_shock and awe-dacity_
As some of you can attest, there is nothing more awkward that having political arguments with family. On one hand, there are issues of respect, love and admiration for those that have been there in your formative years. Then on the other hand, one must juxtapose that [almost to a point of an integration of value/belief] with what you have have learned, what you have found; the knowledge you have picked up along the way.
In any case, lest this post detract from something it isn’t (though perhaps it is), recently in my own searching I have found an amazingly intelligent woman I put on par with the likes of Susan Sontag and Arundhati Roy: Naomi Klein.
If you’ve been finding yourself walking past this book -Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism- because the cover appears questionably like all of the other partisan books out there, stop and pick it up. The arguments laid out by Klein are well-formed, thought out and incredibly thick with research; in short Naomi has done her homework (for 4 years) writing this book.
In fact, and perhaps unlike other partisan diatribes sold on bookshelves, Klein has posted her documents -her research- online. This includes everything from U.S. senate reports investigating the US Government and the relation of the ITT corporate influences intervening in Chilean politics (eventually leading to the U.S. backed institution of the tyrannical, Gen. Augusto Pinochet), to letters of economist Andre Gunder Frank decidedly breaking ties with the “Chicago Boys” school of economics. These Chicago Boys being students studying a theory -developed by Milton Friedman- based on free open-markets (”wide-open!”) which eliminates all state-funded programs and privatizes everything from schools *(as we’ve just recently seen in the wake of Katrina) to utilities like power, water and infrastructure.
Based on this book, Alfonso Cuarón (Great Expectations, Y tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men) made this short with his brother Jonás Cuarón. Cuarón adds the visuals (from found footage, CIA manuals, etc) where Klein’s book gives the research compounded in 677 pages.
Whatever your stance, it’s worth picking up a book as well-developed as Klein has accomplished.
I’m still rooting for her Pulizter.
////_fico cose a fare in NY_
per io (qualcuno che non parlo italiano bene) questo é qualcosa fico perche, questo ragazzo, sta parliamo su dei posti che conosco.
< …mangia il Muffin. Come il cane!>
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_questi sono alcuni dei miei preferiti cose…._
lately i’ve been immersed in the news of the day. so much sadness…i tend to absorb it through the skin.
i forget how beautiful life can be..
this morning… i wanted to find some of those beautiful moments that get lost in the headlines, get lost between the white paper and black ink.
doorways that lead to unexpected friendships….
tomatoes…
cribbage, and other things grandfathers teach you….
sempre caffé (con un’fettina di limone)…
generations of strong, beautiful women…
simple moments, just passing through…
all day pajamas, and other things we forget to do when we grow up…
certamente vino….
tongues, through fences….
music from friends…
a beautiful monster, covered in grass…
sempre la luna….
sandals on a warm day…
my mother, long before we met each other……
……even when it doesn’t seem so sometimes, it’s all beauty in the end. we just don’t expect to see it all the time.
1 comment_Chicago_
recently i had a business trip out to Chicago. it was rainy and pretty dreary most of the time. we did manage to find an afternoon of sunshine…
heading back there in June. hopefully with this kind of sunshine. such a gorgeous city.
this is a little pastry shop called Dinkel’s (obviously). I didn’t get a chance to go in, but it looked charming and I loved this old school sign.
on the same street is the Chicago Photography Center. not much going on when we were there -a bit anticlimactic in the excitement of “my first Chicago” experience. there was a place in a corner where they held classes, in another corner they had a small showing of some local photographers.
in any case the building was beautiful. looking forward to seeing a gallery opening.
_forget the time, keep being a child_
thoughts and concentration sent careening through the guardrail and off into some unintended distance…trying to get some work done, I got shuffled to this in my iTunes.
i’ve gotten flack in the past about how much I adore these two girls -their experimentation with music has been a simple syrup for me since their first album. in any case, i listened to this (new)oldy and thought i’d post it.
which led me to watch this: cocorosie, vashti bunyan, antony, devendra banhart….
in other words, all Eternal Children.
(watch for Bianca’s mouth-trumpet -on par with Andrew Bird’s puckered whistles)
p.s: cocorosie, bisounours
////_classic moment in Type: you’re like a child_
i was looking around motionographer this morning (a must if you haven’t checked it out), and found this in the pile of a bunch of similar looking videos. it made me laugh.
on a similar note, i just recently watched Helvetica the other night. as “designy-geeky” as it is, I thought it was done extremely well (i.e. not a niche-market doc) and am still wondering why it didn’t win more awards. look for it and check it out. it will reintroduce you to every word you thought you knew…make you feel like a kid again.