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“Not going outside wearing pajamas”. This is Shanghai city government’s request for the residents of the city prior to the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. However this provoked widespread controversy. On one hand, wearing pajamas does not conform to international etiquette, but there are voices also advocating that if the government makes a rule restricting wearing pajamas, then society loses some of its freedom.

Since late July, committee head Shen Guofang’s (沈国芳) had one more thing on his work list: to persuade the community residents not to wear pajamas when they go outside.

Shen is the “Alley President” of Shanghai Pudong New Area Changlidong road Qiba residential community. At this stage, his work is divided into two parts, one is managing residential district daily affairs, and the second is “Welcoming the World Expo”. The activity of “Not going outside wearing pajamas, become a World Expo civilized person” is one of the elements in the second part.

Everyone has been to Shanghai knows that people of Shanghai have the habit of wearing pajamas in public. They can be seen in the alleys, farmers markets, supermarkets, streets even the famous shopping street Nanjing road. Lady wearing patterned pajamas, and a pair of fairly sophisticated leather shoes, goes to buy a pack of slat in the alley, or with her hair full of pin curls taking out the trash. This is seen as a typical picture of Shanghai culture. However, when the bulldozers run over every alley, people still remember the old way of life, but the remaining pajamas habit suddenly becomes an enemy of “the civilized”.

The upcoming 2010 Shanghai World Expo, an event that represents modern civilization can no longer tolerate the ordinary people’s “bad habits”. Only two or three stops away from the World Expo site, Qiba residential community along with all the Expo areas in Pudong, will be sized up using standards of “modern civility ”.

Shanghai residents must survive the stares of international eyes, “This is an issue of our country’s face.” Shen Guofang said.

Qiba residential district’s “civilized dress persuasion team” has activities twice a week, each is one to two hours. Shen Guofang said that the persuasion team has 10 volunteers, each wearing a red silk belt. They are dressed neatly and stand at the entrance of the residential community. When they see residents going outside wearing pajamas, volunteers approach the residents and dissuade them from going out like that.

“The volunteers we have chosen are residents who have relatively high awareness, love the residential community and care more about the World Expo.” Shen Guofang said.

“In just over an hour, hundreds of residents already accepted our persuasion, this event was very effective” Qiba’s website recorded the “achievement” of the first day of the activity.

The activity has been carried out for more than two months now, “with good results, the number of people wearing pajamas outside has obviously been reduced.” Shen was satisfied.

For those who turn back the other way once they see the persuasion team, Shen thought that “avoid avoid” also shows improvement, at least they have civilized consciousness.

Around the same time, Pudong new district World Expo site’s neighborhood committees all cracked down on the dress issue. Shanggang community, Chuanxin community and Beicai community and so on, all carried out similar activities.

Su Meizhi (苏美芝) is one of the members of the “civilized dress persuasion team”. She is in charge of the women and family planning (China’s policy of only one child per family) in the neighborhood committee. Prior to engaging in the persuasion work, Su Meizhi said she herself had the habit of wearing pajamas going outside. But after persuasion team training, she paid more attention to her dress code, also persuaded her family not to wear pajamas going outside.

Neighborhood staff have changed their views, and then are persuading more people to change their views as well. However years of habit is not easy to shake. So, Shen Guofang thought of many creative ways.

One of them is to incorporate children to join the volunteer team during summer breaks .

“They hold their uncle and aunt’s hands and say ‘auntie (uncle), you cannot wear pajamas to go out on the street.’ When people hear this they usually are very moved, for even children are persuading them and they feel more embarrassed.”

Second is to emphasize the seriousness and significance of the World Expo in order to achieve a deterrent effect.

“During the World Expo, the foreigners will come out from events holding their cameras into residential areas, it is very possible they will come to our community.” “We are the masters. Even small things when putting on the table become big deal”, we cannot disgrace Shanghai.

Number three, use acquaintances and pay attention to the choice of words.

“If you are too serious when talking to people about this issue, people sometimes cannot accept.” Shen Guofang said. In this regard, his approach is to “sidetrack” and “joke”.

For example, up ahead comes an old acquaintance wearing pajamas, Shen Guofang will go up and say “Hey, where are you going ah?” “To buy food ah?” “Huh, how come you come out wearing these?” “Can’t wear this next time anymore, this clothes doesn’t look good, go back and change.” The tact is based on circling around and then going back to the subject of wearing pajamas.

Su Meizhi even works outside of her hours. For some residents, her first attempts to change their minds would fail, but she would repeatedly talk to them, and reason with them privately; of course, her tone was soft, and her face was with a smile.

“In an international metropolis, the least you can do is to dress well. It’s not that you must wear brand name, but you must be dignified, and make a clear distinction between inside and outside (of your home), this can be an indicator of the quality of the residents.” Su Meizhi said.

What’s been taken off is not pajamas, it’s freedom

“None of your business!”

“You are interfering too much!”

When asked about their views on “not going outside wearing pajamas”, some Shanghai aunties still stumbled their feet.

Although the neighborhood was positive about the work at the present stage but they also accepted the fact that some residents had difficulty to change their habits.

“These things simply do not need to be exaggerated. The World Expo is hosted in every country, what is the point being so excessive!” Across street from Qiba, in Changsi community building number 37, there is a resident woman often complained, her tone mixed with anger and impatience. In the evening, she was dressed in teddy bear pajamas, a pair of leather sandals and went out to buy bread. The street between Qiba community and Changsi community had a small supermarket, bank, clothing store, snack store, restaurants, pharmacy, stationery store and a farmers market etc. Residents only walk a few steps to buy various items required.

Many Shanghainese do not understand, why are they required to change out of their pajamas when going shopping in front of their homes? I remember back the days in the movie “Sleepless Town”, wearing pajamas when going outside showed social status. Let’s imagine: a young lady just going outside to buy a lottery ticket, and she is required to change into her work shirt; a man who works in a state-owned office during his day off, wants to buy the newspaper “Everyone” but discovered it is sold out at the newsstand in front of his house. He forgets he is wearing pajamas, walks 2 more blocks on the street to find newspaper; a middle aged woman wearing a huge hair clip is too lazy to cook for herself, so she walks to the farmers market to get some noodles, (the woman speaks in Shanghainese) “don’t want to change clothes for that.”

There are a wide variety of views, so making Shanghainese taking off their pajamas is like taking off their Shanghai style! Their reasons for going outside wearing pajamas seem to be reasonable: going somewhere not so far, not a formal occasion, not staying outside for too long. Living facilities around the residence are closely integrated, also makes the argument more valid. “If anyone dresses up to go to the vegetable market, they will be the ones who stand out.” In their eyes, lazy nature living is part of the Shanghai Style.

While the habit of wearing pajamas is long and strong, it is a culture label. In the old society, two types of people usually wear pajamas in public. One is rich people, showing off their leisurely lifestyle. The other is people of entertainment, such as dancers, to display charm. After the founding of PRC, pajamas gained more popularity. In the 70’s Shanghai pajamas on the streets became the city scenery, it was a fashionable trend, “pajamas are beautiful;” “pajamas show our more comfortable lives.” These were the thoughts of people who followed the trend at the time.

After the ear of pajamas being trendy, what was left became habit, plus the traditional living space was small, so the convenient pajamas stayed. The most traditional residential buildings in Shanghai were the Shikumen or the alley housing. Alleys crowded with residents are just like what it is described in “72 tenants,” “Rooms were small like the white pigeon holes, it was like the tenants were living in a cage”. Whether you knew each other or not, each household pulled a curtain and declared their own space. There was no clear distinction between public space and private space, therefore people’s clothes were not categorized as such. In Stephen Chow’s movie “Kongfu hustle” the “Pig cage village” is such scene. The landlady played by Yuan Qiu had a head full of perm rollers, and her plump body was wrapped in large oversized pajamas.

20091031-pajamas-01

That’s right, this is how everyone remembered the most common dress of an auntie in the Shanghai alley.

“Shanghai Online” (www.online.sh.cn) had a survey with the title “Shanghainese love to wear pajamas on the street, what do you think?” (Started at July 20th 2009) survey result showed the most common view was “low class, uncivil”, but only had 42.03% of the votes. “Very normal, not uncivil, it’s just convenient” had 33.95% of the votes, and “Shanghainese wearing pajamas on the street is very normal, if you are not use to looking at it, then stop looking at it.” had 24.02% of the votes. So more than half of the people do not oppose wearing pajamas.

As a native of Shanghai, Li Hoiyan is one of the people who do not oppose wearing pajamas on the street. She lived in the alleys for nearly 14 years. Although Li feels her aunties wearing pajamas outside is a bit indecent, but that familiar and warm feeling also makes her like it. As for the Qiba’s civilized persuasion activities Li Hoiyan thinks that they are making a fuss over nothing, that it’s “a bit silly”, “Do I need someone to manage what I wear?” Also “just because of the World Expo to engage in such activity is a bit fake.”

As for the issue of shame, this native Shanghainese born in the 80’s said “As long as we (people of Shanghai) do not feel ashamed ourselves, then we are not causing anyone to lose face. I guess the people (who made this proposal), experts and officials all are not Shanghainese.”

A number of netizens also opposed the civilized dress persuasion activities. A post on Tianya discussed the Shanghai pajama-wearing custom. Some netizens after watching the news on persuasion activities said, “Manyold grannies were not wearing pajamas, just some loose and relaxed clothes. A gang of neighborhood committee people then surrounded and criticized granny. It was unfair.”

It seems that the Shanghai World Expo modern civility has to face the most powerful opponent: freedom of dress code.

Forcing into shape the citizen’s characters?

This tug of war on the dress issue of Shanghai has been around for a few years now.

A resident at Qiba community named Ju still remembered clearly when the mayor Yu Zhengshen (俞正声) was interviewed by the Hong Kong reporter Wu xiaoli (吴小莉). He recalled the mayor saying, “Organizing the World Expo has three planed programs, in comparison with the plans of restoring city’s appearance and improving city services, the progress on civilizing Shanghai residents was too slow. Wearing pajamas was one of the bad habits Mayor Yu was talking about.

The president of Institute for Social Development, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Yang Xiong (杨雄) in 2006 conducted the “Shanghai Family Survey”, the survey showed that “the phenomena of wearing pajamas outside has not been significantly improved. 16.5% of the people said they or family members often wear pajamas going outside, 25% said sometimes.” The seriousness of the problem of wearing pajamas had been repeatedly mentioned.

After the publication of the report, it has been widely cited in the international media, which makes Yang Xiong feel that Shanghai’s pajamas might damage its international image. A foreign student in Shanghai went to him and said his mother saw this report in England and said she was very surprised “People in Shanghai still wear pajamas going outside”. the mother had said and then showed the newspapers to the foreign student in Shanghai.

“Foreigners think that is very big news, and they are very concerned about it.” Yang Xiong said.

As for another negative aspect of pajamas on the streets, Zhang Nian (张念) from Tongji University, the Institute of Cultural Criticism thinks “the rationality of the citizens is to keep caring about other people’s presence while the relative indifference of this care is reflected in the sense of distance. However, pajamas as a signal abolish the public rational sense of distance, which makes strangers feel discomfort.”

In recent years, with the improvement of living standards, the dress issue in the city has gradually evolved into the issue of civility. Shanghai media and all levels of government propaganda have never laid to rest on the issue of pajamas. But the persuasion work driven by World Expo, the intensity was significantly greater than in the past, but the disputes were also much more vigorous.

Although the neighborhood committees are not as strict as the police catching drivers running a red light, in the eyes of the scholars, grassroots persuasion activities organized by the government are still very forceful.

In Yang Xiong’s view, wearing pajamas on the streets is inconsistent with international etiquette and it should be changed. “But it also cannot be said to be a moral issue, not even to be said as an issue with people’s civility in Shanghai. Sometimes we amplify the problems.”

Hu Shoujun (胡守钧) a professor of Sociology at Fudan University said, “Neighborhood committee can advocate not wearing pajamas to go outside, but they have no rights to prohibit or disguise their prohibition activities as persuasion. Although he himself is strongly opposed to wearing pajamas outside, he is also opposed to the mandatory or quasi-mandatory banning of pajamas on the street. “For example, back then the Down to the Countryside Movement was not mandatory. But ‘I advise you to go, go to classes, learn about Chairman Mao’s works….’ After repeated nagging, we agreed to go. I think it is bad If we follow these kind of things.”

Zhang Nian thinks that traditional liberalism defines freedom on two fronts for individual rights: one is that it is voluntary, and second, that it does not constitute harm to others. The “others” here can also be the public. From these two fronts, the danger of wearing pajamas on the street is not significant. “The government agencies should be models of public characters, rather than forcing citizens to shape the public characters.”

“The World Expo will be in a more satisfactory state if on one hand, the efficiency and the level of governance according to the law is improved, and on the other hand the self-awareness of the residents is improved. The government should not control too much, too detailed, too small of issues and try to do everything, or else the autonomous sense of community will disappear. We must utilize the enthusiasm of each resident to be proud to participate in the World Expo.” Hu Shoujun (胡守钧) said.

Approximately one or two hours away from the Expo area, Rixing residence in Hongkou district as early as end of last year’s 500 day countdown to World Expo in Shanghai, already took the initiative to dissuade the wearing of pajamas in public. Today, the neighborhood committee has been reluctant to talk about this matter. “This is not the main task at hand anymore, every 100 days there is a new initiative, we are following the plan, now we are at the sage of stopping people from running the red light.”

The sign “Don’t go outside wearing pajamas, be a World Expo civilized person” is still standing in front of Qiba residential community. The security room staff said: this sign will stay through the winter, it will be taken down only when there are no more pajamas in public.

this article first published on chinahush.com

A local community in Shanghai has set its sights on one of urban China’s most intractable social problems: the wearing of pyjamas in public.

By Richard Spencer in Beijing

Local woman dressed in pyjamas walks along a street after buying vegetables in Shanghai Photo: AFP/GETTY

The neighbourhood committee – a volunteer outpost of the Communist Party – in the city’s north-eastern district of Rixin has decided that wearing pyjamas in the street should be discouraged.

“We’re telling people not to wear pyjamas in the street because it looks very uncivilised,” Guo Xilin, a local official, was quoted in local media as saying.

In contrast to their leaders’ formal appearance at official functions, China boasts some of the most laid-back dressers in the world.

Partly as a result of living at close quarters in city alleyways, especially since Chairman Mao flooded the rich suburbs with the rural poor, privacy is at a premium and inhibitions are loosened.

In Shanghai, in particular, it is regarded as socially undesirable to make social visits without appointments in summer, in case the family is lounging around in their underwear to keep the heat at bay. But, wearing pyjamas to pop down to the shops or to communal loos hardly raises an eyebrow.

As China has become richer, the practice has only become more common: having a smart pair of pyjamas shows you can afford not to have to sleep in long-johns and string vests.

The Rixin decision has divided the locals. While Mr Guo called pyjamas “visual pollution”, one elderly resident was quoted as saying: “Pyjamas are also a type of clothes. It’s comfortable, and it’s no big deal.”

Shanghai may, of course, just be trying to keep up with its great rival, Beijing. The capital’s Spiritual Civilisation Committee issued scores of edicts in advance of the Olympics governing citizens’ behaviour, ranging from instructions on how to queue, apply make-up and comb your hair, to detailed advice on clothing.

Its guidelines were particularly critical of men who wore white socks with black shoes, but also weighed in on the subject of both pyjamas and the other great fashion faux pas – the male trouser leg rolled up to the knee to cool off.

this article first published in telegraph.co.uk

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By Ron Rosenbaum
July 6, 2003

Why dude , now? It’s not just that Ashton Kutcher, the demigod of Dude ever since Dude, Where’s My Car? , has become a Demi-god of another sort. It’s not just the rise of Keanu Reeves (who revived “dude” in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure ) as Neo-Dude. There’s more to it, dude.
Back in 1964, Susan Sontag wrote an eye-opening essay in Partisan Review called “Notes on ‘Camp.’” Partisan Review , alas, is gone, but camp is here to stay, and perhaps the time has come to begin to assemble some notes on a similarly recondite phenomenon: Let’s call it “Notes on ‘Dude.’” Because recent evidence suggests that Dude, too-Dude in its most expansive, capital-D sense-is here to stay as well. In some ways, the impetus for studying Dude culture is dual: I feel I’ve grown up (or down) with “dude,” having first heard it from the single surfer dude in my high school and then the single surfer dude in my class at Yale (he dropped out freshman year to party with the waves). But there’s also a similar motive to that which prompted Ms. Sontag to investigate the resonances of camp. She opened her “Notes on ‘Camp’” essay with these two sentences: “Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility-unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it -that goes by the cult name of ‘Camp.’” (My italics.) Similarly, Dude has been named, but has Dude-as sensibility-been adequately described? If camp is “a variant of sophistication,” Dude might be called a variant of unsophistication . And yet also “hardly identical with it.” In fact, it can be, when used ironically as it often is here in New York City, a sophisticated take on unsophistication. Why Dude now? Well, for one thing, what Ms. Sontag documented (or perhaps created) was a cultural moment when camp-which she described as an underground, mainly gay subcultural sensibility-crossed over into the mainstream. And I’d argue that the moment has come when, like it or not, we have to acknowledge that Dude-in what you might call its ecstatic Jeff Spicoli sense-has crossed over. Crossed over in two ways: First, it has made the transition from transitory subcultural slang term to mainstream cultural-or at least linguistic-phenomenon of a sort. And what’s more-and this is what prompted this essay-like camp, Dude has “crossed over” in a gendered way as well. And so perhaps, it might be appropriate to begin these tentative notes with: 1) THE SEXUAL TRANSMIGRATION OF DUDE I think this is one chief indication that Dude is here to stay: the fact that it now can refer to both men and women. It’s true that there still may be some salons and dinner parties-mainly in certain clueless precincts of academia-where “dude” will still not be uttered at all. And it’s more likely you’ll hear “dude” uttered downtown, or on the L train, than in the back of Town Cars and Navigators. But outside of those sad figures who cloister themselves off from the pleasures of pop culture, “dude” is not just a part of the language-Dude is a whole discourse. And what’s more, Dude-ism, once mainly male, is now being used self-referentially by women as well. I’m not sure exactly when it happened. I may have been aware of it in a subliminal way, but I know the precise moment the conscious realization that “dude” had transcended gender came to me. It was in the second week of May; I was in a car somewhere off a freeway exit in Chicago with two journalism students who had picked me up at O’Hare to take me to a guest-lecture gig at Medill Journalism School. We seemed to be lost and, as I recall, the woman in the back seat said to the woman at the wheel, “Dude, I think we’re going the wrong way.” Dude! Sweet! (as they say in Dude, Where’s My Car? ) These were smart, well-educated, self-aware women in their 20’s, and they thought nothing of calling each other “dude.” They said it was a fairly common usage. Well, maybe with a little of the in-built irony that “dude” has for all who have used it post–Jeff Spicoli. Little did I know that I was witnessing a phenomenon that was, in fact, a hot topic among lexicographers and linguists, according to my friend Jesse Sheidlower, the astute North American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary : the sexual transmigration of “dude.” Where once “dude” had applied mainly-only-to men, “there’s a lot of discussion now,” Jesse said, among his colleagues in the word-study business, over this issue: whether “dude” (in a descriptive rather than prescriptive sense) could now generally be said to apply to both men and women. (The way “babe” has crossed over from the other direction, you might say.) The online edition of the American Heritage Dictionary , for instance, has already made the leap and recognized the duality of “dude” when it comes to gender, defining it (in 3.b., “dudes”) as “Persons of either sex.” Oxford was still studying the matter, Jesse said, although he checked the O.E.D. ’s on-line data base and found a citation for “dude” applied to a woman as early as the mid-70’s. And one in the mid-80’s, in Bret Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero , in which a young woman tells her mother, “No way, dude.” These were relatively isolated instances, but it seemed like it was just a matter of time before the O.E.D. would give “dude” its due as a dual-gender appellation. (Or as Aerosmith might say, “Dude [sometimes] looks like a lady.”) The triumph of Dude is more than about a single word. It’s about an entire sensibility, a worldview. To understand it one needs … 2) A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON DUDE: Featuring the original ‘aesthetic craze.’ Everybody thinks “dude ranch” came first and was somehow the origin. But whence came the dude in “dude ranch”? Before the dude-ranch dude there was dude as dandy, the dude as an urban aesthete; it was the urbanity of dude that made the dude-ranch dude dude-ish. The print version of the unabridged O.E.D. curiously calls “dude” originally “a factitious slang term.” “Factitious slang”? I think what they’re suggesting is something like what happened when the guys who made Swingers tried to make “money” a slang term for “cool.” God, was that a disaster. Totally embarrassing, dude. Why did “dude” succeed while “money” died a well-deserved death? It may have something to do with its origins. “Dude” may have been made up “factitiously” (I’d like to know the dude who did it), but according to the O.E.D. , it first came into vogue in New York about 1883, in connection with what the O.E.D. calls “the ‘aesthetic craze’ of the day.” “Aesthetic craze”: Don’t you love it, dude? This is important to remember in considering the way “dude” has evolved, the way it’s come to be used a century after its origin, the aesthetic dimension of the word. Yes, it can be used simply to refer to a person or class of persons-the way I first heard it in my suburb in reference to “surfer dudes.” But more interesting is the way its origins in an “aesthetic craze” can be linked to the way “dude” (or rather ” Duuuude! “) had become a one-word expression of awe and wonder. A simple awestruck Duuuude! as a way of expressing aesthetic approbation of, a crazed mutual aesthetic appreciation of, something someone says, or some phenomenon someone points out. An acknowledgment of shock and awe-or, in some cases, schlock and awe. A friend of mine pointed out that what “dude” users (and abusers) have in common is transport . Originally, a dude was a dandy on horseback; contemporary dudes use other means of transport-skateboards, surfboards, snowboards and the like. There’s an interesting convergence here with Ms. Sontag’s exegesis of the origins of camp, one that also goes back to the aesthete and the dandy. “Camp sees everything in quotation marks,” she wrote. “As the dandy is the 19th century’s surrogate for the aristocrat in matters of culture, so Camp is the modern dandyism. Camp is the answer to the problem: how to be a dandy in the age of mass culture …. The old-style dandy hated vulgarity, the new-style dandy … appreciates vulgarity.” Dude, you might say-Dude with a capital D-is another answer to the question of how to be an aesthete in an age of mass culture, because Dude is a way of bringing a conscious unsophistication-an ironical unsophistication, an unsophistication in quotation marks, a sophisticated unsophistication-to an appreciation of popular culture. At least that’s the way I heard it in the exchange between the Medill J-school women; that’s the way I use it; that’s the way I hear it here in New York-where, for instance, the single most prolific utterer of “dude” I know works at The New York Review of Books . Of course, there still exists a kind of pure “dude,” a non-ironic use of the word. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) One could almost say that there has been, in the history of “dude” from its “factitious” origins in 1883, a dialectic of Dude, a dialectic of sophistication and unsophistication. Which really calls for … 3) A BRIEF HISTORY OF DUDE, PART ONE: THE MYSTERY OF THE TRANSITION The real mystery of Dude history is the Mystery of the Transition. How did the mildly mocking “dude” of “dude ranch,” a direct descendant of the 1883 urban dandy, become the “dude” of surfer talk-a respectful form of direct address, as in “Party on, dude.” A woman I know offered this theory of how “dude” migrated from dude-ranch mockery to the surfer term of mutual respect: “Dude” was originally a mockery of “gentlemanliness,” you might say, or gentility, and surfers later rescued the gentlemanliness from the mockery. When transformed, or inverted in subcultural slang-in this case, California surfer talk-the original irony was itself ironized, and, in the way a double negative can make a positive, it became thereby a mostly sincere, slightly arch term of gentlemanly respect , not mockery. What made the transformation possible was the presence of that gentlemanly dandyism in both usages. Surfer dudes decided to own it, own their elaborate subcultural aesthetic dandyism, the way some ethnic groups believe they can own words that were originally derisive slurs. In a way, to address someone as “dude” became a sign of ironic respect for that person’s ironic sensibility. 4) A BRIEF HISTORY OF DUDE, PART TWO: THE DISAPPEARANCE AND RE-EMERGENCE OF DUDE O.K., so “dude” made the transition sometime in the 60’s to a term of respect-but for a while it just stayed there, sort of dormant, a regional subcultural term, kept alive in certain rock lyrics (”All the Young Dudes”). For a while, it looked like “dude” might die out or become antiquated like “groovy” (as opposed to “cool,” which still survives in various ironic flavors). But then “dude” began to re-emerge in the late 70’s, less as a term of address-”Hey, dude!”-but as, once again, an aspect of an “aesthetic craze,” so to speak. Which brings us to what you might call the “whoa, dude” connection-and then the internalization of “whoa” by “dude.” I seem to recall being alerted to this transition in 1980 or ‘81 by a story that appeared in New West Magazine , by the gifted writer Charlie Haas. As I recall, it was one of the first to document the Grateful Dead cult. But what stayed on my mind was Mr. Haas’ hilarious but prescient opening riff on what he called “the whoa dudes”: guys who used “Whoa, dude!” to begin-and end-just about every conversational response, much the same way that Valley Girls were starting to use “like” and “totally” as all-purpose conversational punctuation. (And by the way, a whole other essay could be devoted to the way Valley-speak has, in many ways, survived and gone national-as the unexpected triumph of Legally Blonde like SO TOTALLY attests.) In any case, what the “whoa, dude” phenomenon documented was the way “dude” had made another crucial transition. It was the moment when saying “dude” was no longer just a way of addressing a person; it began to be an all-encompassing acknowledgment of mutual wonder, in that elongated form-” Duuuude! “-where the awestruck “whoa” is encompassed within the elongated “Duuuude!” so that it becomes a mutual communion with the wonder of it all, so to speak. Still, the real transition-the moment when dude went “worldwide” (to use a contemporary term), the moment when Dude “blew up” (to use a persistent 80’s phrase)-was the release of one film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High , and the introduction of one now-nearly-mythic character …. 5) THE DEMIGODS OF DUDE, PART ONE: JEFF SPICOLI I’m a big fan of Sean Penn’s serious work, from the underrated At Close Range to his direction of The Crossing Guard -but really, Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High is likely to become his one immortal American character, almost like Huck Finn or Chaplin’s Little Tramp. What made Jeff Spicoli great? Well, he was the pitch-perfect synergistic fusion of the four wellsprings of late-70’s Dude culture: surfer, stoner, suburban Valley-speak and biker-rocker dude. (Remember Spicoli’s dream, which concludes with his planning to “wing on over to London and jam with the Stones”?) But more than that, it was the amazing, oblivious good nature that Mr. Penn, as Spicoli, radiated. The Joy of Dude. 6) DEMIGODS OF DUDE, PART TWO: KEANU REEVES IN BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE I’d almost forgotten that Bill and Ted came before Wayne and Garth and Wayne’s World . And that “Wayne’s World”-both the Saturday Night Live sketch concept and the films that followed-was a pure cop from Bill and Ted . And that it was Keanu Reeves who immortalized the phrase “Party on, dude,” not Mike Myers. These are important facts. And although Bill and Ted doesn’t really hold up the way Fast Times does, it was Bill and Ted that introduced the aesthetic category known as “Excellent!” into the Dude lexicon, even before Bart Simpson and Mr. Burns made “dude” and “excellent” partners in crime. 7) DEMIGODS OF DUDE, PART THREE: LEBOWSKI vs. SLACKER I have to admit, I really, really disliked The Big Lebowski when I first saw it. But it grew on me. Not to the cult status it’s attained for some: Did you know the Second Annual Big Lebowski Festival is about to take place somewhere in Kentucky on July 19 (see www.lebowskifest.com)? Note to editor: Dude, here’s your peg! My problem with Lebowski at first was that Jeff Bridges gives slacker slovenliness a bad name-while the earlier Slacker gives it a good name. (See my column on that genuinely great Dude film, Observer, Aug. 13, 2001) Slacker , of course, is more explicitly philosophical and aesthetic than Lebowski , but lately I’ve come to think there is something likable about the Coen brothers’ film, almost despite the Dude element. What was irritating to me was the Jeff Bridges character calling himself “the Dude.” It was such a non-Dude thing to do. (Almost as irritating as the commodification of Dude by the so-called Dell Dude. I don’t blame the Dell Dude for taking the gig, but he was almost too good at it-to the extent that, for a little while, it began to feel a little tacky to use “dude.”) But to return to Lebowski : The real Dude in the picture is Lebowski’s buddy, Walter Sobchak (played by John Goodman) who’s the best thing in the movie-along with the two of them using the word “roll” for bowl (transport again). Indeed, the whole bowling/ spiritual aspect of the film is highlighted by Sobchak’s refusal to “roll on shabbos .” DEMIGODS OF DUDE, PART FOUR: ASHTON KUTCHER I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but the title Dude, Where’s My Car? can be traced to a line in The Big Lebowski , when Sobchak asks Lebowski: “Where’s your car, Dude?” And even though most of Dude, Where’s My Car? makes even Bill and Ted seem like a subdued, autumnal work of the subtle Japanese master of cinema, Yasujiro Ozu, Dude has become a cult film, and the title of the movie alone is worth the price of admission. And coming in the year 2000, it clearly signaled that Dude would span the turn of the century. The totally awesome title of the sequel alone- Seriously, Dude, Where’s My Car? (planned for release in 2004)-should insure that Dude lasts well into the new millennium. But, of course, there’s more to Dude, Where’s My Car? than the title and the theme of lost transport . (Well, a little more.) There’s that great, now sort-of-famous exchange between Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott when they read the tattoos on each other’s backs. It’s not quite “Who’s on first?”, but it’s not a bad update. See, they’ve just discovered that they’ve gotten tattoos on their backs, which they have no memory of getting. Because the tattoos are on their backs, they each have to read the others’ ink. And they discover that Kutcher’s tattoo reads “Dude,” and Scott’s reads “Sweet.” And since “Sweet” has come to be a synonym for the awestruck “Duuuude,” trouble ensues: “Dude, what does my tattoo say?” asks Scott. “‘Sweet,’” says Kutcher. “What about mine?” “‘Dude,’” says Scott. “What does mine say?” “‘Sweet,’” says Kutcher. “What about mine?” “‘Dude’!” says an increasingly annoyed Scott. “What about mine?” “‘Sweet’!” And so it goes, until they’re at each other’s throats. It probably doesn’t make any sense to those who haven’t seen it, but you sort of give in to it when you do. (Our “big-cheese editor,” as the Eight-Day Week likes to call him, boasts that he has it memorized). If this seems slightly less serious than the intellectual fare my readers are used to, let me offer … 9) THE DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR? LITERARY GAME This was something I devised during a dinner with my friends Virginia and David, although they came up with the best answer. The idea is to see how many great works of literature you can fit into the Dude, Where’s My Car? framework. For instance, Moby-Dick - Dude, Where’s My Whale? The Iliad - Dude, Where’s My Trojans? The Catcher in the Rye - Dude, Where’s My Innocence? A Tale of Two Cities - Dude, Where’s My Head? The Red and the Black - Dude, Where’s My Color Sense? The best was one that David and Virginia seemed to come up with simultaneously: The Sun Also Rises - Dude, Where’s My Dick? I’ll conclude this installment of “Notes on ‘Dude’” with some dude etiquette: 10) SOME DUDE DO’S AND DON’T'S -Never use “dude” more than twice in a single sentence. -Headline plays on Dude, Where’s My Car? have pretty much reached their limit. I recently saw a headline: “Dude, Where’s My Terrorism?” -So have plays on “Dude, You’re Gettin’ a Dell.” -Enough with the commercialization: A sample Web search revealed, among many others, the Weather Dude, the Pizza Dude, the Balloon Dude and the Cookie Dude. There was also “Dude Dressing: Major Zesty Garlic Peppercorn Ranch Salad Dressing that makes you say whoa dude!!!’” I even saw a Web site for “The Creator Dude.” It wasn’t God.

this article first appeared in the new york observer

Siren Leirvåg (Oslo)

This paper is based on some ideas that I would like to present to you in this suggestive way, for a possible discussion on the theatrical language of Werner Schwab. They are merely preliminary thoughts that may be elaborated in other contexts. I realize that the situation in Norway is not unique when it comes to performance traditions and acting conventions. It serves, however, as the context for the comments on staging the Schwabian universe.

The Austrian artist and playwright Werner Schwab has been introduced twice in Norwegian theatre: first in Oslo in 1996 with Volksvernichtung oder meine Leber ist sinnlos(1) (translated: People Annihilation or my Liver is Pointless) and last in Bergen in March 2001 with Die Präsidentinnen.(2) In the next pages I will point to some problems attached to the translation of the Schwabian universe to Norwegian theatre.

The first problem is related to the Schwabian style of writing, which is often looked upon as particularly provocative, with its grotesque imagery, its distorted linguistic tone and its bizarre plots. We find the reference to this way of using the language in the Austrian Baroque Folk-Plays or comedies. They played on the grotesque and linguistically ambiguous. Schwab’s own experience of growing up in the Austrian province of Graz, in a basement of most meager conditions, must also have played a significant role in his writing, as well as the act of creating the myth Werner Schwab.

When the Torshov theatre in Oslo staged Volksvernichtung oder meine Leber ist sinnlos it was translated by Öyvind Berg, the author and member of the Bergen theatre company, Baktruppen.(3) His linguistic universe is not particularly bourgeois either. The particular atmosphere in the text is above all created by the Schwabian language, where the linguistic awareness is always loudly present. In a psychological and realistic performance style, which is the most common style in acting in Norwegian theatre, this particular language does not ring through, so to speak. Instead the miserable conditions are explained. They are put in a realistic and humanistic perspective: Why do we not communicate the truth? Why do we suffer in each other’s company? There is a subtext here that in some ways undermines the grotesque and distorted atmosphere. I don’t think it’s merely a question of the director’s choice, it’s more about a bourgeois theatre tradition and hermeneutic situation.

I particularly get the notion of displacement from Volksvernichtung oder meine Leber ist sinnlos - Eine Radikalkomödie. With the subtitle: Mir selber zugewidmet, dem Autor, dem grossräumigen Lügner.(4) (Dedicated to myself, the author, the comprising liar.)
We are in a block of flats in Graz, where Frau Wurm and her son, Herrmann, live in the basement. There are two flats above, one inhabited by the Kovacic family, and on top is the terror-cabinet: “Das Speisezimmer der Frau Grollfeuer, alles düster, alt und kostbar. Überall stehen angebrochene Schnapsflaschen und Gläser herum”.
The thirty or so year old Herrmann, sees himself as an artist. His mother disagrees.

Herrmann:
Eine schändliche Sau bist du, die mich vor der ganzen Welt davondenken will. Aber einmal wird ein Tag auftauchen, der sich gezwungen sehen wird, in eine Kenntnis hereinzunehmen, dass der Maler Herrmann Wurm in Graz sein Licht erblickt hat und dass er das gleich auf der ganzen Weltoberfläche abgebildet hat. Graz…wird man sagen…und wurm…wird man sagen…und Erfinder der persönlichen Lichtstrahlen…wird man sagen…und Kleinstadt: Grosskunst…wird man sagen…und ganz einfach Grazkunst…wird man vor sich voraussagen. Weil eiene richtige Grazkunst, die ist keine Mausescheisse, die von einem Hund gefressen wird, der dann von einem Lastkraftwagen zusammengeführt werden muss. Und die Grazkunst, die ist aber auch schon überhaupt keine angefressene Leber, die aus einer alkoholisierten Leiche herausgefallen ist…beim Leichenwashen. Und schon gar nicht ist die Grazkunst für nichts zu gebrauchen…
Niemand kann mir Graz aus dem Leben herausnehmen.

Frau Wurm:
Aber was ist das dann denn für eine Sorte von einer Kunst, die Grazkunst?

Herrmann:
Also die Grazkunst…diese Kunstsorte, das ist, wenn die künstlerischen Menschen ihre Gefühle in der gefühlvollen Stadt…zusammenreissen…also wenn eine Kunstsorte sich einen einmaligen Anfang herausnimmt aus den gefühlvollen Grazmenschen. Das ist so, wie wenn der Herr Hausherr sagt, dass er ein Farbbild hereinbrauchen will für das Kinderzimmer von den Kindern von Graz. […](5)

How does one translate or even present this concept in Norwegian theatre, even on the fringe stage of the National Theatre? Another question is of course: Why?

The program is perhaps more interesting than the performance. The Dramaturg describes the whole house as the medieval stage turned upside down with hell on top.(6) Frau Grollfeuer’s project is to absorb the whole of humanity in her unique self. She despises people for not satisfying her ideals, thus no man, no love, no meaning. In the middle there is plenty of meaning in the form of compromise. The bourgeois, social democratic, IKEA home of the Kovacic’. Below is the limping figure of Christ and his mother, Frau almost-virgin-Wurm. She exists by her self-suppressing piety. He finds a meaningful existence in the landscape of Art.

My second thought is related to a potentially philosophical concept in Schwab’s writing.
If we think for a moment Nietzsche as a source of importance to Schwab’s life philosophy, it looks as Werner Schwab was taken up with what we may call the displaced existence, i.e. what we in our rationalized society look upon as ooze or mud, or stools, to use one of the central metaphors of Die Präsidentinnen. The secluded or displaced existence is for Nietzsche first and foremost, the suffering. In Die Geburt der Tragödie it is the classical tragedy and the ambiguous life preserving view that represent the object of his interest with regards to the way the suffering plays a part of the manifestation of life. I think that in some way the ambiguity of the Schwabian linguistic universe is exactly the suffering and the life display, not as counterparts, but as a double play. In this universe we find the recognition of the inevitable suffering. His unfolding of life is (through) the language; the morbid humour, the grotesque imagery. His suffering is life - to my mind an Artaud-like concept.

A crucial question remains: how can we learn to endure the suffering?
Nietzsche suggests the Greek gaiety or humour that involves the tragic notion: a life on the surface with the deepest insight in the cruelty of existence. This is the kind of humour that we find in Werner Schwab’s writing. It may even be what makes him one of the most interesting of European playwrights of the 1990s, with great relevance into the 21st century. Besides, Werner Schwab staged his own life, he created the myth about himself. This idea certainly echoes the cultural passwords of the 1990s, “staging of the self as life”. His early death only reinforces the faction.

My third and last point is conclusive and two-folded:
We tend to have a more subtextual and psychological (in other words a bourgeois) approach to current issues than this pulp comedy suggests. Thus, the jolly suffering cannot possibly be received as productive in a Norwegian context but merely as a surrealistic critique of the bourgeois society.

this article first appeared here

Merce Cunningham, who died on July 26 aged 90, was a colossus of 20th-century choreography; his career in dance, which lasted more than 60 years, began when, as a Seattle-based dance student in 1939, he was invited by Martha Graham to join her company in New York.

Although he was himself a great dancer, he would become better known as one of modern dance’s leading innovators. He wrought its transformation when he left Graham’s troupe to form his own company in collaboration with his partner and lover, the avant-garde composer John Cage.

With Cage, Cunningham arrived at a philosophy that informed his work for the rest of his life. He decided that dance need not be tied to music or story: pure movement was enough. Working with many composers (most notably Cage) and designers such as the artists Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, the only constraint he tended to offer was the length of the piece.

His dancers would learn the intricate series of steps in silence, and only at the first performance would dance, music and set meet (or collide) for the first time. He was impatient with the quest to discover meaning in art; asked what one dance was about, he answered: “It’s about 40 minutes.”

Cunningham’s approach would make him one of the greatest names in dance, but for many years he was derided. Fairly early in the life of his company, a New York reviewer wrote: “Last night Merce Cunningham presented a programme of his choreography, and if someone doesn’t stop him, he’s going to do it again tonight.”

Opinion remains divided on some of his works, and particularly on some of the musical accompaniment, which even Cunningham’s greatest fans sometimes found unhelpful. Some of his creations, particularly from the 1960s, sound sublimely pretentious when described.

In How to Pass, Kick, Fall and Run (1965), now regarded as a classic, the dance was accompanied by stories, written by John Cage, and recited (originally) by Cage and the writer David Vaughn. Sometimes the readers would speak at the same time, sometimes both were silent. “The effect was a bit like watching a playground full of children, with these two crones in the corner talking about things that were completely irrelevant,” said Cunningham.

Mercier Philip Cunningham was born on April 16 1919 at Centralia, Washington, the son of Clifford Cunningham, a lawyer of Irish descent, and Mayme Joach, a schoolteacher. His birthplace was a lumber and coal-mining town – infertile ground for an exquisite talent. But neither of his parents discouraged his interest in dance, and at the age of 12 he was sent to a local academy run by a former vaudeville performer called Mrs Barrett.

After school, Cunningham enrolled in the Cornish School for Performing and Visual Arts in Seattle. It was during his second year that he met John Cage, who played piano there. Cage, who was then married, started a percussion programme that Cunningham attended. When Cunningham had mastered one piece, Cage told him: “‘You were playing everything absolutely perfectly. Now just go a little further and make a few mistakes.’ I thought, that is a marvellous idea.”

In 1939, at the end of his second year, Cunningham attended a summer school run by the Bennington School of the Dance. He made an immediate impression on one of the tutors, Martha Graham, and he travelled to New York to join her company in the late summer. He was given a lead role in Every Soul is a Circus, which played on Broadway. Later he would dance the role of the original Preacher in Appalachian Spring.

Cunningham had already begun to devise dances, and Cage’s move to New York spurred him to break from the Graham company (”I wanted Dada, not Mama,” the dancer said). In 1944 Cage wrote the music for his and Cunningham’s first solo programme.

It was during rehearsals that they first decided that dance should be wrenched away from music. At that point they were still using a common structure for their separate choreography and compositions; later they abandoned this and made the music and dance entirely independent. By the early 1950s, Cunningham was experimenting with “chance operations”. With Suite by Chance (1952), the elements of the pieces were decided by tossing coins.

The company spent its first decade touring the United States in a Volkswagen camper van, sometimes driving 1,000 miles to stage a single performance in front of just a handful of people. The reception was not always rapturous: in Paris in 1964, when the company was beginning to tour Europe, audiences threw tomatoes and eggs, and Cunningham later recalled that people would leave in the middle of the performance to go out to buy more. With lofty certainty, he regarded such insults as a badge of honour.

But on arrival in London the Merce Cunningham Company was hailed as a sensation. The initial run at Sadler’s Wells was attended by Frederick Ashton (who told Cunningham: “You are a poet, and I like poetic ballets”), Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, and it was followed by three equally successful weeks at the Phoenix.

Cunningham was astounded: the longest run he had ever had in New York was two nights. The delight of reviewers in London was reported in the American press, and his reputation was being made. He consolidated it with such highlights as Rainforest (1968), with a set designed by Andy Warhol that consisted of giant helium-filled silver pillows.

Winterbranch was a piece based on the theme of falling, with a buzz saw soundtrack by La Monte Young; Crises had the dancers bound by giant elastic bands. And although such inventiveness might sound gimmicky, many of his works were of extraordinary delicacy, subtlety and detail.

Tirelessly innovative, in the 1970s and 1980s Cunningham worked with the video artist Charles Atlas to incorporate video technique into pieces such as Channel/Inserts (1981). He won a Laurence Olivier Award in 1985 for Best New Dance Production (Pictures), and in 1989 the French government appointed him a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.

Cunningham remained endlessly inventive and inquisitive. Crippled by arthritis for the last 25 years of his life, he found a new way of working out movements and of demonstrating to his dancers what he wanted them to do with their bodies. He used a computerised choreography program called LifeForms, with which he could animate virtual-reality dancers by moving a cursor. He was also captivatingly, or maddeningly, elusive. “Dancing is the art of the present tense,” he once said. “I don’t think this is an intellectual matter. Like many things, it falls to pieces, ceases to exist, when subjected to intellectual scrutiny.”

Cunningham’s detractors have sometimes said that his dances are too emotionless, too detached. Even his admirers have sometimes felt that while the dance was superb, the music could be surplus to requirements, an interference. But even the discordant moments pleased him: “I think the separation of elements, of having dance, music and design created independently, when they do come together they can produce something which no one could predict. They can make something happen that hasn’t happened before.”

He continued to dance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company into the early 1990s and was latterly its artistic director.

Merce Cunningham remained close to John Cage until the composer’s death in 1992.

first Published July 27 2009 by telegraph.co.uk

Wasteland was an American anthology-style horror comic book published by DC Comics in 1987-1989 and intended for adult readers. The series lasted 18 issues.Each issue (with the exception of the book-length final issue) consisted of three unrelated stories written by John Ostrander or Del Close (or both, in collaboration) and a team of four artists (at any given time), one of whom would illustrate the three stories in each issue, the fourth supplying that month’s cover (which had no direct connection to the interior contents). Members of the rotating crew of artists included Don Simpson, David Lloyd, William Messner-Loebs and Timothy Truman. One special issue included only the artwork of Joe Orlando.

For the most part, the series avoided the sort of gory shock associated with the twist ending horror comics typified byTales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone television series in favor of more unpredictable and ambivalent stories. The themes of alienation and psychological dread often occurred, mixed with grotesque black humor, absurdism and social and political commentary in the form of satire.

The stories did not take place in the DC Universe and no established DC characters appeared within its stories. The only exceptions came in a story entitled “Crossover” in which a few DC characters (and another of Ostrander’s creations, GrimJack) appeared in a metafictional context and in the series’ final issue, in which the entire run of the series (including “Crossover”) was “rewound” to the beginning of the very first story.

Rather, the stories tended to take place in the real world. One story portrayed the death of H. P. Lovecraft. Another pastiched the autobiographical comics series American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, with Don Simpson imitating the drawing style of Robert Crumb. This story portrayed a thinly-guised version of Pekar in one of his acrimonious appearances on Late Night with David Letterman in which Pekar had denounced General Electric. Typically, Wasteland both included political content in the story (GE, by that time, also indirectly owned DC Comics as well) and also turned it into a fable about self-loathing and anxiety.

Almost every issue of Wasteland portrayed, in exaggerated fashion, vignettes taken from the colorful life of Wasteland co-writer Del Close. In one of these stories, Close is voluntarily hypnotized by L. Ron Hubbard and is present when Hubbard comes up with the notion of turning Hubbard’s Dianetics into the “religion” of Scientology. Close also openly discussed in his stories such other controversial topics as his own drug use and his involvement with witchcraft as a religion.

Wasteland was noted for the lively debates that took place within its letter columns. (wikipedia)

Also included as characters were Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy and Philp K. Dick.

hey aryan,

i just received a call from The Greatest. he said he heard about the zakes mda - stephen grey’s skirmish, and he called an immediate press conference. According to reliable sources, this is what he said to the journalists:

steve’s tactics was hit-and-run
he got a black eye in one

his words were slimy like glue
his face was swollen in two

gray thought him smarter than z
he threw the towel in three!

muhammad ali, “The First Heavy Weight Champion of Rap”

6th National Oral History Conference
Cape Town 13-16 October 2009
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Conference theme
Over the past few years, the Oral History Association of South Africa and National Archives and Record Services of South Africa (Department of Arts
and Culture) have convened a number of conferences, which provided a platform for discussions and debates regarding the role and position of oral history in South Africa. Previously conferences have explored a number of themes ranging from “Culture, Memory and Trauma” and “Truth, Legitimacy and Representation: Oral History and Alternative Voices” to “Hidden Voices, Untold Stories and Veiled Memories”.

This year we would like to carve out a space to critically reflect on the process of collecting voices and politics associated with this endeavour since 1994.
There are various aspects of ‘collecting voice/s’; visual, aural, textual – with the attendant dilemmas and complexities. It is hoped that this conference will offer an opportunity to tease out these dilemmas and complexities through constructive discussions and debates.

Some general questions the conference seeks to consider include:
• Archiving – accessibility, dissemination, product development (how not to colonise voices…)

• Language – the role and use of language and translation in the process of transcription

• ‘Testimony fever’ - what happens when you freeze the living voice?

• What is at stake in the drive to collect stories before people pass on?

• How has post-1994 legislation impacted on how oral history work is done? Has oral history become too popularised? Are oral histories and voices being
colonised by institutions in the quest for uncovering hidden histories?

• Teaching oral history – the place of oral history in schools

• The relationship between orality and literacy

• Oral history and social cohesion as a tool for nation-building? Are life histories representative?

• Oral history and human rights / social justice? Interviewing after atrocity. The relationship between testimony and data or evidence

• Are there spaces for different approaches to oral history?

You will note that the issue of ethics has not been formulated as a separate topic because ethical issues are part of all aspects of oral history work so to separate ethics out as distinct would create a superficial divide. Also note that these possible discussion topics are mostly framed as questions. This too is deliberate and it is hoped that this spirit of questioning will set the tone for a conference of learning and sharing from and with one another.

Format of contributions
We welcome a range of contributions – including academic papers, case studies, field notes, praise poems, posters, film clips. Contributions must be based on
original work and have a clear focus on oral history.

If you are interested in making a contribution, please send us a short proposal including:

1. an abstract or description of your contribution (100-300 words)
2. a short biography of yourself and/or your organisation (50-100 words)
3. your contact information (name and surname, affiliation, postal address, email address, phone and fax numbers)

The duration of presentation will not exceed twenty (20) minutes and this will be followed by ten (10) minutes for discussion

Deadline for proposals/abstracts is 12 July 2009

The conference organizing committee will confirm acceptance or rejection of your proposal by 20 July 2009. Complete contributions will need to be submitted by 21 August so as to allow for the compilation of the conference readers.

Send proposal to:
Natalie Jaynes – njaynes@ijr.org.za, or
Nkhumbudzeni Tshirado - Ntshirado@pgwc.gov.za

Prophet Bonginkosi Ngwato is in jail in Mozambique. He is one of four men arrested on charges of terrorism and sabotage. His mother knew something was wrong, when she started having bad dreams, long before she knew about his troubles. Two days before I got the news that Prophet was arrested in Mozambique, for throwing ‘rainmaking objects’ into the Cahora Basa Dam, I received a phone call from her. I could feel that familiar sighing that mother’s do when they want you to feel their words. “Where is my son? I cannot sleep at night, I keep having bad dreams about him.” She told me, expecting me to lift the weight of her worry by saying that he was with me, or something like that. She knew that he had gone on a trip to Zambezi with some people but she did not understand what he was going to do there. I assured her that Bonginkosi would be fine. He was traveling with a good man, Dr George Richl on a mission to save the African environment by making the rains fall. “What kind of rains?” she asked me. I fumbled with my thoughts, because even now I cannot explain that PROPHET left with a well-intentioned man who uses crystals to radiate positive energy. I could not explain orgon energy. I am sure PROPHET struggled to explain Orgon energy to her before he left. I just kept telling her that it was about making rain. “But how do they do this?” she pressed me, obviously expecting me to know more about this movement called ORGONISE AFRICA. “Don’t worry. I said, George Richl, is a good guy. I met him, he travelled with me and PROPHET to go and see the great Credo Mutwa. Hey, and Credo Mutwa also knew the guy.”Something in her sighs told me was not convinced. “My dreams are troubling me, please find my son.” she said before the phone went dead, just as was still explaining that she too has the gift of prophecy.

keep reading here

aryan

here in mexico we are in the grips of an iron clad INFLUENCIA coming from the government and the mass media putting many into panic mode and wearing face masks in the street
nobody can see…15 deaths in one month in a country of 120million does not an epidemic make…
whats happening is more like a chapter in naomi kleins book the shock doctrine…

saludos
st

Bush Cheney/ Nuremburg

The new, proposed graffiti by-law criminalizes all forms of public art and violates our personal right to freedom of expression on private property. It makes no distinction between vandalism and public art that is done with the permission of the owner of the property.

The by-law will soon be presented for public discussion and these are the two main issues that we feel need to be addressed:

1. The definition of ‘graffiti’ under the by-law is too broad. It classifies ‘graffiti’ as any inscription, word, figure, letter, sign, symbol, sketch, picture or drawing. There should be a clear differentiation between ‘graffiti vandalism’ [e.g. gang tags, scratchings] and public art that is done with permission from the owner [murals, colourful characters and positive, inspiring messages].

2. The by- law removes the legal right of the private property owner to paint anything other than a house number on his/her wall. We strongly believe that the private property owner should maintain the right to determine what to paint on to his/her property without permission from the City.

If you agree with these two amendments to the Graffiti By-law, please sign this petition.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/art4all/