Debating March Madness: ToM Dukes It Out over the Meaning of the NCAA Tournament

ToM headquarters bubbled over with contentious enthusiasm this week, as writers and staffers debated the merits of March Madness. Inspired by the musings of Keith Orejel and the rantings of Clement Lime, ToM scribes raised workplace alienation to new and surprising levels this week. In an effort to stem this tide of negativity, we’ve allotted the two raconteurs at the heart of this dispute, Keith and Clement, one last word regarding their positions.  To paraphrase Tina Turner in Beyond Thunderdome, “Two men enter, one man leaves.” Click for Keith Orejel’s: “American Basketball, American Democracy: The Meaning of March Madness” Click for Clement Lime’s: “The Fallacy …

The Thin End of the Wedge: Faculty House, Columbia University, and the Future of Higher Education in America

While news of the ongoing labor dispute at Columbia University’s Faculty House has gotten out—you can read about it in The Nation—its full implications remain obscure.  On its surface the fight appears straightforward: Faculty House is a branch of Columbia University’s Dining Services and located on its East Campus. An event space and upscale restaurant ostensibly for Columbia faculty and their guests, it employs 34 workers. On March 31, 2013, their contract expires. It has been an awful contract, exploitative, and of questionable legality. It is a contract which the workers want to change. The story of this dispute is about stolen tips; it is about “part-time” workers pulling …

Domestic Art: Nannies, Immigrants, and Labor

While most artists find their voice in the studio, Ramiro Gomez Jr. found his in the space between two very disparate and disconnected worlds. In 2009, he left the California Institute of the Arts and moved in with a wealthy family in West Hollywood to work as a live-in nanny and care for two infants. Although nervous about his huge new responsibilities, he was also grateful and relieved to finally have some stability and a chance to rethink his artistic path. With one baby strapped to this chest and another baby slung on his hip, Ramiro found his way to the park, the un-official gathering and organizing space for maids and nannies. At first the other domestic workers didn’t know what to …

Amanda Palmer’s Tempest in a Teapot: Or How Should One Ask for Volunteers?

Amanda Fucking Palmer is no stranger to controversy. Her (stage) middle name can not be said in “polite company.” She has had projects which some feel are in at best questionable tastes (Evelyn-Evelyn). Some take issue with her refusal to be groomed as a “proper” lady. She has often been called an attention whore for her refusal to be fully clad at all times and her constant self-promotion via the Internet. And then let's not even address her high profile marriage to author Neil Gaiman and the various accusations that has brought up. Despite the controversy, Palmer is on fire (and maybe her success helps in part to explain the controversy). Her music and her struggles to break out …

Rahmbo v CTU: A Bruising Battle for the Heart of the Democratic Party and School Reform

The unions cannot strike in Chicago. . . . They will never be able to muster the 75 percent threshold. -- Johah Edelman, Executive Director Stand for Children on Illinois legislation Senate Bill 7 It’s like like the Mos Def lyrics in Mathematics, 'Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret: the million other straws underneath it - it's all mathematics.' -- Interview with a striking Chicago grade school teacher, 9/12/2012 To some ears, Senate Bill 7 sounds like an obscure punk band out of Venice Beach.  One can just imagine concert posters with a toothy caricature of Bill Clinton in punk garb surrounded by six dour Senators equally as dismal in their appearance …

The Allure of Labor

Over the course of the last four decades, workers have undoubtedly been one of the chief casualities of neoliberal economics. The recent conspicuous battles waged by unions against Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio are but a microcosm of efforts implemented by both the state and capital to weaken workers’ ability to unionize, bargain collectively, and generally organize to redress their grievances. In the United States, labor has rarely been able to rely on the state to serve an as unbiased meditator and this has only worsened with the hegemony of neoliberal orthodoxy. However, the state-capital-labor nexus has had numerous historical iterations. In the conservative-corporatist …

Nueva York: Politics, Art, and the Transnational Big Apple

In Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, disaffected American star Bill Murray sleepwalks through his stay in Tokyo.  Not speaking a lick of Japanese and cynically overwhelmed by the massive high rises and technology of modern day Tokyo, Murray’s character embarks on a series of small journeys punctuated by his inability to fully grasp events as they unfold before him.  Instead, through Murray’s eyes, one experiences the city as brightly lit, whiskey induced, metropolis full of quirky Japanese and self absorbed Americans. While many critics applauded Coppola’s efforts, others saw the movie as simply another well intentioned but nonetheless painful exercise in Western …

Intimate Citizenship: The Influence of Marriage, Sexuality, and Transience on National Membership

In Spike Lee’s 2006 crime drama, Inside Man, a mysterious group of robbers with an apparent political agenda hijack a downtown NYC bank holding dozens of employees and customers hostage. Though the movie focuses primarily on the travails of embattled NYPD police detective Keith Frazer (Denzel Washington), Lee delivers a movie that encapsulates the stunning diversity of New York.  Even minor characters with small moments provide useful insights into the various racial, ethnic, and religious conflicts and tensions that embody twenty first century urban life. In particular, Lee’s treatment of Sikh American cab driver, Vikram Walia (Waris Ahluwalia) illuminates the ambivalent place of South …

Learning from Tiny Tower: Mobile Gaming and the Post-Industrial Society

Ever since Wii came along and swept everyone from me to my seventy year old retired Teamster uncle into the world of gaming, I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that video games have become a tool by which our future robot overlords are retraining us to perform various tasks after the big takeover.* Big Brain Academy, in particular, reminded me of those later scenes in 1984, when the Party had smashed every bone in Winston’s hands and he had to learn to write again using a big pencil, like a kindergartener. 4423… 3244. Do-re-mi…mi-re-do. Memorize the faces and match the frog to the dog. When a game tells me to take an order on the phone and then tell it back to the game – “calzone, …

Teachers and Students in Georgia Speak Out Against HB 87

In recent months, legislators in Georgia have aspired to imitate their peers in Arizona by passing a bill that allows state and local authorities to police the immigration status of state residents.  These measures have raised serious concerns about the possibility of racial profiling and the power of state governments to regulate immigration, which has traditionally been a function of the federal government.   The current anti-immigrant agenda among conservatives portends a worrying trend toward the politics of scapegoating in the United States, as immigrants are held to blame for problems such as budget deficits, unemployment, healthcare costs and so forth. Governor Nathan Deal has …