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Newsmash: June 16, 2004

Wednesday — Afghanistan Puts Down and Rolls Up Foreign Contractors

Shrapnel Causes 25,00 Wrecks

Year 11, 2001: Terrorist Attacks Document — Plotting to Blow up the Editor

Early Roster of Al Qaeda Superstars Planned Simultaneous Attacks on Wednesday

Obese ‘Idol’ host took delight in his sunburned hands, smoked cocaine, crabs and sponges.

Israel’s Destiny School Postponed According to Sources

The wealthiest African-American detainees are more than extended.

Inside, infamous casualties rise. Commission to strike again.

Sea Change — Mexico Clinging to Rocks

Israeli prosperity affirms ironclad peace, killing top security targets investigating Qaeda plots.

Tailspin for a Team — United States Sept. 11, 2001

Guantanamo Drill — The Shimmering Water Lapped Against Extremist Militants

TV Job Awaits 6-year-old Girl in trash-strewn compound west of Baghdad

Sept. 11 terrorist a patriot compelling Detroit Pistons chronicler to reenlist.

A man smiled to determine whether he is John Kerry.

Wednesday. More Attacks — New Interim Government Behind After Bombing.

More Chunks Lodged in Pipeline — Jailed Militants Revealing Large Pain

Saudis Say Give In To Al Qaeda

Ill-planned Iraq officers said on Wednesday U.S. may cede Baghdad to Saddam Hussein.

Rebuffing the Sept. 11 Attacks in a Hair-raising ABU GHRAIB Bathroom

Mentally Unfit Interim Government Aided Prewar Rhetoric

Turbulent National Basketball Academy Mall Plot Slammed

Mental Health Soldiers Won’t Necessarily Make Your Belly Fat

Capitol Office Disease — VP Hunt Ordered

Child-killer to Give Fresh Hijacked Planes to Southeast Asia — Sept. 11, 2001

Fat-related Singing to Increase Oil Production

American Guards on Junk — Casual Beating Experiences in March

War Erodes United Military Emotions

Saudi Arabia “Does Not Deserve” Liposuction — Attorney General Suspected on Bribery Charge

Independent al-Qaida terror insurgents sabotaged pipelines, lost 19 of 31 games.

JERUSALEM. Hollywood’s Oscar lawsuits for Vanity Fair.

Randomizing The Brothers Karamazov

From Jon Carroll’s column in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle, wherein Jon describes a recent road trip he took with his wife and what they listened to:

Listening: We took our iPod along for the ride. We loaded it with 700 of our favorite songs, we selected the “random” option, and we let fate choose our music, Diana Krall followed by Mavis Staples followed by Waylon Jennings. We also downloaded some non-music: Adam Gopnik at the Commonwealth Club, David Sedaris at Carnegie Hall and, because we knew we’d never read it any other way, “The Brothers Karamazov.”

“The B.K.” is a very long book — Dostoevsky never uses one adverb when three will do — and is interspersed with long speeches about the existence of God and the meaning of consciousness. My mind tended to wander in the soft hum of the highway, so sometimes I was confused as to who was speaking to whom. The book is about the activities of about 10 people in the same Russian town, so there aren’t a lot of signposts for the inattentive listener. Still, I was liking it.

“Isn’t it interesting,” I said to Tracy, “how experimental this seems for a 19th century novel? Notice how everyone talks about Dimitri, but we never actually see him.”

It was not until Pennsylvania that we realized that we had neglected to turn off the “random” feature of the iPod, so we were getting chapters in arbitrary order, the plot entirely in the mischievous hands of fate.

We loved the part at the beginning, where everybody died.

Bloomsday x100 June 16, 1904 - June 16, 2004

Happy 100th Bloomsday! The 100th anniversary of Leopold Bloom’s wandering Dublin day chronicled in James Joyce’s Ulysses - June 16, 1904.

If you’re in the neighborhood, you might want to check out ReJoyce Dublin 2004, though if you’re fortunate enough to be in Dublin, you probably can’t escape the old man today.

Here is a passage from Ulysses, picked at random (p. 685):

Did he attribute this homonymity to information or coincidence or intuition?
Coincidence.

Did he depict the scene verbally for his guest to see?
He preferred himself to see another’s face and listen to another’s words by which potential narration was realised and kinetic temperament relieved. . . .

Which domestic problem as much as, if not more than, any other frequently engaged his mind?
What to do with our wives.

Lars Von Trier & Jorgen Leth - ‘The Five Obstructions’

indieWIRE has a good story and interview with Jorgen Leth about his new film with Lars von Trier, “The Five Obstructions.” Some excerpts:

Danish directors Jorgen Leth and Lars von Trier have created the ultimate exercise in sado-masochistic filmmaking. And guess who’s the sadist? In “The Five Obstructions,” Lars von Trier subjects his predecessor Leth to a series of five filmmaking trials, each based on the remaking of Leth’s 1967 short film “The Perfect Human” according to different “obstructions.” Reminiscent of von Trier’s Dogme rules, the regulations include, among others, that every shot should be 12 frames in length, that one version had to be filmed in the most miserable place in the world, and one version had to be animated.

…

Leth also proves himself a worthy opponent to his young rival — always using von Trier’s mischievous limitations as springboards for creative solutions. (As von Trier whines, “The trouble is you’re so clever that whatever I say inspires you.”) In fact, all of Leth’s altered “Perfect Humans” are gems of innovative filmmaking. By the end of “The Five Obstructions,” it’s not easy to discern between obstructer and obstructed, victor and vanquished.

…

iW: You’re also a poet and I was wondering how you relate your poetry to your filmmaking, because poetry doesn’t seem to have any limits. And yet you say that limitations help to create art?

Leth: For me, poetry has a strong link to my filmmaking. My films learn from my poetry. In poetry, you’re free. You start in the corner and you don’t know where it leads you. I have no message, I have nothing I want to tell, I just start and I see where it leads, and it’s a big surprise and relief if it’s good. That’s the ideal state for filmmaking. I like the idea of chance coming into filmmaking, in shooting, in editing, and I do make space in my rules of game for chance. William Burroughs, Andy Warhol and John Cage are major influences for my work. Godard is the only cineastic influence.

Bloom - A New Film Adaptation of Ulysses

In one week it will be Bloomsday, and this year’s Bloomsday will mark the centennial of the original day in which the action of James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place, which itself commemorated the day of his first date with his future wife Nora Barnacle. It will be celebrated in part by the release of a new film adaptation of the day in the life of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedelus, called Bloom, starring Stephen Rea playing Bloom, Angelina Ball as Molly and Hugh O’Conor as Dedalus.