Shampoo Planet

Douglas Coupland, the Vancouver writer who I believe actually coined the expression Generation X now has several wonderful literary, word-art youtube videos. Check out one of them below.

Anti-racist books

THE 2007 MYERS CENTER OUTSTANDING BOOK AWARDS ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS ANNOUNCED

BOSTON, MA (Dec. 5, 2007) - They definitely are passionate about books, and about social justice. For twenty-three years, the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America (www.myerscenter.org ) has identified books speaking of too-often erased histories and too scantily noticed ideas and strategies for a more humane future. Today the Center announced the 2007 winners:

• Kenny Fries, The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Carroll & Graf)
• Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, edited by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (South End Press)
• Sara Littlecrow-Russell, The Secret Powers of Naming, (University of Arizona Press)
• Tina Lopes & Barb Thomas, Dancing on Live Embers: Challenging Racism in Organizations, (Between The Lines)
• Micki McElya, Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America, (Harvard University Press)
• Steven Salaita, Anti-Arab Racism in the US, (Pluto Press)
• Alex Sanchez, Getting It: A Novel (Simon & Schuster)
• Chip Smith, The Cost of Privilege: Taking on the System of White Supremacy and Racism, Camino Press)
• Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (Doubleday)
  

The list is eclectic. “Any one of the winners is a stepping stone to deeper thought and renewed social justice activism,” says Loretta J. Williams, Director of the Center.

Look!

The first film to be (purportedly) constructed entirely out of surveillance videos.
Look

Advancing humankind's most notable achievements.
thanks to Miguel.

All Things Considered

If you are not a thing, beware.

Stuff

Nice day, sunny, cold wind from the north, that's BC north, friend.
Listening, or rather in and out of listening to a 25th anniversary recording of Terry Riley's in C.
I started out listening and re-reading Poe's Masque of the Red Death which I want to use for a class next quarter and during was thinking about the entire interaction of how music accompanies reading. Obviously a large terrain to explore -- wonder if anyone has worked on it? The effect of Ornette Coleman on reading Murakami for example.
So about an hour or so (how long is this piece anyway?) into in C I was thinking that damn, I'd give just about anything for a slip into F#minor, etc. Which is what I would do as a dadaist among them.
Recent picks (thanks to Cile for making me aware of these):
Danny Schmidt Enjoying the Fall
Antje Duvekot Big Dream Boulevard

Having lots of fun poking around youtube for bands I used to listen to in high school. Also thinking about the cultural effect if youtube went out of business tomorrow. Has anyone archived this stuff, or it simply all things are transient?

Change

Windy and rainy and warm. Reminds me of a Weepies song. What does not change is the will to change (Olson, Kingfishers), the wail of the wind, the spiral of the gene, the hand on the hammer, the plectrum.
Corn, and Grass...the new words of Pollan. A bit over-written, but messages we need to know. Food. Could it be simpler?

War & Peace (& war)

Waiting for godot to bring me my winter reading - the new Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of W & P. Sippin wine by the fire, turning pages. The life!