Entertainingly, i’m either an otter or a lion or perhaps a baboon. I’d guess otter…
Monthly Archives: July 2002
archaic revival
A few weeks back i was at a party where some people in the audience were doing activities that were not good for the community. So, the DJ decided to put a spoken word piece on, and i have to admit, i loved it. There is nothing better than an artistic response to a social situation.
nitemares on the web
I have to admit that i find it more unbearable to deal with the Internet every day. Rather than being a utopian environment, it brings out the collective worst in humanity. And yet hides the abusers behind a digital curtain, allowing them to be unapologetic and invasively abusive without any form of regulation to stop them. I’ve noticed a trend in my mail lately…. It used to be the case that my email was filled with messages about crazy new ideas, potential, excitement, check this out, wow, yippee. Good conversations, engaging thought, people becoming aware of the digital realm and its possibilities. Lately, it’s become the same bitchy environment that i live in on a daily basis. The he-said she-said has gotten out of control and the abuses are horrifying. My email is no longer primarily positive, but primarily negative or concerned. And for good reason.
On today’s list of interesting additions:
– spammers have stopped being apologetic ’cause the regulation just ain’t working, so they won’t suffer the consequences
– Microsoft is moving to a mandatory panopticon, with no user choice
– video games reduce brain activity (and what about TVs?)
– Carnivore continues to get more vicious
– surveillance is not just a sci-fi idea
Ok.. that’s enough. At least there are still some things out there to make me smile:
– a VW bug transformer!
– mathematical/multi-dimensional legos!
– Google’s mirror
survey procrastination
Now, the question that needs to be asked is does my results on this one surprise anyone? I didn’t think so….
Self-obsessed and self-possessed,you are a strong woman with a social conscience, who centers her life around her art. You pour your life experience and passion into your art, presenting ideas that resonate deep in the souls of others.
Take the “Which Empowered Female Artist Are You” Quiz
deadlines
I despise deadlines. They make me anxious and confused and unproductive. So, Frank’s blog entry of the day put a huge smile on my face, as he quoted Douglas Adams:
love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
Sadly, i don’t think that my readers appreciate this attitude as much as i do.
writing == buying
Some capitalist in the sky must jump up and down everytime that i have to write a paper because i spend more money when writing papers than i do at any other point in time. Of course, all of my money goes to exactly one place. Conversely, all of my friends must hate me when i write because year after year, they get suckered into the painful process of moving my consumerist acquisitions.
Today: 1 Lacan, 1 Foucault, 2 Kafka, 3 Calvino, 1 Goffman, 1 Aronson, 1 Jung… yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a theoretical day.
contextual lightening bolt
I just had one of those thoughts that makes me go yay! Y’know – when something clicks and things make a bit more sense.
Postmodern theorists constantly refer to the fragmentation of the individual, seeing it as a modern day crises. This has always bothered me because the individual is not inherently fragmented, only their social presentation of self, or their social identity. The individual has a coherent sense of self, yet they negotiate multiple social selves depending on a given context. With little consciousness, people can quickly evaluate the context of a given situation, determine which facet of their identity they wish to convey, and construct a face from which to perform this identity.
The crises of self doesn’t come from the fragmentation, but the increasing loss of control over the contexts of a given situation. Technology has made it possible such that contexts collapse – spacial, temporal and personal. People don’t know how to properly perform their social identity because they’re not sure to whom and for when they are performing. Architectural cues no longer indicate what is appropriate – are they being recorded? at what time is this conversation being had? Contexts are collapsing.
One place where this is increasingly obvious is in fashion. Postmodern theorists see fashion as proof that the people are in a crises state. There are no longer social rules for when to wear what clothing, retro has gotten to a point where it’s nuovo, and fashion looks like the collapsing of all time, fabrics, and social roles. Perhaps this is not a crises in the individual, but a recognization that contemporary society flaunts collapsed contexts.
Yet while we hail such collapsing, we are simultaneously confused by it, particularly as we have increasingly separate roles in our lives. Society requires us to present an acceptable social identity in all situations, but in a collapsed world, this means presenting an identity that is uniformly acceptable, across all time/space/people. Such requires homogeneity. Perhaps the crises in the self is a rebellion against such a generic norm, where there is no individuality. People aren’t afraid of their fragmentation, they are afraid of the collapse of it.
suicide girls
So, i’ve never been a particularly large fan of Internet porn. Hell, i’ve never been a big fan of any form of traditional porn. I love naked bodies, particularly naked women, but the way in which pornography is shot is typically more revolting than erotic. I get bored, turned off and disinterested. So, i never bother. I mean, i don’t really need to see another shaven pussy or a face cum shot; i’m not aroused by gang bangs and spread open anuses. Gag me. So, when i look for erotic images, i tend to look for more artistic ones, black and white, arousing and not necessarily entirely revealing. Images that show the form of a woman’s body and make her look elegant and powerful, show the beauty of the form of the body, not just an object ready to be penetrated. Also, i’m not particularly aroused by your typical porn star image – big breasts scare me and big hair even more. I like the punky, the wild, the goth. I like seeing the crazy energy of the model as part of the image, the ability for the model to be seductive and powerful, a troublemaker, not just a dumb camera shot.
This basically means that i don’t bother looking for images. Sometimes, i find artists that capture this essence of women, but often not. I’ve always enjoyed pictures from Burning Man, which is an inherently erotic and crazy space. And then this morning, i stumbled on a funny little erotic image site filled with punk/goth girls. This site was explicitely created by these crazy grrrls to show off hot alternative girls.
Hmm.. now i wonder how many other interesting sites are out there…
…
Since the original post, people have pointed me to:
4th of July
What are we celebrating on the Fourth of July?
In 1776 American colonists fought for freedom against a mighty empire, an act of self-determination we still celebrate on the Fourth of July. But we also use the Fourth to maintain a mythology about our role in the world that, while mostly true in 1776, is wholly false 226 years later.
In 2002, we are the empire.
As this holiday comes to a close, i am still asking the question that got me into so much trouble for so many years. Call me unpatriotic, call me a cynic, call me a psycho, but i still don’t get how we can stand up every year and celebrate our systematic oppression of people worldwide under the guise of independence and freedom. We are not free and we will not be free until all people are truly treated equally, respected as individuals and permitted to pursue their notion of happiness in a society of mutual respect. We will not be free until we tolerate everyone’s differences and respect their decisions and needs. We will not be free until we value others’ needs over our own. We will not be free until we stop raping, pillaging, bombing, massacring, hating, all under a flag with an artificial notion of liberation. We will not be free until we lay down our privileges and stand up for those for whom we’ve made life untolerable.
And until we truly try to seek freedom, i will continue to turn my back to the man who is not the president of me. And no matter how much i crave the beauty of fire, no pretty pyrotechnic explosion can convince me to stand falsely united under an oppressive flag or a colonialist pledge or participate in an event that flaunts a bomber plane.
we drove the car to the top of the parking ramp
on the 4th of july
we sat out on the hood with a couple of warm beers and watched the fireworks
explode in the sky
and there was an exodus of birds from the trees
but they didn’t know we were only pretending
and the people all looked up and looked pleased
and the birds flew around like the whole world was ending
No matter what your cause, i just don’t think that war is ever noble.
thesis hatred
i’m having another one of those thesis hatred moments… thankfully, my embittered friend kindly re-reminded me that i was on severe crack for thinking that grad school could be fun…. and yes, i’d rather read another book. ::slap:: won’t let myself. won’t let myself.
luckily, i’m not alone. there’s grad school barbie – am i delusional or outright masochistic? of course, some brilliant grad student has made an entire procrastination site out of grad school comics..
and finally, while i may not believe in the existence of hell, i still appreciate the grad school comparisons:
TOP TEN SUBTLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GRAD SCHOOL AND HELL:
10. It doesn’t rain in Hell.
9. Everyone has heard of Hell.
8. It’s a lot more fun getting into Hell.
7. You can’t fail out of Hell.
6. At least you can sleep in Hell.
5. Hell is forever; grad school just seems like it.
4. People smile in Hell.
3. You only have to sell your soul to go to Hell.
2. There are hot men and women in Hell.
1. You wouldn’t tell a friend to go to grad school.