Reading List: November.

Fiction:

A.L. Kennedy: Looking for the Possible Dance.
Harry Mulisch: Das Attentat.
Harry Mulisch: Siegfried.

Non-Fiction: 

Susan Sontag: Zur gleichen Zeit. 
Eric Hobsbawm: Das imperiale Zeitalter: 1875-1914.

Films: 

Hiroshima, mon amour (1959, Alain Resnais).
L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais).
Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011, Andrew Rossi).
Jin-Rô (1999, Hiroyuki Okiura).
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006, Ken Loach).
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011, Sean Durkin).
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder).
Circumstance (2011, Maryam Keshavarz).

Shows: 

World at War.
Waking the Dead, Season Four - Nine.
The Body Farm, Season One. 
Vera, Season One.
The Silence, Season One.

The other Forever War, cont. after all, kind of

Mr. Maliki insisted that Iraq could provide for its internal security. And he made much of Iraq’s desire to build a relationship with the United States as a sovereign country, dealing with Washington on the basis of national interest and “mutual respect.”

But his comments suggested that for all the solemn pageantry of a long war ending, there is likely to be considerable continuity in the security relationship between the United States and Iraq, as it struggles to contain terrorist attacks by insurgent groups.

Mr. Biden reaffirmed that the two countries would maintain a “robust security relationship,” adding that it was up to the Iraqis to decide “what you think that relationship should be.” He and Mr. Maliki agreed to set up a committee to plan security cooperation.

NY Times: Iraq Would Accept U.S. Soldiers as Trainers, November 30, 2011

Das Lied zum Sonntag

Fleet Foxes - The Shrine / An Argument


directed by Sean Pecknold

When you talk you hardly even look in my eyes
in the morning, in the morning.

Inevitably

"die Revolution ist wie Saturn, sie frißt ihre eignen Kinder"

Georg Büchner: Dantons Tod

Hint: the first name of the President of Uzbekistan is easy to remember.

Rachel Maddow Show, November 16th, 2011

One of the things that I find absolutely stunning in the Republican Presidential race so far is the fact that not only being a supposedly "untainted" outsider who has never held office or worked in politics is considered a good thing, but appearing uninformed and disinterested in policy (especially foreign policy) is regarded as the best way to prove that you have never been part of the evil system, as if being a businessman somehow automatically means that you're innocent and incorruptible. If you are running for this particular office that comes with all this power and influence (and influence on people who can't even vote for you), the correct way of reacting to not knowing something is "I will look it up / I will have someone brief me on this issue". Ignorance isn't some magical protective spell, or at least it shouldn't be. 

This is why I still use all caps.

WILD FLAG - Winter Pair (live at the Troubadour, November 2nd, 2011)




I don’t see any way around this, 
So let’s go through it. 
Right through the center. 

Last bit of good news for a while, probably...

With his formal resignation, which was confirmed by the presidential palace on Saturday night, the 75-year-old billionaire brought down the curtain on a government that has played a significant role in taking the European single currency and the global economy to the brink of catastrophe. The dramatic end of Berlusconi's 17-year domination of Italian politics came as the lower house of parliament approved a package of savage cuts and stimulus measures demanded by the European Union to trim Italy's massive €1.9 trillion debt. 

The Guardian: Silvio Berlusconi bows out after Italian MPs vote for savage cuts, November 12, 2011 

«Tritt ab, geh nach Hause», lauteten Sprechchöre gegen Berlusconi, als dieser das Abgeordnetenhaus durch den Hintereingang verließ. Rufe wie «Hau ab, Mafioso» hatten den umstrittenen Ministerpräsidenten bei seiner Abfahrt aus seiner Villa Grazioli auf dem Weg zum Quirinalspalast begleitet. Ein Sturm der Entrüstung «Hanswurst, Hanswurst» empfing ihn, als er - schwer eskortiert - dort eintraf. 

Die Zeit: Die Ära Berlusconi ist beendet, 12. November 2011

Let us reaffirm that our motto is in fact our motto because it already being our motto isn't enough proof that it is, in fact, our motto.

America: You’ve met our drones, now meet our people!

Jon Stewart, The Daily Show on November 3rd, 2011

Linkliste unbehandelter Themen

Politics: 

Center for American Progress on the cost of the Iraq War: the most relevant and shocking number "Between 96,037 and 104,7542" Iraqi civilian deaths.

Oh. "The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government."

Jon Stewart recently interviewed Condoleezza Rice (who has just published a book) about the Iraq War and it was disheartening to see that she still seems to believe the "the ends justify the means" argument, even though the ends also unfortunately (and unintentionally) were the strengthening of Iran's position in the region.

Here's an interesting thought in an opinion piece on economic inequality in the US: "Europe has maintained much more economic equality but is struggling greatly with inclusiveness and discrimination, and is far less open to minorities than is the United States."

Things I will regret later: I predict that the Republican Presidential candidate will be Mitt Romney.  

Pop Culture: 

John Darnielle just released a new song.

I can't stop listening to this song. And I'm not the first person who feels reminded of Scout Niblett (not the voice, the music!) but in the best way possible. 

Mother Jones interviews the creators of Homeland (also about politics), which is becoming more and more interesting.  

We tried to put Carrie in the most awkward, uncomfortable position we could put her in. That puts the audience in the same position: You are violating someone's privacy. Without being doctrinaire, we're really trying to show what it means to watch somebody all the time. What are you learning, and are you learning anything that's relevant?

Paris Review interviews William Gibson about the process of writing and many other things. 

If you read the Victorians writing about themselves, they’re describing something that never existed. The Victorians didn’t think of themselves as sexually repressed, and they didn’t think of themselves as racist. They didn’t think of themselves as colonialists. They thought of themselves as the crown of creation.Of course, we might be Victorians, too. [...] 

The Bridge is a fable about counterculture, the kind of counterculture that may no longer be possible. There are no backwaters where things can breed—our connectivity is so high and so global that there are no more Seattles and no more Haight-Ashburys. We’ve arrived at a level of commodification that may have negated the concept of counterculture. I wanted to create a s­cenario in which I could depict something like that happening in the recognizably near future. 

cont.

Heretofore, the countries that joined the euro zone did so with the understanding that they could have the best of all worlds — the convenience of a common currency without the economic and political integration that would inevitably be needed if the countries did not pursue similar economic policies. That understanding was wrong.

For Greece, no alternatives look good. The latest European bailout package does make some gestures toward promoting economic growth, like a program of loans for smaller businesses, and it allows Greece to escape paying some of its debts. But mostly it calls for sacrifice and austerity for years and years. The alternative, with a loss of European support, could be worse. Greece would have to get by on its own resources. It could default on its debt and devalue its suddenly resurrected currency, the drachma. Eventually, that might lead to economic growth, but in the meantime there would still be austerity. Without access to outside capital, Greeks might have to pay for their own government, through taxes. 

The New York Times: Why Not Give Greeks Their Say?, November 3, 2011

The Economist: Greece’s woes, November 5, 2011

Die Zeit: Um Mitternacht entscheidet sich Papandreous Zukunft, 4. November 2011

The Guardian: Greece may leave euro, leaders admit, November 3, 2011

NY Times: Greek Leader Calls Off Referendum on Bailout Plan, November 3, 2011

NPR: What Would A Greek Default Mean To Europe?, September 21, 2011

Behind the strip malls the tree tops are burning.

The big fear is that a decisive turn against the bailout package in Greece could undermine European efforts to enforce deep budget cuts in other heavily indebted European countries, especially Italy, which is mired in its own political crisis and has a far larger economy and much more debt than Greece.

Political analysts and several advisers to Mr. Papandreou said the prime minister had decided to announce a popular referendum on Monday night as his last best hope to shore up his eroded political standing. They said he wanted to put Greece’s fate back in the hands of the Greek people and to force his many opponents — both inside his government and in the opposition — to coalesce around the idea that what is at stake is Greece’s membership in the euro zone. 

NY Times: Greek Cabinet Backs Call for Referendum on Debt Crisis, November 2, 2011

The Atlantic: Will the Greece Referendum Send the Eurozone Spiralling?, November 1, 2011

The Guardian: Greek government teeters on brink of collapse in wake of referendum plan, November 2, 2011

Die Zeit: In Brüssel wächst die Wut auf Athen, 2. November 2011

The Economist: A Greek Drama, November 1, 2011