Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ February 23, 2009
Note from the Editors: Many feared that the post-Bush era would be
starkly devoid of humor, irony, and satire -- a fear that is quickly
proving to be unfounded. "Only in America," as our Editor would say,
when we ask not why a 70-year-old woman slept with her chimp-son,
Travis, but what ailed him such that he needed Xanax to calm his nerves
(his shrinking 401(k)?) before a vicious attack; or when white males are
up in arms over a charge of cowardice when it comes to discussing race
in America while barely blinking at the New York Post cartoon depicting
the president as that assassinated chimp. Change will indeed be hard to
come by, and as Gilles d'Aymery advises us in his latest economic Blips,
we've yet to enter the eye of the hurricane and global social unrest is
increasing as a result of contracting economies and vanishing jobs.
Fortunately, we remain rich when it comes to arts and culture. Raju
Peddada weaves an imaginative tale of the six and a half men whose
intersecting paths were captured in a 1949 Art Shay photograph. Charles
Marowitz, whose translation of Cyrano de Bergerac was recently
published, shares his life- long love of the character and the qualities
he represents. For a taste of British political satire and a certain
laugh, take in Charles Pearson's "Marx With Music, Perhaps?" And before
settling in to watch the Academy Awards spectacle or one of its winning
films, you'd be advised to read Michael Barker's exposé of Hollywood
do-gooders and the military-industrial-media complex, of which you won't
hear mention on the red carpet. Another unmentionable that Aymery takes
on is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- recent charges led him to
explain his position on boycotting the state of Israel and not Judaism.
Femi Akomolafe broaches the topic from an African perspective, pointing
out that aggression and peace cannot coexist. Nor for that matter can
the privatization of lands and the protection of natural resources.
Martin Murie criticizes the conservationists who continually surrender
to corporate pressures at the expense of the environment.
In the book corner, Peter Byrne reviews the works of Nobel-prize winner
J.M.G. Le Clézio, while Louis Proyect applauds Richard Seymour's "The
Liberal Defence of Murder" as a masterpiece of intellectual history and
political agitation. For poetry that will resonate to your very bones,
don't miss Guido Monte and Alison Phipps's words on war. Finally, we
close with Scott Porter on hard-working Americans and the politicians
that claim to serve them, and your letters on change you can believe in
(but for extraordinary rendition and torture), and more.
Little plug for two friends and supporters of Swans: If you live in the
San Francisco Bay Area and are aficionados of classical music, Melissa
Smith (piano) and husband David Saslav (tenor) will perform the choral
work of Nancy Bloomer Deussen's "The Message" at the Palo Alto Art
Center, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, on March 8, 2009, at 8:00 pm. More
information at
http://www.fortnightlymusicclub.org/concerts/2008-9_6_march.html. Swans
readers are welcome! (Yes, David is the son of Isidor Saslav, the
retired virtuoso concertmaster who writes exquisite contributions for
Swans World of Music.)
# # # # #
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/desk081.html Blips #81 - From the
Martian Desk - Gilles d'Aymery (On worldwide crisis)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/rajup08.html The Deconstruction Of
That Sunday Morning On Madison - Raju Peddada
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow130.html Cyrano Eternal -
Charles Marowitz
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cpears03.html Marx With Music,
Perhaps? - British Humor by Charles Pearson
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker14.html Hollywood's Corporate
Conservation Collaborators - Michael Barker
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia05.html Cry Palestine - Femi
Akomolafe
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/desk080.html Blips #80 - From the
Martian Desk - Gilles d'Aymery (On the BDS movement)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie65.html Tejon Rancho - Martin Murie
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne93.html Le Clézio: Noble Is As
Nobel Does - Book Review by Peter Byrne
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy52.html Richard Seymour's "The
Liberal Defence Of Murder" - Book Review by Louis Proyect
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/gmonte62.html War n.3: Bones -
Multilingual Poem by Guido Monte & Alison Phipps
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/porter14.html Hard Work - R. Scott Porter
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/letter159.html Letters to the Editor
# # # # #
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