This reason is the underlying cause of all my sad, because of its larger implications.
Last month was Black History month, but nobody much seemed to notice.
Today is another day that the the primary media or anyone else can hardly seem to notice. Google did though. And so did Tordotcom and some others, in a most useful way.
As with every progressive and rights organization and institution, and the movements and the rights themselves everywhere, for everyone except corporations and and embryos -- students are too young and irrational to vote, but a fetus is mature enough to provide testimony at a hearing -- I am very sad.
In Cuba though, International Women's Day is being celebrated everywhere, just as it always has been (like Valentine's Day!). I know because I have received e-mails from my friends there, celebrating me as part of their special celebrations of women on this day. The e-mail used up their very precious, rationed bandwidth capacities and allowances to send these greetings to me on this day. My Cuban women friends don't send e-mails often because the limited bandwidth doesn't allow (for which we can thank specific U.S. demand at the very highest level -- to keep Cuba off the fiber optic grid laid down to connect the globe way back when).
We are listening to a radio program streaming live from a San Francisco radio station (dj a Cubano amigo) playing great Cuban women music artists. Something, at least.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
All On A Mardi Gras Day!
Last year's Mardi Gras (which was earlier) I dressed up, put on the most colorful and dramatic face cosmetics I possess, draped myself in beads and went off present the seminar that gave a history of cultural, economic and political connections among NYC, New Orleans and Havana. That night we went off to hear Big Sam. A few days later we were in New Orleans ourselves, during which el V was interviewed by Spike Lee for his HBO follow-up to When the Levees Broke.
This year it's difficult to realize it is Mardi Gras, so far removed do we feel from everywhere else. However, I think this sense of removal has more to do with such intense explorations into the historical past than it does with geography. We'll be in New Orleans next month so she will spring back into dramatic habitation of the head again, as she always does.
Still, it's sad that we don't have even a single strand of Mardi Gras beads around our necks today.
This year it's difficult to realize it is Mardi Gras, so far removed do we feel from everywhere else. However, I think this sense of removal has more to do with such intense explorations into the historical past than it does with geography. We'll be in New Orleans next month so she will spring back into dramatic habitation of the head again, as she always does.
Still, it's sad that we don't have even a single strand of Mardi Gras beads around our necks today.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
More History of the Civil War & Brits Don't Get It
As we see again in today's Disunion column, "The Minds of the South," keyboarded by a Cambridge scholar, Michael O'Brian, who nevertheless seems clueless about the United States in these eras. Why is that Brits, whether historians or historical novelists get the American Civil War wrong (at least all I've read)? What do they do wrong in their research?
I mean, John C. Calhoun, a staunch Unionist? This was a man whose arrogance and power lust had him dreaming of creating an entire new nation in the South, with himself running the show -- shades of Aaron Burr* -- because Jackson** beat his ass for POTUS. During the Nullification crisis, he resigned as VP, before Jackson kicked his butt out for disloyalty (Jackson being Jackson there was zero tolerance for back-stabbing; Jackson made these things deeply personal matters of personal honor ( not for him "it's politics, lets go play golf now"). Down in South Carolina, not incidentally, medals were struck that proclaimed "John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy." And no, the Nullification Crisis was not about slavery at all, except that like now during which everything is always about the oil bidness in one way or another, it was about slavery.
"The tariff was only the pretext," he insisted, "and disunion and a southern confederacy the real object." Then he predicted what the next excuse would be, a prediction tragically fulfilled three decades later. "The next pretext," Jackson warned, "will be the negro, or slavery question."
This is from Andrew Jackson writing to Reverend Andrew J. Crawford, May 1, 1833, in Jackson's Correspondence, V.3, p. 72.
Further, this opinion was shared by others, namely that at the bottom of the nullification controversy "lurked a settled design to dissolve the Union and set up a southern Confederacy. Only the "disaprobation" of other southern states cause its abandonment at present". B.F. Perry to Webster, April, 1833, Webster Papers, New Hampshire Historical Society.
_______________________
* Speaking of Burr, as we were, check this out.
** Is it necessary to state that in my opinion, in so many ways Andrew Jackson was a dangerous man, perhaps even a sociopath, and that in this area, at least, I share Thomas Jefferson's opinion, that he wasn't fit to be POTUS? (Neither George Washington, nor Martha, after her husband's death, believed Jefferson worthy of the presidency either.)
However, Jackson was one of the most effective Presidents in our history. He had an agenda for his presidency, he was determined to accomplish his agenda and he did. He was the one who changed our political process from 'republic' to 'democracy.' Moreover, if the federal government hadn't become so corrupt and patronage-happy, that huge wave of populist disgust for it wouldn't have been there for him to ride in on. Of course, instead of 'patronage,' he instituted the infamous 'spoils' system. In our nation, every president who came in on an agenda to reduce spending and corruption left with more of it in place. This has been the same with the national debt -- except with Jackson. Jackson paid down the national debt.
I mean, John C. Calhoun, a staunch Unionist? This was a man whose arrogance and power lust had him dreaming of creating an entire new nation in the South, with himself running the show -- shades of Aaron Burr* -- because Jackson** beat his ass for POTUS. During the Nullification crisis, he resigned as VP, before Jackson kicked his butt out for disloyalty (Jackson being Jackson there was zero tolerance for back-stabbing; Jackson made these things deeply personal matters of personal honor ( not for him "it's politics, lets go play golf now"). Down in South Carolina, not incidentally, medals were struck that proclaimed "John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy." And no, the Nullification Crisis was not about slavery at all, except that like now during which everything is always about the oil bidness in one way or another, it was about slavery.
"The tariff was only the pretext," he insisted, "and disunion and a southern confederacy the real object." Then he predicted what the next excuse would be, a prediction tragically fulfilled three decades later. "The next pretext," Jackson warned, "will be the negro, or slavery question."
This is from Andrew Jackson writing to Reverend Andrew J. Crawford, May 1, 1833, in Jackson's Correspondence, V.3, p. 72.
Further, this opinion was shared by others, namely that at the bottom of the nullification controversy "lurked a settled design to dissolve the Union and set up a southern Confederacy. Only the "disaprobation" of other southern states cause its abandonment at present". B.F. Perry to Webster, April, 1833, Webster Papers, New Hampshire Historical Society.
_______________________
* Speaking of Burr, as we were, check this out.
** Is it necessary to state that in my opinion, in so many ways Andrew Jackson was a dangerous man, perhaps even a sociopath, and that in this area, at least, I share Thomas Jefferson's opinion, that he wasn't fit to be POTUS? (Neither George Washington, nor Martha, after her husband's death, believed Jefferson worthy of the presidency either.)
However, Jackson was one of the most effective Presidents in our history. He had an agenda for his presidency, he was determined to accomplish his agenda and he did. He was the one who changed our political process from 'republic' to 'democracy.' Moreover, if the federal government hadn't become so corrupt and patronage-happy, that huge wave of populist disgust for it wouldn't have been there for him to ride in on. Of course, instead of 'patronage,' he instituted the infamous 'spoils' system. In our nation, every president who came in on an agenda to reduce spending and corruption left with more of it in place. This has been the same with the national debt -- except with Jackson. Jackson paid down the national debt.
I Still Want To Know ....
Who scans all these dox so the computer can data mine them? For that's what this is, data mining, i.e. pattern recognition -- not analysis.
Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software
Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software
“There is no reason to think that technology creates unemployment,” Professor Autor said. “Over the long run we find things for people to do. The harder question is, does changing technology always lead to better jobs? The answer is no.”
Automation of higher-level jobs is accelerating because of progress in computer science and linguistics. Only recently have researchers been able to test and refine algorithms on vast data samples, including a huge trove of e-mail from the Enron Corporation.
“The economic impact will be huge,” said Tom Mitchell, chairman of the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “We’re at the beginning of a 10-year period where we’re going to transition from computers that can’t understand language to a point where computers can understand quite a bit about language.”
Nowhere are these advances clearer than in the legal world.
E-discovery technologies generally fall into two broad categories that can be described as “linguistic” and “sociological.”
The most basic linguistic approach uses specific search words to find and sort relevant documents. More advanced programs filter documents through a large web of word and phrase definitions. A user who types “dog” will also find documents that mention “man’s best friend” and even the notion of a “walk.”
The sociological approach adds an inferential layer of analysis, mimicking the deductive powers of a human Sherlock Holmes. Engineers and linguists at Cataphora, an information-sifting company based in Silicon Valley, have their software mine documents for the activities and interactions of people — who did what when, and who talks to whom. The software seeks to visualize chains of events. It identifies discussions that might have taken place across e-mail, instant messages and telephone calls.
Then the computer pounces, so to speak, capturing “digital anomalies” that white-collar criminals often create in trying to hide their activities.And etc. It's very interesting. But it doesn't answer the question I asked at the top.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Books
We're doing a summer session Seniors Honors course in African diaspora cultures to the New World back in NYC. Ooofta! The amount of work pulling together a syllabus. We are planning it around the Eltis and Richardson The Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (2010), Yale.
In 2011 so far, I've worked out to three audio books; this isn't too shabby, considering each cd runs on average 50 - 60 minutes, so I get through two and a part of another cd per work-out: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, Machiavelli's The Prince, and now have begun Ivanhoe.
I had not previously read Delta Wedding. Likely I'd have gotten too impatient with the text to actually read it on the page, but listening while working out the endless, minute detail description of objects and feelings, sensations and sensibilities, the constant dweling upon and adoration by all the female characters of every age of philandering, selfish, dickhead Brother George could be put up with. I understand what is admirable about this work. But I don't like it, other than as more cultural information about a time, a place and attitudes. In that sense it is a treasure chest of pertinent information. For instance, though there are numerous characters of color, they are so apart from the white characters as to be aliens. Unlike the rest of the characters, Welty never provides the reader with sections of their observations and sensabilities from within. Still, Welty was a more sly author than she's sometimes given credit.
I also possess the temerity to take away from The Prince the idea that in some parts the author was a fool. Not entirely a fool in all the parts, but certainly in some.
Ivanhoe has been one of my favorite novels since childhood, and remains so to this day. I recently re-read Scott's Essay on Chivalry, written as a companion piece to an encyclopedia's section "History of the Middle Ages." (IIRC, this encyclopedia was never published.) As per usual, the conclusion one must come to is that Twain AND the southerners did not read the book that Scott wrote. I'm re-reading (listening, rather, which is a new experience of the novel) again, to re-check my understanding of what is in Scott's text of this novel so battered by critics who seem not to have read Scott either -- they've probably only watched the 1952 movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Taylor. I remain forcibly struck by Scott's earnest yet most cunning critiques of the Middle Ages and 'chivalry,' that the most admirable, active characters are those who not 'gentlefolk,' much less nobility, from whence come all the villains of agency.
The most intelligent characters by far are a slave and a Jewess -- those figures so far from the power structure of the Middle Ages as to be outside it all together. Rowena is not stupid, except, perhaps in sharing an adoration of that blockhead, Ivanhoe, with Rebecca; nor do we see much of Rowena because she spends most of the book as a captive in one way or another throughout to the cultural power structure that in her case includes her gender and her rank, as well as of the villains.
Yet, Scott has a lot of comedy in Ivanhoe, and the comedy does not come at the expense of either Isaac or Rebecca.
People tend to forget that Scott was a lawyer, and evidently a very good one, judging by his success in the profession. He knows exactly what words mean. He. was not endorsing chivalry as a social or economic code. In Ivanhoe, Scott shows us how little the codes were observed, and how little protection the codes provided to anyone of any rank, including those who supposedly are chivalry's flower.
In 2011 so far, I've worked out to three audio books; this isn't too shabby, considering each cd runs on average 50 - 60 minutes, so I get through two and a part of another cd per work-out: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, Machiavelli's The Prince, and now have begun Ivanhoe.
I had not previously read Delta Wedding. Likely I'd have gotten too impatient with the text to actually read it on the page, but listening while working out the endless, minute detail description of objects and feelings, sensations and sensibilities, the constant dweling upon and adoration by all the female characters of every age of philandering, selfish, dickhead Brother George could be put up with. I understand what is admirable about this work. But I don't like it, other than as more cultural information about a time, a place and attitudes. In that sense it is a treasure chest of pertinent information. For instance, though there are numerous characters of color, they are so apart from the white characters as to be aliens. Unlike the rest of the characters, Welty never provides the reader with sections of their observations and sensabilities from within. Still, Welty was a more sly author than she's sometimes given credit.
I also possess the temerity to take away from The Prince the idea that in some parts the author was a fool. Not entirely a fool in all the parts, but certainly in some.
Ivanhoe has been one of my favorite novels since childhood, and remains so to this day. I recently re-read Scott's Essay on Chivalry, written as a companion piece to an encyclopedia's section "History of the Middle Ages." (IIRC, this encyclopedia was never published.) As per usual, the conclusion one must come to is that Twain AND the southerners did not read the book that Scott wrote. I'm re-reading (listening, rather, which is a new experience of the novel) again, to re-check my understanding of what is in Scott's text of this novel so battered by critics who seem not to have read Scott either -- they've probably only watched the 1952 movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Taylor. I remain forcibly struck by Scott's earnest yet most cunning critiques of the Middle Ages and 'chivalry,' that the most admirable, active characters are those who not 'gentlefolk,' much less nobility, from whence come all the villains of agency.
The most intelligent characters by far are a slave and a Jewess -- those figures so far from the power structure of the Middle Ages as to be outside it all together. Rowena is not stupid, except, perhaps in sharing an adoration of that blockhead, Ivanhoe, with Rebecca; nor do we see much of Rowena because she spends most of the book as a captive in one way or another throughout to the cultural power structure that in her case includes her gender and her rank, as well as of the villains.
Yet, Scott has a lot of comedy in Ivanhoe, and the comedy does not come at the expense of either Isaac or Rebecca.
People tend to forget that Scott was a lawyer, and evidently a very good one, judging by his success in the profession. He knows exactly what words mean. He. was not endorsing chivalry as a social or economic code. In Ivanhoe, Scott shows us how little the codes were observed, and how little protection the codes provided to anyone of any rank, including those who supposedly are chivalry's flower.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
They Cross Wires, HBO's The Wire and HBO's Game of Thrones
Not until I saw the latest GoT trailer did I know:
"Aidan Gillen, a fan favorite from early on, has been cast in the role of Lord Petyr Baelish, more popularly known as Littlefinger. A scheming, immoral social-climbing conniver, Baelish is a pivotal character in the series, one that viewers are sure to love to hate."
Aidan Gillen played Tommy Carcetti in The Wire:
" ... an ambitious Baltimore politician who rises from a seat on the city council to the office of the Mayor of Baltimore, and to the office of the Governor of Maryland by the end of the series."
Additionally there is season two of David Simon's HBO's Treme this spring, and Showtime's The Borgias, starring ... Jeremy Irons.
There will be television worth watching -- at least on dvd or something, sometime, for me, since I don't have a television. Which, considering this American Slave Coast we're writing, is just as well.
"Aidan Gillen, a fan favorite from early on, has been cast in the role of Lord Petyr Baelish, more popularly known as Littlefinger. A scheming, immoral social-climbing conniver, Baelish is a pivotal character in the series, one that viewers are sure to love to hate."
Aidan Gillen played Tommy Carcetti in The Wire:
" ... an ambitious Baltimore politician who rises from a seat on the city council to the office of the Mayor of Baltimore, and to the office of the Governor of Maryland by the end of the series."
Additionally there is season two of David Simon's HBO's Treme this spring, and Showtime's The Borgias, starring ... Jeremy Irons.
There will be television worth watching -- at least on dvd or something, sometime, for me, since I don't have a television. Which, considering this American Slave Coast we're writing, is just as well.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Return From Los Angeles, Minus Fone
It was cold in Los Angeles. And there was cold pouring rain!
Home early this AM to the C'town House from the EMP conference in LA via two different airports and drive then from D.C. Along the way el V lost his phone.
Unhappily, reflecting the trend noticed in the last years in most arenas of entertainent, media and academia, this year's presenters tended to be more white and more male than at the recent meetings. Attendence was noticably down from previous years, and a noticable number of panelists canceled at the last moment. Partly this was due to it being Oscar weekend, which no one had thought about when choosing LA and the dates for this year's meeting. Plane tickets and hotel rooms were difficult to score, and the prices of both tickets and rooms were sky-high, which was partly due to the Oscars and partly to the events in the Middle East and North Africa. Then -- there is the economy, stupid. So many people are out of work and have been by now for a very long time.
The theme this year for the Experience Music Project's conference, the first one held outside of Seattle, was "Music and Money." Among the highlights were Greil Marcus per usual -- the man is a brilliant music composer, though he uses language rather than instruments -- and Robert Christgau. All in all, it was still a very good conference and a lot of fun for all those who were able to attend.
el V's presentation was titled "Money Musk." He's built out a fascinating complex of historical and musical research from the sheet music of this so-titled fiddle tune in Thomas Jefferson's library at Monticello. The tune was evidently a favorite of the Virginian, played for Jefferson by one of his sons by Sally Hemmings.
The points of the presentation included the Chevalier de Saint-George, Charles Dibdon, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera and its sequel, Yankee Doodle and the Macaronis of London who were among Handel's groupies, Liverpool's Penny Lane and the South Sea slave trading company bubble, the Anacreon glee plus the Star Spangled Banner, and oh, so much more about the history of England musical theater and "blacking up."
To put the point of the presentation into a very few words, it described the roots of pop as found in the black face traditions of the English and by extension New World English 18th century.
His presentation was early Sunday afternoon, Oscar Day. This tradition of white people blacking up for theatrical presentation was already present in the court of Henry VIII. The court ladies loved to be "black moors,' so there were instructions to those creating the court masques that were such an essential part of keeping the courtly boredom at bay to include such roles. Before the right cosmetic paint was devised the ladies blacked up by wearing fine black mesh masks on their faces and arms. I had mentioned to him that Portman's costume as the Black Queen in The Black Swan included a black veil that covered her face, so he mentioned that factoid appropriate to the day, which was received with happy applause because everyone had seen the movie -- though he hasn't. Though I refuse to take credit for this particular work, el V insists that I do get loads of co-credit, starting with finding out initially about the sheet music of Money Musk in Jefferson's library. So he shouted me out for co-credit from the stage in the middle of it all.
Windows 7 crashed fairly early into the presentation so the YouTube embedded Power Point musical examples couldn't be played. The whole damned computer froze. el V used colorful bad language and then slammed the laptop shut and continued sans notes or any other memory enhancer. The audience included Jeff Chang -- any time you get to hang with Chang is a great big plus -- our agent, as well as many of the other Usual Suspects of music writers, who you love to see because they are amigas and amigos, brilliant and so interesting.
Next year's EMP meeting will be in NYC, which makes it a lot easier for us.
Now, to recover or replace the missing phone.
Home early this AM to the C'town House from the EMP conference in LA via two different airports and drive then from D.C. Along the way el V lost his phone.
Unhappily, reflecting the trend noticed in the last years in most arenas of entertainent, media and academia, this year's presenters tended to be more white and more male than at the recent meetings. Attendence was noticably down from previous years, and a noticable number of panelists canceled at the last moment. Partly this was due to it being Oscar weekend, which no one had thought about when choosing LA and the dates for this year's meeting. Plane tickets and hotel rooms were difficult to score, and the prices of both tickets and rooms were sky-high, which was partly due to the Oscars and partly to the events in the Middle East and North Africa. Then -- there is the economy, stupid. So many people are out of work and have been by now for a very long time.
The theme this year for the Experience Music Project's conference, the first one held outside of Seattle, was "Music and Money." Among the highlights were Greil Marcus per usual -- the man is a brilliant music composer, though he uses language rather than instruments -- and Robert Christgau. All in all, it was still a very good conference and a lot of fun for all those who were able to attend.
el V's presentation was titled "Money Musk." He's built out a fascinating complex of historical and musical research from the sheet music of this so-titled fiddle tune in Thomas Jefferson's library at Monticello. The tune was evidently a favorite of the Virginian, played for Jefferson by one of his sons by Sally Hemmings.
The points of the presentation included the Chevalier de Saint-George, Charles Dibdon, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera and its sequel, Yankee Doodle and the Macaronis of London who were among Handel's groupies, Liverpool's Penny Lane and the South Sea slave trading company bubble, the Anacreon glee plus the Star Spangled Banner, and oh, so much more about the history of England musical theater and "blacking up."
To put the point of the presentation into a very few words, it described the roots of pop as found in the black face traditions of the English and by extension New World English 18th century.
His presentation was early Sunday afternoon, Oscar Day. This tradition of white people blacking up for theatrical presentation was already present in the court of Henry VIII. The court ladies loved to be "black moors,' so there were instructions to those creating the court masques that were such an essential part of keeping the courtly boredom at bay to include such roles. Before the right cosmetic paint was devised the ladies blacked up by wearing fine black mesh masks on their faces and arms. I had mentioned to him that Portman's costume as the Black Queen in The Black Swan included a black veil that covered her face, so he mentioned that factoid appropriate to the day, which was received with happy applause because everyone had seen the movie -- though he hasn't. Though I refuse to take credit for this particular work, el V insists that I do get loads of co-credit, starting with finding out initially about the sheet music of Money Musk in Jefferson's library. So he shouted me out for co-credit from the stage in the middle of it all.
Windows 7 crashed fairly early into the presentation so the YouTube embedded Power Point musical examples couldn't be played. The whole damned computer froze. el V used colorful bad language and then slammed the laptop shut and continued sans notes or any other memory enhancer. The audience included Jeff Chang -- any time you get to hang with Chang is a great big plus -- our agent, as well as many of the other Usual Suspects of music writers, who you love to see because they are amigas and amigos, brilliant and so interesting.
Next year's EMP meeting will be in NYC, which makes it a lot easier for us.
Now, to recover or replace the missing phone.
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