Tunes.

This is amazing. I've been stuck in a weird nostalgia phase for a while now, and this is therefore perhaps the best thing ever.

Oh, so true.

So true. But only a Yank or a Canuck would ever say it. And then you're just ridiculed and called a puritan. The fact that it comes from the fear-mongering paper doesn't really help my case though.

I got this from the one blog I read that makes me feel like it's the year 2000 and I'm eavesdropping in on someone else's life rather than the obsessive downloading of new tunes/political punditry that passes for my blog reading these days.

From my Aunt Arlene...

Real human beings? Really?

So yes, I went and exercised my right to vote this morning. For some reason voting always gets me a little choked up--the fact that we don't have to wait for much longer than 15 minutes, it's so easy, and I can vote freely...

Anyhow, before I went to the polling station, I checked online to see what kind of info I had to drag along with me. On the Elections Canada website, it lists a bunch of ways to get in touch with them, including the following:

Telephone:
* Automated services are available 24 hours a day. Actual human beings are available from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. (Eastern Time).

Good to know.

T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T

Wicked mix--especially the DJ Vadim drop. I used to love that tune. Well done.

Funny.

Sure, it's from the UK, but you could change party names and make it relevant to Canada:

Switching from Labour to the Tories is like saying: “Ooh, I’ve always had my hair done at the barber’s in the high street but I'm bored with them now, so this time I think I’ll set my hair on fire." - Jeremy Hardy

I hate talking about myself...

...but for grant applications, that's what you have to do. I also get worried about what folks I admire will say about what I'm saying about myself. In light of this, allow me to talk about something completely different.

On Blogariddims 49, the penultimate edition of my favourite ongoing dj-mixed tape podcast, the idea is to draw the lines of connection between dubstep and electronica. Incidentally, in my review of Burial's Untrue, I did exactly that and heard from some folks that I was making a bit of a stretch. Having used episode 49 as writing music for the past week or so, I think I was right on. My ish, about eight years ago or so, was all electronic--IDM, if I may be so boldly pretentious to say. But I always liked the slightly more melodically driven stuff. It's this stuff that seems to inch into the dubstep I like the most. I don't like when pure melody is dropped into dubstep (see the absolute fun-suck that is Digital Mystikz's "Earth a run red" version for evidence).

As droid (who is much more schooled in the tunes and touchstones of UK music than I ever will be) says on his blog: I see dubstep as part of the rich tradition of Electronica and 140bpm UK dance music, not a direct ancestor, but rather as a scene that draws on the same foundations…

Well, gosh darn it, I do too.

Nollywood Babylon

While in Ethiopia, I spent quite a bit of time watching Nigerian films on a station called "African Magic". I also watched local Ethiopian films, but my Amharic is less than adequate. I could get the idea, but not the ins and outs. Nollywood films, on the other hand, were exciting, intense, hilarious, and, almost always, involving someone possessed. Tough to look away, I tell you.

I also saw an amazing paper at a conference in Durban, SA on the topic of spirit possession, feminism and Nigerian film by Adedayo Ladigbolu Abah of Washington and Lee University. The paper was called “One step forward, Two Steps Backwards: African Women in Nigerian Videofilm”. Speaking with Adedavo, she talked about just how much people in Nigeria and the Nigerian diaspora watch these films. The fellow in the trailer who says he watches three, five a day is not unrealistic. Heck, check out YouTube, and you can watch quite a few of 'em. And, yes, I can't deny that I wasn't happy when I saw the one titled Stone Love. 

Given the tremendous popularity of these movies, Adedavo said, we really should be taking a closer look at what they are saying and doing. This documentary might be a start--I'm dying to see it.

 

And while I'm blogging...

Here's the best song in the world today...

Reading Television

Everyone who knows me knows I love TV. I watch lots; I used to write about it. I also used to teach a course called "Television as Literature" where I'd get students to do stuff like compare Sherlock Holmes to House. It was awesome. Some of the best student writing I have ever read came from that class. Thing is, lots of people (mostly late at night at parties) have intimated that my obsession with analysing TV is a little much. Though I'm not that big on authorial intent, I was still particularly happy to read this entry from Douglas Rushkoff over at Boing Boing:

I just got this email from John Langley, the guy who made the uber-reality show Cops. I see it as an acknowledgement of all of us who tend to read more into TV programs and their creators' intent than they might suggest on the surface.

Dear Mr. Rushkoff:

It was refreshing to recently read "Media Virus" and your take on "Cops," which I happen to produce and for which I'm responsible as the guy who created it. I can't tell you how tiresome it is to read traditional criticism and critiques of "Cops" as an expression of this or that, usually far from the mark (or at least in terms of my intentions). As a kid of the '60s, I was more likely to name the show "Pigs" than "Cops," so it was indeed rewarding to read that you positioned the program more accurately in its existential realm of relativism. All I do is feebly hack away at trying -- emphasis on trying -- to capture some version of "reality" that will speak for itself, including the echolalia of the very media influence that filters it by the act of recording it. (Viva Heisenberg!) Anyone with half a brain should recognize the social, political and philosophic issues it sometimes reveals in the quotidian pursuit of law and order and the meaning of street crime.

In any case, keep up the good work! And apologies for getting to you so late in the day. Your book is no less valid for the delay.

Regards,

John Langley
Executive Producer - "Cops"

Not only does an email like that make my month, but restores my faith in the notion that absolutely mainstream programs might still be intended to have a rehabilitative or even noxious effect on the overculture. The fact that Langley made Cops in the spirit that Albert Maysles made Salesman means that we can cut through the clutter and expose mass audiences to virulent memes - even in the darkest of times.

Check it and all the reader comments out here.

Big up Atwood!

How great is it that I just finished teaching (and rediscovering the greatness of) Wilderness Tips, and then this. Maggie rules. The best bit:

Mr. Harper's idea of an ordinary person is that of an envious hater without a scrap of artistic talent or creativity or curiosity, and no appreciation for anything that's attractive or beautiful. My idea of an ordinary person is quite different. Human beings are creative by nature. For millenniums we have been putting our creativity into our cultures - cultures with unique languages, architecture, religious ceremonies, dances, music, furnishings, textiles, clothing and special cuisines. “Ordinary people” pack into the cheap seats at concerts and fill theatres where operas are brought to them live. The total attendance for “the arts” in Canada in fact exceeds that for sports events. “The arts” are not a “niche interest.” They are part of being human.

Atwood killing it, seriously.

Sings like Beres?

Ok, so I think Mavado is pretty terrific, but the complete lack of singing ability that is totally amazing (and absolutely hilarious) here is absolutely awful here. I wonder if Barack has heard the tune?

Usually drink, usually dance, usually babble

I am becoming more and more excited about this whole writing thing. But it's an odd excitement. I think that it took far too long for me to actually get down to things, but when I actually did, it wasn't as awful as I expected. I'm specifically discussing a paper that I picked apart and put back together. It still has all the stuff it had before, just in a different order and with new stuff added. I think I could probably add more, and I most certainly will for the bigger project, but for now the small battle has been won.

In addition, this is the best thing in the world today.

Interview Blues

I have been listening to hours of interviews and trying to figure out a good way to mark them up without necessarily transcribing the whole thing. I initially tried to write out the main ideas when the person talked, marking times when I could, but that seemed to fail as soon as I realized that my typing skill was not that of a court reporter.

Thing is, I have probably over 20 hours of this stuff. What was I thinking when I decided to base my dissertation on interviews (not to mention newspaper articles in a language I can barely read)? Argh.

This makes me a little happier.

It's been a while...

I went to Jamaica, Ethiopia and now I'm back with no plans to do much until next year. Well, that's a lie. My big plan is to write more and more often, hopefully toying around with dissertation-related ideas on this here blog. At the moment I am working up a presentation that I gave in Jamaica on the Ethiopian World Federation's water harvesting project in Shashemene, Ethiopia.

My argument is that, in the face of being denied access to citizenship, the EWF's project (and existence as an indigenous NGO within the country) acts as a means of engaging with citizenship in an alternate way. Granted, the irony being that acting as an NGO--a predominantly foreign position within Ethiopia--the EWF's project further integrates the Rastafari into the surrounding community. What is interesting to me is how there seems to be a growing understanding within Shashemene of the Rastafari as occupying a space that's not quite foreign and not quite Ethiopian. All this means that I get to use "liminality"--one of my favourite 25 cent words.

Butt no!

On Monday, in Kingston, JA, this headline was the talk of the town. The online version does not do justice to the hilarity that comes with the use of the word "butt". The accompanying picture, though, is still pretty funny.

What the F?

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

From the Telegraph (thanks to Ms. Edelstein)

Procrastination

I am trying to think of a way to develop a site that will house a whole bunch of stuff--photos, writing samples, CV, blog, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I went to Belfast

Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee!!

I've been watching the Apprentice UK. Yes, I know that it is a reality show, but man oh man, it's a damned good reality show. I have much preferred the UK version of Hell's Kitchen, and the Apprentice is also better across the pond.

The role of Donald Trump is being played by Sir Alan Sugar, and he's fantastic. Three weeks ago I would have scoffed (and think I actually did) at the notion of this show being "arty", but the long pauses and carefully sussed montages have won me over. It is a more beautiful way of doing television.

Next week is the final, and I have to say, it's all about Lee. I'm thankful that Miss "they don't like me because I'm too posh" Lucinda is out, and I'm hoping that Alex, a.k.a. the hot yet despicable one, is the next to go. My money (and hope) is on Lee--the man who replaces his "th"s with "f"s. Heck, I don't care that he lied on his resume.

Goodness, I really should be talking about more important things, shouldn't I?