#And there’s so much to say about how people organized and how Hugo portrays them!

[dolphin1812]

We now turn to revolutionary groups like Les Amis de l’ABC!

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine was a primarily working class area known for its revolutionary sentiments. That combination of ideological motives (its revolutionary history) and economic ones (its working class inhabitants would be more affected by the financial turbulence of the early 1830s) helps explain why it would be the focus within Paris (and Paris, of course, would be the focus in France because of its history and its status as the capital). Hugo addresses this later on in the chapter as well.

Another quick historical note: some of the lines in this chapter come from actual documents! According to the notes in the Donougher translation, the section on “The passages which touched the crowd most deeply” draws heavily on a judicial inquiry into the events of April 1834 (government troops fired on the inhabitants of a building). This is also true of many of the references to committees. By mixing real quotations with documents of his own making, Hugo lends legitimacy to his historical claims as he further immerses us in the atmosphere of the time.

Part of that atmosphere was the constant fear of being caught by the authorities. The reference to “Babeuf” really being “Gisquet” is an allusion to the prefect of police; we can also see that fear in accusations of some being “spies,” and the implication that organizations kept an eye on their own members. Secrecy was necessary to operate, but it was stressful, too. Those organizing couldn’t be too lax in who they trusted with the real possibility of arrest being ever-present. This isn’t to say an atmosphere of total suspicion prevailed – Les Amis clearly all trust each other, as a “family,” and discontent was commonly spoken of in the street – but that was all combined with caution. It’s less “no one trusted each other” and more Valjean’s porter being suspicious of Marius; there was plenty of solidarity between workers especially and people disfavored by monarchy more broadly, but there was also an awareness of what could be unsafe and who looked suspicious.

We also get a better notion of the range of ideas! The man accused of being a spy is more economically radical than we’ve heard so far, and is suspicious of republicans. Of course, we don’t know if this specific man is trustworthy, but it does suggest that people were questioning the existence of private property and similar ideas, and that republicanism itself came under suspicion in some circles (probably because of the “compromise rule” of Louis Philippe). (There are also explicit references to communists later on). These groups are also very working class compared to Les Amis, who are mostly defined as students (with the notable exception of Feuilly). They could have origins in the working or middle classes (Bahorel was a student, but from a peasant background!), but these organizations are definitely of the working class. There are allusions to bourgeois joining in, but they’re not the main focus here.

Hugo’s use of the word “savage” at the end of the chapter is uncomfortable, but it’s an intentional discomfort. For being violent (and lower class), that is exactly the kind of language that would have been used to describe them in critical writings at the time. Many in Hugo’s audience, for instance, may have found their specific ideas (like greater democracy, less poverty, an end to the death penalty, etc) quite convincing, but may have disagreed with their means (rebellion). Hugo ends on a Combeferre-like note of gradual progress that is less violent, but we should keep in mind that both of them end up affiliated with republicans here on the grounds that their violence is the better option. The “civilized men of barbarism” look peaceful, but are ultimately more harmful, allowing injustices as long as they are out of sight. Hugo’s use of “savage,” then, was intended to push his audience to question who was really “barbaric”: a person rebelling because their rights were denied to them, or someone denying the rights of others?

[diveronarpg]

In fair Verona, our tale begins with PAVEL LAM, who is TWENTY-FIVE years old. He is often called PUCK and is NEUTRAL. They use HE/THEY pronouns.

There were too many gold-hearted knaves in Verona, too many rogues who would surrender their mind, independence, and soul at the slightest show of softness from a pretty face. But what one never was, never knew, and never craved couldn’t be responsible for their DOWNFALL. Softness never helped make living off of table scraps any easier, it didn’t make his dirty rags of clothes any more comfortable. It didn’t bring back his mangy, sorry excuse for a father who’d been found wasted away with his equally shabby mistress behind some alleyway, it didn’t wake his mother from her drug-addled stupor to feed her only son.

The gods seemed intent on making a JOKE out of Pavel’s life, and so he resolved to beat them to the punchline. Armed with nothing but a dastardly sense of humor tinted dark with the dirt and tar in which he was raised, he bid his mother a goodbye and a merry “thanks for nothing!” and went on his way to carve a path with his nails and teeth. He swindled to survive, delighting in his own antics, only ever eating food stolen from another’s plate. He impersonated tour guides and stole unsuspecting tourists’ wallets as they cooed over street markets, he drank the wine of richer men as he distracted them with slight of hand. Odd jobs sustained him as he grew from child to teenager, though he was always sure to emphasize he took “dishonest jobs only. I didn’t eat dirt for the first eight years of my life just so I could wipe it off your floor.” He helped expose cheating spouses for a pretty coin and lost count of how many weddings he’d been hired to ordain. Not one job asked of him ever made him pause, none except for ONE. In hindsight, he should have asked for far more than what was offered, but Pavel was just as desperate as the client, who very clearly wasn’t as wealthy as he was vengeful. The job was simple. Kill the man’s previous supervisor who let him go. The target flaunted his wealth and was too easy to spot from the way his face contorted in disgust at Pavel’s tattered clothes. Killing him had been easy, albeit messy (as first kills often are), and to Pavel’s annoyance, his hands shook and his voice quivered when he reported back to the client of his success. “Are you alright?” they asked. What a LOADED question.

The rest was, as less interesting people would say, history. The killing was a thrill, yes, but it paid well, and the better he became the more people were willing to offer. Meager scraps became opulent feasts, he traded in his ratty clothes for fine leather and replaced his little hovel in Saint Petersburg with a studio apartment in the heart of Verona where the weather was milder. Some things, though, never changed, and though he could afford a sniper rifle or any other weapon that made his job easier and stealthier, he preferred his knives and revolver - call it VANITY for wanting to prove he could be a top-tier assassin who still relied on close combat. Clients and targets ranged from politicians to CEOs to diplomats, but he likes to think despite his CHANGE in fortune, he’s still the “same ol’ fun-loving curmudgeon” he always was.

He evades and escapes from the law, from loyalties, from his own conscience like TAR, slick as it slips through one’s fingers, eager to stain and ruin. His laugh rings louder than the cathedral bells, mirthful and dark, and it boasts of a man with no stake in vengeance nor sympathies, UNTOUCHABLE, walking the cobblestone streets as if they’re his own clouds upon Mount Olympus. One could argue there is no real malice behind his intentions, for that would insinuate anything beyond strict neutrality, and they’d be right. It was his oldest excuse in his almanac, that he couldn’t possibly give enough fucks to worry about anyone besides himself. He kills for anyone with enough coin, though no amount so far has been able to buy his loyalties. Assassinating was an ugly business, certainly, but mobs, permanence, consequences - well, there were FEW things that could make a jester CRY.

ORPHEUS AHULANI: Past admiration. Pavel had only been a teenager when he first became acquainted with Orpheus, believing to have found a kindred spirit in him, a fellow anarchist and reveler. The admiration has since cooled into resentment and disappointment since Orpheus joined leagues with the Capulets - “Orphy, really, you’ve sold out! This is very not punk of you.” - and, sure, the guy was promised his own underground kingdom, but how much longer would it be until the Capulets decided they’d have no more use for either old Orpheus or his castle built from sand and shit?  Pavel’s always quick to remind Orpheus of how fickle organized crime can be, that if someone declares you ruler of an underground kingdom, they’d be just as willing to bury you alive beneath it.

NIKOLAI BORISOV: Unwitting victim. Pavel didn’t mean to ruin the man’s good word and reputation, really. It was an accident, a hilarious one, but sheer coincidence, and a collision was bound to happen considering their professions. Nikolai liked his explosions and dynamite and bombs (perhaps a bit too much in his opinion, but that was neither here nor there) and Pavel was running late to a spot where he knew his target would be and perhaps tripped over a wire or something and set it off some meters and meters away. Prematurely. Three hours prematurely, apparently. Strange how Nikolai can’t seem to get over it.

ALVA FAE: Showoff. Pavel gets it. He’s not the only one in Verona who can shoot a gun, but ever since Alva’s come to town all he hears about is how good a shot the opera singer is, how they could shoot the button off a suit and it’d somehow retail for higher than it was bought. The fact that they’re so reluctant to prove their finesse and insist that it’s all behind them irks Pavel further, and he makes it a game to see how far he can push them, goading them constantly into indignation (though never into blatant exasperation or violence, unfortunately). He’s convinced their saccharine demeanor is a front and delights in watching it flicker, just for him.

HUGO KIM: Vermin. It’s not often anyone earns Pavel’s genuine hostility– that would imply he cares enough to let them crawl under his skin in the first place. Oh, but he doesn’t care about Hugo - doesn’t really even know the guy, so it’s nothing personal. It’s just the man’s utter hypocrisy, preaching goodness and holiness and nonviolence when the priest is in cahoots with the fucking mafia that offends Pavel’s delicate sensibilities. Besides, God never thought to have mercy on a boy who had to crawl his way out of the gutter - if He had mercy on a bunch of mobsters, well, it’d be the least shocking thing Pavel’s ever seen.

Pavel is portrayed by JACKSON WANG and was written by EM. He is currently OPEN.

[thegloober]

Happiness In Entropy: DiS Meets Exploded View

Transcribing is generally a chore, but transcribing an interview with Exploded View’s Annika Henderson sure highlights the ‘trance’ part. It’s that voice; disembodied, husky, yet commanding and eloquent. Henderson could read from a phonebook and make it sound like pure poetry. No doubt her background plays a big part: born and raised in England, but spending a great deal of time in Berlin. Next to her life as a musician and sound artist based in Berlin, she is a sharp journalistic mind, one who’s curiosity more often than not gets the best of her. Though she initially wanted to become a documentary journalist, she’s resigned to an existence of continuous learning, experiencing, creating and traveling.

The title of Exploded View’s second LP Obey might suggest another hard-hitting, militant noise exercise. That, in some ways, is still the case: ‘Dark Stains’ and ‘Come On Honey’ creep and crawl with fraught, claustrophobic anguish. But Obey teems with a lot of sweeping, free-form noise-scapes as well. ‘Open Road’ is absolutely gorgeous with its quagmire synth textures, silky acoustic strum and Henderson’s sangfroid delivery. The title track’s swirling intensity is like standing in middle of a warm monsoon, with cutting winds purging the dirt from your body.

Stepping away from more structured, noise rock leanings feels like a natural progression from the band’s self-titled 2016 debut. After all, Exploded View did begin as something of a knee-jerk, organic affair. Henderson was looking for a backing band in Mexico City to perform songs from her debut LP Anika, which she recorded with Geoff Barrow’s outfit BEAK>. Musicians Martin Thulin Hugo Quezada and the now departed Amon Melgarejo answered the call. The chemistry between the four turned out to be immediate and infectious, and thus the alliance morphed into Exploded View.

Sacred Bones, who have a keen eye for headstrong, risk-taking artists, took a shine on the band. “They give us complete freedom and they are so patient,” Henderson weighs in. “I mean, working across Mexico, decisions sometimes take ages. They have been so sweet, and never put any pressure on us, never questioned the ugly artwork (laughs). It’s supposed to be the ugliest artwork ever, the combination of the inner sleeve and the pink vinyl. But it’s good anti-artwork.”

—

DiS: You recently performed this project called The Writing Robot. What did it entail exactly?

Annika Henderson: Well, I used to live with a computer programmer; one time I just returned from this festival called Ars Electronica in Austria. This festival showcases a lot of electronic developments over the past years, and also organized a few live shows. I played there in 2016 with Exploded View; having lived in Berlin for the past few years, somehow you’re a bit sheltered from advances like robot technology. In England, they had these electronic paying machines, so there’s a lot of a more robotic presence there. Whereas in Berlin, I once saw a drone sneak into a spa…

Whoa, creepy.

Very creepy and very illegal I’m sure… But anyway, his festival had all these crazy robots, and I was taken aback by how advanced this technology was. Then I went home and one of my housemates talked about the likelihood of her job being taken over by robots. I was listening to a lot of the chart music and realized it all sounded so the same. So I thought about the possibility of an artist’s job being taken over by robots as well. If artists continue to churn out these formulaic things, a robot could likely do so as well.

People would say to me my first record was just a bunch of covers. But that’s not that much different from all the people releasing music they didn’t write anyway. So I was speaking about it with my computer programmer friend Raoul Sanders; when he was 13, he created a robot that could write poetry. So I asked him if he could potentially adapt this to make song lyrics. So we ended up working for ages to make this massive database of old hits from the past thirty or forty years, and it works well! I mean, sometimes there was a bit of a glitch. I created some soundscapes during the last show. It was kind of funny actually: some of them were composed in different genres – like for instance, one rap track, just to showcase how a robot could write for each of them.

Makes me wonder if you could use the database to make an authentic William S. Burroughs-Bot.

We actually did feed the machine a whole book –The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster – during this performance. It was all done live – so we hooked up the algorithm to a printer. On stage, it would just be spitting out lyrics we started improvising over the top of the music. Once in a while Raoul would change it to the Forster thing, the algorithm came up with these crazy apocalyptic texts about robots taking over the world. It was amusing, but a bit stressful, because I had never seen these lyrics before. So I had to figure out the melody on the spot.

At its conclusion, it was about asking yourself what your role is as an artist, what do you have to say yourself if you’re just repeating the patterns of the past of these winning formulas? Then it means you can just be replaced by robots! But in the end, it’s about questioning the role of the artist nowadays. But it was also a fun project, a very good one to overcome this fear of lyrics as well.

You did a leg of solo shows last year, and you played Exploded View songs as well. Did you test out new material, or played songs that were already written?

Doing solo shows is obviously a different experience than to being in a band. You are very much on your own, if something goes wrong there is no one to catch you. You just have to keep going. Especially if you are relying heavily on electronics. If something happens you just have to figure it out and carry on. I once had a show where I had to do part of it a-cappella because my computer blew up.

Well, at least that’s something computers can’t replace yet: your voice. I always enjoy watching artists work around nagging technical problems in creative ways.

There’s that whole old-fashioned showman element, like ‘the show must go on’. And at the moment in the music industry, I feel this is being questioned. There are so many artists canceling shows these days. We just had it in Berlin with U2, there was a load of press about Bono losing his voice. I think it’s because artists are expected to tour so much, there is a lot of pressure on them to make money for everyone involved in the machine.

We had to cancel an Exploded View tour in its entirety a few years ago, because it became impossible to make it work. We would’ve been in the red so much; that was around the time Amon couldn’t handle the touring and had to quit. I had to make that decision. I usually would never cancel a show. I have shows where I’ve thrown up by the side of the stage, completely passing out afterward. And one where I had lost my voice for two days, and I managed to get it back just in time for one of the Exploded View shows.

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Well, you put a lot of effort performing in situations where you need to push your limits. You wrote a brilliant, intense piece about a show you did a few years ago in Tehran, Iran. Those experiences tend to thicken your skin.

It’s strange, because I had such a great time. I met the most friendly, sweet and welcoming people. I didn’t find myself in any dangerous situation, apart from when I got this crazy fever. Which was just horrible, and the reason why the Gate of Words thing turned into this weird trip. I had seven days to compose this piece, and six days I was coping with this extreme fever. So I was trying to compose and perform under this fever, and it was bizarre.

But in the end, everyone does music for personal reasons. One of the most important reasons for me was to learn as much as I could. I used to want to become a documentary journalist, you want to get this trust of people, this access to groups. And share that if you can. The good thing about playing music is that you get this access; people are coming to see you, and what you notice is that you’re not working passively. I always try to give back as much as I can.

After one show in Iran, people would come over to say, “I realize I can do that sort of thing too, you know?” Especially in Iran, where they don’t get to see many live shows. And sometimes being a musician is this untouchable thing. So they put me in a situation that gave them an awareness. That’s exactly what I wanted to show. To make this a more human experience, to instill a curiosity in people to make them want to do it for themselves.

That’s encouraging to hear, because there’s a lot of talk now about art and music just being something you either blindly consume or share in a vacuum. Not as something that can change the world even just a little bit

I try to do it. It all depends on what your motives are. With the Iran trip, it was offered to me. I didn’t apply for it myself – I applied for lots of other residencies, but never got any funding. Then it’s always strange, because once in a while, out of the blue, things come your way. It was cool. They said, ‘”Do you want to go to Iran for three weeks?” and I was about to go on holiday for two weeks. They said I needed to start the visa process straight away. So I was like “Okay, why not?”

I had plans laid out, I was supposed to study actually. But I canceled that and just went because I thought: This such a time where there is a lack of understanding for other people, we create these monolithic evils, at the time Iran was indeed ‘one of those’ in the press. Especially in America, Iran is portrayed as this big evil that no one understands anything about. I realize now how much of a lie the reports we get are. It’s one big lie basically, a completely distorted picture of reality.

Iran was amazing, it was such a rich country in terms of culture, the beautiful colors. Before I went I was reading a load of books and trying to watch a load of films. It made me less scared of going, it made me more familiar. It’s such an interesting place. It’s so beautiful there, all the nature as well. I’m glad I could at least report and write a bit about it, to break down this wall. On the train I encountered these emo kids, wearing a long coat and a headscarf, trainers, drainpipe trousers and listening to Blink 182. I mean, it’s all sort of the same, you know?

Back to Exploded View: in the lyrics I noticed a lot more ‘you’. It seems more that these songs are addressing someone or something. Is Obey maybe less of an introverted record?

It’s so funny, some people interpret the songs quicker than I do myself. During the making of Obey, I was actually in this relationship for the whole time. I think we did three sessions that were spread out pretty widely, and this relationship lasted through the beginning, the middle and the end. So there are songs on the albums that are happy, slightly angrier songs and genuinely bitter songs. So I guess I am addressing a particular person. But that person also symbolizes what I was fighting against generally.

I’m interested in the happy songs. People tend to conflate noise-laden, discordant sounding music with darkness, nihilism, and depression. But those elements can be used to convey relish and joy too.

Everyone in the band has got strong emotions, and there’s conflict and making up. And even when talking about the band; we are all quite passionate. It’s like a family; you can strangle them sometimes, but then once you are all back together it’s fine again. I think ‘Open Road’ is supposed to be about freedom, about escaping. Or maybe running away. ‘Letting Go Of Childhood Dreams’ is a liberation too, letting go of things that previously held you back. Things that you thought you had to be. And realizing you should just be happy and yourself.

But ‘Letting Go Of Childhood Dreams’ doesn’t necessarily address the positive things, the things you aspire to be. And then realizing as you get older you don’t get to do it. No, it’s not that kind of thing. It’s more about the time when I was younger, growing up in England, there were certain imposed dreams,that made you feel like you had to fit in. Social pressure, peer pressure, parental pressure. All these things that make up a constructed reality; you’ll be a success, you’ll be happy if you achieve a certain thing at a certain point. Like having a house, this excellent job: “By the time I get to this age, I’ll be happy.” It’s more about letting go of these ideals. The illusion that life is rooted in this straightforward formula, which is primarily linked to consumerism.

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Generations are generally like cycles, right? It’s more likely you’ll have more in common with your grandparents than your parents. People appear inclined to react against foundations laid by the previous generations.

Yeah, that’s a funny one with my family. They are all quite eccentric, and liberal in a lot of ways. My parents, if anything, I feel like they are part of a certain generation. But I also I feel like they could be my age, you know? They are probably, to some extent, as equally lost as my generation. I’m half-German, half-English so, I had German grandparents and English grandparents. And they were extremely different. My German grandparents were a lot older, they came from the war generation.

My English grandparents, my English grandfather was slightly too young to be fighting in the war, so he was just running wild in London. But because he dropped out of school at age thirteen, he figured out his own path. He did all types of different jobs; butcher, footballer, postman, boxer, electronic engineering. It’s been just the past few years that I spend a lot more time with him, because I understand now. You have to always figure out what you’re going to do next. My parents’ generation were often stuck in one job, they had a house and everything.

That’s a very interesting point, about the prosperity the baby boomers experienced. A lot of politicians in power now are from that generation. So maybe there’s a lack of empathy, more detachment towards people who didn’t experience that same kind of financial stability? Our generation appears to have pretty much given up on the ideals imposed to us through advertising or propaganda.

I think it’s also just about learning to be flexible. But once again, advertising and consumerism use this concept of flexibility against us – whether it’s with ‘flexible’ contracts of work, which is basically just exploiting people. But that’s not what I mean by ‘flexible’. I’m talking about flexibility in terms of being less attached to objects or possessions. When I first came to Berlin, this was one of the most liberating things.

There used to be no advertising; I remember at Christmas for example, I wouldn’t really know it was Christmas. I lived in Neuköln, which is mostly Turkish, so there was maybe one Christmas tree hanging off someone’s balcony. And that was it. One night I flew home on Christmas eve, I landed in Heathrow, and they’d suddenly be lavishly banging Christmas songs on the airport. I had a completely panic attack: “Oh shit I didn’t buy any Christmas presents! Oh god, what am I going to do?” My sister’s kids would be saying “Where are my presents?” (laughs)

So it was liberating to come live in Berlin and be away from the English cycle, that whole hamster wheel. But at the same time, living in Berlin initially instilled this complete distress of not being able to cover yourself over with stuff. At first I had to really look at myself with nothing – and just accept it, which was difficult as well. But it turned out to be something really healthy for me in the long run. Because you realize you don’t actually need a lot of possessions. Not to preach what is right or wrong, but I think that does take away this fear. We are so eaten up by fear now. A lot of advertising uses this main technique to scare you into buying something. “Don’t worry you’re not getting older, just buy this and you’ll feel young again.”

Punk rock used to be that force that mirrored that type of language against the oppressors. But it has now been usurped by consumerism as well. Even when people think they’re actually repelling it, consumerism trickles down subliminally. You only realize the extent of that shift once you find yourself in a completely different environment.

Yeah, and I don’t really know what to offer right now as a counter. Punk has become this consumerist thing; you buy the T-shirt, the trousers. It used to be a thing with certain subcultures when I was growing up. You had to go to London, to Camden Market to buy what you wanted, items and merch from a certain subcultures. You couldn’t go online and order it like mail delivery or whatever. There was a bit more of an “earning your stripes” trial to have a heart for subculture.

Making the first Anika record, that was one of the things me and Geoff (Barrow) discussed. We talked about almost this sort of anti-project, and at the time we didn’t use a MySpace page, a website or had a social media channel. We had the shitties pictures done and the worst artwork, as if it was a completely anti-album. And also with Exploded View, with Hugo and Martin, the way we’ve been recording and producing doesn’t lend itself well to advertising or sync-deals. It’s so awkward, you know?

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For example, the video I made recently for ‘Sleepers’; we had a deadline and none of us had managed to get together. There were two days left. I found myself at the airport, on the plane back from Portugal, and I got a really shitty camera, so I’m going to try out this concept I always really wanted to execute, only with no budget. I ran around Berlin in the middle of the night, filming the U-bahn. A friend of mine has got a son, and the first thing he said was: ‘That not a GoPro camera, that’s some shitty 17 euro camera!’ And I was like: ‘Yeah, but that was the point!’ I mean, it wasn’t really the point. The idea was simply more important to me than the result, and I wanted to just express it. I think money doesn’t make an idea – it can make an idea go further, sure, but if there is no money to be spent, I still want to materialize the ideas.

Obey is out now on Sacred Bones. For more info on Exploded View, please visit their Bandcamp page. To keep tabs on Annika Henderson’s many other projects, please visit her tumblr-page.

Photo Credit: Exploded View


Source: https://bloghyped.com/happiness-in-entropy-dis-meets-exploded-view/

[djgblogger-blog]

Behind the scenes of Venezuela's deadly prison fire

http://bit.ly/2GzK3yE

Families clashed with security forces outside the police station in Valencia, Venezuela, where nearly 70 prisoners died in a March 28 fire. AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez

A fire killed scores of inmates after a riot in a Venezuelan jail in the early morning hours of March 28. Sixty-six detainees died in the flames, as did two female visitors.

The incident was horrifying, but it was not a surprise for those familiar with the state of the country’s prison system.

Prison violence has long been common in Venezuela. In 1992 at least 63 inmates were killed in the Retén de Catia prison, which was later demolished after Pope John Paul II visited and called for more humane living conditions. In 1994, 108 people died in a jailhouse riot in the state of Zulia. And in 1996, 29 inmates were burned alive when the National Guard set fire to La Planta prison in Caracas.

Between 2012 and 2017 alone, 135 people were killed in four different prison riots across Venezuela.

Last month’s deadly fire is yet another tragedy. But it also differs from past incidents in critical ways.

Much of the media coverage of the incident, both inside and outside of Venezuela, portrays the riot and ensuing fire as the outcome of the chaos and lawlessness that rules Venezuelan prisons. But our research on the country’s criminal justice system reveals that the story behind the violence is more complicated.

Mass incarceration, Venezuela style

The main driver behind Venezuela’s rising prison violence is overcrowding.

Incarceration levels in the country rose dramatically during the 1990s. Under President Hugo Chávez, who governed Venezuela from 1999 to 2013, this trend accelerated – despite his progressive rhetoric about eliminating harsh sentencing.

In 1996, 120 of every 100,000 citizens were behind bars Today, 55,000 people – that’s 159 of every 100,000 Venezuelans – are in jail.

The country’s prison system was designed to hold, at most, 20,000. As a result, short-term detention centers in police stations have swelled with the inmate overflow. Violence has become more frequent systemwide.

According to Una Ventana a la Libertad, a Venezuelan prison watchdog group, about 45,000 people are currently locked up in overcrowded, makeshift jails in 500 police stations nationwide.

That’s where the deadly March 28 fire broke out: not in a prison but in a Carabobo State police station, where 200 men were detained.

Venezuela’s penal code mandates that police may only keep people who’ve been arrested in these “calabozos,” or temporary holding cells, for up to 48 hours. After that, prisoners must be presented before a judge, who will either release them or transfer them to a long-term facility like a jail to await trial.

In practice, though, detainees are frequently sent back to police stations before their court date. Even before the 2015 economic crisis that has plunged Venezuela into disarray, the wait could be years. Today, the judicial system moves even more slowly, in part because of problems transporting prisoners between jail and court.

Fully 50 percent of people incarcerated in Venezuela have been arrested but not convicted of a crime. That population includes the 66 prisoners who perished in the March 28 fire.

Venezuela’s Reten de Catia prison was shut down after Pope John Paul II criticized the inhumane living conditions on a 1996 visit to the facility. AP Photo/Rodolfo Benitez

What happened at Carabobo police station

There are different accounts of how the upheaval at the Carabobo police state began, depending on the source.

According to state police, detainees in the makeshift jail revolted early on March 28, forcing police to enter the detention area and put down the riot. Prisoners then set their mattresses on fire, officials say, hoping to escape from the violence.

But the interviews we recently conducted with officials at the Venezuelan attorney general’s office, national police, the Bello Monte morgue and the Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas – Venezuela’s FBI – tell a more complicated story.

These officials, who wish to remain anonymous because this information is not public and they fear political retribution, say the deadly riot occurred because the delicate social order that structures jailhouse life in Venezuela broke down.

Venezuelan jails are often portrayed as lawless places, and it is true that the government long ago ceded control over many prisons to gang leaders inside them.

But these facilities do have a governance structure – it’s just not enforced by the state. Gang leaders within prisons and detention centers – sometimes referred to as a “pran” or “pranato” – informally control what goes on inside.

Venezuelan prison guards and police officers are not only aware of this system – they are complicit in it. Guards and officers smuggle guns and drugs into prisons and jails, which gangs use to consolidate their power. In exchange for facilitating this informal economy, officials are paid a “vacuna,” or bribe.

The official police version of events in the Carabobo police station – which is cited in stories from the BBC, USA Today, Reuters and local media outlets – ignores this symbiotic relationship. So does The New York Times, which reported that the deadly fire was started after gangs, who were holding a party in an overcrowded jail, fought with the guards who tried to break it up.

Orderly chaos breaks down

We asked our official sources, who agreed to speak without attribution, what really happened on March 28. Their accounts differ slightly, citing as causes of the violence both police officers’ anger over unpaid “vacunas” and gang fights over illicit jailhouse economies.

But they all concur that a breakdown in the illicit relationship between gangs and jail officials was the catalyst – either direct or indirect – of the violence, not spontaneous prisoner revolt.

Everyone we spoke with told us that just before 6 a.m., armed officers entered the overcrowded detention center. Within a half hour, concerned mothers, responding to phone calls from detainees who said they were under attack, began arriving at the station.

The Bello Monte morgue – the government forensic center in Caracas where the official autopsies were performed – stated that many of those who died had also been shot or stabbed before they burned in the fire.

At around 6 a.m., police allegedly tried to quell the riot with tear gas. Some mattresses caught fire, and the blaze spread across the locked holding cells.

Family members stood outside of the burning police station for hours, listening to explosions and gunfire until firefighters arrived at about 9:30 a.m. Some would wait over 24 hours to learn whether their incarcerated son, grandson, cousin or nephew was a casualty of the conflict.

On March 31, five Carabobo police officers, including the head of the police station, were arrested and accused of unspecified “responsibility for the tragic acts that caused the death of 68 citizens” in the Carabobo detention center.

But those who lost their loved ones may never know the whole truth of what happened behind those bars.

Rebecca Hanson receives funding from the Development Bank of Latin America for her current project on policing and criminal organizations in Venezuela.

Leonard Gómez Núñez receives funding from the Development Bank of Latin America for his current project on policing and criminal organizations in Venezuela.

[martens-movie-reviews]

Released: July 22, 2011 Running Time: 2 hours 4 minutes

“It is 1941 and the world is in the throes of war. Steve Rogers wants to do his part and join America’s armed forces, but the military rejects him because of his small stature. Finally, Steve gets his chance when he is accepted into an experimental program that turns him into a supersoldier called Captain America. Joining forces with Bucky Barnes and Peggy Carter, Captain America leads the fight against the Nazi-backed HYDRA organization.”

In honour of the latest movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe being released on November 3, 2017, I decided that I wanted to review all of the previous MCU films, and it was also a wonderful excuse to rewatch all the movies again. My girlfriend and I wanted to watch it with a group of friends, however there was no time that we could all agree on, and to space it all out didn’t work, so we watched the MCU movies during the month of September and October so that we would be ‘all caught up’ for Thor Ragnarok.

Marvel Cinematic Universe – Source – Marvel

You can find all of the reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the link here. At that link, you can also find the dates that the other reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be posted. My plan is to release one every single day, and because I’ve already reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 here, and Spider – Man: Homecoming here, they will not be included in the two weeks leading up to Thor Ragnarok.

As such, I will now move onto the actual review of the film, and I hope you enjoy!

Captain America: The First Avenger Trailer – Source: Paramount Pictures & Marvel Studios

Cast and Crew

This film was directed by Joe Johnston,

written by Stephen McFeely & Christopher Markus,

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The cast includes Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Lex Shrapnel, Bruno Ricci, JJ Feild, Kenneth Choi, Derek Luke, Neal McDonough, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Brandon, Natalie Dormer and Stan Lee.

Review

When Chris Evans was cast as Steve Rogers, people were a bit skeptical due to his previous portrayal of another superhero – Johnny Storm of the Fantastic 4 films of the early 2000s. Once pictures were released people had started to give him the benefit of the doubt, as he was no longer the lean guy from his previous films, he had seriously put some work into getting into the shape that would be required to play Steve Rogers. He did a magnificent job at portraying the character, and easily gave off the heroic vibe that is needed, as well as one who is doing what’s right. I have enjoyed his performance, and I feel like this movie doesn’t always get the respect it deserves, as I think people wanted to see Captain America in today’s world, and not start him off in the 1940s, however, I think that it was a great move, that is now paying dividends today, as he has grown as a character, and became the man out of time.

Sebastian Stan ‘s portrayal of James Buchanan Barnes a.k.a Bucky did an okay job in what little he was given to work with in this film, but got a lot more work in future films, and was able to explore the character a lot more. Hayley Atwell was a nice choice to portray Steve Rogers’ love interest during WWII, Peggy Carter. She was a strong female character that managed to climb the ranks quickly during a Man’s war. It added a short, sweet, and not intrusive storyline that complimented the film.

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It’s a shame that the makeup for the Red Skull took so much time to apply to Hugo Weaving to really give him a realistic look straight from the comics, as he will probably never reprise his role. Weaving did a wonderful job at playing the villain in this film, and managed to portray the character as a mad man who lusts for power and is a man of vision that could almost match Captain America in a physical fight. I wish we would one day get to see the Red Skull come back to the MCU, especially after having been lost in space for so long, I can only imagine the sort of things that he would come up against Rogers.

Colonel Chester Phillips who was played by Tommy Lee Jones added some extra credibility to the film and had the effect of having someone who would be authoritative and be able to be the head of the SSR’s team to choose the right man to be the guinea pig for the serum. Dr. Erskine, the german scientist who is portrayed by Stanley Tucci, and quickly becomes a mentor and a father figure to Steve Rogers prior to the transformation.

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Howard Stark during the second world war was really well portrayed by Dominic Cooper, really displaying the qualities that he would have passed down to Tony Stark, high quality charisma, quick witted, extremely intelligent, and I wish that we would have seen him a lot more than we did. In my opinion he portrayed Howard a lot better than John Slattery. Toby Jones did a good job at being a creepy, intelligent and cowardly scientist, Arnim Zola, that is terrified by Schmidt.

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The Howling Commandos in the film were all fun and were mainly the comic relief in the film, learning how to use Hydra’s weapons and tanks, as well as going into battle with Steve to take down Hydra. The group was well acted, but I feel like ultimately they weren’t used that much, and I wish that it would have been possible to see more of them, and learn more of their exploits.

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Captain America: The First Avenger’s story is about a young man who because of his size, knows the value of strength and has the qualities of a good man. He feels that other men are sacrificing their lives for their country and for their freedom, that he has no right to do any less. Those are all qualities that make Steve Rogers the best choice to be Captain America, because the Super Soldier Serum amplifies everything inside them, and as Erskine says, ‘good becomes great’. He learns how to be a leader, and he learns sacrifice multiple times, when his best friend ‘dies’ and when he chooses to sacrifice himself to save the Eastern seaboard.

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Below, you can see the various comic strips that featured the first transformation of Steve Rogers into Captain America as well as his interaction with Peggy Carter. Even though Peggy Carter didn’t know his identity in the comic strips during WWII, it was still fun to see them interact in the film knowing each other within the film.

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The special effects and art department on this film did really magnificent work with the transformation, and the many scenes featuring the ‘skinny’ Steve Rogers before the transformation. They also made the Red Skull look exactly like the comics, while also making him seem believable as a human that was transformed, but is still human. I think that Marvel Studios started getting more and more comfortable with its usage of visual effects and making them all very believable. The action sequences where Cap’s Shield was flying around and being thrown was all computer generated imaging and the fact that it looked as real as everything else was simply amazing to find out when watching the special features that was on the Blu – Ray.

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A major theme of my Marvel Cinematic Universe reviews is that the music fits the characters, and the style of the film. Captain America: The First Avenger’s music was orchestrated by Alan Silvestri, whose work prior included ‘Back to the Future II & III’, ‘The Bodyguard’, ‘Forrest Gump’, and has since worked on ‘The Avengers’, ‘Red 2’ and ‘The Walk’. The score was heroic, and inspiring, just like the titular character.

The fact that the Tesseract came from Asgard, at the beginning of the film, with the great tree Yggdrasil, but I feel like it was a little too easy for Schmidt to find it in the church. It also sets up the usage of the Tesseract in the Avengers, as a doorway to another point of the universe, which was set up, and makes sense for the Asgardians to have created the Rainbow Bridge if they would have had it in their possession to be able to study.

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The Red Skull / Captain America finale fight was a little lame compared to what it could have been, but I did enjoy that there was no clear winner in their fight and that the Red Skull only ‘lost’ because he decided to grab an Infinity Stone, and get transported to a different area of the universe.

I found the scene where Steve wakes up in 2012 to be a good idea within the movie itself as it could have been even more traumatic to somebody to wake up 70 years later, without having had any physical change that he could tell. I found it really funny that Steve happened to be at the game that they were playing over the radio, as I would have thought that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have known around when he would have ‘died’, and when the game took place, I mean come on, they could have easily picked a game after ‘he died’ to make it seem a bit more plausible.

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The post credit scene at the end of the film sets up the Avengers from Captain America’s point of view, where he gets briefed by Nick Fury about having found the Tesseract in the ocean, with Steve telling him that he should have left it in the ocean after having seen the power in the hands of the Red Skull.

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Overall, I feel like the story was well put together and was a really good choice to start him off in the 1940s and give him the origin story that he deserves so that people can know that he is the right man to have been given the Super Soldier Serum. He is the man who becomes the leader that the Avengers will need, and that he has slowly gained popularity over the years. At the end of the day, I give this movie a solid score of 8.5/10.

What did you think of the film? Are you excited for Thor Ragnarok? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Alex Martens

  Captain America: The First Avenger Review Released: July 22, 2011 Running Time: 2 hours 4 minutes "It is 1941 and the world is in the throes of war.