Nina Simone
12/03/2007
Recorded at the Bitter End Cafe, Greenwich Village, 1968. Axé.
Closed Paradise, Open Garden
12/03/2007
A book to reread on poetry is Federico García Lorca, Granada, paraíso cerrado y otras páginas granadinas, ed., intro., and notes by Enrique Martínez López (Granada: Miguel Sánchez, 1989). Is poetry private or public, marginal or central, esoteric or communicative – expressive? Is poetic speech different from ordinary speech, or is ordinary speech actually closer … More Closed Paradise, Open Garden
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
11/03/2007
I am inspired by Antrobiótica to have a Leonard Cohen post. In this video there is a brief interview, and then a performance of “I’m Your Man.” Cohen says in the interview that one’s métier is one’s locus of self-respect, and in the end one does not write ‘for oneself’ or ‘for others’ but for … More Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Joan Dayan
11/03/2007
One of my favorite academic articles, for the sake of literary style among other things, is Joan Dayan’s “Caribbean Cannibals and Whores” (Raritan 9:2 [Fall 1989]: 45-68). Here are a few passages from it: 1. In Haitian ceremonies of vodoun, the most spendid of the gods is Erzulie-Fréda. She is also known to be the … More Joan Dayan
Concentration Camps I / Sunday Paper
11/03/2007
PRINCIPAL I will be periodically reminding everyone that the United States has concentration camps, not only outside but also within our borders. Today’s featured post, Xicano Power’s Privatized Prisons for Immigrants, addresses this issue. Note also that there is a huge immigration sweep underway in Santa Fe. OTRAS In other news, my favorite quotation for … More Concentration Camps I / Sunday Paper
Neal Stephenson
10/03/2007
My favorite academic novel is Neal Stephenson’s Big U. Now Dissent alerts us to the fact that some of our alma mater has once again struck a deal worthy of this novel. We can read all about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, whose headline for the story is “BERKELEY – UC faculty critical of … More Neal Stephenson
William James
10/03/2007
Books I ought to read for recreational purposes include, but are not limited to: Bataille, Eroticism, which discusses the continuity and discontinuity of beings; Foucault, History of Sexuality, because I never have and because it might create an interesting combination with Bataille, and Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted, because if I am going to read some new-to-me … More William James
Wild Mountain Thyme
10/03/2007
These are the Silencers. The video was shot in 1996, around Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. The song was written in 1947 by Frankie McPeak. Oh, the summer time is coming, And the trees are sweetly blooming; And the wild mountain thyme, Grows around the blooming heather. Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll … More Wild Mountain Thyme
Karl Marx V
10/03/2007
From Oxford University Press, on Jonathan Wolff, Why Read Marx Today? (OUP, 2003): Jonathan Wolff argues that if we detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of some never-to-be-realized worker’s paradise, he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. The author shows how Marx’s main ideas … More Karl Marx V
A Beginner’s Mind
10/03/2007
I am writing an article on two new poets, who have been reviewed and discussed before, but who have not yet had research inflicted upon them. It is an interesting and for me, unusual experience to write about people on whom there is no critical tradition. I am also on a dissertation on a writer … More A Beginner’s Mind
coldhearted scientist وداد 