Hispañiola; Atlantic crystal

Here, here and here are three pieces from three perspectives on the contentious issues in the Dominican community around race, color, and Haitian migration. The overall picture I get from the three is that of an upcoming generation of Dominicans, raised in the US and exposed to a different value set around race and ethnicity than their grandparents and uncles on the island. As the views and comments shared show these remain sensitive topics for Dominicans, and one where there are clear generational and perhaps geographic divides. There are also real problems of semantics; what exactly do the words you choose mean to an older Dominican? How are your claims colored by what he or she knows concerning attitudes of white Americans, representations of blackness in American media, etc.? The confusion can be compounded in the case of Dominican Diasporans as even when Spanish was our first language it is not likely to have been the language of our schooling and our academic and intellectual development. This semantic issue is one that needs to be kept in mind as this conversation grows if those of us reared stateside hope to influence those on the island grappling with these issues.

About a year ago I began going onto the forums of an English language Dominican news site. I'll leave my rant on the value of internet forums for another day. In any case I haven't had much choice in the matter regarding this forum. My intellectual curiosity over this period has run to DR and DR history, and this was the only English language forum with participants among whom numbered a few with solid historical knowledge and developed opinions about DR. Unfortunately, my experience there has been largely negative. Instead of celebrating the Dominican there is considerable ferocity on display at this forum regarding the issues of illegal Haitian immigration and Dominican racial complexes. And though many, especially Diasporans, aim to inject a more humanistic perspective to Haitian immigration issue, it runs into a lot of walls. One quickly learns it isn't as simple as increasing the peace; there are not only the usual legitimate economic factors that pit one group against another, not only the layer of colorism which is present throughout the Americas, but there is also the matter of actual Dominican history. If history matters, it does matter that these nations repeatedly battled militarily since their respective births in the age of Atlantic revolutions. These wars are events that our homegrown Dominican cousins will bring up in discussions on the topic. They are not entirely without merit. These events occurred at the foundations of the national psyche, and the fires they started were re-awakened and strengthened by DR's infamous benefactor Trujillo. It may not always be evident how, but the point is these histories are relevant. One problem of the more universal, human-rights based level of values that we Diasporans bring to the table in these conversations is that this level of thought can create blindspots to the positive value of nationalism. Having a more globalist outlook on the world is admirable, and it is on the whole my own viewpoint. Still I have observed that many who operate from this worldview seem to have missed a step on the ladder. They affect to have transcended nation and tribe, but often not in an organic way that would require us to respect, value and embrace the healthy aspects of the older worldview. And it has not been my experience that we Diasporans know, much less embrace, the history of our parents' homeland as well as we could; or if we do, we know it more from a regional paradigm, and might consider DR as just one more example of many in 'post-colonial' history. As with semantics this is another obstacle to understanding between the home-grown and foreign branches of this family that could undermine any positive influence we can have on this discourse. It begs of those in our island Patria the question, who are you to discuss how we identify who do not even know our story?

For now those are my two offerings to the discussion; cautions about potential pitfalls. My feeling is that the kind of violent headlines and uninformed criticism sparking increased discussion of this matter across borders will go on. I think we Dominican-Americans can offer something to this discourse, just as I think the native Dominicans have something to offer us if we really study our story. It is a story that bears the marks of all the hurricanes and vicissitudes that came with the whole of the Atlantic transaction from the age of colonization, through the Industrial Revolution, to the Cold War, through today. Working through these issues together I hope we can one day offer new paradigms to our region, our hemisphere, and maybe even our world.

LED TVs: hyper-real simulacra

Last six weeks have been a whirlwind. Along with the arrival of my baby boy there has been all the effort that goes into outfitting a new cave. Couches, cribs, cutting utensils ... the entire range of modern equipment. Maybe I didn't get my hairy paws on the very the best in each case but the best I could do for my burgeoning family. After all that I decided to reward myself with a shiny new flatscreen TV. I'm very late to this game, as for years I've gotten by on my old 27" tube set. I don't watch a ton besides fights and an occasional film or HBO series. Still now that I finally had a place of my own I wanted a proper TV to invite the gang over for UFCs and boxing.

I searched high and low (meaning in upper and lower Manhattan) and saw some wondrously clear screens. Bear in mind as a caveman I don't have the weakened, over-assaulted city dweller eyesight most of you suffer from, and am blessed with the very acute vision. Well what my vision discerned astonished and frightened me; these new gigantic, LED TVs are so clear they kill the illusion of movies! In other words movies no longer look or feel like movies; the movie looks like a bunch of actors in costume performing on a digitally enhanced set. The small details and imperfections are too perceptible . It becomes more like watching a play on Broadway than a Hollywood production, except without the same warmth that proximity to the players gives on the stage. This doesn't matter for dramas or comedies, but it ruins any movie that relies on visuals or action. What was previously fantastic to my eyes becomes in a way fraudulent.

In the end I went with something reasonably priced and reasonably sharp for it's intended purpose of watching grown men bash each other in rings or cages. Super resolutions can't make combat any less real, however I value being swept up in the latest popcorn flick or sci-fi thriller. These crystal clear LED sets just make our fantasies look so real they feel fake!

Home Sweet Home

Ozzie is happy to report he has returned from the depths of Inwood to the heart of WaHi. Despite reports in the press regarding this being a renter's market I can't say I was pleased about the options and pricing available to me. Being a caveman didn't help, and neither did youthful indiscretions from which my FICO scores have not fully recovered. Still I've landed in a good spot on Ft. Wash right by J. Hood Wright park. I feel good about starting a family in familiar environs, but I'm also pleased the neighborhood will have a very different flavor as my kid grows up from my childhood days in the wild eighties.

Combat is a guy thing

Shouldn't respectable newspapers have a policy against journalists writing on topics they've had only one shallow experience with? And if you are going to condemn from atop a respected soapbox isn't balance and factuality still expected? I came across an article from the latest NY Times magazine giving a female spouse's perspective on a UFC pay-per-view. Characterizations in the article were so off base I couldn't tell if it was due to naivety or self-righteous hypocrisy. I understand the Times doesn't exactly cater to the Neanderthal demo but the goal of making their readers feel cultured doesn't absolve them from accuracy. Alongside inexplicable allusions to 'biting and eye gouging' which DO NOT go on at these events, there are unfavorable comparisons to boxing which serve only to show the depth of the writer's ignorance on that sport as well. There is no mention of injuries and violence in all other sports, and only a line on NFL football which on balance is much more gruesome if we measure by injury rates. She claims her aficionado husband prompted the article, but I have to presume the poor guy got no wind of this piece because this Mrs. Virginia Heffernan is in sore need of a clue about martial arts, combat, and competition.

Being so offensive (to your nose and eyes) I'm not easily offended, but I find I'm offended by how offended some people are by the notion of a punch or a kick. It's as if they think that witnessing such a thing is on the level of watching rape. This journalist seems to be entirely alienated from physicality and violence, regular aspects of reality even within city limits. At least they are regular on the side of the city us morlocks wander, though maybe not in her sanitized quarter. I'm no chest-thumping warrior myself, but in my time here on this rock I've at least made an effort to learn about the martial heritage we all share as homo sapiens. Not everyone has the time or resources to train continuously but many sensitive people would benefit from just a few weeks in a boxing or MMA gym, or any martial art where the instructor sees to it you are subjected to some real force and roughness. Controlled fighting contests aren't equivalent to a murderous mortal sin, as much as it may offend weaker sensibilities of the over-civilized. You don't ave to like, in fact many advanced martial artists have issues with these events. Still if you are a critic of culture, especially popular culture, there is an obligation to give the plebes the benefit of the doubt instead of spewing your knee-jerk, squeamish reactions onto the page. Luckily it seems readers of NY Times on the whole aren't quite as soft as this writer, as they tear into the piece in the comments. Most make the effort to offer wordy contribution but the craptastic quality of the article is summed up tersely by #44...

44. "Yes, Virginia, there is a masculine mystique. Combat is a guy thing; you wouldn’t understand."

More commentary on the topic from a saint and an immoralist...

"Suddenly we noticed barnyard cocks beginning a bitter fight just in front of the door. We chose to watch......the lowered heads stretched forward, neck-plumage distended, the lusty thrusts, and such wary parryings; and in every motion of the irrational animals, nothing unseemly- precisely because another Reason from on high rules over all things. Finally, the very law of the victor: the proud crowing, the almost perfectly orbed arrangement of the members, as if in haughtiness of supremacy. But the sign of the vanquished: hackles plucked from the neck; in carriage and in cry, all bedraggled - and for that very reason, somehow or other, beautiful and in harmony with nature's laws.We asked many questions: Why do all cocks behave this way? Why do they fight for the sake of supremacy of the hens subject to them?
Why did the very beauty of the fight draw us aside from higher study for a while, and onto the pleasure of the spectacle?"

-St.Augustine, De Ordine (About Order) A.D.386

"...let us not doubt that we moderns, with our thickly padded humanity, which at all costs wants to avoid bumping into a stone, would have provided {our ancestors} with a comedy at which they could have laughed themselves to death."

- F. Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

rolex time is over, welcome to hard times

I've heard it said and agree that 'to practice philosophy is a form of atavism of the highest order'. That's why I've grunted before about its overlap with another high order throwback, professional wrestling. One Mr. Chauncey DeVega comments on the same here. Hate to chuckle at the poor guy's job troubles but in framing them with `80s wrestling interviews ("Dusty Rhodes Declares Hard Times" & "Ric Flair Flossy") he hit the nail on the head regarding this economy. Go watch them fellow brutes.

Dominicans & Trujillo

Another week another title, once again on the old goat Generalissimo Trujillo. I was completely sucked in by Trujillo: Causas De Una Tiranía Sin Ejemplo (Trujillo: Causes of a Tyranny without Equal) by Juan Bosch. Juan Bosch was one of Dominican Republic's most prolific intellectuals, a former President, and a monumental figure in the politics of DR. He wrote this in exile in 1961, before coming to power, and in fact before the ultimate downfall of Trujillo. The book is a must read for those of us American Dominicans who grew up stateside and don't have the best narrative sense of Dominican history. Although the subject of this title is Trujillo, Prof. Bosch in the process outlines in fast moving, incisive chapters the historical eras of the island from the times of Columbus, through Spanish and Haitian rule and into the first of two 20th C. US invasions. I've known for a long time the pieces that come along to us from parents on national holidays, like the upcoming DR Independence Day however this was precisely what I lacked for my assorted jumble of DR historical facts: a set of discrete periods of DR and some corresponding themes, the canvases on which the historical facts become a story. Unfortunately in this particular case it is told with a tragic bent as a decoding of the causes of the rise of dictatorship. As Bosch guides us through these eras he touches on the cultural and social legacies they left, and constructs a genealogy of the causes of both Trujillo the unique man/monster and also his unmatched tyrannical regime. Bosch convincingly argues that Trujillo was the consummation and culmination of the full array of historical forces at work in the colonization of the Caribbean and of DR in particular.

Dr. Bosch's analyses and his prognosis is frighteningly accurate. Ironically the book itself also serves as an example of the prime character flaw Dr. Bosch diagnosed in Dominicans of 1960s (and today?): destructive gossip, el bochinche maligno. Dr. Bosch stresses repeatedly the role of classism and social position in DR. He points to Trujillo's insecurities around his lower class heritage, and to instances of explicit rejection by the Dominican social elites of the highest ranks, as the roots of Trujillo's unquenchable ambition for wealth and power. As I mentioned the book was written just months before the assassination of Trujillo, and the subsequent short Presidency of the author Dr. Bosch himself, aborted by a military coup and an invading US Army. Despite all this ensuing historical drama, in a post-scriptum written in 1991 the only further insights Bosch saw fit to add to the text were more gossip to confirm Trujillo's low class origins.

Unlike the last book this one grabs you and reads quickly and to the point. Unfortunately it is in Spanish and I'm not sure there are translations available. If you are trying to learn Spanish this may not be a bad one to tackle. You will get some useful cultural history of Dominicans and a glimpse into a dark and bizarre dictatorship that nonetheless directly shaped the people who today largely populate Washington Heights & Inwood. Locals can pick it up @ Calliope bookstore on Dyckman Avenue.

the comeback trail: Cotto & Pavlik

One of the strange aspects of boxing is that fighters often work their way to a title belt without having tasted defeat. Sometimes undefeated fighters go beyond just winning a title and are declared champions of their division by the people and even the pundits. Whether the undefeated status is the result of genuine brilliance or of a careful and calculated climb up the ranks an undefeated champion is must pass a final test. The legacy star fighters leave behind to the fans often depends on how they react after their first genuine destruction. Despite having already faced giants and claimed championships, in a sense tonight is the beginning of the real test for two fighters; Miguel Cotto and Kelly Pavlik. Beyond their own legacies the attention to the sport of many boxing fans is on the line. I'm referring of course to those fuzzy pseudo-ethnic undertones that pervade boxing. Both of these young lions have the hopes of their tribe and city riding on another successful run inside the ring. Can their warrior's spirit rebound from annihilation and keep the torch of boxing fandom alive in their communities?




Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto (32(26)-1) is the current darling of Boricua boxing fans. Predictably amongst the Dominican crowd there are as many haters as fans. I'm a fan. Last time out Cotto received a savage beating. After that we all had our doubts. Cotto is unquestionably a world class fighter, but does he have what it will take to become an undisputed champ? Well time reveals the truth and we learned what actually happened that night against Mexio's Antonio 'padded gloves' Margarito. Now Cotto must restart the campaign up the ladder to get a crack at the champion, Shane Mosley; a man he has already defeated right here in NYC. Tonight Cotto is back at the Garden against a ranked contender, Michael Jennings (34(16)-1) of the UK. The opponent may not be a top 10 name but to Cotto's credit in his last fifteen fights only one opponent was arguably not top ten when they fought! He has earned a showcase fight.



The show also features the comeback fight of popular middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik (34(30)-1). Pavlik is from working class Youngstown, OH and his skills and humble demeanor are earning him a following out in the heartland. He also was demolished recently when he moved up a weight class, however there is no shame in losing to one of our generation's P4P greats Bernard Hopkins. Tonight he is in against a tough customer, Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio (43(37)-4). Hopefully this guy is not another cheat like Margarito. Finally the card will also feature NYC-based Irish fighter John Duddy. I don't rate Duddy too highly, but I do approve of building up local stars slowly and steadily. He remains undefeated and with proper management, training, and experience he may prove me wrong and make it to the elite echelons.

Unfortunately I couldn't splurge on tickets for this one but I'll likely order it on PPV. And if MMA is your game SpikeTV is broadcasting the UFC event from London,UK. I love these doubleheader weekends!

el Jefe

It always happens with my job that the coldest week of the year coincides with the busiest time. The last fifteen days I spent tied to my desk, right through my nights and weekends. Dark, cold, lonely days writing TPS reports and cranking up the old RiskMaster3000. Despite all this I did manage, with some starts and stops, to plow through a title. Deprive me of sunlight, exercise, healthy meals and companionship, but don't keep me from my books! What kind of uncivilized brute would I be without them?



Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History by Richard Lee Turits

This book was an eye-opening history of the foundation of Generalissimo Trujillo's long-lasting power. For those unfamiliar it is hard to top Junot Diaz's description of Trujillo as an 'infamous fuckface ... one of the dictatingest dictators that ever dictated'. He was absolute master of the Dominican Republic between 1930-1961. There are some really wild stories out there about the excesses and atrocities carried out under his watch. Those lurid tales weren't what interested me though. I sought to know HOW and WHY Dominicans put up with the guy for thirty years. As with Fidel Castro that long a reign takes much more than troops and torture to maintain. Turits' book offered many lessons on statecraft, nation-building and Trujillo's role in their development in DR. The largest lesson from this book was that despite the cruel and twisted aspects of his story Trujillo was actually a highly effective head of state whose early policies did great good to the infant nation. His regime sped up and solidified economic processes that unshackled DR from being a marginal backwater. Principally this meant 'domesticating' our grandparents who were for the most part stubbornly nomadic ranchers and/or subsistence farmers gatherers. No leader of any stripe had succeeded in encouraging this sedentarization for centuries, despite many attempts. Trujillo also drew and enforced the Dominican national boundaries, both territorially and tragically in the sense of identity. He almost literally created the state apparatus of DR. Most shockingly to me he successfully redistributed land to the common man the way so many Lat-Am movements promised and failed to deliver. This last point is the one around which Foundations is centered. Clearly Trujillo acted out of greed and self-interest, but his cunning was in seeing where his interests aligned with those of our then often impoverished, landless grandparents.

Foundations is written in an academic, densely foot-noted style and doesn't have a thrilling narrative. Unless you bring your own curiosity as I did you won't find it as gripping as titles on Trujillo's dark side. Still all histories ultimately begin with the material and economic facts, the broad determinants as illustrated by documented particulars. Read this book to begin to understand the structural reasons why DR generated, accepted and even needed a Generalissimo Trujillo. Dominicanos you will be surprised to find that contrary to stereotypes around our history the Trujillo regime was not just a puppet government installed over a hapless banana republic by the US State Department. Alongside El Jefe, in this piece of history the unlikely co-protagonist was the Dominican campesino and not the big bad empire.

Visionaries

We all know what Plato said to us ugly beastmen about life in the caves: it's all good fun as long as you never point out to your fellows about the sun. By doing so you risk death by their furry hands; perhaps even rightfully deserved death, for after all staring into the light can blind one and here you are promoting such insanity! For this reason we have to be grateful for the daring visionaries amongst us. They risked staring into that light, and then also coming back down into the caves to share. They are able to see past the puppetmaster's shadows to the potential & bright paintings we could put on our cave wall.

In that spirit I thought I'd share this, found by way of ManhattanKids. In it Martin Luther King, Jr, a true visionary, loosely predicts yesterday's inauguration of President Obama. Could you have foreseen this even a decade ago? Would you have shared such a conviction publically? Sadly, as per Plato's allegory, neither MLK nor RFK were tolerated for long by us primitive cave-folk.

Introduction

To all who come through, welcome to my new digs! Or perhaps more appropriately my new cave as Blogger seems about as rudimentary and primitive as I intend to keep things on this blog. I'm a migrant from LJ and brought along a few filler posts from my long past there to give a taste. My goal here is to keep things simple and local: simple off the cuff observations about books, films, sports + local flavor from Washington Heights/Inwood, my hometown neighborhoods in uptown Manhattan NYC.

After my exit from LJ I was chiefly prompted to start this in reaction to various posts from other local bloggers expressing insights about changes in the Heights, and blogging perspectives on offer (or lack thereof) . As a WaHi lifer, 2nd gen Dominican-American, and soon to be uptown daddy I thought I'd throw my own perspectival grunts into the ring. Apologies ahead of time if they turn out coarse or smelly!

degenerate entertainment

At this stage the obituaries for American pro boxing are mandatory not just for the boxing pundits, but even us slobs in the stands. As a 'hardcore' fan I'm obliged to fill my annual quota so here goes.

A Saturday evening without televised fights seems strange after a recent spate of action. The last quarter of this year had plenty great shows for everybody, whether your tastes run to MMA or boxing. I heard rumors carried by the winds of a heavyweight championship being fought out in the hinterlands of Europe. Pacquiao v. DeLaHoya a few weeks back was circus enough for me to choose to skip ordering it, as it involved Evander Holyfield's shadow facing a shadowy Russian giant. Holyfield's shadow was apparently robbed in a terrible decision. I don't really think US boxing is dying but they are making it hard to be a paying fan. If I have to start pinching PPV pennies I'm promised a much bigger bang from stacked cards like this one. Still I'm slowly learning to stop storming around the apartment claiming 'that was it, I'll never order another one'. That tantrum is a fraud, as legit as that decision. HBO's veteran commentator Larry Merchant summed it up perfectly in a recent interview:

"For the hardcore fans you can't discourage 'em, we're all degenerates, and we'll come back no matter what."

Not sure who that reflects on worse; fight junkies like me who keep paying or the cable exec jerks serving up the overpriced boxing shows. Either way it entertains me so I have to mute my whining about it and just enjoy. In that cheerful spirit here is lovable old vodka breath Larry Merchant himself employing other 'strong-arm tactics' on the fans.

finance geekery

Watch the buffoon gallery of commentators from across the talking head "news" networks shut down Mr. Schiff's warnings of a looming financial crisis as though he were a conspiracy theorist. 2008 and he was totally right...take that Ben Stein!





BTW I share the best finance, econ, poli, and fightsport blog entries I come across online here for any of you who are geeks for that stuff.

where's the wrestling?

Saturday night I stayed in for what has become a common occurrence in the last couple of years. It was a combo PPV championship boxing and free, televised MMA courtesy of SpikeTV and the UFC. The boxing match was a 170lb catchweight fight between legendary veteran Bernard Hopkins and undefeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. If you like boxing make sure you find your way to HBO this Saturday night for the replay. Against most pundit's opinions the snaggle-toothed vet put on a clinic you have to see to believe, solidifying himself as one of the all-time great middleweights.

Whenever one of these nights occur you can't help but notice the difference between boxing and MMA striking. It's a difference of range & style, and at the moment also a difference of quality. Joe Rogan even dropped some commentary about the room for improvement in MMA striking. Personally I'm pretty proud for the MMA athletes I follow because most are advancing the game steadily and surely on the boxing front. It showed Saturday night as the leather was flying all over the cage. But nonetheless I'm posting to bitch about that show. My complaint is actually the lack of grappling we saw Saturday night! See if I want to see hellacious power shots and masterful combinations I know where to go; between the ropes. I like the heavy punches and big kicks in MMA, but what makes it unique are the explosive takedowns, scrambles & reversals, clever escapes, and of course the submissions. There was almost nil grappling Saturday (exception and props to Davis for the choke). To me that makes for a disappointing card.

So here's my personal suggestion to UFC matchmakers: on those nights when you are going up against elite caliber boxing telecasts, please make sure to schedule and televise some matches featuring accomplished wrestlers and BJJers. Against each other. Guarantee you'll deliver one ground war on these nights, Dana. This way your commentator doesn't have to apologize that your fighters aren't Hopkins, and more importantly I can feel satisfied.


For boxing champs it's a matter of inches:


For the UFC main-eventers it's improving with a ways to go:

entertainment means avoiding passivity/everyday I contemplate a sword

Awesome experience, I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are resolute about jumping then everything goes smoothly right up until they open the hatch. That's when the anti-evolutionary nature of your proposed action becomes most evident. However the act of literally tossing caution and prudence to the wind violently, and then the adrenaline rush of accelerating to 120MPH really isn't anti-evolutionary. Insects can be prudent but I don't think they can enjoy freefall. Although the instructor and photog insisted on me looking up for pics, I had a hard time peeling my eyes away from the onrushing ground. Also got some light rafting done out in the Poconos. Overall the weekend was a healthy and necessary dose of of action, and being outside the city.

It reminded me of this quote from Ghost Dog, which actually comes to me often as I amble through life.

The Way of the Samurai is found in death.
Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily.
Every day, when one's body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon
being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords,
being carried away by surging waves,
being thrown into the midst of a great fire,
being struck by lightning,
being shaken to death by a great earthquake,
falling from thousand-foot cliffs,
dying of disease
or committing seppuku at the death of one's master.
And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead.
This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai.

The Holy Mountain

Recently I posted briefly about my trip through Philip K. Dick's gnostic psychosis. Being a book the insanity on offer there could only do something for the reader if he brings his own dose of insanity to the table (for one, committing to finishing it). Well last weekend I was exposed to something exponentially more irrational (trans-rational?) in the form of a film. Most people are well trained to sit through a movie, making this also more effective.





A friend brought over The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky. I really can't describe it beyond saying it is hyper-surreal, sacrilegious, graphic and fairly repulsive in parts, and on the whole soul disturbing. It's full to brim with symbols from various mystical systems (Christianity, tarot, etc.) in strange scene after strange scene, all loosely tied together by a figure on a spiritual quest. This sort of thing may have been common back in the sixties and seventies, but it's alien and quite fresh to me. I followed up on the auteur behind it and he is as colorful and bizarre as the film. Jodorowsky is a Chilean of Ukrainian descent, was run out of Mexico for heretical film-making, and is now a comic book artist of some renown in France. I ended up ordering some of his graphic novels and the box set of his other films. I'm sure I'll have to post once again after seeing those.



You should see this, if only because someone actually was able to pull it off. But if possible you should do it at some point when you are at least marginally curious and informed about mysticism. And why should you ever be? Well I came across a related quote today post which seems as good a reason as any:

"Nonsense is nonsense, but the study of nonsense is scholarship."

“What Have We Who Are Slaves And Black To Do With Art?”

Up and down the ladder I go, chasing after 'truths' then grounding myself in realities. In that vein I ran into this interesting piece at n + 1 about Ralph Ellison, high art, and black culture. Even if you are unfamiliar with Ellison, as I am, it offers some worthwhile contemplations on the role and value of pursuing universal, humanistic truths and thought systems, particularly as a non-white. It caught my attention with this about one of my fave authors, Jorge Luis Borges. It seems impossible to read widely and deeply without coming across thinkers with beautiful ideas but odious, annoying prejudices so it didn't strike me too negatively (there's also something to be sid about context); anyway what caught my thoughts was the sophisticated excuse for Borges bias and what the article's author, as well as Ellison, have to say about it.

"Some time ago I came across a skinny little book bearing the title With Borges. It is the recollection of a brief stint in a young man’s life spent reading to the Argentine giant of letters, Jorge Luis Borges. Much in the book was familiar – Borges lived with his mother into his sixties, he devoured books with a fiendish voracity, his blindness in old age necessitated that others read aloud to him – but one tiny passage, an aside, was new and striking to me: in it, the memoirist notes that though the great cosmopolitan boasted a taste for everything under the sun, from ancient Nordic folk verse to kabbalistic number games to cheap Westerns and detective stories, Borges nonetheless remarked that there was absolutely nothing he could find of universal importance in American Negro culture. It was simply too provincial. And because, as he saw it, Negroes had failed to produce a “universal culture” – like that of the ancient Greeks, the English, the Arabs, the Chinese, the Jews – because they could offer nothing of equal worth to the rest of the world, they were therefore in a sense inferior. This was Borges’s view and it is something that I have come to think about often. "
- "What Have We Who Are Slaves And Black To Do With Art?”, T.C. Williams, n + 1

Cotto vs Judah: X-PLOSION @ MSG

Another weekend and another great fight in the column for 2007. This time I had the pleasure of watching Puerto Rico's rising star Miguel Angel Cotto against Brooklyn NYC's own 'Super' Zab Judah for a version of the World Welterweight Championship title from Madison Square Garden. This was on the eve of the (in)famous NYC National Puerto-Rican Day Parade. The Boricuas were definitely out in full force representing for their man. In the name of Caribbean and Latino-American solidarity I had to do likewise, especially safely above the fray as I was sitting in the company luxury box.
Flag waving aside it really boiled down to two men in the ring, both of whom I have rooted for on many occasions, and neither of whom disappointed that night. Zab Judah ended up taking a fantastic beatdown that saw him take a knee for mercy in the 9th and eventually led to a referee stoppage in the 11th. Still Zab fought with more heart and class than any of us had seen from him in some time. I'll not be the first or the last to say that this kind of event is what boxing needs: local attractions with passionate followings, fighting outside of the scuzzy casinos in their hometowns, and leaving it all in the ring. I love MMA as much as the next guy, but really few MMA bouts can hold a candle to the protracted round-after-round drama of boxing. Hopefully Cotto will continue defending that belt at MSG and other promoters will follow the lead of Bob Arum back into the arenas.

Bashing Bush like a bongo

I flipped by the evening news last night watching the magix box with the moving people when my undeveloped senses were assaulted by a repulsive sight: Dubya trying to get down .



I'm forced to join this fellow and GAG.


Video here.

Sao Paulo Bans Billboards

Walking down the concrete canyons in Manhattan many a caveman is forced to grunt, spit and irreverently scratch at his jock as he is bombarded by incessant and derivative advertising from most all angles. Yes, the occasional Victoria Secret cleavage shot pleases his near-reptilian cerebellum, but at what cost? Sensory overload, and possibly even a seizure as his undeveloped but nonetheless jaded neurons fire volleys of cynicism at this strange world. However a proper, professional and cosmopolitan caveman realizes that this is one of the defining marks of the (post?) modern age and has resigned himself to it As such this news from one of my favorite places comes as an incredible and pleasant surprise:

SÃO PAULO: Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom. Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the "delete all" button and offer its residents unimpeded views of their surroundings.

In fact they went through with it as of this last January. Their justification was that advertisers had violated every code and regulatory attempt to manage billboards within the city. Down there (like anywhere) money talks, so it isn't hard to imagine the captains of commerce flouting the edicts and decrees of some scruffy city council. So the only solution was to get rid of all of the billboards, a truly neanderthalic response.

The law is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash,” [wrote] Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author ... “For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”

The BBC's article mentions the race & class dimension of this in pointing out that Brazil's advertisers have been slow to reflect the emergence of non-white Brazilians into the consumer class, instead sticking to the tried and true blonde-and-eyes-blue formula in casting models. Instead of side-stepping and double-speaking about it as a US corporate stooge would instinctively do, one exec straight out said:

"Advertising exists to sell products. We don't have a social responsibility, we have a commercial responsibility," he says ... "It's my responsibility as an individual, but not my industry's. My industry's not made for that."

However there is one North American habit that the sararimen also resort to in the Orbis Tertius that is Latin America: playing the victim of 'political correctness'.

"It is not politically correct to talk about the million-plus posters and signs that small businesses and mechanics' shops have up all over the place, because they are poor," said Francesc Petit, a prominent advertising executive who has spoken out against the law. "It's easier to attack McDonald's and Coca-Cola and the banks, because that doesn't offend anybody."

So take note fellow cave-dwellers: the absence of representation for the poor and black Brazilians is of little import, however please release a grunt of sympathy for the oppressed and besieged corporations. To think, now they will have to come up with fresh new ways of getting the word out about their irresistible double quarteirão com queijo (with diet Coke on the side of course).

I doubt this ban will stand for long against the will of the monied, so I hope I make it out there before the mental detritus re-pollutes the city. Here are some pictures of the billboard post remains. Enjoy the unique sight while it lasts!