31 October, 2008 | 13 Comments

First, a little quiz.

One of these things is not like the others:

a) b) c)

The correct answer is C.

***

Poor Obama.  Now that his election appears inevitable, he’s in a panic because so many people have actually believed his bullshit message of hope and change.  From the Times: “Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.  One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, ’so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair’.”

All I have to say to that is: You’ve made your bed, Obama. Good luck.

I know a lot of people don’t like my comments about Obama, which is fine.  You don’t have to like them or read them.  I think it goes without saying that I would rather have Obama as president than McCain — he’s the lesser of two evils and that’s all we can expect nowadays.  But when people say Obama will bring hope and change to Washington, I scratch my head.  I see no evidence that Obama is interested in changing much of anything in Washington:

• Obama did not hesitate to endorse the Wall Street bail out.
• He opted out of public campaign financing [unlike McCain], the first major presidential contender to do so.  Apparently, $85 million wasn’t enough for him.  He has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in his attempt to buy his way into the White House, yet still manages to present himself as a grass-roots organizer rather than a slick corporate fat cat.
• Obama supports the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (which allows warrantless wiretapping and secret courts; read Obama’s defense of FISA here).
• Obama supports the USA Patriot Act (read Obama’s defense of it here).
• Obama will send more troops to Afghanistan.
• Obama isn’t going to be ending the Iraq War anytime soon.
• “Since taking office in January 2005 he has voted to approve every war appropriation the Republicans have put forward, totaling over $300 billion.”
• Obama voted to confirm Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State.
• Obama says he wants Guantanamo Bay to be closed, but has passed up two chances to vote for bills that would close it.
• Obama agrees with the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Washington DC ban on handguns [despite the fact that he was previously in favor of the ban].
• Obama believes child rapists should be executed.
• Obama refused to be photographed with San Francisco Mayor Newsom because of Newsom’s support of gay marriage.
• Obama was against impeaching Bush and Cheney.

This is just the tip of the iceberg — there’s also his healthcare policies, energy policy, etc. etc.  So when people say Obama is all about change, I just don’t understand it.  I see no *evidence* of it.  He talks a good game, but talk is cheap.  He clearly supports the “war on terror,” which gives the government the right to subvert the law, spy on its own citizens and violate people’s human rights.  He plans to expand the war on terror even more in Afghanistan and has no plan to get us out of Iraq.  Where’s this change everyone is talking about?  Clearly, Obama is an ally of George W. Bush.

(more…)

30 October, 2008 | Comments

©Latuff, shared under a Creative Commons License:

29 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

It snowed in London last night!  Snow!  In October!  Crazy.  It’ll be great when Obama gets elected next week — he’ll put an end to all these pesky global warming problems.  I’m guessing he’ll have climate change under control by March 2009 at the latest.

I need some help from any of you literary types out there.  I’ve never read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.  If you’ve read it, can you tell me if it deals with anti-depressants and anti-depressant withdrawal?  I’ve done a web search, but I just keep getting Wallace’s obituaries.

28 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

Okay, I’m really just speechless now.  There is a major “controversy” going on here right now.  Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, two very famous British entertainers, did something really stupid on Brand’s radio show recently.  They left obscene messages on the voicemail of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs and then broadcast them on the radio.  I’m not defending their actions.  I didn’t hear the messages, just a summary, and perhaps they should be fired.  But you would not believe the reaction over here — it’s on the front pages of all the papers, the tabloids are demanding they be fired, etc.  Nothing too surprising about that — the newspapers thrive on controversies they blow out of all proprotion.  But today I was aghast that members of parliament were weighing in on this, as was David Cameron (the opposition leader).  Don’t these people have anything better to do?

(more…)

28 October, 2008 | Comments

My new iPod Nano:

It’s not exactly new anymore, more like newish.  I forgot to post about it.  I like the new iPod Nano much better than my old iPod Video.  Of course it can’t hold as many songs, but who needs to carry around more than 2,000 songs?  And the cool thing with the new Nano…if you shake it, it shuffles the songs!  Yay.

Here’s what’s left of my old iPod:

Seriously, do not even ask.  I’m not discussing it.

27 October, 2008 | 14 Comments

There’s a story on the homepage of the Guardian’s website right now that is emblematic of how the British media is covering the American presidential election and how they cover America in general:

You see, most of the British papers and television stations have “journalists” traveling around America right now.  Ostensibly, these “journalists” are covering the election, but that is not actually their purpose.  These smug “journalists” seek out crazy American conspiracy theorists and gun-toting hillbillies, interview them and then present them to the British public as being representative of all Americans.  This is called having a theory (Americans are idiots) and then looking for evidence to validate that theory.  Anything that contradicts the theory (sane, rational Americans) is ignored.  This is not journalism.  This is a distortion of reality.

Case in point, today’s story about a guy who thinks Obama is the antichrist.  From the screenshot I’ve provided, you see that this is a major news story for the Guardian editors — he gets a video AND a blog post.  The wacky views of some loon in Missouri get major real estate on the homepage, dwarfing stories about the financial crisis and other news events.  Nevermind that for every nutjob who thinks Obama is the antichrist, thousands more are not plagued by such paranoid and insane thoughts.  This is borne out by the polls that put Obama way ahead of McCain.

(more…)

26 October, 2008 | Comments

I saw their West End show at the Drury Lane Theatre on Friday night.   Apparently, after the show ends its run in November, French and Saunders as a comedy duo will end as well.  Say it ain’t so!  This is billed as their farewell, though I have my doubts about that.  Celebrity farewells are usually short-lived.

For those Americans who don’t know who French and Saunders are, Jennifer Saunders played Edina in Absolutely Fabulous (she was also in a memorable episode of Friends); Dawn French starred in The Vicar of Dibley.  These are two of my favorite sitcoms.  As a pair, French and Saunders have been doing sketch comedy together for 30 years.

The live show was a bit uneven — hysterically funny at times, a bit unfunny at other times.  But just seeing them in person was a treat and the two-hour show flew by.  Dawn French is clearly more comfortable performing in front of a live audience and did a lot of ad-libbing.  I hope that French and Saunders continue to perform long into the future, even if it’s not as a team.  Given how male-dominated comedy is as a medium, their contributions have been so important.

Link:

Who can fill French and Saunders’ shoes?

26 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

An excerpt from Alexander Cockburn’s column in the Independent today, entitled: Obama, the first-rate Republican.

Obama’s run has been the negation of almost every decent progressive principle, with scarcely a bleat of protest from the progressives seeking to hold him to account. The Michael Moores stay silent. Obama has crooked the knee to bankers and Wall Street, to the oil companies, the coal companies, the nuclear lobby, the big agricultural combines. He is more popular with Pentagon contractors than McCain, and has been the most popular of the candidates with Washington lobbyists. He has been fearless in offending progressives, constant in appeasing the powerful…So no, this is not an exciting or liberating moment in America’s politics.

21 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

I recently stated that I am not voting in this presidential election, that I feel the choice between McCain and Obama is about as meaningful as choosing between Coke and Pepsi and I no longer want to be part of this ridiculous process, which only gives the illusion of democracy.  Well, I am reading J.M. Coetzee’s novel Diary of a Bad Year, which is a very strange novel given that a big part of it is actually a political treatise.  Today I stumbled upon two passages about the modern democratic process that really spoke to me and I thought I’d share them.

Excerpt One:

“In the days of the kings, the subject was told: You used to be the subject of King A, now King A is dead and behold, you are the subject of King B. Then democracy arrived, and the subject was for the first time presented with a choice: Do you (collectively) want to be ruled by Citizen A or Citizen B?

Always the subject is presented with the accomplished fact: in the first case with the fact of his subjecthood, in the second with the fact of the choice. The form of the choice is not open to discussion. The ballot paper does not say: Do you want A or B or neither? It certainly never says: Do you want A or B or no one at all? The citizen who expresses his unhappiness with the form of the choice on offer by the only means open to him - not voting, or else spoiling his ballot paper - is simply not counted, that is to say, is discounted, ignored.

Faced with a choice between A and B, given the kind of A and the kind of B who usually make it onto the ballot paper, most people, ordinary people, are in their hearts inclined to choose neither.”

**

(more…)

20 October, 2008 | 3 Comments

Two word mysteries for you today (one solved, the other not…).

I was recently quite stumped by a British vs. American vocabulary difference.  I wanted to buy a dust ruffle for my bed (also commonly referred to Stateside as a “bed skirt”).  I had a feeling it would be called something different here but I had no idea what.  I searched online but couldn’t find the answer, so I went to a few shops selling bed linen and looked around.  No luck.  There were sheets and pillow cases, etc., but nothing resembling a dust ruffle.  Finally I asked a saleswoman at Next.  When I asked her if they sold dust ruffles, she burst into laughter and had no idea what I was talking about.  Anyway, we eventually figured out that here it’s called a VALANCE.  Mystery solved.

BTW, I find “dust ruffle” to be an utterly charming term.  It’s so whimsical and cute.  I wholeheartedly recommend its widespread usage by all the English-speaking peoples of the world.

So here is my green dust ruffle:

I don’t like green for decorating, but it goes with the carpet. Not to sound like Martha Stewart or anything, but the dust ruffle changes the whole room completely — it makes it look much more polished and pulled together.  In a word: Amazing!  [If only you could see what's hiding under that bed!]  Oh — and do you like my Cath Kidston duvet cover?  I may be a city girl, but my heart lives in an English country cottage.

Okay, so now on to my second vocab issue of the day…

(more…)

17 October, 2008 | Comments

Last night I saw Vanessa Redgrave in The Year of Magical Thinking at the National Theatre.  For those unfamiliar with London, the National Theatre contains three theatres, sits on prime real estate on the South Bank of the Thames and is one of the ugliest monstrosities ever built.  You know those multi-story parking garages at shopping malls and airports?  The National Theatre kinda looks like that, the only difference being that at night it’s lit up and it’s not filled with mini-vans.  Nothing so ugly would have ever been built in Paris, particularly not in such a high profile place.

[Sorry, just needed to get that rant out of the way...]

Stepping off the bus onto Waterloo Bridge last night, I saw the most breathtaking sight just to the left of the aforementioned architectural disaster — the full moon over St. Paul’s Cathedral on a clear night.  I thought, “Even if the play is awful, this lovely sight made the night worthwhile.”

(more…)

15 October, 2008 | 4 Comments

Today I took a break from writing to visit a couple used bookstores…and of course I did not leave empty-handed.  I’ve decided not to beat myself up about my constant book buying.  I love it, it feeds my work and makes my life happier all around.  I know many people who spend more money each week at the pub than I do on books.  We all have our guilty pleasures and books are mine.

I am nearly finished with The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  Sob.  I do not want this book to end, but at least now I’ve got new supplies of reading material.  [Not that there was ever a shortage, trust me.]

So here’s what I bought today:

I found a used hardback of “Broderie Anglaise” by Violet Trefusis, a book I didn’t even know I was looking for.  Ha!  Violet was the lover of Vita Sackville-West, who was of course the lover of Virginia Woolf, hence my interest in Violet.  Violet-Vita-Virginia — you could embroider that on a pillow.

(more…)

14 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

I just had to do a criminal background check for one of my jobs.  This is my new pastime — filling out forms for British government agencies.  In the past few weeks, with this and the lengthy visa application, I’ve had to share a lot of personal details, plus I’ve had to submit my passport, visa, birth certificate, bank statements (UK and US), mobile phone bills, countless university registration documents, payslips, student loan forms and other personal documents.  I feel as if my life is an open book.

(more…)

13 October, 2008 | Comments

Last week, my cultural activity was attending a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. This novel isn’t related to my PhD work — in fact, I just read it for the first time last week. I don’t know much about African literature or literature with colonialist themes, so I wanted to learn more.

For those who don’t know, Chinua Achebe is considered to be the father of modern African writing. “Things Fall Apart” was the first major African novel published in English and has sold millions of copies. It is a modern-day classic that is read and studied widely around the world. “Things Fall Apart” is short, only 150 pages long, but there is so much compressed into those pages. Briefly, it tells the story of Okonkwo, his family and the village of Umuofia in Nigeria, circa the 1890s. The first part of the novel focuses on Okonkwo’s family and the customs of their culture. The last part of the novel deals with the arrival of the British, who bring with them Christianity and set about destroying the local cultures. Once the colonizers arrive, things fall apart, hence the title, which is taken from a Yeats poem.  One of the most striking things about the novel is the way it is told entirely from the point of view of an African.  As Toni Morrison once said about the novel, it is free from the “white gaze.”

(more…)

12 October, 2008 | 2 Comments

Is anyone else getting sick of news photos like this:

You know, this financial crisis has been good for my ego. I used to feel like a loser for not owning a home, for having no investments, savings or a 401k, but now I’m feeling pretty upbeat. Who’s the loser now, eh?

And while I’m on the topic of the financial crisis, might I remind everyone that my U.S. bank crashed one year ago, way before it was trendy for banks to crash. When I was in crisis, there was no government bailout for me, no news headlines, no CNN theme song and certainly no candlelight vigil as I was stuck in customer service hell for two months trying to get my damn money back. So don’t expect any sympathy from me now!

10 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

My previous post on Barack Obama and his connection to Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground terrorist, is getting tons of hits off Google.  This is not surprsing, given that McCain and Palin are talking about the Obama-Ayers connection every chance they get and even running a new ad about it.  I wrote about Ayers because he was a grad school classmate of mine at Bennington.  How utterly strange that someone I knew from school has now become an issue in the presidential campaign. You see, I know some bad-ass people.  Don’t mess with me.

10 October, 2008 | 3 Comments

If you’re a hypochondriac, check out WebMD’s Symptom Checker.  It gives you a scale of the human body and a list of various symptoms. All you you do is click on your symptoms and then you’re presented with a list of possible conditions/diseases that you might be suffering from.  Fabulous!  So tonight after checking my real symptoms and getting confirmation that I am probably not dying, I decided to click on some other interesting symptoms, such as “craving to eat ice or dirt,” “sense of impending doom,” “feeling detached from reality,” “frightening dreams,” “coffee-colored vomit,” etc.  What I didn’t realize was that it was saving all these symptoms in order to create a profile of me.  Ultimately, after verifying that I wasn’t drunk, it recommended that I kill myself.

You know what’s also fun — clicking on a combination of symptoms and then getting an orange pop-up box that says “seek emergency attention immediately.”  Then you know you’re in trouble.  I think I’ll bookmark this site.

9 October, 2008 | 2 Comments

I got my first paycheck from my teaching job today, so I went right out and bought a new book.  Of course.  Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog — the French sensation — has now arrived on English-speaking shores and I just have to see what all the fuss is about.  It’s getting mixed reviews — as in The Independent (not great) and the Washington Post (glowing).  It seems to be a very French novel, which may not play well in the anglophone world.  I’ll let you know what I think.  I’m due for another book post soon — it’s been a while.  Since my Richard Yates kick this summer, I’ve been totally focused on literature in translation.  I have some things to say about Haruki Murakami, who ended up having a big effect on me.

Speaking of Murakami, his name was mentioned as a possible Nobel contender in media speculation, but now a French writer has won it.  A lot of the Nobel winners are duds, so I’m not particularly interested to rush out and learn about Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio just because a group of pretentious Swedish intellectuals decrees it.  I was offended by the rude and arrogant comments a Nobel judge made about American literature last week.  While I agree that American literature tends to be too insular and not engaged with the world at large (just like many Americans themselves), I think that saying Americans are ignorant is way out of line and just degrades whatever shred of credibility the Nobel prize has left.  Anyone who has ever traveled in Europe can see that European bookstores are crammed with American books.  If European literature is so great, I wonder how this can be explained.  And given the British obsession with celebrity chef cookbooks, Z-list celebrity misery memoirs and books by former topless models, Americans look like blazing intellectuals in comparison.

Grrrrr.  Anyway, the only French literature I’m going to be reading right now is by Muriel Barbery!

7 October, 2008 | 14 Comments

I have decided I’m not voting in the presidential election.  This is a big deal for me, since I have lectured a lot of people in the past about not voting.  A month ago, I wrote on this blog that I’d vote for the Green Party, stating: “I wish I could sit out this election, but in good conscience I cannot do that.  Women have not even had the right to vote for 100 years and I can’t repay all those women who fought for me by not voting at all.”

In the course of one month, I’ve revised this opinion after a lot of thought and reflection.  The suffragists were fighting for their basic human rights.  Thanks to them, women got the right to vote.  But I’ve come to the conclusion that making a conscious decision not to vote is a valid political statement.  I can’t respect those who don’t vote out of apathy, but that is not what I’m doing.  I’m choosing not to vote.  For me, participating in the electoral process means that I endorse it, when I don’t.  This time, I’m sitting it out.  [For the record, I can only vote in the federal election because I am living abroad.]

This whole presidential election disgusts me.  Of course, it’s really no different than any other election I’ve been eligible to vote in.  Obscene amounts of money are wasted; it’s not about issues but about media spin and the most trivial matters; it’s style over substance; and the two main candidates are too afraid to actually speak their minds about anything or challenge the status quo.  And then there’s the overtly patriarchal nature of it, which is ever more clear after this election.  Obama and McCain are nothing more than two corporate brands, one produced by the Democrats, one reproduced by the Republicans, and choosing between them is about as meaningful as choosing between Coke and Pepsi.

(more…)

6 October, 2008 | 1 Comment

I kept my promise to begin attending at least one cultural event or other such activity each week.  On Saturday I went to the theatre to see 6 Characters in Search of an Author.  It’s a modern adaptation of a play by Luigi Pirandello.  My first winter in London, I saw a Pirandello play called “As You Desire Me,” which starred Kristin Scott Thomas and Bob Hoskins.  It was a fabulous play, so as soon as I heard another Pirandello work was being staged on the West End, I knew I had to go.

This play has received rave reviews in all the papers [I can't sum up the plot -- just check out the reviews if interested: Telegraph, Guardian] and it was the critic’s choice of the week in Time Out. It stars Ian McDiarmid, otherwise know as the Emperor from the Star Wars movies.  [He now looks like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons.]  I got a ticket for only £10, then as often happens, got bumped up to the dress circle. Yay!  The Gielgud Theatre is one of the more comfortable theatres in London.

I had high hopes for this play, given the critical raves, but, well…when the curtains closed at intermission, the guy sitting behind me said to his wife [I actually wrote this down in my notebook so I wouldn't forget]:  “This is a load of bollocks.  I think I’m starting to feel ill.”  And then his hilarious rant went on for five more minutes.  He and his wife left and didn’t come back.  The four elderly people sitting next to me didn’t return after the interval either.

(more…)