IMPORTANT

As you know, SJSU has opted to furlough faculty and staff this year– an odd arrangement that is intended to save millions– which means that I am not supposed to work six days this semester. Well, I neglected to tell you that tomorrow– Wednesday, September 30– is one of my furlough days. In other words, [...]

The Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age

I found a really useful site about the Harlem Renaissance, the topic of the next lecture. We’ve finally arrived in the Jazz Age. East St. Louis Toodle-oo (Count Basie) Bonus track: Potato Head Blues (Louis Armstrong)

UPitt Students Gassed by Riot Squad

Above: Photograph by Chris Neverman. More at TPN. University of Pittsburgh students were gassed in their dorms by G-20 security last night. More footage at the following links: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333881 http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333897 http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333898 http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-334008 http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-333876

An Open Letter to the California Legislature

Last weekend I learned that the course I was hired to teach at San Jose State University– American Civilization– was cancelled for financial reasons. This decision, made under the extraordinary duress caused by the California Legislature’s unwillingness to fund the California State University system adequately, comes at a time when I have already lost employment [...]

Democracy and Its Discontents

Above: footage from ongoing protests at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Police and US military have blocked off a security zone in the city, expelling all homeless people from the area, and with the exception of Burmese Monks, anarchists, anti-capitalists and others downtown is reported to be largely empty. Confrontations between police and protestors have [...]

Birth of a Nation

Below, a clip from the film Joel mentioned in his lecture today, DW Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. And, just to keep it interesting, DJ Spooky’s “remix” (he got the date wrong but this is pretty good): http://www.djspooky.com/art/birth.html

Also

If you didn’t turn in your California constitution exercise today, be sure to turn it in on Wednesday. I talked with the other profs and they said one week is all you’ll get for tests. Remember to turn in your reading summations on Wednesday. Any questions about anything? Direct them to this blog entry.

Dancing in the Streets

From Martha and the Vandellas: Remember: it doesn’t matter what you wear just as long as you are there.

The Brute in the Boiler Room

The link for Monday’s lecture is here: http://amciv.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/286/

Democracy and Demonology

In his perceptive and occasionally caustic book Ronald Reagan: The Movie, and Other Episodes in Political Demonology, Michael Rogin defines “countersubversive tradition and political demonology [as] the creation of monsters… a continuing feature of American politics by the inflation, stigmatization, and dehumanization of political foes.” “American demonology,” he elaborates, “has both a form and a [...]