Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Godpolitics" Information Sought

This is a request for people to forward articles, information and ideas regarding the rise of religious literalists in public spheres, for the blog/site:
http://www.bewareofthegod.com/

Creative Industries in Beijing: Initial Thoughts

Ned Rossiter

During a teaching stint at Tsinghua University in May this year, and then following the trans-Siberian conference organised by Ephemera Journal in September, I started preliminary research on creative industries in Beijing. What follows is a brief report on my experiences, perceptions and meetings in Beijing. My interest is to discern the constellation of forces that might be taken into consideration in future analyses as the research project develops. I should also state that this brief overview of Beijing’s creative industries is part of a collaborative project that undertakes a comparative study of international creative industries. The research seeks to go beyond economistic interpretations of creative industries by focussing on inter-relations and geo-political tensions between trans-local and global cultural flows as they manifest around issues such as labour conditions, intellectual property rights (IPRs), social-technical networks and cultural practices.

From the start, there are many factors and variables that make it questionable to even invoke the term “creative industries” in the Chinese context. Such complications amount to a problematic in translation of the creative industries concept. For the most part, there is little variation at a policy level as governments internationally incorporate the basic ingredients of creative industries rhetoric (clusters, mapping documents, value-chains, creative cities, co-productions, urban renewal, knowledge economies, self-entrepreneurs, etc.) into their portfolio of initiatives that seek to extract economic value from the production of cultural content and provision of services. This would suggest that creative industries, as a policy concept, is divorced from the materialities that compose cultural economies as distinct formations in national and metropolitan settings.

Culture Articles from The New Masses

Available in PDF Format here.

Title of article in The New Masses — Date of Publication —
Pages

“Author’s Field Day,” NM 12 (July 3, 1934): 27-32 nm001.pdf

Mike Gold, “Proletarian Realism,” NM 6 (September 1930): 5 nm002.pdf

Gold, “Go Left, Young Writers!” NM 4 (January 1929): 3-4 nm003.pdf

Philip Rahv, "The Literary Class War," NM 8 (August 1932): 7-10 nm004.pdf

Gold, “Notes of the Month,” NM 5 (January 1930): 7 nm005.pdf

Harlan Miners materials, NM Dec. 1931 nm006.pdf

Anatoli Lunacharski, “Marxism and Art,” NM 8 (Novemebr 1932): 12. nm007.pdf

Stanley Burnshaw, "Revolutionary Poetry," NM February 1930 nm008.pdf

Edward Dahlberg, "Review of Farrell, Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan," NM February 1930 nm009.pdf

Wallace Phelps, ‘The Methods of Joyce,” NM 10 February 20, 1934): 26 nm010.pdf

Eugene Gordon, “Black and White, Unite and Fight!” NM 13 (October 23, 1934): 24-25 (rev. of Endore, Babouk) nm011.pdf

Obed Brooks, “In the Great Tradition,” NM 13 (November 27, 1934): 23 nm012.pdf

Granville Hicks, “Revolutionary Literature of 1934,” NM 14 (January 1, 1935): 38 nm013.pdf

Edwin Seaver, “Socialist Realism,” NM 17 (October 22, 1935): 23-25 nm014.pdf

Joshua Kunitz, “In Defense of a Term,” NM 28 (July 12, 1938), sect 2: 145-47 nm015.pdf

Harold Leventhal, Promoter of Folk Music, Dies at 86

Margalit Fox, New York Times

Harold Leventhal, an internationally renowned folk music promoter who in 1963 presented an unkempt 21-year-old named Bob Dylan in his first major concert-hall appearance, died on Tuesday at New York University Medical Center. He was 86 and lived in Manhattan.

The death was confirmed by Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie's daughter and the director of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, of which Mr. Leventhal was a founder and trustee. Mr. Leventhal had been Woody Guthrie's business manager and later his executor.

Catholic Church No Longer Swears by Truth of Bible

Ruth Gledhill, London Times

The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.

“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.

further_bunny writes:

"Open Season"

London, October, 2005

NODE.London presents : Open Season, London, October 2005

This October the UK government, as part of its presidency of the EU is holding a pan-European conference on how to consolidate regulation and control of intellectual property, copyright and technology.

Looking for creative alternatives, NODE.London is declaring this October an 'Open Season' on technology, media, culture, politics and art with a diverse and challenging series of events – building towards London-wide media arts events in March 2006.

"Towards a Third Cinema:


Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema ot Liberation the Third World"

Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino

"...we must discuss, we must invent..." — Frantz Fanon

just a short time ago it would have seemed like a
Quixotic adventure in the colonised, neocolonised, or
even the imperialist nations themselves to make any
attempt to create films of decolonisation that turned their
back on or actively opposed the System. Until recently,
film had been synonymous with spectacle or entertainment: in a word, it was one more consumer good. At best,
films succeeded in bearing witness to the decay of
bourgeois values and testifying to social injustice. As a
rule, films only dealt with effect, never with cause; it
was cinema of mystification or anti-historicism. It was
surplus value cinema. Caught up in these conditions,
films, the most valuable tool of communication of our
times, were destined to satisfy only the ideological and
economic interests of the owners of the film industry, the
lords of the world film market, the great majority of
whom were from the United States.

Steve Franco writes:

"Guantanamo: ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom’

Washington, DC, Nov. 2–Dec. 11, 2005

A Play by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo from spoken evidence

Directed by Serge Seiden

Tight, tense and boldly current, Guantanamo tells the gripping true stories of four British residents imprisoned at Guantanamo and paints an unforgettable portrait of America’s controversial prison. Guantanamo tackles one of the most significant and troubling issues of our time, the U.S. government’s arrest and imprisonment of terrorist suspects without due process. Actor Harsh Nayyar, who played Mr. Begg, father of Guantanamo inmate Moazzam Begg, in the New York production, returns to the role at The Studio Theatre.

"Parallax View 2005"

Austin, Texas, Spet. 14-18, 2005

Parallax View runs from 14th to the 18th of September. The details below are for the fundraiser, happening this weekend. Get down there for real social, cultural and political goodtimes.

The main event includes films by Fernando Solanas the legend of South American film. He will attend Parallax and offers a couple of workshops instructing in the dark arts of revolutionary expression.

V. Castellarin writes:

"Mistaken Identity: Sikhs in America"

Ottawa, Sept. 12, 2005

Premiere screening (By Invitation Only) in Canada of "Mistaken Identity:Sikhs in America" on 12 September.

It will commemorate the 4th anniversary of 9/11 and 2nd month of 7/7 in London, UK. Member of Parliament, Honorable David Kilgour, MP, will be hosting the "Unity in Diversity" event from 3–5 PM, at the House of Commons, Parliament Hill, Room 200, West Block, Ottawa, Ontario. There will be a 15 minutes press conference before the 3:30 screening, where MP Kilgour will announce the need for more "unity in cultural and religious diversity" in Canada and the world. After the film, there will be 30 min for Q & A and network in discuss in short 3 mins.