We Are an Image from the Future: The Greek Revolt of December 2008

Edited by A.G. Schwarz, Tasos Sagris, and Void Network
AK Press

Consider what it might feel like if July 4th in the United States were celebrated not with fireworks and barbecue but with demonstrations and occupations to achieve a further social revolution. That's what November 17th is in Greece since a student revolt on that date in 1973 triggered the end of the dictatorship. In fact, because of the role of the students in achieving this, a law was passed by the socialist government in 1981 to establish academic asylum. Although the law has since been weakened, police are restricted from entering university campuses.

I learned these facts from reading We Are an Image from the Future: The Greek Revolt of December 2008, a collage of interviews, oral history, chronologies, personal essays, manifestos, and political essays, edited by A.G. Schwarz, Tasos Sagris, and Void Network. The format is similar to that used in the INCITE! collective's The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, which tells its story in a range of contradictory voices. In both books, the format results in repetition and a difficult-to-track sequence of events, but allows DIY interpretation and wide range of views, some of them way, way beyond the political discourse permitted in the United States, even in so-called progressive media.

Here is as good a point as any to complain about how the physical book under review—a wide ten inches on a six-inch spine—was difficult to read in bed. Perhaps this is in keeping with the direct action message of We Are an Image from the Future: get up and out and do something.

For those undeterred by these difficulties, there are rewards. The editors argue that their book is not a history, but is as close to a true account as can be achieved for the unexpected and multifaceted events sparked by the police murder of fifteen-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on December 6, 2008 in the Exarchia section of Athens—a neighborhood known for countercultural and anarchist activity. A witness entertaining a guest in his apartment above the square (who calls the Athenian equivalent of 9/11), activists who admit to being frightened by the violence of the ensuing riots, radicals who experience the realization that a revolutionary moment can occur in unpredictable ways that don't match a theoretical scheme, and a veteran of the overthrow of the dictatorship who chastises contemporary revolutionaries for smashing shops all have their say.

We're definitely not in Kansas anymore—or even in New York. Greece, which experienced occupation during World War II but actually liberated itself and endured a civil war in living memory, has some far-from-tame political confrontations. In the United States, we are more likely to criticize Washington and Jefferson as hypocritical slaveholders than recapitulate their revolution with a little political rumble of our own.

We Are an Image from the Future provides an honest and unforeclosed discussion of political violence. There is room for differentiation among property destruction, self-defense, expropriation, and deliberate attacks on the authority of the state, without distinctions being lost in the mire of the ever-expanding catch-all of "domestic terrorism." After all, Washington and his comrades were insurrectionists to the British.

Review by Frances Chapman

Maria's Story: Twenty Years Later

By Maria Guzman



Earlier this month, I saw a twentieth anniversary screening at The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. Before attending, I had an abbreviated understanding El Salvadorian politics, and the subject of the documentary, Maria Serrano. Filmed in 1989 by two young American women, Maria's Story: A Documentary Portrait Of Love And Survival In El Salvador's Civil War reveals the daily struggles and heartbreaking memories that lay in the wake of the political unrest that ravaged her town in El Salvador. The film chronicled a two-month journey for all involved. Ultimately, the film unfolds into a narrative about Maria’s role as a leader of a Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrilla camp, which was about being a mother, wife, and a community member.

Feminist Review recently spoke with the directors of the film, longtime friends Pamela Cohen and Monona Wali.

Were there moments during the filming of Maria's Story in which you felt that there were advantages to your position as women directors?

Pamela Cohen: I don’t know if a male director would have been drawn to Maria in the same way we were. We chose to put a female face on this war; we wanted to address the Che Guevara guerrilla image, because that’s not who was on the front lines.

Monona Wali: Because we are women, we were sensitive and committed to the human side of the story. There were times when we were drawn to the bigger side of the war, but beyond knowing the statistics, the instinct to stay close to Maria and stay close to her came from being women and cementing the relationship with her, which was affectionate, playful, and serious. I don’t know that a man would have been able to get that close.

Emeteria and Maria, two members of the community, discussed losing their daughters in the war. Hearing the details of how young women were victims in violent attacks in El Salvadorian towns effected me greatly. What were those moments like for you as directors?

Monona: With Emeteria, we had gone first to be with her in ’88 and lived in a repopulated community named Guarjila that we were going to use as a base camp. We had equipment, and it turned out that there was a huge military offensive, and we were stuck in a village. Emeteria was taking care of us; she was our mother during that time. It was the day of remembering the dead. She had come to San Jose Las Flores to be a part of that and knew us. We asked her, “How do you feel about this day?”

For Maria, it started in the bathing scene, and it came up spontaneously. We just wanted to get a scene. Every time Jose showed up, we turned the camera on because we didn’t know when they were going to be together again.

Pamela: But then we asked about it, and we knew we had to sit down with her to talk about it—that was separate. She was out of the country when Ceci was killed in ’87. That may be why she wouldn’t let go of Mijita (her youngest daughter) and made her a personal radio operator for the rest of the war.

How did your awareness about some of the issues raised in the film affect your work?

Pamela: It was six or eight months before we started editing. We thought, “After what we’ve been through… how can people not care?” We just felt like everyone had to know and were determined to finish it.

Cross posted at Gender Across Borders

Reading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women’s Prisons

By Megan Sweeney
University of North Carolina Press

“Sometimes, I think they forget the women.” One seemingly simple statement at the start of this book—spoken by the chief librarian for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction—serves to explain the importance of a text like Reading Is My Window. What began for Megan Sweeney as a dissertation on prisoners’ relationships with true crime books evolved into a years-long study of analyzing the reading patterns of the occupants of several women’s prisons across the country.

In addition to conducting 245 individual interviews with female prisoners, Sweeney also facilitated fifty-one book group discussions. The interviews and interactions with the prisoners make up at least half of the book, so by the second chapter, you’ll find yourself engaging with the prisoners and their individual stories of mental, physical, and sexual abuse, along with drug use. The stories that emerge from these interviews and discussions offer a fascinating insight into how the women manage to regain a kind of humanity through reading while residing in an institution determined to dehumanize them. Solo, Monique, and Denise are among the many who will stay with you long after the last page, and rather than pitying them, Sweeney’s nuanced descriptions of each prisoner’s personality helps you understand that they are actively making their world better through reading, even if their world will never interact with the one outside the prison walls.

Sweeney structures her study through the investigation of three specific genres: urban fiction, narratives of victimization, and self-help books. She also examines the aspect of community building through prison book clubs, and the material comfort that comes from the mere act of holding a book—something that we in the free world take for granted. While those topics make Reading Is My Window an interesting and provocative read, the excerpted interviews are what take the book out of being purely academic and ground it in the personal.

Far too often, it is easy to do just what the chief librarian from Ohio said: forget the women. Prisoners are already a population of people that we often turn away from, so when the modifier of “woman” (and often “African American”) is added to that, remembering them as people who have worth becomes even less of a priority. By telling these women’s stories and taking them out of the institution, Sweeney takes the first step in driving home the point that if we forget these women, we may as well forget ourselves.

Reading Is My Window serves as a call to action. Sweeney spares no detail in describing the shoddy state of penal library systems, pointing out that many prison administrations see books as rewards for good behavior rather than necessary tools for prisoner rehabilitation. It’s safe to say that, after reading this book, you’ll want to consult the list of organizations that provide books to prisoners Sweeney includes at the end of the book to see how you can help advance the worthy cause of prison literacy.

Review by Alyssa Vincent

Voice of an Angel: Talking to Jill Andrews

By Tina Vasquez

When I first spoke to singer Jill Andrews, I was quite shocked when she first answered the phone. Her voice was low, slow, and groggy, which wasn’t what I was expecting. You see, Andrews quite literally has the voice of an angel.

As it turned out, I was waking her up from a peaceful nap with her infant son, Nico. Nico was born around the time that Andrews’ critically acclaimed, Tennessee-based band, The Everybodyfields, broke up. She and her band were part of a growing wave of young musicians emerging from the south who are meshing the music of their region (country, bluegrass, and blues) with the music they grew up listening to (punk and indie rock) to create an interesting sound of their own. The Everybodyfields garnered a lot of attention early in their five-year career because of Andrews beautiful harmonizing with bandmate Sam Quinn and their constant touring with the increasingly popular Avett Brothers.

After the split, Andrews got to work creating music of her own, and recently released her first self-titled EP. No one can sing like Jill Andrews; no one can convey heartbreak and loneliness and aching pain like she can in just a single line. The EP is six songs of simple, pure, and heartfelt music, and though Andrews has a lot on her plate (a recent tour and her first child), she decided to release another six-track album recorded live at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia to benefit the International Rescue Committee and help the earthquake survivors in Haiti.

Who were your musical influences growing up?

My first tape was Diana Ross, and I wore that tape out when I was a kid. I have to say, though, that my first huge musical influence was Bette Midler. When I got to high school, I was really into folk music and started listening to things that weren’t on the radio, like The Jayhawks and Wilco. I was also really into Joni Mitchell.

A lot of what I started listening to in high school was influenced by my surroundings and where I came from. Living in the mountains of Tennessee influences the music we listened to, and the mountains were the perfect backdrop it. The music I like most now is the type of music I write and play. I like really emotional music. When I listen to songs, I want to feel something. I want to dirty dance or cry my eyes out.

When did you realize you wanted to be a musician?

I can remember always wanting to be famous, but my parents tell a different story. We always went to this donut shop together, and when I was a really little kid, my dad asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said a donut waitress. In high school I was in youth choir, school choir, and church choir, and all of my instructors were really supportive and made sure that I knew my voice was going to be heard.

When did you meet Sam Quinn?

Around the same time I started playing guitar, I went to summer camp. Sam was a camp counselor, and he asked me to sing a song, so I put on a cheesy karaoke tape and sang to it. I’m sure he thought I was crazy. After the first week of camp, I realized I really needed a guitar because everyone who had a guitar sucked. I knew if I practiced I could be good at it. I’m sure I made a fool of myself at first, but I began writing songs immediately after getting my guitar.

What do you hope people take from your music?

I’ve always been into helping people. I was a psychology major in college, and I worked with kids who had behavioral issues, but I quit to pursue music full-time. For a long time I struggled with the decision because being a singer seemed too egocentric. Every night the spotlight was shining on me. I got all dressed up and it was kind of like, “Hey, look at me!” I’ve since made peace with it, though. Music helps the emotional state of the world. People need music, and I need to keep making music for the sake of my own well being, so it all works out in the end.

Ricki Lake Loses Over 100 Pounds

Ricki Lake recently spoke with Us Magazine about her dramatic weight loss in which she shed over 100 pounds.

She now weighs 123-pounds and is a size-4.





















On crash dieting in 1991:
“… I went on this extreme diet. I used to faint because I wasn’t eating and I was always exercising.”

On the most exciting thing about her new weight:
“For the longest time, when I was very heavy, I couldn’t cross my legs. I couldn’t physically do it. LOVE that I can cross my legs now ... Even my shoe size is changing. My Jimmy Choos are too big now.”

On what she thinks of super-skinny actresses:
“I think I have no wrinkles because I always had fat on my face. Really skinny girls age so fast."

Bryce Dallas Howard and Kirsten Dunst on Jane's May Issue

I got my May issue of Jane a couple of days ago and had to do a double take.

Yes, that is Kirsten Dunst. Wow, they did an amazing touch up job on her, I thought. And where's her snaggle tooth?


Jane Interview with Bryce Dallas Howard and Kirsten Dunst:

Is it hard keeping up your friendship when you're in such different stages, relationship-wise?

Kirsten: I wish I were in a Bryce stage. I'd rather be with someone I love, at home making dinner, than be single, for sure.

But you must be having some fun.

Kirsten: It's fun. [She doesn't sound convinced.] It is. I'm happy. But life is about where Bryce is.
Bryce: I'm really happy, so I'm not going to argue. I was the worst single person on the planet! All I would do is stalk one person incessantly until he finally dated me.
Kirsten: Oh my God. [laughs].

Did you know your husband was "the one" right away, Bryce?

Bryce: Yes. The first time I saw him, I broke out into hives. I went home and wrote in my journal, "I met the man I'm going to marry." I just knew it. But he didn't know it for eight months.
Kirsten: For me, it's an intuitive thing. I have to be blown away or have a really good conversation and laugh with the person right away. Manny, who did our hair for Spider-Man 3, gives me advice and is soulful. He says I'm going to be pregnant within two years.
Bryce: Does that freak you out?
Kirsten: Yeah. I'm like, "Where's the dude?"

More at JANE

Sanjaya Malakar Speaks About His Time on American Idol

People Magazine talked with Sanjaya Malakar after his dismissal on last night's American Idol.

He spoke about being in the competition and having to to withstand the criticism that went with it.

People: What do you think turned the tide for you on Tuesday night?

Sanjaya: Honestly, I'm not a country singer. I think that that really took a toll on me. And I didn't have enough really strong performances to let people forgive me for that. Like, for example, LaKisha, she's not necessarily a country singer either, but she had enough strong performances to get her though – and I don't think I did.

What have you learned most as a result of being thrust into fame like this?

I think I've learned not to let any negativity get you – just to keeping on trucking, I guess. And try to find the positive in everything.

What would you say to Simon?

Well, from the beginning I think that Simon saw potential in me, and when I didn't fulfill that potential, he was kind of disappointed. So I just want to say to him that he's an amazing person, and what he does is awesome. He's very opinionated, but I learned more from him than anyone else while I was on the show.

Is it true that you had a habit of reading the online blogs to gauge your performance? What kind of an affect did that have?

Well, I read the blogs more to balance myself, because it was kind of impossible not to hear stuff, and often times it was negative. So I kind of balanced the negative and the positive just to keep my self grounded.

Was it frustrating for you that your hair got almost more attention than your singing?

No, because at a certain point, that had kind of became my thing. Because I think that everyone looks for something to grab on to with each contestant, so I feel like my hair was that for me.

With all the hair and the hats and everything, was your philosophy at a certain point just to go for broke?

My philosophy was just to stay true to myself and try to put my personality out there – and that's all.

You had the sense that the tide was against you. Did you ever consider quitting or dropping out in deference to your fellow singers?

Not at all, not at all. I was going to stay as long as I possibly could and just work every week and try to learn from everything that happened.

How did you react when Hillary Clinton was asked about you at a news conference?

I heard about that very briefly. And it's interesting because I had no idea how much impact the show has. I think it's interesting that someone like me, a 17-year-old Seattle boy, could have so much impact to get into the presidential debate.

What will you do next?

I'm definitely looking at a music career but I also want to venture into acting and modeling and possibly Broadway or something because I want to get the full entertainment business.

With the pros and cons of celebrity, are you thinking about getting a bodyguard?

Yeah, I'm definitely ready to hire a bodyguard. I'm actually looking to do that right now.

American Idol Exeutive Producer Gives The Scoop On the Remaining Finalists

Entertainment Tonight spoke with the executive producer of American Idol, Ken Warwick, after the dismissal of Sanjaya Malakar.














ET: Do you think your numbers will suffer now that Sanjaya Malakar was voted out? Do you think people tuned in for the train wreck?

KEN WARWICK: To be honest, touch wood, we are big enough that the ratings don't actually bother us that much at this stage. We know that we are bigger than anybody else. We know we are up over last year. That is not likely to change. If [the ratings] dropped considerably, there would be a reason for us to agonize over them. If we got bogged down in the ratings, then we would be chasing ourselves around a tree, so we don't pay that much attention to it.

ET: Did Sanjaya cheapen the show?

KEN: Irrespective of what effect he [had] on the show, he was there because people at home voted for him.

ET: Because of the Sanjaya effect, would you ever considering splitting the vote like they do on "Dancing with the Stars," where the judges vote counts 50 percent?

KEN: No. I will never consider that. That is not a part of our format. As far as we are concerned, it is the public at home that picks the Idol. There has never been a case where they have never been able to skew the vote one way or another. We had 38 million votes this week. Even the biggest radio shows are a drop in the ocean and will not be able to sway the votes.

ET: What is your reaction to Ryan Seacrest supporting the contestants more this year?

KEN: I love it. One of the attractions, if you like, people say to me, "Why is this show so popular?" A very relevant point is that there is quite curt banter between the judges and Ryan. Ryan is always there to support the contestants no matter what the situation. He is not a judge. He is there to champion their song and the way that they sing it. If he feels they are being bullied by any of the judges, it is part of his mandate, "You step in there and you defend them, if you think it is right."

ET: Do you feel that the judges are steering voters toward Jordin Sparks?

KEN: I have to say, when they can, they always tell the truth. They have also been pretty supportive of Melinda Doolittle every week. I don't think it is any more than anybody else who is good. They call it the way they see it. Had they had any kind of agenda of making Jordin one of the frontrunners, they would have started earlier. In the past few weeks, she has impressed them. With all these shows, you find generally, it is the person who grows throughout the series that usually wins the benefit in the end of it. I think they realized the one contestant who has consistently grown -- Melinda has been good every week, Lakisha has been pretty good every week, but Jordin has grown. It gives them something to talk about. Jordin is someone who they can hook into it. It gives them more credibility.

ET: Do you think that Melinda is too mature to win the competition?

KEN: She is more mature, to be honest with you, but the fact of the matter is, it isn't my decision, it is the publics. If they think she is fine and they want to see her again and they vote for her, then she is going to be there. I long ago gave up worrying what my personal favorites were. Last year, I loved Kat McPhee. She was just a really, really talented all-arounder. I would have loved her to win, but it wasn't to be. There was somebody there that was a bit quirky and he was the winner. End of story. What I think is immaterial, really.

The Lindsay Lohan WTF of the Day

Lindsay Lohan talked with Allure magazine and had some interesting things to say.

Was she coked up when she did this interview?

On rehab:

"It's so weird that I went to rehab. I always said I would die before I went to rehab."

On being a caretaker for family & friends:

"When my friends and family are around me I feel like they're safe. When my friends have left me - I've just seen everything collapse. They're not safe without me."

On her post rehab clubbing:

"It's my life!"

On her reputation:

"Everybody's tired of hearing things about me... I think it's just better for me to lie low and get better."

Bjork on the Cover of French Rolling Stone

Bjork's Volta & Earth Intruders Podcast

Part 1
Part 2


Source: ONTD

Joel Madden's Blender Interview

When he’s not dating Hilary Duff or Nicole Richie, the Good Charlotte singer is either on the phone with his mom, tidying his house or hanging out with Black Wall Street.




































Blender: People usually draw a self-portrait, Joel. You just wrote a bunch of words and letters.
Joel Madden: I’m a terrible artist. I can’t draw. I’m not very creative.

OK, we get the idea. So what did you write down?
I wrote out all the things that make me up. My initials; my band Good Charlotte; my clothing company; my production team; where I’m from originally—Maryland, Virginia, D.C.—my two crews, Black Wall Street and AMC. And I wrote, “I love my mom,” because I’m a mama’s boy.

How does a white punk from Maryland have a crew called Black Wall Street?
One of my best friends is the Game, a rapper, and that’s his crew. I’m an honorary member. I’m his son’s godfather. We live on the same street, we borrow each other’s cars. He has huge pool parties every other weekend. There’s valet parking, and it’s just an insane scene.

He was in the Bloods, and he sold drugs in Compton. What do you two have in common?
We have the same frame of mind. I always knew music was an opportunity to get out of a small town, make money, have a better life and take care of my mom. That’s why I related to hip-hop, because that’s what they rap about: opportunity.

Talk us through your worst haircut.
My high-school-graduation picture is pretty bad. I was into Green Day and Rancid, and I cut my hair real short and dyed it green and blue. I wasn’t going to graduate, and my mom was crying, so I went to night school with all the pregnant girls, to get my credits. I bleached my hair to look presentable for graduation, and it turned out orange.

So you really are a mama’s boy.
When I go home, she does my laundry and cooks for me. I call her every day. When I was out on the road and partying and stuff, my mom never knew. She’d read things sometimes and be like, “That’s not true!” And I’d be like, “Yeah, I don’t know why they wrote that, Mom. That’s not true.”

But it was true.
Yeah, sometimes.

If you were a woman, who would you want to be?
I’d probably want to be Oprah. Actually, no, Angelina Jolie. She gets to do whatever she wants.

What medication are you on?
Just coffee and cigarettes.

You know cigarettes are bad for you, right?
Whatever. Heroin would be worse, wouldn’t it? I’ll stick with the cigarettes.

So the way you rationalize it is—
I could be doing heroin. I really could! Like, without cigarettes, I would be doing heroin, probably. On a daily basis.

What’s the one question you’re most tired of being asked?
People have this misconception that I’m followed all the time by paparazzi, which I’m not. The only reason that’s ever been an element of my life is because of the women I’ve dated. In every interview, they ask me, “How do you deal with people invading your privacy?” The paparazzi don’t care about me.

Do you have any nicknames?
This is kind of weird, but my friends call me JoelPac, or Pac. Like Tupac. I don’t usually tell people, because it’s like, “Who does this guy think he is?” Tupac’s my favorite rapper, and I know every word to every song.

How much is a quart of milk, JoelPac?
$2.50? $2.99? $1.98? I don’t look at the prices. When I was growing up, we had food stamps. So now, when I go to the grocery store, I buy everything I want. I buy a quart of ice cream and I don’t even eat it sometimes.

What personal habit do you have that other people find annoying?
I need to have everything in its place—I have OCD. My friends will all be hanging out at my house and they’ll see me cleaning and organizing their shit, straightening it all. And they’re like, “Do you want us to leave?” Then, if they move something, I’ll stare at it while they’re talking to me. It’s really weird and obsessive.

Are you a genius?
No way. [Laughs] I’m a hard worker, that’s about it. There are a lot of geniuses sitting in their parents’ basements right now, playing video games.

RADAR Interviews Jon Voight

Radar talks to Voight about the Patriot Act, his daughter Angelina Jolie, her children, and of course, the media.

RADAR: Was the Iraq war part of the war on terror before we got there?
JON VOIGHT: I'm interested in talking about this, but it's been so politicized, it's very disturbing, very dangerous. My view of it is this: they say our president lied to us. Well, he didn't lie to us, everybody else had the information he had, and they voted for that tactic.

So I imagine you're a supporter of the Patriot Act?
Yes, I'm a supporter of the Patriot Act. I support protecting us and investigating anyone who indicates they're going to be dangerous to our country. It's one of those things; it depends on which side you're on politically. If we had these things in place we could have anticipated 9/11. We're not interested in investigating someone who's doing something appropriate. We don't have time for that. That's nonsense. I certainly hope we're paying close attention to all those people crossing our borders who might be dangerous to us. We know for sure there are cells in the United States that are ready to erupt. We know that Hezbollah is here; we know there are cells from different terrorist organization that are here and operational and that there are others waiting too. So listen, it's a serious business. It's wartime, guys. Because we don't have a continuous attack on our shores, we can get complacent. We've got to all be alert now, we've got to be a part of it and be supportive of our troops for sure.

Even if you disapprove of the war, it seems pretty clear that simply pulling the troops out might not be the best option.
More than that, the war does not end. When we look around and see the evidence of what is being done and the preparations that are being made to disrupt our country and to destroy it. This growing cancer of fanaticism, it's like 1938­it's very, very similar.

To the Third Reich?
Yeah.

Islamic fundamentalism?
Whatever you call it, the things that are being said are very similar. It's a matter of whether we recognize that or go into a cocoon and make our own little drama. Do you know what I'm saying? We're debating things instead of recognizing that the real fundamental aspect is that we're at war with a very vicious, very clever enemy.

The press has been unkind about your relationship with Angelina Jolie over the last few years. One recent item had you flubbing the name of one of her daughters.
What! Flubbed the name?

Do you have any response?
No, listen, I haven't been in touch with the kids and I would love to be spending time with them, that's all. I have nothing to say, people want to make news out of everything. It's just a cruel slap at somebody and it becomes a part of our mythology, we can't correct it. I don't want to bring attention to it again. It always hurts me when things are brought back to the fore that are distorted. I send my love to Angie and her family.

Read the full interview here.