Vukovar (ljuta sam/I'm angry)

Uzas se ne da zaboraviti sve da rukovoditelji raznih stranaka vise nikad ne prosetaju Vukovarom (to bi zapravo bilo super, sto se mene tice). Ne zelim da zvucim pateticno, ali evo sta bih ja recimo porucila (u duhu naseg Sinise Glavasevica) tim tetama i cikama iz Sabora i drugih rukovodecih tela, sto se slikaju u Vukovaru jednom godisnje: grad--to smo mi, a ne vi, i mi slavimo zivot, a ne smrt. Pesma "Vukovar" grupe Brani je ispao pejsmejker je snimljena u tom duhu 1990, i u duhu zezanja, prije rata.


Horror cannot be forgotten even if leaders of various parties never take a walk in Vukovar again (that would be awesome, as far as I'm concerned.) Corny or not, this is what I'd like to say (in the spirit of our Sinisa Glavasevic) to those aunties and uncles from the Parliament and other governing bodies, who have their pictures taken in Vukovar once a year: the city--that's us, not you, and we celebrate life, not death. The song "Vukovar" by Brani Je Ispao Pejsmejker was recorded, in that same spirit and in the spirit of fun, before the war.

Free Philosophy Professors! (They're not in jail, I'm just stating that they are free.)

Also for B/C/S speakers/readers only. Pravo, a ne privilegija!

Free Philosophical

For B/C/S speakers/readers, day-to-day updates on the students taking over Philosophical Faculty in Zagreb are here: Slobodni Filozofski.

Free Education!

About 300 students are blocking business as usual at the Philosophical Faculty at the Zagreb University today, with a simple demand: that higher education be free of charge. Education is a civil/human right, not privilege or luxury. Today was the first day of the symbolic takeover, and it's a part of the world-wide campaign. Spurious Bastard hears that the students were making a lot of noise and that they are very well organized, vocal, and articulate. Go, students!

Read more about the Global Action Week 2009!

I'll post Zagreb news as I get them. What do you hear/see is happening in other places? Nothing at UIC that I can notice :-(.

Carolee Schneemann in Chicago Nov. 6 2008

Before seeing Carolee Schneemann and a few of her films (Fuses, Snows, Body Collage, American I Ching Apple Pie, Infinity Kisses) at the Gene Siskel Center, the only thing I knew were the pictures of her performance "Interior Scroll" and the poem written on that scroll (a part of the text written on the scroll came out in the anthology Poetry for the Millennium). I found out she actually taught at UIC--she said it was her first teaching job--though I don't know that many people are aware of that over there (I'd also like to point out that her last name and my first name are derived from "snow" in German and B/C/S, respectively.) Here are some notes I took:

Daughter of a country doctor, grew up in the country.

Feminist critique/parody of feminism 1972. Self-parody 2007--nothing is sacred. Awareness of the body that looks like a model's body.

Fuses: equality in bed.

Criticized by feminists: essentialism (!). Censored (by the state?).

FBI in the 60s, fining film labs, going through garbage to find sexually explicit films.

Snows--aluminum foil--napalm--anti-war.

"The ghost of the Interior Scroll"

New sound piece: Gnarles Barkley "Crazy" intro sampled, looped, transformed.

She's concerned about copyright: "I hope Gnarles Barkley doesn't mind; he probably won't hear about this." Irony: DJ Danger Mouse and plunderphonics.

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She was great--sometimes performance art and art film can be as rock'n'roll as anything.

Lit Nobel 2008

This year, an interesting story unfolds around the Nobel Prize for Literature. I only have time right now to post some links, bookmarks if you will.

1) Mini-scandal regarding Permanent Secretary's thoughts on US literature.

2) The winner is Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

3) Turns out, Le Clezio is a little bit American, among other things--go Albuquerque!.

4) It's not at all strange that New Mexico is part-time home to Le Clezio.

Now I'm retuning to my cave of exam studying.

Shakespeare and Zabic Get Parodied...

...One of them for the first time in history:

Issue 1 anthologizes thousands of poets! (The Zabic poem appears save-the-best-for-last. Vanessa Williams.)

Super!