Here are Sofia Barbosa and Joana Melo, contemporary fado singers, on “Povo que lavas no rio.” I am a great admirer of Barbosa, and of her dress – I could use one just like that. The song is by the immortal Amália Rodrigues. It is addressed to the “Countryfolk who wash clothes in the river … More Sofia Barbosa
This video presents a good deal of the scenery in which I participate during my commutes. It will have to stand in for me over the next few days, as I am abandoning my usual orbits to attend this conference. I will return by the end of the month if not before. Here to keep … More Local Color
Saint Lucy was a beautiful young girl from Syracuse. She is painted with two magnificent ox eyes on a tray. She suffered martyrdom under the consul Pascasian, who had a silver mustache and howled like a mastiff. As do all saints she posed and resolved delicious theorems, before those whose plate glass windows the apparatuses … More St. Lucy and St. Lazarus II
I have begun to translate this long prose poem, a text I discovered by chance. I got a new Research Insight from it, which I think I should work on for other venues. But it was the first time in a long time I had had this type of Research Insight: a spontaneous one. Lately … More St. Lucy and St. Lazarus I
Even when it is actually wise, conventional wisdom is oppressive when misplaced, because on these occasions it interdicts further analysis and thought. Repeating it in such instances, is one of the main forms of bullying which exist in academia. Condescension is a principal attribute of this form of bullying. Some of the more famous pieces … More Bane of the Week
This conversation took place about five years ago, but I am still slightly amazed by it. WM: Whereas you are in my opinion very good-looking; whereas you are not Catholic and will therefore not have Catholic hangups; whereas you are from California and should therefore be very liberal; and whereas we are friends; I hereby … More Another Type of Whiteman
If the globalized labor market is as good for people as its advocates claim, then why must films about globalized workers be shot on the sly? Films I would like to see include H-2 Worker, on the Florida cane fields, Mardi Gras: Made in China, on the conditions in which Mardi Gras beads are fabricated, … More Films
Once upon a time there was public ecstasy; then capitalism and Calvinism conspired to rout it out. […] Ecstasy and Enlightenment failed to hit it off. In the eyes of an emergent middle-class order, popular festivity was that most scandalous and opaque of all activities, that which is done purely for its own sake. All … More On Festivity and Enlightenment
News I would like to be considering today includes the Padilla case and the Democracy Protection Act. The question I would like to be considering is: if the Democratic candidates are people like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have supported the Patriot Act and the war, should one vote just to oppose the Republicans, … More On Democracy in America
Reading for today is Jeremy Scahill’s work in The Nation on Blackwater USA, the mercenaries we hire, Nezua on the plight of immigrant children stranded after a March 6 raid, and Ellen Simon’s review of Robert I. Sutton’s book on workplace bullies. This was recommended by a friend, and it sounds to me good but … More Blackwater
coldhearted scientist وداد 