lotusland - nervous politics from a laid-back city

ubc interwebs conspiracy

so, i would like you all to know that i am joining the ams/ubc blog run by the folks who ran elections insider.  youll know the posting has begun when i make a sidebar graphic to commemorate the occasion.  i hope i can find something ubc-related to bitch about besides reiki practicioners and techniques for evading them.

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im going to boston soon (quelle surprise) and im wondering if anyone here knows somewhere cool in the boston area that i have yet to frequent.   as you all know, i like beer, fire, vodka, seafood, books, movies, men in speedos, persian tea houses, etc.  it has to be sasha-friendly (ie, something that has redeeming value outside being a big intertextual wankfest of american pop culture that he wont 'get' because they didnt have cheers, the simpsons, or the 90's in moldova). 

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its a big internet, so i really did think i could be out here, blogging, without my parents crashing the party.  it seems that my dad (who only three months ago drove from his computer at home to his office downtown in order to open a pdf because he knew how to do it on the work computer.) has learned how to work the interwebs.  either that, or one of you told him about this. 

im serious.  i dont care how old i am.  im not mature.  you cant invite your parents to shit.  its harsh lame. 

ams elections wrap-up (or why maxwell maxwell absolutely ruined our lives)

1. the list of media outlets that split the $8000 funds is interesting - the student and journalism school publications topped the list, while some earnest grassroots efforts nicked a few of the smaller prizes.   i am also sad that the radical beer tribune didn't crack the moola line.  perhaps their sexy candidate portraits were more fun for those involved in/who actively mock student politics.  whatever - this was still the most artistic, novel, and amusing take on the ams elections.    peter rizov may not have won, but this is going to be my desktop for the rest of my life. </creepy>

id like to know wtf the voter-funded media winners are going to do with their money.  for all the wah-wah about the mysterious processing of ams funds and how it is what causes voter apathy, it would be nice if we could find out what these folks plan to do with the $8000 that was supposed to inspire excitement.   

no, im not going to judge anyone who blows it on beer and dope.  the duncan-kearney media group did 1% the work that the other victorious (and non-victorious) outlets did.  i dont know if they got the memo... at ubc, the only socially-acceptable form of halfassed ams election participation is to dress real emo, claim youll throw parties, whine that the ams is invisible while collecting $14,000 in ams salary, and somehow decide youre saving democracy for democracy's sake. 

i dont know why critical voices were so much harder on duncan and kearney than they were on maxwell maxwell.  why does the fact he ran for office in a halfassed manner somehow put him on a more noble ideological plane than two dudes who entered the vfm just so their buddies would vote them some cash?  if anything, maxwell caused more voter apathy by embodying the  ambivalence.  he says he changed the tone of his campaign because “Being able to vote in western society is sort of that one thing which you have, which makes you a valid member of that society.” 

so, thanks to maxwell, we all had the lovely privilege to vote for ams president.  thank you, maxwell.  you let us choose between a student council mafia type and a non-serious candidate without a platform.  our choice was broadened to jeff friedrich by acclamation to jeff friedrich by formality. 

next year, im going to run for president.  if i feel like it.  ok. 

2. no surprises in the results, really.  i hear turnout was very low. i send laurel wreaths to the victorious.

maybe ill interview some of the vfm winners.  maybe i wont.  we'll see.

voter funded media at ubc

one remotely interesting aspect of the ubc student elections is that a number of media outfits, ranging from student papers to election-only blogs/zines/papers, are on the ballot as well.  the end result of this voter-funded media shit is that the publication with the most votes will win some cash.  wtf. 

my endorsements for the ams elections:

president:  friedrich.  im happier voting for someone embedded in the student council mafia than some fucking wanker in poli sci who is running on a platform of "what does the ams do, anyway?  it isnt relevant to the average student." 

let's get something straight - most students dont know what the ams does because they dont give a flying fuck.  i include myself in this group.  hell, anyone who chooses to care about the ams can read the student papers that address this shit, or go to meetings, or join the student council mafia.  i choose not to.  im not voting for some wanker who is capitalizing on the entitlement, laziness, and vanity that ubc students exude in great quantities.

board of governors:
tristan markle  - because the knolligarchy want to share in the student mafia spoils. 
darren peets - only person who makes sense.  actually goes to those town halls about the shitty condos everyone loathes. 

vp academic:
do not vote for bruce krayenhoff, for he drank the koolaid and would like to solve everything with a citizen's assembly of students.  lol.

vp finance:
brittany tyson.  theyre both saying the same shit, really, though she has more experience while the other guy probably thinks he can do the job since he is in commerce.  im voting for the girl.

vp external:
not tom masterson - this is what he submitted "Regardless of your situation, I feel that I can relate to YOU; I am a diligent science student, a former varsity athlete, a currently washed up athlete, a volunteer, a transit commuter, a text book buyer (ugh), and a pit pub goer. "
bitch, you wish you could relate to me.  i dont think buying books, volunteering, commuting, and going to the bar have made us kindred spirits.  also, im not in science.

not joel kozwarski - his writeup is a friedmanesque ode to his global upbringing.

i guess the other guy, matthew naylor, who wrote a bulleted list. i doubt he will reduce our tuition by 8%. wtf. hes getting shit for being a dion supporter.  can the knoll please get off their fucking high horse and concede that student council mafia types love being in the young liberals?  their thirst for power cannot be satiated without participating in the machinations of natural governing party.

vp administration:
ive grown bored of this game.  let's vote for the barbarian.

senate:
ive seen better candidates.

a foray into the mind of an uninformed voter

i dont give a hoot about student politics.  ok, i care deeply about the issues affecting ubc.  in reality, i care about one or two issues.  i think my level of information on said issues makes me more well-informed than the bulk of my peers and neighbours.  smugly, i retreat into apathy mode. 

when it comes to student politics, i am a cocky, uninformed voter.

so far, i know im voting for some dude named freidrich.  he put stuff on his literature about how most ubc students commute 1+ hours/day and about the condos all over campus.   that is pretty much everything i care about.  dude totally just won the townie demographic.

i see all these signs on campus inviting me to some tete-a-tete with some tit from administration regarding the future of ubc (read: condos) .  despite entitling this summit "what's the plan," i get the distinct impression the decisions have already been made.   i feel its going to be more of a "that's the plan," really.  i think im going to have to suck it up. 

even though i have a hate-hate relationship with the pathetic 'learning' hovel we call ubc, ive displayed some signs of giving a shit.  as a result, ive been compelled to visit this blog and vote or something.  i will place my trust in these embedded journalists. 

secret nazi film assignment

i have been assigned to evaluate whether the 1943 film munchhausen contains any secret nazi or anti-nazi messages due to the participation of censor goebbels and dissenter/writer kastner.

all the ytmnd fans out there will know about the 'secret nazi' meme (forest, library, etc) and given this paper topic i cant stop thinking about this effing meme.   too bad this assignment cannot be completed by making a ytmnd.  id do a good one of the conversation between the baron munchhausen and cagliostro in which the former says something about the futility of invading poland.   secret resistance munchhausen!

what i want to know is how the shit this prof expects me to make claims about the goebbels propaganda ministry without using secondary sources.  literature class, you make no sense.

the greatest article a student could ever read

seriously. i generally have a scientologists-level disdain for psychologists (they keep telling me to blame my parents, man), but sometimes they come up with insightful findings.

straight up, i pull this awol shit all the time at school - i am deathly afraid of running into or speaking frankly with any prof before a deadline, and i totally justify it with the line that i cant face them until i have something groundbreaking.  i dont know what it is about school that makes me act that way.  generally, im less of a flake when it comes to the private sector.  in fact, i only tend to act this way when projects i actually care about are involved.

my brother does math. i feel nostalgia.

i got home to the sound of my brother working out some kind of math problem very loudly with my father.  what could possibly be this engrossing and passionate involving math?  he was calculating his final mark, with all the averages and the test scores, etc.

i used to do that all the time.  i think it gave me weird trust issues involving empirical data.  the main statistics and calculations relevant to my existence as a sheltered vancouver high school student tracked something that was largely subjective.  i should have focussed in math class and tried to foster a healthier relationship.

an open letter to all profs

dear profs (specifically those in the faculty of arts who likely dont know this),

IF YOURE GOING TO FUCKING SEND ME SOMETHING IMPORTANT IN THE FORM OF PLAIN OLD TEXT, PLEASE LEARN TO SAVE THINGS AS SOMETHING UNIVERSALLY OPENABLE, LIKE FUCKING .RTF OR .PDF FILES, BECAUSE YOU CANT ASSUME EVERYONE HAS YOUR FUCKING WORDPERFECT OR SMARTSUITE OR WHATEVER STUPID WORD PROCESSOR YOURE USING.  NOW, I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD SOME STUPID TRIAL VERSION OF THE SOFTWARE JUST TO OPEN YOUR FUCKING TIME-SENSITIVE INFORMATION.  HONESTLY, I DONT WANT TO GET ANYMORE SHIT FROM LOTUSLAND BOYFRIEND FOR INSTALLING BULLSHIT ON HIS PRECIOUS COMPUTER.  HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT IM GOING TO DO?  IM GOING TO SUBMIT ALL MY ASSIGNMENTS AS .PSD FILES, SO HAVE FUN LOCATING A COPY OF PHOTOSHOP, BITCHES!

-a

politics and european film post 1960 - any ideas for my seminar?

a friend and i are applying to conduct a student-run seminar at ubc, which seems to be a fun way to earn credit by making up your own readings and assignments.  our chosen topic, being double majors in poli sci and modern european studies, is politics and european film post 1960. 

im asking, begging, whatevering you for suggestions. 

so far, ive got:
1. italy:  something by pasolini:  oedipus rex, hawks and sparrows, love meetings
2. france: something by godard: vladimir and rosa, germany year 90 nine zero, our music
3. uk: boyle's/welsh's trainspotting.
4. czech republic:  remunda & klusak's cesky sen/czech dream
5. ussr:  tarkovsky's my name is ivan
6. germany:  wender's the american friend
7. spain:  something by almodovar:  what have i done to deserve this?, pepi luci bom and other girls like mom
8. denmark: vinterberg's the celebration
9. yugoslavia: kusturica's do you remember dolly bell?

a brief/shitty ainge-style summary of each film can be found by clicking "continue reading" at the end of this post.

draft version of the course blurb:  european film (1960-present) and its political context. we will examine the political history and political theory behind the films we study. our aim is to use european films of this era to understand the intersection of art and politics and to investigate any problems posed by presenting politics in an aesthetic form. most theorists would agree that you cant ever divorce the two. walter benjamin believed all art was political, and that accepting certain political tendencies means that you inevitably accept certain literary tendencies. theodor adorno, who wrote largely in response to the modern art movement and the nazis merging of politics and aesthetics, was suspicious of consciousness-raising political art. he is caught between hegel's theory that art cannot truly survive in a capitalist context and marx's belief that art is going to propel the revolution. though he believes history and political domination affect most artistic output, he maintains that art should be judged on two levels: hermeneutic (appreciating it for its form/cultural function) and empirical (analysing it in its social and political context/social function). both these need to be understood in conjunction with eachother and not separately as the cultural function and the social function determine one another. the cultural aspect of the artwork has to successfully work out its own contradictions before it can go on to expose society's flaws - for example, is avant-garde art necessarily progressive by nature? most artists want to believe that their art will shake us out of our complacency, so it isnt a stretch to imply that most art is politically motivated.

mellow studying music

it's crap cos it's free, innit?  or is that the other way around?  at any rate, this is likely my 4th crappy computer-made ditty. 

download discordant crap (3912.4K)