notes and events

Please blame the lack of substantive posting on these factors, in no particular order: a) a crisis of disciplinary identity, b) Pervez Musharraf, c) the fucking GRE, d) a surfeit of poetry, e) too many irresistible parties, f) my department being seriously understaffed at present, and g) the autumn sunshine. I have been working longer than usual hours this week (file under items: b, and d) and have not been spending much quality time at home with my laptop. When I am, I should be using that time to figure out whether I am a historian or an anthropologist. Ack.

OK, some events for NYC folks:

The CinemaEast film festival is running this week; I went to the opening night screening of the Tunisian film "The TV is Coming" (very snarky and quite good) on Thursday. I've gotten to interact with a number of the staff of ArteEast, the nonprofit that runs the film festival, through work connections, and they are amazing and talented folks who've put together a great lineup. In conjunction with the festival, they've co-produced a very cool mini-guide to Turkish cinema with Altyazi (Subtitles), a Turkish film magazine. You can pick it up at the screenings, along with other great publications & swag.

Again pursuant to (b) above, there will be an open forum on Wednesday morning at the Open Society Institute in NY to discuss the emergency in Pakistan. CM has posted the details and it should be up on the OSI website soon. Ayesha Jalal and Anil Kalhan will speak in person, and Asma Jahangir will (inshallah) participate by phone from Lahore, where she is under house arrest--so no doubt Pakistani military intelligence will be participating by phone also. If you missed the Asia Society forum on Thursday you should check that one out online too.