Mind Boggling Trinketization

Very occasionally (why?) I feel the need to restate why it is that I use the word trinketization to refer both to the dessication of all life to mere commodities, and as a word for a critique of the poverty of theorizing that remains at the level of fascination with those commodities. Remembering that Marx [...]

Let Us Now Praise Lost Comrades

We were in New York for that first day, you lent me your copy of the Agee/Evans book, and we spent ages in the Revolution shop, then larked about outside the New School, saw a busker singing Guthrie songs in Union Square, ate at some outside bagel cafe, then there was a bar with too [...]

Do You Love Me?

This video posted on Hawgblawg by the always engaging Arkansasawian Ted Swedenburg deserves wider airing: Is this the best video clip of Arabic music ever? “Do You Love Me?”, from the Bendaly Family عائلة بندلي Kuwait, 1978.

Workplace

Goldsmiths Centre for Cultural Studies

The Politics of Cats.

Cat, n. Small mammal with an attitude problem. I imagine that cats are aphorists, composing dialectical koans and licking their whiskers at the elegance of their arabesques. Though I recognise that Adorno himself noted that aphorisms were not admissible in dialectical thought, which should always abhor isolation and separateness (1951/1974:16), I concede that cats are [...]

EMERGENCES AND EMERGENCIES: NEW SOUTH ASIAN FILM-MAKING FROM BRITAIN

If you are in New York City this weekend (20/4/7-22/4/7) you can go see this ‘must see’ collection of films. If you are not able to attend, the texts are worth reading – collected below. Excellent. Emergences & EmergenciesNew British Asian FilmsCurated by Sukhdev Sandhu From the companion catalogue:1. Sukhdev Sandhu on “India Calling” (Sonali [...]

one evening on a Melbourne side street there was a bloody foreigner… (though this is a bit of an in-joke … for an in-group of one)

The Queen’s duck

When someone mentions the English Queen, I’m afraid I always think ‘unaccountable and irredeemably wicked shareholder of major corporations of the likes of Riotinto‘ (though that is spurious rumour of course). Well this week, while Riotinto reels under the PartiZans activist intervention at its annual shareholders meeting, and while the Queen’s grandson Billy dumps his [...]

Fear & Loathing In Teheran – by Sarah Gillespie

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Fear & Loathing In Teheran – by Sarah Gillespie ‘The blood drained from her face and Faye whispered, ‘there’s going to be a rape involved in this’ Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor Daily Mirror 9th April 2007 Faye Turney, the ‘she-man’ Seaman captured in Shatt al-Arab last month, claims her captivity in [...]

Nabeel on Panto

This generous synopsis of my Auckland talk from Nabeel (who has a show on BASE FM – where you might have heard a rant last weekend!): “PANTOMIME TERROR And I’ve been working like a dawg. Time for an Easter break. I can tell I’m physically and mentally tired when I start to use the word [...]

Crackin Up

I had wondered, as I stumbled towards the cafe early this morning – awake far too close to dawn – why there were so many coppers in Kennington. The news this evening reveals that 150 of our intrepid gang had raided the Rastafarian Temple at the long-term squatted houses down the road from where I [...]

Hong Kong

I spent a day in Hong Kong on the way back from New Zealand and the best thing about the day was the statue of Bruce Lee on the harbour front Kowloon side. Why be interested? Well, check out Viajay Prashad’s book Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting. And Ko Banerjea’s chapter in the book Travel Worlds [...]

Revolutionary Tourism Tuesday 10 April 07

I prepared these notes on the plane back from Hong Kong for a talk in the afternoon yesterday – went well, though it got a bit ropey towards the end (I blame the jet lag – arrived Heathrow Tuesday 5.40am, gave talk at 2.30 PM. Wide awake again from 2 through to (so far) 6AM [...]

Transpontine

For a while I have been reading this blog – its well worth the what’s on and the curios: A Transpontine Top Ten A big weekend is planned in Deptford and New Cross on May 5th and 6th, with loads of live music happening in local pubs and other venues (including one very exciting international [...]

New Left Curve Published.

The new Left Curve is out, with Publicity Section, lots of good stuff, including a piece by Roh Wright. More details when I am back at my desk. ****** If you live in the Bay Area [USA], please join us for the New Issue Release Event for Left Curve no. 31: Wednesday, April 18, 7 [...]