Strictly For Fans of Michael Jackson's Thriller

Okay, so first have a look at this. Just watch the first minute so you get an idea of what its all about. Then, please direct yourself to this clip, which is essentially the same video except that some guy has decided to add a 'translation' based on the closest English words that approximate the lyrics.

I know, I know, call me juvenille but I almost had a fit while laughing. An 80s Indian version of Thriller is funny enough, but the English 'lyrics' just allow it to transcend to a higher artistic plane.

IZ

The Hathor Legacy

Came across an interesting site: 'The Hathor Legacy'. Its essentially posting on books, film and some general cultural issues from a feminist perspective. What's interesting is the authors' interest in science fiction/fantasy genre fiction. Reading through a few of the posts, (and the comments) such as this one on the "legacy" of Octavia Butler proved illuminating and so up it goes on my blog roll.

And now I have a new book to look out for: 'Zahrah the Windseeker' by Nnedi Nkemdili Okorafor-Mbachu. Looks interesting.

IZ

On Libraries

Now here are some interesting and telling statistics. Who knew that they are more public libraries in the United States than there are MacDonalds'? Or that on average Americans go to libraries more than twice as often as they go to the movies in a year?

All this and Federal spending on libraries is 54 cents per person per year.

Does Karachi have more public libraries than MacDonalds? I'm not sure. Some digging around turns up this list of libraries which hearteningly enough, is more than the 13 outlets I seem to recall MacDonald's having in Karachi. But a few of the public libraries I've seen are to a proper public library as a bun-kabab stand is to a MacDonald's. Frere Hall, which is one of the better ones, alas has seen better days.

IZ

Going Green

So, any thoughts on the new template? Any adjustments to be made? Or should I dump the whole thing? Comments please!

IZ

Neat Photography - Grace Weston & David Alesworth

Check out Grace Weston's website.

Some amazing photography, mostly using children's toys, like this:


I found this on Neatorama. Some interesting stuff on there.

Grace Weston's work kind of reminded me of some of the photography of a former colleague of mine, David Alesworth. Unfortunately I can't find much in terms of his work on line except for this picture that was titled 'Snow White and Bubble Boy':


Its one in a series of fabulous photographs of second hand toys found at Itwar Bazaar. I've tried fishing around on the internet but alas can't find much of David's work at all. He has a website, which does not seem to have been tended much apart from the main page and there is a section on him here at the website of the Vasl international artist's collective, but little else apart from that.

That's a real pity because David really has a keen aesthetic sense and a real eye for possibilities and incongruities that make him a stand-out photographer. He's a sculptor by training but his sculpture has never resonated with me in the way his photography has. I don't pretend to have seen a great deal of his work, but some of his photographs have to be amongst the most interesting visual art that's come out of Pakistan in the last decade and a half.

IZ

Rumi at the Caravansary

Hey, look what I found. And its like so close to me. I must check this out soon, and I'm so there at the Sufi music concert. If only I had known about this earlier! There's no way I would have missed the drumming workshop in the park!

IZ

Edit: Also, this is an interesting article about women scholars in the classical Islamic age. I like this quote:

Akram’s entry for someone like Umm al-Darda, a prominent jurist in seventh-century Damascus, is startling. As a young woman, Umm al-Darda used to sit with male scholars in the mosque, talking shop. “I’ve tried to worship Allah in every way,” she wrote, “but I’ve never found a better one than sitting around, debating other scholars.”

t2f: The Second Floor

Hmmm. A bookshop/coffeeshop in Karachi? With its own blog team? And, to top it off, one which claims to be "a platform for opinion, outrage, and graphic agitation"?

Interesting.

IZ

Edit: I originally posted this in my other blog. Then sanity returned and I realised it belonged here.

Things Look Like Things

Well this is a pretty extraordinary blog. Basically they put up images and photographs of various things that bear some kind of uncanny resemblance to completely different things.

Simple, but often visually stunning. Its going up on my blogroll.

IZ

More xkcd

Unsatisfied

I find that I am unsatisfied with the fonts, colours and general design of this blog. I find that to do something about this I will have to dig deep into the guts of Blogger and mess around with things until it improves.

But that sounds like a great deal too much work. At least for now. Perhaps later I shall fiddle around and see what happens. So, please don't be surprised if over the next few days things start to fluctuate on this blog. Oh, and do drop in your thoughts on any changes.

IZ

Sorted Books and xkcd

Thanks to madgraceflint for the link on her blog to this site and the Sorted Books Project.

She also linked to this comic on the xkcd web-comic site, which is one of the best web-comics out there in my opinion, but which, for some reason, I haven't yet linked to on this blog.

To make up for this error I bring you one of my favourite xkcd comics (click on it to see a bigger version):



IZ

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!

You can now watch the excellent documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" for free online at this website. It makes for compulsive viewing - better than any Hollywood thriller I've seen in years.

Here's the blurb from the website:

This behind the scenes documentary focuses on the media's role in the 2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when Hugo Chavez was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état.

You can read more about the coup here at Wikipedia and about American involvement in the coup (all that oil needs a steady hand to regulate) at the Guardian here. Interesting that once again Elliot Abrams was in the forefront of channelling U.S. support to overthrow democratically elected leaders.

I seem to recall reading an article in the newspaper a few years ago about how some OPEC leaders had been tipped off in advance about the coup by American government officials, but I can't find it on the web at the moment so maybe I was just imagining things.

Go watch the documentary!

IZ

Blair at War

Last week we took the opportunity to visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square. Alas, we went a day too late to catch the sight of the square covered in grass. From the look of this photo from the bbc website it would have been a sight worth seeing.


Still we got to see the statue of one of my favourite imperialist wannabe-conquerors, Charles Napier (I'll try and explain why I like him so much in another post - possibly on my other blog). It was alas a dreary, rainy day. Here's a photograph I took of the National Gallery:


But the topic of this post is an exhibition we chanced upon at the National Portrait Gallery - a photo-essay called Blair at War. In the run up to the Iraq war, photojournalist Nick Danziger and Times correspondant Peter Stothard were given access to the PM and his cabinet. This exhibition showcases some of Danziger's photographs and its really an extraordinary insight into those times.

Much has been made of one photograph in particular, which was taken in the ante-chamber of the PM's office in Downing Street. In an article where he talks about this and another photograph, Stothard tells us:

It is 7.55am on March 20. The Americans have dropped their “shock and awe” on Baghdad somewhat earlier than their best ally had been expecting. Before the first War Cabinet meets its members are musing on how they heard the news: Gordon Brown from the BBC World Service, Jack Straw from a policeman pummelling at his door, David Blunkett from Radio Five Live.

And to make matters worse:

The current Prime Minister is on this occasion out of shot. Tony Blair, no slouch now at war leadership himself, is behind the closed door to the right – with his chief of staff and security chiefs, in the meeting which ministers suspect is “the real meeting”.

Here's the photo:


So that's how the British cabinet came to learn they were at war. Read the full article here, its quite interesting. Stothard has also blogged about it here. Zoe Williams in a piece for the Guardian also points out:

The woman on the right, looking like the "don't" photo in a dos and don'ts of how to mingle at a party, is Joan Hammell, special adviser to John Prescott. Subsequent photo-reporting will show her to be at the very core of Prescott's entourage.... Here, she is being actively excluded by these grim-faced men.

And then ends with this ringing endorsement of the Blair cabinet:

Before you even consider that they are on the wrong side of the door anyway (which, furthermore, is locked), these are still the last people you would want to be in charge of anything. You wouldn't let them babysit.

Not only did the cabinet have no clue that the war had been launched, but they were excluded from direct briefings about the course of the war by the military and intelligence chiefs. Stothard quotes a member of the cabinet as saying he was expecting explanations, but rarely received any.

The socialist worker also has a good article about the exhibition, as well as images of a couple more of the photographs. There's a very good one of Jacques Chirac lecturing Blair, having "waved away his aides and interpreters to give Blair his direct opinion on events". Chirac, you will recall was the most vocal global leader to oppose the war.

To round up I've leave you with this image of Bush and Blair with assorted aides at Camp David soon after the war had begun (from the National Gallery site). Nick Dazinger called it the 'Reservoir Dogs shot' because it mirrors the image of the opening scene of the Tarentino movie Reservoir Dogs. Heres the photo side by side with a still from the movie (taken from filmreference.com):



Reservoir Dogs is a movie about an attempted heist that goes spectacularly wrong and ends in a tragic bloodbath. Sound familiar?

IZ

"War is the American Way to Teach Geography!"

That quote from the play 'Fallujah' which is playing in London these days. Astute observation I'd say.

IZ