Peter’s Blog

There is something so inspiring reading about and seeing this house. It’s definitely the first modern/contemporary house I’ve seen in a while that I’d really want to live in.

Originally uploaded by j.m.r.

My sister got a DSLR a few months ago and has been taking some fantastic pictures. This great photo of a palm frond is from Chicago and she has some great photos from Death Valley.

The triumph of ugliness - National - smh.com.au

“Political correctness wants us to believe that democracy and good taste are compatible, but they are not.”

My friend Qalandar has gone back to Pakistan and has been working for democracy. Below is the introduction to his editorial for the next issue of Naked Punch. I hope you enjoy it.

A renowned poem of Faiz Ahmed Faiz was brought to my attention last night. Sitting for dinner in a restaurant in Lahore the one-man entertainment with his key-board and mike walked up to my table and kindly asked if I had a request. ‘Yes, A ghazal…of Faiz’, I replied. Happy to be playing something other then the latest Bollywood film song he returned to his keyboard and began to sing:

That which was ours, my love,
Don’t ask me for that love again

The poem of Faiz goes on:

but there were other sorrows, comforts other than love.
The rich had cast their spell on history:
Dark centuries had been embroidered on brocades and silks.
Bitter threads began to unravel before me
As I went into alleys and in open markets
Saw bodies plastered with ash, bathed in blood.
I saw them sold and bought, again and again.
This too deserves attention. I can’t help but look back
When I return from those alleys – what should one do?
And you still are so ravishing – what should I do?
There are other sorrows in this world,
Comforts other than love.
Don’t ask me, my love, for that love again.

And here is the actual document: Oppressions Other Than Love (DOC, 152 kb)

The New York Times has a nice photoshoot mixing together many of the actors and actresses and characters from many films by the Cohen brothers.

I’m not positive, but it looks like my back is on the cover of Colophound, a magazine created from the Colophon magazine conference I attended last March in Luxembourg. What do you think, does that green t-shirt and slight hunch scream me?

I just watched this spontaneous discussion about fair use with Brian de Palma’s latest film and was struck by one man’s comment that fair users laws are bad and this is something that will hopefully be eventually fixed in the courts. What happened to Congress passing laws and fixing bad situations? There seems to be a common assumption in significant parts of the (left-liberal) population that the courts are the ones that will give us rights while Congress will just take them away. The sad part is, this is often how things are playing out. Just look at the Democrats craven surrender on domestic wire-tapping the other day with the House’s bill authorizing NSA wiretapping. Can you name a major development in American politics since the New Deal that was not really founded in court rulings? The Clean Air Act is the only thing that comes to mind. Can you think of any?

I just saw SiCKO and was quite impressed by it. Moore has been criticized for his stunts in the film, especially the Cuba trip, and for painting an overly-rosy view of other countries, but I don’t think he’s really off the mark. Having lived now in four countries with universal health care (UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, for those keeping track), I do agree that universal health care systems are better than the American system. Why I don’t have much experience with these other countries (having been pretty healthy), I can saw that my experiences with the French and British systems were very good. It was very cool being given an NHS number when I was living the London just because I was living there legally for over six months. No fuss, no muss.

Ironically, one of the difficulties our family had in moving to France was showing we had health insurance in order to get our visas. We were required to show health insurance covering our entire stay. Like most Americans, our health insurance was from my father’s employer. Thus, the insurer was unwilling to certify that the insurance was valid for our entire stay. In the end my father’s boss had to write a letter promising that my father would be employed for the entire period and thus ensuring health insurance!

To be honest, what disappointed me about the film was the befuddled everyman perspective Moore takes: “But I thought Americans took care of each other.” I kept wanting to yell, “Of course we don’t! We’re heartless assholes that would rather destroy ourselves than do anything remotely socialistic!” I’ll give him that appealing to people’s better instincts is probably more effective in changing things than berating them for their narrow-minded and selfish attitudes. Being one more prone to calm dialog than arguments and accusations (which is why I don’t support Greenpeace, but that’s another story…), it perhaps ironic for me to say it, but in this case I subscribe to the Henry Rollins school of rage for civic good (watch the entire video, it’s very moving). Sure Moore takes some pot-shots at HMOs, but he really doesn’t indite American society the way I would have liked. In that sense I would consider Bowling for Columbine a more critical film.

Last night I attended the opening Wallen Salon, an exhibition by the Kattenbak collective. It is a pretty unique setting, as the group had taken on a grand old house in a pretty serious state of disrepair in the heart of the red light district and set up their artwork in all the bare rooms. Most of it wasn’t that interesting, to be honest, but there was one exception. On the top floor, right next to the DJ, was a series of posters for The Raven. The designer (should I say artist?) had the whole poem across the bottom third of the three posters and then three different striking woodblock prints of ravens perching on barbed wire on the rest of the posters. What I really liked about the posters is that they preserve the darkness of the poem, yet, thanks to the design, make the poem feel contemporary and not dated at all. Because of that, I think the designer was making a sly statement when he or she put the date of the poem’s original publication in the top left corner.

I just looked at the Leidseplein in Google Maps. Interestingly, the entry shows all the trams and buses that stop there and links to 9292ov.nl, the main Dutch mass transit information website. Google Transit doesn’t include the Netherlands yet, but if Maps is linking to 9292ov, my guess is that they’re going to deal for the whole country, like they did with Japan.