Random Ish

Courtesy of these guys. Thats the second-best Thai-bboy-martial arts movie I have ever seen. And the joke is courtesy of Monkey Island.

This was an interesting discussion on Coates about art and colonialism. And I think Invisman52 is a twit, but that might just be me.

An interesting piece on the United States of Africa, though I have to do a full-write up on its implications. Long story short, I am not a fan. But I always enjoy reading Ngwane's stuff.

And I watched almost every episode of the Justice League and Batman Beyond thanks to Coate's thing on Bruce Timm. Christ, Justice League is AMAZING, Batman Beyond was not as good as I thought, though the latter handles race better than the former. A future post if there ever was one.

One day closer to death...

Jerry Seinfeld:
Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it's not to be, that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably; happy birthday? No such thing.

July 26th is my birthday. The CIA was created on that day. Evita Peron died. Fidel Castro's July 26th Movement was named after that day. In short, that day is tied to crazy-ass people. I am no different, as my wife can vouch for my crazy-assness. Which brings us to the subject of this post.

I actually find nothing particularly important about my birthday. I do not really look forward to it, I have no interest in having a party thrown for me, and really it is just another day. Indeed, the only reason I look forward to it at all is because I got married on that day (well, legally we were married on the 25th but the Wedding was the 26th), and it gives me an opportunity to bring people together and to get my wife kick-ass presents (that I secretly want for myself). I dunno, I just realized that I do not feel any different on my birthday, and that realization just makes the day seem... abritrary and shallow. Other people's birthdays are a big deal to me, but my own? Meh. It might have to do with my birthday being in the summer, which traditionally meant that a lot of my friends from school could not attend, or the fact that a lego set will no longer fill me with joy, but I have everything I could want, and what do you get for the man that has everything?

Link Wednesday!

Another week, another page of links!

And by page, I mean like two:

Yes Alex, bring back the state. Anything the dude writes is worth reading (though his takedown of the head of the ICC was straight character-assassination), but the linguistic and mental constructions of statehood are really interesting to me.

And this is an interesting development... not. Besides some of the nuttiness of Nigerian Hausas, this is not really that big a deal, and this is just a notch up the usual rioting in the country (which kills tens of thousands of people every year). I am curious to see if this is the result of the tons of money the Saudis and Iranians have thrown to West Africa as part of their international missionary rivalry. And props to the Nigerian government for stopping this stuff fast, though sending in the tanks to move people was a tad heavy handed.

Link Wednesday!

Xinjiang

Skip Gates!

Oh, and this is a great piece as well.

Obama in Ghana! I had planned to write something on this, but I kept getting eaten by dogs... wait, that's homework. What I meant to say is, I was too lazy. But here are some good reads on it. And in honor of my former professor, here is something a little more radical on it.

I attended this. I am not sure how to describe it, but the most accurate description would be 'recockulous'.

Which may also be used to describe Bruno.

I am going to write a Zunguzungu movie review in the near future. God help us all.

Oh, and these were straight bullcrap. More on this later.

I just let my dad know I have a blog. I better make it good or else he will really show me pepper.

:(

Michael Jackson died today. I was going to write a long-ass post on the deaths of some Africanists, but MJ trumps them all. Michael influenced so much of my life, and I hope he found happiness in his later years. You will always be my dude MJ.

E3?!?!

Ahh E3. The big-ass videogame expo that used to consume my soul before it became a crappy conference trade show. Flashing lights! Techno! Booth babes (and yes, they are all women :( )! If I had a 'bucket list', attending an E3 and spending three sleepless nights having my senses bombarded would most definately be on it. Yet for some reason this year I completely did not care about what was going on. I did not download any trailers, or watch any of the conferences, or scour the internetatron for big gaming news. I do not own any of the big three consoles (I still have my gamecube and my N64, but they do not count), and my pc has not been upgraded for... four or five years. I just do not keep up with this stuff anymore. My lack of interest in the E3 either means that I am becoming less of a gamer or losing my humanity. Niether option makes me comfortable. Still, the Brainy Gamer has a great discussion on the meaning of this year's E3, which I heartily recommend you check out.

PS the other thing I HAVE to do on my bucket list is go to a World Cup. I was set for South Africa but I have to work! Curses! It will take another decade minimum before it returns to the Continent.

Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years...

And howdy, sorry for never posting anything. Been busy. Some highlights before I begin some regular posting (I am aiming for one thing a day, I know I can do it!).

First, my dad got cerebral malaria, and so the past two weeks have been... hectic. He did not die, he should be straight, he has some other complications but nothing major. Yay! Of course, considering that malaria still kills about half a billion people in the world, his health and well-being must be balanced with the knowledge that a whole lotta people are going to die of something that is preventable.

Second, I have been playing through Baldur's Gate II. I dunno why, I got the itch, and I absolutely pulverized BG and its expansion but never got into BGII (I think the second chapter was too large and intimidating, a problem I had with, like, all of Morrowind). It is a ridiculously awesome game, but christ I cannot stop getting all grad-skooly when I play it: I look for the racial implications of having most of your potential party members as human, or whether I can court big, burly Minsc as a human monk myself (I admit it, I only play as humans!), or how come basically EVERYONE in authority is a man (and all the in-game books, which I read cover to cover because I am a dork, only reference kings and male heirs), or how are poor and rich are represented, or the way history functions in the game. I CANNOT turn it off, and I am trying desperately to do so. If you have any suggestions how to deprogram yourself from this stuff, please let me know!

Third, I am going to purchase all the books by my favorite professors AND read them. This is not to score brownie-points, because I am already a graduate, so I do not owe them anything, but that these people were straight intellectual pimps and I want to see the stuff they wrote. And not enough people read their books, so I gotta show them some love in the ol' Amazon list.

Fourth, I have been reading a lot of stuff I have meant to read/never heard about but found out I should read. So I got through the Bluest Eye, The Brief and Wonderous life of Oscar Wao, Shadow and Act (Ellison's badass collection of essays), etc, and I realize something: I am a horrid writer. These people can string words and sentences together like... well, its their job. Nothing makes me feel more inadequate than when I read some really good prose... which is also why I love academic history, because a lot of people are not that good at writing, so I look GREAT in comparison!

Meh, more random thoughts to come. Thanks for tuning in!