Kucinich Campaign Update 1/29/08

I’m just back from Houston. Regular blogging to resume.

club 6

Starting next Tuesday (I’m waiting until after I get back from Houston on Monday night) I’m going to begin running every morning at 6 AM with two local friends. The only caveat is that if it drops below 10 degrees we get a morning off.

The idea of a running team I’ll be letting down if I stay in bed should be a pretty strong motivator!! In a prior post I mentioned a decent new wave hair cut. This will only work if I shed a few pounds of winterweight. I will include an “—>” at the end of every post on days that I’ve managed to go running in the morning.

We’re not going to go terribly far, just a good serious half hour run to start the day. Then a shower accompanied by Ultra Dance 09 and my singing. Neighbors will like me.

Kucinich Campaign Update 1/21/08

Barack Obama at Dr. King’s church

beat the press

Raccoon and I are off to see Cloverfield this afternoon. Our goal is to catch the film before either of us “accidentally” read a review and spoil any surprises. I’m really pretty excited. It’s been a little while since I’ve gone to see a monster movie. And something about it being on a Friday makes it better–the end of the week is when you’re supposed to observe the end of the world. Or maybe it just makes me feel like a kid.

I was the kind of kid who loved movies, but also was pretty easily frightened by anything too loud or scary. Not so bad that I cried during the Muppet movie like a younger brother of mine, but bad enough that I could understand why he might.

Today’s exhibit is delight: the sun is out, my coffee’s in hand, and the afternoon is my oyster. Happy Friday,  everybody!

Dennis Speaks for Me

filmclub returns

We began 2008 with Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked with a Zombie (1943). Dense and surprising, the film presents the presence of voodoo and what may be a zombie as the heuristic through which to interpret the legacy of colonial suffering inaugurated by the slaves arrival in chains at San Sebastian. That viewers can’t read the voodoo rituals or be sure of Jessica Holland’s (Christine Gordon) status as a zombie appears to make a point about historical violence unleashing forces beyond the mastery of white colonial masters.

The film posits a love triangle whose interest is quickly superseded by the voodoo/zombie happenings. The point, I take it, is that this is not a story about the travails of the white folks on the island. They don’t have the final say about the resolution of the triangle or about curing Jessica. They experience events beyond their control or understanding. And the viewer’s interest is in these events to a far greater degree than in the trials of their triangle.

This lack of control fails to come across as banal. In fact one recalls the warning in Melville’s Benito Cereno about the potential for Haitian revolution on American shores. Melville’s story is equally ambiguous, equally subject to the inadequate interpretation of the history and violence of slavery by the same people who now as then, perpetuate it with bloodshed, racism, and condescension.

Question: Why does this film happen in 1943?

Raccoon’s post is here.

Kucinich Campaign Update 1/14/08

here we go

The new semester begins today. Fortunately I don’t have to teach until tomorrow, freeing me to do necessary things like get groceries, do laundry, print the list of students I’ll meet tomorrow, and start to figure out what I want to say about Germinal.

I don’t know that any of the above is terribly noteworthy.  So allow me to recommend some other reading.

1.) Take a look at this article on politics in Kenya.

2.) The Marxist Literary Group’s online journal is now up, here.

Back in Chicago

The recent discussion of diet has led me to Architecture in Helsinki. The video for “It’s 5″ has great motion, and poor resolution. Kind of like me.