Author: sshaviro

Rana’s Wedding

The 29th annual Seattle International Film Festival has started; I’ll be seeing a lot of films in the next three weeks or so. The first film I saw, Valentin, was a well-made, but lame and overly feel-goody coming-of-age film from Argentina. But Rana’s Wedding, which I saw today, was quite good. A Palestinian film, directed by Hany Abu-Assad. A young woman is given an ultimatum by her father: either she must get married by 4pm, or else she has to leave Jerusalem with him, and go into exile in Egypt. The young woman has a boyfriend, but she needs to track him down, convince him to marry, and get all the necessary things accomplished for the wedding before the deadline. The film has little plot; it is more about the passage of time, and the struggle to meet a deadline in the face of many obstacles. Most of the obstacles are due to the Israeli occupation–roadblocks, searches, armed and trigger-happy soldiers marching about. What makes the film work is how these obstacles are not foregrounded, but just portrayed as aspects of everyday life, annoyances that need to be taken for granted, and taken into account. Such a portrayal is far more effective than an in-your-face political denunciation would be, in conveying how the occupation dominates Palestinian life.

The 29th annual Seattle International Film Festival has started; I’ll be seeing a lot of films in the next three weeks or so. The first film I saw, Valentin, was a well-made, but lame and overly feel-goody coming-of-age film from Argentina. But Rana’s Wedding, which I saw today, was quite good. A Palestinian film, directed by Hany Abu-Assad. A young woman is given an ultimatum by her father: either she must get married by 4pm, or else she has to leave Jerusalem with him, and go into exile in Egypt. The young woman has a boyfriend, but she needs to track him down, convince him to marry, and get all the necessary things accomplished for the wedding before the deadline. The film has little plot; it is more about the passage of time, and the struggle to meet a deadline in the face of many obstacles. Most of the obstacles are due to the Israeli occupation–roadblocks, searches, armed and trigger-happy soldiers marching about. What makes the film work is how these obstacles are not foregrounded, but just portrayed as aspects of everyday life, annoyances that need to be taken for granted, and taken into account. Such a portrayal is far more effective than an in-your-face political denunciation would be, in conveying how the occupation dominates Palestinian life.

Starbucks photo

Here, as promised, is a photo taken in Starbucks. I ordered a latte, and as it was being made, and after I had paid, I handed my friend Ted the camera, and he shot the photo. One of the workers said, “you aren’t allowed to take pictures here”; I replied, “I know, I am taking the photo as an act of civil disobedience”; and she didn’t do anything further to stop me.

Here, as promised, is a photo taken in Starbucks. I ordered a latte, and as it was being made, and after I had paid, I handed my friend Ted the camera, and he shot the photo. One of the workers said, “you aren’t allowed to take pictures here”; I replied, “I know, I am taking the photo as an act of civil disobedience”; and she didn’t do anything further to stop me.

Photographing Starbucks

A story, via BoingBoing, originally from Lawrence Lessig, reports that it is not permitted to take photos in a Starbucks, “because this was an absolute violation of Starbuck’s copyright of their entire ‘environment’–that everything in the place is protected and cannot be used without Starbuck’s express permission.” Lessig mischievously ponders: “I wonder what would happen if hundreds of people from around the country experimented this holiday weekend by taking pictures at their local Starbucks…” I’ll try it this afternoon, and post the results here.

A story, via BoingBoing, originally from Lawrence Lessig, reports that it is not permitted to take photos in a Starbucks, “because this was an absolute violation of Starbuck’s copyright of their entire ‘environment’–that everything in the place is protected and cannot be used without Starbuck’s express permission.” Lessig mischievously ponders: “I wonder what would happen if hundreds of people from around the country experimented this holiday weekend by taking pictures at their local Starbucks…” I’ll try it this afternoon, and post the results here.

Breaking Open the Head

Breaking Open the Head, by Daniel Pinchbeck, is the most cited, and probably the best, book on psychedelic experiences since the works of the late Terence McKenna. I read it with great eagerness, and found it delightful in parts, irritating in others, and finally vastly disappointing…

Breaking Open the Head, by Daniel Pinchbeck, is the most cited, and probably the best, book on psychedelic experiences since the works of the late Terence McKenna. I read it with great eagerness, and found it delightful in parts, irritating in others, and finally vastly disappointing…
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I haven’t thought much of most of the “alternative” New York (I think) bands that have been hyped in the last year or two. I find Interpol deadly dull; The Strokes are just a bunch of snotty rich kids informing the world how much cooler they are than anyone else; and the rhythm/dance bands like Out Hud and The Rapture just aren’t funky enough to play the sort of music they are trying to. But I’ve been won over by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Basic punk, I suppose, but the guitar is edgy and off-kilter enough to keep things interesting, and Karen O.’s voice is brilliant, finding just the right point between pretentious declamation and fevered hysteria. Their new CD, Fever To Tell, also reveals a variety that I wouldn’t have guessed at from their previous EPs. All in all, I’m pleased that Punk Lives, and even manages to sound fresh, so many years later. (I’m showing my middle age here, I know, but so be it).

I haven’t thought much of most of the “alternative” New York (I think) bands that have been hyped in the last year or two. I find Interpol deadly dull; The Strokes are just a bunch of snotty rich kids informing the world how much cooler they are than anyone else; and the rhythm/dance bands like Out Hud and The Rapture just aren’t funky enough to play the sort of music they are trying to. But I’ve been won over by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Basic punk, I suppose, but the guitar is edgy and off-kilter enough to keep things interesting, and Karen O.’s voice is brilliant, finding just the right point between pretentious declamation and fevered hysteria. Their new CD, Fever To Tell, also reveals a variety that I wouldn’t have guessed at from their previous EPs. All in all, I’m pleased that Punk Lives, and even manages to sound fresh, so many years later. (I’m showing my middle age here, I know, but so be it).

Comic Book Metaphysics

A comment on Electrolite responding to a comment on MemeMachineGo about The Matrix: MemeMachineGo says that the metaphysics of The Matrix is overrated, that it cannot bear serious comparison to Philip K. Dick; Electrolite says that to say this is to overrate Dick, who mostly uses epistemological questions “as titillation and decoration,” and that we shouldn’t take these pop entertainments too seriously. Nor should we believe in the inherent “intellectual superiority” of SF novels “to action movies and comic books.” –Now, I agree with this latter point of Electrolite’s; but I also agree with MMG’s dis of The Matrix (at least of the first one; I haven’t seen the new Matrix Reloaded yet). The point is, it’s not a question of genre, but of a certain willingness to go over the top. The Matrix‘s Gnosticism/Baudrillardism, or whatever you want to call it, is far more interesting than, say, the cosmology of Star Wars; but it doesn’t hold a candle to the metaphysical anguish of Dick; nor, for that matter, to the wild inventions of such comix writers as Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis.

A comment on Electrolite responding to a comment on MemeMachineGo about The Matrix: MemeMachineGo says that the metaphysics of The Matrix is overrated, that it cannot bear serious comparison to Philip K. Dick; Electrolite says that to say this is to overrate Dick, who mostly uses epistemological questions “as titillation and decoration,” and that we shouldn’t take these pop entertainments too seriously. Nor should we believe in the inherent “intellectual superiority” of SF novels “to action movies and comic books.” –Now, I agree with this latter point of Electrolite’s; but I also agree with MMG’s dis of The Matrix (at least of the first one; I haven’t seen the new Matrix Reloaded yet). The point is, it’s not a question of genre, but of a certain willingness to go over the top. The Matrix‘s Gnosticism/Baudrillardism, or whatever you want to call it, is far more interesting than, say, the cosmology of Star Wars; but it doesn’t hold a candle to the metaphysical anguish of Dick; nor, for that matter, to the wild inventions of such comix writers as Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis.

Eureka

Shinji Aoyama’s Eureka (2000) is 3 hours 40 minutes long; but subjectively it felt much shorter to me. That’s because the film is so beautiful, so bleak, and so compelling, that I was drawn into its rhythms, its landscapes, and its world. Eureka is about the aftermath of trauma: the pain of working it through, and the dim, distant possibility of some sort of–I don’t want to say redemption–but coming to terms, and reviving some sort of human connection. Yet it seems inadequate, somehow, to say that this is merely what the film is “about”–I will say, rather, that the film is, and embodies, such a process…

Shinji Aoyama’s Eureka (2000) is 3 hours 40 minutes long; but subjectively it felt much shorter to me. That’s because the film is so beautiful, so bleak, and so compelling, that I was drawn into its rhythms, its landscapes, and its world. Eureka is about the aftermath of trauma: the pain of working it through, and the dim, distant possibility of some sort of–I don’t want to say redemption–but coming to terms, and reviving some sort of human connection. Yet it seems inadequate, somehow, to say that this is merely what the film is “about”–I will say, rather, that the film is, and embodies, such a process…
Continue reading “Eureka”

Civil disobedience

Linux users, pissed off at the fact that SCO, a company that claims to hold certain patents on Unix, has started to sue companies that provide Linux distributions for violation of their ownership of “intellectual property,” have started a petition, reading as follows:

To: SCO

I am a Linux user. I feel that SCO’s tactics toward an operating system of my choice are unjust, ill founded and bizarre. I am willing to be sued because I am confident that SCO’s tactics toward Linux will fail. If I have published my email address as part of this petition it is so SCO representatives can email me and begin the process of serving me a court order.

(Petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/scosueme/petition.html; via Techdirt.

It strikes me that a similar strategy would be of use in regards to mp3 filesharing. What would the record companies do, if millions of people signed a petition saying, in effect, “I have made music files available for peer-to-peer sharing; go ahead and sue me”?

Linux users, pissed off at the fact that SCO, a company that claims to hold certain patents on Unix, has started to sue companies that provide Linux distributions for violation of their ownership of “intellectual property,” have started a petition, reading as follows:

To: SCO

I am a Linux user. I feel that SCO’s tactics toward an operating system of my choice are unjust, ill founded and bizarre. I am willing to be sued because I am confident that SCO’s tactics toward Linux will fail. If I have published my email address as part of this petition it is so SCO representatives can email me and begin the process of serving me a court order.

(Petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/scosueme/petition.html; via Techdirt).

It strikes me that a similar strategy would be of use in regards to mp3 filesharing. What would the record companies do, if millions of people signed a petition saying, in effect, “I have made music files available for peer-to-peer sharing; go ahead and sue me”?

Falling Out of Cars

Jeff Noon‘s latest novel, Falling Out of Cars, is one of the best things he’s ever done. It’s a moody, poetic book, set in an almost-contemporary England, where a strange malady has affected nearly everyone’s perception. People are no longer able to separate the signal from the noise. There is a blockage somewhere between transmission and reception. Images and sounds are affected with blur and static; texts and clocks become difficult to read; mirrors are positively dangerous…

Jeff Noon‘s latest novel, Falling Out of Cars, is one of the best things he’s ever done. It’s a moody, poetic book, set in an almost-contemporary England, where a strange malady has affected nearly everyone’s perception. People are no longer able to separate the signal from the noise. There is a blockage somewhere between transmission and reception. Images and sounds are affected with blur and static; texts and clocks become difficult to read; mirrors are positively dangerous…
Continue reading “Falling Out of Cars”