It’s Casual Friday and Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) from Libertas LLC is here to discuss all the week’s news. Show topic: The splintering of America as states push further and further away from Federal regulations. On the brighter side, film guy Matthew Weiss (@langdonboom) shares his pick of the week and some words of wisdom (quoting the great John Cassavetes). Click thru for to watch the trailer for Matthew’s pick, find links and updates too. Use this post as today’s thread.
Check out NYCOccupy in anticipation of May 1st. and MayDayNYC.
Gingrich at the Zoo….can you find the campaign funds?
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)
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9:59 am
Maybe you folks will appreciate this.
http://designinghealthycommunities.org/
Also
Try searching YouTube for “designing healthy communities”
This is what I think of when I imagine a more “Progressive” United States.
Whilst we’re at it. Allow me to draw your attention to http://www.phoenixcommotion.com/.
12:04 pm
Sam,
Could you ask Cliff what is going on at Penn St.
Atrios linked to a piece on Philly.com http://www.eschatonblog.com/2012/04/you-know.html
Is Penn St this f-ed up ?
1:02 pm
Monica Crowley Monica Crowley @MonicaCrowley
Monica Crowley Monica Crowley @MonicaCrowley
8:46 pm
Weiss mentions Cassavetes scholar Ray Carney, a film professor at Boston University who did more for Cassavetes’ reputation as a director than any other critic, beginning back at a time when Cassavetes, if remembered at all, was known merely as a temperamental Hollywood actor and far from being an “iconoclast.”
Professor Carney, seemingly reliving the difficulties of many of his heroes, is in a brutal bureaucratic situation at BU, which he painfully details in a long letter to independent filmmaker Jon Jost, which Jost has published in his blog, here:
http://jonjost.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/my-brilliant-academic-career-1/
Carney’s situation isn’t particular, but rather endemic of a larger bureaucratic process at work, revealed in a way by the recent trillion dollar milestone hit collectively by student debt. Colleges and universities are primarily businesses, and a particularly expensive (if unavoidable, as Seder and Schecter mention) option, especially in a climate of low job prospects. A professor attempting to inform his/her students of the reality of their prospects is frankly fair. It’s brave in Carney’s case, considering the BU administration and its maniacal attempts to suppress him, in lieu of the possible effects on enrollment figures, which are themselves reflections (or justifications) of top-heavy administrative salaries.
At the very least, I wish well for Carney, and hope his long-awaited book on the history of American independent film will do as much as his Cassavetes studies did for Cassavetes. And all the best to Sam as well: if you do take a movie break from reading about politics, there’s a famous line near the end of “Tokyo Story” that would be all too appropriate now.
My best to the MR team,
Sotirios