Words

Just because someone is known to have recently spoken a word that appears in an anonymous letter doesn't mean that the person who spoke that word is the author of that letter. Could be that the person who wrote that letter might be counting on those watching to make that connection. Could be that the person who wrote that letter is counting on those watching to think that the person who recently spoke that word would be careful about using it in an anonymous letter.

Prior to this letter, someone used a word to describe the editor who cancelled their on-stage interview. A few days later another someone used that word to describe the author of the anonymous letter. If there is a connection, it is the connection that is intended to distract from that which passes from shadow to shadow.

Anonymous Op Ed

"To be clear, ours is not the popular 'resistance' of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous."

Okay Anonymous (Corey "Let Trump Be Trump" Lewandowski?), I hear you -- loud and clear. But I want to be clear too. I want you to know that I fear and loathe you more than I do your boss. Because in saying what you're saying, you're trying to make me feel better knowing that your boss is being managed; that as long as you and your fellow "senior officials" are minding things, everything is going to be alright.

Yours is not a false premise/true conclusion proposition but another distraction masquerading as a disruption. I am not fooled by your ploy, nor do I feel "safer," "more prosperous." Gun violence continues unabated, economic disparity continues unabated, and your boss continues to turn public and political space into a torture chamber of misogyny and racism. Where is the safety and prosperity in that? Where is the safety and prosperity in a feudal mode of production and a medieval Supreme Court?

"all man's miseries"

"I've discovered that all man's miseries derive from a single thing, which is not being able to sit quietly in a room." -- Pascal, Pensées, 94 (Massis ed.)

The New Yorker Festival

"The latest issue of Texte zur Kunst focuses on Amerika (U.S. America principally): the land, the idea, and all that seems to come with it. What is Amerika today other than a contradiction between brute political reality and a largely fictional self-image, where fiction says as much about fact as “alternative facts” say about the truth? Within this contradiction, this issue tries to imagine modes of engaging with the current political machinery without opting for the one-dimensional dive into micropolitics that has plagued much recent activist discourse. The Trump regime has introduced a new form of politics whose tactics are closer to artistic practice—inventing parallel truths and questioning facts—than anything like traditional governance. As such, those familiar with art are in a unique position to offer an analysis of the specific forms that define contemporary politics in Amerika. We have thus commissioned artists and critics to come up with new strategies for analyzing the rampant barbarism, resisting the urge to sink into paralysis and defeat in the face of the endless onslaught."

How intriguing to read Texte Zur Kunst’s editorial note for its new “Amerika” issue (above) in light of the New Yorker Festival’s announcement that its editor, David Remnick, would be conducting an on-stage interview with “Trump regime” curator Steve Bannon. And then, just like that (that being social media’s ability to teleport ideas faster than any sit down festival), Remnick announces the cancellation of his on-stage interview in favour of a “more traditionally journalistic setting.” (Like what, on the phone? In a newsroom? Over lunch at OneDine?)

Was the New Yorker Festival right to cancel this event? Yes, because the event was never going to be a mere “exchange of ideas,” as advertised, but a spectacle animated by a militarized police force and a U.S. Customs-style pat-down of everyone entering the room. This is what terrifies me more than anything Bannon might have to say (we know what he will say, just as we know what Remnick will ask him). Yet another instance of the apparatus that, like Bannon’s hate and Remnick’s disgust, has everyone feeling even shittier than how they felt the day before.

A Man is Not a Bird (1965)

The scene where Jan receives a medal for installing factory turbines "in reduced time."

The Serpentine Path

A couple weekends ago a group of us took a day trip to Bowen Island for the opening of The Serpentine Path, a group exhibition curated by Patrik Andersson at artist Scott Massey's Terminal Creek Contemporary studio/gallery. After the opening, resident/collector Maryon Adelaar kindly invited us back to her clifftop home, where I caught what I thought was Patrik taking a selfie, only to zoom-in later and find that the image on his screen is not one person but two.

Innocence Unprotected (1968), Pt. 2

As with all good party members, the bedroom (reproduction) and the factory (production) are spoken of on equal terms.