Blogcritics Author: Aaman Lamba

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Music Review: Cold War Kids - Robbers and Cowards

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:30:16 EDT

We're the Cold War kids in many ways - our cultural, political, and economic inputs were strongly influenced by the bipolar juxtaposition of two power blocs in the world as we grew to adulthood. The knowledge of the Other was always there, even if we chose to deny it with our 'non-aligned' stance. Listening to the first full-length album from the California band Cold War Kids brought home many memories, or perhaps nostalgic reflections.The band combines emo with alt-rock and Dylan-esque lyrics to produce an overall satisfying album, many of whose tracks were released earlier as EPs. The band was a hit at the 2006 SXSW and Lollapalooza festivals, and will be touring this year with the White Stripes. They are signed to the Downtown Records label, also home to Gnarls Barkley and Kevin Michael. The album begins with an ominous rattle in a song about the dangers and allure of alcoholism, "We Used To Vacation". A workingman 'stumbles out the room' at noon, only to 'run up a tab/on 7th and flower'. His violent streak is accentuated by the alcohol, the menacing rattle serving as an undertone of rising tension, while he consoles himself that 'things could be much worse/natural disasters on the evening news/.../we still got our health/my paycheck in the mail'. He protests that he's 'an honest man/provides for me and mine' and that 'this will all blow over in time', but we know that he'll be back for another drink, another one for the road, and to 'sink into oblivion'. The song culminates in a cappella voices and discordant piano chords.The next song, "Hang Me Up To Dry" seems a more uplifting song, full of joie de vivre and being 'careless in our summer clothes splashing around/in the muck and rain', but has a self-aware dangerous sense of being beaten down once too often. He pleads to 'hang me up to dry/you wrung me out/too too too many times'. The song is a continuous chorus as it were, and has a clockwork-style accompaniment.Just like the great male endeavour, historically, has been to reform and reshape the world in their own image, it is indubitably the great female endeavour to reshape/reform their men in an idealized manner. "Tell Me In The Morning" deals with the male ennui of facing this unstoppable female force and pleading to 'save it for the morning'. the singer acknowledges that his mate 'would like/like to change me/make me softer' and that he has in the past 'shouted questions like a fierce fire', while she's 'tried to take me by the arm/into the light', He's now 'almost over', but confesses to 'one more thing' - 'self deception' and that he's been his 'own thief in the night'. The second half of the song is a subtly reworked version of the first, where he recognizes his own need to 'be my own teacher' and how she 'tried to take me into your arms and lead me to the light'. In the end, men would not be complete without the female reformation as it were, or perhaps, without getting in touch with their inner selves, as the song seems to hint at."Hair Down" is another interpersonal bathetic song, accompanied by a rattle and a hum. The song is almost naked, the singer's voice rising above the minimalistic chords. This song is about 'conversations that went on terrible paths', and the colors of memory, remembering the way we all felt growing up, when 'we were still just babies/dreaming of the sixties/.../dressing up in rags with our wallets full'. This juxtaposition of post-modern consumerism with the idealism of the Cold War years is immediately contrasted with the barrenness of modern inner lives, when 'our pockets are shallow/our quart running low'. The music comes to the foreground in the final notes of the song, overpowering the insight that 'true love it waits', related to the second theme of the song, and indeed the album - the space between two people who have lived together almost all their lives."Passing The Hat" goes deeper in Cold War waters, with a representative of the masses filching from the 'offering hat', perhaps as his just rewards while 'sweat from my brow drips to my shaking knees'. He is especially suited to comment on the souring of the American Dream, being a hard-working immigrant from the 'sweet sweet O Baltic Sea', across the Iron Curtain, or perhaps one leaving the golden shores and demanding 'a small sacrifice to benefit one man's journey away from America's seas'."Saint John" is a very dark song about 'old st. john on death row' and 'all the white boys in the stay-pressed slacks'. The 'white boys' are 'home for the summer' and are 'staying out late, getting rowdy at the bar'. Things go wrong when they mess with a young girl coming home 'with a clerk dress on'. This is noticed by the singer, who realizes 'that girl was my sister'. He throws a brick at the 'tallest boys face', and 'he would never move again'. There nothing very deep about this song, but like a Stephen King novel, the characters and images linger as the song drifts away."Robbers", the title track is a critique of urban culture, where "we need protection from street thugs/who clip the tires/and rip the doors off rugs/and cowards". This life is ' it's not easy, you see/don't think I don't know sympathy/ my victims in my shadow /starin' back at me'. The chords are gentle and minimalist, ending with a fade-to-black effect."Hospital Beds" is an uptempo number about lying 'in bed at the hospital' and how we don't choose who's lying across from us, 'sharing hospital/joy and misery'. We share stories 'of how you ended up here', and take in all the 'nurses fussing/doctors on tour/somewhere in India'. I especially liked the chord arrag "Pregnant" is a lyrical stream-of-consciousness take on success, or just an experiment in clever song-writing. Either way, the extreme minimalism and slowed-down chant don't quite work for me."Red Wine, Success" is another song about the souring of the American dream, and realizing that "success, success, it's smile and saccharin". The lyrics don't quite fit together in this song, probably an intentional effect but delivering a sense of hearing one side of a conversation with no context. ('Lives his life a painful and loving day/In the history of a great pregnancy'.) The penultimate song, 'God, Make Up Your Mind' is a vignette of childhood road trips 'from New York to New Orleans/played alphabet/Kansas to Boise/won a battleship/.../daydream about Maria in California'. It uses the slowed-down tempo style, although it works better with this song, and is ratcheted up a couple of times, before lapsing back to slowdom. It hearkens back to the sixties, ruminating that 'you wanna help someone/you gotta be a no one/that's what I figured out/the cat on the street meant.'The final song, 'Rubidoux' features some exquisite lyrics and a fast-paced tempo. The song is set in the township of Rubidoux in Riverside County, California.The imagery of 'shattered windshields of spidered ice' contrasts with 'empty desert light'. There is a noir sense to the song, referencing 'bourbon and a pistol in the dash, out of sight', cautioning that 'the life you have chosen is filled with dirty finger nails/and lost and found/and canceled appointments.'It's a fine way to wrap up an album that unsettles while creating memorable word-pictures, coupled with alt-rock notes in the wasteland of the post-Cold War years.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

Movie Review: Michael Moore's Sicko

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:12:44 EDT

In a searing two-hour indictment of the American health care system, and, partly, the American way of life, Michael Moore presents us his latest documentary, Sicko, perhaps in the hope that it will make a difference. There is much in the film to give viewers sleepless nights, but it is more than a mere litany of grief and sickness. We are presented with alternative models of health care, and a hard push is made for universal health care in one form or another.Michael Moore may be emerging as an accomplished auteur of personal documentary-style cinema with Sicko. His knack for turning the camera and the viewers into patient listeners and observers of reality imparts an anthropological flair to the film. All the same, this is not an anthropological documentary like one we might see on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. Sicko blends personal histories with tragic moments, some dry humour with even a bit of farce and play-acting of solutions, such as the by-now infamous trip to Cuba, and the 'revelations' of universal health care in the Guantanamo Bay prison, and subsequent medical treatment of 9/11 rescue workers in Havana, Cuba.The American health care system might be better than, say, that of Burundi, but, as Michael Moore shows, it has bartered social goals for capitalist objectives. This would ordinarily be a good thing, and indeed is what has given the free markets system its undeniable ability to deliver the most benefits from constrained resource sets, yet it may not be the only way to solve a constrained-resources problem like delivering limited health care resources to a seemingly unlimited consumer base. As the examples of Canada, Britain, France, and even Cuba illustrate, health care can be treated much like other social services such as policing, fire engines, and schools, and delivered through a collectivized cost process that commits to availability of these social services to every citizen, irrespective of economic or health status.The film touches on numerous additional social issues, albeit tangentially, such as the debt crisis in American society, and demolishes numerous shibboleths about universal health care, such as the availability of medical services in countries that follow this model, like Canada. He demonstrates through real-world examples how the system could work, if social benefits were given more priority. Some of his examples will doubtless be dissected and critiqued, gaps in reportage scrutinized, and counter-examples provided by defenders of private-driven health care systems in neoliberal America. Yet it would be close to impossible to deny his basic thesis, namely that the system is broken, not just for the 50 million or so uninsured citizens, but even for the non-plutocratic rest of us, who are merely trying to get by, and paying up our insurance premiums, and hoping against hope that there would be no need to go up against the health-care system for anything more serious than a sniffle; although, as Michael Moore shows, even a simple yeast infection can be sufficient cause to deny benefits in the future.Despite its length, Sicko does not go too deeply into many aspects, such as the actual role of Big Pharma in the health care crisis, focusing more on the big insurers and their adherence to profit principles, showing how this distorts priorities and the quality of delivered health care. There are a few overlong sections that could have been cut, such as an aging Old Labour warrior singing the praises of Clement Atlee's National Health Service, the British 'national religion'. The Hillary Clinton-espoused universal health care exercise of the 1990s is also explored, and this might have been the film that handed her the Presidency, were it not for the none-too-unusual revelation that she accepted significant lobbying/campaign contributions from the very industry she set out to reform, becoming, in 2005-06, the second-highest health care funded politician in the United States,though not the only one. The industry-politics nexus is not limited to health care, or even to the United States, and is a natural outcome of a neoliberal system, yet it is somewhat disconcerting to see it in action, especially when it is our lives and health at stake rather than sausage and pork barrels.Michael Moore's favorite whipping-boy, President George W Bush, is picked on a few times in this film, although more in the sense of highlighting relevant Bushisms and his role in passing the Medicare Act of 2003. Sicko segues onto themes raised in Moore's last film, Fahrenheit 9/11 by providing a kind of report card on the plight of 9/11 rescue workers and their illnesses, and in a moving scene, demonstrating the universality of tragedy through the honoring of American rescue workers by Cuban fire fighters.The film provides a warning and perhaps an opportunity, yet it is hard to believe that it could overturn an entire health care system in the most prosperous country in the world. All the same, if it makes a difference in a few lives, it would have done more than most films.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

You Are Time Magazine's Person of The Year, Your Life Goes On

Aaman Lamba — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:06:20 EST

Time Magazine, in a break from tradition, and in a year of transition, selected You as their person of the year. You, as in, us citizens, us bloggers, us YouTubers, us citizen soldiers, us whistleblowers. Contrariwise, you know it's a bubble when 'the Beast with a Billion Eyes' outflanks the Tehran Don. The magazine goes gaga over 'citizen media', breathlessly terming the Web 'a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.'As part of the exegesis of the You hypothesis, the magazine profiles the YouTube guys, you know, the ones who converted America Funniest Home Videos 2.0 into 5.5 million lindens. Profit be damned, legality be damned, leastways, we can all watch endless loops of the macaca moment, interspersed with social experimentation gone boink.To further drive home the point of the massification of culture and media, 15 has-beens/citizen celebrities are featured, ranging from Kaavya Vishwanathan to Heather Mills McCartney, and contrasted with 15 shining examples of citizen democracy, such as Lonelygirl15 and Facebooker Megan Gill to milblogger Captain Lee Kelly. Displaying cultural and literary ignorance, the magazine notes in the case of military bloggers, "Unlike generations of soldiers before them, they're writing for history." Take that, Julius Caesar!The power of public opinion is indeed strong, and has affected global change in the past. A positive benefit of the democratization of media through YouTube, Flickr, et al, is the rapidity and fluidity with which information flows through society. Yet, this flow, like all flows can be managed, and a million macaca moments created, inflated, and exploited. One would not deny the rich value of individual contribution to social progress, yet, we are still at war, black holes festoon the Internet, and society still faces a million random acts of senseless cruelty. The Grim Meathook vision of the future where 'everything just sort of keeps going on the way it has, with incremental changes, and technology is no longer the deciding factor in things' is distinct from the Web 2.0/3.0/∞ version of the future espoused by the You hypothesis. Both versions can come to pass and form our reality - You can make both happen, in essence.The narcissistic social disorder that has enveloped global society takes many forms. The magazine puts a mirror on their cover to express the way our personal agendas are reflected in the You hypothesis. Of course, the mirror reflects everyone from Larry Page to Osama bin Laden. Like all mirrors, it has two sides, though, and turning the page reveals that reflections in a mirror do little to change the world beyond. In perhaps the most insightful essay in the magazine, "Andy Was Right", our 15 minutes of fame are replaced by a new aphorism, "On the Web, everyone is famous to 15 people."The social apathy engendered by social networks, and the faith of the populace in the magic wand of the Internet, the $100 laptop, or the free viral video, may be the most effective mechanisms yet of maintaining the illusion of self-assuredness that is essential to that other fiction, the imagined society, where we are all united against bad stuff, and where you can indeed make a difference.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

Movie Review: Casino Royale (1954)

Aaman Lamba — Tue, 5 Dec 2006 13:57:36 EST

James Bond is defined more by luck than any of the other Fates. "Card Sense" Jimmy Bond (as he is known here) is a master at the Fates, most particularly Fortuna. I was lucky enough to recently watch the 1954 made-for-television version of Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson.This is Bond before the myth, before the glamour and before the girls. Yet, this proto-Bond embodies the very best traits of Bond - suave class, elegant style, and dashing derring-do. Barry Nelson may not have worn the mantle long enough, or publicly enough, to be known as well as the other Bonds, yet just like Marion Trelawney, the 12th Phantom, he has as much right to the name, and it's attendant fame.In light of the recent version of Casino Royale, which reboots the Bond storyline, it is instructive to look at what made the first celluloid version a Bond "film" in it's own right.Here, James Bond is a very American agent, working for "Combined Intelligence," and supported by Clarence Leiter of Station S. He has authority over Leiter, and seems to carries 00-status, although this is not referred to.Miss Valerie Mathis, the Vesper Lynd stand-in, appears early in this made-for, giving the role a greater gravitas, and the Le Chiffre story takes primary stage. There are few subplots, and less of worldwide intrigue, save the fight against global Communism. James Bond enters the scene as a card sharp, but soon enough he is shown to be someone who lives "more dangerously." He identifies Miss Mathis as a Le Chiffre pawn almost instantly, displaying none of the naiveté exhibited by the newer incarnation. She is evidently a long-time love, or at very least familiar. Much like an old-time mystery, we know the bad guys and the villains even before the second act of the plot commences. This might be simplistic in one sense, but given our foreknowledge of the later Bond, it gives us a sense of foreboding and sinister danger. Make no mistake, this is not a great telefilm, or even a very good telefilm. Barry Nelson is much too wooden, and the action staged, but the characters are all fell creatures, the events follow on each other with breathless rapidity, and the threat never eases.Le Chiffre is the self-important trade union organizer the book makes him out to be, and shows up at the critical baccarat game with Miss Mathis on his arm. Soon after this, James receives a not very veiled threat to throw the game in order to save her life, putting him in a pensive mood at the start of the game. The stakes rise rapidly, with Bond on the losing side, and as we all know, James Bond is best with his back to the wall. He turns the tables and wins the game, but the winnings bring with it villainous greed and danger.Le Chiffre appears in his dark splendor to discuss "matters of mutual interest" and to reveal the French antecedents of Miss Mathis. Peter Lorre does a marvelous job as Le Chiffre, and has the best lines ("If he protests, hit him again, but only a little at a time") Act III introduces James Bond to the dangers of his profession, beginning with the bathtub, followed by "torture to the edge of madness."The torture, and the quintessential Bond-style rebound, are perhaps the best part of the made-for, and Bond thankfully ignores the glimmer of a romantic interlude to face down the sinister villain, who recognizes much of himself in Bond.The made-for-television film was satisfying in many respects, this is the first on-screen incarnation of the character who went on to save the world from numerous threats, and garner a fan-following of millions. One's expectations may not be met, but that is perhaps because of what lay ahead, rather than what one derives from the present version. In that sense, for this reviewer at least, the invention of Bond was far more satisfying than the reinvention of Bond.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

Movie Review: Casino Royale (2006) - James Bond Reborn

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:06:47 EST

A new James Bond film is an event, a global one, affecting over half the world's population. When it's a new actor assaying the role, it's all the more exciting. Thus, it was with sheer trepidation and excitement that we stepped up to the ticket booth this afternoon. It was an impromptu decision, with little hope of success. The machine blinked the words, "3:55 show Filling Fast". The decision was an easy one, albeit entered into with some thought of the advisability of having two young toddlers in tow while experiencing l'affaire Chiffre.As it turned out, the younger one decided to be her usual charming self and critique the opening credits in her inimitable way. The wife gracefully opted out of the virginal pleasures of experiencing blond hotness coupled with glam violence, with a natural sense of disappointment. Turning to the film, at first blush, it appears to have all the right elements of a fine Bond film - it blends breakneck action sequences with the latest gadgets, high brow society with unsavory and downright evil characters, and of course, fast cars, beautiful women and a sense of doing things for Queen, country, and Chicken tikka masala.Unfortunately, the form belies the function. The new Bond, Daniel Craig, is more son of Jack Bauer than suave spy, despite all pretensions to the latter. The evil characters, while lacking true depth, possess a secret knowledge of the workings of global politics, making the knight's quest futile and at best an exercise in self-redemption. Some of the essential elements of the Bond we know, such as his taste for baccarat, are replaced with more plebeian games like Hold'em Poker.We see glimpses of the old Bond, and quite a few beginnings of the later Bond, such as the alleged origin of the "shaken, not stirred" Martini and the first hesitant steps towards a cynical acceptance of the impermance of love, betrayal, death, and loyalty. The early Bond is fused somehow with the later Bond, creating a grotesque character that is self-aware of his own destiny as lone gunman in the service of greater causes which sometimes align with his own not-as-yet manifest destiny and personal loyalties.His superiors have a better understanding of his base nature and value, although in this installment, ostensibly the first chronologically, they give him more leeway than might be allowed someone less destined for glory. As we know from the other films, the hands-off treatment becomes the norm with Bond. This is not unlike the treatment of Anakin Skywalker, and the influence does not end there unfortunately. While we are spared Jar Jar Binks, the romantic interlude might have been constructed by George Lucas' hand, although thankfully it does not last long, and the sense of foreboding overshadows the evanescent romance.The romantic side of Bond is not incongrous with his character, but coming in this film post-climatic as it were, has the same effect as a post-orgasmic first date. Fortunately, later analysis reveals the love to have been a true one, if typically short-lived, and thus we can take a quantum of solace in the memory of young love. The satisfaction is diminished, however, by the stereotypical Bond girl portrayal of Vesper Lynd by Eva Green, the 'face of Armani'. The hint of 'damaged goods' from the Fleming novel is given up, and the inevitable betrayal, followed by redemption through sacrifice is given a cinematic flourish.Significant changes are made to the political themes of the film, as compared to the novel, or the earlier film/television versions. Le Chiffre gives up his original low-paying job as paymaster of a trade union for master terrorist financier. This elevation works negatively to demean Bond, as Le Chiffre gloats that he is more valuable to Bond's paymasters than Bond himself. SMERSH is given the heave-ho, for a nameless syndicate, with Tarantino-style characters such as Mr. White.The film-makers display an admirable knowledge of Bond lore, such as his antecedents, his preferences, a subtle reference to an absent Miss MoneyPenny, and in a sly nod to the 1954 television adaptation starring Barry Nelson, naming the local British agent Mathis, the name of the Vesper Lynd character in the television adaptation. The gadgets are stock items from Best Buy shelves, barring a few novelties, and Q does not put in an appearance, as in the novel, sending a minion instead to inject a cryptic implant into Bond. Q seems to have decided to trade his scientist's hat for a marketing one, and the product placements festoon the film beyond tolerance.The cars are another story. Some of the most slick cars and driving sequences one has experienced in a Bond film are presented, including the Ford Mondeo MkIV, the Aston Martin DBS, and the venerable DB5. Bond makes short order of a couple of the better ones. The opening sequence past the credits is a heart-stopping rondo on an oil rig in Uganda, reminiscent briefly of the Eiffel Tower sequence from a View To A Kill. The African terrorism references are an indicator of the political savviness of the film's producers, as is expected of Bond films, given that recent threat assessments rate African terror outfits quite high.The quintessential opening credits and song (by Chris Connell) are memorable, and the evolution in Bond credit sequences is a topic for another essay.The film was a reckless series of hi-jinks that had it's finger in the global terror pie, and one must say one enjoyed it, despite the quibbles expressed about the character.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

Saddam Hussein Sentenced To Death In Trial For Crimes Against Humanity

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 5 Nov 2006 09:15:56 EST

Saddam Hussein heard today the much-awaited and expected verdict in his trial for crimes against humanity and the Iraqi people. Chief judge, Raouf Abdul Rahman, of the five judge bench pronounced the verdict of death on Saddam Hussein, and associated verdicts on the co-defendants. The Iraqi government had imposed a curfew ahead of the verdict, and canceled military and police leaves, fearing potential violence and reactions to the verdict. Saddam had earlier told his lawyers that he was ready to "die with honor and with no fear, with pride for my country and my Arab nation, but the U.S. occupiers will leave in humiliation and defeat. They will see rivers of blood for years to come. It will dwarf Vietnam." Saddam Hussein has had a storied and confrontation-rich life, appropriately enough as his name means "One who confronts" in Arabic. His political career has been the subject of much scrutiny, as have been his personal and political motivations. He used the pan-Arab nationalist movement for his own ends far more successfully than his compatriots and colleagues in the region, although in different directions from those espoused by Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt. His uncle, a leader in the failed Nazi-backed 1941 coup in Iraq, influenced him, and induced an early maturity in his political thought. He was not a great political thinker, though, preferring instead the revolutionary dialectic of the gun and terror to reason. Contrary to liberal sentimentalism, however, he performed these actions, at least nominally and initially, in the service of the great war against Global Communism. He joined the Ba'ath party in 1958, and soon after participated in a U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Iraqi Prime Minister Qassim. Following this, he was moved to Syria and Beirut, allegedly with CIA backing, and given training, as well as being maintained in luxury while in exile in Cairo. He returned to Iraq on the heels of another coup, this time successful, in 1963, but came to power only in 1968, following another coup, this time a 'bloodless' one by the Ba'ath Party, and which made him deputy to the President, as well as the regime's enforcer.He brought stability to the government through a reign of fear and terror, delivering swift justice, if one could term it thus in the absence of the rule of common and natural law. To his credit, he cut across factional divisions and age-old fault lines, and supported modernization over desert economics. Iraq's social services were unrivalled for a long while in the Arab world, and the oil crisis of the 1970s provided him with a fat wallet with which to pursue both his goals -- maintaining Ba'athist supremacy and fostering Iraqi development.Given his horrific policies and their effects, there is hesitancy in crediting him with any social or economic successes, akin as it is to recognizing the scientific and technological advances made by Hitler's scientists -- yet, therein lies the rub. The State as a work of art, as analyzed by the exemplary historian Jacob Burckhardt in his opus The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy, is most effective when managed by despots. The despots of the fourteenth century, for example, were experts in maintaining 'the purely modern fiction of the omnipotence of the State,' while retaining a 'more or less distinct consciousness of the brief and uncertain tenure of these despotisms.'Saddam, too, kept with this ancient tradition of despotism, with its 'passion for the colossal' and allegiance with historical imperatives, seeing himself as recreating the Abbasid glories of Iraq and a pre-Islamic Mesopotamia. These gave him the ability to work against Islamist forces and coalesce a hitherto tribal, factional, feudal society into a personality cult/republic, albeit not a fully-formed nation-state. Like all despots, he destroyed the one thing inimical to despotism -- individualism -- by crushing the human spirit in the Iraqi people, and effectively enslaving them to his personality cult.His fall, then, was an Ozymandias-like catastrophe, leastways for his self-esteem and perception. I had reviewed Saddam's feelings of pride, loss and despair in 2004, when he was captured and put on public trial. The trials of Saddam Hussein have not followed too many of the precepts of judicial excellence, with numerous twists and turns, deaths and threats. The question has been asked, fairly enough, as to whether he is getting a fair trial. Featuring more political grandstanding and media theater than legal exegesis of his crimes, the trials have not set good precedents, but the moot question is does that matter when the case at hand is not a petty theft or passionate murder, but the far more serious allegations of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity? The verdict today is for 'the Dujail trial,' related to executions following an assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982, the second is for far more serious excesses against the Kurds, although today's verdict, were it to be upheld, would make any future trials moot. Saddam's defense has been patchy, with him taking the reins often, and at other times, replacing the entire defense team. In one of Saddam's many public missives during the trial, he wrote, perhaps in his defense, Once more, we say that war is not an ordinary case. Neither is it procedural in the life of nations and peoples. It is a case of unavoidable exception. Evidence based on conclusion is not enough, even if it is solid to make a charge against a given party or several parties, a state or several states to the extent that the one who makes the charge declares war at the party or parties against which charges were made and bears the responsibility of whatever harm might be sustained by his own people and the others including death, the destruction of possessions and the ensuing serious repercussions.As Reuters noted earlier today, The killing of three defense counsel, fearful witnesses and a chief judge who quit over government interference has also tarnished the credibility of one of the great experiments in the law of war crimes since Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg 60 years ago.The political timing of the verdict has also been questioned. Although this may be a sticky wicket for the Republicans, it's not of much note, as the verdict would likely have been the same, tied as it is to the political season and not time of the year. Given the effective Iraqi political vacuum, the vagaries of the trial -- which would have nullified the trial under similar circumstances in the West -- are to be expected. As in Nuremberg, to the victor go the spoils, and the political capital. The trial automatically enters the appeal stage, and thereby prolongs the status, as well as its effects on the insurgency.His legacy will be much debated, ranging from its political consequences to its inability to truly form a lasting nation-state, yet his mark on the stage of history is secure, like all despots before him.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

The 2006 O'Reilly Photoshop Cook-off Winners

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 3 Nov 2006 07:59:29 EST

Photography is an addictive hobby, especially if you are good at it. It doesn't take much to turn out good photographs these days, given the easy availability of slick digital cameras with a cornucopia of features. If your raw images aren't quite good enough, you can always turn to the trusty Adobe Photoshop, a product that has achieved iconic status, equivalent in some ways to the Xerox Corporation's eponymous copier.Just like good photography, using Adobe Photoshop effectively is not easy. It requires a deft hand, and knowledge of techniques that can transform an image into a work of art, in many cases. The folks at O'Reilly Digital Media have come to the rescue with a new series of books, the Photoshop Cookbooks series, which combine the methodology of recipe collections with their usual flair at presenting technology through an easy to follow, and yet comprehensive, manner. There are currently five cookbooks in the series, ranging from the Photo Effects Cookbook to the Fine Art Effects Cookbook, and taking stock of Retouching, Filter Effects, and Blending Modes as well.O'Reilly's 2006 Photoshop Cook-Off contest provided a mechanism for both experts and newbies to exploit their skills and imagination, requiring them to 'cook' original digital photographs using the recipes from the Cookbooks. The A-list panel of judges judged the entries on the traditional criteria of image quality, composition, originality, the appropriateness of the applied technique, and the use of color and/or tone. The Grand Prize winner, Suzanne Pitts, converted a photograph of three ballet dancers into a black-and-white image with contrails capturing the energy and momentum of the dancers.Cookedview full imageRawview full imageThe Blending Modes winner, Karen Swaty, took on a personal theme -- horses -- and produced an impressionistic image.Cookedview full imageRawview full imageThe Fine Art winner, Ben Grace, shows the potential of Adobe Photoshop-influenced digital art, coming from a digital artist -- himself. He has taken disparate elements of a photograph, and reconstituted them into a visually compelling image.Cookedview full imageRawview full imageSample recipes from the books are available online, such as how to achieve Motion Blurring and Removing Skin Blemishes & Wrinkles, and The Impressionist Landscape. Given these recipes, it should be easy enough to apply them, even for someone as inept at art as myself. Excuse me while I get started on my entry for next year's cook-off -- it should take me about that long to get finished.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

Introducing The Desicritics Team

Aaman Lamba — Thu, 7 Sep 2006 01:13:19 EDT

Desicritics launched just over six months ago with a focus on exploring what it means to be South Asian in a world where desis are everywhere, doing everything, and opinionating about their world. Do political, social, religious, ethnic boundaries matter online? Could we bring together the very best writers, bloggers, critics and provide them a forum to articulate their views about the new post-post-colonial world, a transnational, opportunity-rich space?The results have been more than promising - we've grown from an initial cabal of 75+ of the best writers and bloggers in the desi blogosphere to over 300 Desicritics, covered everything from nuclear deals to macaca-gate, from Bugti to Boston, and men's rights to reservation rights. We've published close to 3000 articles, 18000+ comments, and have a regular readership that grows constantly. We've had about 300,000 visitors and 1.3 million hits since we launched in January. Desicritics.org is part of the Blogcritics.org family of sites, which has more than 100,000 daily visitors, and 1500+ writers, and which covers all aspects of contemporary culture and society. Our global reach enables views and opinions to be disseminated across the online macrocosm. The articles from our excellent writers are only the beginning. Readers and commenters chime in to create an ongoing unrestricted dialogue that often goes beyond the original dimensions of the article.Our articles are syndicated by numerous news aggregator sites and online magazines such as Indianpad.com, bharat1.com, Topix, and mytoday.com. The exponentially higher visibility for their articles than they could achieve from their personal blog or website as well as the opportunity to be a part of a global interactive community, attracts bloggers and writers to Desicritics. It also benefits writers to work with our editors to take their writing skills to 'the next level'.We work with publishers and media agents to review music, books, films, and events. To have your material reviewed or critiqued, send us an email. The Desicritics TeamPublisher: Aaman LambaAaman Lamba has been a writer for longer than he can remember. He cares passionately about making the world a more liveable and lovable place, without borders or divisive attitudes. Desicritics is the fulfilment, in part, of his mission to facilitate dialogue and communication, as well as to fathom the intersection of the real and virtual worlds. He works in the technology industry, reads at least four books a week, and can't do it without his guiding light, Deepti.Uber-Blogfather: Eric OlsenOver a 20-year writing, editing, and media career, Blogcritics.org Founder and Publisher Eric Olsen has written in depth on a vast array of topics including politics, current events, world affairs, popular culture, music, music industry, digital technology, opinion and commentary, etc., for periodicals, books, TV, radio, and the Internet. As an editor and author, he oversaw the compilation and publication of Networking In the Music Industry (Rockpress, 1993) and Encyclopedia of Record Producers (Billboard Books, 1999). In 2002, Olsen founded online magazine Blogcritics.org, the sinister cabal of superior bloggers. His inspiration and guidance make Desicritics what it is, and have laid the foundation for what it is becoming.Technical Director: Phillip WinnPhillip Winn built Blogcritics.org, very nearly from scratch. Winn is a self-professed writer and geek, and those passions come together in helping to run and manage both the technical and operational ends of Blogcritics.org and Desicritics.org. The sites run on a completely rewritten version of MovableType, scaled to support thousands of writers and millions of hits, while still providing a convenient user experience. Behind the scenes, Winn keeps the servers humming smoothly and manages all aspects of site design and software development. He once walked down the Vegas Strip in sweltering heat to listen to a concert. Executive Producer: Eric BerlinExecutive Producer Eric Berlin does whatever it takes to make sure that Desicritics and Blogcritics fly straight while maintaining their stunning upward trajectory. In real-virtual world terms, that means managing public relations, editorial and site production, and business development and strategic planning. He is constantly on the look-out for potential partnerships so he's your man for any collaboration. Berlin's background in online media includes stints at Bay Area start-ups myteam.com, nextdoor.com, and TechTV.Executive Editor: Sujatha BagalExecutive Editor Sujatha Bagal works with individual authors, tirelessly nurturing their best writing talents and helping shape the site's creative content. She provides editorial inputs to the rest of the editorial team. She reaches out to prospective writers, guest writers, and brings them into the fold. She also serves as Culture Editor, spotlighting interesting articles for the Culture Section of Desicritics. Senior Editors: Deepti Lamba, temporal, Kishore Gopalan, NandhuDeepti Lamba, besides being co-owner of the site, and Comments Moderator, provides editorial inputs and strategic direction when she's not writing her next short story or novel.temporal nurtures the Politics section of Desicritics, searches out potential desicritics from the diaspora. keeps unruly writers, editors and commenters in line with his acerbic wit, and occasionally tosses off a poem in obesiance to the Muses.Kishore Gopalan coordinates the Business & Technology section, supports Phillip Winn in technical wizardry, and looks out for the next new thing that Desicritics can do.Nandhu provides editorial direction for the Media section, and reviews films that catch his fancy.Sakshi Juneja is our new Asst Culture & Media Editor - straddling that line where culture meets media - as in Bollywood, Television, and magazines.ShoeFiend is our new Editor for the desi diaspora in the United Kingdom. Based there, she will cover issues from a British/European perspective, and work with writers in the region.Justene Adamec provides pro bono legal guidance to Desicritics. She is a trained mediator and arbitrator, a skill that is quite handy online.New writers are always welcome - to be a Desicritic, read this article and email us.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

Book Review: Haruki Murakami's Birthday Stories

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 1 Sep 2006 16:06:29 EDT

These reminders of our mortality come faster the older we get, yet we look forward to them like no other, our heart beating a secret rhythm as they approach, keeping a mental checklist for all who call to wish, and another for those who don't - the ingrates! The nature of birthdays is as a rite of transition, from one year to the next, at certain points, from one phase of life to another, and sometimes, a rite of initiation, and for a few, of departure. Smart as unbirthdays might seem, they never have achieved the acclaim of the one day in a year when all is bright, or dark, as the case may be.Haruki Murakami, the Japanese baby-boomer novelist whose characters are prone to spend so much time at McDonald's, lighting up Marlboros, listening to Bruce Springsteen records and watching Woody Allen movies and who shares his birthday with Jack London (January 12th), recently edited an anthology of birthday stories for his own delectation, and fortunately, for his readers. He found it a difficult task; he asks in the introduction, "Could there be something innately difficult about using the subject in fiction?" He also found that most stories about birthdays are, contrary to expectation, dark and cynical. He believes this is because "most novelists are incapable of taking the world at face value," preferring to see the darkness beneath the whoopee cushion, the hot melting wax on a birthday candle, or in the memories of happy days a reflection of others less bright. This is not a book to be given lightly as a birthday present, it carries enough weapons of emotional destruction to shatter the naive, not-yet-cynical heart, and yet, that is the function of art - to break down the barriers and fictive constructs we build to interpret reality, and to show us the holes, and then it is for us to peer through them, or to achieve catharsis, or to go on blindly.Murakami, who won the 2006 Franz Kafka Award, contributes one story himself to the collection, "Birthday Girl," a tale about a waitress who gets her birthday wish granted on her 20th birthday - a wish that takes a whole lifetime to realize. Life is indeed about living through it, and the birthdays along the way.In "The Moor," by Russell Banks, a middle-aged white Freemason is reacquainted with a woman who was his first, tender love, and those are the ones we never really forget. He gives her a birthday present too - the treasure of remembering, and of the memory of a betrayal, not unlike that of Othello, yet more tender and precious.Denis Johnson's "Dundun" is a vignette of bone-hard and bone-brittle violence, of the burnt-out heart of middle America, and of a birthday where "all the false visions had been erased.""Timothy's Birthday" from William Johnson captures the bleakness of the Irish countryside, of old-age, and of children turned sour. It also reflects a 'lifetime celebration of love', between parents more than for children.They were not bewildered as their birthday visitor was: they easily understood. Their own way of life was so much debris around them, but since they were no longer in their prime that hardly mattered. Once it would have, Odo reflected now; Charlotte had known that years ago. Their love of each other had survived the vicissitudes and the struggle there had been; not even the bleakness of the day that had passed could affect it."The Birthday Cake" by Daniel Lyons is a tale about a birthday and a weekly unbirthday. An old woman makes her weekly trip to purchase a birthday cake for her darling Nico, and insists on having it despite it being a little girl's birthday, who would so enjoy the cake. All the better to demonstrate the depths of her suffering and devotion and loneliness, perhaps.In Lynda Sexson's "Turning," three old ladies visit a young boy, whose birthday it is, and tell him a collaborative story. It's an old one, about "The Emperor Who Had No Skin" and about three princesses who came to answer his riddle and hopefully be his wife. The little boy fathoms the riddle, and wishes he had a tail, which I'm sure you agree would be a grand thing to have.The excellent David Forster Wallace contributes "Forever Overhead", a tale of rites of transition, of diving boards, and of the relativity of time outside versus time inside.So which is the lie? Hard or soft? Silence or time?The lie is that it's one or the other. A still, floating bee is moving faster than it can think. From overhead the sweetness drives it crazy.Ethan Canin's "Angel of Mercy, Angel of Death" is another look at old age - birthdays then are more about loneliness, it seems, and of occasional visitors who enliven the day.Andrea Lee's "The Birthday Present" reminds one of a Tinto Brass film, and not merely for its Italian setting. Flavia, a transplanted American housewife decides to give her husband an unusual present for his birthday. The story is an exploration of uxoriousness.When has Ariel ever moved through the house in such freedom? It is exhilarating, and slightly appalling. And she receives the strange impression that this is the real reason she has staged this birthday stunt: to be alone and in conscious possession of the solitude she has accumulated over the years.Raymond Carver's "The Bath" is tragic, about the birthday parties that never happen. It is somewhat incomplete, having been hacked away at by a "minimalist" editor, and was later expanded by the author as "A Small, Good Thing." But given the bleakness of this story, it is hard to imagine any redemption in a longer work."A Game Of Dice" is a chapter from the "Hotel Honolulu" by the very skilled Paul Theroux. It explores "the sadness of games" and of the nature of victors.Claire Keegan's "Close to the Water's Edge" is an atmospheric, edgy piece, as only a 19-year-old could visualize the world. The period between 19 and 26 is a dangerous one to inhabit, and this story gives a glimpse why.Lewis Robinson's "The Ride" is about bonding between absent fathers and sons, the maturity of men, and of the loneliness of growing up.The collection provides a good example of the power of the short story to encapsulate life in all its evanescence and glittering danger, much like a Mikimoto pearl, perhaps. Savor these pearls well, and happy birthday.

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

San Francisco Hit and Run Rampage by Afghan Man

Aaman Lamba — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:56:39 EDT

Fremont, in the Bay Area, is home to a sizeable Afghan population. There are some great Afghan restaurants and grocery stores, not to mention the ubiquitious non-Afghan desi eateries and cinema theaters. We lived there in the tense months after 9/11, and while nothing serious happened, I remember one day seeing a host of police cars surrounding an Afghan-owned travel agent. It turned out that a jilted young man had walked into his putative father-in-law's business and shot the gentleman, an upstanding member of the community. The Afghans can be hot-blooded people, and often, anger translates into senseless actions. It is too soon to tell what the reasons were behind a mad rampage through San Francisco by Omeed Aziz Popal, 29, who had just got married in Afghanistan, but the resulting trail of destruction left 14 people hospitalized, and may be related to the death of a Fremont pedestrian an hour earlier. The driver drove up and down the streets, knocking people off sidewalks and crosswalks, sometimes going the wrong way. He was driving a black 2004 Honda Pilot. Eyewitnesses described it was like watching Death Race 2000, or a video game in action. The police finally stopped the rampage outside a Walgreens near California Street by slamming into the SUV with their squad cars. An eyewitness termed the driver calm, "like a zombie". Family members said he had mental problems and "lived in fear of the devil". Some felt his recent arranged marriage might have stressed him out. Police said Popal told them he had done it intentionally, "because he just wanted to".

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus