George Carlin RIP

From Carlin's Obituary in the always disappointing New York Times:

Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”

Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.”

Carlin will be missed.

Utah Phillips RIP

The great folksinger and storyteller, Utah Phillips, passed away a few days ago. With the passing of Rosalyn Zinn in the last week, this has been a crummy week. Our condolences with the family.

Roslyn Zinn

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of painter/activist/teacher Roslyn Zinn. While we may only know her through the glimpses, her participating in the stories of Howard's life, the mentions in his talks, for those of us who didn't know her personally, her deepest impact is through his work. Her obituary in The Boston globe quotes Howard Zinn saying:

"I never showed my work to anyone except her, because she was such a fine editor," he said. "She had such a sensibility about what worked, what read well, what was necessary, what was redundant."

As someone who works in media production, I know that there is always more than the single author or director guiding the final vision. As one of the many people who has been profoundly impacted by this body of work, I mourn her passing. Our prayers are with her family and friends.

Aimé Césaire

It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of theorist and writer Aimé Césaire. Our condolences to his family. For those unfamiliar with Césaire, we recommend the excellent Discourse on Colonialism .

Miseducation

So we wanted the post below to stay at the top a little bit longer, but we wanted to tell everyone about the new additions. Besides a house-cleaning of sorts, fixing old mistakes from the first readings, we added some links into our popular world map. Not all, but some of the locations now link to specific texts in the site about them. That isn't the big news, though. We added a classic text that frankly should've been on the site a long time ago: Carter Godwin Woodson's The Mis-Education of the Negro .
Now, before we suggest that you read our post below seeking assistance from PHP and Drupal people (or funds to hire someone), we'd like to voice a complaint out into the wilderness of the internet. We've been hearing Nina Simone in commercials lately and it is irritating us: Nina is ours, she didn't get the honor she deserved when she was alive with us, and we certainly don't want to continue the insult by using her powerful voice to sell a stupid car. Listen to her music, but don't use it in commercials.
Now read the post below and uh, go stop the war.

Victor Jara

On the train yesterday, I was overcome with emotion reading Joan Jara's moving story of the first days of the coup in Chile, saying good-bye to her husband for the last time, and claiming his body at the morgue. Victor Jara, a popular folk singer in Chile and member of the “Nueva canción Chilena”(New Chilean Song) movement, was clearly a wonderful and courageous man and his widow's writing manages, despite the best efforts of the forces of evil, to bring him back to life.
The coup in Chile was the direct result of American intervention. The absolute horror of it is difficult to convey, but in her words, we can begin to understand the sheer wall of fear and evil. Kissinger should be in prison. Three chapters are now on History Is A Weapon. We encourage you to read them:
Three chapters from Victor: An Unfinished Song by Joan Jara
Charles Horman, an American journalist, was also among the thousand rounded up and executed after the coup. His parents went down afterwards to look for him and his father wrote an amazing book, Missing, that was later turned into a haunting film starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. If you get a chance to check either the book or the film, they're worth your time. I remember seeing the film when I was twelve or thirteen and reading the book soon after and just getting dazed. I'm always disturbed seeing Kissinger on shows like Jon Stewart.