v a l l e j o n o c t u r n o

Legal Crisis on the Horizon

From Balkinization Legal blog Jonathan Hafetz writes:

Last night’s ruling by a federal district judge in Brooklyn, temporarily blocking enforcement of key portions of President Trump’s order on refugees and other immigrants, is important in several respects. Trump’s order seeks to suspend entry of all refugees to the United States, bar Syrian refugees indefinitely, and block entry into the U.S. of citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries (based on those countries' purported associations with terrorism). The order’s implementation produced immediate chaos and suffering—with refugees from war torn countries and legal permanent residents returning home trapped in America’s airports—and sparked protests across the country.  Judges in other jurisdictions have also issued rulings blocking parts of Trump's order. (See the E.D. Va. order here, blocking removal of legal permanent residents).  While it is too early to draw firm conclusions, here are a few preliminary thoughts on what these important developments could portend.

In entering the stay, Judge Donnelly found that the petitioners had demonstrated a likelihood of success on their procedural due process and equal protection challenges and faced irreparable harm. (Petitioners also raised statutory and international law arguments).  The order, entered after an emergency hearing on Saturday night to forestall imminent deportations, did not flesh out the court's analysis. But its issuance suggests that the judge was moved at least in part—and properly so—by the discriminatory animus underlying the order. (David Cole has argued why, for this reason, the order also violates the Establishment Clause). This animus appears not only in the order’s text (note its pledge to keep “radical Islamic terrorists” out of the U.S., while never mentioning other terrorists), but also by Trump’s repeated anti-Muslim statements both during the campaign and since taking office, including his express preference for “Christians” seeking asylum over “Muslims.”

The decision provides a few tea leaves for predicting judicial review in a Trump administration. First, Trump’s overreaching—and his refugee order is almost certainly one example of more to come—could provide an impetus for judges to curb doctrinal anomoloies.  In this case, it may embolden otherwise sympathetic judges to chip away at the plenary power doctrine, long criticized as an aberration to prevailing anti-discrimination norms in constitutional jurisprudence. (See Ruthann Robson’s post discussing recent cases where the Supreme Court has suggested it may cast a more critical eye at the doctrine). The refugee order’s combination of manifest bias and arbitrariness—note its senseless targeting of some countries to the exclusion of others (including countries from which the 9/11 attackers came) and its blatant disregard of evidence on the lack of a security risk posed by refugees (see Alex Aleinikoff's post here)—may give judges ground to strengthen those anti-discrimination norms, under whatever standard of scrutiny they ultimately apply. The same goes for the government’s continued assertion of categorical territorial limitations on the Due Process Clause to preclude its application to those stopped at the border-- should, for example, the government continue to detain refugees and others denied entry under Trump’s order without a hearing.

Second, and relatedly, ordinary doctrines of judicial deference will prove vulnerable in the face intemperate and irresponsible action by the executive. Ben Wittes has catalogued the chaos and confusion surrounding the order, which excluded lawyers and other officials in the executive branch with  relevant expertise. For a parallel, look at the trio of Supreme Court defeats suffered by the Bush administration after 9/11 on the detention and treatment of terrorism suspects, which resulted from a disregard for legal rules and which was pushed by an ideological cabal within the administration and excluded top military officials. Put simply, judges will be less likely to defer to knee-jerk extremism from a White House in which Steve Bannon is calling the shots or exercising influence. The Trump administration has already appeared to retreat from one key part of the order--the provision affecting legal permanent residents--but the damage to the administration's credibility has been done.

Third, federal courts will continue to provide a crucial check, not only because of their structural independence, but also because they remain insulated from Trump’s non-fact based world. Unlike in the media, where Trump continues to peddle lies (like the falsehood that millions of undocumented immigrants voted illegally during the presidential election) and muddy the water before the American public, courts still operate in a world of law and facts. That is not to say some judges will not view some issues in a manner favorable to the Trump administration.  But it does mean that, at least unless and until Trump launches a direct assault on the judiciary, there is still one place where Trump will have to provide answers to the reality based world and will be held accountable on that basis.

A Very Good Neglected Film

Joachim Trier's complex film about an "American" family and the inner workings and ties that connect them together (at times) and keep them in tension is one of the best films released in the US in 2015 but because of its pacing, story-telling technique and plot line it left the bulk of the public behind. Highly recommended for insightful view into our detatchful sexual times. Trier is an extremely skillful director and this his third film compliments his earlier two accomplished films: Reprise (2006) and Oslo, August 31st (2011).

 

 

From an interview at The Paris Review with Joachim Trier and Jesse Eisenberg :

INTERVIEWER

Along those lines, I have a question for you, Jesse, but I’m afraid it might sound weird. The moment you and Isabelle Huppert are brushing your teeth in the mirror and your character notices her scars—is he … turned on? By his mom?

EISENBERG

Yes, he is. I think it speaks to what Joachim was just saying. The more the sons idealize their mom, the more they view their father as powerless. My character ends up conflating his idealization of his mother with his own sexual feelings, and his sexual dissatisfactions at college. His mother also happens to be this awesome woman who, by virtue of being played by this cool French actress, is very alluring, and by virtue of my meeting her the day we shot that scene, is increasingly alluring because I know nothing about her. Joachim wanted there to be some kind of unspoken Oedipal dynamic …

INTERVIEWER

So you talked about that before the scene?

TRIER

With Jesse I could talk about things like that, because I think we’re both psychoanalytically inclined. But of course it needs to be playable. There needs to be ambiguity. I’ll give you another example. Is it Swift who said that sexuality and death are all that really concern the truly great mind? I don’t know about the great mind, but they certainly concern this film. I mean, here you have the little brother sitting in the classroom, listening to the girl he’s infatuated with as she reads out loud from a book by one E. I. Lonoff—make of that what you will…

INTERVIEWER

Lonoff from The Ghost Writer?

TRIER

If you look at the cover of the book she’s reading, you’ll see it says E. I. Lonoff, as a tribute to Philip Roth. Now you’re the only one who knows. But so, the kid’s watching this girl read from their assignment, and he’s going through puberty, he’s infatuated, he starts thinking about his mother’s death because of what she’s reading, and the girl’s voice becomes his inner monologue. I haven’t seen anyone do that before. It’s one of the things I’m a little bit proud of in this film. Then he starts thinking about the moment when he and his mother played hide-and-seek when he was little, and he realizes that she must have seen him all along. And then he snaps back to reality. So, through the form of this flashback, you get the Oedipal confusion, the attraction to the girl, and the association to the mother’s death without nailing it down. It sounds trite when I try to explain it. But I hope it’s at play in the formal choices.

When we made the film, I was thinking a lot about Adam Phillips’s book Missing Out. His idea is that we all continually live not only the life we live but also the life we imagine could have happened, or might happen if things were somehow different—and that this unlived life is an entity of its own that continually affects us. That notion is inspiring. I was constantly thinking of how to make scenes that could illustrate that, through showing, not telling, through form. I’m not saying we’ve managed it, but it’s something I’d love to have done.

Robert Janitz

Le Mont Analogue, an abstract painting by Robert Janitz from 2014. This large format artwork was created using oil, wax, flour on linen.

Jon Rafman

You, the World and I, Jon Rafman from jonrafman on Vimeo.

Jamian Luliano-Vilani

 

Rec Room, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 inches

From a Huffington Post interview with Jamian Juliano-Vilani:

"I have such a disdain for feminism, but in regards to painting, making paintings about being a woman generally only appeals to other women. Making paintings about being black only appeal to other black people. I paint women, as well as other ethnicities than my own for a reason — they are simultaneously democratic and exploitational. And at the top of the totem pole you have the white male painter making paintings about whatever he wants. I want to use that method of doing whatever I want. As history has shown us, the white male approach has been pretty successful."

Percy's The Moviegoer

Years ago in the 1960's my younger brother had read and found Walker Percy's The Moviegoer an excellent and relevant read in those turbulent years. As a book collector I manged to amass all of Percy's novels throughout the years based on my brother's recommendations including 3 different copies of The Moviegoer found in obscure used book stores always imagining what this novel could actually be about. Then after more than 45 years I succumbed to reading this novel  a week ago on my brand new Kindle given to me by my son for Christmas - so none of my Moviegoers were even touched! I had collected over 1,000 book titles on my older Kindle and decided to move about 300 of the ones most likely that I'd chose to read over to the small and light new apparatus. All it took was the first paragraph and I was hooked. This is a true American novel of the 60's and a must read to get at the complexities of southern consciousness and serious contemplation of our world. The characters are very real and the dialogue and environment reeks of today's modern world of ours.

From an essay in Literary New Orleans on The Moviegoer and New Orleans:

The consistent motif of movies throughout the novel highlights how Binx continually flirts with the idea of his search. Binx states: “The movies are onto the search, but they screw it up. The search always ends in despair. They like to show a fellow coming to himself in a strange place—but what does he do? He takes up with the local librarian, sets about proving to the local children what a nice fellow he is, and settles down with a vengeance. In two weeks time he is so sunk in everydayness that he might just as well be dead” (13). And that is just what Binx does—he screws it up repeatedly. He has moments where he starts to come to himself, but then settles down. As Linda Hobson explains, the plot of the novel “is a compendium of evasions Binx uses to avoid the issue of his own despair, the knowledge that the Little Way is no way at all” (31).  Another literary critic, Robert Coles, agrees, “The tension in the novel is the tension in Binx’s life, as he moves along on a search which at the same time he wants to undercut, or worse, size up all too exactly—and thereby thwart” (161). As for his evasions, Coles explains: “Binx certainly has fantasies. He is struggling throughout the novel to assume responsibility for them—turn them to some account in life, rather than run from them or flirt with them intermittently. He shuns personal possessions. He distrusts everyone, especially himself. He uses the streets of New Orleans, the homes he visits, his office, and of course the movie houses as endless sources of distraction” (157). And Coles further argues, “The nearer he comes to the most important step a person can make—decide to exercise freedom, make choices, and stand by them with commitment and intelligence, the more evasive he becomes” (161). Thus, Binx fails time and again to fully confront his search.

In Gentilly, Binx is as consumed by his malaise as the people he observes in the streets of New Orleans, the people who are not “onto something.” He defines the malaise as “the pain of loss”: “The world is lost to you, the world and the people in it, and there remains only you and the world and you no more able to be in the world than Banquo’s ghost” (120). He speaks of ways of “winning out over the malaise, if one has the sense to take advantage of it,” but he does not give the impression that he actually tries to take such advantage (120). Only pages later, when Binx is picking up Sharon from her apartment for their trip to the Gulf and sees her roommate Joyce standing in the window, he states, “If only I could be with both of them, with a house full of them, an old Esplanade rooming house full of strapping American girls with their silly turned heads and their fine big bottoms” (123). Binx immediately reverts to one of his most typical evasions—aiming, unsuccessfully, to fill the void in his life with meaningless relationships and lust.

Some Scenes from the Women's March in DC

Fotos: Vallejo Nocturno 2017

An inspiring event when one realizes the amount of sincere and intelligent people that are willing to work against the direction this country is heading in. The attendance was massive-easily over 750,000 people.

Ciao Roberto Piglia

From Letralia, Manuel Cabesa writes about Roberto Piglia:

Con la muerte de Ricardo Piglia, ocurrida este viernes 6 de enero de 2017, se apaga una de las voces más singulares y una de las trayectorias más brillantes de la narrativa latinoamericana de los últimos cincuenta años.

El trabajo desarrollado por este autor podría condensarse en el criterio de Tzvetan Todorov según el cual “toda obra, toda novela cuenta, mediante la trama de los acontecimientos, la historia de su propia creación, su propia historia”. Comenzando por su primer libro de relatos, Jaulario, que obtuviera una mención en el Premio Casa de las Américas en 1967, otorgado por un jurado compuesto por Mario Benedetti, Jesús Díaz, Enrique Lihn, Carlos Monsiváis y Dalmiro Sáenz, y sobre el que expresara Haroldo Conti (con base en la edición argentina publicada el mismo año con el título de La invasión) lo siguiente: “Narrados con fervor y potencia expresiva, construidos con lúcido, infrecuente rigor, estructurados en el interior de una prosa que modula su ritmo y su eficacia en la violenta densidad de los hechos, cada uno de los cuentos de este libro es un puente, una llave para acceder a un territorio familiar y oblicuo, a un mundo brutal en el que la delación y la crueldad están en la base de las relaciones humanas”.

Ocho años después, con los textos contenidos en Nombre falso (1975), se nos revela como un autor que busca nuevas alternativas estructurales para la decantación del relato. El mismo Piglia nos describe el contenido del volumen: “Nombre falso se trata de una novela corta y cinco cuentos. La novela (a mi juicio lo más importante del libro, o por lo menos lo que a mí más me interesa) se llama Homenaje a Roberto Arlt. Argumentalmente, es la historia de alguien que busca un cuento inédito de Arlt: en lo profundo es una reflexión sobre la literatura en general. En cuanto a los cinco cuentos, todos narran, con diferentes tramas, una misma historia: la de gente encerrada en una situación un poco violenta, que trata de resolver una relación personal, una relación de dominio de un individuo sobre otro”.

En este homenaje narrativo al autor de Los siete locos y Los lanzallamas la crítica se vuelve ficción, Piglia indaga en los códigos de la crítica literaria para desarrollar una trama casi policial convirtiendo al lector en el protagonista principal. Sobre este punto el autor nos refiere: “En cuanto a la crítica creo que es una forma de autobiografía. Uno escribe su vida cuando cree escribir sus lecturas. El crítico es aquel que reconstruye su vida en el interior de los textos que lee”. En Nombre falso el crítico que persigue ese relato perdido de Arlt aparece como el detective que percibe sobre la superficie del texto los rastros o las huellas que permiten descifrar su trama.

Igual procedimiento es apreciable en su primera novela, Respiración artificial (1980), en donde Emilio Renzi, alter ego del autor, realiza una investigación del pasado para realizar una biografía de su tío Maggi, quien a su vez trabajó en la composición de una biografía de Enrique Osorio, situación que enmascara realmente una reflexión sobre la historia como fundamento, tal como lo explica la profesora Nuria Girona Fibla: “Al convertir un relato familiar en historia nacional, Piglia no oculta una imagen de la historia condicionada por las reglas del juego literario. Al hacer una historia de la Historia, la transforma en relato fundacional y evidencia de los contenidos previos que se imponen a la materia narrada, en un procedimiento analógico al que opera la literatura con sus materiales”.

Novela llena de referencias tanto a la realidad como a la realidad de la lectura, es un libro lleno de citas explícitas y veladas que van conformando el paisaje de la trama. En este punto es interesante recordar una pequeña polémica armada por el investigador Mussa Amar Majad cuando publicó el ensayo E. M. Cioran y Ben Amí Fihman: correspondencias en Respiración artificial en la revista digital Letralia el 21 de noviembre de 2005, en donde se ponen en evidencia las coincidencias entre las respuestas que el filósofo rumano concede al narrador venezolano, publicadas en el Papel Literario el 25 de marzo de 1979, y la transcripción de un diálogo entre Renzi y Tardewski en la novela del argentino.

More

Best Music of 2016-Summary

 

 

Good lord! In past years when I've recapped the music situation I've emphasized how ready accessibility to music via the Internet in a positive way has altered what people listen to and expanded the range for the mass public -wider exposure to music impacts both listening taste and those who make music enriching the opportunities for everyone.

I've always thought this could only be a good thing as it also provides unadventurous listeners with safe opportunities to listen to music that previously they would never encountered. This includes critics who write about music and publish their favorite lists at the end of the year. Evidence of the favorable diversification effects of this could be found on a vast range and interesting Top Ten lists in the recent pasts from the various online publications. From these lists we learned about music that we would never have found on our own and I, certainly, enjoyed always finding new and interesting sounds. And each and every year-end was a fantastic time to search, listen and be amazed at the varied sounds and new-found talents that had evaded my ears.  

Of course as we have seen with the current political situation in this country I'm afraid that this initial stage of diversity has taken a big step backwards in the music sphere. Perusing the top ten of pop music critics in 2016 you find a conformity and standardization that I was surprised to see. Look at the end of year Metacritics list ( a compilation of critics favorite music in 2016) and you will find the same music across the board: Bowie, Beyonce, Solange, Kanye West. . . .

What the internet did the first couple of decades -expose people to the true diversity of sounds- has now resulted in the normalization of what is considered the best in the pop/rock world. This could be a result of the rise of music streaming or/and the tragic demise of file-sharing sites where listeners had to work to find and organize what they were interested in hearing. It could also be the what happened in the 60's and early 70's when a creative and vibrant popular music quickly descended into formulaic sounds that sounded bad even in those days. Or it could be the ever commercialization of music in the hands of those tatse-makers who rule the ears of the masses. Who knows!

But it could also be a cultural thing-look at the jazz world, where granted most of the sounds are expected to be exploratory and not from a same place, and regard the incredible diversity of top tens in that universe: 2016 Jazz Critics Poll. There is more gold here than in all of Spain.I will not dwell on why it is but instead continue to enjoy the sounds from this small genre of the music community that propels the music of the rest.

Despite the apparent homogenization of taste 2016, for my ears, proved to be a compelling year filled with surprises and works that will provide a foundation for others to build on-especially among the jazz and electronic genres. Here are the sounds that caught my ears in 2016 in no particular order:

Moomin

Wadada Leo Smith & Vijay Iyer

La Torre Volume 1

Will Long

Roisin Murphy

Anderson .Paak

Deep88

Johann Johannsson

Richard Poole/Marilyn Crispell/Gary Peacock

Helado Negro

Bill Evans Trio

Tyshawn Sorey

Moodyman DJ Kicks

Noura Mint Seymall

Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids

King

Woo

Juan Atkins & Moritz Von Oswald

Mary Halvorson Octet

Angelika Niescier & Florian Weber

Anna Hogberg Attack!

Petar Dundov

David Murray/Gerri Allen/Terry Lynn Carrington

Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense

Psychic Temple

Andy Gonzalez

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

 

 

 

Multi Lingo

Multi Lingo from Carolina Ravassa on Vimeo.