The whole of May 6th was marked by demonstrations which turned into riots in the afternoon. The first barricades were thrown up at the Place Maubert and defended for three hours. At the same time fights with the police were breaking out at the bottom of the Boulevard Saint-Michel, at the Place du Châtelet, and in Les Halles. By the early evening the demonstrators numbered more than ten thousand and were mainly holding the area around the Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where they had been reinforced only after 6p.m. by the bulk of the march organized by the UNEF at Denfert-Rochereau. On May 8th Le Monde wrote:

What followed surpassed in scope and violence everything that had happened throughout an already astonishing day. It was a kind of street fighting that sometimes reached a frenzy, where every blow delivered was immediately returned, and where ground that had scarcely been conquered was just as quickly retaken. . . There were dramatic and senseless moments which, for the observer, seemed rife with madness.

And on May 7th L'Aurore noted: "Alongside the demonstrators could be seen bands of young hoods (blousons noirs) armed with steel bars, who had come in from the outlying areas of Paris to help out the students." The fighting lasted until after midnight, especially at Montparnasse.

For the first time cars were overturned and set afire, paving stones were dug up for the barricades, and stores were looted. The use of subversive slogans, which had begun at Nanterre, had now spread to several parts of Paris. Insofar as the rioters were able to strengthen the barricades, and thus their own capacity for counterattack, the police were forced to abandon direct charges for a position strategy which relied mainly on offensive grenades and tear gas.

May 6th also marked the first intervention of workers, blousons noirs, the unemployed and high school students who that morning had organized important demonstrations. The spontaneity and violence of the riots stood in vivid contrast to the platitudes put forth by their academic initiators as goals and slogans. The very fact that the blousons noirs had fought in the streets shouting "The Sorbonne to the students!" marked an end to an entire era.

Tags: collage, history, nostalgia, politics, theory
Current Location: 85704

This is one hell of a song, even if it is the musical equivalent of the movie Body Heat. Or was, at any rate. Since Corinne Bailey Rae recorded it, her husband passed away from a drug overdose, retroactively transforming it from a lovely exercise in nostalgia into a heart-breaking plea for a future that has already passed its expiration date. Take the time while you have it, as Andrew Marvell eloquently advised, because the untimely is always waiting in the shadows to steal your heart.

Tags: history, music
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Also, as much as I have been impressed with Barack Obama, today's commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death inspired me to détourn Lloyd Bentsen in my head. The Reverend's last speeches, when he knew he was being stalked and full of the radical fervor already making 1968 a year like no other are, in their own way, even more stunning than the one he gave on the Mall in 1963. His last speech, which has been getting a lot of play today is a fine example:

Or how about about this sermon, on the "drum major instinct" from precisely two months before that shot rang out in the Memphis sky:

And there is deep down within all of us an instinct. It's a kind of drum major instinct—a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first. And it is something that runs the whole gamut of life.

And so before we condemn them, let us see that we all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. Alfred Adler, the great psychoanalyst, contends that this is the dominant impulse. Sigmund Freud used to contend that sex was the dominant impulse, and Adler came with a new argument saying that this quest for recognition, this desire for attention, this desire for distinction is the basic impulse, the basic drive of human life, this drum major instinct.

And you know, we begin early to ask life to put us first. Our first cry as a baby was a bid for attention. And all through childhood the drum major impulse or instinct is a major obsession. Children ask life to grant them first place. They are a little bundle of ego. And they have innately the drum major impulse or the drum major instinct.

Now in adult life, we still have it, and we really never get by it. We like to do something good. And you know, we like to be praised for it. Now if you don't believe that, you just go on living life, and you will discover very soon that you like to be praised. Everybody likes it, as a matter of fact. And somehow this warm glow we feel when we are praised or when our name is in print is something of the vitamin A to our ego. Nobody is unhappy when they are praised, even if they know they don't deserve it and even if they don't believe it. The only unhappy people about praise is when that praise is going too much toward somebody else. (That’s right) But everybody likes to be praised because of this real drum major instinct.

Now the presence of the drum major instinct is why so many people are "joiners." You know, there are some people who just join everything. And it's really a quest for attention and recognition and importance. And they get names that give them that impression. So you get your groups, and they become the "Grand Patron," and the little fellow who is henpecked at home needs a chance to be the "Most Worthy of the Most Worthy" of something. It is the drum major impulse and longing that runs the gamut of human life. And so we see it everywhere, this quest for recognition. And we join things, overjoin really, that we think that we will find that recognition in.

Now the presence of this instinct explains why we are so often taken by advertisers. You know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion. And they have a way of saying things to you that kind of gets you into buying. In order to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey. In order to make your neighbors envious, you must drive this type of car. (Make it plain) In order to be lovely to love you must wear this kind of lipstick or this kind of perfume. And you know, before you know it, you're just buying that stuff. (Yes) That's the way the advertisers do it.

I got a letter the other day, and it was a new magazine coming out. And it opened up, "Dear Dr. King: As you know, you are on many mailing lists. And you are categorized as highly intelligent, progressive, a lover of the arts and the sciences, and I know you will want to read what I have to say." Of course I did. After you said all of that and explained me so exactly, of course I wanted to read it. [laughter]

But very seriously, it goes through life; the drum major instinct is real. (Yes) And you know what else it causes to happen? It often causes us to live above our means. (Make it plain) It's nothing but the drum major instinct. Do you ever see people buy cars that they can't even begin to buy in terms of their income? (Amen) [laughter] You've seen people riding around in Cadillacs and Chryslers who don't earn enough to have a good T-Model Ford. (Make it plain) But it feeds a repressed ego.

You know, economists tell us that your automobile should not cost more than half of your annual income. So if you make an income of five thousand dollars, your car shouldn't cost more than about twenty-five hundred. That's just good economics. And if it's a family of two, and both members of the family make ten thousand dollars, they would have to make out with one car. That would be good economics, although it's often inconvenient. But so often, haven't you seen people making five thousand dollars a year and driving a car that costs six thousand? And they wonder why their ends never meet. [laughter] That's a fact.

Now the economists also say that your house shouldn't cost—if you're buying a house, it shouldn't cost more than twice your income. That's based on the economy and how you would make ends meet. So, if you have an income of five thousand dollars, it's kind of difficult in this society. But say it's a family with an income of ten thousand dollars, the house shouldn't cost much more than twenty thousand. Well, I've seen folk making ten thousand dollars, living in a forty- and fifty-thousand-dollar house. And you know they just barely make it. They get a check every month somewhere, and they owe all of that out before it comes in. Never have anything to put away for rainy days.

But now the problem is, it is the drum major instinct. And you know, you see people over and over again with the drum major instinct taking them over. And they just live their lives trying to outdo the Joneses. (Amen) They got to get this coat because this particular coat is a little better and a little better-looking than Mary's coat. And I got to drive this car because it's something about this car that makes my car a little better than my neighbor's car. (Amen) I know a man who used to live in a thirty-five-thousand-dollar house. And other people started building thirty-five-thousand-dollar houses, so he built a seventy-five-thousand-dollar house. And then somebody else built a seventy-five-thousand-dollar house, and he built a hundred-thousand-dollar house. And I don't know where he's going to end up if he's going to live his life trying to keep up with the Joneses.

There comes a time that the drum major instinct can become destructive. (Make it plain) And that's where I want to move now. I want to move to the point of saying that if this instinct is not harnessed, it becomes a very dangerous, pernicious instinct. For instance, if it isn’t harnessed, it causes one's personality to become distorted. I guess that's the most damaging aspect of it: what it does to the personality. If it isn't harnessed, you will end up day in and day out trying to deal with your ego problem by boasting.

You can hear excerpts on the excellent site for the King Papers Project at Stanford University. I can't link there directly, but it's easy enough to find if you look around a bit, which would be a worthy way to spend your time today.

Tags: history, media, politics
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I already voted for Barack Obama. But if I were in a state where the primary had yet to occur and wavering in my decision, the speech he gave today -- here's the transcript -- would have won me over for good. I don't know whether that means it was the right thing to do politically, since I am hardly the demographic he most needs to court. Still, I want to believe that Americans can be convinced by rhetoric that is more than rhetoric. Long an advocate of heeding the autobiographical impulse in prose, I recognize that it is often used too freely, particularly in political discourse. In this case, though, Obama's first-person singular is not the empty "I" of stump speech boilerplate. It's the "I" of his first book, written long before he was out on the Presidential campaign trail, steeped in the language of Frederick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau alike. I only hope that this strong, clear voice survives the muddy waters ahead.

Tags: history, politics
Current Location: 85704

Tags: archive, history, literature, theory
Current Location: 85704
Muse: the strains of a Charleston from across the water

I don't normally post entries with photographs that one of me LJ friends has already shared. But in this case I have to make an exception. The fact that I spent several hours yesterday discussing life and politics with an articulate American soldier who explained, in detail, the injuries he suffered in Iraq already had me feeling the burden of history with special force. Seeing this remarkable photo tonight pushed me over the edge:

That's me on the right, one of my oldest and best friends -- and the person who inspired me to start blogging here -- cpratt in the middle, at his graduation from UC Berkeley back in May, 1992, and his then-partner Mark Bingham on the left, someone who I always got along famously with and with whom I would love to share my frustration at the officiating, not to mention bad luck, that plagued tonight's contest at Maples Pavilion. Mark was as true a Bear of the Cal variety as you could ever hope to find, someone who made me swell with pride for my alma mater even in defeat. Here's hoping that there are plenty of stupid tree mascots for you to defile in the next life, Mark. You deserve it.

Tags: archive, autobiography, bay area, friends, history, nostalgia, photography
Current Location: 85704
Muse: the Cal fight song in quarter time

I was going through some old computer files from the 1990s today and came across one of my favorite "fan mail" messages:

When I received this message, I was surprised to be getting a response to a three-year-old piece, particularly on a topic that had made such a rapid retreat into the past. But now, twelve years after getting this e-mail, I feel closer, in some ways, to the heyday of grunge than I did in 1996. It has been said by many, far better than I can say it, but the perception of history is a long, strange trip.

Tags: autobiography, clips, history, music, nostalgia
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Muse: memories of The Lonesome Crowded West

I'd spend most of the night in the front room, coupling my favorite records together like a breeder of roses. Whir and click, whir and click. Even in your sleep the sound troubled you. But I didn't know how to come to bed.

I look at my handwriting now and remember the cinder blocks, how I'd crouch down to release the pause button and see the spot on the lower right where you'd ripped that photo booth collage in half. I was preparing to leave, though I wasn't sure what. I was already more attached to the past than the future.

Tags: autobiography, history, love, music, nostalgia
Current Location: 85704
Muse: Superchunk - Swallow That - On the Mouth

The news that Adolph Rupp-era Kentucky All-American Ralph Beard has passed away calls back memories of the time I saw him at Louisville's storied Hotel Seelbach, which I wrote about in the early months of this journal. At the time I didn't recognize that Beard's involvement in a notorious college basketball point-shaving scandal that led to his being banned from the NBA made the location of my encounter especially rich. The Seelbach, you see, figures in The Great Gatsby, a novel in which the 1919 Chicago "Black" Sox scandal plays a role. When I saw Sherman Alexie deliver the keynote talk at the University of Louisville's annual literature conference last year, he kept coming back to the image of F. Scott Fitzgerald's ghost wandering the halls of the Seelbach, where Alexie was staying. I also didn't realize back in 2004 how deliciously ironic it was that Beard was accused of shaving.

Tags: history, literature, sports
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From Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, Convolute N--

It is not that what is past casts its light on what is present, or what is present its light on what is past; rather, image is that wherein what has been comes together in a flash with the now to form a constellation. In other words, image is dialectics at a standstill. For while the relation of the present to the past is a purely temporal, continuous one, the relation of what-has-been to the now is dialectical: is not progression but image, suddenly emergent.

The dialectical image is an image that emerges suddenly, in a flash. What has been is to be held fast -- as an image flashing up in the now of its recognizability. The rescue that is carried out by these means -- and only by these -- can operate solely for the sake of what in the next moment is already irretrievably lost.

Tags: archive, collage, daughter, history, nostalgia, photography, theory
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Tags: autobiography, daughter, family, history, nostalgia, photography, travel
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Mode: warily redemptive
Muse: a memory of Superstar

Walking to my office this morning, I heard the following in passing:

"He's one of those unreconstructed 60s types."

You can grow a whole world from that stem cell.

Tags: everyday, history, literature
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Tags: archive, history, politics
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