ArtiFact: Books, Art, Culture

Myths of Rome and the Orient, as well as questions of race and sexuality all play major roles in William Shakespeare’s underrated play, Antony and Cleopatra. It follows the final years of Roman triumvir Mark Antony and Egypt’s queen Cleopatra VII, as they engage in affairs, neglect their imperial duties, and wage war against Octavius Caesar (Augustus). In ArtiFact 57, authors Laura Woods, Alex Sheremet, and Keith Jackewicz discuss Antony & Cleopatra through the lens of Roman history, key aspects of Shakespeare’s writing, and ways of assessing the play as modern readers.

You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/igBzg1B9Wro

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: Cleopatra’s ambivalence over love; Cleopatra through time; sex, politics, psychology; Keith: love and power’s maintenance can be similar; power as mutual agreement on common myths; Enobarbus is underrated; Antony & Cleopatra as Shakespeare’s most cynical play; Roman propaganda during the time of civil war; the facile comparisons between America and Rome; comparing American and Israeli politics; how liberal/conservative politics get coded, weaponized; Laura: social media has Americanized political discourse in Ireland; Apple vs. Android vs. Microsoft products; Alex: the best, most stable phone I’ve ever owned was an off-brand Chinese product; America, Russia, China; assessing Chinese cultural exports; the lack of penetration of “closed” cultures; why there has been no English-language documentary on Vladimir Vysotsky; Laura on the Irish language, Alex on the Latin Vulgate Bible; Laura on nursing politics in Ireland; Keith: I have little respect for psychiatry as a discipline; mental health is too de-contextualized from everyday reality; the South African genocide against in the ICJ; Ireland’s Palestinian experience, Palestine’s Irish experience; Iran’s Bobby Sands virtue-signal; Michael Hoffman is useless for Palestinian activism; anti-Talmud theories are similar to Islamophobia; Israel & genetic ancestry

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Cleopatra thumbnail photo by Siednji Leon on Unsplash.

Timestamps:

1:00 – introducing Antony & Cleopatra; Irish poet Laura Woods on Antony and Cleopatra in the Shakespeare pantheon; how Shakespeare manages length; sexual innuendo in Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra; Keith Jackewicz: Antony and Cleopatra has no obvious villain; do readers have empathy with a “soft” & emotional Antony; Cleopatra, race/ethnicity, and Orientalism

15:48 – how 17th century conceptions of race crystallize in Shakespeare; there are no great (extended) soliloquies in Antony & Cleopatra; tensions between prosaic and poetic elements in Shakespeare; austere Rome vs. Egyptian fantasy; moments of humor; why elites ignored the Eastern Roman Empire

25:30 – Alex on the ancient tension between Roman citizens & Greek migrants; Homeric vs. Hellenistic Greece; Roman history never seems to hit a true Golden Age; Roman propaganda as “public morality”; offstage action; greatness of Antony, Octavius, and others is based on mass perception

34:55 – Shakespeare’s decision to bring the action offstage; the male craving to study ancient Rome; Cleopatra’s death as a grand affair with posthumous needs

41:53 – Antony’s dead wife, Fulvia; Fulvia vs. Cleopatra in the historical record; why does Antony want Fulvia dead; feminist, post-colonial, etc. readings tend to be anachronistic; Fulvia as paragon; feminine manipulation vs. making excuses for one’s poor choices; the psychopaths writing young adult literature

1:01:08 – Fulvia’s death as a bargaining chip; Antony & Cleopatra as narcissists; Jordan B. Peterson is a fraud for never discussing the play’s “feminine chaos”; viewer reactions to Robert Altman’s MASH in the 1970s vs. today

1:11:55 – Cleopatra uses sex for political survival; male arguments about “feminine wiles” are very effeminate; Alex relates the story of his own conniving Cleopatra; ambiguity of love within the play; unconscious behavior; how Shakespeare leverages unclear action; how Cleopatra wrestles control of the narrative; the snake’s symbolism

1:30:45 – Alex: it was refreshing to watch leaders worrying about future perceptions; past glory; how Antony & Cleopatra plays with chance/destiny; does political power at the highest levels entail determinism; Augustus Caesar as Shakespeare’s agent of fortune; the role of ego; 1 of Cleopatra’s greatest & most modern lines; why Act 3 ends perfectly

1:40:35 – Patron show preview

Tags: #cleopatra #ancienthistory #books #shakespeare #booktube

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are a hotbed for right-wing ideologues, but Joshua Davila argues this technology is not going away and ought to be used for left-wing activism. Bitcoin, for example, is not inherently capitalistic, while projects on Ethereum and other protocols have been more exploratory and experimental. In ArtiFact 56, Alex and Josh discuss the concept of blockchain, why it’s valuable, on-chain models for political organization, NFTs as supportive of, and destructive to, genuine art, and expose crypto-idiots and other unsavory personalities.

You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/un8jqcrQ70k

Buy Joshua Davila’s “Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It” – https://www.amazon.com/Blockchain-Radicals-Building-Beyond-Capitalism/dp/1914420853

Joshua’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/TBSocialist

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: left vs. right-wing conceptions of personal responsibility; every crypto Twitter ad is a scam; account abstraction for added security; froth vs. fundamental value; how crypto adds a premium; investment vs. utility; Alex: most of my crypto acquaintances are sociopaths; why Alex hesitates to release his art as NFTs; bitcoin ordinals encourage spam art; the art world has been scamming for centuries; NFTs place anti-art expectations upon artists; Solana’s Degen Poet is like a 10 year old; art as money laundering; hypocrisy in the art world; Josh: most art does not have value; why Alex is annoyed by DCInvestor.eth; how NFTs work and why they will NOT go away; NFTs add inalienable rights on top of authentication; why Josh rejects digital scarcity; crypto idiots: Balaji Srinivasan makes a $1 million bitcoin bet; debunking the Network State; Roger Ver gets imprisoned over pipe bombs; bitcoin and energy consumption; crypto “walking” apps and greenwashing; Bill Ackman won’t be getting laid for months

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Timestamps:

0:42 – introducing Josh Davila’s "Blockchain Radicals"; understanding crypto, blockchain, and bitcoin is critical for left-wingers; the bitcoin ETF; cryptocurrency at an inflection point; right-wing vs. left-wing conceptions of monetary debasement

11:25 – is bitcoin dead for left-wing projects; how WikiLeaks and SciHub leveraged bitcoin against financial sanctions; the inflation hedge argument; why bitcoin is not “money”

21:24 – beyond financialization in blockchain; markets vs. commoditization; human nature and incentive structures; the value proposition of blockchain; the implications of crypto-mediated ownership; why the Tezos hicetnunc NFT marketplace imploded; how crypto adoption is a regressive tax; Stalin and cryptocurrency; open source crypto projects; how NFTS are misunderstood

38:42 – how crypto cultivates certain audiences; post-capitalist blockchains; the Uniswap airdrop vs. government stimulus; private, public power; why Joshua used the DAI stablecoin over USDC for Breadchain

46:30 – privacy and digital identities in crypto; why Joshua took time to dox himself; how anonymity can build trust; cryptocurrency businesses invade privacy even more than generic corporations; crypto dystopias; the tendency towards centralization; how the creator of ProtonMail made Alex change his mind on Monero & other private cryptocurrencies

58:57 – crypto as a double-edged sword; there is no “obvious” answer on anti-state privacy; how states leverage financial sanctions; code is law vs. social consensus; the 2016 Ethereum DAO hack and Ethereum classic; if bitcoin were banned, bitcoin would be legitimated; bitcoin ordinals vs. bitcoin maximalists

01:07:09 – Ethereum philosophy = Ethereum innovation; users of Ethereum Classic get the Darwin Award; is Vitalik Buterin a socialist; Heavy Bags: why right-wing goldbugs hate bitcoin; patron show preview

Tags: #bitcoin #crypto #politics

Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" is a great American novel, which is particularly shocking since it was Maclean’s first book and written in his 70s. In essence a memoir, “A River Runs Through It” follows the relationship between two brothers in 1930s Montana. Alex Sheremet and Keith Jackewicz dissect the book’s strengths, its powerful imagery and controlling metaphor(s), and unique structural decisions.

You can also watch this conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqXGKkRzTDY

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: videos depicting A River Runs Through It encourage trite imagery; spinning cliched images into something fresh; Norman Maclean uses the cosmic scale; Biblical imagery in Herman Melville; the use of elision; escalations in the Gaza conflict; a conclusion without conclusions; martyrdom in Scottish-American culture; God and country, or Country and God in nationalist-religious movements; art and ego; motivated reasoning; literary neglect; Alex’s New Year Resolutions; can Alex limit himself to reading the news once a week; academia’s abuse of “liminal spaces”; steady multinational escalations in the Gaza genocide; is Israel trying to pull America into a wider war; Joe Biden’s 2024 trap; is China / Taiwan a Boomer fixation; the smearing of John Mearsheimer, Ivan Katchanovski; a strange economy; Harvard & the disciplining of Claudine Gay; the golden mean in the 1990s

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Timestamps:

0:36 – introducing Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It”; why Keith is skeptical of Robert Redford’s film; memoir vs. The Great American Novel; Norman Maclean leaves out his narrator’s name; it’s important that Maclean wrote his first great novel in his 70s; how Maclean’s character/experiences shaped this book; lack of experience in today’s writers

13:01 – Norman Maclean’s individualistic lines; assessing the opening paragraph; how the novella uses text for physical distance; the lack of melodrama in A River Runs Through It; Neal’s function as character; bait-fishing vs. fly-fishing; Neal pretends he has sunburn, then actually gets sunburned; Keith’s “hell itch” and Alex’s sunburn in Puerto Rico

27:34 – the use of foreshadowing; Paul gets into a fight & jailed; themes of Scottish emotional repression; seeking, rejecting, offering help; Paul as artist and storyteller; some beautiful lines

41:41 – understanding the police sergeant/jail scene; how Maclean mirrors dream states; 1930s Montana; Alex and Keith stumped by Prohibition; love of language vs. MFA repetitiousness; Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom” sucks; Norman Maclean as academic; A River Runs Through It is respectful of your time

58:04 – what might a modern iteration of this novel look like; A River Runs Through It vs. Moby-Dick; the bias for length vs. depth and substance; Keith: Moby Dick’s whaling scenes are hilarious

Tags: #booktube #books #review

The Hamas attack of October 7 was preceded by a number of escalations: ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s threats to annex Palestine, encroachments into the Al Aqsa Mosque, the rise of the Lion’s Den movement and Unity Intifada, as well as Israeli-Arab normalization agreements (“Abraham Accords”) which excluded Palestinians. In ArtiFact 54, Middle East scholar Mouin Rabbani joins Alex Sheremet to discuss the prehistory of October 7, Joe Biden’s lifelong desire to protect Israel at all costs, myths about the Netanyahu government, and the region’s future.

You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiKIenWoC-I

Support us on Patreon for patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

Mouin Rabbani’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/MouinRabbani

Mouin Rabbani in “Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm” (OR Books): https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/deluge/

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Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

1:10 – a pre-history of the October 7 Hamas attack

3:00 –Joe Biden’s “strategic neglect” policy towards Palestine

4:48 – how Joe Biden tried to restrain Barack Obama’s pro-Palestinian instincts; West Bank violence before the Hamas attack; Joe Biden as Netanyahu’s “point man”; the Unity Intifada; Israel’s attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem prior to the Hamas attack; Hamas as an Islamist organization

16:01 – Israelis might protest Netanyahu, but they don’t really protest apartheid; why Mouin does not think Saudi Arabian / Israeli normalization was “the thing” that caused the Hamas attack; what Saudi Arabia sought through normalization; if Israel’s massacres in Lebanon did not affect normalization, the destruction of Gaza might not either

28:35 – the logical conundrum of a 2-state settlement; Israeli peace activists are often not what they claim; why Netanyahu himself is not “the reason” for the Gaza war; Netanyahu will not be imprisoned for his failings

38:42 – Israeli society seems to crave images of war crimes; comparing IDF imagery to the Abu Ghraib scandal in America

41:40 – what has changed since the start of the Gaza siege; prospects for normalization; how America has eroded all credibility in the Middle East; the end of America’s “rules-based international order”

Tags: #middleeast #politics #palestine

In light of decolonization and postcolonial theory, William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” has received new interest. Although Caliban is often thought of as the play’s centerpiece, Prospero remains its best-sketched character, as he has complex relationships and contradictory beliefs. His subjects, Ariel and Caliban, both demand freedom, while the stories told of their unnamed island are only second-hand accounts that feed into Prospero’s own self-conception. In ArtiFact 53, literary critics Alex Sheremet and Keith Jackewicz assess Shakespeare’s mysterious play, touching on questions of decolonization, imperialism, gender roles, Orientalism, Italian politics, and much more.

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on our Patreon page for patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: more connections between Shylock and Caliban; how Shakespeare plays with audience expectations; how Shakespeare signals he’s about to write something bad; Alex's falafel over rice; the Daniel Defoe / Robinson Crusoe connection; William Shakespeare vs. Mark Twain; Leo Strauss; how politics had to be occluded in Shakespeare's day; Caliban's god vs. Prospero; the meaning of magic; why didn't Prospero cast the "reason" spell on Caliban; the meaning of reason & logic in the play; why lesser characters are poorly sketched; disappointments with The Tempest; the Harold Bloom problem; how Shakespeare's reach exceeded his grasp; why the Beatles were necessarily overrated; how Shakespeare critics do a disservice to Shakespeare; Joseph Conrad's Henry James phase; Frank Herbert's Dune vs. the Dune 2 videogame universe; how voice acting destroyed game writing; does Israeli society crave images of war crimes; is Israeli targeting journalists; the university hearings on anti-Semitism; Alex goes to a POC-only Palestinian protest; how the Joe Biden coalition is fracturing; the Right is better positioned for 2024-28 than in 2016; Keith boasts of getting Trump's presidency correct

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Timestamps:

0:24 – Alex grows taller, Keith shrinks in size; analyzing William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”; no character goes unscathed; ranking “The Tempest” in the Shakespeare pantheon

3:08 – how Keith read all of Shakespeare’s plays over a month; Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth; ranking Romeo and Juliet as tragedy; why Shakespeare’s comedies are often weak; Shakespeare & class politics

9:15 – passage of time in “The Tempest”; Shakespeare overuses plot-driven techniques; some more daring parts in “The Tempest”; Prospero as the absent-minded king; is Prospero blameless; why Prospero was overthrown in Milan; the metaphor of Prospero’s island; Prospero is “The Tempest’s” only character of depth; overthrow & rebellion in the 15th century; Duke of Milan, King of Naples; political logic in Shakespeare’s era

21:03 - Miranda as an archetype; Prospero seems aware of his own flaws; dialogue vs. stage directions; Ariel is having the same argument every month; why early Shakespeare criticism was bad; the implications of Miranda’s virginity

30:42 – dissecting Caliban; Aime Cesaire & The Tempest; Prospero suggests the same punishment for Caliban as to Miranda and Ferdinand; how biological imperatives change; does Prospero have anything without magic; the victors are more or less writing the play; decolonization and postcolonial theory in Shakespeare; why was Sycorax REALLY banished

46:00 – the Algiers Connection; Prospero’s “white magic” is ultimately conflated, and on par with, the Orientalist “black magic”; how Shakespeare makes fun of Gonzalo’s ideas; Caliban’s speeches in “The Tempest”; Prospero has different standards of punishment for identical crimes; Caliban never gets the Shylock / Merchant of Venice treatment; did Shakespeare get bored with The Tempest?

Tags: #shakespeare #decolonization #booktube #postcolonialism

Loren Eiseley was a paleontologist more famed for his beautiful writing than for scientific discoveries, a fact that both oppressed and liberated him. In his book, “The Night Country”, Eiseley discusses his childhood exploring underground worlds and compares this with his work as a scientist and writer. He deals with questions such as “the ghost in the machine”, the purpose of civilization and (cultural) evolution, and philosophical evil. Alex Sheremet is joined by radical climate activist Arnold Schroder of the Fight Like An Animal podcast to discuss Loren Eiseley’s text and its implications.

You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4rJV3bZVQQ

Arnold Schroder’s website: https://www.againsttheinternet.com/

Arnold Schroder’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/arnold_schroder

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on our Patreon page for patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: the final chapters of Loren Eiseley’s “The Night Country”; Arnold’s experiences with “terrifying” nighttime cattle; subject-object distinction in nighttime experience; Francis Bacon as the Great Synthesizer; mysticism among scientists; scientific research has liberalized stylistically; Loren Eiseley chooses an owl’s life over scientific discovery; how to deal with libertarian moral calculus; Eiseley’s characterization of human beings out of time; “Give me my crown – I have immortal longings in me!”; how Alex might have survived five centuries ago; Eiseley’s most beautiful passages; returning to one’s roots & losses; human integration; Arnold Schroder on Franz Kafka; Kafka vs. Orson Welles (The Trial); what Arnold Schroder learned of from Palestine and the Israel-Hamas war; the erosion of media consensus; chaos, the Internet, & balance of power; did Elon Musk save the world by being an idiot; Hillary Clinton would have prosecuted activists for terrorism; William Nordhaus & the falsification of climate science; the hothouse Earth scenario; why climate scientists aren't allowed to do science; affirmative action; we can't take the Supreme Court seriously; Arnold Schroder's "World Tree Center"

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

1:02 – introduction to Loren Eiseley; Arnold Schroder’s “uncanny” relationship with Loren Eiseley’s “The Night Country”; the Robert Lanza connection; the scientist-artist as outsider; the fugitive as archetype; the natural philosopher in 2023

10:04 – Arnold Schroder & the Fight Like An Animal Podcast = natural philosophy; is there an innately special mind; Loren Eiseley’s nostalgia for the night; the book’s foreword as a framing device; privileged experience can disrupt science

24:40 –night & nostalgia; night in human evolution; Arnold Schroder’s encounters with mountain lions

31:13 – concept of evil; how childhood helps define evil; adults wish to explain away injustice; Loren Eiseley’s textual transfiguration; the Rat as character & fulcrum; how intelligence thrives in unexpected niches; human variability; academia increases defensiveness

51:18 – a sardonic rat; the world’s garden; human aesthetics are biologically expensive; how much wealth is necessary for happiness; synthetic biology and algae-based economies

58:55 – the train derelict in Night Country; Loren Eiseley’s use of symbolic statements; how civilization moves, evolves without purpose; extremely long 19th century novels are a regressive tax; the language used for free will and determinism is confused

01:12:50 – Francis Bacon & Loren Eiseley’s conversations with ancients; drawing lessons from history; the attraction to ephemeral novelty; reading, politics, & dopamine addiction; Alex’s dystopian experience with Artificial Intelligence; previewing the Patreon show

Tags: #books #philosophy #science

Now that Israel’s invasion of Gaza is center stage, Russia’s war in Ukraine is getting less attention. This has frustrated Zelensky in the midst of bad news. The Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed, and both Ukrainian and Western officials are wondering if negotiations should be the next step. This will require preparing the Ukrainian public for the possibility of a worse peace deal (and less land) than in 2015 and 2022.

In ArtiFact 51, Alex Sheremet is joined by University of Ottawa professor and Ukrainian-Canadian scholar Ivan Katchanovski to discuss the Russia-Ukraine War, the costs to Ukraine, the impact of the war in Gaza, and recent developments in the Maidan massacre.

You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/9GXxQGZ5-YU

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon and get patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: how Russian state media presents Palestine & Palestinians; Russia’s policy in the Middle East; the role of Dmitry Medvedev in Russian politics, propaganda; Medvedev’s Telegram posts; Russia’s might seek more territory; Belarus as a client state; the case of Ivan Bubenchik in Maidan; a Ukrainian law which allows murder?; more Maidan details come to light after the trial; the most common objections to Ivan Katchanovski’s claims; what if Maidan protesters were not in control of every building; how the Svoboda Party provided muscle; Ivan has been to Hotel Ukraina many times; the testimony of hotel staff; the future of Ukraine; de-population, poverty, & the refugee problem; Ukrainian dependence on Western aid; Ukraine should join the European Union; the EU acts like a political/military rather than economic union; can Russia and the United States cultivate an alliance; observing right-wing Russian nationalists

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination


Learn about and contribute to our first film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario

Timestamps:

1:28 – introducing Ivan Katchanovski, professor at University of Ottawa

4:08 – the conflict in Gaza will have consequences for the Ukraine War; comparing the Palestine and Ukraine conflicts; why Barack Obama didn’t want to arm Ukraine; AIPAC vs. Ukraine; Russia pivots to Palestine

8:14 – Russia & Obama; the Israel-Ukraine relationship; Zelensky trying to turn Ukraine “into the new Israel”; Zelensky’s anti-democratic reforms; 

19:51 – was Ukraine pressured into its 2023 counter-offensive; how Zelensky gets conflated with “Ukraine” & Ukrainian opinion; Ukraine as an abused proxy; why Russia was presented as weak; fissures in the war narrative cropped up as early as summer 2022

30:40 – sanctions don’t have the intended effect; Ukraine’s PR battles in Bakhmut and Mariupol; tensions between Zelensky, Zaluzhny, and other generals; Ukraine might engage in political prosecutions; was Zaluzhny’s aide involved in an assassination attempt?

46:12 – grenades & pomegranates; the status of the Ukraine war; Putin’s possible behavior in 2024; how bad statistics were used to sell a proxy war; are the witnesses to the March/April 2022 negotiations credible; the Boris Johnson angle

1:02:02 – re-visiting the Maidan Massacre; Ivan Katchanovski’s claims vs. police involvement in protester killings; why the Maidan trial dragged out for a decade; destroyed evidence; the exclusion of most ballistic analyses; the New York Times model from 2018

1:27:00 – previewing the Patron show; Ivan Katchanovski’s upcoming book on Maidan and the roots of Russia/Ukraine War

Tags: #russiaukrainewar #politics #ukrainewar

Although there’s often a desire for big, Hollywood films, having too many resources, and too much polish, contradicts the mission of art. Independent films can be shot with minimal equipment and lend themselves to bigger, bolder ideas in a smaller package. In ArtiFact 50, Alex Sheremet and Joel Parrish reflect on shooting their first film, “From There to There: Bruce Ario, The Minneapolis Poet”. Topics covered: film and audio equipment, cinematography, production and post-production, finding interviews, and the practical as well as theoretical foundations of filmmaking.

You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/u4hX_OSyWs4

To get the full conversation, support us on Patreon and get patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

Read more and contribute to the film here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Joel Parrish’s poetry and photography: https://poeticimport.com

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 – the excitement of guerrilla filmmaking

1:36 – the final night of our Minneapolis trip; splitting camera responsibilities; over-scheduling yet still getting everything done; how capturing footage helps define the screenplay; Robbinsdale in Minneapolis; managing sixteen hour days

13:52 – the final night in Minneapolis; nighttime guerrilla filmmaking; accidental imagery & footage; Alex finds some bud; shooting without a plan; every alley has something that can be captured; Joel hops on a city bus and captures video & conversation; checking off a checklist vs. improv filmmaking

22:06 – how shooting a film altered Alex’s perception of watching movies; paying attention to cinematography; Alex’s thoughts on the 1995 hip-hop vampire film, The Addiction; how text styles on the screen can become quite dated; avoiding dated, faddish aesthetics; long vs. short takes; making a well-produced film on a budget using today’s software & equipment

31:20 – the post-production process; how we went from an informational, “good” documentary, to something far more ambitious; going through our equipment: a Canon M50 with an additional lens; DaVinci Resolve for film & color grading; capturing deep nighttime grain; SSD storage for keeping all files in 1 place; Zoom Podtrak P4 for an XLR connection to Audio-Technica’s lavalier microphone & AT2005 mics; Hollywood vs. anti-Hollywood aesthetics; Joel’s professional setup, cameras, GoPro, and audio equipment; getting the most out of any camera at a discount; GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

53:50 – the pre-planning stages for an independent film; why a documentary is a great first movie; the importance of split responsibilities

FOR PATRONS: Joel’s planning stages for the film; acquiring interviews; the perils of overplanning; reducing the amount of equipment; Joel praises Alex as an interviewer; returning to Minneapolis: catching segregated neighborhoods, visiting other parks, 5-minute interviews with locals; capturing Minneapolis footage vs. footage from other cities; frozen falls; some wonderful descriptions of nature in Bruce Ario’s “Cityboy”

Tags: #film #art #artist

The IDF is accused of bombing the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. As a result, both Israelis and Palestinians have staked their reputations on the responsible party. Yet this would already be the 35th hospital strike in Gaza since 2008, while fully half of Gaza’s medical infrastructure had been leveled in Cast Lead and again in Protective Edge. In this video, political commentators Alex Sheremet and Keith Jackewicz deal with the fallout of the Hamas attack in Gaza, the Israeli counteroffensive, the meaning of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital strike, Palestine’s history, and Joe Biden’s increasing lack of credibility in America and abroad. They also discuss Alex’s essay on the topic and Keith’s own essay on “asbestos capitalism”.

You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5lCjNGDb7k

To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side Topics: when Alex forced Keith to carry water gallons home; water-wars & over-stimulation; politics of de-growth; if you want Alex in the Marxist revolution, keep your grubby hands off of his bananas; wastefulness in the healthcare system; Putin’s military vs. social & educational spending; why sanctions have not crippled Russia; Ukraine youth paramilitary camps; Crimea & Russia’s first-use nuclear doctrine; the Supreme Court forced Israel to allow a Gazan to leave for medical treatment; white guilt is counter-productive but points to a positive historical development; Alex’s process of writing his Gaza essay; how skeptics of the War on Terror became Israel apologists; the subtle shift in calling Hamas’s terrorism “war crimes” alongside Israel’s own; most “human shields” allegations are false; why Leftists have a messaging problem; realpolitik in Israel-Palestine; how Joe Biden’s wars might come back to haunt him in 2024; polling problems & unfavourability; Keith’s impressions of the new Ceylan film, “About Dry Grasses”

Alex Sheremet’s essay on the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital bombing: https://www.automachination.com/israel-identity-gaza-hospital-attack/

We are working on a film on the late, great Minneapolis poet, Bruce Ario. Read more and contribute to the film here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario

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Timestamps:

1:54 – framing the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion; analyzing the Hamas attack of October 7; the gradual breakdown of the IDF; does Hamas want a Stalingrad

9:13 – Alex’s essay on the implications of Al-Ahli Hospital; why Israelis (and Palestinians) have hinged so much on the outcome; Keith’s essay on Asbestos Capitalism; Israel prefers to engage via airstrikes than IDF ground incursions; how “impersonal wars” & Israeli airstrikes create plausible deniability for high body counts; Israeli vs. Russian war crimes; Joe Biden is tying his hands with unpopular wars

20:21 – how Gaza & the Ukraine War shows limits of American unity; Israeli propaganda tries to connect Jews & Judaism with unpopular state actions; Jewish anti-Zionism; Keith’s experiences at a pro-Palestine rally; Keith: a dialectical attraction to Judaism; how Judaism has been subsumed by a colonial project

31:06 – Edward Said’s essay on the Oslo Accords: The Morning After; how the media changed from anti-PLO to pro-PLO; signing away Palestinian rights for positive media coverage; Oslo & settlement acceleration; assessing Yasser Arafat; Israel & the Arab world thinks of Palestinians as a millstone around the neck; how Palestinian lives are counted as less worthy

45:41 – Palestine’s ethnic cleansing is no different from 1000s of other groups in history; AIPAC is the NRA for liberals; Netanyahu should have become irrelevant after 2003; Netanyahu’s direct cash transfers to Hamas; how the response to Hamas’s 2006 election destroyed all possibility of democracy in Palestine; Gaza as a testing ground for fascism

59:22 – the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital attack in Gaza; how the attack has become so symbolic for both Palestinians & Israelis; the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh; Israel’s massacre of the 2018 Gaza protesters; no, the pro-Palestinian side does not rest on the culpability for the Al-Ahli outcome; how Netanyahu mouthpiece Hananya Haftali accidentally revealed Israeli’s propaganda machine

01:22:29 – Israel keeps delaying its ground offensive; Israel has nothing else politically except Netanyahu; Ariel Sharon’s cynical reasons for Gaza withdrawal; Ehud Olmert’s pathetic two-state solution peace plan; how Joe Biden continued Trump’s foreign policy

Tags: #gaza #israel #freepalestine #politics

Taking great influence from Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy", Frank Whaley's underrated character portrait, "The Jimmy Show", was attacked by critics and filmgoers upon release, and is mostly forgotten now. In ArtiFact 48, critics Jessica Schneider, Ethan Pinch, Alex Sheremet, and Ezekiel Yu break down the film’s strengths and weaknesses while putting it in the wider context of American comedy and stand-up routines.

You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D28Ib8L1BQk&

If you’d like the B Side to this conversation on Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, become a YouTube member or join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination

B Side topics: Alex hides & tricks everybody; soy tag vs. Brooklyn-style manhunt in the 1990s; Jessica and Alex indulge; one never stops cringing at Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy; Rupert Pupkin is the perfect name; Travis Bickle; Zeke watches King of Comedy for the first time; Rupert Pupkin vs. Jimmy; Robert DeNiro is intentionally made less sexy; Martin Scorsese’s diversity as a filmmaker; unique imagery and symbolism in The King of Comedy; Rupert Pupkin is not less talented than those around him; “my name is Rupert: it may not mean a lot to you, but it means a lot to me”; leveraging fame; reality vs. fantasy/day-dream in the film’s ending; comparing to Sidney Lumet’s “Network”; the role of sexual grotesque in Scorsese, Woody Allen, & Robert Altman; why Rupert is animated in his renditions, but placid in his fantasies; is King of Comedy an artistic dead-end; comparing to Scorsese’s “After Hours” & male sexual psychology; King of Comedy in the Scorsese pantheon; Scorsese’s Shutter Island as a low point in his career; no point for Gangs of New York to exist; Bresson’s style was forged from personal needs; Andrei Tarkovsky & Ingmar Bergman; Martin Scorsese’s scriptwriters; & news, politics, Gaza, Israel, Hamas, Tony Blinken gets in trouble on Babi Yar, & much more…

Jessica Schneider’s review of Frank Whaley’s The Jimmy Show: https://www.automachination.com/underrated-gem-frank-whaley-jimmy-show-2001/

We are working on a film on the late, great Minneapolis poet, Bruce Ario. Read more and contribute to the film here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3wLpqEV

Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3dSQXxJ

Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/2SVJIxB

Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 – introducing Frank Whaley’s The Jimmy Show; links with Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy

2:40 – why Jessica wanted to review the film; fan expectations vs. artistic reality; portrait of a failure; even the descriptions of the film are wrong; Ray vs. Jimmy: who is the better person; Zeke on how Jimmy’s character creates a ceiling for the film; Ethan Hawke

9:27 – Ethan expresses distrust for Realist Cinema; is The Jimmy Show a comedy or a portrait of a comic character; the dynamic between Jimmy and his grandmother; tender vs. unlikeable moments; why the film is neither satire nor tragedy; the importance of the film’s title to its meaning; the Mike Leigh connection

19:10 – Alex on why Jimmy fails to read the room; how his classist humor gets him into trouble; failures of internalization; the Al Bundy / Married With Children connection; what makes the divorce scene so well-written; Jimmy’s character arc sees her become decisive & firm, while Jimmy doesn’t grow much

28:25 – Ethan: this is a very American film; fame for the sake of fame; Frank Whaley’s use of time can be quite arresting; is Jimmy a worthwhile character; Ethan pushes back against our praise for the film

38:20 – Ethan: isn’t EVERYTHING the Jimmy Show, the Alex Show, the Ethan Show?; the nature of motivated reasoning; people wish to be recognized, but for what?; the Milli Vanilli connection; Taylor Swift’s blandness IS the point; why Eugene O’ Neill didn’t sell out; revisiting Mike Leigh films

49:34 – does the ending “serve Jimmy right”; the nature of comedy; Ethan on American-style standup comedy & machismo

Tags: #films #review #comedy