This is a clip from Thursday night's show featuring an appearance by Shakespearean scholar Stephen Greenblatt. I've been reading Greenblatt's biography of Shakespeare, Will in the World (2004); I've almost finished it. The beginning is fantastic because it gives a very vivid historical context for Shakespeare's work. He described in detail what it would be like to grow up in Elizabethan Stratford. The second half of the book is slower because it is more general and speculative. (Lots of "surely he must have felt proud to see his fame increasing," "surely he must have loved his children," etc.) Once we move away from general customs with which Shakespeare would have been familiar and into the particular details of Shakespeare's life, there's much less material to present. It's a worthwhile read though. Greenblatt is famous for his historically-informed readings of literature; he's a founding influence on literary criticism's "new historicism". (Though by now it's just plain old historicism, I think.) I demur somewhat from his use of literary passages as evidence. "Oh, here is a long quote about Ophelia drowning; possibly Shakespeare worked as a lifeguard at some point and witnessed many drownings!" I am exaggerating, but it's that kind of logic. I suppose over the space of centuries, one takes one's evidence where one can find it. The big hook of Greenblatt's biography is his version of the theory that Shakespeare was a crypto-Catholic, leading a double life of secret soulsearching in Protestant England. This is a wonderful argument for its explanatory power; Greenblatt is good at making connections. For instance, he argues that some of Hamlet's power comes from clashing views of the afterlife, especially since it was composed not long after Shakespeare buried his own son, Hamnet, in a Protestant service that might have felt insufficiently ceremonial to a Catholic. Anyway, Will in the World was nominated for a National Book Award; you can google for reviews by actually informed people.

I think the Catholic angle makes Greenblatt an especially resonant guest on The Colbert Report, because Colbert is often pushing a Catholic agenda in part just by being so loud and proud about his own faith. Also, this segment draws on his own theatrical background, reminding the audience that the Report is fictional. (Plastered over with the cover story of his theatrical history as an undercover anticommunist mission.)
The "Stephen Colbert" character/construct just falls apart with bliss during the Greenblatt discussion, because he cannot allow a guest to be "smarter" than he is or to excel in a contest -- here the quotations contest. But at the same time, to be a Shakespeare expert is to be a reader and literature/theatre lover, identities that the construct, as a populist, anti-elite demagogue, must reject. So the skit moves from civil and dull theatre-geek trivia games to an excited discussion and finally to hostile cursing as the construct's identity breaks down. (Yes, in a meta-sense it is humorous cursing, but on the construct level it is threatened/angry cursing.)

It seemed to me that the audience noises in this segment were very laugh-tracky and fake-sounding, which makes me wonder if the skit did not go over well with the studio audience. The episode commentary in colbert_report was in favor, but maybe that's a self-selecting group.

I wish he would have Mark Wahlberg on and get him to talk about what a big Catholic he is. Because that would be brilliant.






*very old obscure movie reference about selective perception

Last week, when I was getting on the commuter rail to go home, I watched 3 gray sparrows flutter along the platform. The little group of birds stopped at each open train door and looked inside. They even hopped a few steps into the train. They seemed to consult among themselves, and then they would flutter out again to the platform and skim along at knee level to the next doorway, only to repeat the behavior. This behavior continued the entire length of the platform; they investigated about ten doors. Does anyone know what they were doing?

Happy Birthday olukemi!
Wishing you a wonderful year!

The McCain campaign has told Fox News that the vice-presidential debate will be unfair if Palin is asked too many foreign policy questions, or, as they call them, "gotcha questions." If there are too many foreign policy questions, the McCain campaign says "the moderator will have some questions to answer." Fox News chimed in to agree that foreign policy questions would "stack the deck" against Palin. And anyway, according to Fox News, the "average person is more concerned with domestic stuff." So their logic is that foreign policy questions will not serve the average, ordinary person watching the debates, but only the cheating unfair partisans supporting Obama. (And of course Biden, who is accused of having foreign policy as his forte, pronounced with extra Frenchness, because you know how bad those French are!)

The debate moderator is not an average person: she is esteemed journalist Gwen Ifill. Ifill is a senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and moderator and managing editor of Washington Week. She moderated the 2004 vice-presidential debate. She is a completely appropriate choice of moderator for this debate and the notion that she is going to ask inappropriate questions is ridiculous.

But operating underneath the McCain campaign bluster is a more sinister racist message: that Ifill is not "average" because she is Black, and because she is Black she will cheat and undermine the fairness of the debate. (Because Black people cannot be trusted in positions of power.) Because it is Us against Them. But don't worry, they will make an example of Ifill - they'll attack her if she attacks them (now that questions are attacks). Her Blackness will cancel out her entire career of public service journalism. And she will serve as an object lesson to other journalists of any color who might think of asking hard questions.

This clip made me so angry because of the glib racist coding stabbing through the phony professional-talk-accents of the speakers. All smiles while they prepare the ground for their future baseless accusations, all to elect more incompetents to power. They have an unqualified candidate, so they'll try to make it a debate about some minority person's qualifications, counting on racism to help them out. That's the vision they hold of America: reliably racist and easy to manipulate. I so hope they're wrong.

Here's the clip: I first saw it on Talking Points Memo.

Can you believe it is $50 to see Alison Moyet? I would rather buy all her stuff on iTunes instead.

I was surprised at how nauseated and despairing I felt watching this simulated footage. This ad was very powerful to me. I remember how sick I felt in 2004.

I like this ad for the power of its presumptions about its audience. The notion that no one really wants to see this. The appealing idealism behind blaming voter apathy rather than corporate plutocrats. Also, I like the way this delves into RPF/mockumentary territory.

I like this ad on all kinds of levels.

I should get an Obama icon.

I need to get a Colbert icon. Soon.

This was from last night.

Look at her shoes! They seem so wrong. I know it's petty but that whole business suit - no stockings - ugly tacky shoes thing, just ugh.
That's her husband.

This photo is stolen from bagnewsnotes , a blog that analyzes news photography. It was originally in the New York Times, who apparently have criticized/vetted SP -- I haven't seen the article myself. Because I can't stand reading that much about her but I just cannot get over the inappropriate shoes.

I tried to embed this but it wouldn't work, so here is a link to an MSNBC video of Brian Williams asking very easy questions of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

It is half an hour long, but seems longer due to slow bumblingness. Pacino is very self-involved. DeNiro endorses Obama some more.
I do not see what was the point of interviewing them together if you were only going to show them in talking-head format.

 

Look, a non-grumpy pic! Purportedly from the Czech film festival. There was a purported interview, but it was all made up of quotes from other interviews. Sad that I recognized said quotes, but I did. 

( spoilery comments on The Shield season premiere )
I seem to recall hearing that this was going to be a short season, too. But even though I will watch the whole thing, in a way I am ready to let them go now. I have doubts that they can come up with an ending worthy of the series. But maybe I'll be wrong.

 Happy Birthday, rabidpotterfan !

gacked from brownfemipower

I made a donation to INCITE! (Women of Color Against Violence). The money goes to their projects in NOLA, the Women's Health and Justice Initiative and the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic. From their website:






HERE IS THE LINK TO THEIR WEBSITE WHERE YOU CAN DONATE VIA PAYPAL

I am shaken by the notion that there will be no emergency services after the storm, that whoever is left there will just be left there. This is entirely different from "emergency services will not be able to get through until after the storm." This is the deliberate abandonment of US citizens. I know everyone is ordered to evacuate and there are supposed to be buses. The last news reports I read said the queues to board the buses were up to a mile long. Not everyone is going to make it on a bus, not everyone is able to wait in that queue. I do not understand why the National Guard is not in there transporting people out. When I was a kid, up here in the Northeast, my coastal hometown was part of the federal disaster area created by the Blizzard of 1978. At the time, what this meant to me was that we didn't have to make up the weeks of school days that we missed while everything was shut down. I lived in the "Highlands" section of town and not the flooded and evacuated section of town. The National Guard came right in with tanks and trucks and blankets and food and just lifted people up onto the trucks to get them around town. (Private vehicles were banned.) 

I suppose the National Guard now is in Iraq or Afghanistan. Maybe we could spare some of the battalions of officers currently abusing protestors at the RNC and send them to NOLA on a rescue mission. If we can now federalize the local police, we should be able to deploy them nationwide. It is amazing to me that in these days of Homeland Security when there is an armed response for everything, there is no staffing for NOLA. Anyway, that is why I gave to INCITE!, because it's not like the Red Cross is even going in there.

ETA: Rumor has it that Blackwater is going in there though. Like that worked out so well last time.

One of the best rockband movies I've ever seen.

A 1962 note to a school friend, signed Farrokh Bulsara.

That is from queenmuseum.com -- there is more stuff over there if you want to poke around. Freddie-obsessives have seen the others before and I don't feel like linking it all.

Happy Birthday, scarlett_h!

Unfortunately for me, on the west coast.

TeAda Productions and Highways Performance Space present
TeAda’s New Visiting Artist Program Launch

FARID MERCURY
Written and performed by Robert Farid Karimi
Featuring guest artist Shahryar Amiri

November 14-15, 2008
Friday and Saturday at 8:30pm
$20/$15

Highways Performance Space
1651 18th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Frustrated by the looming spectre of war with Iran, performance artist Robert Farid Karimi seeks out divine intervention in the form of sainted pop star Freddie Mercury. Part documentary theater, part rock concert, Farid Mercury tells the story of Iranian/Guatemalan robertito who must face the demons of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Patriot Act, and Iran-Iraq War, all the while balancing the Chicano Punk Rock Scene, his search for a wrestling champion, and the death of his Iranian grandmother. Returning to LA brings Karimi brings his national search to Los Angeles, home to largest Iranian community in the country and discovers the Freddy Mercury inside us all.

FARID MERCURY is supported in part by cultural grants from the City of Santa Monica and the National Performance Network.

About the production company: "The mission of TeAda Productions is to expand the awareness of issues affecting underserved communities through the development and presentation of performances by people of color. "