Does Dropping iPods and not Bombs Actually Work?

The Internet and especially the blogosphere have been widely heralded as new, extremely effective tools of free speech, of spreading democracy or revolting against tyrannies. Most notably in the case of the recent protests in Iran, sometimes called the "Twitter Revolution".
Evgeny Morozo, however, does not agree at all. He even claims that the Internet can help keep dictators in power and that for every "Cyper-activist" there is a Cyber-captive". This speech is about 12 min. long and I do not agree with everything he says, but it is an interesting and discussion-worthy opinion:

Lecture on Camp; "Popliteratur"

Some of you might be interested in this taped lecture by Stefanie Roenneke on the subject "Adieu Tristesse! Wieviel Camp steckt in Popliteratur". The lecture was given at the University of Hamburg as part of the lecture series "Poetik der Oberflächlichke: Die deutschsprachige Popliteratur der 1990er Jahre".

In this German language lecture, Roenneke briefly discussed a notion of camp based on Jack Smith and Susan Sontag and then discusses the German pop lit. book Tristesse Royale.

Longer abstract, bibliography and the video available here.

The Media Education Foundation.

(We had a lively discussion elsewhere and I briefly commented on it on my personal blog, yet I decided that it would make sense to repost this on this blog for future reference and for those not involved in the earlier discussion)

The Media Education Foundation is a website and production company producing documentaries to " to inspire critical reflection on the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media." Most of these documentaries on a large number of topics are related to our field of study and are available as full-length Internet previews for personal home use (the university license/ DVD is quite expensive). For example, there are lectures and speeches by bell hooks or Stuart Hall. Below is a trailer for the documentary that brought the site to our attention, Sut Jhally's Dreamwolds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video.

Steampunked environments

Picking up where Mr. Lukas left off, some fantastic videos about steampunk, well worth a watch. I love the way a 100 years or more of historical trends are rolled into this ... it's also an interesting reaction to the sparseness of a lot of everyday trends at the moment...




And here a convention ( I suppose this means it's already mainstream, right?) The costumes are just awesome...

The sendung mit der maus lol. For a five minute summary of the Disney book on core texts look no further...
Jonas brothers=teenie band





really really funny!!

Use of language and swearing

Today I came across a club who is against swearing. I wanted to see their logic so I went to the site and it really got me thinking. Lots of people on the site write about how we are allowed/supposed to use language and how certain words affect us (e.g. the argument "they're just words" vs the idea that words can actually hurt people).

http://www.nocussing.com/memberstories.html

Adaptation

It's probably too late for the John Adams class, but Salman Rushdie had a really interesting article on novel to film adaptation in The Guardian this morning.
It seems he was teaching a similar course to Adams at the same time! He mentions The Age of Innocence, No Country for Old Men amongst others, and he takes apart Danny Boyle's capitalist, colonialist, chauvanist, crowd-pleasing Slumdog Millionare.

Ideas for a Masterseminar?

Mr H said we should approach the dept with our suggestions for a seminar aimed at Master students. I think this is a good idea as it does present us with a possibility to have another class together next summer and I think we should do it. What are the ideas for topics? Someone mentioned conspiracy theories and I know a lot of us want to do media and popular culture. I wouldn't mind something on news dissemination (modern journalism and news programs) or the use of imagery in today's world.

Kore Texts Kolloquium

When, and in what order?