"it's the same old story"/"it was only yesterday"

Just watched "The Battle of Algiers" in its new Criterion Collection DVD format, having never seen the movie before, though i'd heard a great deal about it from various friends who'd seen it in various contexts. That it reminds me, to a certain extent, of Sembene Ousmanne's novel God's Bits of Wood, shouldn't really surprise, i suppose, since both Pontecorvo's film and Sembene's novel attempt to document the disciplinary practices of and the tactics of refusal and resistance directed against french colonial power in North and West Africa, respectively, and if Sembene's novel predates Pontecorvo's film, (as the Senegalese general strike predates the Algerian Liberation Front's guerilla mobilizations.)

Much of the recent attention given Pontecorvo's film, which is certainly bolstered by the dvd commentary by none other than Richard Clarke (yes, that Richard Clarke) has concerned its frank depiction of the tactics of anticolonial insurgency - bombings, suicide attacks, children gunning down colonial soldiers, women concealing bombs beneath burqas, but for me what are more powerful are the ways in which the film deconstructs colonial knowledge itself, pointing towards the gaps in colonial reason, the moments at which that which can not be understood as possible, that which had been previously unthinkable, occurs.

Pontecorvo's narrative returns at several points to the shrill ululating of the arab women as a gesture of resistance and outrage against colonial rule. French and european narration finds this noise frightening and incomprehensible, impenetrable. The colonial news report which frames the penultimate scene of the film, in which the algerians, despite supposedly having been made quiescent two years earlier, with the deaths of the FLN's leadership, attempt to storm the european quarter and brave the machine guns of distraught french soldiers, narrated by French journalists, is punctuated by the ominous observation that the "muslim quarters still echo with those unintelligible and frightening rhythmic cries" of the arabs. This is the final line of voiced-over text for nearly a minute, as the colonial narration is silenced by the shouts of protest of the street demonstrations, the winding of the headless "tapeworm" toward the european quarter, until the report resumes, announcing that the french political class now strongly favors negotiating independence with the algerian insurgents. Is the subaltern speaking here? Maybe, though if so, through a lens firmly held by cultural producers grounded in the colonial Metropole. The more interesting question to ask concerns what the film attempts to say about the politics of knowledge, language, and speech. John Kerry speaks of the (p)resident's failure to "win the peace," a thinly coded nod to the language of empire and hegemony. Yet Pontecorvo's film suggests the instability and even impossibility of such an endeavor, as well as the violence and repression it is likely to involve.

whoever has been repeatedly searching for "ben healey, gay" really ought to stop already. Unless it's about the domestic partnership stuff. Either way, you should probably just ask him. He likes to talk to people. He's very good at it.

Weekend mixtape part deux. (like Hotshots)



not particularly inventive or edgy, but a pretty good picture of what i've been listening to today.



Automato: "Focus"

Frank Black aka Charles Thompson "Monkey's Gone To Heaven (demo, on newly released Frank Black Francis, available for free download from pitchfork.) "

Talib Kweli: "Going Hard"

Charles Mingus: "Moanin'"

S-K: "Dance Song '97"

The Cure: "Untitled" (the one from disintegration, not the new one.)

Minutemen: "Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing"

Hi-Tek featuring Common: "The Sun God" ("I'm open-minded like a pothead")

John Lennon: "Gimme Some Truth"

Common: "The 6th Sense"

television: "marquee moon"

charles mingus: "Boogie Stop Shuffle"

iggy & the stooges: "gimme danger"

beatles: "and your bird can sing"

jay-z:"lucifer"

futureheads: "le garage"

fugees: "family business

bob dylan: "when the ship comes in""

weekend mixtape: in no particular order, which obviously defeats the whole purpose of a mixtape.

Elliott Smith: "Speed Trials"

Big Star: "September Gurls"

Gang of Four: "Guns Before Butter"

Silver Jews :"Send In the Clouds"

Leonard Cohen: "Avalanche"

The Wowz:"See You In The Paper" (I would have gone with another song, but this one's just too amazing.)

The Shins: "Saint Simon"

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Pin"

The Arcade Fire: "Neighborhood#2(Laika)

Sufjan Stevens: "For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti" (See, Scott Stapp, christian music doesn't have to be fucking terrible!)

Le Tigre: "Deceptacon"

Camper Van Beethoven: "One of These Days"

Pavement: "Silence Kit"

Sleater Kinney: "Funeral Song"

NYT: Casino Strike In Atlantic City Lingers With No End In Sight

Kirk Townsel, a cook at the Hilton, said he saved $2,000

before the strike, which will have to carry him and his three children until

January. But he hopes to be back before Thanksgiving. He would not, though,

cross the picket line, he said.

"No, sir, not at all," said Mr. Townsel, 47.

"We're standing outside to let the management know that we're humans too - we

have to make decisions for ourselves."

The union increased its strike pay

from $200 to $300 last week to help its members hold on, and there are food

banks and social service workers at the union hall to make calls to creditors.

Other unions are also contributing money and manpower.

"If this was just

about the five-year contract, I'd go back tomorrow," said Dianna Coco-Tischler,

43, who quit her job as a preschool teacher outside Philadelphia for a

waitressing job at the Showboat that paid $600 to $700 a week. "But the

subcontracting is the No. 1 thing, and I'll stay out on strike for that, because

those could be our jobs they're giving away."

does everyone i went to high school with have a band?



I mean, i'm not askin' for much. Just a replacements-pixies-sleater-kinney cover band. Seriously.

News from San Francisco: The Examiner reports that the lockout has been ruled an "offensive" one by the California Employment Development Department retroactive to october 13, when the MEG refused to allow workers to return to the hotels. According to California law, this means that the hotels now must pay fully retroactive unemployment insurance to all 4,300 workers.

The news was the talk of the picket lines Thursday. Workers said

the decision not only bought them butter and eggs, but put additional pressure

on hotel operators, who will see their unemployment tax rate jump, Callori

said.

"Now they are going to be paying twice," said Chris Desouza, a waiter

at the Argent. "They are paying the scabs, and they are paying more unemployment

taxes."

In recent weeks hotel operators had sent workers letters suggesting

they were ineligible for unemployment, said DeSouza. The letters had undermined

the confidence of some union members.

Waiter Patrick Baird said it would

"strengthen the cause," but was nothing to celebrate.

"I'd like to make it

very clear: We would prefer not to have to get unemployment," he said. "We want

our jobs back."

Que bueno, no?