abstract classicism

Cy Twombly continued to produce extraordinary work right up until his death last week. Although his paintings often included text, they challenge one to find the words to describe them. I have tried to do that in my latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily, which I submit for your reading pleasure.

Meanwhile, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is exhibiting works by Twombly and Poussin side by side. I will head down there this weekend to see what comes of pairing two such devoted classicists of such different eras and styles.

frack that

My latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily is now available for your reading pleasure. The subject is hydraulic fracturing, 'fracking' for short. Do feel encouraged to read it. Meanwhile, enjoy a nice, tall glass of cool, refreshing water.

Richard Serra at the Met

Last week I contributed an article on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition of Richard Serra's drawing to 3 Quarks Daily. Do feel encouraged to read it.

Egypt etc.

My latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily provides fresh thoughts on the nascent Arab revolutions. Do feel encouraged to read it.

they will do whatever the law allows

My latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily is now available for your reading pleasure. It is part of a larger project of mine to generate the new rhetoric that will push the enduring Ayn Rand-inspired madness of the Reagan era off the stage and return the country to a point where it can, with fresh eyes, assess what government should and should not do with regard to economic matters. Our choices should not be restricted to the bad electoral decisions made by the previous generation thirty years ago when they were spooked by the Iranian hostage crisis. Reagan's legacy has been to tie government's hands behind its back in the name of a nutty idea of 'freedom' that equates spending money to pervert political and economic processes with First Amendment rights. Let's push these ideas out of respectable discourse by replacing them with better ideas. Ready, set, go.

very afraid

The comments to my 3 Quarks Daily article on the shamelessness of the post-hegemonic state have been lively.

Here are my four suggestions so far for tactics for punching back against the big banks and other assorted bad guys:

1. Shareholder activism, as I have outlined at 3QD.

2. The Move Your Money campaign.

3. Lobbying local government to do as New York is doing: moving $25 million (more preferably) in public funds to local credit unions.

4. Civil disobedience, particularly directed at the offices of the largest banks and health insurance companies.

Now that winning elections is not enough, it is time to rethink tactics.

Finally, here is the quotation of the day, from today's New York Times:

'I can't tell you how often I heard the phrase, "reputational risk." "Oh, the banks wouldn’t do that." This is trying to shame the shameless.'

Who said that? Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the TARP.

make them afraid

My most recent contribution to 3 Quarks Daily is now available for your reading pleasure. I ask the question, what can we do when the powers that be can no longer be shamed into appeasing, even if only cynically, the powerless. It draws on Antonio Gramsci, J.M. Coetzee, Jenny Holzer, and Eva Cherniavsky. I invite you to check it out.

[Note: comments will be moderated until further notice because spambots have been colonizing my blog, as you may have noticed. All comments from real people will be allowed.]

what kind of space is cyberspace?

In episode 160 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise discover that warp engines, the sine qua non of twenty-fourth-century exploration, are stressing the fabric of space. The problem has advanced to the point of threatening the safety of the Hekaran homeworld.

What would the cultures of the United Federation of Planets be without the ability to travel at warp speed? Science and trade and cultural exchange would all but cease. The vision of the galactic village would come to an end.

In my latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily, I confront a similar problem in cyberspace, the problem of the ever-worsening carbon dioxide emissions due to internet server farms. What is to be done? Click the link to see my suggestions.

Kiarostami's new film 'Shirin'

I have reviewed Abbas Kiarostami's new film Shirin for my latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily. It is an amazing film that should be seen by all. In my review, I suggested a connection between Kiarostami and, improbably perhaps, Pedro Almodóvar. Do feel encouraged to click the link and read it at 3QD. Thanks.

what the Supreme Court needs now

In my contribution to 3 Quarks Daily this month, I consider the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter and make the case for his replacement. Who is it? Read the article to find out.

more than zero

It's time for another installment of my monthly column at 3QD. This month I have written about David Bowie's work in the 1980's and whether it is better for great artists to make bad art or no art. I proudly call for more bad art. Check it out.

JS @ 3QD

The Ministry of Information and 3 Quarks Daily have joined forces. Starting today, I will write a column for 3QD every four weeks. (Note: not monthly but every four weeks.) Thanks to Abbas Raza and the 3QD posse for the opportunity.

My first installment is called 'The Jennifer Aniston in All of Us'. Do feel encouraged to read it and to read widely at 3QD, the best collective blog I know.

Remarkably, I had never seen Jennifer Aniston in a single thing: not one movie, not one episode of her sitcom. I had to borrow a dvd of Office Space (1999) while writing my article. Yet somehow I seem to know all her business despite being an infrequent, though avid, reader of celebrity magazines. Then again, I don't actually read the magazines; I just like looking at the pictures. How is it that we know so much about people we don't know at all?

I also finally bought a dvd of Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), one of the most influential films ever made and a favourite of mine. The way we think about film editing, narrative, and memory—either separately or all together—owes a lot to this film. The flashbacks to Emmanuelle Riva's memories really are how we imagine memory today, and not just the flashbacks written in Marguerite Duras's screenplay but also Resnais's editing together of newsreels, re-enactments, and vérité street scenes with the actors' performances. And as for the film's approach to romance in transit, where would Wong Kar-wai and his contemporaries be without Resnais?

Having written my first piece for 3QD makes me want to re-commit to my own blog. I have mentioned before that I had promised Daniel F. that I would do a series on the entire discography of David Byrne. The instruction he gave, which I accepted, was that I have to rank all of Byrne's albums, with and without Talking Heads, one by one without any ties. I hereby promise to begin the series before the end of 2008, so come back soon for this special series.