digging a well by hand

« Parlez comme un énarque ! »

2009-12-05T05:52:00.003-05:00

« Mesdames, Messieurs, le particularisme dû à notre histoire unique doit nous amener au choix réellement impératif d'un processus allant vers plus d'égalité. Par ailleurs, c'est en toute connaissance de cause que je peux affirmer aujourd'hui que la conjoncture actuelle a pour conséquence obligatoire l'urgente nécessité d'un projet porteur de véritables espoirs, notamment pour les plus démunis. Mesdames, Messieurs, l'aspiration plus que légitime de chacun au progrès social doit prendre en compte les préoccupations de la population de base dans l'élaboration d'un processus allant vers plus d'égalité. Et ce n'est certainement pas vous, mes chers compatriotes, qui me contredirez si je vous dis que la situation d'exclusion que certains d'entre vous connaissent entraîne une mission somme toute des plus exaltantes pour moi : l'élaboration d'un plan correspondant véritablement aux exigences légitimes de chacun. Je reste fondamentalement persuadé que la conjoncture actuelle oblige à la prise en compte encore plus effective d'un processus allant vers plus d'égalité. »

-Générateur de langue de bois

The plan

2009-11-11T13:14:00.001-05:00

Stop going to bars

Quit smoking

Make friends not in a bar

Practice guitar for ~1 hour per day

Learn ArcGIS

Get off antidepressants

Always be in the middle of reading a book

Get the mats out of Danger Kitty’s fur

Social principles of Christianity

2009-11-10T14:22:00.003-05:00

"The social principles of Christianity have now had eighteen hundred years to be developed, and need no further development by Prussian Consistorial Counsellors. The social principles of Christianity justified the slavery of antiquity, glorifies the serfdom of the Middle Ages and are capable, in case of need, of defending the oppression of the proletariat, with somewhat doleful grimaces. The social principles of Christianity preach the necessity of a ruling and an oppressed class, and for the latter all they have to offer is the pious wish that the former may be charitable. The social principles of Christianity place the Consistorial Counsellor’s compensation for all infamies in heaven, and thereby justify the continuation of these infamies on earth. The social principles of Christianity declare all the vile acts of the oppressors against the oppressed to be either a just punishment for original sin and other sins, or trials which the Lord, in his infinite wisdom, ordains for the redeemed. The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submissiveness and humbleness, in short, all the qualities of the rabble, and the proletariat, which will not permit itself to be treated as rabble, needs its courage, its self-confidence, its pride and its sense of independence even more than its bread. The social principles of Christianity are sneaking and hypocritical, and the proletariat is revolutionary. So much for the social principles of Christianity."

- Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto

Dear Matthew

2009-11-02T09:06:00.002-05:00

Love, Danica

I'm glad I spent it with you

2009-10-08T15:53:00.001-05:00

Summer soundtrack—moody bitch edition

2009-08-20T09:44:00.001-05:00

Structural 'sin' 2

2009-08-15T11:06:00.005-05:00

Structural sin

2009-08-15T06:33:00.003-05:00

Here's the opening to Oscar Wilde's "The Soul of Man under Socialism". I didn't care for much of the rest of it, for reasons I don't quite have the energy to get into at 7:38 AM, maybe later, but this is really right:

The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. In fact, scarcely anyone at all escapes.

Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like M. Renan; a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of others, to stand 'under the shelter of the wall,' as Plato puts it, and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the whole world. These, however, are exceptions. The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism - are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all this. The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man's intelligence; and, as I pointed out some time ago in an article on the function of criticism, it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. Accordingly, with admirable, though misdirected intentions, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease.

They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor.

But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim. Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good; and at last we have had the spectacle of men who have really studied the problem and know the life - educated men who live in the East End - coming forward and imploring the community to restrain its altruistic impulses of charity, benevolence, and the like. They do so on the ground that such charity degrades and demoralises. They are perfectly right. Charity creates a multitude of sins.

found poem and rebuttal

2009-08-14T10:26:00.005-05:00

She works hard for the money

2009-08-03T12:02:00.001-05:00

Hey, everyone! I just made my first Etsy sale! Got a void in your life that can only be filled with handmade baby goods? Know someone who is pregnant? (Don't we all?) Check it out! I've got hands sewn reusable baby wipes (which could also be used as cloth napkins of any sort), fleece diaper covers, and baby-sized pants with more on the way.

To-do list

2009-07-20T14:58:00.002-05:00

Read at least 50 pages of Aragon's Le paysan de Paris;
Work through a chapter of French for Reading;
Do vocabulary drills for an hour;
Read at least chapter four of Sheringham's Everyday Life;
Brush Danger Kitty and Mustafa;
Pick up package from post office;
Make grocery list;
Consider grocery shopping (Do not like!);
Figure out online bill payment;
Prepare financial aid documents;
Procure a video store membership;
Decide if I'm going to take a trip down to Florida;
Call the Black Hand;
Make my own goddamn dinner;
DO NOT GO TO THE PUB!

Awful day yesterday, evidemment. I'm never drinking again again.

La vie quotidienne

2009-07-19T10:35:00.005-05:00

My to-do list widget isn't working. Seeing as this blog doesn't serve much of a purpose and as a result has no readers, I'm going to put my to-do list here.

Read at least 50 pages of Aragon's Le paysan de Paris;
Work through a chapter of French for Reading;
Do vocabulary drills for an hour;
Read at least chapter four of Sheringham's Everyday Life;
Brush Danger Kitty and Mustafa;
Pick up package from post office;
Make grocery list;
Consider grocery shopping (Do not like!);
Figure out online bill payment;
Prepare financial aid documents;
Procure a video store membership;
Decide if I'm going to take a trip down to Florida;
Call the Black Hand;
Make my own goddamn dinner;
DO NOT GO TO THE PUB!

If you can think of anything else needing to be placed on the list, kindly keep it to yourself.

Consumption junction

2009-07-12T13:16:00.005-05:00

What I'm reading:
Henri Lefebvre, Critique de la vie quotidienne I, II et III
Michael Sheringham, Everyday Life: Theories and Practices from Surrealism to the Present
Charles Baudelaire, Le peintre de la vie moderne
Peter Osborne, The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde [Thanks to ads without products for pointing this out.]

What I'm watching:
Zhang Ke Jia, Shijie aka 'The World'
Steven Soderburgh, The Girlfriend Experience
Cédric Klapisch, Paris
Jean-Luc Godard, 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle

What I'm listening to:
Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs
Joseph Haydn, The Creation

What's for dinner?
Sicilian tuna and basil pizza
Bordeaux, Haut Médoc, Château Ramage la Batisse, 2001, Cru Bourgeois
Camel « jaune » cigarettes

What I'm wearing:
My new suit (looks like this)

Unleash the beast? Sadist or masochist?

2009-06-29T12:29:00.007-05:00

I've been looking into graduate school.

P.S. Fuck you, Mr. Xenophon (you know who you are). This is all your goddamn fault.

P.P.S. I've not sufficiently observed the ebbs, flows, and undulations of Mr. X.'s jocularity to be certain he'll not take offense at my idiocy. Je rigole !

Lessons learned

2009-06-24T08:29:00.002-05:00

That raccoon seemed so very friendly and, thusly, I attempted an act of solidarity, a little pat on the back. She bit me. The handful of shots I got in the ass should clear up any after-effects, I suppose.

People reloaded: why mass protest in Iran is true politics worth supporting

2009-06-23T10:33:00.001-05:00

via Infinite Thought

Morad Farhadpour and Omid Mehrgan [translators and philosophers based in Tehran]

This piece is copyright-free. Please distribute widely.

In the past two weeks, the majority of people in Tehran and other cities in Iran (including Shiraz, Ahwaz, Tabriz, Isfihan) have been on the streets, protesting against the theft of the presidential election by a handful of state’s agents at the top level. It was not a rigging in the usual western sense, no added votes or replaced ballot boxes, the election went on properly, the votes were taken and probably even counted, the figures transmitted to the ministry of interior, and it was there that they were totally disregarded and replaced by totally fictitious figures. That is why all the opposition forces (Sazman-e-Mojahedin-e-Enghelab, Mosharekat party...) together with people called it a coup d’état.

Global public opinion and, especially, the body of (leftist) intellectuals, Inspired by recent events in the middle Asia and east Europe, mostly regard this Iranian mass protest as another version of the well-known, newly invented, neo-liberal, U.S.-sponsored, colour-coded revolutions, as in Georgia and Ukraine. But is it the case in Iran? This article intends to clarify the issue, to reveal the properly political essence of current mass movement, and to demonstrate that this movement has the potentiality of a self-transcendence, of surpassing its actual demands, of traversing its current phantasy. To do this, we shall first examine the contemporary tradition of radical politics in Iran. Without these references, the current movement, which truly deserves this title, can not be understood correctly.

People, whether consciously or not, are frequently recollecting the 1979 Revolution and the 1997 Reform Movement. Many of their slogans are transformed slogans of the '79 Revolution. The paths of demonstrations are symbolically significantly, the same as those against Shah. But this does not mean that people are imitating the '79 Revolution: there are many new possibilities and creativities, many formal and thematic inventions. As for the 1997 Reform Movement, and its aftermath (the crushing of student protest in 1999), the affinities are even more obvious. Khatami, along with Mir Hossein Mousavi, is one of the most significant leaders and supporters of the protest. It is as if people are trying to redeem the 2nd of Khordad (May 23, 1997), to revive the unfinished hopes and dreams of those days. But this time, the protest is by no means limited to students and intellectuals. Although Khatami in 1997 was elected with 20 million votes from the most varied sections of the nation, the movement was characterized by the political and cultural demands of the middle-class, of students and educated people. But, apart from this, what is the true significance of the 2nd of Khordad Front for politics in Iran?

On the 2nd of Khordad, for the first time since Iranian Revolution, we were encountering a dichotomy between the state and the total system of Islamic Republic of Iran, known as Nezam (System, which is based on the principle of Velayat-e-Faghih, the supreme authority of high-ranked Mullahs). This duality was partly due to the fact that the leader of the opposition, Khatami, was at the same time the chief of the state. It was the only occasion where this duality, which is, in a sense, one between the development of productive forces and cultural, political backwardness, between secular democracy and religious fanaticism, could be revealed. Before and after that period, the state and Nezam have been basically in accordance, as it had been in the Shah's Regime. One of the reasons, if not the main reason, why elections in Iran are of such importance for democratic movements, despite trends to boycott them, lies precisely in the significance of this very duality. Seen from a classical-Marxist perspective, in order to pave the way for the development of productive forces, in order to accomplish the ‘civilizing mission’ of capitalism, there must emerge a bourgeois state capable of carrying out the process of democratization and modernization. Whenever the state has been in full accordance with Nezam, this process fails to go on. Besides this, we deal with yet another duality, one between the capital and the state, the former as the means of development (with all its discontents, aptly and righteously exposed by the Marxist tradition), and the latter as the organ of regression and anti-modernism. So, the progressive and socialist opposition in Iran are faced with the unprecedented, hard task of fighting in two fronts: against religious fanaticism and the authoritarian factions in a semi-democratic government, and simultaneously against global capitalism and its hegemony by means of the production of wars. In a sense, intelligentsia in Iran are very similar to that of Russia and Germany of 19th century. We are a handful of schizophrenics who are, at one and the same time, against and for progress, development, capitalism, state management and so on. In other words, for us, the Faustian problematic, his tragedy, is formulated in a typically Hamletian way. This ambivalent attitude (to western civilization) can be characterized by the dialectic of state and politics. We are neither dealing with a pure politics a la Alain Badiou, nor with a classical Marxist politics, exhausted in class struggles, nor with the liberal-democratic politics of human rights, which was, by the way, the dominant discourse of opposition in Iran before Mousavi. Our supposedly radical politics consists of every one of these elements, but is not reducible to any of them. To deploy Agamben’s terminology, it is a politics of people against People, i.e. voiceless, suppressed people, against People officially constructed by the state. The current movement materializes, in many respects, this very politics.

But the question, which has confused the western (left) intelligentsia and has caused the most varied misunderstandings regarding Iran, is whether Ahmadinejad is a leftist, anti-imperialist, anti-privatization, anti-globalization figure. The common answer is a positive one. That is why certain misguided western leftists tend to regard the current mass movement in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi and against Ahmadinejad as the struggle of liberalism against anti-imperialism, of privatization, liberal-democracy against the enemies of global hegemony of America. The main aim of this article is to expose, to expel this widespread illusion. As regards the other confused camp, the Western, more or less, Islamophobic liberals, who are inclined to identify Ahmadinjad with Al-Qaeda, who refer to Mousavi, because of his Islamic-Republican career in 80’s, as another version of Islamic, anti-democratic Ideology, one could say that they too are caught up in an illusion based on easy Euro-centrist generalizations and lack of familiarity with the Iranian historical context. We should thus answer the simple question: what is actually at the stake? Apart from the triad of French Revolution, the triad of modern emancipatory politics, liberty, equality, fraternity, one could maintain that the main bone of contention in this struggle is precisely politics itself, its life and survival. Our government is called the Islamic Republic of Iran. Now the republican moment, which has always been downgraded by the conservatives, is presently being annihilated. It is precisely through this very outlet that any popular politics, from social movement of dissent and class politics to the defence of human rights, might survive.

Another common approach, no matter how radical, supportive, or conservative, to mass protest in Iran is the following: it is a youth movement, at its best, similar to 68’s student protests. New young generation in Iran, armed with Internet, socialized by social networking sites, tired of Islamic ideology, has awakened, claiming its own way of life, and so on. According to this attitude, which is evoked by a number of journalists, it is only the middle-class intellectuals, students, feminists, and other educated people in large cities who are rallying on the streets, communicating with each other thanks to the internet. What is striking is that the state discourse in Iran widely promotes this very attitude. The ruling elite, based on a populist rhetoric, tends to single out a certain section of the nation and call it the People. The state television, Seda-va-Sima, is the main place where this People is represented, indeed constructed, mostly through the usual populist tactic of one nation versus the evil external enemy who is the cause of all trouble. It presents a unified, pure, integrated image of People, all devoting themselves to Nezam, all law-abiding, religious, etc. This image of People is daily imposed on the masses and inscribed onto the body politic. Against this formally constructed People, with the state as its formal face, there has come out another people, a subaltern, muted people, claiming its own place, its own part in the political scene. June 2009 Election was a decisive opportunity for this people to declare itself, in the figure of Mousavi, who from the beginning insisted on people’s dignity as a true political right. But why him? Why not, say, Karroubi, the other reformist candidate? Has Mousvai, now the leader of the mass movement, appeared on the scene in a purely contingent way? Has he by mere chance, by force of circumstances, as it were, become the leading figure, the reform-freedom-democracy incarnate? The answer is positively negative. To elucidate this, we have to draw attention to the tradition from which he has emerged and to which he has repeatedly referred during his electoral campaign. As we said before, this tradition is rooted in 1979 Revolution and has been revived in the 2th of Khordad Movement -- whereas, Karroubi’s ‘politics’ was based on a subjectless process in which different identity groups would present their demands to the almighty state and act as its passive, divided, depoliticized supporters. In fact, Karroubi’s campaign, with its appeal to Western media, using the word ‘change’ in English, and profiting from celebrity figures, was the one that could be called a Western liberal human-rights-loving, even pro-capitalist movement. The fact that millions transcending their identity and immediate interests joined a typically universal militant politics by risking their lives in defence of Mousavi and their dignity, should be enough to cast out all doubts or misguided pseudo-leftist dogmas.

It's FREEEEEEE!

2009-02-15T14:21:00.003-05:00

I have always been a fan of getting stuff for free, so curbside shopping is something I have done with great relish for some time now. However, lately I have discovered that the recycling dumpsters in my apartment building often yield terrific finds, and I can see myself sliding down the slippery slope from casual curbside shopper to full on freegan dumpster diver! Here are some of the things I have saved from curbs, dumpsters, and recycling bins.

three small blue shelves from the curb at Atwater and Barat
a retro looking suitcase with wooden hangers inside from the curb at Atwater and Barat
a very large painting from just outside the dumpster at Monkland and Old Orchard
two clothes drying racks: one from Atwater and Breslay, one from Atwater and Barat
a shoe rack from the curb at Atwater and Breslay
six pairs of ripped up designer jeans from the recycling
an umbrella stand from the recycling
a nice big Bialetti saute pan with glass lid from the recycling
some tupperware from the recycling
three black Screen Stars t-shirts from near the recycling
a microwave from near the recycling
a perfectly usable pint sized mason jar from the recycling
lots of books from the recycling
a Euro Pilates workout VHS from the recycling
an awesome/freaky ceramic strawberry with a face from the recycling
four nice throw pillows from near the recycling
a big TV from a hidden trash area in the building
a pomelo from near the trash compacter behind the PA (shrink wrapped!)

Also found in the recycling but not taken: a coffee maker and an aquarium pump.

I am thinking of starting a blog to document my finds. Is that too dumb? If I do, I'll let you know the URL.

It's not as good without Bob Barker

2009-01-17T20:03:00.003-05:00

Tonight my grandma called to make sure that her three and a half month old great granddaughter watches The Price Is Right. My family is weird.

Census tract 0128.00 Montreal CMA

2008-11-24T16:02:00.004-05:00

Public space

2008-09-29T20:53:00.004-05:00

"Failure to recognize the homeless as part of the urban public; disregard of the fact that new public spaces and homelessness are both products of redevelopment; the refusal to raise questions about exclusions while invoking the concept of inclusionary public space: these acts ratify the relations of domination that close the borders of public places no matter how much these places are touted as 'open and freely accessible to the public for 12 or more hours daily.'" (Deutsche, 'Art and Public Space: Questions of Democracy', Social Text, 33:38, emphasis in the original)

" . . . liberty engenders contradictions which are also spatial contradictions. Whereas businesses tend toward a totalitarian form of social organization, authoritarian and prone to fascism, urban conditions, either despite or by virtue of violence, tend to uphold at least a measure of democracy." (Lefebvre, The Production of Space, p. 319)

Le Bloc québécois et la droite canadienne

2008-09-27T15:28:00.004-05:00

Guy Charron, sur le World Socialist Website:

« La signification du programme du BQ en pratique est montrée par l’historique au pouvoir de son parti jumeau au niveau provincial, le Parti québécois. Il n’existe pas deux partis plus proches politiquement et organisationnellement dans la politique canadienne. Les deux partis s’aident mutuellement lors des élections et développent conjointement leur stratégie politique.

Le PQ a formé le gouvernement provincial pendant dix-huit des trente-deux dernières années. Ses deux derniers mandats, de 1994 à 2003, ont été caractérisés par un assaut général sur les services publics. Sous le gouvernement péquiste dirigé par Lucien Bouchard, avec le soutien entier des dirigeants syndicaux, des hôpitaux ont été fermés, des dizaines de milliers d’emplois ont été éliminés dans le secteur de la santé et le reste du secteur public et les assistés sociaux ont subi des coupes sauvages dans les prestations d’aide sociale. Ces attaques ont été justifiées au nom de la lutte au déficit, avec pour objectif la diminution des impôts pour les riches. Dégoûtés par la politique du PQ qui a dans les faits formé un des gouvernements les plus à droite en Amérique du Nord, les travailleurs ont abandonné en masse ce parti, en grande partie en ne votant pas.

En fait, lorsque le BQ déclare défendre les intérêts québécois, ce qu’il signifie en réalité, c’est la défense des intérêts des grandes entreprises au Québec, comme Power Corporation, Bombardier, Ubisoft, Merck & Frost, Quebecor, Jean Coutu et les autres grandes multinationales.

C’est ce qui explique que la principale critique que fait le Bloc québécois du gouvernment Harper est que sa base électorale se trouvant dans l’Ouest canadien, le Parti conservateur défend les intérêts des pétrolières albertaines, plutôt que des manufacturières québécoises. Traditionnellement plus faibles que l’industrie ontarienne plus près du MidWest américain, les industries québécoises ont été durement touchées par la hausse du dollar canadien et le ralentissement économique américain.

Le Bloc québécois ne se fait pas que le défenseur direct des intérêts de la grande entreprise au Québec. Il joue aussi un rôle essentiel pour le capitalisme québécois et canadien en contribuant à attacher les travailleurs québécois aux intérêts du capital québécois. Le nationalisme québécois, qui prend d’ailleurs des formes de plus en plus chauvines, fait l’argument que les travailleurs québécois ont plus d’intérêts en commun avec les capitalistes québécois qu’avec les travailleurs canadiens et du reste du monde. » (Suite)

Hit me!

2008-09-19T06:53:00.003-05:00

Today is the day.

Back in May, an ultrasound technician took some measurements of our then 19-week old baby via some grainy 2D black and white images, fed the numbers into a computer program, and the computer program spit out a date: 19 September 2008. Since then, this date has been the magic golden number upon which all my prenatal analysis has been based. It is the all holy estimated due date. It is the day the doctors believe our baby should be born, no if, ands or buts. Certainly no discussion or consideration of any other contributing factors.

As far as I can tell, our baby has no intention of being born today, and if our baby is not born today, then, as of tomorrow, I will be considered — horror of horrors — overdue. The earth will split open, demons will slither out from the depths, the thick, deadly smoke of hell will block out the sun, and time will stop. So in the name of all that is good, just, and beautiful (and just because you like me) hit me with all the "baby, come out!" vibes you can muster. Pray, meditate, hope. Do what you have to do. Let's get this baby out!

Les absurdities écologiques de l'American way of life

2008-09-17T07:47:00.003-05:00

Enjoy!

Yet it remains

2008-09-16T21:32:00.004-05:00

I seem to have lost whatever aesthetic attraction Christianity may have had for me.

The story continues

2008-09-10T08:31:00.004-05:00

You may remember that we gave away The Snot Rocket a little while ago. Turns out that the recipient decided The Snot Rocket wasn't for him/her, so my poor dear bike is looking for a new owner again. I am happy that s/he included The Snot Rocket's name in the ad.

Here is a brief history of The Snot Rocket. At some point, someone bought The Snot Rocket, rode it around, had amazing adventures, and then left it on the campus of Florida State University. It was seized for reasons unknown to me by campus security or whoever seizes bikes on campus. In 2002 or 2003, Matt and I bought The Snot Rocket at a FSU surplus auction. It was a part of a lot of 5 bikes, including Consuela the big red bike with the bell with the eyeball on top (like this). We bought the lot for $20, ditched the three other bikes, and took home Consuela (my new bike) and The Snot Rocket (Matt's new bike). When we moved to Kansas City in August of 2003, the bikes came with us. The Snot Rocket got much more use than did Consuela. Matt used to ride it to work at the library. So when it came time to move to Montreal three years later, only The Snot Rocket came along. Last year, Matt became something of a bike snob and decided he was too good for The Snot Rocket. He tried to fix up The Snot Rocket so that I could ride it around town. On the first test run after new chain, new seat, new brakes, etc, he was hit by a car and had to carry The Snot Rocket home. Until we gave it away, it had been sitting in our bedroom, looking sad and lonely, unable to fulfill its true bike potential.

Did you know?

2008-09-02T09:37:00.000-05:00

Pickled asparagus makes your pee smell just like regular asparagus. It's true!

Goodnight, sweet prince

2008-08-30T16:22:00.004-05:00

Today we gave away The Snot Rocket. May he have many happy times with his new family!

Bye for now!

2008-08-30T11:22:00.002-05:00

We leave for Berlin tomorrow. Wish us well.

Supply-side

2008-08-28T12:23:00.003-05:00

Since all of my t-shirts have pit stains the size of Wyoming, I made up my mind to trek the great distance to the Alexis Nihon shopping center, two blocks away, to procure some new t-shirts, so fresh and so clean clean. I had thought this would be an easy task, but I was mistaken—it seems that clothing stores go way way out of their way to make their customers look like the biggest assholes possible. What I wanted to buy were plain, sized small, colored t-shirts. What I found were mountains of quintuple-X wearable Reebok billboards. I'm in favor of supply-side clothing regulations. Better yet, people need uniforms.

Obsédé

2008-08-22T13:15:00.005-05:00

There are too many movies to watch. How am I supposed to decide? I've watched and enjoyed these recently:

L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad)
Dong (The Hole) [This one is quite appropriate, since the landlord said she's going to be putting a hole in our ceiling.]
Ni neibian jidian (What Time Is It There?)
Le temps qui reste (Time to Leave) [Actually, this one kind of sucked.]
Angst essen Seele auf (Fear Eats The Soul)
Twentynine Palms
Flandres
Paprika
Sedmikrasky (Daisies)
Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According To Saint Matthew)

I plan on watching these sometime soon:

Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cleo from 5 to 7)
Le pornographe (The Pornographer)
Ma mère (My Mother)
Beau travail
Vozvrashcheniye (The Return)

What I'm saying is I am looking for movie recommendations. Please to write in the comment box.

Rayonner

2008-08-22T11:28:00.002-05:00

X marks the spot

2008-08-22T09:33:00.004-05:00

Europa Film Treasures was officially launched last month with a selection of fifty-three rare films made all over the world between 1898 and 1970. All of the films are available for viewing on their site, but as the site has gotten quite popular in the past month, some of the films can be very slow to load. All of the films come with background information and subtitles of your choice. The Sandbath, a lightly erotic film from 1906, is pretty awesome.

"No wonder you're so white."

2008-08-21T17:06:00.004-05:00

Destructive shit

2008-08-20T13:30:00.001-05:00

"It was carried 200 metres, leaving a trail of destruction, and breaking windows at a children’s home."

Unions

2008-08-18T20:29:00.003-05:00

"I'm surprised to hear young people are not behind unions more. I have been pro-union since early '80s. What a difference the loss of the union made in our family's life. Wages went down drastically, all health insurance lost...all retirement benefits lost. Our financial future was forever changed when Reagan killed the unions. In 1979 Daddy was making more as a union plasterer than plasterers make today. I am only now making about what he made then. And of course I have no health insurance or retirement benefit. It's not a good time to be a worker." –My Mom

Je m'emmerde

2008-08-18T14:46:00.005-05:00

Christamighty I'm looking haggard these days…laydeez.

I need to remember to bring my camera around with me. I'd like to take pictures of some of the weird shit I see in this town.

Love

2008-08-16T22:20:00.004-05:00

'De tous les maux, le mien diffère; il me plaît; je me réjouis de lui; mon mal est ce que je veux et ma douleur est ma santé. Je ne vois donc pas de quoi je me plains; car mon mal me vient de ma volonté; c'est mon vouloir qui devient mon mal; mais j'ai tant d'aise à vouloir ainsi que je souffre agréablement, et tant de joie dans ma douleur que je suis malade avec délices.' –Chrétien de Troyes

I'm open to the idea of being about big thangs

2008-08-15T10:58:00.003-05:00

I woke up today with these two songs weaving themselves together in my mind:

Charity

2008-08-14T09:48:00.004-05:00

I'm not supposed to buy any beer this month because I bought new headphones last month. But I really wanted some and so, seeing as I had in my possession one Loonie and one Toonie, I took a walk to the IGA to find the biggest, cheapest, most alcohol-laden beer possible. On the way to the store an eighteen-ish-year-old thugged-out kid tapped me on the shoulder and told me that I dropped a five-dollar bill.

"Is this some sort of test?" I asked. He looked at me blankly for a few seconds. "I mean, thanks!"

So instead of my original $3 I now had a whopping $8 to spend on beer! As it says in Malaleuca 15:9, "God works in mysterious ways."

Well that just about wraps 'er all up

2008-08-13T16:12:00.002-05:00

Max commenting on Georgia and Russia over at Unfogged:

To wit: back in the day, the Russians spun out some Soviet Socialist Republics to keep various large minority ethnic groups happy. While some large minority groups (but by no means all of them) were given their own SSRs, the SSRs only loosely followed lines of ethnic division. Minority groups inside the perimeter SSRs were often given their own 'autonomous oblasts' inside the little SSRs. Stalin came for Georgia, and for reasons of geography and Georgian chauvanism, Georgia happens to be about the only former SSR that contains almost all the members of the ethnic group the SSR is dedicated to. (The only Georgian-dominated areas not in Georgia are in Turkey, near as I can tell.) Which means that Georgia also contains lots of bits of other ethnic groups as well. That makes Georgia a midget Russia - that is, a country containing lots of other ethnic groups that would really prefer not be dominated by the majority group.
The map you want to see to help make it clear is right here.

When the Soviet Union self-dissolved, all the little SSRs kept their boundaries and there have been various bubbling hotspots since. So after the dissolution, Georgia had lots of fratricidal warfare; the Abkhaz kicked out the Georgians from their area, while the Ossetians tried to ejects the Georgian from their areas and the Georgians were ejecting Ossetians. From the description I heard, the Georgian campaign against Ossetian areas was quite nasty - as nasty as the Russian campaign against Chechnya.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the end of the cold war apparently resulted in the decision that the cold war should continue ('New World Order'), except that the US would adopt the policy advocated by neo-cons - rollback. Rather than starting a war, this rollback would consist of a peaceful cloak-and-dagger campaign. Your deracinated rootless cosmopolitans of Belgium (aka Eurocrats) decided this would be an excellent plan, as it would enlarge the area controlled by Eurocrats. The Russians, recall, wanted to join NATO and were refused. Which gets us right to the bombing of Yugoslavia, which made the Russians very unhappy, as they have long-standing ties with the Serbs. Seen from Moscow, that event taken together with the expansion of NATO, looked an awful lot like what Napoleon AND Hitler got up to before they invaded Russia. That's because it was... what Napoleon and Hitler got up to. So the Russians started pushing back locally. In particular, they supported the Abkhaz & Ossentian against the Georgians, and let us not forget Chechnya.

Meanwhile, come 911, the US suddenly decided that the most important thing was killing Muslims, because Muslim == terrorist. So for about a year and a half, the US adopted a policy of Great Power cooperation against any and all Muslims. Chechnyans are mostly Muslims, so they made the shit list and everybody decided it was ok if the Russians beat on them some more. Similarly the US suddenly decided to back the Chinese against the Uighers, which is how Uighers wound up in Gitmo. That's what the right hand was doing.

The left hand was, zombie-like, continuing the policy of rollback. So when the US insisted on invading the Iraq and insisted on adding new bases in places like Georgia and Romania and Bulgaria, the Russians looked around and noticed that the encirclement rollback demanded was more or less complete. That was the point at which they start pushing all the former SSRs to get the Yankee bases the hell off their turf. Which of course has produced lots of protests from the US about Putin being anti-democratic and blah de blah blah. That was also the point at which the Russians decided to step up their support for Iran's nuclear program.

After the 2004 election, apparently our many chuckleheads who practice foreign policy in the US decided they had a free hand to do whatever they like, so the CIA intervened in the Ukraine & Georgia against the Russians to um, promote democracy. No one who got elected appears to be much of a democrat, but they want to slurp Americans and apparently that was good enough. So now the Russians are just actively pissed and selling arms to the Iranians and opposing the US where ever.

Back to Georgia. Basically we fed them a bunch of weapons to build a big army, and their goal was to retake Ossetia and Abkhaz. However Russian peacekeepers have been on the ground in both places (I believe the Russians have a naval base in Abkhaz that they've since the end of the USSR) and this has sort of put a damper on the Georgian plans.

Last week the Georgians apparently signed a treaty recognizing the independence of South Ossetia (in exchange for the abandonment of claims to Ossentian territory outside the old Oblast?). Then they turned around and attacked South Ossetia, which includes attacking the Russian peacekeepers.

The thing is, is that the Russians have a rather large army to hand not 50-75 miles away in Chechnya, and they have that naval base in Abkhaz so they said 'Oh, no, you will fucking NOT!' and proceeded to kick the shit out of the Georgians. The news reports suggest that they have stopped at the Georgia-Abkhaz boundary... on the Georgian side of the line. Taking Gori in the center tho, would have to be done if they intend to occupy ALL Ossetian territory in Georgia... because Georgia is basically a big valley with a river running down the middle, and there are Ossetians in the hills above the river on both sides.

(And here's the relief map!)

Of course, the entire reason the Georgians have been dedicated to taking all of Ossetia, is that if that territory were independent or occupied by the Russians, it would split Georgia in half. (Whereas Abkhaz is peripheral, so the Georgians have never tried to retake it after the Abkhaz said fuck off in 1999.)

In any event, in a world where treaties, territorial integrity and/or ethnic cleansing are valid justifications for going to war, it looks an awful lot like the Russians are on the side of the angels here, regardless of their behaviour elsewhere.

Observation

2008-08-12T08:59:00.002-05:00

I can't help but think that Christianity as it is presented in the New Testament is much more akin to atheism (as espoused by the likes of Marx or Freud rather than Dawkins or Hitchens) than it is to what falls under the heading of religion as it is currently understood. I've seen others make similar observations before, but it was never really clear in my mind what was meant by this. But I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of the matter. I won't say any more, though, as I'm still trying to gather my thoughts.

Dumbasses

2008-08-11T16:23:00.008-05:00

One of the main reasons why reading the Bible was often very boring to me was that, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I automatically assumed that the writers were idiots. Ignorant peasants and terrible writers. This applies to most of the books, although the assumption became most pointed when I read the "Gospels" – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Added on top of all this is the fact that interpretations of all these books were given to me pretty much before I was even old enough to read them myself.

But I've changed my mind about the Gospels. I've realized that these interpretations that I had taken for granted are way more complicated and convoluted than they need to be.

Before when I would read the Gospels I would see Jesus doing ridiculous things like sending a demon into a herd of pigs and having those pigs drown in the ocean and I'd think, "OK, I'm supposed to believe this, but this shit's laughable." And I would assume that the writer was an ass if he thinks people are going to believe this (of course, there are idiots who do).

But the writers know all of this. They're not stupid. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John know they're telling funny stories, ripping off ideas from legends, magic tales of magic robes, etc. They know they're being funny, they're well aware of their sarcasm. And they want us to laugh. They're some witty bastards. I was the one being an idiot.

And you know why they're doing this? They're doing this because they're not writing history books. They're writing letters to people who are already Christians, who already know the story. They already believe that Jesus is the Messiah and all that. So in these letters the authors can play around with the story, can tell jokes, crude ones even, spin fantastical and magical tales of walking on water and calming storms. Whether or not they really happened is irrelevant. If we're questioning whether it really happened we're missing the point. We've missed the punch-line.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Brief history of Christianity:

Jesus: For my birthday my dad gave me an empty box and said it was a GI Joe deserter.
Christian: So you're saying our hearts need to be like empty boxes? I worship you, O Lord, O Trinitarian Triune Trinity.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The Gospel writers were much better writers than we've been readers. We need to lighten up, learn to laugh a bit.

La haine

2008-08-11T06:21:00.003-05:00

Saturday evening at Parc Henri Bourassa some kids were playing dice when two police officers showed up and started acting aggressive. The police singled out one of the kids and threw him to the ground to arrest him. The other kids got closer to the cops and started yelling, one of the cops opened fire, killing 18-year-old Freddy Villanueva and wounding two other kids. None of the kids were armed.

Yesterday a mass of people gathered at Parc Henri Bourassa to protest the police violence and the death of Freddy Villanueva. Police showed up and things turned ugly. A riot ensued, fires were set and buildings vandalized. This all took place in Montreal North, an extremely poor area, home to many immigrants, mainly Haitian.

The shit's hitting the fan in this city. This it what it looks like when a city keeps its immigrants poor, angry and continually harassed by the police.

The Villanuevas immigrated from Honduras in 1998, living in Montreal North before moving to Longueuil and, eventually, to a house in Repentigny. Yesterday, they said their faith in their adoptive country had been shaken to its core.

"We thought we were going to be better off," Julissa said. "We thought there was justice here. We thought the police were supposed to protect us."

Russian aggression?

2008-08-10T07:52:00.003-05:00

I want to show you a prime example of deliberately misleading news reporting that I read this morning on the CBC.

Russia launches air strikes in Georgia

As fighting raged for a second day Saturday in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Russian jets bombed the town of Gori, near the breakaway province of South Ossetia. An apartment building and military base were among the targets hit in Russia's attempt to force back Georgian troops seeking control over the separatist enclave on its southern border. Freelance reporter Giorgi Lomsadze told CBC News that neighbours told him five people who were living in the building are killed. Warplanes also bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.

So far nothing seems out of order. Russia orders air strikes in two locations: the town of Gori and the port city of Poti, both in Georgia. This is where the article gets very interesting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that 1,500 people have been killed, with the death toll rising Saturday. The figure could not be independently confirmed, but witnesses who fled the violence estimated that hundreds of civilians have died. They said most of South Ossetia's provincial capital, Tskhinvali, was in ruins, with bodies lying everywhere.

So what just happened? To someone with no knowledge of the situation this seems to be saying that Russia is admitting to killing 1,500 people with its air strikes, and that the bodies lying everywhere in South Ossetia are even the Russians' doing.

The article never points out that those 1,500 dead (and I've seen reports of 2,000) happened at the hands of Georgian troops. These are civilians being slaughtered by Georgia, but we're supposed to see Russia as the evil-doers here.

Which is not to say that Russia has good intentions in getting involved with defending South Ossetia, but this article is just another example of US-backed military violence being overlooked by the media in order to demonize a rival of "the West". Cold War logic just doesn't work here.

Read this if you want a better run-down of the situation.

Bodies

2008-08-09T15:34:00.010-05:00

In the past couple weeks I've watched all of French director Bruno Dumont's films: La vie de Jésus, L'humanité, Twentynine Palms, and Flandres. Now my soul feels scraped out. The man is brutal. He really is onto something, however. His unflinching look at bodies can make for unsettling viewing, but it is needed. It is very strange how the books that I have been reading are melding with the movies I'm watching, and vice-versa. Everything I've been reading and watching has focused on bodies and their political and theological import.

I'm not talking about identity politics. I have no patience for identity politics. I guess what I'm talking about is a need to confront bodies without our usual defense of ironic detachment or flat out disavowal. This is what fascinates me about Dumont's films, though admittedly they freaked me the hell out in that they allowed me no emotional distance. Whenever I came to the end of one of his films I'd feel the same thing: really fucking revulsed and really alive. That alive feeling is very similar to a feeling I would get when I would draw. When I did draw I always drew bodies. I started seeing people in different ways. After you draw faces, heads, hands, backs, etc, for an extended period, the boundaries and defining lines of these body parts start to erode and drift. The eyes end up being just as "meaningful" as the elbow (similar to some of the world's peoples who do not differentiate between "arm" and "hand", they have no word for hand). I found myself staring at people's heads, in awe of this mass of flesh that is different from any other mass of flesh, where categorizing these lumps of flesh is silly, because "heads" only exists linguistically.

Of course this categorization is inevitable, but during those brief moments when we're confronted with bodies in all their ambiguity and vulnerability, their fleshiness, we see that those categories are ultimately malleable, leaving us, as Dumont's films do, with brief glimpses of the world's openness. The lower-case "h" in the title of L'humanité is important, as that which is human is still open to question.

Disclaimer: I don't intend this post as a recommendation of Dumont's films. They're not for everyone. Lots of graphic sex and violence. But if those things don't bother you, go for it.

I think I need a little break from French extreme cinema. Next up: Paprika by Satoshi Kon.

Where's summer, b?

2008-08-08T09:34:00.002-05:00

Because I have no fear of jinxing it at this point, I now feel free to express the following: this has been by far the weeniest summer of my whole life. Canada, you just don't know how to do a proper summer, do you? Maybe I can sweat next year.

PS Bonus points to you if you get my geeky reference in the title.

Just saying

2008-07-31T13:54:00.001-05:00

I like these much better than all those tight jeans girls are wearing.

Indecent proposal

2008-07-30T12:51:00.005-05:00

I didn't begin to seriously learn a second language until I was twenty-one or twenty-two, which makes things difficult because my mind isn't quite as limber as it used to be. I grew up in South Florida surrounded by Spanish and Haitian Creole, and I took some Spanish classes in high school, but, as a skateboarder punk, I eschewed anything that figures of authority told me would up my chances of landing that dream job one day. So Spanish was out. Learning a language just didn't hold my attention.

I wish someone had introduced me to Spanish-language erotic fiction when I was going through puberty. Nothing held my attention more than sex, so why not combine language learning with something exciting? My fundamentalist Christian parents would never have caught on, as they would not have been able to understand what I was reading (my dad caught me reading Naked Lunch when I was twelve or thirteen and that didn't go over well at all). I would have learned to read Spanish in no time!

I've taken to reading pulp and erotic fiction in French of late. Much better than forcing myself to slog through Anscombre and Ducrot's L'argumentation dans la langue, which was really dragging me down.

That's what I'll do when I grow up: I'll be a French teacher!

Montreal: Better than TV

2008-07-25T18:23:00.005-05:00

Dude, the Mafia's throwing down on the Bloods after the Bloods (in Montreal, les Rouges) tried to move in on the Mafia's territory after the Mafia's big police crackdown a couple years ago.

Train wreck

2008-07-24T10:09:00.004-05:00

Nothing brings out the trite, sentimental bullshit than self-righteous liberals talking about the horrors those ultra-nationalist demon-Serbs committed against the multicultural wet dreams that are Croatia and Bosnia. Systematic rape! Death camps! Genocide! Ethnic cleansing! Terror!

Facts?! How can you ask for facts?! But…but…but…death camps! Genocide! RAPE! La la la la I can't hear you la la la.

We know the fate of the demon Karadzic already. He will get a sham trial in a sham court and be imprisoned. Smug liberals everywhere will be so pleased that Justice with a capital J has been served, international law has been upheld.

This whole thing really turns my stomach.

KRS-1 says, "You must learn!"

2008-07-22T16:23:00.005-05:00

Being that I am studying geography at university and that I have a soft spot in my heart for Marxism, David Harvey (a Marxist geographer) is, as Danica has termed it, my "geography hero". [ Since I am living in Canada, where British punctuation and spelling standards are followed, I am taking the liberty of placing the period after the quotation mark, where it belongs. ] I have read with pleasure nearly all of his books. Harvey is basically the reason why I chose to study geography. Imagine my delight when I ran across these video lectures of Harvey giving a chapter by chapter reading of Marx's Capital, Volume I. Oh, snap! You should check them out, too.

List #4229: Intake

2008-07-18T11:00:00.006-05:00

Books

Reading Seminars I and II: Lacan's Return to Freud, edited by Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink and Maire Jaanus

The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book I: Freud's Papers on Technique 1953 - 1954 by Jacques Lacan

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

Évangile selon Marc in the Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible (which seems to me to be the French equivalent of the Good News Bible, minus the pictures, plus the Apocrypha).

I think that after I've gotten this psychoanalysis kick out of my system (I've finally gotten around to actually reading Lacan instead of just reading about him) I'm going to take a look at what's been going on in theology lately, especially of the queer and feminist varieties. In anticipation of this I requested these two books from the interlibrary loan folks at my school:

Movies

Chungking Express, by Wong Kar-Wai

Talk To Her, by Almodovar

La Pianiste, by Michael Haneke [ Not a good date movie! ]

Scènes de lit, by François Ozon

I found a really kick-ass art house film website the other day where all of my downloading dreams come true. Please don't die, O my premium fantasy!

Music

All Is Well, by Samamidon

Tout seul dans la forêt en plein jour, by Woelv

Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, by Townes Van Zandt

Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You, by Josephine Foster

My brother gave me a DVD with four gigs worth of music while we were down in Florida, but I haven't gotten the chance to take a gander at whatall's on there. Hopefully lots of country music, as that's all I seem to listen to these days, except for all the other stuff. I'm craving some Bowie right now.

Food

I finally found a falafel recipe that works, so I made and ate about 15 felafel balls, along with some hummus. Not all at once, of course.

I'm in the middle of baking a loaf of light wheat bread from Peter Reinhart's book, The Breadbaker's Apprentice. Excellent book, although the light wheat loaf is not a favorite of mine. Danica is a big fan of it, which is why I am making it. The recipe for pain à l'ancienne is supercool, là.

Beer

Dogfish Head's Indian brown ale.

Corne du diable India pale ale by Dieu du Ciel!

Patersbier by me.

Going to the U.S. is always a treat for me for various reasons, and one of those reasons is beer. Quebec doesn't import many beers, especially from the U.S., and the beers that do get imported from the U.S. are shitstink. So going to the U.S. affords me the opportunity to get my hands on some good microbrews. Thus, Dogfish Head's Indian brown ale, which I found at a Publix supermarket for about $8 a six-pack. I've gotten really sick of dark beers as of late, but this beer was an exception. Really fine stuff.

The Corne du diable India pale ale is brewed by a local brewpub called Dieu du Ciel! I had no idea that they bottled their beers until Danica and I were at the Atwater Market and I happened upon this beer at a fromagerie. This is my new favorite beer. Mmmm.

The Patersbier I brewed and bottled a couple weeks before we left for Florida, so it was ready when we returned. I used all pilsner malt, a bit of Hallertauer hops, and some Belgian ale yeast. It's pretty decent. A good summer beer.

I plan on doing some brewing this Sunday. I'm going to make a clone of Bell Brewery's Two-Hearted Ale, which is, like, you know, a perfect beer.

What about you? Been taking in anything good and nice?

Former Beatle not Quebecois enough

2008-07-16T13:32:00.003-05:00

From the overflowing "Quebec Sovereigntists Are Nutso" files...

Quebec City is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year, and as a part of the ongoing celebrations, Paul McCartney is playing a free concert this weekend. Doesn't seem like anything to get worked up over -- unless you're a crazy Quebec separatist who can't see anything outside of the frame of the rest of Canada holding you down. Then you would certainly see this concert as "Canadianization" and not in the spirit of celebrating a great Quebec city.

Because Paul McCartney just screams Canadian. Don't you think?

Read more here.

Entendu dans la street

2008-07-03T16:09:00.003-05:00

Man in a suit talking on a payphone: "Ouais mais, bin, you know, tabarnak, c'est comme fuck me, là."

I want this t-shirt

2008-07-03T14:01:00.004-05:00

Fugees and Funions

2008-07-02T11:50:00.002-05:00

Today at the hospital I was asked for my Medicare card. I told the lady I didn't have one, and she said, "What? Are you a refugee?"

(For Fugees and Funions, take a gander over here.)

RadOx swoosh

2008-07-01T20:22:00.001-05:00

This by Kotsko is right on target.

Bonjourhello!

2008-06-25T11:32:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting in Cabot Square with statue-Cabot's back to me. A very shaky old man has finally succeeded in lighting his cigarette after many failed attempts. He's very pleased with himself.

In a few months(!) I am going to be a father. Yesterday a crib was delivered to our apartment. It looks very much like the crib my parents used for my brothers and me. When people hear that I am going to be a parent (especially at school where most everyone is under 21) they often ask if I am afraid. To be sure, I am somewhat afraid (especially after reading so much Freud and Lacan lately.), but much more than that I am really damned excited to raise a kid with Danica. [ A homeless man just came up to me and asked me what I'm writing. "My will." ] Danica will be an excellent mother and, as I declared this morning, "I wouldn't mind having me as a father. I'm ok."

The other night I went with J. to the theatre to see T.J. Dawe perform a monologue. "The worst thing I can say about my father is that he was quiet," he said. The same could be said of my own dad, someone I look up to a great deal, though about whom I know very little. I once wrote a letter to him asking him to tell me about himself, but it remains unsent.

[ There's a man nearby with his groceries playing air guitar to a crowd of pigeons. ]

I want to talk to my kid. I want her or him to know who I am and what I'm all about. Whether or not s/he cares about what is going on in my head is out of my control, of course, but I'm determined to be open just in case. I can't wait to hear what s/he has to say.

'Jesus Christ' by Woody Guthrie

2008-06-21T09:27:00.001-05:00

Pau-Pau

2008-06-15T17:58:00.002-05:00

This woman makes me want to quit learning French and start learning Arabic.

Shoe help

2008-06-12T20:46:00.004-05:00

Which do you like better: these or these? I lean more towards the white ones, but I know they'll get filthy.

Update: I didn't really want your help, anyway. I got these instead, in black.

Hey, how many months?

2008-06-12T14:13:00.002-05:00

Today while walking to the metro from a meeting with a possible new client, I was stopped and asked for directions to Chinatown. I answered as best I could, and then the guy asked me the above question. I couldn't help it. I squealed at him, "You're the first person to ask me that!" and gave the answer of five months. He wished me well and walked off. Then I realized that the correct answer is actually six months. But at least I pointed him in the right direction to Chinatown.

En revanche,

2008-06-10T17:07:00.003-05:00

Paavoharju's new album, Laulu Laakson Kukista, is excellent.

Yawn

2008-06-09T08:56:00.002-05:00

The new Sigur Rós album is booooooring.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

2008-06-08T13:58:00.005-05:00

Today was supposed to be a day spent cleaning up around the apartment, but Ajeet called me up last night and told me to go drink beers with him. Which I did. Until 6:30am. So I am feeling less than stellar this fine day. I was in the elevator with a woman on my way down to the basement to recycle some beer bottles and I farted and it was acrid. I got stung by a bee, too. Not in the elevator; this was out on the balcony.

Danica is in Kansas at the moment, for her cousin's wedding and for her baby shower. While she's out of town I assigned myself these books to read:

The Freud Reader
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud
Beyond the Pleasure Principle by Sigmund Freud
Civilization and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique by Bruce Fink
The Lacanian Subject by Bruce Fink

All I have left to read are the Fink books, which I'm really looking forward to, as I've heard good things about them. I'm reading all this so that I can read this, which I got for my birthday from Danica.

The real reason I am writing a post is to share these videos with you: Death to the Tinman, Queenie in Trouble, Zewesawam, Pop Lock and Drop It, Trick, Detektivbyrån.

In which Mustafa poses with our newest acquisition

2008-06-02T18:14:00.001-05:00

$5 from a garage sale in St. Henri
It shall soon be on the art wall!

Dear Fiona Apple,

2008-05-20T14:18:00.001-05:00

Thanks for being awesome.

Love, Danica

The report is in

2008-05-18T08:43:00.000-05:00

"Learn more English, be nicer to Muslims, get better informed."

Je te plumerai la tête

2008-05-12T10:38:00.005-05:00

More than a week later and I still have a job.

Yesterday seriously grossed me out. While sitting on a bench waiting for the metro to arrive a man was standing in front of me, clearing his throat, blowing his nose, and spitting down onto the tracks over and over and over again. I got on the train and had to step over vomit to get to a seat. When I got out of the Vendôme metro station to go wait for the 105 bus to arrive a dog came up and shat a big stinky pile a few feet away from me. When I got to my place of work I went into the kitchen where on the counter a dish with leftover dinner from the night before was crawling with ants. Hundreds of them. When I went to the bathroom a box of suppositories sitting on top of a jar of petroleum jelly stared at me while I pissed. Later, the dog hacked up something nondescript. Also, J. has taken to not wearing pants around me. While waiting at the Lionel-Groulx metro station a man urinated into a garbage bin. On the train a woman sat with her feet on the seat next to mine. Her toenails were dried-out, yellowish-green, and about a quarter of an inch thick. All day long I felt like I was under attack. I doubted the existence of God. I badly needed a drink.

Dog by Suzie Templeton

2008-05-12T10:26:00.001-05:00

I hate the dog.

2008-05-01T08:33:00.003-05:00

Today just may be the last day of my short stint as an in-home caregiver for an elderly woman. She's very dehydrated and I can't seem to get her to drink enough, so hopefully she will go to the hospital today to get an IV put in to re-hydrate her so that she can recover quicker. I'm not sure if she'd need me again after she left the hospital. The job hasn't been bad, except for the fact that I work every day, and the pay is much better than I've ever received before. I make her food, remind her to take sips of various drinks, do laundry, wash dishes, feed her pets, water her plants, talk about books, listen to stories about Montreal's sordid past, walk the dog, do some shopping, do some light cleaning. There are only a few unpleasant duties. All in all, it's been a good job, but I'm really looking forward to a day off. I think I need a day or two of sitting on the balcony drinking beers and reading Machiavelli. If only it would warm up outside.

The summer semester started yesterday, so last night I went to the first meeting of my French writing class. The class is very small, only about ten people. The professor is a teeny tiny woman with an even teeny tinier voice. I'll have to sit closer to the front next time so that I can hear her better. As in every French class I've been in, we started the course off with introductions ("Je m'appelle Matthew. Je fais mes études en géographie humaine et langue et littérature de la langue française. Je m'inscris dans ce cours seulement pour m'amuser, bien sûr." Etc., etc.). I think I say the same thing every time. I know two other people in the class from other classes. The teacher assigned a novel (La tournée d'automne by Jacques Poulin) to be read over the course of the month-and-a-half long semester, but I'm a dork and had the thing read through before the class even started. I haven't gotten much practice writing in French in the program so far, so this class should be good for me. I'm also taking another, more intensive, writing class next semester, so I figured this semester's class would be a good warmup for next semester, where I'll be in classes with native French speakers. That intimidates the hell out of me.

Onward!

grey day

2008-04-29T16:15:00.002-05:00

This is my second spring in Montreal and the second year in a row that I have missed free cone day at Ben & Jerry's because it's too cold and rainy and yucky to venture out for ice cream. The day before yesterday I was walking home and thinking, "Ain't no way I'm missing free cone day this year. It's so beautiful outside!" Wrong. I'll have to stick with the Québon biscuits et creme in my freezer.

Riots in the 514

2008-04-22T12:03:00.003-05:00

The Canadiens beat the Bruins 5-0 here in Montreal last night and have advanced to the second round of the playoffs. This is big enough news to kick-start a bit of a riot not too far from our house, right by Matt's school. Some police cars were burned, and some shops were broken into. You can see a photo essay here.

I also watched some videos of the scene on YouTube, and more than anything it was the comments that pissed me off. The riot was blamed not on drunken hockey fans but on immigrants, blacks, Arabs, and anglos. That's right; it was all my fault. I'm an anglo immigrant. I have no right to be here, and I am to blame for all post-hockey game riots and anything else that tarnishes the good name of Montreal or la belle province.

I know that not all Montrealers and Quebecers are as ignorant, blatantly racist and inhospitable as some of the commenters on YouTube (because, really, judging society by YouTube comments is very sad), but the truth is that that same ignorance, racism, and arrogance exist in a very real way here, and being a part of the unwelcome minority gets to be exhausting sometimes.

Hillary Clinton is a piece of shit

2008-04-22T06:46:00.001-05:00

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

I love this guy

2008-04-21T18:19:00.001-05:00

"If we want to save our planet earth, to save life, to save mankind, we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system."

"No Shangri-La" - Slavoj Žižek

2008-04-21T09:30:00.001-05:00

The media imposes certain stories on us, and the one about Tibet goes like this. The People’s Republic of China, which, back in 1949, illegally occupied Tibet, has for decades engaged in the brutal and systematic destruction not only of the Tibetan religion, but of the Tibetans themselves. Recently, the Tibetans’ protests against Chinese occupation were again crushed by military force. Since China is hosting the 2008 Olympics, it is the duty of all of us who love democracy and freedom to put pressure on China to give back to the Tibetans what it stole from them. A country with such a dismal human rights record cannot be allowed to use the noble Olympic spectacle to whitewash its image. What will our governments do? Will they, as usual, cede to economic pragmatism, or will they summon the strength to put ethical and political values above short-term economic interests?

There are complications in this story of ‘good guys versus bad guys’. It is not the case that Tibet was an independent country until 1949, when it was suddenly occupied by China. The history of relations between Tibet and China is a long and complex one, in which China has often played the role of a protective overlord: the anti-Communist Kuomintang also insisted on Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. Before 1949, Tibet was no Shangri-la, but an extremely harsh feudal society, poor (life expectancy was barely over 30), corrupt and fractured by civil wars (the most recent one, between two monastic factions, took place in 1948, when the Red Army was already knocking at the door). Fearing social unrest and disintegration, the ruling elite prohibited industrial development, so that metal, for example, had to be imported from India.

Since the early 1950s, there has been a history of CIA involvement in stirring up anti-Chinese troubles in Tibet, so Chinese fears of external attempts to destabilise Tibet are not irrational. Nor was the Cultural Revolution, which ravaged Tibetan monasteries in the 1960s, simply imported by the Chinese: fewer than a hundred Red Guards came to Tibet. The youth mobs that burned the monasteries were almost exclusively Tibetan. As the TV images demonstrate, what is going on now in Tibet is no longer a peaceful ‘spiritual’ protest by monks (like the one in Burma last year), but involves the killing of innocent Chinese immigrants and the burning of their stores.

It is a fact that China has made large investments in Tibet’s economic development, as well as its infrastructure, education and health services. To put it bluntly: in spite of China’s undeniable oppression of the country, the average Tibetan has never had such a high standard of living. There is worse poverty in China’s western rural provinces: child slave labour in brick factories, abominable conditions in prisons, and so on.

In recent years, China has changed its strategy in Tibet: depoliticised religion is now tolerated, often even supported. China now relies more on ethnic and economic colonisation than on military coercion, and is transforming Lhasa into a Chinese version of the Wild West, in which karaoke bars alternate with Buddhist theme parks for Western tourists. In short, what the images of Chinese soldiers and policemen terrorising Buddhist monks conceal is a much more effective American-style socio-economic transformation: in a decade or two, Tibetans will be reduced to the status of Native Americans in the US. It seems that the Chinese Communists have finally got it: what are secret police, internment camps and the destruction of ancient monuments, compared with the power of unbridled capitalism?

One of the main reasons so many people in the West participate in the protests against China is ideological: Tibetan Buddhism, deftly propagated by the Dalai Lama, is one of the chief points of reference for the hedonist New Age spirituality that has become so popular in recent times. Tibet has become a mythic entity onto which we project our dreams. When people mourn the loss of an authentic Tibetan way of life, it isn’t because they care about real Tibetans: what they want from Tibetans is that they be authentically spiritual for us, so that we can continue playing our crazy consumerist game. ‘Si vous êtes pris dans le rêve de l’autre,’ Gilles Deleuze wrote, ‘vous êtes foutu.’ The protesters against China are right to counter the Beijing Olympic motto – ‘One World, One Dream’ – with ‘One World, Many Dreams’. But they should be aware that they are imprisoning Tibetans in their own dream.

The question is often asked: given the explosion of capitalism in China, when will democracy assert itself there, as capital’s ‘natural’ political form of organisation? The question is often put another way: how much faster would China’s development have been if it had been combined with political democracy? But can the assumption be made so easily? In a TV interview a couple of years ago, Ralf Dahrendorf linked the increasing distrust of democracy in post-Communist Eastern Europe to the fact that, after every revolutionary change, the road to new prosperity leads through a ‘vale of tears’. After socialism breaks down the limited, but real, systems of socialist welfare and security have to be dismantled, and these first steps are necessarily painful. The same goes for Western Europe, where the passage from the welfare state model to the new global economy involves painful renunciations, less security, less guaranteed social care. Dahrendorf notes that this transition lasts longer than the average period between democratic elections, so that there is a great temptation to postpone these changes for short-term electoral gain. Fareed Zakaria has pointed out that democracy can only ‘catch on’ in economically developed countries: if developing countries are ‘prematurely democratised’, the result is a populism that ends in economic catastrophe and political despotism. No wonder that today’s economically most successful Third World countries (Taiwan, South Korea, Chile) embraced full democracy only after a period of authoritarian rule.

Following this path, the Chinese used unencumbered authoritarian state power to control the social costs of the transition to capitalism. The weird combination of capitalism and Communist rule proved not to be a ridiculous paradox, but a blessing. China has developed so fast not in spite of authoritarian Communist rule, but because of it.

There is a further paradox at work here. What if the promised second stage, the democracy that follows the authoritarian vale of tears, never arrives? This, perhaps, is what is so unsettling about China today: the suspicion that its authoritarian capitalism is not merely a reminder of our past – of the process of capitalist accumulation which, in Europe, took place from the 16th to the 18th century – but a sign of our future? What if the combination of the Asian knout and the European stock market proves economically more efficient than liberal capitalism? What if democracy, as we understand it, is no longer the condition and motor of economic development, but an obstacle to it?

Slavoj Žižek
Birkbeck College, London WC1

Hopefully...

2008-04-17T16:13:00.001-05:00

I will be proven wrong. I'd love to see someone like Hugo Chavez getting behind this.

China is baaaaaaaaad, says the sheep.

2008-04-16T08:13:00.005-05:00

Seeing as all the enlightened liberals are so keen on boycotting the Olympics in Beijing because of "human rights abuses,"* I take it that these same people will be calling for a boycott of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver because of Canada's ongoing colonial oppression of Aboriginal Peoples, which has been going on much longer and has been much harsher than China's oppression of Tibetans. Canada's Aborigines are some of the most dispossessed and impoverished people in the world, suicide rates being 3 times that of the Canadian national average, with some communities having suicide rates up to 800% higher than that of the national average (Suicide Among Canada's Aboriginal Peoples .pdf).

Of course there isn't a chance this'll happen. There'll be no UN resolutions to boycott the opening ceremonies. No protests in San Francisco filled with people waving First Nations flags. It won't happen (certainly not on the scale we've seen with the protests against China) because our blessed liberals are hypocritical pieces of shit, taking to the streets to protest bad, bad China (under the media's very watchful eye) while they turn a blind eye to the Third World conditions in their own countries, ignoring the two brutal failed wars because they're bored with them, blaming the world's environmental problems (which their liberal economic policies created) on people of color having too many babies (the cause of which, again, being liberal economic policies creating mass poverty), etc., etc., etc. Yellow peril! Blame China! Oh oh, This American Life is on! Fuck off.

*If you're protesting, say, the forced expulsion of a group of people from their land, or the torture of a certain opposition group, or whatever, just say it! "Human rights" is vacuous concept, used to justify such lovely happenings as the UN sanctions against and Clinton's bombing of Iraq, the NATO bombing of Kosovo, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. For the love of God, just say what you mean.

Do your taxes. Don't do your taxes.

2008-04-15T07:20:00.001-05:00

Smack!

2008-04-05T22:10:00.002-05:00

And that is how you spank Roy Williams. Rock chalk!

Dr. Steve Brule Wine Tasting

2008-04-02T07:43:00.000-05:00

I am a sinner and a fool

2008-03-31T11:14:00.005-05:00

Danica is down in Vermont for the day. I'm now on day four of fevers and aches. I could tell it was going to be a bad day wellness-wise when I felt a dull pain begin to creep up my spine up to my neck. Rods of pain spreading over my back. A fierce headache is next, followed inevitably by chills and fever. Being sick always makes me feel really lazy. Being sick means not upholding my end of the bargain. But Danica has been really good about looking after me: feeding me, going to get ginger ale from the store for me, putting drops in my ears (ear infection), etc. The only good thing about being sick is that you get to read all you want, which is what I did. I read The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, which blew me away and reminded me a bit of J.M. Coetzee, of whom I am a big fan (is there anything more perfect than Waiting for the Barbarians? While reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road I kept thinking, "I wish the Coetzee of Life and Times of Michael K had written this."). I started reading Dusklands by Coetzee, his first novel, but I didn't care much for it so I stopped. I also spent a lot of time getting caught up with what has been going to in Basra with Maliki and Muqtada al-Sadr. I definitely want to check out Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq by Patrick Cockburn when it comes out. You should do the same. Cockburn really knows his stuff when it comes to Iraq.

Speaking of reading, Danica gave me a gift card for Chapters bookstore for my birthday (yesterday) and I've already used it up. I ordered three books: Selections from the Prison Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci, Écrits by Jacques Lacan (all 900 pages of it), and The Indivisible Remainder: On Schelling and Related Matters by Slavoj Zizek. The first two make up part of my Ambitious Reading List. The third book is just for fun.

I can't afford to be sick today. I need to go turn in a paper and pick up some books on hold for me at the library. And of course it is snowing. Again. Again and again. Forever. I'm hoping my class will be canceled today, as the part-time teachers are on strike and all of my teacher are part-time. I am 100% behind this strike action. These teachers get treated like shit. The administration expects them to work "for the love of teaching," paying them next to nothing and offering no benefits. They haven't had a contract for six years now. It's really grotesque. We'll see what happens. I wish the student union would encourage students to join the strike. Students usually sympathize with their teachers.

There was a rally at my school that I wanted to go to this morning, protesting the proposed tuition increase for international students, but I didn't want to aggravate my fever.

OK, time to go to class.

Regarde by Monade

2008-03-30T19:13:00.000-05:00

Montreal march against police brutality turns violent

2008-03-22T17:24:00.002-05:00

The Messiah is in the grave

2008-03-22T11:11:00.004-05:00

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world–a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us ... No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you.

"Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid rich kids like George Bush?

"They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us—they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

"And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them."

- Hunter S. Thompson

I'm looking for...

2008-03-21T08:47:00.001-05:00

For that we might stop watching campaign coverage for a few minutes:

Grown-up sized mosters under the bed

2008-03-13T13:24:00.001-05:00

The Quantum Sleeper: The safest rest you've ever had!

Gag me, me, me, me!

2008-03-08T18:20:00.002-05:00

I am so sick
sick
sick
so sick!
of those damn commercials
commericals
damn commercials
that show lots of different people all reading the same
same
same
the same
damn script with cuts to each person repeating
repeating
repeating
repeating
repeating
each person reapeating the important words.
Please
Please!
Please,
advertisers of the world, let's think of something new
new
new
something new.

Vie de merde

2008-03-07T18:04:00.003-05:00

"Aujourd'hui, j'ai découvert que le gant que j'utilisais quotidiennement pour laver mon visage, mon homme l'utilisait également, pour nettoyer son organe après son passage aux toilettes." - VDM

In My Language by Amanda Baggs

2008-03-05T00:27:00.002-05:00

"The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not."

Related article here.

Festin d'Asie / Happy Asian Combo #1

2008-03-04T10:18:00.003-05:00

1 Combo Sushi 14 mcx/pcs (6 Futomakis + 6 Hosomakis + 2 Nigiris)
1 Sous-marin 10" au poulet/Chicken
1 Poulet Général Tao Chicken +Riz à la vapeur / Steamed Rice
6 Ailes de poulet/Chicken wings +salade / salad
2 Mini Rouleaux Impérial /Imperial Rolls
1 Soupe Won Ton Soup (large/Big)
1 sac de craquelins aux crevettes Bag of Shrimp Chips

25,99$

Anti-depressants

2008-03-04T06:57:00.001-05:00

"Clearly the interiorisation of unhappiness is far more profitable than the outward realisation that perhaps misery has nothing to do with you personally and everything to do with the world in which you live."

You know...

2008-02-29T14:00:00.002-05:00

If the Israeli government is going to compare itself to the Nazis, maybe we should start doing likewise.

Eurotrash

2008-02-29T13:32:00.002-05:00

Tongues

2008-02-28T18:43:00.002-05:00

I've really enjoyed learning new languages thus far. I've been working steady at French for about two and a half years and, while my speaking leaves much to be desired, I am to the point where I am able to read the news daily without having to look up too many words, I can watch French movies and follow most of the dialogue (French French, that is; I'm still having a bitch of a time with Québecois French.), I've got a growing stack of books under my belt, etc. I can now do the things I set out to do when I began learning French, and that without too much frustration. So.

Given that I have been a sick for the past couple days, lying on the sofa, I've had some time to consider undertaking a new linguistic challenge. The thing is, I don't know what language to pick up. I know what language I should learn, because it is The Most Useful, but that is reason enough for me to not want to learn Spanish. I'd really like to dabble a bit in an Eastern European language.

Thusly, I've narrowed it down to four: Spanish, Polish, German and Romanian. Spanish and Romanian are in the Romance family of languages, so that would definitely make them much easier to learn, coming from learning French and taking two intensive Latin classes. Polish is supposed to be a really really difficult language for an anglophone to learn, but the prospect of a non-Romance language sounds very intriguing. German is German.

I don't know.

get mad

2008-02-28T12:04:00.000-05:00

"If I were an Iraqi, bound to a bed, clothes taken, denied food or water and lied to... the American Media would care. But I'm just a woman giving birth in America, bound to a bed, clothes taken, denied food or water and lied to."
— Shannon Mitchel, ICAN Florida

Head up her ass

2008-02-25T10:42:00.003-05:00

A few days before the attack on the US embassy in Belgrade, Clinton released a Molotov cocktail statement praising the declaration of independence. In it, she referred to Kosovo by the Albanian "Kosova" and said independence "will allow the people of Kosova to finally live in their own democratic state. It will allow Kosova and Serbia to finally put a difficult chapter in their history behind them and to move forward." She added, "I want to underscore the need to avoid any violence or provocations in the days and weeks ahead." As seasoned observers of Serbian politics know, there were few things the US could have done to add fuel to the rage in Serbia over the declaration of independence - "provocations" if you will - than to have a political leader named Clinton issue a statement praising independence and using the Albanian name for Kosovo.

On the campaign trail, the Clinton camp has held up Kosovo as a successful model for how to conduct US foreign policy and Clinton criticized Bush for taking "so long for us to reach this historic juncture."

Read the full article here.

Peanut butter sandwiches!

2008-02-24T12:35:00.003-05:00

I like sandwiches. I used to eat turkey sandwiches for lunch all the time. As a vegetarian, sandwiches are now harder for me to get worked up about. Not that turkey is all that amazing really. But a turkey sandwich without the turkey is just not the same, and I'm not so much into fake meat. Happily, I just saw this thread over at Cheap Vegan. Talk about some veggie sandwich inspiration! Yum!

Wishful thinking

2008-02-24T11:18:00.001-05:00

If I had a dollar for every time I've said "Stupid Jayhawks!" or "Stupid Chiefs!" I would be one rich lady.

Fidel Castro resigns

2008-02-19T17:37:00.000-05:00

It's been a real good run.