Two years ago, I posted this reflection on Columbus Day. I was prompted to the reflection in part by an ongoing tiff with the very idea of Columbus Day, the idea that we mark such a terrifying event in world history with a day of leisure. I was prompted just as much (or more) by a New York Times article on laying claim to the Columbus name…what it means to be a long descended relative, etc. On this Columbus Day, I wanted to revisit the holiday and a particular video that’s making the viral rounds. Read the rest of this entry »
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So, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. And it goes to Barack Obama, which has now set off an avalanche of grousing and complaining and sarcasm from the right and left. At least we won’t have to talk about the Olympics not being in Chicago any longer. It is always noteworthy when the right and left pick up on the same talking points. Funny for teasing your friends on either side (hey, you and Fox agree!), but also instructive about larger cultural stuffs. Read the rest of this entry »
So, today the media is announcing that Muntader al-Zaidi has been released from prison. And that he alleges torture, both by Iraqi forces and U.S. intelligence agents. I have no idea of such allegations are true, of course, but I don’t think any rational person would be surprised. I am glad the guy got out of prison alive. I am also saddened by the possibility of torture. My remark here, though, is not about al-Zaidi’s case or the problem of torture in our various wars. Rather, I wonder about all of those people who found his case funny and edifying a year or so ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Another then another story about Caster Semenya. First it was a visual impression and suspicion. Then it was blood tests or whatever. Now it is speculation about Semenya’s internal organs and genitalia. Terribly bitter and mean reporting, all of which sucked the joy out of a fabulously exciting performance in Berlin. My remark here, however, is not about how international governing bodies should deal with sexual identity or what counts as sexual identity and so on. That’s another issue and I’m not sure what to say about it, truthfully. Instead, I’m interested in what it means to be someone other than that governing body looking at bodies like Semenya’s. Read the rest of this entry »
The New York Times reported on Friday that Annie Leibovitz arrived at an agreement to restructure her excessive loans. This is important for her, of course, and for many reasons. Chief among them, if we read reports anyway, is that this allows her to retain rights to her art. Great. I like that. I don’t much care for loans and interest and the kind of exploitation we find in conventional banking practices. But that’s another issue. I find the Leibovitz case instructive for what it says about race. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have a little boy or girl, then you probably know about Thomas the Tank Engine. No, I don’t mean a character. And I don’t even mean a show. And, no, I don’t even mean a merchandise aisle at Target. I mean what becomes, so very easily, an entire way of being. What is it about trains in general, and Thomas the Tank Engine in particular, that get inside little people’s brains?
Tags: children's television, Thomas and friends, Thomas the Tank Engine
I saw Wall-E a couple of weeks back. Unlike most, if not all of my friends who saw the movie, I didn’t like it very much. It was of course visually awesome and charming, for the most part, and told a decent enough story. It’s hard to “disagree” with the moral of the story, which, so far as I can tell, is that garbage is bad for the earth. And that submission to the spectacle of marketing is also bad. I got that. But I do think there is a more problematic something about the film – not a “message,” but instead something more like a presupposition.
I’ve been reading the goodbye tributes to Isaac Hayes. I lived in Memphis for a handful-plus years and have, since I was a teenager, loved Memphis music. Hi-Records has always been by far my favorite, but the Stax sound is really the only thing in Memphis that can compare. So, I read the tributes to Isaac Hayes in search of remembrance of his place in that history. But that’s not what you find.
Tags: Isaac Hayes, Stax