I'm done with exams finally! One more year left. I got a research position here in economic geography for the summer with my supervisor. Everything seems to be going well: a job, free time, good weather (sort of) finally, and I'll be going to Spain in a couple weeks with my dad, and then coming back to the city for the second half of May and June (the best month in Quebec).

This semester I only had time to read three books aside from coursework. One was Allen Scott's Metropolis, an in-depth case-study application of Régulation Theory to the evolution of industry in Southern California. The second book was Beyond the Régulation Approach by Bob Jessop and Ngai Ling-Sum about the Régulation school, criticisms and new directions. Both of these books are related to the research I'm starting for my honour's thesis. They would be pretty dry to someone not interested in economic geography and/or political economy, and are likely of rather limited appeal.

So, instead, I'll recommend the other book I read, The Moor's Sigh by Salman Rushdie. I still prefer Midnight's Children as my favorite Rushdie book and my favorite book overall. However, the moor's last sigh is most definitely my second favorite Rushdie book. It starts out by drawing the reader in to the heart-warming story of a family's formation, happiness and rise. However, the hook comes as Rushdie details the family's destruction through a nearly Biblical fall. As is expected with Rushdie, the story leaves the reader questioning the truth of what happened at various points in the story, allowing you to chose a dark or light reality, or more likely a murky confusion in between.

Also, in film. For those who haven't seen Baraka, I would recommend it for sure. This is my favorite film of all-time. It is a non-plot, non-dialogue film about the unity of humanity and the oneness of the world. Recently I watched Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera. This 1920's Soviet silent film stars the cameraman as the protagonist in the story of factographic documentation. Unlike traditional socialist realists, Vertov portrays the world as it is, with the good and the bad, rather than simply glorifying the hammer-and-sickle happy worker cliché. It's interesting to watch Vertov as precursor to Fricke's Baraka. I also watched Manhatta, as well as Berlin, the Symphony of a Great City, along with some other similar films, all of which were quite disappointing in comparison to the aforementioned two.

I got nothing new in music. As for politics, I've been watching both the recent and the old Obama videos on Youtube (including the will.i.am music videos). Even as he enters this current media-induced tough-spot, he continues to impress me more ad more. I watched Wright's comments in context and some of his other sermons. He is a great preacher. I like him a lot. Some of his comments remain politically problematic (though mostly -not wholly- true) even in context. But the context does cast a pretty different light on the whole episode. I went back and watched his Charlie Rose interview from before he entered the race.

I particularly liked how he talked about how our problems are not so much technical in nature, but rather simply political in that we have the capacity to do what we set our minds to (we do not lack the money or the ideas), but that what we need is someone to build a consensus, a community, to inspire all of us to rally around a common project once again. In the whole babblefest about Clinton's experience versus Obama's hope, this view of the problem being a social, political problem (a vision deficit) reinforces in my mind how irrelevant (and arrogrant) it is for Clinton to somehow claim her experience would allow her to magically fix the economy and all other problems. No matter what, that view won't work. We need someone not to give us the answers, but to inspire us, make us proud to be part of the Americna project once again.

E. B. White

If you like sarcasm and often political commentary, you will love 'E. B. White Writings from the New Yorker 1927-1976'. He's an excellent, pithy writer and on top of that it's really interested to watch the evolution of the subject of his writings throughout historical events (ex-McCarthy era stuff is very bold and critical). He writes about other things as well, nature and his hero Thoreau for a few other topics. Check it out all for some good American writing.