masrae

buzzfeedpolitics: Uncle Joe weighs in.

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:56:15 -0400

Uncle Joe weighs in.

All hail to the game's great anarchist

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:06:22 -0400

By Cristian Nyari

Football is an institution, in more ways than one. And there are few more anti-establishment players than Luis Suarez. Not just because of his on-field theatrics and eccentric personality, but because he is the antithesis of the politically correct ideology that permeates football around the world.

Luis Suarez is perceived as a threat to that institution and is, rightly or wrongly, vilified as a result. In a way, you can call Suarez the Che Guevera of football. Although simplistic, it serves the purpose of this piece, namely to symbolize the relationship between Suarez and the institution as that of a ubiquitous rebellious figure against an inequitable structure.

Before we move on, It should be prefaced that the use of “Anarchism” here does denote the narrow and misunderstood semblance of left-wing political radicalism or pure anti-authoritarianism. Instead, like Anarchy as a doctrine—a philosophy that cannot be strictly defined and is always in flux—it is generally speaking the opposition or resistance to an unjust organizational hierarchy. For our purposes, that is a football world seemingly unified against a single player.

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karenabad: I’m so excited for Arrested Development. Here’s a...

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:47:11 -0400

karenabad:

I’m so excited for Arrested Development. Here’s a gif I made from all the character posters.

thewarroomctv: Unacceptable.

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:51:40 -0400

thewarroomctv:

Unacceptable.

DIRECTR. Your life. The movie.

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:34:16 -0400

DIRECTR. Your life. The movie.

lfcts: Luis Suarez brilliant goal for Uruguay SUAREZ!!

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:24:26 -0400

lfcts:

Luis Suarez brilliant goal for Uruguay

SUAREZ!!

theatlantic: The Frightening Effects of the NYPD’s ‘Mapping...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:03:34 -0400

theatlantic:

The Frightening Effects of the NYPD’s ‘Mapping Muslims’ Program

One of the program’s more damaging consequences, the report finds, was its effect on freedom of speech. Public talk of politics and foreign affairs, from the mosque to the barber shop (especially discussion involving the tactics of the city’s police department) has now long been and is still seen as an invitation for scrutiny. A father urged his son not to speak with the Associated Press as the investigation was breaking, for fear of backlash. A cafe owner in Bay Ridge stopped tuning his television to Al-Jazeera, in an effort to avoid NYPD scrutiny. (The tactic was duly noted in an NYPD report on Egyptian cafes [PDF].)

Read more. [Images: Reuters, AP]

lfcts: Ingographic of Luis Suarez’ 50 Liverpool goals YNWA

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:02:03 -0400

lfcts:

Ingographic of Luis Suarez’ 50 Liverpool goals

YNWA

adulthoodisokay: Memes are people too, guys.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:29:09 -0400

adulthoodisokay:

Memes are people too, guys.

masrae rockin' with the Alliance Français tomorrow nite!

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:15:00 -0500

masrae rockin' with the Alliance Français tomorrow nite!:

sndandvsn:

Don’t miss our very own masrae doing visuals at malmaison with the green monkeys and stella bellamy saturday nite!

literaryjukebox: I said to my soul, be still and wait without...

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:07:07 -0400

literaryjukebox:

I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

T. S. Eliot in Four Quartets

Song: “I Just Wait” by Paloma Faith

iTunes : Amazon

pacalin: Breaking Ned Created by AKADoom More here…

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:31:28 -0400

pacalin:

Breaking Ned

Created by AKADoom

More here…

"Great summertime cover: There is a convergence between jazz and Indian classical music, and it..."

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:46:44 -0400

“

Great summertime cover:

There is a convergence between jazz and Indian classical music, and it arises from the blues: a five-note pentatonic scale from which both jazz and rock are engendered, and which is also to be found in abundance in Indian music. Considering the blues leads us to further convergences. The bent notes blues guitarists play on their instruments are unusual in western music; the principal intention of the bent notes, achieved by pulling on the strings sideways, is, surely, to approximate the voice, and the peculiar plangency of blues singing in particular. Bent notes are rendered with a degree of alarming virtuosity by sitar players, especially by those who pursue the gayaki ang or the “vocal interpretation”, reproducing the intricate coloratura and glissandos of Indian classical singing with their fingers.

”

- Fascinating read on Indian classical music, the Beatles and the blues, including this gorgeous classical Indian cover of Gershwin’s “Summertime”:

(via explore-blog)

breakingculture: A former student of mine - who now works in...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:48:18 -0400

breakingculture:

A former student of mine - who now works in TV/film - shared the above trailer for the movie that supposedly set off the riots in Benghazi, Libya with the observation

soooo this is the trailer for the movie that caused people to riot? Horseshit. Unless the riot was lead by hollywood critics opposed to the terrible quality of the film and acting. Which then I would not blame them.

And, he’s right, it is truly awful. There is no criticism that could be leveled against the artistic quality of this film because it truly lacks any of them. It has a no narrative - even for a trailer - the cuts are random; the acting is terrible on its own, made worse by the illegitimate dubbing it appears the criminal filmmaker did after the fact in order to concoct this juvenile, xenophobic compendium of criminally reductive stereotypes. Mind you the crime here is not intolerance alone, but of the sheer idiocy of this piece of propaganda. The only thing it does for viewers in this country is caricature the worst banal racisms, casting them in a truly offensive light - here, in other words, it is propaganda that will have the least possible effect (unlike, for instance, the Danish cartoon contest, which seems to have at least placed these caricatures in an aesthetically pleasing shell.

However, it does seem to have worked as black propaganda - or that is what they say. I was still unclear as to why anyone would see this as anything more than the ravings of a single lunatic. But something struck me in this interview with a journalist on the ground there in Libya, complements of Al Jazeera:

In it, the journalist - who it does seem is interested in projecting the Salafist side of the story, but in this case that seems like a wise thing to understand - mentions that the groups had called for a protest at the US Embassy, on the anniversary of 9/11, because “they heard the movie was going to be broadcast in the states on that day.” (c. 00:30 seconds).

So, in other words, the people in the streets (or some of them) had seen this film - or the trailer for this film - and been told that it was not just the Syphilitic ravings of an instigator, but it so closely represented the U.S. citizens’ basic understanding of the Arabic world it was set to be broadcast on national TV or released in some broad fashion. This gives another perspective to the story - and makes it slightly more explicable why people are in the street.

To the question of what they have done now that the crowd is out of control, the Salafist groups that called for the protest insist they didn’t call for violence, only protest, thanked the embassy for their condemnation of the film (via Twitter) and according to the journalist they are working to quell the violence on the ground. The anchor was skeptical of this, but it is plausible that they got people in the street and are now unable to channel that energy in any way. And, not exactly knowing how it got out of control, they may not have the tools to single-handedly restore order.

The same goes for the U.S. itself. The sitting administration has received inane criticism for condemning the film - and, really, there are so many reasons to insist that it is both a terrible film and not the dominant view of the majority of US citizens, up to and including our reputation for making occasionally tasteful, intelligent films. But there also seems to be a belief that there is something that the U.S. could do to settle down the situation. As one observer in this later conversation on Al Jazeeera said:

“I’m afraid there’s really nothing the US can do in the short run. I mean, if you’re young, unemployed and angry, do you really need a good reason to throw rocks? No, you don’t: it could be about anything and it happens to be about this.” (c. 02:00)

Here there are two lessons I see - assuming either of these reports/expert observations is anything approaching the truth - emerging from this. They both relate to the dominant understanding of how social groups should operate. GOP friendly critics here (believing as they do that the Arab Spring basically just code for the Brotherhood taking over) can accuse Salafists of sparking this, Salafists can claim they’ve lost control, and the U.S. can claim there is nothing they can do about it - and all of them can be right.

As the first expert here points out, whatever you want to call what is going on here, the people in the region are flexing their muscles as they wake up. This is what organizations like Al Jazzeera (cf. the film Control Room) have long wanted to facilitate with their reporting. But as theorists of revolution have been pointing out for years, there are always competing parties vying for control - and they are almost always on the verge of losing control. And this is where the ideological argument about what is needed or what started this runs aground.

The problem is systemic and the moral imperatives we would like to take for granted - for instance that people don’t riot in the street or throw rocks - become increasingly less salient the more desperate people are made (and the more they begin to expect something other than desperation.) The quote above about young, employed, angry people throwing rocks is one we should all take to heart as we decide what path we need to take.

I’ve heard some disturbing comments recently about the “entitled” generation of today’s U.S. 20 somethings. I have heard it secondhand from people already safely employed, taking advantage of the high unemployment to tell the latest graduates they need to expect less - of themselves and of their employers. In realist terms, this may be very true: but coming from the mouths of employers, it reeks of a certain self-interest. And in the mouths of elite apologists it appears as ideological posturing.

Likewise, I’ve heard it from people holding strong to the argument that the center-right Democratic President is overseeing the transformation of the country into a socialist dictatorship. In this context, the youth of today (and especially the Occupy Wall Street movement) are simply looking for a handout, unwilling to do any real work and expecting the world in return. Since this is usually mentioned by people who came of age in the 1960s - when there were actually rising expectations - I’m usually inclined to accuse them of calling the kettle black. But even that misses the point.

The problem is that simply telling people they shouldn’t do this - that they shouldn’t demand more of their society, their government, each other - is an empty platitude that offers those who disagree only one option: to keep fighting with increased intensity until they are allowed to be heard. It also recommends the complete repression of this outburst as the only possible route to retain social stability. In other words, if people who are unemployed, young, and angry and all they see is desperation in their future, no amount of moralizing will keep them from throwing rocks: the only thing you can do is crush them politically and militarily.

And, of course, this is just what the real GOP strategy for the 2012 election entails: voter ID laws around the US are meant to disenfranchise those who, to paraphrase a 17th century reactionary, don’t have an “eye to property.” In other words, the already disempowered and disenfranchised - those who are obviously losing under the current arrangement and who, if given the chance, will likely want to have someone help them get a better deal. In other words, there is a long, curving line that connects all these outbursts. And until there is some material, political, economic changes made to inspire hope, the potential for that outburst - in the U.S., Egypt, and throughout the world - will only increase. Whether it will be in the well organized channels of rank and file union action, as it is today in Chicago, or in the less organized attempt at a controlled ignition of seething anger elsewhere in the world, things will continue to happen. And no amount of moralizing will stop it unless there actually is a moral system behind it.

So, in short, I don’t exactly know what ignited the protest - though the broadcasting of this film would certainly be enough for me to protest in those circumstances - but its spread and intensity seems best explained by the fact of present conditions on the ground.

I think there is also a lesson to be learned by the GOP, who seem bent on using the most reactionary elements of American culture and society to propel themselves back into power. It is a bargain they seem to have made in the 2010 election and, like the Salafists, I don’t believe they really have control over it. Maybe I don’t give them enough credit, but my hope is, if they do win, they will be able to ratchet back the discourse enough to keep people from heading down the path they seem to be advocating. For although ideology doesn’t in itself explain why people take to the streets, it can be a powerful organizing principle that offers solutions to perceived ills. And the more the problem is seen as one involving immigrants, minorities, and leftists, the more likely it is that they will be forced to act against their scapegoats once they get into power - possibly in ways that will make for an increasingly barbaric civilization for us all.

thatgifsite: That GIF Site

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:32:35 -0400

thatgifsite:

That GIF Site

gq: Nice vid with all repurposed footage Hanni El Khatib. “Dead...

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:46:18 -0400

gq:

Nice vid with all repurposed footage

Hanni El Khatib. “Dead Wrong.”

This video rules.

frankocean:

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:11:31 -0400

frankocean:

sndandvsn: Snippet of our performance at the Georgetown...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:54:27 -0400

sndandvsn:

Snippet of our performance at the Georgetown Waterfront

videothequedc: A short clip of our live visual performance at...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:43:17 -0400

videothequedc:

A short clip of our live visual performance at Metamorphosis at the Georgetown Waterfront. Organized by Art Soiree

Egyptians Vote in Free Presidential Election

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:15:48 -0400

instagram:

@nounou_dbk

@japhetweeks

@benfrancisallen

@ahmed_saeed

@sarahakl

@mayaalleruzzo

@ahmed_saeed

View more photos of Egypt’s election by searching for the hashtag #egyelections.

For the first time in generations, Egyptians lined up Wednesday to cast their votes in a free Presidential election. Voters are choosing from a slate of 13 candidates, with the voting extending through tomorrow.