"Subcomandante Marcos to Pen Political Fiction"

E. Eduardo Castillo, Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Leftist Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante
Marcos, who slipped largely out of the public eye three
years ago, plans to re-emerge in fiction as the co-author of
a police/political novel that will appear in excerpts in a
leftist newspaper, his collaborator announced Friday.

The book, to be titled The Awkward Dead, will appear in La
Jornada each weekend beginning Sunday, co-author Paco
Ignacio Taibo II, a well-known writer of police novels, told
W Radio.

Nobel Laureate Saramago Warns of Danger After Bush Reelection

Humberto Márquez, Inter Press Service

CARACAS — U.S. politics over the next four years will be
rooted in patriotism and religion, an 'explosive combination'
that will require Latin Americans to 'arm themselves with
strength, courage and bravery,' according to Portuguese
writer José Samamago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for
Literature.

"Central Europe: 'Ostalgia' for the Communist Past"

Victor Gomez, Transitions OnLine

When they were young, they longed to wear real Levi’s blue jeans and thirsted for Coca Cola. Today, many East-Central Europeans are switching back to the brand names of their youth. They wear communist-era sneakers, dance to the synth-sounds of aging 1980s pop bands, and drink cheap Coke imitations.

A wave of nostalgia for the cheap and often shoddily made consumer products of the long-gone communist era is sweeping across this region. In eastern Germany, they call it Ostalgia, a play on the German word Ost, for East. But the trend is obvious in practically every country of the region.

Melody Parker-Carter writes:

Soundlab Channel Seeks Contributions

Musee Divisinisteis currently preparing its 2nd edition to be launched on 8 February 2005.

SoundLabChannel is a joint-venture between [R][R][F]2004--->XP global networking project, New Media Fest and Le Musee divisioniste and is focussed on soundart and its various forms.

erika writes
SEATTLE PRINT ARTS

Call for Participation

Paper Politics (West)

A Show of Socially Engaged Printmaking
to be held in April 2005 at Phinney Neighborhood Community Center

6532 Phinney Avenue North

Seattle, WA 98103

Entry Deadline: January 15th, 2005

Notification of Acceptance: Early February 2005

Work Sent By: March 1st, 2005

Opening Reception: Friday, April 1st, 2005, 7-9 PM

Exhibit Dates: April 1st - 29th, 2005

In April 2005, Seattle Print Arts will hold a juried exhibit of socially engaged printmaking at Seattle's Phinney Neighborhood Community Center. The exhibit will showcase print art which uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. Because of its accessibility and reproducibility, print art has long been used by activists as a communication tool in struggles for freedom and social equality. The bold graphic qualities made possible by printmaking techniques are used to communicate with and educate broad audiences all over the world.

"Cinema and the 2004 United States Presidential Election"
Domingo de Santa Clara

The last thing I feel like writing about at the moment is, of course, the election. The ending of the whole saga was, like a poorly scripted sit-com, depressingly predictable with a promise of more of the same, week after morbid week. I wish I could simply turn off the T.V. and they would all go away but of course, I can’t.

One of the only positive aspects of this “most important election in our lifetimes” is that the stakes were/are so high that a whole slew of artists have gotten politicized. It seems that it takes a grotesquely insane president to make filmmakers tear their attention away from the latest issue of Res magazine, if only for a couple of seconds.

"Anti War Video"

Knife Party

Knife Party's anti-war video maybe found here.

Days of Crime and Nights of Horror
Ramor Ryan

A review of:
Days of War, Nights of Love: CrimethInc for Beginners (CrimethInc Workers’ Collective, 2001).
Days and Nights of Love and War by Eduardo Galeano (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983).

A STORMY NIGHT….

The wild Pacific Ocean pounds the shore of the tiny Guatemalan port town of Champerico. Overrun by gangs and drugs, Champerico gets one line in the guidebook: sweltering, dilapidated, dangerous—best avoided. My kinda town. Here, among the ghosts of Guatemala’s terrible recent history and the tumultuous daily life of a lawless, desperado town as far removed from shopping mall America as can be imagined, is a good location to begin considering the two books in question.

Days of Crime and Nights of Horror
Ramor Ryan
Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Reviewing:
Days of War, Nights of Love: CrimethInc for Beginners (CrimethInc Workers’ Collective, 2001)
and
Days and Nights of Love and War by Eduardo Galeano (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983).

A STORMY NIGHT….

The wild Pacific Ocean pounds the shore of the tiny Guatemalan port town of Champerico. Overrun by gangs and drugs, Champerico gets one line in the guidebook: sweltering, dilapidated, dangerous—best avoided. My kinda town. Here, among the ghosts of Guatemala’s terrible recent history and the tumultuous daily life of a lawless, desperado town as far removed from shopping mall America as can be imagined, is a good location to begin considering the two books in question.

"Mexican Traditionalists Fight Wal-Mart Close to Pyramids"

Knight Ridder News

SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico — A Wal-Mart store rising near the
2,000-year-old pyramids of the Teotihuacan Empire has ignited the wrath of
Mexican conservationists and nationalists, who say the U.S. retailer is
destroying their culture at the foot of one of Mexico's greatest treasures.