The Gypsies’ Whorehouse

I just obtained a full copy of Bob Dylan’s Renaldo and Clara so in celebration here is a short clip that I found on YouTube.

I also have a few other things of interest:

Lacan dot com has a Zizek lecture entitled “Love Without Mercy” that touches on the finer points of Hitchcock. I think this is a good addition to The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema. If you’re curious about the connection between little chocolate eggs with plastic toys in the center and the phrase “I love you, but inexplicably I love something in you more than you, and therefore I destroy you,” then this video is perhaps right up your alley.

I also found the official homepage of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I like this quote about it that I found: “North Korean homepage. A model of communist efficiency. This quality of website design cannot be bought!” Also, do please check out the forums. You’ll find even more amazing things like this:

HELLO COMRADES, I WAS VERY GLAD TO SEE MY ACCEPTANCE EMAIL THIS AFTERNOON AND HAPPY TOO SEE SO MANY PEOPLE SUPPORT THE D.P.R.K,,,,, ALSO I AM A MARXIST-LENINIST-MAOIST BUT I RECOGNIZE THE DPRK AS SOCIALIST AND RECOGNIZE ALSO THAT COMRADE KIM SUNG IL APPLIED MARXISM-LENINISM INTO THE CONCRETE CONDITONS OF NORTH KOREA….. ALSO I UPHOLD THE JUCHE IDEA AND SONGUN POLITICS BECAUSE IT IS A CORRECT APPLICATION TO MARXISM…..hOPEFULLY I WILL MEET PEOPLE AND TALK WITH THEM ABOUT THE DPRK….. LONG LIVE THE JUCHE IDEA AND SONGUN POLITICS. DEATH TO IMPERIALISM,,,,, LONG LIVE COMMUNISM

What’s even more bizarre is that it’s run by a 30-something Spanish IT consultant named Alejandro Cao de Benos de Les y Pérez, who’s apparently the head of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA). I wonder if one simply slides along an axis from IT consultant to DPRK thug? If so, I think this would explain a lot about office life.

Also, why is the DPRK’s logo a hydroelectric dam?

I also think the title “Democratic People’s Republic of Whatever” is very Advanced. I think it is constitutive of a kind of excessive libidinal force found within a lot of repressive regimes who claim to be Marxist-Leninist(-Whateverist). Like, “You may be democratic, but our republic is additionally run by the people!” Maybe there’s a connection between the symbolic functioning at the titular level and ridiculous symbolic acts like the Million Man March, which, rather than attesting to the regime’s potency, in fact serve to undermine it by actualizing what is otherwise just a “threatening gesture/gaze.” The gesticulations and pure folly of such acts can’t but appear as an attempt to “cover something up.” But of course it’s nevertheless obvious that the DPRK never really had any geopolitical power since the end of the Korean War (the one with America…).