tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369321082011-10-26T12:57:41.953+02:00Transatlantic Perspectives on AmericaStuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comBlogger2881100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-4008413514621184322008-07-02T23:00:00.008+02:002008-07-03T09:35:04.533+02:00

Dear friends, colleagues, readers, bloggers in arms, and those of you who don't know where you are or how you got here,The Atlantic Community has moved!We've staked out a new homestead on the cyberfrontier, America Adrift. It's rather simple to find us. Just type, americaadrift dot com. Say it with me now three times; America Adrift, America Adrift, America Adrift. Please pass on the word, mark

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-90871174509217732162008-07-01T00:54:00.014+02:002008-07-01T12:00:22.972+02:00

In a Cold War context, “jazz was a natural” in the arsenal of cultural diplomacy. So concludes Fred Kaplan a piece in the New York Times on the Jazz Ambassadors Program of the mid 50s. Possibly because jazz during the years when the program was launched, was not only a purely homegrown art form, but also a regular mass culture export. So, it is interesting that when Kaplan asks what would be

Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767060107513375245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-80932187842700372712008-06-29T17:24:00.006+02:002008-06-29T18:14:17.066+02:00

An increasingly hot topic in literary studies and in the area studies fields, such as American Studies is the relationship between writing, place, identity and belonging. Evidence of this agenda getting more and more important can, for instance, be found in the proposed topics for conferences and seminars worldwide. In Denmark the next big Am. Studies event, the Nordic Assosciation for American

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-57354061729049861712008-06-26T10:33:00.006+02:002008-06-26T11:08:42.431+02:00

Robert Hariman and John Lucaites recently posted the one year anniversary of their fantastic blog, No Caption Needed.You can read Bent's review of both the blog and their seminal book by the same title here.They're experiencing some "growing pains", something we are familiar with here.It’s been a year since we began this blog. We had no idea what we were getting into. The initial idea was to put

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-49576641618180763442008-06-24T14:02:00.008+02:002008-06-28T00:35:10.172+02:00

Since the early 60s, Raymond Federman has been one of the most important American writers. In his highly experimental fictions - works that bear such titles as Take It or Leave It, Double or Nothing, and The Twofold Vibrations - he has explored cultural and personal memory, invented intricate narrative strategies, and above all has given readers an experience that exceeds the ordinary. Creating

Cameliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05209001226118446807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-75907998173821488322008-06-20T22:44:00.006+02:002008-06-22T01:34:15.785+02:00

Following up on our spring sequence of posts on The Beats (conveniently collected here), we'd like to help announce a two day conference to be held at the University of Birmingham in December. Scholars will meet and give papers on aspects of the Beat Generation with a particular focus on Kerouac's novel On the Road. But perhaps even more enticing is that the original scroll manuscript of that

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-46989769732547008862008-06-15T21:28:00.006+02:002008-06-15T21:51:01.671+02:00

I was surprised recently in my relentless pursuit of Beat scholarship to learn of a connection between Brion Gyson, who invented and later taught William Burroughs the cut-up technique, and Alice B. Toklas, who was Gertrude Stein’s long-time companion and muse.Even more surprisingly the connection turns out to revolve around a recipe for ‘Haschisch Brownies’ which Toklas (apparently unwittingly)

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78574928832113037712008-06-11T21:27:00.006+02:002008-06-11T22:05:26.743+02:00

Recently we at The Atlantic Community have been honored by a bit of attention from the excellent photo journalism and public culture blog No Caption Needed. NCN is run by Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites who authored one of the only sustained books charting the emergent field of cultural iconology, No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture and Liberal Democracy. Hariman is a

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-13553605180141638002008-06-10T22:05:00.003+02:002008-06-11T20:26:47.743+02:00

via SivacracyI looked at some of the images from this montage in this post here if you're interested. One of the things that seems pretty apparent across the US political landscape, is that Democrats are actively reclaiming historical and cultural narratives and effectively appropriating them into their political campaigns.

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-55046309665157506452008-06-09T07:30:00.003+02:002008-06-09T07:39:36.626+02:00

Noam Cohen has an interesting piece, The Wiki-Way to the Nomination, at the NY Times on the online activism behind the Obama campaign. It's a bit simplistic but it provides some good background if you haven't been following all the online activity. Doesn't everything happen online today?It's also interesting how techno jargon is becoming more mainstream. The Wiki-Way. I guess terms like

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-83999309120309635032008-06-06T09:34:00.005+02:002008-06-06T09:48:09.845+02:00

“Will Race Survive in the US? The Possibilities and Impossibilities of the Obama Phenomena”By Professor David Roediger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sponsored by the Embassy of the United States, Copenhagen Center for American Studies University of Southern Denmark, Odense Thursday, September 25, 2008 14:15-16:00, Room 100 This lecture, based on David Roediger’s

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-4225062287958099592008-06-06T08:41:00.003+02:002008-06-06T09:05:57.726+02:00

Whatever metaphor we may use, this is "crunch time" for many of us writing, editing, and grading papers, preparing for exams, getting out those last minute proposals, dotting the i's and crossing the t's.In the weeds, the jungle, buried in paperwork, up against the clock, 4th and goal. Well, you get the idea.I always liked Devo's cover of Allen Toussaint's "Working In The Coal Mine" from their

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-42802420095793854162008-06-04T07:19:00.002+02:002008-06-04T07:22:30.018+02:00

See the Agonist for more.

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-53525377560484831092008-06-02T21:18:00.004+02:002008-06-02T21:39:11.750+02:00

NPR.org, June 2, 2008 - One of the fathers of rock 'n' roll died Monday at the age of 79. Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates in Mississippi and grew up in Chicago, where he played guitar on street corners before being discovered by Chess Records. He leaves behind a sound that helped build a musical movement.What made Bo's music so unique? I don't know exactly but if I had to assign to it just one

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-14810483865109173662008-05-29T08:33:00.003+02:002008-05-29T08:49:40.074+02:00

This picture (h/t The Bag) immediately struck me as it provides a very interesting visual narrative to an analysis I recently wrote on some contemporary political appropriations of Abraham Lincoln. I plan to discuss this image in more detail, along with my article which will be available after the weekend.In the meantime, go check out The Bag's post, "Taking A Lesson," which apart from providing

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-16551549766102477982008-05-26T23:12:00.004+02:002008-05-27T00:02:42.604+02:00

Today is Memorial Day in the US. Doubtful there was any "coverage" by our local media here. But given the recent importance we've been placing on visual analysis, iconic studies, and semiotics I thought this image, featured today on the mainpage of John McCain's campaign website, might be interesting to toss around.I've recently been re-reading Robert Hariman's and John Louis Lucaites'

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-66532024991167735122008-05-21T21:07:00.004+02:002008-05-21T21:17:45.642+02:00

Iconotopoi/Bildkulturen (Cultures of the Image)Current Academic Practices in the Study of ImagesJoint Eikones-McGill Graduate ConferenceDepartment of Art History and Communication StudiesMcGill University, MontrealDecember 3 to 5, 2008 The joint McGill-Eikones Graduate Conference Iconotopoi/Bildkulturen (Cultures of the Image) aims to identify and challenge cultural and linguistic barriers within

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-57089951930805281552008-05-19T09:58:00.006+02:002008-05-19T11:14:36.798+02:00

A few months ago I posted an article, Postmodern Presidential Branding, which highlighted Obama's "O" logo in particular, as a example of open ended visual narrative, easily recreated and reproduced. Here's exhibit 3,569. I was never a Dead Head (though I dated one) but I've been a Grateful Dead fan for as long as I've been choosing what I listen to. The Dead Head community has always actively

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-13267764297387026402008-05-16T16:45:00.008+02:002008-05-16T18:39:51.411+02:00

One of the most captivating presentations at the recent EAAS conference in Oslo was Kay Koppedrayer's narration of the events at a Lakota sundance ceremony on the Pine Ridge reservation where American Flags were flown during the ceremony:One year, four American flags flew over a Lakota sundance on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Raised on a column of lodge poles dug into the hillside above the

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-91444062558344744482008-05-15T20:21:00.006+02:002008-05-15T21:44:05.779+02:00

Yesterday John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama. I know, old news already. But if you haven't seen the video it's worth noting the overwhelming enthusiasm from the Michigan crowd when Obama introduced Edwards. Considering he received 7% of the vote in West Virginia and isn't even running I'd say he's still got some serious mojo with "the people".Hat tip to the EENR blog for video. EENR is a

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-49186285759800593602008-05-14T22:45:00.005+02:002008-05-14T23:26:38.869+02:00

My paper for the EAAS conference in Oslo last week dealt with icons and icon work, continuing a line of research I began about 5 years ago when I participated in a conference in Austria with the theme of US Icons. The convener of both the AAAS event in 2003 and of the Oslo workshop was Klaus Rieser of Graz, Austria whose tireless work is beginning to make an emergent interdisciplinary field out

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-27768529331740405852008-05-09T14:02:00.004+02:002008-05-09T14:08:42.227+02:00

For the times they are a-changin'“Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. More specifically, each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-65141707664655318852008-05-07T10:22:00.004+02:002008-05-07T10:59:34.128+02:00

The American Studies East Anglia blog has recently undergone a few minor changes, including a very cool banner and new blog title, Containing Multitudes.A few days ago Graphic Adaptations of American Classics was posted, highlighting some very interesting new comic art, all of which are now cued on my Amazon wish list. But the most interesting for me was John Porcellino's adaptation of Henry

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-12756775362548304652008-04-30T00:07:00.004+02:002008-05-14T23:37:05.218+02:00

Next week will be a busy academic whirlwind tour of two Nordic capitals for me: Helsinki and Oslo. The two main American Studies events of the year are crammed together as Consecutive conferences: The Renvall Institute's Helsinki do, The Maple Leaf and Eagle Conference, has reached instalment no. 12 in its fine run (it will be my third time around as a participant). The theme is always broad and

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-76862676066790011432008-04-29T10:43:00.003+02:002008-04-29T11:11:25.666+02:00

...and so must we all. Shameless indeed. There has been a disturbing resurgence of Jim Crow legislation around the country but Florida's overt intimidation of civic volunteers is the most troubling. With gutted federal enforcement agencies and a conservative Supreme Court, it will take some serious grassroots momentum to turn the trend around. I won't hold my breath on either McCain or the elite

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-42553656374871254142008-04-24T08:35:00.003+02:002008-04-24T08:45:46.475+02:00

After last week's ABC Democratic primary debate, the Bag posted a great series of TV frames as a visual recap to the debate. In my earlier post I wrote;This is by far the most succinct summary of last night’s debacle of a debate TV show hosted produced by ABC News Disney Entertainment. This captures the essence of what is, “the postmodern condition” of US politics.I selected this image as the

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-77350672264296114262008-04-23T13:08:00.006+02:002008-04-23T13:25:13.152+02:00

For the last couple of weeks or perhaps a month, I've been rediscovering The White Stripes, a Detroit City garage rock band. I knew and liked them before my visit to Detroit two and a half years ago, and I can't say that my visit to Detroit really had anything to do The White Stripes - but I did discover another garage band The Detroit Cobras while there. Not sure why I'm re-tuning myself to

disseminationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10807777278316316621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-27462296485369707072008-04-21T23:26:00.006+02:002008-04-22T00:03:04.730+02:00

I'm just going to link (without comment) to Historiann's wonderfully compelling post, Feminist Art, Feminist History, and Public History: Friction in the Archives?Plus I got to play with the words of her post title which should win this year's "top 10 best blog post titles award." I could wordplay all night with this but I sense a future thesis title like, "Friction in the Archives: A History of

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-10588501157340793482008-04-21T12:32:00.006+02:002008-04-21T22:29:26.973+02:00

As of 24. April 2008, the first issue of the new graduate journal aspeers is available online and in print. aspeers is Europe’s first and currently only peer-reviewed graduate journal in American Studies. The founding issue delivers a snapshot of American Studies work in European graduate programs. Its six academic papers are complemented by five creative contributions from around the world.For

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-3805370664854820542008-04-16T13:21:00.006+02:002008-04-16T21:42:51.210+02:00

As often happens here on this blog, because we don't have a formal editorial process, different writers post articles related to the same or similar material, albeit from often different perspectives. See Bent’s article bellow, Barack Mean to Bubba, which also deals with the topic of this blogpost. Although we have approached the subject from different perspectives these two articles should be

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-58529985576556555882008-04-15T18:07:00.013+02:002008-04-15T23:24:20.454+02:00

Barack Obama may have committed a major political faux pas last week when he spoke out on the attitudes of some prospective working class voters: "It's not surprising then," he said, "that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Hillary Clinton quickly

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-87967200336487587312008-04-09T11:28:00.002+02:002008-04-09T11:32:21.642+02:00

So, Bob Dylan won an honorary Pulitzer, for his contribution to American culture. It seems that people are surprised by this, as it is the first time that rock'n'roll has been awarded. It doesn't really seem surprising to me. Awarding Bob Dylan the Pulitzer now seems more like getting it done before closing time, possibly even spurred on by I'm Not There. Also, all it really shows, is that Bob

disseminationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10807777278316316621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-59565742945875689182008-04-01T18:41:00.006+02:002008-04-01T19:13:21.509+02:00

This article is partially a response to Bent’s last post, Beauty and the Beast? I had originally intended on posting the Lebron Vouge Magazine photo which Bent analyzes below. I then thought I would post a reply in his thread but upon further reflection, I think an independent post is in order. I typically wouldn’t do that but I wanted to display a fair amount of images and just couldn't do that

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-39859588104463453732008-04-01T16:59:00.005+02:002008-04-01T17:12:18.879+02:00

It seems ethnicity and commercials is a hot topic these days. Waves are still high over LeBron James allegedly being cast as 'King Kong' in Annie Leibovitz' April 2008 Vogue cover (see my recent post on this), and now the wires report that Woody Allen has decided to sue American Apparel over their allegedly unauthorized use of his likeness on commercial billboards in New York and L.A. in May 2007

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-64632529196012605812008-03-30T20:40:00.006+02:002008-03-30T21:56:49.109+02:00

A strange and unexpected development means that an addendum to my recent post on Annie Leibovitz over at my personal blog seems due. It appears that Vogue (and therefore indirectly Leibovitz, who shot the offending image) is taking some flak over the cover image of the April 2008 issue which is themed to pitch superstars of sports together with supermodels (a somewhat bizarre choice of theme, but

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-9229753954394092472008-03-26T07:02:00.004+01:002008-03-26T08:38:00.385+01:00

About three weeks ago, our friends at East Anglia posted a brief introduction on The Edge of the American West,a fantastic blog written by historians, Eric Rauchway and Ari Kelman. I had first discovered them a few months back through Historiann's "History Geek Squad", and found myself often clicking through her blog into Rauchway and Kelman's portal. Lately I've been reading daily and felt an

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78040427150824066832008-03-18T23:13:00.013+01:002008-03-19T14:08:29.779+01:00

Camelia Elias, Roskilde UniversityI have recently attended a conference in Reims on the interesting topic The Cultural Kernel. On popular demand, for those that can't wait for the paper to come out in Imaginaires, here's a preview. This pre-publication is also in response to Stuart Noble's call for papers dealing with American women writers.My essay takes its point of departure in contemporary

Cameliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05209001226118446807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-84421982083623935812008-03-18T19:12:00.009+01:002008-03-23T23:47:43.971+01:00

A while back Stuart and I agreed that celebrating Women's History Month needn't be a purely American thing, nor a thing reserved purely for historians, so I thought I would post a bit about some recent work I've been doing on American, transnational poet, Meena Alexander:My interest in her work is quite recent, so I am definitely not an expert on her poetry or scholarly practice yet, but I am

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-17382148741204133382008-03-18T16:37:00.009+01:002008-03-19T13:53:27.869+01:00

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.Obama has just delivered a speech (which he wrote himself)

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-4914678687460143102008-03-18T14:51:00.012+01:002008-03-19T13:00:11.830+01:00

The final instalment in my Beat Generation Revisited course dealt with Beat aftermaths, in the sense of what cultural legacies of the Beat Generation texts and ideals might still be present in the 21st century - whether specifically in the US, or in a Danish/Scandinavian context - or at large in a globalized space/time compressed world... For this session I had asked my students to mail in

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-11700654838052797842008-03-08T21:35:00.009+01:002008-04-11T22:06:15.770+02:00

Picking up on the following remark from vol. 1 of this post, I want to focus on the role (or lack thereof) of African-Americans in the Beat movement:Representations of the racial Other in the Beat 'canon' also are problematic. Kerouac notoriously idolized the racial Other as a Fellaheen primitive, who was more in touch with the land and with the immediacy of human needs and urges, and whose

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-13381304712925363232008-03-08T19:59:00.005+01:002008-03-09T17:35:23.314+01:00

After introducing 4 male authors, all white (although not all generically white-bread American), and approximately half of them more or less straight - it is high time to ask whether there were no women Beat writers, and no Beat writers of colour...The immediate answer is that of course there were some, but none who have gained as much interest (neither publicly, nor academically) as the big four

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-79505922307450908082008-03-08T13:17:00.008+01:002008-03-09T08:44:16.946+01:00

"America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel."H/T the Literary Outpost.This is Ginsberg reciting his poem but I don't know why the word order is changed from the original. I'm sure Bent could help us with this.I think this re-mix is fantastic. I've emailed the creator of the video to ask her/him about the music and video that was chosen. I love how Ginsberg is adopted and recreated as

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-23624249603946361402008-03-06T14:00:00.006+01:002008-07-08T10:23:55.250+02:00

While researching examples for my last post, Postmodern Presidential Branding, I stumbled across some typesetting blogs discussing the Obama campaign's font, or typeset; Gotham.So I was naturally interested in the typography as a visual political narrative. What does Obama's choice of Gotham say about his campaign, about his political philosophy? I imagine that Obama had nothing personally to do

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-67702234013826591352008-03-03T12:22:00.001+01:002008-03-03T12:25:24.939+01:00

Historiann has rated our blog E for Excellent....and we were listed among some very good company to boot.Thanks so much for the blog love. As I understand, we are meant to pass this rating along.1. Historiann. Can we do that without charges of nepotism or...? Seriously, we've written before about how much we enjoy her blog. Colonial history, liberal politics and Friday Barbie Blogging all rolled

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-39679631717010208422008-03-01T19:26:00.006+01:002008-03-02T00:24:14.839+01:00

In Jack Kerouac's novel Dharma Bums the protagonist, alter-ego of Kerouac, named Ray Smith, encounters 'the number one Dharma Bum of them all', Japhy Ryder, who instantly decides that Ray is a great Buddhist sage, possibly a reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Great Compassion Bodhisattva (more likely, though, a reincarnation of Goat or Mudface, Ryder teases Smith later on), and when they enter

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-82901023819514390352008-03-01T14:24:00.008+01:002008-03-01T15:11:00.669+01:00

Something I've been thinking about but just never got around to writing about is the use of visual media in these presidential campaigns. Much has already been written about the explosion of internet based communications this cycle, from blogging to user created video. One of things I had looked at early on were the candidates' front page web presence, especially their logos. Now the field has

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-71221130113896107092008-02-28T12:59:00.004+01:002008-02-28T13:36:35.508+01:00

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 82.Here's the first half of a 1969 foreign policy debate between Noam Chomsky and William F. Buckley. Part 2 is here. You decide who actually "won" the

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-86230294958138743482008-02-28T12:27:00.004+01:002008-02-28T12:34:38.895+01:00

Not sure how many know about Piled Higher and Deeper, but more should definitely read it.

disseminationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10807777278316316621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-75352722357457178362008-02-26T11:58:00.003+01:002008-02-26T12:12:44.040+01:00

Recently, no less than three glossy magazines published photo serials which reenact earlier high points of visual culture:Vanity Fair published a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's films, recreating classic moments with new actors.New York Magazine recreated Marilyn Monroe's photo shoot with Douglas Kirkland for Look Magazine, often referred to as "The Last Sitting", using Lindsay Lohan as the Marilyn

disseminationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10807777278316316621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-509610465110256812008-02-22T14:37:00.026+01:002008-02-23T01:13:21.824+01:00

This week's blog version of The Beat Generation Revisited lecture takes us on a journey into a dark continent of drug abuse, pretty boys who orgasm as their necks snap in the hangman's noose, and marks and narcs melting into one another - in the flesh - turning into ectoplasm. You've guessed it: we are not Stanleys looking for Dr. Livingstone here - rather the topic of inquiry is William

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-40554780468589123072008-02-20T09:03:00.013+01:002008-02-20T10:45:57.656+01:00

April 8, there will be a special primary election for California's 12th Congressional District, which has become vacant after Tom Lantos passed away last week.Within days, a draft Lawrence Lessig campaign was set up by Harvard professor John Palfrey.Ars Technica reported;Legal theorist Lawrence Lessig, who has become an academic celebrity for his innovative work on cyberlaw and intellectual

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-71864297988676221492008-02-18T08:21:00.005+01:002008-02-18T20:33:35.467+01:00

A book which should appeal to all Danish speakers with an interest in American Studies has recently appeared: Carl Pedersen (now adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School's Center for the Study of the Americas) has published the third volume of his Danish-language USA-trilogy, titled Det andet USA. In this book Pedersen examines the roots of the American social and political system from

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-87110552373564582602008-02-16T22:30:00.003+01:002008-02-16T23:14:12.977+01:00

I’m a word freak – one of those teachers that can get excited about a single paragraph in Pym, or get tangled up in runon sentences when talking about the rhythm of Ralph Ellisons prose. And I will inflict spoken word versions of Whitman (or Kenneth Burke for that matter) to who ever gets in the firing line. All this because from the deeply personal level to the interpersonal and collective, the

Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767060107513375245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-42933574387512541262008-02-16T00:07:00.007+01:002008-02-16T01:12:44.590+01:00

To follow up on yesterday's post on "The American Scream" - Ginsberg's poem "Howl" - the recently discovered first recording of Ginsberg reading Part I of the poem (the famous 6 Gallery reading in October '55 was not recorded) has now been made available to the general public...To listen, go to the Reed College - a Portland, OR undergraduate college - Multimedia website. After you hear the

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-56463040865622580672008-02-15T12:23:00.003+01:002008-02-15T12:31:19.160+01:00

Warning: super delegates are not susceptible to cryptonite or democracy.

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-71063492787399742492008-02-14T14:41:00.017+01:002008-02-15T01:21:56.185+01:00

This week's class in The Beat Generation Revisted course was an introduction to the life and works of Allen Ginsberg, whose famous poem "Howl" inspired the title of Jonah Raskin's 2004 book (subtitled "Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation") and gave me the title of this blog entry. American Scream is an examination of the cultural roots of Ginsberg's great outpouring in

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-65348093059359290132008-02-13T23:14:00.008+01:002008-02-14T22:34:26.032+01:00

A few days back while reading Historiann, I saw this post. I had seen a few others like it and thought it might be fun. On the surface, this seems like one of those silly chain emails that were big in the early 90's (I still receive them from my mother from time to time). Then Sean-Paul at the Agonist jumps in the game, untagged, and changes the rules. Well, we want to play too. Here are the

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-13114869212058033062008-02-13T08:42:00.006+01:002008-02-13T09:19:07.881+01:00

Prince George's County lawyer Donna F. Edwards ousted eight-term Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D)yesterday, as voters backed her liberal insurgency against one of the state's longest-serving congressmen.Like the 2006 successful primary challenge against Joseph Lieberman, Progressive and Netroots activists have challenged and defeated an incumbent Centrist Democratic candidate.The huge numbers of young,

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-18873544675181450482008-02-12T13:30:00.000+01:002008-02-12T14:28:39.789+01:00

"Washington, DC - Congressman Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo, San Francisco), 80, passed away this morning due to complications from cancer at Bethesda Naval Medical Center."Last year, Tom Lantos visited the University of Southern Denmark, attending the dissertation defense of his daughter, Katrina Swett. Mrs. Swett's dissertation was on the role of the U.S. congress in global human rights issues. See,

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-9615298531856663972008-02-11T22:16:00.000+01:002008-02-11T23:45:23.951+01:00

For those of you who can read Danish, I have a long review of Todd Haynes' 'Dylan'-film I'm Not There at Kulturkapellet. Check it out, if you like Dylan, or postmodern meta-film, or both...For those of you who don't read Danish, here is a clip from the film, depicting the hilarious first meeting between Cate Blanchett's Dylan character (Jude Quinn - one of the six 'Dylans' in the film) and Davis

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-23758017048534770662008-02-09T11:18:00.000+01:002008-02-09T12:09:47.326+01:00

First of all, I want to thank Stuart for inviting me to blog on the Atlantic Community.As my profile reveals, my interests are American history, politics, and gender studies, and therefore it's only natural that the 2008 race has my undivided attention at the moment. Taking my MA thesis as my starting point, I'll give a small lecture titled "Running for President: Does Being Male help?" at the

Mettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18261192201006495696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-58554472243761521322008-02-08T17:36:00.000+01:002008-02-12T00:16:32.328+01:00

My first class in the "Beat Generation Revisited" course was given in the true Beat spirit of spontaneous improvisation. I went in there to tell a few stories about the origin of the Beat Generation, about some of the key persons involved - then zooming in on Kerouac and his writings, covering his manifestos for spontaneous prose and On the Road. I reminded the students of Kerouac and Ginsberg's

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-20941101105195376862008-02-08T07:06:00.001+01:002008-02-15T07:46:56.333+01:00

Last month I posted this piece exploring photojournalist representations of Hillary Clinton. Historiann recently commented;“This is an interesting analysis of the photography of the campaign, and I agree that the photo at the top (Clinton apart from the 3 men) is highly revealing of the dynamics of the race a month ago, before Edwards and Richardson dropped out.”She continues;"While it may be

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-37738345042369902002008-02-06T10:44:00.000+01:002008-02-06T18:27:48.405+01:00

...and hopefully the Atlantic Community will have many more to come. Welcome to all our first time readers, and especially welcome back to all our regulars. If you are visiting for the first time or are still a bit in the digital wilderness, then follow this link to cartoon by Peter Steineran earlier post explaining some of the features of the AC. The AC has experienced a fair amount of

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-22760301888928030892008-02-05T20:04:00.000+01:002008-02-06T18:19:11.909+01:00

A few weeks ago I registered to vote in the first ever Democratic online global primary, which began today.I received the following email yesterday in my inbox;Dear Stuart,Thank you for choosing to participate in Democrats Abroad's historic online Global Presidential Primary. Here's what you need to know to cast your vote.HOWGo to www.xxxxYour Ballot Number: xxxxYour Personal Identification

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-33695602515825306792008-02-05T07:10:00.000+01:002008-02-06T18:31:48.417+01:00

This is a brief description of the basics of how to navigate the Atlantic Community .ich will hopefully put you on the right digital path. The AC is laid out like a traditional blog. That is, it is basically a single page website with all the articles “posts” appearing in reverse chronological order. So the latest post is always at the top. At the bottom of each post, you’ll find a “bookmark”

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-6260550418554425862008-01-31T20:08:00.000+01:002008-01-31T23:14:26.303+01:00

Two of my distinguished colleagues - one also a husband, the other also a friend - have managed to beat me by seconds in the run for posting thoughts on the Atlantic Community. This is the second time today that men, tall men, have topped me. Now I must respond, and I can just as well announce that this post will be feministic in tone. Before I go on, however, I'm beginning to suspect that Stuart

Cameliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05209001226118446807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-64877122639799182712008-01-31T19:37:00.000+01:002008-01-31T19:40:15.134+01:00

Hello all, my name is Steen Christiansen and Stuart kindly invited me to contribute to this blog, which I am grateful for. My primary interest is in the way culture and aesthetics intersect and influence each other, and this will probably the subject of most of my posts. Here, however, I will briefly sketch a view of blogging.The blogging medium is a difficult beast to get a handle on, as it

disseminationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10807777278316316621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-30488385532005648572008-01-31T16:52:00.000+01:002008-01-31T19:41:51.938+01:00

2007 was a very good year for Kerouaciana. Not only was it the 50th anniversary of the publication of his break-through novel On the Road, but it was also a year marked by many new scholarly initiatives and publications, media products and artistic productions of various kinds, and not least a full blossoming of Internet attention to the old King of the Beats.Ever since an American teaching

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-368504395182609472008-01-30T09:22:00.000+01:002008-01-31T15:39:40.946+01:00

A McCain nomination is Democrats worst nightmare.Several months ago, McCain was virtually on life support, so what happened? David Nye chalks it up to Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth.1.9 million people turned out for Republicans vs 1.7 million turnout for Democrats. This is the first primary/caucus this cycle where Democrats did not turn out more voters than Republicans.* Lower Democratic

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-7065193714455635372008-01-30T07:29:00.000+01:002008-01-30T18:52:50.347+01:00

One of my "hobbies" as it where, is studying and reflecting upon political imagery. This image here reminded me of a photo I saw last June on Michael Shaw's blog, Bag News Notes. Shaw has a new piece at American Photo, "Campaign Visuals in the Age of Facebook." In it, he interviews photographer Stephen Ferry to discuss this photo which resembles a "Facebook mashup." Ferry says his photo captures

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-30783358478051866782008-01-29T14:50:00.000+01:002008-01-29T15:11:04.707+01:00

hat tip ww at the Agonist. See here for more.

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-57814036941789419742008-01-28T08:58:00.000+01:002008-01-28T08:59:17.330+01:00

Here are 14 questions among 100 currently used in a US citizenship test. To pass, one needs to answer 7 or 8 of 10 questions correctly. See how many of these you know. You can check your answer by clicking for the next page:

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-70158509201352034342008-01-27T20:11:00.000+01:002008-01-29T14:39:17.508+01:00

An interesting project of history writing through music appeared last September. It's a 3 CD compilation of American songs stretching from 1492 to present day. Added interest in the project may be offered by the fact that the executive producer of the compilation is former Attorney General, Janet Reno...Reno has this to say about the rationale behind the project:I think they [students] can learn

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-50482595278639991112008-01-27T08:27:00.001+01:002008-04-07T15:36:52.550+02:00

america adrift

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-12256174393259486492008-01-24T10:50:00.000+01:002008-01-24T15:58:26.959+01:00

Senator Dodd has threatened again to filibuster the telecom bill which would grant immunity to telecommunications companies which aided the Bush Administration to conduct illegal electronic wiretaps. A presidential order, signed in 2002, was a clear violation of the FISA law. FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, came into law as a result of the Watergate Scandals under President Nixon

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-44559421016143445882008-01-22T11:59:00.000+01:002008-01-22T12:03:59.565+01:00

The Honorable John R. Edwards 410 Market Street Suite 400 Chapel Hill, NC 27516 Dear Senator Edwards: It was good meeting with you yesterday and discussing my father's legacy. On the day when the nation will honor my father, I wanted to follow up with a personal note. There has been, and will continue to be, a lot of back and forth in the political arena over my

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-14303092387919444662008-01-21T12:35:00.000+01:002008-01-22T11:20:26.025+01:00

The exquisitely designed culture/theory/aesthetics portal, Wood S Lot, has been showing us some 'blog love' over the last couple of days - for which we thank them, and reciprocate...I am always very inspired by their photography finds - check out this wintry image, for instance. There is always something to look at and think about on the 'Lot', and before you know it you find yourself delving

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-66149832079822842532008-01-18T00:22:00.000+01:002008-01-23T00:28:30.350+01:00

Those of you who can read Danish might be interested in visiting Kulturkapellet, a new Aalborg based portal featuring reviews of all things cultural. It covers film, literature, theatre, music, games and the arts. Also featured are occasional essays - slightly longer and more 'academic' pieces on cultural and philosophical issues. There are also reviews of non-fiction - and one piece for instance

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-5125913689231578912008-01-17T21:19:00.000+01:002008-01-17T22:11:09.369+01:00

The Nation has a great piece on John Edwards,Populism's Candidate by Christopher HayesNew Hampshire proved that writing off campaigns or predicting outcomes is a mug's game. But no matter who wins the Democratic nomination, the fact remains that the Edwards campaign has set the domestic policy agenda for the entire field. He was the first with a bold universal healthcare plan, the first with an

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-82450326562809450792008-01-17T14:11:00.001+01:002008-01-17T14:14:07.146+01:00

from the Horses Mouth

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-87647669518289726042008-01-16T17:43:00.000+01:002008-01-16T19:01:25.275+01:00

MediaCommons reports, "YouTube purges: fair use tested"Last week there was a wave of takedowns on YouTube of copyright-infringing material — mostly clips from television and movies.Fortunately, since we regard these sorts of media quotations as fair use, we make it a policy to rip backups of every externally hosted clip so that we can remount them on our own server in the event of a takedown.This

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-50922984891846817302008-01-12T18:56:00.000+01:002008-01-18T01:03:43.605+01:00

My previous post introduced you to the Canadian poetry journal Studio, where a shorter version of the following piece has just appeared. Studio's practice of only allowing 800-word reviews meant that my piece on prose poet Robert Gibbons had to be abridged considerably, but the wonderful world of blogging and the generous policy of Studio to allow reprints, permits me to bring it to you in full

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78613705254039118372008-01-12T17:50:00.000+01:002008-01-12T18:43:18.965+01:00

This has been a rather good weekend for new issues of online journals of American Studies and general academic interest.The excellent poetry journal out of UBC, Vancouver - Studio - has its second issue out, or at least ready for a sneak preview here. The editor, Rishma Dunlop, is an excellent poet in her own right and the journal does a good job both presenting established and emergent poets,

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-84586589962719869232008-01-11T12:56:00.000+01:002008-01-11T13:58:11.860+01:00

This is great news. We love open-access! Here's the letter that was passed on through DAAS.The second issue of EJAS for 2007 is now fully on line, having recently been complemented by two new articles. Please accept my apologies for the slight delay in publication, due to server trouble. Also, do spread the word in your associations, telling their members to read EJAS , write in it and spread the

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-76924864632194695032008-01-08T13:37:00.000+01:002008-01-08T14:43:24.639+01:00

I was led to this post, The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters while reading Sivacracy. What really caught my attention, apart from the references I hadn't previously thought about, where the reader comments (over 600 and I didn't read them all). The overall impression is one of white denial and a total lack of understanding. Here are just a few examples;I think the racist one is the person who

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-71919745090357556432008-01-07T10:01:00.000+01:002008-01-07T11:11:08.988+01:00

Bent's last post, with this image got me thinking a bit more about political iconography and this image from the NY Times "At Debate, Two Rivals Go After Defiant Clinton."This image was taken after Saturday's New Hampshire Democratic debate. If you've totally missed the news, Obama won the Iowa caucus and Edwards defeated Clinton for second. The two men are running a populist/progressive campaign

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-8245425504383665902008-01-07T08:21:00.000+01:002008-01-07T10:29:27.309+01:00

I hope everyone here had an enjoyable holiday season and wish you all much success and happiness in 2008. I've been in Paris, completely unplugged for the last week. As things around here get back into action I'm reminded of the Chinese proverb (or curse) "may you live in interesting times." Also, I wanted again to welcome both Bent and Camelia. We appreciate the positive responses to their

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-10174757962001617362007-12-29T16:48:00.000+01:002007-12-29T19:43:26.801+01:00

As Stuart said in his latest post, things have been quiet here in the Atlantic Community, if not in the world at large... So, I thought I would disturb the peace ever so slightly by drawing your attention to this image by Kate Kretz which seems to carry its own message about peace on Earth, good will to Man (and women and children). Hope the last of your holiday meals won't go down the wrong way

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-75257180426095386472007-12-27T18:20:00.000+01:002007-12-27T18:36:24.374+01:00

Things have been fairly quite over the holidays and will remain so until 2008. This is the last post (if you can call it that) from the Editor until Jan 5th. I thought I'd leave you with an historical parallel (in the form of Hollywood Greek mythology) to the current state of American foreign policy. Enjoy, and Happy New Year.The Legend Of HercuBush

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78923359623887817882007-12-27T18:18:00.001+01:002008-04-27T19:34:15.069+02:00

CAMELIA ELIASAssociate Professor of American Studies, Roskilde UniversitySome of the best contemporary culture critics in the US, and prophets of the future, have been writers of fiction with an immigrant background. What enables these writers to make fairly accurate predictions and statements about the state and future manifestations of American culture as observed in literary and other

Cameliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05209001226118446807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-47533230422634729732007-12-18T17:37:00.000+01:002007-12-19T08:35:26.491+01:00

I have graciously been invited by Stuart Noble to occasionally contribute a blog entry here at The Atlantic Community. As for topics and themes, I am a literature/culture studies guy. I don't do politics, history, society - except through their manifestations as/in texts... This of course doesn't mean that I as a person am a-political, quite the contrary. However, I prefer to leave writing about

Benthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11845712266620744382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-71377052741688046902007-12-18T17:30:00.000+01:002007-12-18T17:59:52.435+01:00

Photo by Flickr user Slobug used under a Creative Commons license. The caption on the blimp (which is the first ever appropriation of a blimp in a political campaign) reads, "Who is Ron Paul? Google Ron Paul"How do you read this image? Add comments bellow.

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-21678824689911529752007-12-17T14:51:00.000+01:002007-12-18T08:41:22.102+01:00

by Stuart NobleBack in September I predicted John Edwards as my dark horse pick to win the Democratic nomination. I wanted to point you to this month's cover story on Newsweek titled, The Sleeper. The article provides some details about Edwards' working class roots and his early activism for social justice. After reading the article I got to thinking more about where and how the Edwards'

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-91729663332292785472007-12-14T09:21:00.000+01:002007-12-14T09:28:57.849+01:00

from The AtlanticAlthough that point can be debated, the 1950s—more precisely, the period from 1953 to the mid-1960s—was clearly the era of Sinatra’s supreme artistic achievement and deepest cultural sway. It amounted to the most spectacular second act in American cultural history. In the early 1940s, following his break with the Tommy Dorsey band, Sinatra had emerged, thanks largely to swooning

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78560038234519047202007-12-12T14:59:00.000+01:002007-12-12T15:04:17.173+01:00

18002007

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-6254945878557677452007-12-12T08:57:00.000+01:002007-12-12T15:05:03.738+01:00

I wanted to draw your attention to a few recent developments happening in the blogosphere.David Nye has crossed over, into the virtual ether with his own Blog, After the American Century. He's expected to guest post on occasion here at the AC. The layout is clean, simple and direct, a perfect format for an academic weblog. He's also included open-access links to some of his publications. Stop by

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-25909359271673699592007-12-11T08:40:00.003+01:002008-05-15T08:03:14.391+02:00

In a 7-2 opinion by Justice Ginsburg handed down yesterday morning, the Supreme Court rebuked the draconian federal guidelines to consider the disparity in treatment between crack and powder cocaine. From the NY Times;In two decisions, the court said federal district judges had broad discretion to impose what they think are reasonable sentences, even if federal guidelines call for different

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36932108.post-78523679365236493962007-12-10T11:58:00.000+01:002007-12-11T11:52:39.371+01:00

This new project by Rayvon Fouche looks fascinating.David Nye introduced Rayvon Fouche's work to me via a great article, "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." His concept of "Black Vernacular Technological Creativity" and his analysis of "Black Technological Agency" as; "redeployment, reconception, and re-creation" provides an interesting framework for any analysis of social constructions of

Stuart Noblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459680752265123507noreply@blogger.com