Oso Raro illustrates his description of this blog with a still from Alberto Gout’s film Aventurera (Mexico, 1949). Actually Ninón Sevilla’s dress would fit me just right and is in my style.
I like his general description of the blog, too:
This blog is the most like poetry than any of the others here, a sometimes idiosyncratic combination of verse, music, politics, and prose that can deeply attract, as well as on occasion confuse, just like, in fact, a good poem. But that is part of its power. Again, I can’t remember how I came upon the blog, but reading it can sometimes feel like trying to put together a puzzle. Only after reading for awhile and putting some of the pieces together did I begin to sketch out a picture of who and what this blogger was about, and even then it is only schematic, of course. How we create image-texts in our minds is one of the more interesting aspects of Internet phenomenon, and Professor Zero combines beauty and politics in a way that is forceful but not sloganeering, a difficult balance.
Indeed, I think of the blog as an allegorical and poetic collage – one of my art projects – a virtual installation. So thank you, Oso Raro, for naming me one of your Five Thinking Bloggers. That is an honor in any case, but it is one especially as it comes from you.
Now I am to name my own Five Thinking Bloggers. I have composed the list quickly, so as not to fall prey to doubt.
The G Bitch Spot: challenging every time.
Hah!: original, contrary, always makes me think.
Morphological Confetti: meditative and inspiring, with urban adventures too.
Unapologetic Mexican: deep and agile thinking.
Zuky: great research and writing, with travel, hiking, and misty mountain poise.
If I could lengthen the list, it would include:
Antrobiótica: biting precisely into the soul.
Find Me a Bluebird: slows the mind so that it can actually think.
Geoffrey Philp: research will never feel dry again.
Tasneem Khalil: an elegant mind rethinking politics.
Women’s Space: where conversation remains civil and all parties really do think.
Finally, and speaking of adventures, I saw Pan’s Labyrinth last night, and I have not recovered. I believe I can say quite evenly, I hated it – two hours of gratuitous assault on the senses, and very little insight or originality. I would prefer to sing.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Thanks for the link, Professor!
Thanks, chica! I usually feel too busy to think but there’s hope for the future! (I usually rely on YOU as one of My Thinking Bloggers, especially as one of the few who really gets the academic v. intellectual/artist realms.)
Thanks Professor. I do so very much appreciate that you read me.
Do you get The New Yorker now. I think I remember a post you wrote about an article in TNY. I think.
Anyway, The New Yorker that I got yesterday has an article about the movie “Amazing Grace.” I will say more when I finish reading it. I just thought I would mentioned it since you go to the movies. Sorry about the Pan’s Labyrinth. Better you than me. For some reason the title turned me away. Of course I have yet to see The Lord of the Rings.
Greetings to all! CM, I still do not get the New Yorker, but I have heard of Amazing Grace. I would love to hear about the article.
I improved matters last night by seeing a play, “Love Letters,” by A.R. Gurley (1988). It was well done and *so* much less commercial. And on Thursday, I went to a student literary reading which was *also* better than many current films. And I acquired The Harder They Come on DVD. I appear to be moving backwards in time – in terms of what I read/see, but also in terms of developing a strong preference for works of art not aided by mechanical reproduction … even if it means seeing non-famous and perhaps slightly less than stellar artists.
One day when you decide to trust giving me your address, I shall send you a subscription as a present, perhaps a birthday present.
Well thank you CM! You’ve got my e-mail, and yes I’ll give you my address. My birthday is in December.
thanks for the links – you widen my world, per usual. mil gracias.
Interesting list — I’m looking forward to exploring. Thank you.
Love your blog, MB! and yours, RG – it is the Best Academic Blog!
On Pan’s Labyrinth, the students have now convinced me that it is better than I thought. It:
– goes back to the nature of the original fairy tales, not the insipid Disneyized ones
– is the only mainstream film they have seen in which socialists and anarhcists could be good guys
– has an interesting interaction between the fantasy and ‘real’ worlds
– monsters are less monstruous than the Fascist reality
So, OK, I guess it was an sort-of-interesting movie…
it was definitely interesting. but i had a real problem with the bifurcated story. i really should watch it again more critically. i can’t speak on it more til then.
and thank you for this. i thought i already had but see i did not.
*smile* Thank you so much professor. I’m happy that my blog inspires. In fact, it is my hope to inspire in a positive way. As for your blog, I have the highest respect for you as a thinker and educator. I learn so much here. Peace~
More on Pan’s Labyrinth: it has been pointed out to me that in it, people who do not follow rules and recipes, are the good people: Dr. Ferreira, the maid whose brother is partisan, and Ofelia herself, who uses her own judgment.