Love for Three Oranges

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The Corporation
2008-04-20 17:19:00
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it (IMDB).Part IPart II*With the courtesy of Filmschatten.blogspot.com
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Ryugyong Hotel
2008-04-19 15:37:00
"It's a giant factory-state here, a City of the Future full of extrapolated 1930's swoop-facaded and balconied skyscrapers, lean chrome caryatids with bobbed hairdos, classy airships of all descriptions drifting in the boom and hush of the city abysses, golden lovelies sunning in roof gardens and turning to wave as you pass. It is the Raketen-Stadt..." (Pynchon in Gravity's Rainbow).
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Images from the past
2008-04-19 04:29:00
Well worth a watch...Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment)Plot: Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and friends flee to Miami. Sergio looks back over the changes in Cuba from the Castro revolution to the Cuban missile crisis, the effect of living in an underdeveloped country, and his relations with his girlfriends Elena and Hanna (IMDB).English subtitles Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl, Die (Power of image: Leni Riefenstahl)Plot: This documentary recounts the life and work of one of most famous, and yet reviled, German film directors in history, Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts the rise of her career from a dancer, to a movie actor to the most important film director in Nazi Germany who directed such famous propaganda films as Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. The film also explores her later activities after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 and her disgrace for being so associated with it which includes h...
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Spaceless Information About Places
2008-04-18 21:31:00
A good thing of the contemporary spatial dynamics embedded in the hyper-communicative systems of the Internet is the access that I now have to news from the furthest corners of the world. Take the website of Newseum (627 front pages from 58 countries) for instance. Never before was it so easy to gain to access to Brazilian, Turkish or Taiwanese newspapers. If it useful? Well that's another question (does it matter?).
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Satellite Dishes
2008-04-15 18:17:00
Has been some time since my last post, was busy writing the first draft of my first chapter of my PhD. Dealing with globalisation or better a critique of the globalisation literature. Would not want to bore you too much with my argument. However, one of the things I raised was the inherent connection between technology and capitalism. Not only how capitalism feeds innovative technological breakthroughs, but also how this affects the concepts of time and space.A good example of this is the increase of TV satellite dishes in aesthetic landscape of Western European cities. The mushrooming of satellite dishes on rooftops and balconies marks the underlying emigration of (especially) Turkish families to Western countries. One could argue that the dishes destroy the aura of traditional landscapes or one could observe that these communicative devices actually hyperlise the static picture of a forgotten modernity. Or should we perhaps just accept the change without judgement? I don't know.
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At Least I Got To See Vegas
2008-03-20 18:09:00
In the neuroverse (William Gibson)plug in mybrain panfriedin a white noise sourcewith seizure saladmy eyes are flying windowsscream saverbrain waves with both handsgoing bye bytedigitally rendered limb from limbin the neuroverseAll artwork in this post is published with the courtesy of Raymond Pettibon
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The Toilet
2008-03-10 01:16:00
For those that pay attention to details, especially those that pay close attention to the culture of toilets, I have found the explanation why toilets differ from country to country. Zizek explains us why French toilets flush differently then German ones. He argues that there is a certain embedded social rationality in the way toilets function."Hegel was among the first to see in the geographical triad of Germany, France and England an expression of three different existential attitudes: reflective thoroughness (German), revolutionary hastiness (French), utilitarian pragmatism (English). In political terms, this triad can be read as German conservatism, French revolutionary radicalism and English liberalism....In a traditional German toilet, the hole into which shit disappears after we flush is right at the front, so that shit is first laid out for us to sniff and inspect for traces of illness. In the typical French toilet, on the contrary, the hole is at the back, i.e. shit is supp...
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Revolutionary Love
2008-03-07 12:06:00
I always believed that love as a political instrument is a vastly under-researched concept in both journalism and among academics. I hate to sound like a hippie, but I reckon that with a reconceptionalised experience of love and what it is (and perhaps what love should be), the world could be a better, i.e. more democratic and equal, place.Love as immanence so to say. Like in a poem of Pessoa: I'm nothing. I'll allways be nothing. I can't even wish to be something. Aside from that, I've got all the world's dream inside me.I think this is what Hardt is arguing (or what he tends to argue) for in the uploaded video files below. I am sorry I should explain who that is. Hardt is a neo-Marxian theorist, who wrote together with Negri the manifesto for the anti-globalisation movement: "Empire". If you are up for it, you can find your free copy here.Enjoy the lecture (about 30 mins)Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6
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The Post-Modern through the eyes of Marx
2008-03-06 12:39:00
I promised in my previous post to upload another analytical 'post-modern' video clip. This one is a talk by Frederic Jameson at the University of Toronto on the the late capitalist features of what has been labelled as a 'global post-modernity'. Jameson is one of the last great philosophical Marx ists, one who proved to be a worthy student in the Frankfurt School tradition. His analysis are said to be as much grounded in contemporary modern culture as they are historically constructed in the social relations of the modes of production.Enjoy
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The post-modern
2008-03-04 22:39:00
Don't hate me for freshing up your intellectual skills today! Its time for some post-modernism. I found two movies of two academics that work in this theory/ concept and whose opinions and critiques I hold very high. The first is a real 'postie' and writes on the simulacra and the experience of images and forms, Jean Baudrillard! The second (Frederic Jameson) I will post later today or otherwise tomorrow.BTW: enjoy watching the American elections today!Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9
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Puppy Love
2008-03-03 15:36:00
The US army feels bored of killing Iraqis and has started to cleanse other potential 'terrorists'.
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They want War
2008-03-03 13:22:00
While Venezuela is on the verge of a war with Colombia, Burma finds its support in Rambo (and the world looks away), Israel bombs Gaza naked (100 dead so far), Kenya is desperate for stability (though killing remains a popular thing), Kosovo's independence splits the world in two, Armenia is thinking about a civil war, it has just been said that Russia's elections have been a total scam (what a surprise!). European observers this morning condemned Russia's presidential election, won overwhelmingly by Dmitry Medvedev, as "not fair" and a denial of the "democratic potential" of the country's voters (Guardian).Wake-up call for the 'peoples of the press', Russia has never been democratic not in the last 800 years. Did anybody seriously think different when Mr. Dmitry Medvedev received 70 (!) percent of the votes yesterday? Of course, it it a 'Farce', Mr. Kasporov (the greatest Chess player just behind Fischer), but what can we do? Go to war? Isolate Russia? Come on, seriously n...

Medvedev, Russia's new President
2008-03-02 21:14:00
Russia has a new President , say hello to the new Putin. More of the same (?) ... 'Dmitry Medvedev '. The legality of the electoral voting is already disputed or perhaps better "When everything is clear from the start, the story is not very sexy":Mr. Medvedev declined to debate his opponents, and his campaign was conducted largely through staged public events that were widely broadcast on the Kremlin-controlled television networks. His three rivals on the ballot received far less coverage, and they rarely if ever attacked either Mr. Putin or Mr. Medvedev by name, as if they had been warned about how far they could go (NYT).

Israel-Palestinian Art
2008-03-02 17:11:00
I normally refrain from posting messages on the Israel i-Palestinian issue. Why? Well, its a bit like putting your heard in a bag of razor-sharp needles. Everybody seems to have a opinion about the conflict, which is exactly one of the obstacles for resolving it in the first place. It is not just an arena of hate (a matter which in many instances, I believe, comes forth from pure ignorance), but also of continuous judgment of what is considered to be 'Good' and what is deemed to be 'Evil'. A lot of Europeans wearing Palestinian scarfs believe that their (fashionable) resistance, which matches the rest of their trendy clothing, can actually be justified on the basis of the knowledge they receive from their televisions or from what their friends say. However, the moment when those same people are confronted with the Other in its direct form, they shiver and are anxious to be robbed from what they define as the "Freedom Expression'.Yes, I have been to the West Bank, and no, that d...

God sucks (in the Netherlands)
2008-03-01 19:54:00
*cartoon appeared after one of the Dutch public TV stations decided to broadcast the soft-porn movie "Deep Throat".Who needs Mohammad in the West? After all we have our own Savior to publish and ridicule about in our newspapers (NRC). What the cartoon says? "We are certain that God will interfere in his own miraculous ways, Amen".Seems that the post-Nietzschean Left is finally waking up to confront all (read not only the Islam bashing) religions. To the barracks!* picture with the courtesy of geenstijl.nl
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Clowns
2008-02-29 13:20:00
Fellini earned his reputation of excellence over his years of fame. Movies such as Roma, La Dolce Vita, Casanova and 8 1/2 were not only brilliant films, but in fact changed the very face of cinema.Clowns , I, is a much lesser known film of his stunning oeuvre. Nevertheless, it is a good portrayal of his fascination with the circus and with entertainment in the broader sense. This 'shorty' is funny, smart and allows insights in the dreamworld of its makers. Moreover, the score is wonderful.Plot: A sentimental journey shot in France and Italy, searching the trace of the great clowns of yesterday, by one of the few filmmakers that showed his love for these performers in his own films, an affection that dates from a childhood experience in his hometown Rimini, which is lovingly recreated in the dream-like opening scene. Made for Italian television, the film shows Fellini meeting a few survivors, talking to clowns' relatives and friends, visiting white clowns, and recreating the styl...

Jailhouse rock
2008-02-28 17:54:00
I want to quickly mention a report that came out in the New York Times, which reads:"For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars... Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails... Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars... One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34...."When reading such figures, many things come into mind. First, one wonders why the US is trying so hard to pursue even more 'criminals' outside its borders. Second, the prison business (food, housing among other things) must be a million (billion?) Dollar producing-machine. Third, the US is losing economic power from this potentially massive labour force, which they rather see inside than outside.Sure you could argue that these people also work, through mechanisms of privat...
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God is Dead (and will stay dead)
2008-02-26 21:21:00
I received a reply from an anonymous person yesterday on my overly short overview of some of the paradoxes in the Bible. When reading his comments, I felt the strong urge to reject his totalizing simplicity in his line of argumentation, which comes down to the fact that God is above and we have to live and suffer under His rule. Mind the supreme monopolization of the Male in the 'He' and 'Him' form. Why is God never a Woman? And why is he always portrayed as a white long haired hippie? Why is he not a short haired black woman with curls? Why are almost all the figures in the Bible blond and white? Is it because whites are superior in teleological terms? Screw that, really!Anyways some of his arguments and some of my counter arguments you will find below. The latter are by far not limited to this heavily reduced list of arguments that serve the purpose of equalizing Biblical reading to post-modern reading and stressing the multitude of paradoxes embedded in the Bible.Anonymous: ...
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Religion
2008-02-25 18:30:00
Soon I hope to see Wilder's movie (what!? - read the papers, buddy) and be amazed about the coming violent uproars and 'civilizational clashes' between 'Muslims' and well, 'those proud nationalists' that think the world actually cares about their xenophobic opinions.I am not even surprised with the decade long fear over the Islamic 'Other', I would rather see it as a continuation of the Jewish struggle for a place in Western societies. I am not saying that it is better in China, where some don't even know about the existence of black people, let alone of the a Holy book which has the 'Absolute Truth' *imaging the reaction of one of the 500 million farmers in China*. Neither am I cynically arguing that that the 'West is the best' (Jim Morrison). I am just saying that it is rather pathetic to think that people exclude others because of a the different way they received their indoctrination. Yes, religion. Although, of course it is not all religion, it never is just 'all...
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Goodbye Fidel
2008-02-19 21:23:00
Dear compatriots:Last Friday, February 15, I promised you that in my next reflection I would deal with an issue of interest to many compatriots. Thus, this now is rather a message.The moment has come to nominate and elect the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents and Secretary.For many years I have occupied the honorable position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of over 95% of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first National Assembly was established on December 2nd that same year; this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support of the overwhelming majority of the people....The path will always be difficult and require from everyone’s intelligent effort. I distrust the seemingly easy path of apologetics or its antithesis...
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The Man from Earth
2008-02-18 21:47:00
Don't forget to post your comments on my research abstract, which I posted yesterday! Anyways, today, another movie since I am too busy for writing a constructive meaningful post.Ever heard of "The Man from Earth "? Its a pretty decent movie, directed by Richard Schenkman, about intellectual discourse...Plot: An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he is an immortal who has walked the earth for 14,000 years (IMDB).Enjoy, but do not expect something easy, albeit worthwhile.

Research abstract
2008-02-17 23:30:00
Today not a movie, but my updated research abstract! Please dont be shy and comment when you dissagree or when you think that something is not clear (enough). I intend to provide this (probably with some ammendments) to compete for a scholarship at my uni.Thanks a lot for any comments!IntroductionMy interest in analysing China’s post-modernity (through a progressive political-economic framework) is the logical consequence of the position I fulfilled as an urban planner in Changzhou (Jiangsu province). During my employment for the Chinese and German government I became aware of the intrinsic relation between China’s changing landscape and its paradoxical political-economic apparatus. This area of study has however been largely neglected by both economic sociologists and anthropological political-economists. I believe that an in-depth and progressive study on the functioning of capitalism and the effects it has on China’s modernisation project could allow for a greater understan...
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Funny Games
2008-02-15 22:21:00
No Funny Games here, Michael.This movie is brilliant and so is its director, Michael Hanneke. Caché, one of his others, is still high among my all-time favorites, but so is "Funny Games", well if you can cope with the unpredictable and inhuman (?) violence in the movie. It feels like the Clockwork Orange and breathes Freud.Enjoy

Inferno
2008-02-15 22:05:00
Dario Argento is a legend, a hero and now also an internationally renowned figure. Doing cult when Tarantino was not even born. Inferno is a must see, cos its a true masterpiece. Screw the plot, lets go postmodern and purify cinema as a proper form of art.Terror that's hotter than hell!Plot:Young poetess Rose Elliot buys a book from a local antique dealer, a diary in Latin of an architect, E. Varelli. She learns of the Three Mothers, and believes her apartment building is one of their houses. She pleads her brother Mark, who is studying musicology in Rome, to come, because she is afraid. Mark's friend Sara reads her letter, which he left behind in class, and discovers the school is run by the Mater Lacrimarum, and is killed for this knowledge. The house of Mater Suspiriorum has already been destroyed, and by the time Mark arrives in New York City, he is investigating his sister's murder. (IMDB)EnjoyPart 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10Part 11

Cult Cult Cult - Bad tasting Cult!
2008-01-24 02:56:00
Before Lord of the Rings and Kong Kong, Peter Jackson's films were simply of Bad(der) Taste. Enjoy this wonderful cult flick!Plot:Four dim-witted men from the New Zealand National Air and Space Defense League arrive in a small New Zealand fishing town to investigate a report of landing UFO's and take on a batallion-sized army of aliens who have massacred the town's population as part of their plans to use humans as part of their main ingredient for their intergalactic fast-food chain. (IMDB)
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Fidel
2008-01-22 19:08:00
I was always fascinated by Cuba, I guess like everybody else... Beautiful women (and also men), vivid colors, pre-historic pop artish cars and all the rest of it. However, my interest has also been aroused by the legacy of Fidel. How on earth has that man managed to keep in power? The below documentary helped me to gain some insights - plus some anti-US rhetoric all in one free package of conspiracy!Plot: Dollan Cannell's documentary on the hundreds of alleged plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, and a look at the evolution of Cuban politics.Part IPart II

War crimes - "forget about it"
2008-01-21 14:07:00
I forgot, War crimes? Fuck em, me Bush, I am boss.
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US Elections Part III
2008-01-21 13:39:00
As Cuba is deciding to go for Fidel or Raul, Mc Cain and Clinton won the lost elections in Neveda. This should scare chancellor Merkel since Mc Cain announced his plan to bring Germany again under Russian rule. American politicians...
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Bobby Fisher
2008-01-18 18:28:00
What have Lenin, Beethoven, Brecht, Francis Bacon and Marx in common? Their love for Chess of course! As Huxley said: “The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Natureand the player on the other side is hidden from us”.Brings me to a sad moment in chess history, Bobby Fisher passed away today. Bobby, despite his controversy and anger, was probably among the best (next to Capablanca and Kasparov) players the world has ever seen. By some described as Zeus, the "God of Gods". It is sad day for chess...The God of GodsThe classic: Fischer - Spassky game
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Scientology
2008-01-16 19:55:00
I need a break from my work on post-modernity (in the library). What can be better then, than to watch Tom Cruise give a ridiculous speech about the beauties of Scientology ? Who needs post-modernity when you got faith in some good old spiritual indoctrination? Back to traditialism, you wankers you!Update: Youtube deleted the movie from their database... talking about freedom of expression....