Well, lack of posts has been due to technology problems. I've actually posted repeatedly and at length, but it's all been lost alas.
Anyway, now I'm using note pad to write my posts.
Stan Brakhage, Mr. Rogers have both died since I last posted. On the bright side, however, Cecil Taylor recently celebrated his 74th birthday, a fact I (*gasp*) learned while watching CNN! It was in the little newsflash bar at the bottom of the screen and it said, accurately: Cecil Taylor, improvising pianist and performer, celebrates his 74th birthday today. I have to say I was amazed that this registered on the CNN radar screen. Hot.
Leaflet Gallery. This is the propaganda that's been dropped on Iraq lately.
Something's gotten into me...I decided to read Finnegan's Wake. Foolish, I know, but I'm not going to kill myself by trying to analyze it. I'm just going to read it. And after I do, I'm going to read some analysis of it. But not until then. So far it's an interesting experience. For pages at a time I have no idea what's happening either macro or micro, but then it'll make me laugh out loud. What can I say? I mean, I'm not qualified to read this, I guess, but I just want to. The process of reading it is edifying, in itself, as it's not a process I'm familiar with (maybe I should start reading books in languages I don't know! Wow, I really might start doing that...)
Here's some interesting Jonestown research, including a great interview.
Many people have written to me asking how they can acquire music by Kang Tae Hwan and Choi Sun Bae. Korean improvisors are not well known and their music is hard to get, sadly, but there is a place.
On April 5 I'll be playing duets at Rush in Sinchon, Seoul, with guitarist Sato Yukie. It will be an ad hoc since I won't have played with him prior. In fact, I've only heard him twice: once live with the aforementioned Choi Sun Bae and once on disc, with Choi and Seiichi Yamamoto. Both situations were positive, espcially the live set, which was in a rock bar. The audience was small and almost alarmingly respectful, but the bartender didn't give a shit - he was having a conversation with his buddy throughout a set of contemplative, detail-oriented free music. The counterpoint actually worked for me. The series at Rush is called S.C.U.M., which, ahem, stands for Small Circle of Unknown Music. Sato is a Japanese who's settled in Seoul. He also plays psychedelic rawk, a field in which he is acknowledged as something of an expert.
Here is an amazing article about Leaderless Resistance that takes the E.L.F. (Craig Rosebaugh is a bit of a cause celebre in Portland) as one of it's case studies. It is a great read and an interesting piece:
+ It is unlikely that prosecutions and sentences that appear disproportionate will have a deterrent effect; they may have the reverse effect. Perpetrators of these non-organizations appear to be motivated out of anger, frustration, and (in the case of some Islamic terrorism) humiliation. Instead of using traditional anti-terrorism or anti-crime strategies, a strategy of treating the violence as a public health problem may be more successful.
+ In the past, the U.S. Congress has subpoenaed ELF spokesperson Craig Rosebraugh to testify before the Subcommittee on Forest and Forest Health [104]. This action generated significant backlash throughout the environmental and civil libertarian communities, and resulted in no information being revealed that was not already known. No further subpoenas should be issued: they only serve to radicalize fence-sitters.
[via robotwisdom]
This is the best most compelling Real Reasons For War With Iraq yet, from my angle. The real war: US dollar vs. Euro? Read:
"The Federal Reserve's greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard. Iraq actually made this switch in Nov. 2000 (when the euro was worth around 82 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering the dollar's steady depreciation against the euro. (Note: the dollar declined 17% against the euro in 2002.)
"The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in Iraq -- or more importantly, the reason why the corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet government in Iraq -- is so that it will revert back to a dollar standard and stay that way." (While also hoping to veto any wider OPEC momentum towards the euro, especially from Iran -- the 2nd largest OPEC producer who is actively discussing a switch to euros for its oil exports)." - an "anonymous former-government employee/macroeconomist" quoted in the article.
Lacan.com's Josefina Ayerza, interviewed by Cathy Liebowitz:
C: Why does McCarty present the facts that she presents? And leaves us to fill in and wonder? Is that the point? That we wonder, that it engages us in wondering about the missing parts of the stories?
J: Maybe the missing parts of the story are always there when it comes to a crime. The thing is how do you, a normal person and not a criminal, follow the logic of a criminal. She never tells us something coming from the murderer. The murderer just doesn't talk. There is no logic in the world to follow those stories. If they are psychotic the unconscious is present but it doesn't function. You read in Schreber's Memoirs... how his body is being invaded by the feminine, through the nerves, how he will become God's prostitute. For him this is happening - it's not a fantasy. Then words are real things... You can see he believes it. With Schreber, this is how we know of the missing parts, because he wrote it. But in the stories of these girls how do we know?
posted by Brad Larcen 3/19/2003[edit]
