position:actor

  • Israel’s Relations with the Syrian Rebels: An Assessment :: Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
    http://www.aymennjawad.org/20017/israel-relations-with-the-syrian-rebels

    With this overview of the dynamics in these border areas, it remains to be asked what exactly are the Israeli goals and interests here. Much of the recent analysis has used the terminology of a “buffer zone” in relation to Israel’s border policies, meaning that the goal is to create an area of allied or “friendly” forces that will keep elements considered active threats to Israel away from the borders.[61] In this regard, the main threats are thought to be Iran and allied militias such as Lebanon’s Hizballah, the concern being that were the regime to regain full control over Quneitra governorate, Iran and its allies would have free access to this territory to build a Golan “resistance” front against Israel, which would at minimum entail the threat of small-scale attacks to harangue Israeli forces in the Golan and “test the waters,” so to speak, and at worst a full-scale invasion of Israeli territory.

    It may in fact not be necessary for Iran to station its own personnel or members of foreign client forces in Quneitra in the future: It could well realize aspirations to build a “resistance” front in the area by “native proxy” through the multiple Syrian Hizballah groups that have arisen in the course of the civil war. Broadly speaking, Syrian Hizballah groups can be divided into two types: larger movements like Liwa al-Baqir, which claims 4,000 fighters[62] and has developed considerable networks within Aleppo province, and small-scale “special operation” groups that deploy to a number of different fronts depending on military needs and a sense of crisis. Some of these small Syrian Hizballah outfits have deployed to the Quneitra front,[63] though there is no evidence that they have done so to prepare for an imminent attack on Israel. In a future scenario of the development of a broader “resistance” along the Golan, these smaller groups may well be a key actor to threaten Israel.

    A related source of concern has centered on the Druze village of Hadr, in that Samir al-Quntar–a Hizballah commander of Druze origin–and Farhan al-Sha’alan–an NDF commander originally from the Druze village of Ein Qiniyya in the Golan Heights–were trying to build a “resistance” movement in Hadr in order to target Israel.[64] Both men were killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in December 2015. No hints have emerged since of the revival of such a project.

    Yet the case of Hadr actually shows that the “buffer zone” narrative, while seemingly convincing in its simplicity, does not fully account for Israel’s approach towards these border areas. On the general level, it is certainly true that in a choice between regime and rebel control over towns like Jubatha al-Khashab, the preference is that rebel forces should control them. With Hadr, however, Israel’s concern is that the village should not fall into rebel hands, despite concerns about Hizballah using it as a base for recruitment of personnel to target Israel. This position has arisen in deference to the sentiments of the Druze community in Israel and the Golan Heights, who understandably fear the fate of their co-religionists should the village ever fall to the rebels. Muru Hawran demonstrated an awareness of this lack of Israeli willingness to see Hadr fall, elaborating, “All that is happening is an international game at the expense of Syrian blood: settling of accounts.”[65] In a similar vein, he was clear that he still considered Israel to be an enemy state, but justified Fursan al-Jawlan’s acceptance of aid through Israel on the grounds that it is better to do so than to “destroy oneself.”[66]

  • UN sees spike in meetings between Israeli army, Syrian rebels, warns of escalation -

    Israel says the meetings are held for humanitarian purposes, but the UN warns they could trigger clashes between rebels and the Syrian army

    Barak Ravid Jun 19, 2017
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.796536

    During the last seven months, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force has noted a significant escalation in contact and interactions between Israeli armed forces and rebel organizations along Israel’s border with Syria, chiefly in the area of Mt. Hermon, says a report released in recent days by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the members of the UN Security Council.
    The report expressed Guterres’ concern, for the first time, that the interactions between the Israelis and the rebel organizations could lead to escalation, causing harm to UN observers.
    Published on June 8, the United Nations report describes the activity of the UN observers from March 2 to May 16. Every few days during that time, they observed meetings and contacts between the Israel Defense Forces and the rebels in the area of the border, including by the Hermon. Altogether they listed at least 16 such meetings in that time.
    The meetings took place in proximity to UN outposts in the Mt. Hermon area, in the area of Quneitra and in the central Golan Heights, near moshav Yonatan.
    “Relative to the previous reporting period, there has been a significant increase in interaction between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and individuals from the Bravo side, occurring on four occasions in February, three in March, eight in April and on one occasion in May,” the report stated, referring to the Syrian side of the border.

    Members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) ride armored personnel carriers (APCs) in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights before crossing into Syria, August 31, 2014.Reuters
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    That increase in the number of interactions between Israeli soldiers and representatives of the rebels continues a trend evident in the previous report, which had been published on March 17. That report covered the period between November 18, 2016, and March 1, 2017, and listed at least 17 interactions along the Golan border, including in the vicinity of the Hermon.

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    According to both reports, UN observers saw 33 interactions between Israeli and rebel representatives over the last seven months.
    In comparison, only two such meetings took place from August 30 to November 16 of last year according to UN reports, and they were only by the border, not by the Hermon.
    One topic addressed in the latest report was meetings that took place in the area of the Hermon in the last three months. It stated that all such meetings happened in the vicinity of one of the IDF outposts there and all followed the same pattern: Unidentified people apparently affiliated with the rebel organizations, some of them armed, arrived at the IDF outpost accompanied by mules, and were greeted by the soldiers.
    “In some instances, personnel and supplies were observed to have been transferred in both directions. On all occasions, the unknown individuals and mules returned to the Bravo side,” the report stated.
    The UN secretary general clarified in the report that the nature of the interactions could not be observed.
    “The Israel Defense Forces have stated that the interactions were of a humanitarian and medical nature,” the report said.
    Israel contends that all the interactions with rebel representatives on the Syrian side were for humanitarian reasons, but in recent months the UN has started to view these interactions askance and began to warn they could lead to escalation. The report especially noted concern about the meetings around the Hermon, which the UN secretary-general defined as an area of strategic importance.
    “Interaction between the Israel Defense Forces and unidentified individuals from the Bravo side, including in the area of Mount Hermon, has the potential to lead to clashes between armed elements and the Syrian Arab Armed Forces. I reiterate my call to both parties to the Disengagement of Forces Agreement regarding the requirement to maintain stability in the area. All military activities in the area of separation conducted by any actor pose a risk to the ceasefire and to the local civilian population, in addition to the United Nations personnel on the ground,” the secretary-general wrote in the report.
    The UN secretary-general’s latest report on the activities of the UN observers on the Golan Heights, as well as the three preceding reports, criticized the Syrian army for bringing heavy weapons to the area of the border, violating the disengagement agreement. The UN also criticized Israel for the same thing.
    According to the last four reports, in the last year the IDF has kept one or two batteries of the Iron Dome system in the Golan, and also holds heavy 155mm cannons and rocket launchers in the area, in violation of the disengagement agreement with Syria. UNDOF has protested the violations to both sides.
    On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported Israel has been secretly providing aid to Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights for years, with the goal of maintaining a buffer zone of friendly forces to keep ISIS and forces aligned with Iran at bay.

  • Thom Yorke, this is why you should boycott Israel

    Hasn’t the time come to do away with this artificial distinction between ’nice’ Israelis and the brutal occupation they are responsible for?

    Gideon Levy Jun 11, 2017
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.794946

    Anyone questioning whether a boycott is a just and effective means of fighting the Israeli occupation should listen to the counterarguments of Thom Yorke from British rock band Radiohead and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid. The front men of Radiohead and Yesh Atid present: cheap propaganda. Their counterarguments could convince any person of conscience around the world – to support the boycott. Yorke, who ignores the boycott movement, and Lapid, who is an ardent opponent of the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement, have enlisted to oppose the movement. Their reasoning says a lot more about them than the BDS movement.
    Boycotting is a legitimate means. Israel as a state makes use of it, and even preaches that other countries should follow suit. Some Israeli citizens also make use of it. There is a boycott of Hamas in Gaza, sanctions on Iran. There are boycotts of nonkosher stores, boycotts against eating meat, and of Turkish beach resorts. And the world also uses it, imposing sanctions on Russia right after its annexation of Crimea.
    The only question is whether Israel deserves such a punishment, like the one imposed on apartheid South Africa in an earlier era, and whether such steps are effective. And one more question: What other means have not been tried against the occupation and haven’t failed?
    Yorke directs his ire against fellow rock star Roger Waters, perhaps the most exalted of protest artists at the moment, who called on Yorke to reconsider his band’s concert appearance in Tel Aviv on July 19.

  • The role Russia played in the Israel-Syria missile clash
    Syria’s missile fire at Israeli warplanes may indicate that Assad and his Russian protectors are not fully coordinated.

    Anshel Pfeffer Mar 19, 2017
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.777965

    Over the six years of the Syrian war, dozens of airstrikes carried out against Hezbollah targets there have been ascribed to Israel. Until now the government has refused to acknowledge or deny them. Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman have stated publicly that Israel does attack in Syria to defend its strategic interests – in other words, preventing Hezbollah obtaining “balance-breaking” weapons for its arsenal in Lebanon. The attacks that took place early Friday were the first to be confirmed officially by the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson. While it remains unclear what the target or targets were – was it a Hezbollah convoy, a weapons factory or storage, and whether a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in the airstrike as some reports in the Arab media have claimed – a series of important questions arise from the little information that has been published.
    >> With missile fire, Assad is trying to change the rules of the game | Analysis <<
    First, why has Israel changed its policy and suddenly acknowledged an attack? Syria’s air-defense forces launched a long-range missile in an attempt to shoot down Israel’s fighter-jets. The missile was fired much too late to endanger the planes, but could have fallen on civilian areas within Israel and was therefore intercepted by an Arrow 2 missile. The loud explosion which was heard as far as Jerusalem and the missile parts that fell in Jordan meant that some explanation had to be given. But a statement on the missile intercept would have been sufficient. The decision to take responsibility for the attacks as well would have been made by the prime minister and may have been made for other reasons. 
    Exactly a week before the attacks, Netanyahu was in Moscow discussing Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Few details have emerged regarding what was said in the meeting but Netanyahu said before and after that he made it clear that Israel would not agree to Iranian military presence in Syria, or that of Iran’s proxies, now that the civil war in the country seems to be winding down and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s rule has been preserved.
    Whether or not this demand was met with a receptive audience, Netanyahu returned to Jerusalem with the impression that Putin takes Israel’s concerns seriously. An attack carried out by Israeli warplanes flying over Syria (and not using standoff missiles from afar as happened in other strikes recently) may be an indication that there is an understanding with Russia over Israeli operations within the area that Russia protects with its own air-defense systems.
    Friday’s strikes resemble closely the pattern of the attack in December 2015 on a Damascus suburb in which nine operatives working for Iran were killed, including Samir Kuntar, the murderer of an Israeli family who had been released by Israel in a prisoner exchange in 2008 and was believed to be planning new cross-border raids. That strike took place just three days after Netanyahu and Putin had spoken by telephone and was the first to be carried out after Russia had placed an air-defense shield over large areas of Syria, including its capital.

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    It was unlikely then, back in December 2015 and on Friday, that Israel would have attacked in Syria, within Russia’s zone of operations, if it thought the Kremlin would react with anger. The fact that it was the Syrian army which launched a missile against Israel’s warplanes, while there are much more advanced Russian air-defense systems deployed nearby, ostensibly to protect the regime, could also indicate that Assad and his Russian protectors are not fully coordinated. Assad is aware that Putin is discussing his country’s future with other world leaders, including Netanyahu. His belated attempt to shoot down Israeli planes could be a sign of frustration at his impotence to control both his destiny and his airspace.

  • Counter-Mapping Surveillance: A Critical Cartography of Mass Surveillance Technology After Snowden | van der Vlist | Surveillance & Society
    http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/countermapping

    Abstract

    This article critically examines mass surveillance technology revealed by Snowden’s disclosures. It addresses that we do not only live in a society where surveillance is deeply inscribed but more urgently, that it is increasingly difficult to study surveillance when its technologies and practices are difficult to distinguish from everyday routines. Considerably, many of the technologies and systems utilised for surveillance purposes were not originally designed as proper surveillance technologies. Instead, they have effectively become surveillance technologies by being enrolled into a particular surveillant assemblage. Three contributions are made towards critical scholarship on surveillance, intelligence, and security. First, a novel empirical cartographic methodology is developed that employs the vocabularies of assemblages and actor–networks. Second, this methodology is applied to critically examine global mass surveillance according to Snowden. Multiple leaked data sources have been utilised to trace actors, their associations amongst each other, and to create several graphical maps and diagrams. These maps provide insights into actor types and dependence relations described in the original disclosed documents. Third, the analytical value of three ordering concepts as well as the logistics of surveillance are explored via notable actors and actor groups. In short, this contribution provides empirical cartographic methods, concepts, and analytical targets for critically examining surveillance technology and its particular compositions. It addresses challenges of resisting mass surveillance and some forms of data activism, and calls for the continuing proliferation of counter-maps to facilitate grounded critique, to raise awareness, and to gain a foothold for meaningful resistance against mass surveillance.

    (article accessible)

    http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/downloadSuppFile/countermapping/283
    Fig. 1 Network diagram of the entire actor–network. Nodes represent distinct actors; edges are associations between those actors, based on traces found in the NSA/CSS Manual and ACLU’s NSA Documents database. Nodes: 240; edges: 378; type: directed graph; filter: none. Node ranking: by degree; colour-coding: by actor type; layout: ForceAtlas2 (Jacomy 2011; Jacomy et al. 2012).

  • Achingly Memorable : Magdalena Montezuma | Slant Magazine
    http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/achingly-memorable-magdalena-montezuma

    Magdalena Montezuma (nee Erika Kluge) was a German experimental film actress. A muse to New German Cinema filmmaker, Werner Schroeter, Montezuma drifted through the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ulrike Ottinger, Rosa Von Praunhiem and Frank Ripploh. She played nurses, transsexuals, kings, party guests, mothers and baroque divas. With a striking face to match her flamboyant name, Montezuma achieved a certain, cultish notoriety until her untimely death from cancer at age 41. Schroeter hastily began production on his film The Rose King for the actress, shooting in her final months, as Montezuma longed to capture this energy, “to die on the set.”

    She pops up in the first Fassbinder film I ever saw: Beware of a Holy Whore. The film assembles a slew of Fassbinder regulars (Hanna Schygulla, Kurt Raab, Ingrid Caven, Ulli Lommel) and some very fine German auteurs (Margarethe Von Trotta, Schroeter) as they act, drink, and collapse on a film shoot in Spain. There’s a lot of displacement going on—Fassbinder is in the autobiographical film about filming, though he plays the production manager, Sascha. And Montezuma, playing actress Irm (Hermann, one presumes), shoulders the blow of Fassbinder’s vehement misogynies. Heavily painted (as was her custom) Montezuma springs from Schroeter’s arms, throwing herself upon the Fassbinder surrogate: Jeff (Lou Castel). He strikes her repeatedly and she collapses into an abject bundle, howling as she falls to the tiled floor.

    As this character, Montezuma manages to embody Fassbinder’s crew of “happily victimized” women. A more quintessential Montezuma can be glimpsed in her final scene in the film, as she rides away from some Spanish isle in shame, cast away from the production. Swaying in the boat and giving the picturesque landscape a run for its money, Montezuma’s architectural face becomes pliable, bursting with tremulous emotions. Opera music blares—it’s the only kind that really suits her. She slowly rocks back and forth. Her performance in that film made a lasting impact on me, though I mistook her for a minor actor, since she appeared in few other Fassbinder films.

    When I began to recognize her in other experimental German films of the period, I started to connect the dots. Ottinger made her her Freak Orlando, in the film of the same name, where Montezuma dithers between genders and lovers, rallying armies and snuggling up with Siamese twins whilst covered in scales. Nefarious bad boy Rosa Von Praunhiem gave Montezuma a role respective of her histrionic caliber—the Lady Macbeth in his 1971 opera staging. I can think of no less of a nurturing figure, so it’s with an ironic arch of those painted-on eyebrows that Montezuma nurses Frank Ripploh, as he straddles gynecological stirrups in Taxi Zum Klo. Inspecting his recent outbreak of anal warts, the doctor inserts a metal probe inside the actor/director and Montezuma assures/glares, “You see, nothing to it.”

    But Montezuma’s true platform was Schroeter’s non-linear, elegiac films where her sculptural face conveyed a kind of semiotic narrative. Each curled lip and trembling eyebrow imbued meaning into these lush tableau vivants. She is the eponymous diva in his breakthrough The Death of Maria Malibran, singing to an out-of-sync tune, disembodied from speech, even time itself. With her unique features and severe acting style, she steals the scene from her fabulous co-stars—Fassbinder regular Ingrid Caven and Candy Darling. Hers is a strange kind of stardom—made all the more esoteric now that these films suffer from a lack of distribution, but her Germanic countenance is achingly memorable in every inch of vintage celluloid.

    Bradford Nordeen

    #film #Allemagne

  • Why Jewish leaders rally behind a Palestinian-American Women’s March organizer -

    Linda Sarsour makes no secret of her opposition to Israel and support of BDS, the women’s rights activist kept that rhetoric out of the event — to the relief of her Jewish allies.

    Debra Nussbaum Cohen
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.767407

    NEW YORK — When online attacks against Women’s March co-chair Linda Sarsour started this week, progressive Jews were among the first people to back her on social media.
    “Jews are some of my biggest supporters,” Sarsour told Haaretz in an interview. Sarsour, a born-and-bred Brooklynite whose parents are of Palestinian origin, directs the Arab American Association of New York, an advocacy and social services group, and is considered a rising star in city politics.
    She has for several years worked closely with groups on the far-left edge of the Jewish community, like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. Because Sarsour is an outspoken critic of Israel and backs boycotts, divestment and sanctions, mainstream Jewish groups have long held her at arms’ length.
    But that is changing as mainstream players like Rabbi Sharon Brous of Los Angeles’ Ikar and the National Council of Jewish Women work with Sarsour on issues of shared concern, like the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., which attracted hundreds of thousands of participants on January 21. NCJW was one of dozens of partner organizations and helped ensure substantial Jewish involvement.
    Sarsour was a Women’s March national co-chair. Early Monday, politically conservative publications and figures began publicly attacking her. Their charge? That she supports Hamas and favors sharia, or Islamic religious law, because she opposes municipalities and states banning it. That, say sources, is a dog-whistle way of suggesting that someone is an ISIS-type extremist, though in many respects sharia parallels halacha, the system of Jewish law.
    First out was an article in online Front Page Mag, titled “The Anti-Semite Who Organized the ‘Women’s March on Washington,’ and the half-million lemmings who showed up in ‘solidarity.’” Front Page is part of hard-right conservative David Horowitz’s “Freedom Center School for Political Warfare,” a network that includes anti-Muslim websites “Jihad Watch” and “Truth Revolt.”

    Backed by Sanders
    That article’s allegations spurred others that quickly circulated online. But it also galvanized others to stand behind Sarsour.

    From left: Carmen Perez, Gloria Steinem and Linda Sarsour onstage during the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017Theo Wargo/AFP
    Among those tweeting their support for Sarsour are former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders — for whom Sarsour spoke as a surrogate after his final debate with Hillary Clinton — and actor Mark Ruffalo.
    So did Brous, who Sarsour invited to speak at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. They have known each other since starting as Senior Fellows at Auburn Seminary, an interfaith institution in New York, in 2015.

  • FREQ #11: Teal Sherer Talks
    https://feministfrequency.com/2017/01/12/freq-11-teal-sherer-talks

    Each month, FREQ will bring you the latest news and updates from Feminist Frequency, as well as interviews with some of the most inspiring women in media. Our latest issue features an interview with Teal Sherer. Teal Sherer’s acting resume, which includes roles in film, theater and television, also boasts several special skills that few actors possess — including wheelies. An actor and producer in her own right, Sherer is an outspoken […]


    http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/15c8bcc3506d9045ca7f00e1457cad57?s=96&d=identicon&r=G

  • Disparition à 86 ans de l’acteur syrien Rafiq Subaie :
    http://prensa-latina.cu/index.php?o=rn&id=54987&SEO=despedida-popular-a-reconocido-actor-sirio

    Con el nombre artístico de Abu Sayah participó en una popular serie transmitida por Radio Damasco a partir de la década de los años 40 del siglo pasado, luego de laborar en numerosas obras de teatro en la capital siria.

    Actor, pionero del cine sirio Subaie intervino en 55 películas y también en numerosas series y programas televisivos, y sus actuaciones recibieron distinciones y reconocimientos del sector cultural de esta nación del Levante.

    Dossier du Akhbar :
    http://www.al-akhbar.com/taxonomy/term/6270

    Iconic Syrian actor Rafiq Sebaie dies at 86
    http://www.thenational.ae/arts-life/film/iconic-syrian-actor-rafiq-sebaie-dies-at-86

    Syrian film, television, and theatre pioneer Rafiq Sebaie – best known to audiences as Abu Sayyah after one of his long-standing roles – has died at the age of 86.

    Sebaie died of natural causes on Thursday. He had undergone a series of operations since breaking his hip in a fall at his home last year, Syrian state media said.
    Often cast in tough-guy roles, Sebaie rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s, when Syrian cinema was considered among the best in the Arab world.

    Pour le détail amusant : le titre d’origine de cette dépêche de l’AP est : « Rafiq Sebaie, iconic Syria actor loved by masses, dies at 86 »
    https://www.apnews.com/9f59b1646e554a1083129293d9af204b/Rafiq-Sebaie,-iconic-Syria-actor-loved-by-masses,-dies-at-86
    La mention « loved by masses » pour un acteur syrien qui a ouvertement critiqué l’opposition armée, c’est apparemment un peu too much pour The National.

  • There May Be Two Trillion Other Galaxies - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/there-may-be-two-trillion-other-galaxies

    In 1939, the year Edwin Hubble won the Benjamin Franklin award for his studies of “extra-galactic nebulae,” he paid a visit to an ailing friend. Depressed and interred at Las Encinas Hospital, a mental health facility, the friend, an actor and playwright named John Emerson, asked Hubble what—spiritually, cosmically—he believed in. In Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae, Gale E. Christianson writes that Hubble, a Christian-turned-agnostic, “pulled no punches” in his reply. “The whole thing is so much bigger than I am,” he told Emerson, “and I can’t understand it, so I just trust myself to it, and forget about it.” Even though he was moved by a sense of the universe’s immensity, it’s arresting to recall how small Hubble thought the cosmos was at the time. “The picture suggested by the (...)

  • How Aphasic Patients Understood the Presidential Debate - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/how-aphasic-patients-understood-the-presidential-debate

    In The President’s Speech, a 1985 essay by the late neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, he observes a group of people with aphasia, a language disorder, as they laugh uproariously at the television. The cause of their amusement is an unnamed actor-turned United States president, presumably Ronald Reagan, addressing his audience: “There he was, the old Charmer, the Actor, with his practised rhetoric, his histrionisms, his emotional appeal…The President was, as always, moving—but he was moving them, apparently, mainly to laughter. What could they be thinking? Were they failing to understand him? Or did they, perhaps, understand him all too well?” Aphasic patients have a heightened ability to interpret body language, tonal quality, and other non-verbal aspects of communication due to a (...)

  • 35 years Backwards thru Time with Sam Klemke (Time Lapse)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2xTBHyfOks

    cf.
    Krapp’s Last Tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krapp%27s_Last_Tape

    Krapp’s Last Tape is a one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled “Magee monologue”. It was inspired by Beckett’s experience of listening to Magee reading extracts from Molloy and From an Abandoned Work on the BBC Third Programme in December 1957.[1]

    The play was first performed as a curtain raiser to Endgame (from 28 October to 29 November 1958) at the Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by Donald McWhinnie and starring Patrick Magee. It ran for 38 performances.

    Das letzte Band https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_letzte_Band
    La Dernière Bande https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Derni%C3%A8re_Bande

    Einmalig in München: “Das letzte Band”
    http://www.iris-media.info/spip.php?article5612

    #théâtre

  • The Good Immigrant review – an unflinching dialogue about race and racism in the UK

    A successful sportsperson is a ‘good’ immigrant; only some minorities are considered ‘model’. These essays, edited by Nikesh Shukla, cast a sharp light on ‘othering’ in the UK

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/22/good-immigrant-review-nikesh-shukla-britain-racist?CMP=share_btn_tw

    #racisme #xénophobie #UK #Angleterre

    • The Good Immigrant

      Keep out, Britain is full up.

      Or so goes the narrative of immigration in this country all too often. We are a country in flux – our media condemns refugees one day, sheds tears over them the next. Our narrative around immigration is built on falsehoods, stereotypes and anxieties about the diminishing sense of what Britishness means.

      Meanwhile, we’re told that we live in a multicultural melting pot, that we’re post-racial. Yet, studies show that throughout the UK, people from BAME groups are much more likely to be in poverty (with an income of less than 60 per cent of the median household income) than white British people (Institute Of Race Relations). It’s a hard time to be an immigrant, or the child of one, or even the grandchild of one.

      Unless you have managed to transcend into popular culture, like Mo Farah, Nadya Hussain or the other ‘good immigrants’ out there. It’s a bad time to be a bad immigrant. My conversation with Musa Okwonga about this led to the very generation of this collection. I said I wished there was a book of essays by good immigrants. He reminded of the Chinua Achebe quote, if you don’t like the story, write your own.

      The Good Immigrant brings together fifteen emerging British black, Asian and minority ethnic writers, poets, journalists and artists. In these fifteen essays about race and immigration, they paint a picture of what it means to be ‘other’ in a country that wants you, doesn’t want you, doesn’t accept you, needs you for its equality monitoring forms and would prefer you if you won a major reality show competition.

      The book will explore why we come here, why we stay, what it means for our identity if we’re mixed race, where our place is in the world if we’re unwelcome in the UK, and what effects this has on the education system. By examining popular culture, family, profession and the arts, we will be looking at diversity and questioning what this concept even means anymore. The essays are poignant, challenging, funny, sad, heartbreaking, polemic, angry, weary, and, most importantly, from an emerging generation of BAME writers.

      Contributors to this extraordinary state of the nation collection will include: Musa Okwonga (poet/broadcaster), Chimene Suleyman (poet/columnist), Vinay Patel (playwright), Bim Adewumni (Buzzfeed), Salena Godden (poet/writer), Sabrina Mahfouz (playwright), Kieran Yates (journalist), Coco Khan (journalist), Sarah Sahim (journalist), Reni Eddo Lodge (journalist), Varaidzo (student), Darren Chetty (teacher), Himesh Patel (Tamwar from Eastenders), Nish Kumar (comedian), Miss L from Casting Call Woe (actor), Daniel York Loh (playwright and actor), Vera Chok (actor/writer), Riz Ahmed (actor/rapper), Inua Ellams (poet/playwright) and Wei Ming Kam (writer).

      I’m been shouting about the need for more BAME voices for so long on Twitter. I’m glad I can finally do something about it.



      https://unbound.com/books/the-good-immigrant
      #livre #bon_migrant #catégorisation

    • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

      In 2014, award-winning journalist #Reni_Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren’t affected by it. She posted a piece on her blog, entitled: “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race.”

      Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanized by this clear hunger for open discussion, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism. It is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of color in Britain today.



      https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race-9781408870556

  • TIFF series of Syrian films shows a horrific conflict from the inside - The Globe and Mail

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/tiff-series-of-syrian-films-shows-a-horrific-conflict-from-the-inside/article31530517

    Recommandé par Rasha Salti

    http://static.theglobeandmail.ca/374/arts/film/article31530516.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/web-rv-ff-syria-0824.JPG

    There must be a dozen stories about what happened in 1988 when Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad watched Stars in Broad Daylight in a private screening at the presidential palace in Damascus. Some say he was initially amused by the farcical plot about a double wedding that goes disastrously wrong when one bride runs off with a bus driver and the other simply refuses to proceed. Others say he was angered from the start by a film in which the actor playing the family despot who is trying to marry off his brother and his sister bore a striking resemblance to himself.

  • Party ratings in Latvia; July

    Green and farmers union has received 17,5%, which is for 0,4 higher than in June.
    Harmony would receive 17,8% of votes in July compared to 19,2% in June.
    Union would be supported by only 6,3%, still a better percentage than 5,4 in June.
    National Alliance in July was supported by 9,1%, while in June it was for 1,3% less.
    Two parties which are in parliament would not receive seats if elections occurred today - No sirds Latvijai could get only 1,9% and Latvijas Reģionu apvienība - 2,1%.
    Ex-actor and ex member of Latvijas Reģionu apvienība, Artuss Kaimiņš has established new party, and in July there were 5,9% supporters, which is less than 8,4% in June.

    http://www.diena.lv/latvija/politika/julija-straujakais-reitinga-kritums-kaimina-partijai-14149952
    Saeimas deputāta Artusa Kaimiņa politiskā partija KPV LV jūlijā piedzīvojusi straujāko atbalsta kritumu - par to jūlijā būtu gatavi balsot 5,9% vēlētāju salīdzinājumā ar 8,4% iepriekšējā mēnesī, liecina pēc Latvijas Televīzijas pasūtījuma veiktā pētījuma centra SKDS aptauja par partiju popularitāti.

    #Latvia #Municipal_elections_2017 #Parties #Ratings #partiju_reitingi #Jūlijs

  • Why the Songbird’s Serenade Is Going Off Key - Issue 38: Noise
    http://nautil.us/issue/38/noise/why-the-songbirds-serenade-is-going-off-key

    Some people are confounded by actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s heartthrob status and compare his looks to an otter, bread dough, or an alien from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But then you hear his voice. It resonates rich and deep, “like a jaguar in a cello,” wrote journalist Caitlin Moran. There is even a Facebook page devoted to his mellifluous timbre where fans join together “because we love his voice.” And if the sex appeal of his register wasn’t clear enough already, consider the popular meme that depicts a reclining Cumberbatch with the words, “Yes, my voice gets women pregnant. You’re welcome.” From the perspective of physical anthropology, the commotion over Cumberbatch’s voice is not surprising. Studies show that women tend to be attracted to men with deep voices because it signals (...)

  • Lecture “The Rule of Walls: An Architectural Reading of the State’s ‘Legitimate’ Use of Violence” | THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE
    http://thefunambulist.net/2016/06/14/lecture-the-rule-of-walls-an-architectural-reading-of-the-states-leg

    “The Rule of Walls: An Architectural Reading of the State’s ‘Legitimate’ Use of Violence”
    Lecture given on May 18, 2016 at the Warwick Political Geography Conference

    The notion of “legitimate use of violence” by the state, although far from new, still allows an understanding of the way our societies operate, according to a particular societal order. The punctual action of the police is often used to illustrate this notion, but the structures that condition it rarely incorporate architecture as a key actor. This lecture therefore proposes to examine this state violence through the scope of architecture using several examples: the state of emergency and the neo-colonial police stations of the Paris banlieues (suburbs), the foreseeable policed gentrification of Molenbeek in Brussels, the dehumanizing walls and container camp of Calais. Although emerging from significantly different political contexts, these case studies have in common that they implement themselves through architecture, using the latter’s intrinsic violence in order to force a political order on bodies.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIcq8DCHKyc

  • To Transcend Reality and Function as Symbol: Stage Design of Edward Gordon Craig – SOCKS

    http://socks-studio.com/2014/02/15/to-transcend-reality-and-function-as-symbol-stage-design-of-edward-gor

    Born in 1872 as illegitimate son of an architect and of the revered actress Dame Ellen Terry, Edward Gordon Craig was raised as an actor in the company of Sir Henry Irving, only to discover later his true vocation as a theatrical designer.

    Similar to Adolphe Appia in his struggle against the reproduction of reality, Craig envisaged scenic environments designed to appel to the emotion through visual suggestion, evocation and symbolist aesthetics. Without actually meeting until 1914, the two shared and promoted similar ideas on the use of light and stage space: Craig used to lit the stage from above, rather than adopting the traditional foot lighting. Colour and shadow played a strong role in his sets: “Under the play of this light, the background becomes a deep shimmering blue, apparently almost translucent, upon which the green and purple make a harmony of great richness.” (Craig in Bablet, 1981).

    #dessins #images #illustrations #design #graphic_design

  • Egypt’s innocent donkeys, by Nael M Shama
    https://mondediplo.com/blogs/egypt-s-innocent-donkeys #st

    Rarely does a work of art epitomise the complex sociopolitical realities of its time. But a film from Egypt’s past does just that. Al-Baree (The Innocent, 1985) tells a tale of tyranny and elucidates its dynamics with skill. Starring the actor Ahmed Zaki — Egypt’s Al Pacino — and directed by Atef al-Tayeb, a pioneer of the new realism wave in Egyptian cinema, The Innocent says a lot about politics in Egypt, and the failure of its 2011 revolution.

    http://zinc.mondediplo.net/messages/28161 via Le Monde diplomatique

  • The First Cross-dressing Comic Book Superhero - Neatorama
    http://www.neatorama.com/2011/08/11/the-first-cross-dressing-comic-book-superhero

    Madame Fatal is hardly up there in the pantheon of famous and beloved comic book superheroes. Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Captain America, and the Fantastic Four probably never lost any sleep over this rival comic hero possibly replacing them in their fan’s hearts.

    ’Madame Fatal (sometimes spelled “Madam Fatal”) is a fictional character and superhero active during the Golden Age of comic books. Madame Fatal was created and originally illustrated by artist/writer Art Pinajian. The debut of the character was in Crack Comics #1 (May 1940). This was a crime/detective anthology published by Quality Comics. Madame Fatal continued in the series until issue #22, but was not at all popular or well-received.


    The character later appeared in a few DC Comics, after they had purchased the rights to the character in 1956, along with a bulk buy-out of all the Quality Comics characters. Even so, Madame Fatal was never much seen except for a few brief appearances and passing mentions from other comic book characters.

    Madame Fatal is notable for being a male superhero who dressed up as an elderly woman to fight crimes. As such, he was the first cross-dressing comic book superhero. (Interestingly, later that same year, The Red Tornado became the first female cross-dressing superhero (superheroine?). The Red Tornado proved to be much more popular and successful than Madame Fatal.


    O.K, the basic premise goes like this: Richard Stanton is a highly intelligent, highly athletic, successful, world-famous actor. He is dapper, middle-aged, blonde, Caucasian (aren’t all superheroes?) and smokes a pipe. His daughter is kidnapped and he needs the help of police, who get nowhere at all. During the kidnapping ordeal, his wife dies of a broken heart. So, Stanton (as do many other superheroes during their genesis) decides to don a disguise, take on an alter ego, and take matters into his own hands.

    He adopts the identity of a red-cloaked, elderly woman who carries a red walking stick. The red cane is used as her main weapon, and this, along with his (her?) superior intellect, athleticism, and deductive crime-solving abilities, helps Madame Fatal become a crime fighter and superhero. Using this disguise, he is able to save his daughter.


    Richard Stanton decides to retire from acting and devote his life to conquering crime and criminals as the red cane-wielding Madame Fatal. The Madame Fatal character was ridiculed, because of the cross-dressing angle, from the very beginning.

    An article in Cracked lists Madame Fatal as one of the “7 Crappiest Superheroes in Comic Book History.” Many modern readers interpreted the cross-dressing of Madame Fatal as a thinly-disguised attempt to actually portray comic’s first gay superhero, although this angle was never expressly acknowledged.Creator Pinjian’s actual intentions regarding the character are unknown.


    Madame Fatal had a short life span. The character was very briefly mentioned in later comic books, but there have been thinly-veiled references to Madame Fatal over the years. The most recent time Madame Fatal was mentioned (or seen) was in DC Comics in 1999.

    The character was the butt of a gay joke (no pun intended, I swear). A scene in an August 1999 issue of Justice Society of America depicts the funeral of the first Sandman. Wildcat wonders whether his own funeral “will be like the time they buried Madame Fatal here, and no one turned up for the funeral but the touring cast of La Cage Aux Folles?” That would seem to imply the fact that Madame Fatal is dead in the DC Comics universe.

    Madame Fatal probably suffered the most gut-wrenching type of death any comic book character can experience. More excruciating than death by gun, knives, clubs, or being lowered into a pool of acid. Madame Fatal suffered the very worst type of death -death by unpopularity.

    #travestissement #transgenre #comics #superhero #BD

  • This Man Memorized a 60,000-Word Poem Using Deep Encoding - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/this-man-memorized-a-60000_word-poem-using-deep-encoding

    Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree,” John Basinger said aloud to himself, as he walked on a treadmill. “Of man’s first disobedience…” In 1992, at the age of 58, Basinger decided to memorize Paradise Lost, John Milton’s epic poem, as a form of mental activity while he was working out at the gym. An actor, he’d memorized shorter poems before, and he wanted to see how much of the epic he could remember. “As I finished each book,” he wrote, “I began to perform it and keep it alive in repertory while committing the next to memory.” The twelve books of Paradise Lost contain over 60,000 words; it took Basinger about 3,000 hours to learn them by rote. He did so by reciting the piece, line-by-line out loud, for about an hour a day for nine years. When he memorized all 12 (...)

  • These Moving Portraits Offer an Uncanny View of the Human Body - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/these-moving-portraits-offer-an-uncanny-view-of-the-human-body

    Some time after he completed his first portrait, in 1909, Oskar Kokoschka realized that “in my haste, I painted only four fingers on the hand he lays across his chest.” He was referring to The Trance Player, a painting of his friend, an actor. “Did I forget to paint the fifth?” Kokoschka wondered. “In any case, I don’t miss it. To me it was more important to cast light on my sitter’s psyche than to enumerate details like five fingers, two ears, one nose.” This indifference to anatomical accuracy wasn’t unique to Kokoschka. “Many artists reconsider the pursuit of external likeness—portraiture’s usual objective—within formal or conceptual explorations or reject it altogether,” states the web site of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s current exhibition, Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s (...)

  • Game of Assassins
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kIkECWFRzo



    http://chinesemov.com/2012/Game-of-Assassins.html

    Ce n’est pas une chef d’oeuvre mais le film est quand même intéressant par le contexte familial des caractères. Au centre de l’histoire se trouvent deux frères et leur soeur qui partent assassiner le roi d’un pays ennemi et se déchirent entre l’envie de vivre une vie paisible, la pitié filiale et la loyauté envers des idée et des personnes. Contrairement aux classiques la famille élargie n’existe pas dans ce film qui peut se lire comme un regard sur la société actuelle en Chine. C’est pareil pour les rois et leurs officiers. Ils sont présentés comme individus dont le machiavellisme n’est motivé que par leur égoïsme plutôt que par les forces célestes et politiques qui font agir les personnages classiques. En traitant un sujet tiré de l’époque précédant l’unification de la Chine par Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) le film nous n’apprend rien sur la Chine classique et par cela nous fait savoir que les valeurs traditionelles ont été remplacées par des mobiles bien connus des occidentaux.

    https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/258437?language=en-US

    Set in 213 B.C. Game of Assassins is about General Tu Jia who trains a trio of young assassins to seek revenge against villainous King of Wei. And one of the assassins succumbs to the dark side for temptation of wealth and power.
    Production Company: China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)
    Release Info: 2013-12-08

    Cast
    Bryan Leung - King of Wei
    Jiang Chao - King of Chu
    Chen Kuantai - General Tu Jia
    Dong Zhihua - General Teng
    Xie Yuanjiang - Jing Chan
    Zhou Yichen - Ping
    Xiao Hong - He Guang
    Zhu Guoan -  Thunder
    Wang Xiaobao -  Hao Xue

    Guan Yu
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu


    Ce personnage historique m’a l’air d’avoir inspiré la création du caractère Général Tu Jia .

    Sun Quan sent Guan Yu’s head to Cao Cao, who arranged a noble’s funeral for Guan and had the head properly buried with full honours.
    ...
    Guan Yu had two known sons – Guan Ping and Guan Xing. Guan Xing inherited his father’s title “Marquis of Hanshou Village” (漢壽亭侯) and served in the state of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period.[Sanguozhi 22] Guan Yu also had a daughter. Sun Quan once proposed a marriage between his son and Guan Yu’s daughter, but Guan rejected the proposal. Her name was not recorded in history, but she was known as “Guan Yinping” (關銀屏) or “Guan Feng” (關鳳) in folktales and Chinese opera.

    Ka-Yan Leung
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0415777/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
    Ka-Yan Leung was born on January 20, 1949 in Guangdong, China. He is known for his work on Ip Man 3 (2015), The Man with the Iron Fists (2012) and Xun cheng ma (1982).

    Kuan Tai Chen
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0155291/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
    Kuan Tai Chen was born on September 24, 1945 in Guangdong, China. He is an actor and producer, known for The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), Da lui toi (2010) and Die Schule der Shaolin (1977).

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9riode_des_Royaumes_combattants

    #Chine #film #histoire #royaumes_combattants