What in the hell …

I have a slow internet connection so I don’t watch much internet video. So it took me a while to watch the video Unemployed Negativity posted of Michael Hardt. (more…)

Understanding Marx will straighten out your head. It will really turn you loose. (And remember, Freud’s a fraud and Skinner’s of no use.)

I’m reading Peter Hallward’s book on Badiou, _A Subject to Truth_. I find the Appendix helpful as an overview of the math stuff. Here’s one thing I don’t understand. (more…)

Who can tell? Not me, that’s for sure. Except: one thing he has accomplished is made me interested in formal notation for the first time ever, or at least since I was at all interested in math in high school.

I took logic as part of my philosophy degree but wasn’t into the class because I found formal notation off putting, and I had a pretty major depression at the time. But now…! I want to do logic! Or at least have discussions using abbreviations. Sometimes anyway. This is because of Badiou. And because of re-reading Marx in the past year-ish, all those formulas.

I don’t have the time to devote to this really but it’d do me some good (at a minimum, good 4 my discipline) to work through the logic textbooks I have. This site might be of some use. If nothing else the interactive diagrams are neat.

On the one hand, I’m into equality and all - ain’t nobody better than me, dammit, and I ain’t better than nobody, so fuck yr inequality. The egalitarian moment in punk was part of what made me fall for (into?) it so heavily. “This is amazing and they’re doing this amazing thing and they’re just like me so I could this too!” Which immediately became a provocation - “I can do this thing, so if I don’t it’s a failing on my part” - which led to me starting to play music. (The other part of what made me fall for punk was that it was angry and sad and smart, which I was to an unhealthy degree on occasion.)

On the other hand, I’m not REALLY equal to those folks in those bands, any more than I am to my favorite writers. I mean … duh. (This is bracketing whether the simple fact of having a blog makes one the equal of others who have a blog. Regardless of how one answers that question, it does allow for a sort of access that wasn’t present before, which kinda makes me feel all weird.)

I’m referring to the fact that Ben Weasel, Dr Frank, and Kevin Seconds all have blogs. Holy crap! And double holy crap that I’m nearly 30 and still have this response despite having met the music of these folk when I was still an adolescent lump. (And triple holy crap - Blake Schwarzenbach is now on ratemyprofessors.com, he’s an adjunct writing teacher according to wikipedia.)

The March 07 issue of ArtForum features Ranciere (thanks to Keith for the heads up), and has the added bonus of making my bedroom floor look like the bedroom floor of a cultured type. I read ArtForum, check it, I’m cultured as shit. (more…)