth Cooper for Lifehacker: "The Science Behind Posture and How It Affects Your Brain."
Niall Lucy for Screening the Past re-assesses Nicholas Ray's 1954 film Johnny Guitar: "The Western Suburbs."
insuperable \in-SOO-puh-ruh-bul\
adjective: incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over, or solved
EXAMPLES
Though it had appeared that the visiting team had an insuperable lead, the home team rallied to win in the end.
"The project faced a perpetual lack of funding, constant bureaucratic delays, and, by the '30s, the near-insuperable hurdles of reconciling parts of Tolstoy's work (especially his religious writings) with the state's demands." — From a post by Sal Robinson on Melville House Press's MobyLives blog, October 21, 2013
DID YOU KNOW?
"Insuperable" first appeared in print in the 14th century, and it still means now approximately what it did then. "Insuperable" is a close synonym of "insurmountable." In Latin, "superare" means "to go over, surmount, overcome, or excel." The Latin word "insuperabilis" was formed by combining the common prefix "in-" (meaning "not" or "un-") with "superare" plus "abilis" ("able"). Hence "insuperabilis" meant "unable to be surmounted, overcome, or passed over," or more simply, "insurmountable." The word "insuperabilis" was later anglicized as "insuperable." Related words such as "superable," "superably," and even "superableness" have also found a place in English.
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819)
Robert Koehler for Cinema Guild: "Sweetgrass and the Future of Nonfiction Cinema."
Hand, Judith L. Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace. San Diego, CA: Questpath, 2003>
Alinsky, Saul. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. NY: Vintage Books, 1971.
I am literally exploding with geeky joy as a result of this new series from America's Test Kitchen: Cooking with the Classics
Divarication Dithyramb
by Wesley Houp
While reading William Duiker’s
sweeping biography of Ho Chi Minh,
I hear Ken Chenault, CEO and Chairman of
American Express, tout his commitment to
American Small Businesses, exhorting
American People to support their local economies
on Small Business Saturday in addition to supporting
Multinational Corporations on Black Friday,
assuring distant and faceless consumers
that American Express is committed
to serving “a” common good.
And while MSNBC hosts clamor to be first
to express on behalf of a nation of “shareholders”
a profound gratitude for such life and liberty-affirming acts
of selfless sacrifice, generosity, and collective hope,
“Uncle Ho,” the heart and soul
of the long and bloody Vietnamese struggle for independence
from European and American Imperialism,
bends in a grainy photograph, hoe in hand,
to tend his small garden at the edge of the Presidential Palace,
an opulence he shunned for simplicity of a small Stilt House
built in the style of the Viet Bac,
emblematic of a life lived close to the earth
along side poverty and despair and terror and hope
and solidarity with a nation of ten million peasants.
The Dirty Sheep - Wolf Like Me (TV on the radio cover) from evolufilm on Vimeo.
Alan Noble for Patheos: "The Knockout Game Myth and its Racist Roots."
Last minute food ideas for the holiday? Check out America's Test Kitchen
Pope Francis causes a stir: In The Guardian - "Pope Francis calls unfettered capitalism 'tyranny' and urges rich to share wealth." and Joe Weisenthal for The Business Insider - "The Pope Just Published One Of The Most Powerful Critiques Of Modern Capitalism That You Will Ever Read" (on the second one, obviously Weisenthal has never bothered to read Karl Marx or the countless critics of capitalism that followed his important writings)
James D. Schwartz for The Urban Country: "Dad Arrested For Picking Up Kids At School By Foot."
James Mooney in Filmosophy: "The Problem of Evil in Film"
Belle Beth Cooper for Lifehacker: "The Science Behind Posture and How It Affects Your Brain."
Niall Lucy for Screening the Past re-assesses Nicholas Ray's 1954 film Johnny Guitar: "The Western Suburbs."
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Johnny Guitar (USA: Nicholas Ray, 1954)
Johnny Guitar (USA: Nicholas Ray, 1954: 110 mins)
Laczkowski, Jim and Sergio Mims. "Nicholas Ray." Director's Club #115 (August 27, 2014)
Longworth, Karina. "Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)." You Must Remember This (August 29, 2016) ["Joan Crawford struggled through what she called her “middle years,” the period during her 40s before she remade herself from aging, slumping MGM deadweight into a fleet, journeywoman powerhouse who starred in some of the most interesting films about adult womanhood of the 1940s and 1950s. That revival began with Mildred Pierce (for which Crawford won her only Oscar), and included a number of films, such as Daisy Kenyon and Johnny Guitar, directed by men who would later be upheld as auteurs, subversively making personal art within the commercial industry of Hollywood."]
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
"Miriam Bale (Johnny Guitar)." The Cinephiliacs #16 (April 21, 2013)
Sanjek, David. Johnny Guitar Senses of Cinema #59 (2011)
Monday, November 25, 2013
Resources for November 26, 2013
Latourian Diagrams
Robert Reich states on Facebook:
"At least a dozen U.S. mega-retailers are opening for the first time this Thanksgiving Day. It’s the latest example of the race to the bottom led by Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, which for years has scheduled work on Thanksgiving. The expansion of hours will take more than a million employees away from their families during the holiday. The big retailers say it’s their employees’ choice, but it's hardly a choice: If they’re scheduled but don’t work, it’s counted as a missed day, and too many missed days mean they’re fired. If they’re working part-time (as an increasing number are) they can’t afford not to work when they’re scheduled to.
Last week the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board found Walmart had “unlawfully threatened, disciplined and/or terminated employees” at stores in 13 states, for protesting pay and working conditions in the last year’s “Black Friday” walkouts. Please support Walmart workers – and, by extension, low-wage workers across America – by boycotting Walmart this Friday. You might go a step further: Don’t shop in any big retailer Thanksgiving Day. Spread the word.
Molly Brost for Americana: "Negotiating Authenticity: Coal Miner's Daughter, the Biopic, and Country Music."
Emma Roller for Slate: "Sorry, Right-Wing Media: The "Knockout Game" Trend Is a Myth."
Heather Gautney for The Washington Post: "The tea party is giving anarchism a bad name."
Erin Gloria Ryan for Jezebel: "Boom: Four Steubenville School Officials Indicted in Teen Rape Case"
Anthony Burgess' 1962 dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange
Humots
Robert Reich states on Facebook:
"At least a dozen U.S. mega-retailers are opening for the first time this Thanksgiving Day. It’s the latest example of the race to the bottom led by Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, which for years has scheduled work on Thanksgiving. The expansion of hours will take more than a million employees away from their families during the holiday. The big retailers say it’s their employees’ choice, but it's hardly a choice: If they’re scheduled but don’t work, it’s counted as a missed day, and too many missed days mean they’re fired. If they’re working part-time (as an increasing number are) they can’t afford not to work when they’re scheduled to.
Last week the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board found Walmart had “unlawfully threatened, disciplined and/or terminated employees” at stores in 13 states, for protesting pay and working conditions in the last year’s “Black Friday” walkouts. Please support Walmart workers – and, by extension, low-wage workers across America – by boycotting Walmart this Friday. You might go a step further: Don’t shop in any big retailer Thanksgiving Day. Spread the word.
Molly Brost for Americana: "Negotiating Authenticity: Coal Miner's Daughter, the Biopic, and Country Music."
Emma Roller for Slate: "Sorry, Right-Wing Media: The "Knockout Game" Trend Is a Myth."
Heather Gautney for The Washington Post: "The tea party is giving anarchism a bad name."
Erin Gloria Ryan for Jezebel: "Boom: Four Steubenville School Officials Indicted in Teen Rape Case"
Anthony Burgess' 1962 dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange
Humots
Resources for November 25, 2013
Roger Ebert's classic: "How To Read a Movie."
Alison Nastasi for Flavorwire: "The Most Emotional Scores."
David Hudson for Keyframe: "Georges Lautner, 1926 – 2013: The French director worked with the likes of Ventura, Belmondo, and Delon."
Kelly Heyboer for the Star-Ledger: "Tensions rise at Kean U. as officials recommend denying tenure to 2/3 of eligible professors"
Cara Buckley for The New York Times: "Police Unsure if Random Attacks Are Rising Threat or Urban Myth: ‘Knockout Game’ a Spreading Menace or a Myth."
Noah Isenberg and Rob White in Film Q!uarterly "debate the politics of Roman Polanski's stage play adaptation": "Carnage and All: A Discussion."
Sanford Schwartz for The New York Review of Books: "Surrealism Made Fresh."
Andy Battaglia for Film Comment reviews a new modern score acompanying a recent DVD release of the 1921 classic film The Phantom Carriage: "The Metal Beast: A most unorthodox Victor Sjöström remix."
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary Word-of-the-Day:
dragon's teeth Pronunciation\DRAG-unz-TEETH\
noun
1 : seeds of strife; 2 : wedge-shaped concrete antitank barriers laid in multiple rows
EXAMPLES
The political analyst insisted that the government's policy was misguided and would only sow dragon's teeth by increasing poverty and discontent.
"Assiduously sown by the Kremlin, the dragon's teeth of demagoguery, paranoia, xenophobia, anti-Westernism, intolerance, and obscurantism are bound to yield a toxic harvest when the regime falters or loses control outright." — From an article by Leon Aron, posted October 24, 2013 at american.com
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne's child, Pearl, "never created a friend, but seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragon's teeth, whence sprung a harvest of armed enemies, against whom she rushed to battle." In Hawthorne and elsewhere, "dragon's teeth" alludes to a story involving Cadmus, the legendary Phoenician hero reputed to have founded Thebes and invented the alphabet. The tale holds that Cadmus killed a dragon and planted its teeth in the ground. From the teeth sprang fierce armed men who battled one another until all were dead but five. These founded the noblest families of Thebes and helped build its citadel.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
The King of Comedy (USA: Martin Scorsese, 1982)
The King of Comedy (USA: Martin Scorsese, 1982: 109 mins)
Bégaudeau, Francois. "Répliques : Scorsese, A New Overview." Translated by Sally Shafto. Cahiers du Cinema #599 (March 2005): 80-82.
Carvajal, Nelson and Max Winter. "Video Essay: Women in the Works of Martin Scorsese." Press Play (February 7, 2014)
Hynes, Eric, et al. "The King of Cinema." Film Comment (February 14, 2017) ["The lively conversation covers the film’s unsettling mix of humor and discomfort, its open-ended slippage between fantasy and reality, its place in the careers of Scorsese and De Niro, and the myriad ways in which Rupert Pupkin’s name gets hopelessly botched. Listen and enjoy, whether or not your office happens to be a Pupkin-esque setup in a Times Square phone booth."]
Koresky, Michael and Jeff Reichert. "Martin Scorsese: He Is Cinema." Reverse Shot (September 17, 2014)
"A Life in Pictures: Martin Scorsese." BAFTA (April 6, 2011)
Newland, Christina Marie. "Satirical Excess and Empty Vessels: Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy." Bright Lights Film Journal #80 (May 2013)
Resources for November 24, 2013
A conversation between Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott in The New York Times: "Film Is Dead? Long Live Movies: How Digital Is Changing the Nature of Movies."
Alison Nastasi for Flavorwire celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are with: "The Greatest Monsters in Children’s Literature."
David Hudson for Keyframe presents Taiwan's 2013 film award winners: "ILO ILO tops the 2013 Golden Horse Awards: The complete list of the winners."
Errol Morris is now making short documentaries for The New York Times: "Errol Morris’ take on the JFK Assassination, “Umbrella Man” is A Cautionary Tale of Non-Conspiracy." and Pt. 2 below:
Christopher Lydon interviews for Radio Open Source:
James Douglas: "JFK and the Unspeakable. Part One." and "JFK and the Unspeakable, Part Two."
Robert Dallek: "Three Last Questions about JFK."
Frank Bruni for The New York Times examines how class stratification and inequality is becoming a daily part of American lives and is increasingly a part of many of our social/leisure activities: "The Extra Legroom Society"
James Mooney at Filmosophy: "What is Film Studies?"
Vinzenz Hediger for Screening the Past: "What Do we Know When We Know Where Something Is? World Cinema and the Question of Spatial Ordering."
Andrew O'Hehir for Salon: "The movies’ surprising blind spot: Corporate greed."
Frontline is hosting online Steve James' powerful 2011 documentary about former Chicago gang members working on the streets to effectively bring about peace and community: The Interrupters
Alison Nastasi for Flavorwire celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are with: "The Greatest Monsters in Children’s Literature."
David Hudson for Keyframe presents Taiwan's 2013 film award winners: "ILO ILO tops the 2013 Golden Horse Awards: The complete list of the winners."
Errol Morris is now making short documentaries for The New York Times: "Errol Morris’ take on the JFK Assassination, “Umbrella Man” is A Cautionary Tale of Non-Conspiracy." and Pt. 2 below:
November 22, 1963 from The New York Times - Video on Vimeo.
Christopher Lydon interviews for Radio Open Source:
James Douglas: "JFK and the Unspeakable. Part One." and "JFK and the Unspeakable, Part Two."
Robert Dallek: "Three Last Questions about JFK."
Frank Bruni for The New York Times examines how class stratification and inequality is becoming a daily part of American lives and is increasingly a part of many of our social/leisure activities: "The Extra Legroom Society"
James Mooney at Filmosophy: "What is Film Studies?"
Vinzenz Hediger for Screening the Past: "What Do we Know When We Know Where Something Is? World Cinema and the Question of Spatial Ordering."
Andrew O'Hehir for Salon: "The movies’ surprising blind spot: Corporate greed."
Frontline is hosting online Steve James' powerful 2011 documentary about former Chicago gang members working on the streets to effectively bring about peace and community: The Interrupters
Saturday, November 23, 2013
JFK (USA/France: Oliver Stone, 1991)
JFK (USA/France: Oliver Stone, 1991: 189 mins)
Dallek, Robert. "Three Last Questions About JFK." Radio Open Source (November 13, 2013)
Douglas, James. "JFK and the Unspeakable, Pt. 1" and "JFK and the Unspeakable, Pt. 2" Radio Open Source (October 2 and 5, 2013)
Fishko, Sara. "Covering the JFK Assassination." On the Media (October 27, 2017) ["The day that President John F. Kennedy died, TV was still relatively young. Live, on-site reporting was extremely cumbersome, costly and rare. But that day, the medium, and America’s relationship to it, changed forever. In this piece, originally aired in 2001, WNYC’s Sara Fishko, host of the Fishko Files, spoke with the TV anchors who covered the assassination, the president’s funeral and the attack on Lee Harvey Oswald in real time."]
Kiang, Jessica. "50th Anniversary: 8 JFK Assassination Films That Revisit History." The Playlist (November 20, 2013)
Lee, Kevin B. and Matt Zoller Steitz. "Unreliable Narratives: JFK and the Power of Counter-Myth. [Oliver Stone, Part 2]." Moving Image Source (October 15, 2008)
Morris, Errol and Josiah Thompson. "Errol Morris’ take on the JFK Assassination, “Umbrella Man” is A Cautionary Tale of Non-Conspiracy." The New York Times (November 22, 2011)
---. "November 22, 1963." The New York Times (Hosted on Vimeo: November 22, 2013)
Rosenbaum, Ron. "What the JFK Conspiracy Theories Say About Us." On the Media (October 27, 2017) ["Thousands of previously classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released this week, while President Trump ordered a review of a few hundred files that were withheld for national security concerns. The document release has been anticipated by conspiracy theorists who still question whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in November 1963, and why. Brooke speaks with journalist Ron Rosenbaum about his long-time interest in the case and how 50 years of searching for answers has changed the "landscape of the American mind.""]
Sampson, Benjamin. "Essay Meets Plot: JFK and the Boundaries of Narrative." [in]Transition (December 12, 2014)
Raging Bull (USA: Martin Scorsese, 1980)
Raging Bull (USA: Martin Scorsese, 1980: 129 mins)
Bégaudeau, Francois. "Répliques : Scorsese, A New Overview." Translated by Sally Shafto. Cahiers du Cinema #599 (March 2005): 80-82.
Carvajal, Nelson and Max Winter. "Video Essay: Women in the Works of Martin Scorsese." Press Play (February 7, 2014)
Hancock, James and Jacob Rivera. "The Sweet Science in Cinema." The Wrong Reel #129 (April 2016)
"'The Invisible Thelma Schoonmaker,' Martin Scorsese's Editor." Filmmaker (July 12, 2017)
"A Life in Pictures: Martin Scorsese." BAFTA (April 6, 2011)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Subtext in Personal Expression: Raging Bull." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 236-242. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Winkler, Irwin. "On Raging Bull." The Metrograph (May 29, 2019) ["They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, the Rocky franchise, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, De-Lovely, The Wolf of Wall Street: The producing credits of Irwin Winkler are not short on era-defining, money-making classics. In another time, Winkler may have been a household name on the level of a Goldwyn or a Zanuck, but until now, Winkler was content to let his work speak for itself. With the release of his memoir, A Life In Movies, the 88-year-old producer is finally unleashing fifty years of stories behind Hollywood’s defining movies. Ahead of his weekend of screenings at Metrograph, we are pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from Winkler’s memoir. Have you ever seen Raging Bull and wondered how in the world that movie ever got made? Well, now we know."]
Martin Scorsese - The Art of Silence from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.
Resources for November 23, 2013
Ben Blatt for Slate: "A Textual Analysis of The Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins’ favorite adjectives, adverbs, and ways of starting a sentence."
Theodore Dalrymple for City Journal writes about the significance of Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange: "A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece"
Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols for Monthly Review: "The Bull Market: Political Advertising"
Andrea Bennett for Adbusters: "Disaster Advertising: Your mental environment just got a little more saleable."
Garry Watson in Cineaction: "Michael Moore: A Man on a Mission or How Far a Reinvigorated Populism Can Take Us"
I've been working to expand my year-by-year top films from two to three choices (with the ultimate goal of a top ten running from 1930 - present). So it was a pleasant surprise when I came across Justine Smith on House of Mirth and Movies and saw that she has compiled an impressive and daunting year-by-year top ten list of films from 1925-2011 (she also has an interesting regular series of postings on the top ten films viewed each month)
Jeremy Daw for AlterNet: " Mass Federal Raids on Colorado Pot Hint at a Crackdown Pattern: This week's raids occurred almost simultaneously with Colorado's issuance of the first retail marijuana license in the world." Jacob Sullum at Forbes also reports on this: "Medical Marijuana Raids In Colorado Raise Questions About Federal Forbearance"
Donovan Norris for The Eastern Progress: Colonel Mascot Evokes Eastern Kentucky University's Racist Past
Two discussions in Progress Lex about the future of Lexington, KY. Check out the comments on both posts by Danny: Tanzi Merritt: "We Support Local and International Art" and Steve Kay: "Lean Urbanism and Gentrification"
Anthropologist/Geographer David Harvey is interviewed in Jadaliyya: "On Why Struggles Over Urban Space Matter."
Sarah Goodyear for Atlantic Cities: "A Horrifying Story of 'Stop and Frisk' Taken to Its Logical Extreme."
Friday, November 22, 2013
Resources for November 22, 2013
Emily Badger for The Atlantic: "The Next Housing Crash: When the Boomers downsize, what will happen to the suburbs?"
Aisha Harris for Slate shares a satirical video: "If Gravity Was Set in IKEA, It Would Look Like This."
Miriam Krule for Slate: "The Hunger Names"
In case you are not sure what is wrong with police profiling of people who have not committed any crimes or are doing nothing wrong, Julie K. Brown for the Miami Herald: "In Miami Gardens, store video catches cops in the act"
Christopher Lydon Interviews for Radio Open Source:
Biographer Stephen Kinzer: Are the Dulles Brothers finally out of power?
Poet C. D. Wright in Triumph: One With Others
Jane Stadler for Screening the Past: "Affectless Empathy, Embodied Imagination and The Killer Inside Me."
Michel Gondry's new animated film featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky is premiering in theaters this weekend:
Sarah Marie at True African Original posts Egyptian street art protesting sexual terror against women protestors: "Street Graffiti in Cairo: 'Nefertiti' by El Zeft
Shadowboxing posts some photographs of The Women of Asgarda in the Carpathian Mountains (Ukraine) who supposedly banded together to develop as warriors for self-defense against sexual trafficking The Women of Asgarda. Reports about The Women of Asgarda first started surfacing in 2009, but most of them just assumed this was a radical feminist movement. Instead, as Serena N. Kutchinsky reports for Prospect, they are a maternalist nationalist group and reject feminism: "Asgarda: The secrets of Ukraine’s warrior women". Still, as Laura prompted me, even as this nationalist perspective troubles me, I have to admit they seem to be much better than Hollywood's notion of empowered amazons in:
Aisha Harris for Slate shares a satirical video: "If Gravity Was Set in IKEA, It Would Look Like This."
Miriam Krule for Slate: "The Hunger Names"
In case you are not sure what is wrong with police profiling of people who have not committed any crimes or are doing nothing wrong, Julie K. Brown for the Miami Herald: "In Miami Gardens, store video catches cops in the act"
Christopher Lydon Interviews for Radio Open Source:
Biographer Stephen Kinzer: Are the Dulles Brothers finally out of power?
Poet C. D. Wright in Triumph: One With Others
Jane Stadler for Screening the Past: "Affectless Empathy, Embodied Imagination and The Killer Inside Me."
Michel Gondry's new animated film featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky is premiering in theaters this weekend:
Sarah Marie at True African Original posts Egyptian street art protesting sexual terror against women protestors: "Street Graffiti in Cairo: 'Nefertiti' by El Zeft
Shadowboxing posts some photographs of The Women of Asgarda in the Carpathian Mountains (Ukraine) who supposedly banded together to develop as warriors for self-defense against sexual trafficking The Women of Asgarda. Reports about The Women of Asgarda first started surfacing in 2009, but most of them just assumed this was a radical feminist movement. Instead, as Serena N. Kutchinsky reports for Prospect, they are a maternalist nationalist group and reject feminism: "Asgarda: The secrets of Ukraine’s warrior women". Still, as Laura prompted me, even as this nationalist perspective troubles me, I have to admit they seem to be much better than Hollywood's notion of empowered amazons in:
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Resources for November 21, 2013
Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone created a poetry challenge for his readers, send in a haiku on Chase bank's recent dealings, the response was impressive: "The Winners of the 'Chase Twitter Fail' Haiku Contest"
David Dayen for Salon provides a more sobering look at JP Morgan/Chase's settlement with the Justice Department: "The Much-Ballyhooed JP Morgan Settlement Is Just a Scam! Here's how this so-called "big" fraud settlement is itself a big fraud"
Do you ever wonder what your cat is dreaming about:
Highly recommended film: WR: Mysteries of an Organism
Over at Current they are featuring a new video of Adam Sternbergh interviewing Greta Gerwig on Frances Ha and an interview of the director Noah Baumbach by Peter Bogdanovich on the "Look of Frances Ha"
Raz Greenberg at Strange Horizons reviews Ari Folman's new film The Congress and here is a trailer:
Seamus Milne for The Guardian: "Orthodox economists have failed their own market test: Students are demanding alternatives to a free-market dogma with a disastrous record. That's something we all need."
David Dayen for Salon provides a more sobering look at JP Morgan/Chase's settlement with the Justice Department: "The Much-Ballyhooed JP Morgan Settlement Is Just a Scam! Here's how this so-called "big" fraud settlement is itself a big fraud"
Do you ever wonder what your cat is dreaming about:
Highly recommended film: WR: Mysteries of an Organism
Over at Current they are featuring a new video of Adam Sternbergh interviewing Greta Gerwig on Frances Ha and an interview of the director Noah Baumbach by Peter Bogdanovich on the "Look of Frances Ha"
Raz Greenberg at Strange Horizons reviews Ari Folman's new film The Congress and here is a trailer:
Seamus Milne for The Guardian: "Orthodox economists have failed their own market test: Students are demanding alternatives to a free-market dogma with a disastrous record. That's something we all need."
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Frances Ha (USA: Noah Baumbach, 2012)
“The perfect movie about what it is to be young and lost and hopeful.” — Tom Charity
Frances Ha (USA: Noah Baumbach, 2012: 86 mins)
Baker, Annie. "Frances Ha: The Green Girl." Current (November 12, 2013)
Baumbach, Noah and Peter Bogdanovich. "The Look of Frances Ha." Current (November 15, 2013)
"Frances Ha, cinematic movement, and the French New Wave." The Film Doctor (November 24, 2013)
Hudson, David. "Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha: 'You gotta love Greta Gerwig.'” Keyframe (September 4, 2012)
Leuven, Jop. "Frances Ha and the Framing of Friendship." Framed (November 9, 2016)
Murphy, J.J. "Frances Ha." J.J. Murphy on Independent Cinema (January 8, 2014)
Frances Ha (USA: Noah Baumbach, 2012: 86 mins)
Baker, Annie. "Frances Ha: The Green Girl." Current (November 12, 2013)
Baumbach, Noah and Peter Bogdanovich. "The Look of Frances Ha." Current (November 15, 2013)
"Frances Ha, cinematic movement, and the French New Wave." The Film Doctor (November 24, 2013)
Hudson, David. "Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha: 'You gotta love Greta Gerwig.'” Keyframe (September 4, 2012)
Leuven, Jop. "Frances Ha and the Framing of Friendship." Framed (November 9, 2016)
Murphy, J.J. "Frances Ha." J.J. Murphy on Independent Cinema (January 8, 2014)
Monday, November 18, 2013
Resources for November 19, 2013
Anthony Macris for Screening the Past: "The Immobilised Body: Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange."
The new trailer of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming film Noah -- I guess someone thought it was time for a reboot of the Biblical superheroes? or maybe the pitch, was apocalyptic films are hot no more, and nothing is more ol' skool apocalyptic than the story of Noah!:
"13-part documentary series from 1980 - Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film - is narrated by James Mason for Thames Television."
Christopher Lydon interviews for Radio Open Source:
"David Bromwich on the Disappointment of Obama."
Chef Barbara Massaad in Beirut: Make Food, Not War. Seriously!"
War Reporter "Nir Rosen: the Iraq and Af-Pak Wars, at the Receiving End."
Composer-Conductor Paul Phillips: "Anthony Burgess: Language as Music, and Vice Versa."
Artist/Historian Gregory Buchakjian in Beirut: A Course of Catastrophe
Biographer Jon Szwed: "Alan Lomax and the Salvation of American Song"
James Mooney at Filmosophy: "The Bicycle Thieves and Italian Neorealism"
Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist: "Enveloping Locutions: Body, Racism and Language"
In The Guardian: "Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's (Pussy Riot) prison letters to Slavoj Žižek"
Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian: "Top 10 Arthouse Movies
At Buzzfeed Arnelle Calderon compiles a list of: "27 Surreal Places To Visit Before You Die."
The new trailer of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming film Noah -- I guess someone thought it was time for a reboot of the Biblical superheroes? or maybe the pitch, was apocalyptic films are hot no more, and nothing is more ol' skool apocalyptic than the story of Noah!:
"13-part documentary series from 1980 - Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film - is narrated by James Mason for Thames Television."
Christopher Lydon interviews for Radio Open Source:
"David Bromwich on the Disappointment of Obama."
Chef Barbara Massaad in Beirut: Make Food, Not War. Seriously!"
War Reporter "Nir Rosen: the Iraq and Af-Pak Wars, at the Receiving End."
Composer-Conductor Paul Phillips: "Anthony Burgess: Language as Music, and Vice Versa."
Artist/Historian Gregory Buchakjian in Beirut: A Course of Catastrophe
Biographer Jon Szwed: "Alan Lomax and the Salvation of American Song"
James Mooney at Filmosophy: "The Bicycle Thieves and Italian Neorealism"
Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist: "Enveloping Locutions: Body, Racism and Language"
In The Guardian: "Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's (Pussy Riot) prison letters to Slavoj Žižek"
Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian: "Top 10 Arthouse Movies
At Buzzfeed Arnelle Calderon compiles a list of: "27 Surreal Places To Visit Before You Die."
W.R.: Mysteries of an Organism (Yugoslavia/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1971)
W.R.: Mysteries of an Organism (Yugoslavia/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1971: 84 mins)
Barker, Jennifer Lynne. The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection. Routledge, 2013. [Get through interlibrary loan]
Davidson, David. "Raymond Durgnat (and WR: Mysteries of the Organism)." Toronto Film Review (April 29, 2011)
Durgnat, Raymond. WR: Mysteries of the Organism. London: British Film Institute, 1999. [Professor has a copy]
Halligan, Benjamin. "WR: Mysteries of the Organism by Raymond Durgnat." Senses of Cinema (December 2000)
Mortimer, Lorraine. Terror and Joy: The Films of Dušan Makavejev. University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
---. "WR: Mysteries of the Organism." The Projection Booth #126 (August 6, 2013)
Porton, Richard. "WR: Mysteries of the Organism: Anarchist Realism and Critical Quandaries." LOLA #1 (2011)
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "WR, Sex, and the Art of Radical Juxtaposition." Current (June 18, 2007)
A Clockwork Orange (UK/USA: Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
A Clockwork Orange (UK/USA: Stanley Kubrick, 1971: 136 mins)
"A Clockwork Orange: Kubrick and Burgess' Vision of the Modern World." Cinephilia and Beyond (ND)
Ager, Rob. "'The Power Drug': An in-depth analysis of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange." Collative Learning (2010)
Aisenberg, Joseph. "Counter Clockwise Or Lay Quiet Awhile with Ed and Id Molotov: Re-examining the Crossed Wires in Kubrick's and Burgess' A Clockwork Orange." Bright Lights Film Journal #61 (August 2008)
Anderson, Nathan. Shadow Philosophy: Plato's Cave and Cinema. Routledge, 2014. [This link provides access to the first 30 pages.]
Beyl, Cameron. "The Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick, Pts. 1-5." The Film Stage (February 11, 2015)
Biswell, Andrew. "A Clockwork Orange." Radio West (August 19, 2016)
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. NY: W.W. Norton, 1986.
---. "A Clockwork Orange Resucked." A Clockwork Orange, Resucked (Introduction to the restored 1986 Norton edition of A Clockwork Orange)
---. "Nadsat Dictionary."
Dalrymple, Theodore. "A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece." The City Journal (Winter 2006)
Figueras, Mark Anthony. "Kubrick in Color." (Posted on Vimeo: January 2016)
Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century (Canada: Metanoia Films, 2010: 119 mins)
Kaneria, Rishi. "Red: A Kubrick Supercut." (Posted on Vimeo: 2015)
Landekic, Lola. "Pablo Ferro: A Career Retrospective, Part 2." Art of the Title (April 15, 2014)
Macris, Anthony. "The Immobilised Body: Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange." Screening the Past (September 2013)
McDowell, Malcolm. "How We Made A Clockwork Orange." The Guardian (April 2, 2019)
Phillips, Paul. "Anthony Burgess: Language as Music, and Vice Versa." Radio Open Source (March 8, 2011)
Rose, Steve. "A Clockwork Orange: The droog rides again." The Guardian (May 11, 2011)
The Work of Stanley Kubrick from Stefano Westerling on Vimeo.
Resources for November 18, 2013
Jay Livingstone for Sociological images provides a look at the critiques of the recent racist comments of Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen: "The New Conventional: Anything Goes."
Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips for Project Censored review the top censored news stories of 2012-2013; discuss with Nolan Higdorn about his new report “Disinfo Wars: Alex Jones’ War on Your Mind”; and play segments from the new Project Censored, The Movie including segments with Howard Zinn: Project Censored - 10/08/13
Charlie Ornstein and Steve Engleberg discuss two reports on the Affordable Care Act for ProPublica: "Why Is Healthcare.gov So Flawed?" and "What Happens to Those Losing Health Coverage Under Obamacare?"
I'm working with a collective of critical criminologists to build a new portal/website - "We are a critical social justice collective dedicated to fostering an appreciation of the dialectics of crime, justice, and social harm. This international multidisciplinary collaborative effort is founded on the radical perspective that altering the social relations of work and learning can generate substantial structural social change. Our goals are to (1) provide our audience with alternative resources regarding criminalization, inequality, and social harm as well as (2) encourage more action-oriented relationships with groups or social phenomena of study. We also come together in attempt to foster social change through critical, creative, and productive resistance.": Uprooting Criminology: A Reasoned Plot
Recommended film:
Interviews conducted by Chris Lydon for Radio Open Source:
Archaeologist Ian Morris: "Ian Morris’s East-West History of an Endangered Species: Us"
Poet C.K. Williams: "C. K. Williams on Whitman’s Music: Whose Words These Are (30)."
Damion Searls: " Rainer Maria Rilke for Beginners: Whose Words These Are (31)."
Friday, November 15, 2013
Resources for November 15, 2013
Jandy Hardesty for Row 3: "Guy Maddin Blogathon: Confessions of a Maddin Newbie>"
Pernicone, Nunzio. Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2010.
Annie Baker for Current convinced me that I should see Noah Baumach's Frances Ha (2012): "Frances Ha: The Green Girl
Nick Turse is interviewed on Democracy Now about his recent history of the Vietnam War: "Kill Anything That Moves: New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam."
Michael Dean Benton for North of Center: "“he could resist”: The Lexington Tattoo Project and A Noosed Life."
Dialogic Cinephilia operates from the perspective/belief that in order to understand world cinema, one must attempt to learn about the world. To help people explore news/cultural resources beyond the mainstream corporate media: "Resources for (Re)Thinking the World
David Graeber for The Baffler: "A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse."
Sam Buntz for Fare Forward: "A Flaw in the Light: Thoughts on The Counselor."
Susan Courtney for Genders: "Picturizing Race: Hollywood's Censorship of Miscegenation and Production of Racial Visibility through Imitation of Life"
Julien Allen for Moving Image Source: "Modern Romance: A fresh look at Roberto Rossellini's newly restored masterpiece Journey to Italy"
Carole McGranahan for Savage Minds: "Made in China: Notes from the CIA Giftshop."
Recommended film:
Pernicone, Nunzio. Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2010.
Annie Baker for Current convinced me that I should see Noah Baumach's Frances Ha (2012): "Frances Ha: The Green Girl
Nick Turse is interviewed on Democracy Now about his recent history of the Vietnam War: "Kill Anything That Moves: New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam."
Michael Dean Benton for North of Center: "“he could resist”: The Lexington Tattoo Project and A Noosed Life."
Dialogic Cinephilia operates from the perspective/belief that in order to understand world cinema, one must attempt to learn about the world. To help people explore news/cultural resources beyond the mainstream corporate media: "Resources for (Re)Thinking the World
David Graeber for The Baffler: "A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse."
Sam Buntz for Fare Forward: "A Flaw in the Light: Thoughts on The Counselor."
Susan Courtney for Genders: "Picturizing Race: Hollywood's Censorship of Miscegenation and Production of Racial Visibility through Imitation of Life"
Julien Allen for Moving Image Source: "Modern Romance: A fresh look at Roberto Rossellini's newly restored masterpiece Journey to Italy"
Carole McGranahan for Savage Minds: "Made in China: Notes from the CIA Giftshop."
Recommended film:
Thursday, November 14, 2013
My Winnipeg (Canada: Guy Maddin, 2007)
My Winnipeg (Canada: Guy Maddin, 2007: 80 mins)
Baker, Nicholson, et al. "Autobiography/Biography: Narrating the Self." Philoctetes (December 13, 2008)
Fitch, Alex. "Guy Maddin and the Mythologising of Winnipeg." Electric Sheep Magazine (July 1, 2011)
Hardesty, Jandy. "Guy Maddin Blogathon: Confessions of a Maddin Newbie." Row 3 (September 23, 2011)
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Resources for November 14, 2013
Will Potter for Mother Jones: "
Meet the Former Punk Rocker Who Can Liberate Your FBI File: Ryan Shapiro's technique is so effective at unburying sensitive documents, the feds are asking the courts to stop him."
Peter Phillips and Andy Roth discuss the most important censored news stories of 2012-2013 and the new documentary Project Censored: The Movie
Martin, Adrian. "The Misleading Man: Dennis Hopper." Film International 5.1 (2007). [Professor has copy for students]
David Hudson for Keyframe collects a sampling of the critical responses to Peter Berg's new film Lone Survivor
Robert Hardy for No Film School: "The Cinematographer's Process (Part 1): Breaking Down the Script" and "The Cinematographer's Process (Part 2): Defining Your Camera Strategy."
"Colombian video artist Dicken Schrader and his kids, Milah and Korben, cover Depeche Mode’s Everything Counts on a xylophone, an old Yamaha keyboard and a bunch of homemade improvised instruments. The best thing you will see today, guaranteed!" Dad and Kids Cover Depeche Mode (Video)
Michael Atkinson for Moving Image Source: "We Hardly Knew Ye: Why do we watch biopics?"
Joseph Williams for Fare Forward discusses the appeal of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series and the comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of Rings books: "Fantasy Worldviews: From Middle Earth to Westeros
Atara Stein for Genders: "Minding One's P's and Q's Homoeroticism in Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Fernando Croce for Moving Image Source: "Noh Exit: An appreciation of Akira Kurosawa's Ran." Moving Image Source (June 14, 2013)
Robert Hardy for No Film School: "Renowned Gaffer John Higgins Reveals Secrets Behind Lighting Some of Hollywood's Biggest Films"
Willy Blackmore for Take Part exposes: " The 'Legend' in the Raw Flesh: This Is What an Uncooked McRib Looks Like
Solvej Schou for Take Part: "America's Marijuana Industry Is Growing Like Weeds—Billions of Them: As it turns out, the United States has gone mad for reefer.
Kevin B. Lee for KeyFrame hosts a blog-a-thon on Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin: "Home Stretch Time: Who Will Win The Maddin-est Blogathon in the World?"
Peter Phillips and Andy Roth discuss the most important censored news stories of 2012-2013 and the new documentary Project Censored: The Movie
Martin, Adrian. "The Misleading Man: Dennis Hopper." Film International 5.1 (2007). [Professor has copy for students]
David Hudson for Keyframe collects a sampling of the critical responses to Peter Berg's new film Lone Survivor
Robert Hardy for No Film School: "The Cinematographer's Process (Part 1): Breaking Down the Script" and "The Cinematographer's Process (Part 2): Defining Your Camera Strategy."
"Colombian video artist Dicken Schrader and his kids, Milah and Korben, cover Depeche Mode’s Everything Counts on a xylophone, an old Yamaha keyboard and a bunch of homemade improvised instruments. The best thing you will see today, guaranteed!" Dad and Kids Cover Depeche Mode (Video)
Michael Atkinson for Moving Image Source: "We Hardly Knew Ye: Why do we watch biopics?"
Joseph Williams for Fare Forward discusses the appeal of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series and the comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of Rings books: "Fantasy Worldviews: From Middle Earth to Westeros
Atara Stein for Genders: "Minding One's P's and Q's Homoeroticism in Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Fernando Croce for Moving Image Source: "Noh Exit: An appreciation of Akira Kurosawa's Ran." Moving Image Source (June 14, 2013)
Robert Hardy for No Film School: "Renowned Gaffer John Higgins Reveals Secrets Behind Lighting Some of Hollywood's Biggest Films"
Willy Blackmore for Take Part exposes: " The 'Legend' in the Raw Flesh: This Is What an Uncooked McRib Looks Like
Solvej Schou for Take Part: "America's Marijuana Industry Is Growing Like Weeds—Billions of Them: As it turns out, the United States has gone mad for reefer.
Kevin B. Lee for KeyFrame hosts a blog-a-thon on Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin: "Home Stretch Time: Who Will Win The Maddin-est Blogathon in the World?"
Resources for November 13, 2013
James Sage in the Department of Philosophy at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point: "V for Vendetta and Political Philosophy: A Critique of Thomas Hobbes"
Elliot Milco for Fare Forward: Metaphysics at the Movies: Hollywood’s Philosophical Turn
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity. NY: Penguin, 2004. [PDF of the entire book]
"The idea is that the activity we undertake with each other, in a kind of agonistic performance in which what we become depends on the perspectives and interactions of others, brings into being the space of our world, which is then the background against which we understand ourselves and our belonging. I find this a compelling account because it stresses historical activity and human creativity, but without falling into a naive view of individual agency or intentionality. The world made in public action is not an intended or designed world, but one disclosed in practice. It is a background for self-understanding, and therefore something not purely individual. It is also immanent to history and practice, unlike ideas of community or identity, which tend to be naturalized as stable or originary." -- Michael Warner, "Queer World Making: Annamarie Jagose interviews Michael Warner" (2000)
Ross, Kristin. May '68 and Its Afterlives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. [PDF of the entire book]
Saige Walton for Screening the Past: "Enfolding Surfaces, Spaces and Materials: Claire Denis’ Neo-Baroque Textures of Sensation"
Williams, Linda. "Hard Core Art Film: The Contemporary Realm of the Senses." Quaderns Portatils #13 (2008). [Pdf of the entire pamphlet]
Philip K. Dick." Prophets of Science Fiction #2 (Posted on YouTube March 20, 2013)
The Kaiser Family Foundation presents a clear summary of the changes involved with the Affordable Care Act: The Youtoons Get Ready for Obamacare
Elliot Milco for Fare Forward: Metaphysics at the Movies: Hollywood’s Philosophical Turn
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity. NY: Penguin, 2004. [PDF of the entire book]
"The idea is that the activity we undertake with each other, in a kind of agonistic performance in which what we become depends on the perspectives and interactions of others, brings into being the space of our world, which is then the background against which we understand ourselves and our belonging. I find this a compelling account because it stresses historical activity and human creativity, but without falling into a naive view of individual agency or intentionality. The world made in public action is not an intended or designed world, but one disclosed in practice. It is a background for self-understanding, and therefore something not purely individual. It is also immanent to history and practice, unlike ideas of community or identity, which tend to be naturalized as stable or originary." -- Michael Warner, "Queer World Making: Annamarie Jagose interviews Michael Warner" (2000)
Ross, Kristin. May '68 and Its Afterlives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. [PDF of the entire book]
Saige Walton for Screening the Past: "Enfolding Surfaces, Spaces and Materials: Claire Denis’ Neo-Baroque Textures of Sensation"
Williams, Linda. "Hard Core Art Film: The Contemporary Realm of the Senses." Quaderns Portatils #13 (2008). [Pdf of the entire pamphlet]
Philip K. Dick." Prophets of Science Fiction #2 (Posted on YouTube March 20, 2013)
The Kaiser Family Foundation presents a clear summary of the changes involved with the Affordable Care Act: The Youtoons Get Ready for Obamacare
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Blade Runner (USA/Hong Kong: Ridley Scott, 1982)
Blade Runner (USA/Hong Kong: Ridley Scott, 1982: 117 mins)
"An Animated Version of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Made of 12,597 Watercolor Paintings." Open Culture (November 10, 2016)
Blade Runner Critics Round Up (Ongoing Archive)
"Blade Runner." Philosophical Films (ND)
Cassidy, Brendan and Vince Leo. "Blade Runner, American Made." InSession Film (October 6, 2017)
Clute, Shannon and Richard Edwards. "Episode 6: Blade Runner." Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir (September 2005)
De Fren, Allison. "The Human Machine in Ex Machina." Keyframe (March 16, 2016)
Dirks, Tim. "The Greatest Films: Blade Runner (1982)." Filmsite (ND)
Ebert, Roger. "Blade Runner." Chicago Sun-Times (June 2, 1982)
Ford, Phil and J.F. Martel. "On Blade Runner." Weird Studies #116 (February 16, 2022) ["In his 1978 bestseller The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins described humans as "survival machines" whose sole purpose is the replication of genes. All of culture needed to be understood as a side-effect, if not an epiphenomenon, of that defining function. Four years after Dawkins' book was published, Warner Brothers released Blade Runner, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's dystopian novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Ridley Scott's film presents us with a different kind of survival machine: the replicant, a technology whose sole function is the replication of human beings. In this episode, Phil and JF discuss the ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic dimensions of one of the greatest and most prophetic science fiction films of all time."]
Hancock, James and Skye Wingfield. "More Human Than Human in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner." Wrong Reel #248 (March 2017)
Harper, Oliver. "Retrospective/Review: Blade Runner (1982)." (Posted on Youtube: May 18, 2015)
Kellner, Douglas, Flo Leibowitz and Michael Ryan. "Blade Runner: A Diagnostic Critique." Jump Cut (February 1984)
Kressel, Matthew. "Why Blade Runner is More Relevant Than Ever." TOR (September 20, 2017)
Koski, Genvieve, et al. "Blade Runner 2049 (2017) / Blade Runner (1982), Part 1." The Next Picture Show #98 (October 17, 2017)
---. "Blade Runner 2049 (2017) / Blade Runner (1982), Part 2." The Next Picture Show #99 (October 19, 2017)
Landsberg, Alison. "What's So Bad About Being a Replicant?" On the Media (October 6, 2017)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Production Design: Blade Runner." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 39-45. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Marshall, Colin. Los Angeles, the City in Cinema: Blade Runner." (Posted on Vimeo: 2015)
Newton, Michael. "Tears in rain? Why Blade Runner is timeless." The Guardian (March 14, 2015)
Norris, Andrew. "‘How Can It Not Know What It Is?’: Self and Other in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner." Film-Philosophy 17.1 (2013)
Philip K. Dick." Prophets of Science Fiction #2 (Posted on YouTube March 20, 2013)
Puschak, Evan. "Blade Runner: The Other Side of Modernity." (Posted on Youtube: October 28, 2014)
Ryan, David C. "Dreams of Postmodernism and Thoughts of Mortality: A Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Retrospective of Blade Runner." Senses of Cinema #43 (May 2007)
Salim, Majid. "A Study of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner." (Posted on Blade Runner Insight: "This dissertation was written between September 1997 and February 1998, and formed part of the final examination for my undergraduate degree in English Literature and Philosophy, at Manchester University, England.")
Shaw, Daniel. Film and Philosophy: Taking Films Seriously. London: Wallflower Press, 2008.
Sims, Christopher A. "The Dangers of Individualism and the Human Relationship to Technology in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Science Fiction Studies 36.1 (March 2009)
Tafoya, Scout. "The Post-Punk Cinema Manifesto." Keyframe (September 10, 2015)
\
Apocalypse Now (USA: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
"The figure of the "other father"--the obscene, uncanny, shadow double of the Name of the Father--emerged for the first time in all its force in the novels of Joseph Conrad; what we have in mind here, of course, are figures like Kurz in Heart of Darkness or Mister Brown in Lord Jim. In the midst of the African jungle... the hero encounters Kurz, a kind of "master of enjoyment," a paternal figure which comes close to what Kant called "radical evil," evilness qua ethical attitude, qua pure spirituality... Conrad depicted what remained hidden to Freud... namely the "primordial father" is not a figure of pure, symbolic brute force but a father who knows... The ultimate secret of the parricide is that the father knows the son has come to kill him and accepts his fate obediently" - Slavoj Zizek (Enjoy your Symptom!, p. 158-156)
Apocalypse Now (USA: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979: 153/203 mins)
"Apocalypse Now." Sparknotes (2004)
The Apocalypse Now Issue Little White Lies #35 (2011)
Bahr, Fax, et al. "Apocalypse Now." The Projection Booth #274 (June 7, 2016)
Bond, Lewis. "Apocalypse Now: Analysis, Part 1." (Posted on Youtube: April 5, 2015)
---. "Apocalypse Now: Analysis, Part 2." (Posted on Youtube: April 14, 2015)
Ebert, Roger. "Apocalypse Now." Chicago Sun-times (November 28, 1999)
"Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now Must Be the Key Lecture in Anyone's Filmmaking Education." Cinephilia and Beyond (No Date)
Herr, Michael. Dispatches. NY: Vintage International, 1991. [Your professor has a copy.]
"The Holy Grail of Workprints: The Five-Hour Rough Version of Apocalypse Now." Cinephilia and Beyond (June 7, 2016)
"The Importance of Depth of Frame." imgur (September 2013)
Laity, Adam. "The Role of Landscape, Nature and Environment in War Films." (Posted on Vimeo: 2012)
Leotta, Alfio. "'I love the smell of napalm in the morning': Violence and nostalgia in the cinema of John Milius." Jump Cut #57 (Fall 2016)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Tableau Narrative Structure and Sound Design: Apocalypse Now." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 14-19. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Martin, Adrian. "The Misleading Man: Dennis Hopper." Film International 5.1 (2007). [Professor has copy for students]
"The New Cinema: A Fascinating Documentary On the Restructuring of 1960's Hollywood." Cinephilia and Beyond (ND)
Norris, Margaret. Writing War in the Twentieth Century. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, 2000. [Available in BCTC Library: PN56 W3 N67 2000]
Rich, B. Ruby. "Apocalypse Now Coppola's American way." Jump Cut #23 (October 1980)
San, Miyagi. "Movie Analysis: The Aspect of Conflict in Apocalypse Now." Entertainment Scene 360 (September 30, 2007)
Srivastava, Swati. "Apocalypse Now: Movie Research and Analysis." Fasten Up Your Seat Belts (No Date)
Tavoularis, Alex. "Napalm in the Morning." DGA Quarterly (Spring 2013)
Turse, Nick. "Kill Anything That Moves": New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam." Democracy Now (January 15, 2013)
Apocalypse Now (USA: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979: 153/203 mins)
"Apocalypse Now." Sparknotes (2004)
The Apocalypse Now Issue Little White Lies #35 (2011)
Bahr, Fax, et al. "Apocalypse Now." The Projection Booth #274 (June 7, 2016)
Bond, Lewis. "Apocalypse Now: Analysis, Part 1." (Posted on Youtube: April 5, 2015)
---. "Apocalypse Now: Analysis, Part 2." (Posted on Youtube: April 14, 2015)
Ebert, Roger. "Apocalypse Now." Chicago Sun-times (November 28, 1999)
"Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now Must Be the Key Lecture in Anyone's Filmmaking Education." Cinephilia and Beyond (No Date)
Herr, Michael. Dispatches. NY: Vintage International, 1991. [Your professor has a copy.]
"The Holy Grail of Workprints: The Five-Hour Rough Version of Apocalypse Now." Cinephilia and Beyond (June 7, 2016)
"The Importance of Depth of Frame." imgur (September 2013)
Insdorf, Annette. Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes. Columbia University Press, 2017. ["Your professor has a copy of this book."]
Kuersten, Erich. "The Primal Father (CinemArchetypes #8)." Acidemic (March 19, 2012)
Laity, Adam. "The Role of Landscape, Nature and Environment in War Films." (Posted on Vimeo: 2012)
Leotta, Alfio. "'I love the smell of napalm in the morning': Violence and nostalgia in the cinema of John Milius." Jump Cut #57 (Fall 2016)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Tableau Narrative Structure and Sound Design: Apocalypse Now." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 14-19. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Martin, Adrian. "The Misleading Man: Dennis Hopper." Film International 5.1 (2007). [Professor has copy for students]
"The New Cinema: A Fascinating Documentary On the Restructuring of 1960's Hollywood." Cinephilia and Beyond (ND)
Norris, Margaret. Writing War in the Twentieth Century. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, 2000. [Available in BCTC Library: PN56 W3 N67 2000]
Rich, B. Ruby. "Apocalypse Now Coppola's American way." Jump Cut #23 (October 1980)
San, Miyagi. "Movie Analysis: The Aspect of Conflict in Apocalypse Now." Entertainment Scene 360 (September 30, 2007)
Srivastava, Swati. "Apocalypse Now: Movie Research and Analysis." Fasten Up Your Seat Belts (No Date)
Tavoularis, Alex. "Napalm in the Morning." DGA Quarterly (Spring 2013)
Turse, Nick. "Kill Anything That Moves": New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam." Democracy Now (January 15, 2013)
Wasson, Steve. "What Really Went on Between Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen During the Filming of Apocalypse Now?" Literary Hub (November 28, 2023) ["The Disturbing—and Revealing—Story Behind an Iconic Moment in Cinema History."]
More than 40 years on from the release of Apocalypse Now, the opening sequence still leaves an unshakeable sense of dread. The film casts an immediate spell, and 'The End' is its incantation. The song’s delirious vocals and shadowy, brooding psychedelic instrumentals are eerily apt accompaniments to the visions of warfare that unfold onscreen. As Captain Willard’s head swims with napalm and choppers, The Doors invite you to join him in the darkness.
Although inspired by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness, director Francis Ford Coppola had quite a different world to work with. Instead of European empires and the Congo, Apocalypse Now deals in America and the Vietnam War. 'The End' also nods to the wider tumult back in the States at the time — to a counterculture learning to question its government’s virtue at home and abroad. The song’s gothic despair sets the scene for the horrors to come. It’s the perfect overture for an all-American nightmare. – Frederick O'Brien
Resources for November 12, 2013
Williams, Evan Calder. "Sunset with Chainsaw: A New Way of Reading Horror Film Politically." Film Quarterly 64.4 (Summer 2011) [I have a copy for students]
Vaughan Wallace for Time has compiled: Rare Color Photographs from the Trenches of World War I
Corey Johnson for The Guardian (via Reader Supported News) reports that: "California Was Sterilizing Its Female Prisoners As Late As 2010"
Cory Doctorow for Boing Boing posts "the directorial debut of New York-based artist, designer and filmmaker Aerosyn-lex Mestrovic": "Scriptura Vitae: surreal, caligraphic, Butoh dance video."
Jason Bailey at Flavorwire asks: Hey MPAA, Why Are PG-13 Movies More Violent Than R-Rated Ones?
Lisa Wade for Sociological Images discusses the 2000 documentary Paragraph 175 in: "The Re-Victimization of Homosexual Targets of the Nazi Regime."
David Hudson for Keyframe: "David Mackenzie’s Starred Up: “Every interaction is volatile… Each punch is felt deeply.”
Severine Benzimra for Acidemic: "State of French Cinema: French cinema and French sexual attitudes and culture."
Zelie Asava for Widescreen: "Multiculturalism and Morphing I'm Not There"
American Masters has posted online Bob Smeaton's documentary Jim Hendrix: Hear My Train Comin
Paul Krugman in The New York Times discusses: "The Plot Against France"
Keeping the latter part of my day going with a lengthy set of Led Zeppelin classics and rarities: Best of Led Zeppelin (Classics, Greatest Hits and Rare Songs)
Matt Bors for Medium critiques the media hype and generational framing when he asks "Can We Stop Worrying About Millennials Yet? That would be super cool, thanks."
Benford, Robert D. and David A. Snow for the Annual Review of Sociology examine: "Framing Processes and Social Movements"
Kath Dooley for Screening the Past: "Foreign Bodies, Community and Trauma in the Films of Claire Denis: Beau Travail (1999), 35 Rhums (2008) and White Material (2009)
Lisa Wade for Sociological Images: "Poet Clint Smith on Food Deserts and Urban Warriors"
Vaughan Wallace for Time has compiled: Rare Color Photographs from the Trenches of World War I
Corey Johnson for The Guardian (via Reader Supported News) reports that: "California Was Sterilizing Its Female Prisoners As Late As 2010"
Cory Doctorow for Boing Boing posts "the directorial debut of New York-based artist, designer and filmmaker Aerosyn-lex Mestrovic": "Scriptura Vitae: surreal, caligraphic, Butoh dance video."
Jason Bailey at Flavorwire asks: Hey MPAA, Why Are PG-13 Movies More Violent Than R-Rated Ones?
Lisa Wade for Sociological Images discusses the 2000 documentary Paragraph 175 in: "The Re-Victimization of Homosexual Targets of the Nazi Regime."
David Hudson for Keyframe: "David Mackenzie’s Starred Up: “Every interaction is volatile… Each punch is felt deeply.”
Severine Benzimra for Acidemic: "State of French Cinema: French cinema and French sexual attitudes and culture."
Zelie Asava for Widescreen: "Multiculturalism and Morphing I'm Not There"
American Masters has posted online Bob Smeaton's documentary Jim Hendrix: Hear My Train Comin
Paul Krugman in The New York Times discusses: "The Plot Against France"
Keeping the latter part of my day going with a lengthy set of Led Zeppelin classics and rarities: Best of Led Zeppelin (Classics, Greatest Hits and Rare Songs)
Matt Bors for Medium critiques the media hype and generational framing when he asks "Can We Stop Worrying About Millennials Yet? That would be super cool, thanks."
Benford, Robert D. and David A. Snow for the Annual Review of Sociology examine: "Framing Processes and Social Movements"
Kath Dooley for Screening the Past: "Foreign Bodies, Community and Trauma in the Films of Claire Denis: Beau Travail (1999), 35 Rhums (2008) and White Material (2009)
Lisa Wade for Sociological Images: "Poet Clint Smith on Food Deserts and Urban Warriors"
Monday, November 11, 2013
Ringu (Japan: Hideo Nakata, 1998)
Ringu (Japan: Hideo Nakata, 1998: 96 mins)
Who can forget the moment when the straggly haired Sadako climbs out of the TV set in Hideo Nakata’s unsettling ghost story? This urban legend about a cursed VHS tape provided the catalyst for the J-horror boom and has since spawned numerous sequels, reboots and crossovers. It’s a film that made the sound of a phone ringing absolutely terrifying; its meticulous rules stating that if you watch the tape, the phone will ring and you will die seven days later. Playing with Japanese folklore and based on the novel by Koji Suzuki, this modern update is a tense and scrupulous investigation of mortality. – Katherine McLaughlinJarvis, Brian. "Anamorphic allegory in The Ring, or, seven ways of looking at a horror video." Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies #3 (November 2007)
Kalat, David. "Ring Around J-Horror." Movie Morlocks (July 7, 2012)
Ozawa, Eimi. "Remaking Corporeality and Spatiality: U.S. Adaptations of Japanese Horror Films." 49th Parallel (Autumn 2006)
Wada-Marciano, Mitsuyo. "J-horror: New Media’s Impact on Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema." Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. ed. Jinhee Choi & Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano. Hong Kong University, 2009: 15-37.
Xu, Gang Gary. "Remaking East Asia, Outsourcing Hollywood." Senses of Cinema (November 2004)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (USA: Terry Gilliam, 1998)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (USA: Terry Gilliam, 1998: 118 mins)
Flores, Steven. "The Auteurs: Terry Gilliam." Cinema Axis (November 8, 2014)
Thompson, Hunter S. "Jacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream." Current (Posted April 26, 2011)
"Three Reasons: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Current (May 3, 2011)
Resources for November 11, 2013
Amnesty International is trying to find out what has happened to the Russian activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, if you are also concerned, please add your voice here: Pussy Riot: Where Is Nadya?
Brian Phillips for Grantland provides a scintillating critique of the ridiculous hyper-warrior culture propagated in the NFL and the broader American culture: Man Up
Sarinah Masukor for Screening the Past explores French filmmaker Philippe Grandrieux’s Un lac (A Lake, 2008): "Sublime Materiality: Un Lac."
Check Bowen for Keyframe compares/contrasts Ridley Scott's The Counselor with Claire Denis' Bastards: "The Film in the Shadows: What we should be talking about when we talk about THE COUNSELOR." (November 2, 2013)
To the Best of Our Knowledge episode on Film and Philosophy -- Geoff Dyer Zona: A Book About A Film About a Journey to a Room; J.J. Murphy The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol; Kim Evans "Charlie Kauffman: Screenwriter"; Barry Vacker Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club.
Project Censored episode on "Banned Books Week" and recent attempts to ban the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the graphic novel Persepolis.
Julie Banks for Screening the Past: Innocent When You Dream: Affect and Perception through Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Innocence
Beate Sissenich for The Forward: "Hannah Arendt Biopic Offers Rare Onscreen View of Political Philosophy: Movie Paints Vivid Picture of German-Jewish Émigrés"
Michael Sragow for Current: "Sanjuro: Return of the Ronin"
Brian Phillips for Grantland provides a scintillating critique of the ridiculous hyper-warrior culture propagated in the NFL and the broader American culture: Man Up
Sarinah Masukor for Screening the Past explores French filmmaker Philippe Grandrieux’s Un lac (A Lake, 2008): "Sublime Materiality: Un Lac."
Check Bowen for Keyframe compares/contrasts Ridley Scott's The Counselor with Claire Denis' Bastards: "The Film in the Shadows: What we should be talking about when we talk about THE COUNSELOR." (November 2, 2013)
To the Best of Our Knowledge episode on Film and Philosophy -- Geoff Dyer Zona: A Book About A Film About a Journey to a Room; J.J. Murphy The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol; Kim Evans "Charlie Kauffman: Screenwriter"; Barry Vacker Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club.
Project Censored episode on "Banned Books Week" and recent attempts to ban the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the graphic novel Persepolis.
Julie Banks for Screening the Past: Innocent When You Dream: Affect and Perception through Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Innocence
Beate Sissenich for The Forward: "Hannah Arendt Biopic Offers Rare Onscreen View of Political Philosophy: Movie Paints Vivid Picture of German-Jewish Émigrés"
Michael Sragow for Current: "Sanjuro: Return of the Ronin"
I Can't Sleep (France/Germany/Switzerland: Claire Denis, 1994)
I Can't Sleep (France/Germany/Switzerland: Claire Denis, 1994: 110 mins)
"Difficult Cinema." Girish (February 23, 2011)
Dinning, Samantha. "Great Directors: Claire Denis." Senses of Cinema (April 2009)
Funderburg, Christopher, et al. "Claire Denis." Wrong Reel #122 (April 3, 2016)
Koresky, Michael. "Jagged Edge: I Can't Sleep." Reverse Shot #29 (2009)
Reardon, Kiva. "Claire Denis and Objects of Desire." Keyframe (March 3, 2016)
Sarmiento, José. "The Strangers of Claire Denis: Her cinema speaks of the borders that divide humanity, and the people who cross them." Keyframe (March 24, 2017)
Walton, Saige. "Cinema and Sensation: French Film and the Art of Transgression by Martine Beugnet." Senses of Cinema #50 (April 2009) ["Those familiar with French director Claire Denis will be aware of the exquisite sensuality of her cinema. Whether coming together with another body in the world through the shared space and flesh of desire, or being driven apart from others by personal and sociopolitical circumstance, bodies – their gestures, bites and kisses, alternately languid or energetic movements, postures, habits and rituals – are the very “stuff” and substance of the film experience here. Given her privileging of the senses and her amenability to, as well as considered dialogue with, philosophers of the body, Denis is at the forefront of a number of contemporary directors (by no means exclusive to France, if we consider the work of figures such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, David Lynch or Wong Kar-Wai) who are generating much interest from sensually alert film scholars. Adrian Martin, for instance, identifies “the bedrock of Denis’ cinema [as] the flesh”, while Elena del Río comments that the “film body” of the cinema itself becomes a “sensation producing machine” in Denis, as if each film were “sending ripples of affect and thought across a diversity of its movements”, independent of the body of the viewer. The arresting materiality that infuses Denis forces us to look anew at sensory encounters with the cinema."]
Wood, Robin. "Only (Dis)Connect; and Never Relaxez-Vous; or, I Can’t Sleep." Film International (January 27, 2011)
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