So give me a spark I can look for instead

My favorite band is breaking up. I feel understandably sad about this. But I'm glad that in eleven years they made seven incredible albums that I listen to almost every day. If the Woods is the last album they ever make, I'm glad that "Night Light" is the conclusion to their catalogue, achingly beautiful and obstinately hopeful. I'm glad that I got to see them three times (the show at the 2002 Siren Music Festival remains the single best set by any band I have ever seen,) and I'm glad I have my ticket to what may be their second-to-last show ever on Aug. 2 at Webster Hall. But I'm still getting all teary eyed, even if I'm not ready to say goodbye yet.




Yesterday, when I wrote that Buffy failed to address race, I neglected to discuss "Pangs," in which a vengeful Chumash spirit gives Xander syphylis and kills a bunch of people and Giles, SPike, Willow, and Buffy get into a stupid fight about political correctness and the legacies of colonial genocide. It's a horrible episode - certainly Jane Espenson's worst for the series - way worse than "First Date," Ashanti and all, and symbolizes for me the failure of the show to address race in a meaningful and valuable way. Plus, the cheap Angel tie-in is stupid, Riley is a doof, and the only good thing about the episode is Anya's constant babbling about sex with Xander, which is actually pretty awesome. Well, the other good thing about pangs is that it provides one of Anya's funniest lines in the song "I'll Never Tell" during the amazing season six musical epic-sode Once More With Feeling. That will have to do for now.

Oh, also, this is awesome.

In These Times takes on Veronica Mars

Christopher Hayes hagiographizes VM as scenes from the class struggle in Neptune, albeit with the ambivalences and complexities of beaucoup de "Stockholm Syndrome" (great Yo La Tengo song, by the way.) I'm trying to churn out some very overdue reading responses and failing miserably at the moment - probably need to get out of the library and work at home for the afternoon, but I'll take a few first to post some of my own thoughts on the class politics of Veronica Mars, which I find somewhat more problematic than Hayes does.

Class fissures lie at the core of Rob Thomas's fictional Southern Californian drama. Veronica and her father are declasse flotsam in a "town without a middle class," in which you are either fantastically wealthy or you scrub the toilets of the people who are. Hayes argues that the series deftly explores the pathologies of class and the antagonsims and resentments of those who look upward from beneath the impenetrable glass ceiling.

Yet i question this analysis on several grounds. First, Neptune's class politics are themselves deeply fanciful. The rich are rich because they were magically swept along in the dotcom boom or made a lot of bad movies. The corporate criminal (Richard Casablancas) is the rare exception. Most of Neptune's nouveau are simply the honest beneficiaries of Jake Kane's streaming video patents. Class is a striation, a marker of difference, here, which functions like a dehistoricized ethnic category or mystical syncretic racial identity rather than as a structure of exploitation. To hypothesize that class difference breeds resentment is not a particulary revolutionary suggestion, yet this is what Hayes thinks is so wonderful about the show and this is the thrust of his article. Yet Veronica Mars fails to present a more nuanced articulation of what class is and how it works. The dehistoricization and mythologization of Neptune's class politics at times makes the series into a sort of Windfall noir. But more importantly, confine class to a manifestation of difference and even inequality but not a structure of exploitation. Though there are moments when the world of the wealthy and the Weevil are tantalizingly intertwined - especially in the series's second episode - for the most part the series understands the underclass as atomized detritus severed from the Whopper McMansions of the elite save for some Crash-styl;e moments of crisis and the occasional Ellisonian Bumfight.

Unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show's antecedent, which offered what i believe was a more nimble and less stereotyped, if quieter exploration of high school as a central locus of the imaginary of American cultural production, Veronica Mars attempts to deal with race as an ordering mechanism and social force in the lives of Neptune's inhabitants. If Buffy's Sunnydale seems to exist outside the racialized faultlines of California politics for the most part, (with the possible exception of "desde abajo te devora,") Veronica's Neptune seems at first glance to rest solidly at the epicenter of the tremors of violent racialized political exclusion, exploitation, and reaction. From Logan and Dick's racist banter to the sneers of the corrupt, self-aggrandizing Sherriff Lamb, to the machinations of Celeste Kane, the thrillseeking "jungle fever" of Paris Hilton Caitlyn Ford, or Weevil's chivalrous defense of Carmen, Racialized frictions and fissures are constitutive forces in Neptune's social imaginary. Yet Veronica's racial politics not only suffer from a dehistoricized and toothless multiculturalism, but also seem at times to employ problematic, even racist constructions of peoplehood in order to attain an "iconic" representation of southern California which all too often instead stumbles into the clumsy stereotypes of CSI and Law and Order and the criminalizing gaze of Cops. There are also moments where the series does exactly the opposite, and I don't want anyone to mistake me for someone who doesn't think that the show's first season is absolutely fantastic (well, except for the resolution of "A Trip to The Dentist," which was a total and deeply fucked-up cop out of dealing with sexual violence in a serious and complex way.) And whatever my disgust with the many failures of the sophomore season, I will continue to watch season 3 religiously. But if we are going to talk about the class politics of the series, I think our tone has to be much more meditative and critical than that which Hayes adopts.

(As an aside, I played Ollman's Class Struggle board game with Will and Cathy in college. I was the students, and I was allied to the workers. Somehow, I won, which is against the game's rules, but I guess we were playing a post-Seattle variant or something.)

GSOC Walks.

I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed the WRC that's the way yall need GSOC
-Kanye Westerberg

Inspired by my recent brush with the Jews for Jesus, I would like to announce the founding of the Jews for GSOC. To paraphrase a certain flyer I received in the mail two days ago, GSOC is for the Jews. And the muslims. And the atheists. And all the other graduate employees. I forsee the founding of similar organizations across academe. These organizations can all band together into the Coalition of Graduate Employee Jews (CGEJew,) and, as Jews who believe in social justice and the sanctity of workers' rights, organize to reshape the academy accordingly. Surely this and other endeavors are far more useful for the Jewish community than evangelical christianity.

I'm mostly kidding. Don't get offended.

Pelo corto otra vez

Rides beside me and never buys any smokes.

I'm being targeted by the Jews for Jesus. Somehow they have obtained my home address and are sending me mailings in which they attempt to persuade me that, though i may believe otherwise, Jesus is for me.

I'm deeply offended by the Jews for Jesus. It isn't the Jesus part that offends me. Nothing against Jesus, as long as we're talking IWW/CCNE-style, direct action "Jesus was a wobbly" Jesus and not Pat Robertson/Pat Boone/Rick Santorum "Jesus hates queers" Jesus. "Jesus is just alright with me," as Millie put it. Ok, maybe the Byrds did it first. No, my problem is the predatory, evangelical agenda which suggests to me a prfound and militant imperialism of belief. I don't really care if you call yourself a Jew for Jesus. I would refer to such a person as a Christian, because, if you read the New Testament, that's what all those apostle dudes and dudettes and transduderinos are - Jews who dig the Jeebus. Hooray for them. It's the saturation of college campuses, the unsolicited mailings, the profound conviction that Jewish life and cultures -to which i have a complex and at times very ambivalent relationship stemming from antizionist politics and secular upbringing - are only valid if colonized by fundamentalist Christianity. I don't support that and I don't want it in my mailbox. So if you're reading this, Jews for Jesus, stop sending me crap.

The return address is from San Francisco and I am thus tempted to blame Alek.

Sorry for the rant.


Funniest recent search hit which led to this site:

"michigan weapon registration ninja." Someone clearly wants to join the UAW's ninjitsu brigade.

Well, either that, or the Michigan Militia are reforming and going the "totally stealth" route.

breaking

apparently Unite-HERE local 6 has settled with the NY Hotel Association on a six-year contract with raises between 3.5 and 4% each year, strong health care coverage, increased pension contributions, and increased sick day and vacation time. More when details are available.

While I have your attention, I would like to point out the seven new additions to the "Ask Me About The Strike" sidebar - some further notes from the last three months of NYU labor turmoil, including the entry on the Civil Disobedience, my last two song rewrites (Replacements and Benatar), and more.

Pat Benatar, ON STRIKE

(to the tune of "Heartbreaker.")


With this strike we're trying to save
What you keep claiming is dead
Sketchy hugs, empty promises
We won't be misled

You're the wrong kind of leader to direct a university
The neoliberal schemer, hiding behind the NLRB
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around with me.
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around, no no no

You've proved yourself to be a huge liar
Hoarding real estate gold
But your behavior only inspires
organizing tenfold

You're the wrong kind of leader to direct a university
The neoliberal schemer, hiding behind the NLRB
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around with me.
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around, no no no

You're the wrong kind of leader to direct a university
The neoliberal schemer, hiding behind the NLRB
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around with me.
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around, no no no

You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, don't you mess around with me.
You're a strikebreaker, pay taker,
big faker, strikebreaker!

One Down.

Jack Lew, former Director of the Clinton Administration's Office of Management and the Budget, current Executive Vice President of New York University, and GSOC antagonist, is stepping down next month to make "a transition to a position in the private sector" (in John Sexton's words.) Perhaps NYU wasn't paying him enough (Lew is the highest paid official on the University's payroll.) Or maybe, dare we to dream, this could be sthe start of something analogous to the great jumping of ships which came at Yale during the summer of 2003, when, in rapid succession, Bob Culver, Barry S. Kane, and indeed a host of other administrators, apparently weary of constant labor strife, suddenly developed a desire to be closer to their families or move on to other coasts. I hope Mr. Lew's time here in New York has been educational, and I hope his successor, Michael Alfano, currently the dean of NYU's Dental School, moves quickly to avoid further turmoil by negotiating a new contract with GSOC. But it's telling to note the numerous references to Alfano's experience in the corporate sector in Sexton's letter to the community announcing the personnel changes. Real change, it seems, and this should surprise no one, will come only if we are organized to force it. Welcome to the ULT, Mr. Alfano. We look forward to meeting you at the bargaining table.

Pandas on Strike

While in DC for a friend's wedding (which was really beautiful and amazing, but I am going to refrain here from blogging about it) I attempted a pilgrimage to see Tai Shan, the baby panda at the National Zoo about whom i have blogged incessantly here. Needless to say, I was very excited. Unfortunately, Tai Shan and his mother, Mei Xiang, were both nowhere to be found in their yard, and the inside exibit was actually closed, leading me to conclude that what was taking place was in fact a wildcat (or, in this case, domesticated bear) strike. I have no way to substantiate this claim, but I stand by it nonetheless and pledge my full support to my furry companero who is currently climbing all over his mother. I did get to see a baby elephant dribble a ball around with its snout, just in time for the world cup, a hippopotamus swim really fast underwater and then take an unusually violent bowel movement, and some really freaking cute golden lion tamarins. And no, i'm not starting the monkey obsession again.

And in the "do i make you hate the left?" department,

Like pilgrims, the conference attendees carried their prayers up to Wicks,
bearing witness to her earthly skin tone and sun-white hair. As they dropped the
little bags in front of her, she smiled softly and looked down at her table.
Afterward, she received a warm ovation for her introductory remarks about her
lifelong fight against corporate interests.

This is who Judy Wicks is.

So why is it—no, how can it be—that across town at Sixth and Chestnut
streets in the seventh floor regional office of the National Labor Relations
Board, there sat a file containing a slew of unfair labor practices with which
Wicks is charged—practices that, if true, would amount to union busting?

***

For a week, Wicks heard nothing from the organizers. Then, on Nov. 3, a
letter addressed to "Judy" appeared on the same corkboard where she had posted
hers. It explained that organizing the White Dog was important because "this
restaurant must continue to be a model for socially responsible business," and
called on Judy to "live up to [her] values." The signature read, "White Dog
Organized for Leadership in Foodservice (W.O.L.F.)."
A sort of
leftier-than-thou back-and-forth ensued. Wicks posted another letter, this one
five pages, attacking the union:

Last night I went to hear John Wilhelm, the national head of [UNITE HERE],
speak at Penn. In a way, I went to see who it is that some of my staff look up
to more than me. … True, he did go to Yale, and he is a white male. I can't say
I have such credentials.

She continued to play on the theme of betrayal ("We have never had a "them'
and "us' here"), and to argue that a union would make things worse, not better:
It would charge unnecessary dues, she said, and add a bulky layer of bureaucracy
that was not tenable in a small restaurant. ("If there is a worker … who is not
doing his share of work, we could not fire him. Other staff will have to pull
the weight of the slacker. If a kitchen worker is outstanding … [executive chef]
Andy [Brown] will not be able to give that person a raise.")

The organizers, Wicks had decided, were misguided in their progressivism.
"I think some of the union people felt it was a logical step. They thought, "If
I'm truly a progressive person I should be unionized.'"

As for the union, Michael Mullins, a UNITE HERE organizer who
worked on the White Dog campaign, says Wicks' appeals to family and loyalty are
"boilerplate": startlingly similar to the anti-union rhetoric organizers are
accustomed to seeing from the likes of Wal-Mart. And her contention that a union
won't work in a restaurant, he says, is a classic canard: Small restaurants are
not a "growth market" for unions, he concedes, but, "Hotels used to say that
unions were good for autoworkers, automakers used to say [unions] were good for
meatpackers." To union advocates, Wicks' argument sounded a heck of a lot like
"not in my backyard."

For the curious, Mark Oppenheimer at the New Haven Advocate goes into detail on some of the anti-union actions Ian Shapiro took during the grade strike which recently cost him the Hillman prize. Oppenheimer reveals just how disingenuous Shapiro is being when he professes innocence (or ignorance.)

One charge against Shapiro is not so secret, however. Although it was not
part of the NLRB complaint, the allegation that Shapiro watered down a letter of
recommendation for Corey Robin, then a graduate student and pro-union activist,
has long been well known in GESO circles, and, according to Meyerson, was one of
the charges that led to the withdrawal of the Hillman Award.

Robin, now a professor at Brooklyn College, says he took a leave of
absence from Yale "to work full-time as director of the organizing drive for
GESO. And Ian had been on my dissertation committee before I did this. The
letter he wrote prior to my taking a leave was very positive. He said in
the letter, "He is one of the ablest students in our program.' After I returned
. . . he changed it to "He is an able student.' That's essentially saying, "He
can walk and chew gum at the same time.' And it was particularly detrimental to
my career, because he's one of the political theorists in the department, and I
would have needed his support on the job market."

Shapiro denies ever changing the language in question. However, we have the letters right in front of us, provided by Corey Robin, and they bear out Robin's charge.

Also in NLRB news, this is now legal, and the board may be about to rule that thousands of Registered Nurses in the private sector count are "managers" and thus can't form unions through the NLRB election process.

Ann Coulter's pissed off at the widow/ers of people who died on 9/11/2001. She thinks they are whiny and are using their grief for political purposes. Initial response is to wonder if this is because they deviate from the right's game plan of using somebody else's grief for political purposes which will probably screw them over.

Maybe more later. When i finish some papers.

I am such a shitty grad student.

just found out that Desmond Dekker passed away last week. Almost got to see him play once when I was in high school, but then he wasn't allowed into the country for some reason. Very sad. I'll listen to "Israelites" tonight as I continue to try to finish my papers.

Expect blogging to resume once i've done this and established a more dependable internet connection in my apartment. I have a lot to say.