Month: February 2003

Michael Jackson Unmasked

Tonight’s NBC Dateline special, Michael Jackson: Unmasked, was disappointingly lame; it was poorly edited and full of hot air, neither showing any intelligence nor feeding my morbid voyeuristic fascination. Still, it led me to some new thoughts on the situation…

Tonight’s NBC Dateline special, Michael Jackson: Unmasked, was disappointingly lame; it was poorly edited and full of hot air, neither showing any intelligence nor feeding my morbid voyeuristic fascination. Still, it led me to some new thoughts on the situation….
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Jacko TV

“The more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war…. The real pity is not that television has no shame; it is that there are not still more Michael Jackson specials scheduled beyond the Fox event on Thursday.” Thus
Alessandra Stanley in today’s New York Times; I couldn’t agree more. Let a thousand Jacko specials bloom.

“The more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war…. The real pity is not that television has no shame; it is that there are not still more Michael Jackson specials scheduled beyond the Fox event on Thursday.” Thus
Alessandra Stanley in today’s New York Times; I couldn’t agree more. Let a thousand Jacko specials bloom.

Pattern Recognition

William Gibson’s new novel Pattern Recognition (which I have finally finished reading) is very likely the first work of literature to use “Google” as a verb (as in: “If you Google him, you’ll find…). What’s important, however, is not that Gibson is savvy enough to note how everyone’s favorite search engine has entered the vocabulary, but rather the absolute ordinariness, or taken-for-grantedness, of this usage: it’s a detail, precisely, that doesn’t stand out in any way in the novel. And that is what makes it significant….

William Gibson’s new novel Pattern Recognition (which I have finally finished reading) is very likely the first work of literature to use “Google” as a verb (as in: “If you Google him, you’ll find…). What’s important, however, is not that Gibson is savvy enough to note how everyone’s favorite search engine has entered the vocabulary, but rather the absolute ordinariness, or taken-for-grantedness, of this usage: it’s a detail, precisely, that doesn’t stand out in any way in the novel. And that is what makes it significant….
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Writing Machines

N. Katherine Hayles’ new book Writing Machines is a brilliant and important work. Hayles uses the vantage point offered her by recent “electronic texts” to rethink our understanding of literature in general…

N. Katherine Hayles’ new book Writing Machines is a brilliant and important work. Hayles uses the vantage point offered her by recent “electronic texts” to rethink our understanding of literature in general…
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Russian Ark

Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark consists of a single 90-minute-long Steadicam shot (realized on digital video, and then transferred to film). It’s an amazing technical achievement, to be sure, but it isn’t just technique that makes Russian Ark such an astonishing film…

Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark consists of a single 90-minute-long Steadicam shot (realized on digital video, and then transferred to film). It’s an amazing technical achievement, to be sure, but it isn’t just technique that makes Russian Ark such an astonishing film…
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Maurice Dantec

I just finished Maurice G. Dantec’s first novel, published in 1993, La sirene rouge (The Red Siren): a superior thriller, but nothing more. (Though I’d like to see the film, if only because it stars Asia Argento). But Dantec is also the author of the mind-boggling SF novel Babylon Babies (1999), unfortunately not (yet) translated into English…

I just finished Maurice G. Dantec’s first novel, published in 1993, La sirene rouge (The Red Siren): a superior thriller, but nothing more. (Though I’d like to see the film, if only because it stars Asia Argento). But Dantec is also the author of the mind-boggling SF novel Babylon Babies (1999), unfortunately not (yet) translated into English…
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Interracial Intimacies

Salon has an article by Joan Walsh on “interracial intimacy,” and especially on Randall Kennedy’s new book on that topic. Though Walsh is at least somewhat guarded on the idea that miscegenation will somehow solve America’s racial problems, the main contention in her article is that blacks, rather than whites, are the ones responsible today for opposing interracial sex, marriage and relationships. I’m sorry, but this is yet another example of a sincere white liberal blaming the victims of racism for racism’s perpetuation….

Salon has an article by Joan Walsh on “interracial intimacy,” and especially on Randall Kennedy’s new book on that topic. Though Walsh is at least somewhat guarded on the idea that miscegenation will somehow solve America’s racial problems, the main contention in her article is that blacks, rather than whites, are the ones responsible today for opposing interracial sex, marriage and relationships. I’m sorry, but this is yet another example of a sincere white liberal blaming the victims of racism for racism’s perpetuation….
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Blackboards

Samira Makhmalbaf’s Blackboards is about itinerant teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, who wander a remote, desolate part of Kurdish Iran, in search of students. Like many recent Iranian films, Blackboards is shot in a verite style, with handheld camera and nonprofessional actors, and an emphasis on particular situations rather than a well-rounded plot. I love this style/genre, but its repetition from film to film, and director to director, can become tedious after a while. However, the 23-year-old Makhmalbaf comes up with a very unique and distinctive film, different from anything else I’ve seen…

Samira Makhmalbaf’s Blackboards is about itinerant teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, who wander a remote, desolate part of Kurdish Iran, in search of students. Like many recent Iranian films, Blackboards is shot in a verite style, with handheld camera and nonprofessional actors, and an emphasis on particular situations rather than a well-rounded plot. I love this style/genre, but its repetition from film to film, and director to director, can become tedious after a while. However, the 23-year-old Makhmalbaf comes up with a very unique and distinctive film, different from anything else I’ve seen…
Continue reading “Blackboards”