- Much as I like to bellyache bout the NYT, you gotta love it when they let pomo philosophers pen op-eds about politricks. And even if (sadly — for all of us, not just him) Zizek’s mostly remixing his ol’ desert of the real spiel, I was totally tickled to see him — in so many words — call Bush an “Iranian Agent.” Now, how about making dude a film critic too?
- Extreme Archeology! (thx 2 billtron — another ethnomusiblogger)Just wait until us ethnoids get in the game. I can see it now: Why Suyá Skydive —
- &speaking of ethnomusibloggers, our ranks seem to be swelling. And I think that’s just swell. See, e.g.,
(surely there are others I’m missing or forgetting: if so, lemme know)
- Though he may not be an ethnomusicologist by training, you might mistake Pete Murder Tone for one given his musico-cultural expertise and knack for the ethnographic. The musical blogosphere should be v happy to have him back in it. (Having corresponded with Pete for, shit, several years now — he originally found me via the ol’ Jamaica blog — I’m v happy to finally put face to name.) Given that Pete hipped me to dubstep back when it still seemed confined to Croydon — even while living in fckn Australia — I can only imagine what he’s gonna get himself into now that he’s left his academic gig downunder for the undergroun of London.
- & though it really deserves a post all its own, I can’t resist putting this in this mix:
Law and the Constitution in the Superhuman Age — a new course at Marvard University
A lil explanation:
[audio:http://courses.law.harvard.edu/fall_06/nesson_cyberone/jkrop/audio/Civil_War.mp3] - If you didn’t catch it, the “course” above is a project from the Nessons’ CyberOne. Which reminds me, Charlie‘s teaching a three week evidence course this month. And with Becca as virtual bailiff, they’ll be holding a moot court in SecondLife, concerning a real case involving a property dispute in SL. (For the legally curious, they’ll be trying the case twice: w/r/t the EULA and w/r/t common law.) If you’re a SecondLifer, I hear they’re looking for a few good angry men (or women, or penguins, or robots, or whatever, I s’pose).
apropos — ethan z on charlie’s “median craziness” and the pitfalls of doing PR for SL:
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1142
becca and charlie in SL in the NYT today!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07innovation.html
and, yep, that’s “me,” hocus opus, and my ethnomusicological colleagues in the screenshot!
For anyone that cant be bothered to read the desert of the real, Astra Taylor’s 2005 film Zizek! is not a bad synopsis from the author, who waxes philosophically from bed, lisping away with the covers pulled up to his shirtless chest.
Especially noteworthy is his (re)analysis of an old joke from the German Democratic Republic, about a German worker who gets a job in Siberia. Aware of how all his mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let’s establish a code: if a letter from me is written in blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theatres show films from the west, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair – the only thing unavailable is red ink…”
Zizek asks, “Is this not how ideology functions? We “feel free”, now as then, when we lack the language – “the red ink” – to articulate our unfreedom. It is the basic task of critical art and culture [read: blogs!] to provide the red ink.”
woops! i can’t believe i forgot the good dr.twist over at soulimperialist —
one of the best ethnoid/hip-hop/music blogs out there, sin duda.
and here’s another one, by a grad student here at U of C:
http://eamusica.blogspot.com/
a couple others (already on the blogroll) i forgot to mention above:
http://themusicissue.blogspot.com/
http://tangoactual.blogspot.com/