A New Post for Defensive Driving Florida John

Badly paraphrased folk wisdom, "Those who can't do, write," is perhaps evoked by two excerpts.

When the head of what was recently known as the "gulag" acknowledges publicly that prison conditions are tantamount to torture, human rights groups needn't focus on forcing such confessions. That is, if the jailers are quick to admit that prison conditions are deplorable, what role, really, remains for sustained public pressure to have the Ministry of Justice officials unveil the truth - a truth now obvious to all?

I do not understand how a writer on human rights can dismiss the big fuck storm surrounding America's prior statements of "tantamount to genocide" as a barrier to action, or more to the point, belittle the need to "unveil the truth." Declaring torture obligates a range of treaty triggered legal responsibilities, while tantamount squeezes crocodile tears. Yeah, there is a difference in context, and by sharp degrees, from the above quoted statement and the shame-rife historical legacy of "tantamount to..." but it feels, to me, unsavory to be directly cavalier about it.

And so the jail in Kemerovo was dank and crammed with other young men awaiting trial, most accused of nonviolent crimes like the one Sergei readily admits committing.

The excerpts are from Paul Farmer's Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, the discussions in chapter 4 covering the recent rash of Tuberculosis outbreaks, most focus on the Russian penal structures, overcrowded and poorly ventilated. My hangup is what the hell does "nonviolent crimes" have to do with anything.

I have no fucking clue about what it is meant to signify, and I finish the chapter to find the/a point. I do have some sensitivity, as an American, and as a paranoid living in an American dystopia, that the division of nonviolent and violent crimes is code for class and race based delineations: nonviolent = CEO/Wall Street hustlers and violent = niggers. So what can Mr. Farmer possible mean or intend? Nonviolent criminals are less deserving of detention as they await trial, that nonviolent criminals are less deserving of Tb? That they deserve better detention facilities? That there is no connection with violent crimes and being young and poor? Violent crimes cases should drag in bureaucracy while the nonviolent ones get fast tracked? What, and why exactly?

I won't even accept that nonviolent crimes are of the type that normally allows being released (like say, from dank and crammed detention facilities) because these accused criminals are the type that would make their court dates. First, only in the movies are violent crimes about serial killing psychopaths. Most are probably standard issue domestic violence, robbery, battery and assault, so there shouldn't be a problem with those accused individuals returning for their trials. As well, as the criminal system goes, the detention is normally tolled (or counted) towards any eventual sentencing, so if guilty - as Mr. Farmer says Sergei admits - then the detention period, by itself, is not at issue. Finally, nonviolent crimes are serious crimes; yes, serious crimes. To my eyes, financial crimes are even that much worst because they exasperate the conditions that foster violent crimes.

If there is a problem with Russia's legal system, with the snail crawl pace of bringing cases to trial, then the problem is with Russia's legal system and bureaucracy, and the type of crime has nothing to do with it.

True story, even if a while ago, at a dinner party, where one dude was black, and the rest mixed, in a conversation of how blacks should be properly identified these days by the media or popular political currents, whether negro, Afro American, or African American, or whatnot, and the shared experience of these friends on the historical shifts of the linguist traverse and current observations on the perceptions of the different identity markers, I asked, eventually, "But 'nigger' is still good, right?"

So, what more should I say about the(/my) usage of bad words? Nigger, bitch, & fag, these words, as any words, are part of the pop lexicon and therefore open to use. Obviously, because of history, which goes a long way of making them bad, any actual expression of these words comes with the threat and/or expectation of incendiary impact and/or response. Or you would think.

Well, brave face talk and all, I do think more than twice (or try) before keeping those words in, let's say, for something like here. That's not technically true. The bad word used to describe black folk rings a clear alarm, but the bad words for gays/les and women folk are just something I kinda lately find myself, uh, thinking about. I mean, and not as a defense, obviously I don't use any bad words as an epithet, or being the easygoing type, I could not conceive of a situation where those words would be used. But pop culture being what it is, and the still pervasive second class status given to samesex preferrers and women, there is a near blind eye in referring to these sub groups in a derogatory manner, as oppose to the quick ire for race base slurs. And it is a strange parallel track, for the same sex preferrers, there is an active, up to date active, war to deny them basic rights, like marriage. Whereas for the ladies, I can only imagine their mistreatment is as ancient as the damned dawn of civilization. Or certainly, as ancient as my birth, or conception.

Assassinated Tupac raps:

You know it makes me unhappy
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up.1

I love Mati Diop. And Gregoire Colin. And Claire Denis. Which is to say 35 rhums (35 Shots of Rum) was pretty good.

As was Vredens dag (Day of Wrath).

Watchmen was enjoyable to a point.

35 rhums least directly critiques gender politics and only a wee smidge more on class/immigrant politics, mostly done by showing the everyday lives and surrounding world of the characters. But Mati Diop is drop dead smokin beautiful. And Claire Denis is, like, the best woman moviemaker - a qualification that is only applicable for herein context, cuz otherwise it'd be one of the greatest moviemaker. I haven't seen any Chantal Ackerman flicks, then, maybe, Denis is definitely top 3? Her buoyant excellence as well as artistic control in this men dominated world and industry is a statement that speaks for itself.

The men dominated industry speaks for itself. I abhor the Academy show, but you know how many chicks won the best director awards? None.

Vendredi soir is light (or modest) Denis fare, but it is a bit ahead as my favorite. Beau travail is probably her critical high point, and my first movie from her, and which pitched my mind on fire. Outside the explicit Ozu homage, and despite some in the critical establishment printing and blogging otherwise, 35 rhums is a major, shimmering Denis work. Even ignoring the homage - I didnot catchon to it until the ending when it was quite blatant; and if it is not blatant to you, go watch (more) Ozu, fast - 35 rhums stands on its own movie legs, and blooms. Plus, it is so fucking good. And I am glad Colin has not let himself go.

Mati Diop. Mati Diop. Mati Diop. Mati Diop. (The restof thecast is terrific.) Mati Diop. Mati Diop. Agnes Godard.2 Again, not that the Academy show is an arbiter of anything, but you know how many chicks have ever been nominated for cinematography? None. No,really,none. Statement speaks itself.

Anywayz, Vreden dag not only about gender issues, but clearly squared on it, with the several panning shots of the (of course) all dude inquisitors peering judgmentally on various sordid scenes of torture and confession. Vreden dag is terrific when you consider, in varying degrees, the various hero(ine)s and villain(esse)s are, at the same time, guilty and holy, shames, as an example, let's say, Arthur Miller's The Crucible. The audience can sort and feel through, amazingly enough, ambiguity and complexity. I like it when a director does not assume the viewers are morons.

Vreden dag kinda recalls Dreyer's earlier La passion de Jeanne d'Arc in the inquisition scenes.

Why do/must we fear our women? I add.

Fuck and spells. Don't stone our women, male religious sadists/fundamentalists (among others). Time to heal our women, be real to our women. And to let them be.

Anna Svierkier as Herlof's Marte steals scenes like a grey fox. She is wonderful and Dreyer's handling of her is wonderful. Hopefully I can catch maybe one more Dreyer flick in the upcoming weeks, Vampry most likely.

A problem some folks have with the Watchmen is Malin Akerman's performance. I am outside that circle and think she is super terrificness, and, if there are faults, I blame the source material and or the script and or the director for them. Plus, she is smoking hot. And she kicksass pretty well. And she does enough to tie a lot of the movie together. A freakin comic book movie.

I am not going down that useless road of giving the evil eye to the American movie industry, or perhaps to the wants and expectations of the American viewing public, for confining hot chicks to dumb and boring roles.

As for the rest of the Watchmen, if you can stomach The Dark Knight dreck, it's more of the same. Well done Hollywood rubbish. I don't know whether to frown over the lack of imagination or ambition by the individual moviemaker or the systemic/structural failures/restrictions of the creatively/morally bankrupt studio system. And if you couldn't stand, like me, The Dark Knight,moresame rubbish.

Malin Akerman, let's now praise famous blond Swedes.

I swear, listening to a lot of New York based The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, many of the songs, I swear it sounds British. Thank goodness for My Bloody Valentine or The Smiths. Or is 1990 really a long,long time longago? I don't remember the source, but I agree that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - who I just found out about but are in enough apparently to preemptively turn me away from their sold out Brooklyn show - neatly retread, without breaking or innovating from - some internet tastemakers tag The Pains of Being Pure at Heart as best new something or another, and I guess that would be true if one is jonesing for unfulfilled nostalgia - those fun old molds and grounds with their exquisite pop pieces.

Well, I cannot be too judgmental because I paid downloaded the album, and want to see them for a New York show in May.Maybe.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart also has a Peggy playing keyboards and singing/harmonizing.

Keyboards are okay. Because Valerie Trebeljahr, among others, plays the keyboard. Chicks on bass turns me off even with the bass being one of the things that makes a particular band's sound sound special and the fact of many superb bassists being chicks, the lady from Los Campesinos! being a recent example of how revelatory it was when I saw and heard her and the rest of the band sorta rock. During a pretty good Los Campesinos! show, I turned to my friend and said that the bassist, she, definitely played a big part in making it a pretty good show.

Just, it seems a cliche. May be that is a bad way to look at it. But the token woman does not have to play bass. I think.

I arrive fairly late to the news that seminal riot grrrl band, who soon became one of the best rock bands ever, Sleater-Kinney - we just want to say that we're not here to fuck the band; we are the band - disbanded.3 I feel a little guilty because while I do trulymadly love their music and the band, I kinda stopped following them even though pretty much whatever new album they were releasing prompted full trottle excitement and a desire to buy the album and to catch them perform. And now, that's it. Searching through the internet to rediscover them, damn, their tunes are hot, and individually the women seem awesome. Janet Weiss performs now with Stephen Malkmus though his laidback style deprives the music world the ferocity of her heavy drumming. And the other two chicks are doing something interesting too.4 And, some Sleater-Kinney folks were/are bisex'u'ale, lesbian, and straight.

Let the LGBT marry already.

Pathologies of Power and Mr. Farmer continues:

AIDS specialists rarely say this bluntly, but the majority of those 30 million people have simple been written off, because the first priority for the first few billion dollars is prevention, not treatment.

I wonder if the idea behind this assertion is that prevention is just a stupidbad idea. That the benefit of prioritizing money and dedicated attention to a portion of the 30 million currently afflicted with HIV/AIDS, and a result of easing the dire medical and social conditions of, let's say, 5 million of these poor folks, supersedes the harm of another 30 million AIDS/HIV sufferers. If prevention is any part of a strategy,5 then,well, it has to be cashmoney funded too. And for that matter, just as I suppose Mr. Farmer is crushed by the mistreatment of the 30 million with AIDS, other AIDS specialist would be crushed by, let's say, poorly funded prevention strategies that allows an additional infected 30 million people. Mr. Farmer could be a little more blunt too.

Z noticed that my hair was cut. Finally, someone did. I have been obsessing over my hairdo because staring in the mirror, uh, the trim I performed myself, it is damn uneven. I am tempted to touch up the back a little, but I imagine further sniping would only highlight the ongoing disaster.6

A thing I have been doing has been snapping pictures of my dinners. Or, M had weeks ago sent me a photo of a Japanese style pork belly thing he made, and I thought it was cool. So I have been intermittently doing so with my photos in return to him, and others. Subscribe to my Twitter feed for your updates!7 I have not been too diligent with keeping it up, especially when I have friends over and I am rushing and totally forgetting to take out my camera until way late, and most of my cooking is completely and unimaginatively unremarkable.

Bad contrapositive: those who do not write, do. By many accounts, Mr. Farmer's medical and community work, Partners in Health is a prime example, will one day be beatification worthy. But I just have not been enjoying his writing, and that's even with my sympathy matching pretty closely with Mr. Farmer - that the poor should receive preferential treatment, as oppose to the sham "cost effective" treatment. He just is not critical enough of the things he lays down in writing, which in turn undermines to certain degrees the force of his arguments and, as with me, frustrates readers. Or he fancies himself too much a writer; that afterword is eck. In which case, the editor should have stopped bending over for Mr. Farmer's professional and humanitarian awesomeness, and, like, read the dang drafts. There is always room to blame the editor.

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1. Keep Ya Head Up.
2. Interviewed here and also.
3. A performance, another, and 'nother, and one and a second video, plus a better online appreciation. No bass in the band, instead the guitars are tuned down to C# that creates a similar yet distinct fullness to their sound.
4. I discover the trio before the ascendancy of youtube so, even having seen them in concert and music videos, I really didn't distinguish them as individual ladies. But along with the aforementioned shout out to Janet's skillz, Corin has that defiant, unfettered, irritating-only-if-you-find-god-irritating vibrato voice and Carrie is simply magnificent.
5. Pope Benedict XVI, shut the fuck up already.
6. I did take up the shears again one morning and no more harm done than already done.
7. I'm just kidding of course, I do not Twit. Despite this web presence, I confess to an astounding lack of tech savvy. My claim to a photo twit should be a dead giveaway, as I believe Twitter is purely (short) text base.