Tarkovsky and classical art

And here Tarkovsky features the theme in his film

Mad Men mad about books

The show is very addictive and yet does not bore guilty feeling as it is with cheap soap dramas. The hit tv series follows an advertising agency men their women all shot against backdrop of early 60's event. The show is incredibly comfortable with chauvinism, sexism, racism and tons of unhealthy habits such as cigarette and aloohol. Watching this show (in one day I finished half of the season's episodes)I felt like I was time travelling backwards into the origins of every convenience in America; playtex bras, clearasil ads, diapers, airline business. Here's a curious observation from nymag about ideas in the show http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/07/don_drapers_mad_men_bookshelf.html

Learn, learn, and learn

Growing up in ex-com country I remember this phrase posted, painted, plastered in almost every school corner. Of course the meaning was evident and much obvious as it was supposed to convey simple message to school children "Do your homework and be conscientious in your study". Today, while I was re-reading Spivak' essay "Can the Subaltern Speak" I came upon a rather curious passage from Marx that was double quoted by Walter Benjamin and in subsequent order by Spivak which in turn spurred some curious thoughts about revolution and aftermath:

Marx continues in his description of the conspirateurs de profession as follows: "...They have no othet aim but the immediate one of overthrowing the existing government, and they profoundly despise the more rhetorical enlightnment of the workers as to their class interests. Thus their anger-not proletarian but plebian-at the habits noirs (black coats), the more or less educated people who represent that side of the movement and of whom they can never become entirely independent, as they cannot of the official representatives of the party." Baudelaire's political insights do not go fundamentally beyond the insights of these professional conspirators...He could perhaps have made Flaubert's statement, "Of all of the politics I understand only one thing: revolt", of his own.

Here Walter Benjamin quotes Marx to critique the valorization of any desire that has only one aim, to destruct and ovethrow any exisitng power. In its order Spivak uses Walter Benjamin's analysis to point the problematic of rhetorics of western Maoists, structuralists and post-structuralists. However,my concern here is not critique of western subjectivity but rather a pedagogical focus the passage has. In lieu of the thought that no revolution is won over a night I wanted to re-focus on the historical aspect of revolution itself and that certainly revolution is always followed by question "What is next?" Marx's point lies precisely in the warning that the political struggle is not an immature rebellion against power but rather full realization of the movement. In Mongolia the overthrow of communist state apparatus in 1990 was often celebrated as a democratic revolution. What followed afterwards can hardly be described as democratic rather the society slip was detrimental to the society as hardcore liberal capitalist values emerged. For this we could assume that when we manifest to make changes in the state power how often are we prepared to deal with the consequences? Do we do our homework proper to the learning experience?

Michael Jackson as a thing. Death long before one dies

Justin: Hey, do you know if Michael Jackson's funeral is tomorrow? Supposed to be like a big thing

Me: Don't know. I thought it was yesterday with that big ceremony, wasn't it "it"? Why people wouldn't just leave him rest in peace, yet still try to drag on with these pompous ceremony?

As we kept on our small conversation I thought about people's fascination with MJ's remains and all these ceremonies the media keeps publicizing. The man is long gone, he does not exist anymore physically and yet there's such public fascination and buzz around his name. Zizek wrote once about immortality that Mao and Stalin gained even when they were alive and that their alter-selves kept on living while they kept their own private stupid lives. Isn't it a similar case? Does it mean that Michael Jackson actually ceased to exist long before his physical death occured this month? That ultimately his physical death was just an empty ritual; another sort of dramatic stage dance that he might have staged? Isn't it why everyone could not believe that the death has occured again, twice actually? I mean who dies twice, right?

A Week of Kindness

A book that I am reading has a curious cover design featuring excerpt from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté. Decided to look up the title and I found out that it is a graphic novel made of collage. The book published around the time of Hitler's rise to power deals mainly with repressed middle class sexuality, anti-clerical and authoritarian themes.



If you pay close attention to this scene, the woman's bed is located behind bars. There's a man peering down at the figure of a woman while the room is being flooded.

Here's another scene from the book



To wrap up, here's lovely video from 90's by Madonna. This song came out when I was tormented myself with teenage rebellion. My room used to be plastered with posters of Madonna in various provocative poses. I must admit I succeeded shocking my mother with my pop music taste; everytime she walked into my room she used to shake her head. Mom no offense, I still love you.

Madonna - Deeper and Deeper
Uploaded by foxysoul. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Chugyeogja muses with Kafka

A while ago Korean friend gave me a dvd that probably sat dusting on my nightstand for almost a month. Besides his remarks that the movie was "good" and that it was selected for Cannes festival I remained pretty ignorant until I decided to watch it last night. The film's theme might perhaps fool you into thinking that it's cliche story about serial killer preying on prostitutes and self-conflicted cop hunting him down. We are led to believe that we know that kind of drama all too well from both real life, Jack the Ripper, and from fantasy world,"Seven". The presentation of the classical theme is built around suspense and race against time; the chaser who is trying to find the serial killer's residence, where last victim Mi Joon might still be alive, before Young-Min (the killer) is released from police station. The style that the director engages builds Hitchcockian suspense that if you have ever experienced it, leaves you numb in limbs and in cold sweat.

However, I want to discuss here the incredible parallel theme that the director adopted to show about inefficiency of bureaucracy and indidividual's helplessness and inability to challenge the system. At the beginning of the film when the chaser is about to deliver his own justice against the murderer, he's caught in the most comic and absurd scene interecepted by a street cop. The scene is played in the middle of traffic girdlock that the two have caused; both stand as if the two system anomalies were cutting the normal flow of the system's traffic. Of course such obstacle has to be dealt with and removed asap and here, the two are dragged into police station where Young-Min confessess in most ridiculous and non-dramatic way of murders that he committed. The confession is received as complete farce among the staff of police station and the murderer remains out of focus. Instead the attention ridiculously remains on the chaser who is accused of beating Young-Min. The chaser in turn tries to fight the authority and convince them of his innocence while the real murderer is ignored.

Perhaps this scene is reminiscent of Purloined Letter and Lacan's seminar on this famous Poe' piece. The murderer is precisely able to escape persecution because he laid out cards open on the table where everybody is stubbornly digging somewhere. Might be a good theme to look into...

I found one of the final scenes reminiscent of Kafka's Castle where K struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of the castle. Kafka did not was not able to finish the Castle but the scene in the movie where the chaser is trying to enter the domain of murder and where he's held against with more than 2 pair of hands amazingly parallels with the atmosphere of surreality and invisble forces present in Kafka.

Trailer - The Chaser
Uploaded by waytoblue. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Алтангэрлийн толь бичиг минь баяртай!

As a junior worker in my company I have to do all sorts of crap, including translating and interpeting random papers of no intellectual value. I struggled with the process perhaps because of my lack of enthusiasm and partly because of heavy terminology involved. Needless to mention that I haven't done any substantial translation lately from target language into source one. Forget about the "Task of the Translator" and Walter Benjamin, I dusted out my old English-Mongolian dictionary and sat for a while contemplating words such as "academic" and "academic bridge". As I slowly progessed through the text, I noticed that my Altangerel was not helping me much. I remembered my freshman college years when I sat evenings with this dictionary and how it used to be great aid to my homeworks. Unfortunately, the blue cover text was not anymore my faithful mate. As my English grew I forgot to update my library with appropriate vocab boosters.
On the other hand I noticed that when you do translation from source into target, you almost do not have to rely on S to T dictionary. When I was translating a friend's travel journal I used my reference and thesaurus dictionaries. Does it mean that the target register has become more accessible to me than my source?

Том 8

March 8th in Mongolia is a nationally recognized holiday that provides a fine excuse for girls to get flowers, various gifts from their loved ones, male co-workers and wrap the evening with out of control outings that can perhaps match American bachelorette parties. They celebrate their womanhood, independence, and recognition (or so we believe). The affirmation of womanhood by male population is largely displayed through the gifts, flowers, and etcetera. As I was sitting in my class few days ago, one male student from Poland expressed his disproval of the holiday condemning it as old Communist propaganda holiday. His remark could have been accurate if he acknowledged the link between feminism and Marxism, but he didn't. Innocent but superficial comment neglected the fact that this celerbation did not start with commies in Russia, but actually in America by suffragettes and since then regarded as International Women's Day. However, here I do not wish to repeat the old and beaten up female argument, that women are powerful and independent or that we are equally capable as any man and therefore this holiday is important to raise awarenesss internationally and then go on accusing young Polish student of being ignorant and not socially progressive. You see I cannot present this argument precisely because I, as an educated, middle class woman would always fail to assess accurately the reality. I would fall into all too familiar trap of liberal syndrome of pity for "developing" country's poor and oppressed. March 8th with acquiescent compliance from women carries silent endorsement of male affirmative stand. It is affirmative and it is quite similar to America's racial affirmative action. Precisely the quiet submission by women to this holiday and lack of critique of it, the holiday still stands as a reminder of perceived gender disequillibrum. Sadly said men can abolish March 8th anytime should they regard that gender issue is not an issue anymore.

Blast from the Past

So, bought the Watchmen tix. Can't believe that it's coming into silver screen. Did some researching on Smashing Pumpkins soundtrack for the trailer. Apparently the original version was released as Batman soundtrack. Thus the end, that is finale of all comic heroes in Watchment is in the beginning of Batman? I liked the original version than the soft final one featured on Watchment, but I guess it is supposed to be slow and melancholic compared to its young/upbeat/fresh original one.

Goyo Duu buyu There's nothing wrong with liking Zohioliin Duu

I remember one day I was chatting with my old classmate from University of Mongolia and when I asked how is UB he remarked "Oh well, last time I visited it (he studied in Japan that time)it was quite depressing. UB is not UB anymore. It's flooded with country people and dismal mood is fostered by fleeting former city people abroad. You hear everywhere Zohioliin Duu and nothing else."

His statement expressed his melancholy and lost nostalgia for old urban lifestyle that UB represented. It is sort of we hear today, London is not London anymore it's flooded my immigrants. Here, the nostalgia is not my main concern here. I wanted to discuss here what is Zohioliin Duu. To try to render it loosely, Duu means song and Zohioliin would be somewhere close to amateur writing. The connotation of this phrase has altered dramatically in last 10-15 years. As far as I remember when I grew up zohioliin duu always meant songs made up and composed by amateur artists who would just combine together well sounding rhymes and attach tune to it by guitar or basic musical instruments. In general it was not composed by well-established composers and never had any classical note recording. These songs were popular in camps, countrysides where people played a lot of guitar.
Nowadays, the connotation has changed abruptly to acquire almost new meaning of Zohioliin Duu. It meant clearly, songs that are popular in rural areas and among country bumpkins who recently moved to UB. These songs are often played in supermarkets where labor is usually driven from rural areas, black markets, in taxi cabs, and lately a lot on popular FM stations. Now, the last one is a matter of a concern to my friend who studied in Japan. Of course, all his teenage and early student years were filled with Western Pop in anticipation of the fall of Communism, which made its splash in its aftermath in 90's and early decade of 2000. For him zohioliin duu would always sound cowboyish. I must admit that probably he doesn't have distate to it. He has his favorite zohioliin duu and favorite zohioliin singer perhaps, but nevertheless what is this resentment to zohioliin duu entering the mainstream?

This is my favorite one where this couple resembles Romeo and Juliet. The song is very simple consists of basic repetitive rhyming. But, the song altogether is awfully retro. I love it.

Kink in the movie:The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema

Zizek on Violence

In his book Violence Zizek takes radical step in approaching faith, Christianity and relation to God by questioning then from the atheist point of view.Yes, precisely offering atheist judgement. He argues that in today's supposedly post-political and post-ideological society the world is resorting into antinomies of two fronts, liberal western, predominantly Judeo-Christian and fundamentalists,fanatics,and ultra-conservatives. The latter in this case is seen as sort of what communists were to west during cold war. He sees that to such antinomy only one institution can provide pure critique and that is detached moral judgement provided by Atheists. By only ignoring the existence of God, Zizek argues, and not being invested into the symbol of hell and heaven, in this case symbolized in our society by reward and punishment one can act from pure good which in its turn, is God himself.
Instead of tolerance and respect for the Other, Zizek proposes Lacanian approach to the conflict in Middle East between Palestine and Israel, and further between Arab world and West, that is to relieve the subject from its pathologically invested object a, Jerusalem.
There's a lot to think about this book. In overall my impression was that he is lost for now or at least searching for way out of void. Way out might be for now precisely Leninist stanza, "Learn, Learn, and Learn . . ." And here is song of the day, Glukoza. I'm sure monsieur Zizek appreciates good moderato in music. Personally I like the video because the artist tries to defy gravity and climb to the window. The song is about butterflies, does it mean love lifts us out of ditch, is that what the video is proposing?

Discussions with Nigel

I am sitting in my office and ready to weep as spasmodic tears are blurring my vision. Four years ago in year of 2004 my colleague and friend, whom I failed to understand due to my childish preoccupations with empty life, died mysteriously in Republic of Georgia. If you can understand the lifestyle that I once led in UB and kind of people I associated myself with, it is rather not complicated to understand my late realization of sorrow and loss of such dear friend. That time it was hard to believe it had occured, but nevertheless I recovered pretty easy as young girls in early twenties can. His name is Nigel Ockenden (I refuse to acknowledge him in past tense) and he died relatively young while teaching English in Georgia. I met him when I taught as well and became friends through sort of peculiar bond as can only perhaps be formed between a person of superior knowledge and intellect and the one who possesses absolute idiotic ignorance, therefore forming certain dialectic of two opposites. I must say until now I did not fully realize what was he up to. . . I know that he left me bunch of tapes with french lessons which I failed to recover, at the restaurant we were supposed to meet, before his departure to England. Today I accidentally discovered that he was a major contributor to amazon books' philosophical, political and literature section. AND I always wondered what he was doing all the time spending all day in library and in front of pc with mug of espresso. Reviews for Althusser, Deleuze, Diderot, Foucault, Agamben, Adorno, . . . the list is long. If only I asked, I would have discovered Agamben back in 2003! I am angry at myself and really are my tears are of a man who just realized that he won million dollar lottery and all along he didn't know about it. As I said I did not ask that time and I had lost interest in books, considering my teen years reading was enough and pretty dresses and shoes were far important.

In memoriam of my dear friend whom unfortunately my infantile mind failed to understand on timely manner, I shall write a discussion that might have taken place if only I realized on time what a great friend I had in handy and what a great mentor he could have become throughout my stumbling with ideas and books.

Art of da day

Critique and Crisis

Have been musing past few weeks about what happened in UB after the party election. Some pieces just wouldn't come together. Although it was apparent we were repeating after what history already presented us I was puzzled about something that was all along evident. I now recall that I even wrote once essay about such incident. I am talking about Reinhart Koselleck's Critique and Crisis. I find it necessary to mention here this author because when I was a grad student his work was influential in understanding the concepts of revolution and violence. Having lived in post-communist and post-revolutionary state where nothing substantial was given about history of revolution except Leninist ideology, I remember the joy of discovering other concepts by ones like Koselleck and Arendt.
Koselleck's work can be relevant to the events in Mongolia in a sense that he provides essential link between participants of the revolt and its organizers. By comparing eighteenth century secret masonry clubs founded by educated bourgeoisie who unlike aristocracy were deprived of political power Koselleck sheds light into roots of French Revolution and how it subsequently influenced Russian Decemberists. The theory reads that at the moment of intellectual renaissance experienced by educated middle-class but nevertheless not aristocracy, Paris also burgeoned with aggrieved peasants, and urban wage-earners who lived under miserable conditions. Same can be observed with Mongolia where following enrichment of oligarchy certain groups were provided with special opportunity to follow high standard education and thus creating intellectual elite against mass who mostly do not think beyond tomorrow's bread. Now isn't it best example of history how peasants' need for bread actually met with ambitions of wealthy bourgeois intellectuals and together they formed devastating forces of violence to critique and challenge the established power? Wouldn't it be correct to argue that oligarchic power in Mongolia, decadence of politicians and leaders are tantamount to the opulence that once Versailles surrounded itself?

Resource Curse?

Following Sunday election in Mongolia there was major riot against majority holder, Mongolian People's Revolution Party (MPRP) for alleged election fraud. It was discussed that the winner of this term's election would hold a key authority to legislation of the new law on natural resource exploration. The majority party holds it necessary that the resource exploration should be public whereas minority leaders of Mongolian Democratic Party disagree with it by suggesting full privatization.

Natural Philosophy

Reading Rousseau and talking about natural man I wish I could escape for few days where I could feel air against my bare skin

Tango me Right and Left

Just received news from friends back at home, mostly revolving around local politics and upcoming elections in UB. How amusing it is to observe current buzz around presidential election in the US and sort of be presented at the same time with miniature version of election drama from somewhere in Central Asia. Apparently Democrats (back home) are in lead in the process of disintegrating their party system into newly established independent parties, though never completely understood the term "independent", as if to suggest that representative politics anyway about estabiushed two party system (don't the free and fair democratic elections allow equal acknowledgement of all political parties, thus ensuring their equal participation?...naaah) If the newly established party is actually formed by former members of the same old parties, what difference does it make to us? Recycled X-mas cards with just visibly crossed over old content of wishes? I mean what moron on earth would vote for new party if the leader of it was a former member of a party where he suffered total knock out by his colleagues and therefore proved to be blindly unskilled statesman? What they were thinking? Plz...need some fresh air!

Never mind, on other hand seems like rightist are proving far more capable of moving their party through this confusion of equally divided vote. At least people are able to see clear determined issues and resolutions there instead of internal intrigue and havoc trashed out in open air of media war. Speaking of right and left moves, thinking about joining some tango establishment, will have something to mutter when folks ask me "what sport do you do?".

-I don't jog

-I don't play tennis

-I don't go to gym

-I don't workout and run like a rat

But

-I dance (good enough for me to sustain my booty in shape