Film Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julien, 1977)

Duke University Screen Society is showing a series of films as a retrospective of the work of Isaac Julien, and tonight in that series I saw the 1991 film Young Soul Rebels about two young men in Dalston (East London) in 1977 who air a pirate radio station of soul and funk music. I thought I might enjoy the music - I guess I did, but I didn't much care for the film.

Film Memoirs of a Geisha (Rob Marshall, 2005)

Last week (Tuesday January 24?), I saw Memoirs of a Geisha at a local theatre. I've not read the book, but I do have an affinity for Japanese culture (I visited Japan in 2005, teach a course on the Japanese film maker Yasujiro Ozu, and have studied Japanese culture in a graduate course). It was a sad story and a well-made film; I'm glad I saw it.

Film Žižek! (Astra Taylor, 2005)

As part of the Duke University Screen Society Documentary/Politics of Truth series, I saw "Žižek!", a 2005 71-minute documentary film about the wildly enthusiastic Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek. I hadn't heard about Žižek before, but the crowd of over 50 people at the showing, a quick conversation with a person sitting next to me, and a look on the web indicated that this is simply due to my ignorance. Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Zizek has published over 50 books on a wide variety of topics anchored to his views of Marx's political philosophy and French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's theories. I found the film academic and perhaps a bit long, but I enjoyed the discussion afterwards with the director, Astra Taylor.

Links of interest:

• imdb (Internet Movie Database)
  film entry
  
• "Zizek!" film website
  
• Wikipedia entry for Slavoj Žižek

London Museums

While in London January 16-21, 2006, I enjoyed all-too-brief visits to several London museums. In the past, I have enjoyed the British Museum and Museum of Garden History.

This time, I visited ...

• The Victoria and Albert Museum on Wednesday the 18th (they are normally open 10a-5:45p, but stay open until 10p [!] on Wednesdays as well as the the last Friday of each month)
  
  
• The National Portrait Gallery, where I saw the winning pictures in the 2005 Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize.
  
  
• The British Library, where I enjoyed an exhibit Beautiful Minds about the creativity of Nobel prize winners
  
  

NC Dance Festival 15th Anniversary, Meredith College, Raleigh

I love contemporary dance and try to attend most of the performances each summer at the American Dance Festival (ADF). Tonight I attended the NC Dance Festival, which included "touring artists Jan Van Dyke from Greensboro, Niki Juralewicz from Chapel Hill, Gerri Houlihan from Durham, Robin Harris from Raleigh, and local artist Katherine Ferrier." I was familiar with Gerri Houlihan, as she is an ADF faculty member and this past July won the Balasaraswati Distinguished Teaching award.

Event web site: www.meredith.edu/mcnews/dance-festival06.htm
Location: Meredith College, Raleigh, NC
Time: Saturday January 28, 2006, 8p
Cost: $10