India Revisited
I’ve decided to take my distrust of linear narratives to heart and not care about the backlog of comments I want to transform into posts. So, I skip my follow up on Oslo waterfront development (which has the makings of a seriously juicy update), my thoughts on the recent conference of Critical Heritage, backtrack from … Continue reading
Oslo Under Construction
Europe has many crane cities (Brussels immediately comes to mind) but, as I pulled into Oslo Sentralstasjon, I wasn’t expecting to see that horizon. Yet similar to many other major cities (e.g. London, Amsterdam, New York), Oslo is focusing on waterfront redevelopment. Also similar, the city seems committed to predominate global waterfront ideologies (e.g. young, … Continue reading
Occupy Wall Street
“Che Guevara was not a communist,” a girl says without glancing up from her cell phone, nodding in the direction of a group of five people wearing occupy the hood shirts; the face of Che in between the words occupy and hood. From where I sit, it’s too loud to hear what someone might have … Continue reading
Work Means Liberity!
Reading Mark Kingwell’s essay, “The Language of Work,” in last month’s Harper’s Magazine is an opportunity to break from the complexities of our current global crisis and return to a more simple argument. The purpose of his essay is to get at the essence of work, what it is, and why we should resist it. … Continue reading
Performing the Rehearsal: The Strip Tease of Modernity
Hegel changed the course of modern philosophy when he asserted that history, driven by changes in the ideals and values of a given people, is contradictory by nature. Yet modernity for Hegel was characterized by a sense of universality, thus lending itself to a certain idealism which was soon shattered by Marx, who used Hegelian … Continue reading
In the Domain of Body Culture
The image of the crowd belongs to the domain of body culture. It’s unquestionable powerful lies in momentum, where the body—as mass—replaces the singular mind. Last month, as crowds proliferated across the Middle East, there was a brief interlude here in the US in form of the Super bowl and its halftime show. The extreme … Continue reading
My Graduate Record Exam or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ideological State Apparatuses
I can no longer hate the Graduate Record Exam. Any feeling of animosity has been replaced by a respect culled through fear and awe for the ideology of higher education. I bombed the test. Or, should I say the test bombed me. After three hours of biting my lips and twitching my legs the computer … Continue reading
Flirting with Capitalism: Shopping at Trader Joes
I’m pretty sure I was just flirting at Trader Joe’s. It happened in the dried fruit and nut section. I was on my tip toes trying to see if they’d stocked more medjool dates. They hadn’t. Never again would I assume that because I loved something, Trader Joe’s would have it. My disappointment was immeasurable. … Continue reading
The (Vulgar) Global Subject
“Imperialist expansion is not just differentiated but differentiating; the calculation of “difference” is part and parcel of the strategies of imperial expansion.” In his chapter on “Toward a Vulgar Theory of Imperialism,” architectural historian Arindam Dutta examines the various spokes that comprised Britain’s wheel of imperialism. His argument: nothing is inconsequential. Even the simple act … Continue reading
Things are Getting Heteronormative
Dark lit interiors, little black dress, jewlery that doubles as bondage. Classier drinks means non-butch lesbians, threesomes, wild orgies and a morning free of hangovers and STDs. Remy Martin’s latest NYC ad, “Things are getting interesting” tells us nothing we don’t already know. The equation between expensive drinks and better sexual encounters is as classically … Continue reading
Utopiography 