| |
[May. 9th, 2008|02:58 pm] |
Another source of frustration is that I forgot my own version of Murphy's Law: the less interested I am in an argument, the more likely it will drag me in, especially when it's in someone else's blog (so this is my way of saying, sorry, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fengi.) |
|
|
| the rage, it burns within me |
[May. 9th, 2008|02:49 pm] |
So after having my laptop with a local computer repair guru for about a week, I suddenly learn that, hey, it needs to be sent back to the manufacturer after all.
The guy's been more than nice enough and I don't like to get in the habit of judging people for how they do in tasks I can barely begin to perform myself, so I'm refraining from holding a grudge against him. Still, I kind of wish there was someone around whom I could blame - not to mention have them, in Valerie Solanis' words, "wade through a river of snot." |
|
|
| when weathermen were weathermen |
[May. 9th, 2008|02:23 pm] |
So I've started reading The S.C.U.M. Manifesto, which should be required reading for anyone who ever charged a mainstream feminist writer with misandry (such as Christina Sommers). Weirdly enough it goes well with the flavor of John Waters' commentaries in his early films, where he waxes poetic on just how radical certain elements of '60s and early '70s youth culture were. This has given me a bizarre nostalgia for a time I could never truly know.
I have to ask, what the hell happened? I've heard people speculate that in our current media-saturated culture all possible avenues for genuine rebellion are co-opted by a capital-I Industry before they seriously challenge the mainstream, something that holds true for trends as well as individuals. I'm inclined toward thinking it's something deeper and more complex than that; perhaps huge society-wide nightmare that started with the Manson family murders and sort of, kind of ended with Ronald Reagan and the AIDS epidemic but stretches out up to this moment and beyond. (I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me that the '80s were a "huge society-wide nightmare").
Seeing how tepid the gay rights movement, along with other liberal groups, have become in the current era, I do wonder if something has been lost and whether or not we'll ever get it back. (Of course, if this something inspired the violence of the weathermen and the sociopathic fantasies of The S.C.U.M. Manifesto, it's worth asking if it should stay lost). |
|
|
| at this rate, my blog will become nothing but collections of quotes from friends and conversations |
[May. 7th, 2008|11:06 pm] |
From friend Lauren:
I'm beginning to think it's this post-modernism jazz that helped the
Libertarians come into being- such a staunch rejection of the reality
created by history and a bizarre externalization of personal experience
projected as a common human condition? That's basically both Libertarians
and Foucault. The fact that both have principles basically rooted in
explaining their own personal freakiness further seals the deal. |
|
|
| on elitism |
[May. 7th, 2008|01:50 pm] |
"So does despising 'American Idol' make me an elitist?"
"Yes. There's no reason why a two-or-three-hit-wonder-turned-drug-addict, someone who worked with such distinguished acts as NSYNC and Mariah Carey, and a man who brought the World Wrestling Federation and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to the world of popular music can't be the ultimate arbitrers of potential and talent in music. The next thing you'll be telling me is that electing an alcoholic failed businessman as President twice was a disaster." |
|
|
| discount gigolos |
[May. 5th, 2008|10:15 pm] |
I never thought I'd try to open a small business, but today I think I had the best idea ever. Here's the promo I'm already envisioning:
Have you straight women and gay men out there ever looked at the website of an escort agency and was burned by their outrageous rates? Well, I've been there too, and I'm here to bring you high gigolo quality that still fits your budget. There's no good reason why the closeted Republican Congressmen and aging Hollywood stars should have all the fun. We're not living in seventeenth century France. As an American, you have the right to have male prostitutes who are as readily available as a home computer or a cell phone. Generations of soldiers have given their lives over the years for nothing less.
We here at the Discount Escort Agency have scoured the streets, hostels, college dorms, YMCAs, and Match.com for men who are undoubtedly up to code but, because of some insignificant flaw, have been turned down by your stuck-up, elitist escort agencies. These are flaws like a missing tooth or a mutilated finger here, a meth addiction there, maybe even a slight tendency to spout out Neo-Fascist rhetoric at inopportune moments, but, let's face it, we're probably your only shot at scoring a hottie. And whatever your tastes or orientation you will be satisfied by our selection, I gaurantee it.
Of course, not only am I providing a service that I needed on many a cold, lonely night, but I'll have a clientele that can't afford to have me killed! |
|
|
| when I grow up I want to be in the Big Book of British Smiles |
[May. 5th, 2008|10:13 pm] |
|
I can't be the only person who, while at the dentist's office and waiting for the hygenist to return, thought, "Hmm, maybe I can make a break for it." |
|
|
| I want you...to want me |
[May. 2nd, 2008|01:46 pm] |
|
I'm bored and frustrated (never a pleasant combination), so I'm stealing a page from improperbrahmin's book and inviting everyone to ask me anything. |
|
|
| i watch movies (and read blogs!) |
[May. 1st, 2008|02:40 pm] |
This Filthy World - Even if you're one of those who thinks that John Waters lost his spark years ago (and I for one am not), you might enjoy this odd combination of a stand-up act and a vocalized career retrospective. Some of it covers the same ground he dives into during his commentaries (which are the best I've heard from any director, mostly because Waters actually knows what his audience would want to hear), but it's still fun.
Lars and the Real Girl - Weirdly enough this movie got advertised as a comedy (which was egregious, but not as jaw-dropping as when Trainspotting got the same type of publicity), when it's really more of a film that rather defies genres. Given my own history, I give a lot of slack to movies about pathologically shy people, but I did really like this one, although it got a little too close for comfort once in a while (but, hey, it gave me more of a motivator to do as kia suggested and look for jobs in Boston and New York). |
|
|
| gay cultural rebellion: 1990s |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|02:09 pm] |
A few friends of mine and I had recalled that the '90s had seen an explosion in animated series starring buff male anthropomorphic animals like Biker Mice From Mars, Street Sharks, and Extreme Dinosaurs. Of course, all the shows are the descendants of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the quintessential mixture of anthropomorphic animals and physical violence, but even the titular stars did not quite have such...lovingly depicted physiques. I'm totally convinced that herein lies the origins of today's furries. As far as I know, my revelation is actually common knowledge, which is likely enough given the sort of "special" cartoons and fan fics that are dedicated to childhood showsl ike the ones I listed. However, I wouldn't know. As John Waters once put it, everyone has their limits, and furry culture goes at least a few hundred miles past mine.
Not that I can blame them, understand. It's completely comprehensible what kind of associations you would have, as a gay male kid, if your sexual awakening happened to take place while you were watching an extremely buff mouse-man run around half-shirtless. And as far as "having your sexuality awakened by visual fiction" goes, it's much less creepy (if marginally more socially acceptable) than it happening during a brutal murder scene from a slasher film. Nonetheless I really wonder what was going on here. Was it part of some "Masculinity Backlash" that today gives us fast food commercials that challenge their audience's manliness? Or is there really a gay agenda that infiltrated animation studios to try to inspire a new generation of gym bunnies? Possibly it's all just part of the fantasy of manhood cartoons targeted toward boys aspire to, but I don't recall Snake from "G.I. Joe" making a habit of showing off washboard abs all the time. After scouring for links for this post, I did find a bit of evidence that Higher-Ups somewhere out there noticed how odd it was too. When Biker Mice From Mars was remade in recent years, they actually de-muscled the main characters, so I can't be the only one who's noticed this and thinks there's some odd cultural current behind it.
Incidentally, in case anyone reading this is wondering, my sexual awakening was given to me by a book assigned in fifth grade, S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders." I can't remember exactly which scene, but it was either the one where Ponyboy and Soda are shirtless in bed together and Ponyboy is contemplating how handsome and athletic his brother is or the one where Ponyboy is giving his brother Darryl a massage while describing how tight his t-shirt is around his large chest and six-pack abs. They might as well sell "The Outsiders" as gay softcore erotica with an incest theme and an intrusive subplot about teenage gangs. |
|
|
| back to high school |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|08:54 pm] |
So I found out that my book has somehow made it into my old high school's library. I can only assume that none of the administrators or the librarians turned a single page. The simple idea that a book I wrote with a lengthy footnote explaining what the ancient Romans thought about anal sex sits within the walls of my old backwards, soul-crushing school makes the whole experience of writing it and getting somewhat screwed over by the publisher worth it. |
|
|
| invasion |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|01:29 pm] |
I don't have anything against spiders, per se. My true enemy from the realm of very small animals is and always will be bees and wasps and hornets. I honestly have a bona fide phobia, even of humanity's alleged friend, the honeybee. As for spiders...well, at least they can't fly and don't attack en masse. And the fourteen-year old in me simply loves the concept of an eight-legged, eight-eyed, trap-setting vampire.
Unfortunately, as in the classic film Arachnophobia, my home is being invaded. Eleven large, fat, healthy spiders have already shown up while a downstairs sink was turned into a nursery for twenty or so broodlings. Worse of all, these are a special kind of spider native just to my part of the United States, the brown recluse, who like to set up homes in people's closets, nightstands, and even their clothes and shoes, whose bites you probably won't notice until the nausea and muscle and joint pain sets in, and, if you're really, really lucky, their venom will cause the tissue around the bite wound to literally rot.
So, needless to say, despite my lack of a grudge against the spider species, I've been as free with the bug spray as an '80s action star was with bullets. In fact, I think after writing this, I'll go another round. I'll kill myself with my own reckless use of toxic materials before I let myself be wounded by freeloading spiders. |
|
|
| now who's a mindless ideologue? |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|03:06 pm] |
Speaking of anti-intellectualism, racism, and faux-populism, the Arizona state legislature wants to ban certain student groups and classes and cut funding to schools that allow any curriculum deemed to be "anti-American."
SB 1108 would forbid students from participating in groups organized around racial solidarity. So, for instance, students could not join the Black Business Students Association, Native Americans United or MEChA (Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán). Whether one agrees with these groups or not, one would have thought they would be protected by freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Arizona Republicans say "No!" You can sign a petition against this measure here.
Moreover, the measure would also forbid courses to be organized around race. Latino/a Studies, African American studies, and Asian American studies would all be illegal. Note to self: Never take an academic job in Arizona. Note to current Arizona Professors: Get out, if you can.
Republicans have called this measure part of “Homeland Security.” They promise to cut state funding to Arizona schools whose courses “denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization.” SB 1108 also would bar teachers from “overtly encouraging dissent” from those values, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism and religious toleration. All teaching materials would have to be approved by the school superintendent for review.</i>
You have to admire the mind that can survive such a bizarre line of "logic": "Pluralism is an American value, and to protect it we must limit freedom of speech and assembly and prevent students from being exposed to certain points of view." |
|
|
| heart orson |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|01:39 pm] |
Documenting Orson Scott Card's descent into Aged Sci-Fi Novelist Madness has been a fascinating experience, but even I never thought he'd go this far down:
In the real world, of course, everyone reacts with fear to strangers on the street who, for whatever reason, appear to them to present some degree of peril. It would be idiotic for a lone white woman, seeing a group of black teenagers coming toward her on the street not to feel some anxiety. There are so many things that could go wrong. This is not racism, this is a product of living in our times.
Of course, this came from a post about Barrack Obama, who seems to have the superhuman power to make white people all across the country say incredibly fucked-up things.
Beyond the unnecessary application of race to the potential victim and the potential assailants (it's certainly interesting but not surprising that Card racializes the scenario without stumbling on a thought that a woman of any race would probably feel uncomfortable in that situation, regardless of the teenagers' race), there's that "living in our times" canard, which drives me mad. You can almost hear Card shouting, "Things would really be just like in 'The Andy Griffin Show' if feminists and black radicals hadn't conspired together to ruin everything for everybody!"
Besides the quote I shared, there really wasn't much else in the essay (which has the hilariously unbiased title, "Barrack Obama - Racist or Elitist?"). It's more or less the standard cry of "reverse racism", with a snide comment about Al Gore and his conspiracy to make everyone believe in global warming for some reason thrown in, and Card trying desperately to prove that he's a true populist, which I really think is one of the more fascinating elements in his writing. It's almost as if he's terrified that people will think he's a snotty intellectual because of his profession (and his lifestyle, if his reviews of restaurants and products are any indication). The tragic irony is that I'm confident that if Card went to some of the real "everyman" hangouts that still exist where I grew up - a county that's truly rural, poor, and god-fearin' - he'd probably wet himself. |
|
|
| i watch movies |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|11:35 am] |
Day of the Locust (1975) - I had high hopes for this one, since it's based on a novel by one of my favorite American authors, Nathaniel West; the director was John Schlesinger, fresh from directing two of his best movies, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Midnight Cowboy; it's all about pre-World War II Hollywood, which I'm endlessly fascinated by; and I've read a couple of reviews that praise it as a lost classic. My own reaction was less enthusiastic. True, it was a refreshingly gruesome film, the sort of movie you ought to show to moralists who honestly believe that Hollywood has pushed the envelope right off the table. It is filled with the sort of subtle horrors even the makers of today's "torture porn" films wouldn't touch, up to the graphic sight of Keifer Donald Sutherland stomping to death a child actor who looks more than a little like Shirley Temple, which no contemporary filmmaker would dare film. Unfortunately, the pacing was as chaotic as a bipolar person's moods and the thematic and visual pay-off to the entire movie, a Los Angeles crowd that came to Hollywood to gawk at the stars on their way to a film premier turning into a psychotic and blood-drenched mob, is completely overbaked. Still, at least you get to see Karen Black in a rare non-b-movie appearance.
How To Marry A Millionaire - Ever since I watched Norma Jean and Marilyn, I've been on a bit of a Marilyn Monroe kick and trying to remedy the fact that I've only seen Some Like It Hot. Marilyn has less of a role than the film's inclusion in several different Marilyn film collections than you might think at a glance, but it's still courtroom-worthy evidence to prove that she actually was a talented actress with a gift for comedic timing, rather than the precursor to "manufactured celebrities" like Paris Hilton, which is still the verdict of some people.
Hot Fuzz - Actually, I saw this a long time ago, but I watched it again recently and thought I'd take that as an excuse to say this movie is indeed a beautiful thing. It's always fascinating when someone manages to pull off a movie that's not just a parody of a well-known film sub-genre, but manages to be a film that stands entirely on its own as well.
Shivers - I don't like zombie films, mostly for the same reason I'm bored by most Westerns*: you've seen one, you've already seen about 90 percent of them (honestly, for all the flack slasher films get for repeating motifs and plot points, zombie films, especially those made outside Italy, are in my opinion even more monolithic). Still, this one stood out, since it's not only an early effort by David Cronenberg, but it takes the basic concept of zombies and replaces the idea of the mindless, cannibalistic undead with rampaging nymphomaniacs who spread their unique brand of "zombieism" like a STD. It's rather similar to his film Rabid, enough that you might call Rabid a "spiritual sequel", but it does feel more like a uniquely Cronenbergian take on zombies, something we can all enjoy.
*I still want to see 3:10 to Yuma, because the hope of seeing Christian Bale shirtless springs eternal. |
|
|
| london calling |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|11:22 pm] |
So after months of wondering if there was some modern equivalent of a papal interdict on me, someone finally showed an interest in my work: Sutton Publishing responded to a proposal I sent them on this book that I thought no one would publish. The thrill not only comes from my knowledge that this is a larger publisher, but also from the simple little fact that I own four or five books with this company's name on it. They seem to share my philosophy that "popular" and "academic" history do not have to be genres that cannot overlap, too, so it's a bit like getting a nod from up high.
In the letter they did not really commit to anything, but they did ask for information about my last book (and offered if I would have any issues if they recommended some "significant rewriting", which I'll admit was like someone slipped bits of broken glass into my ego-booster juice). Here's hoping they'll understand that it was issued by a small publisher and that there wasn't exactly a hurricane of critical reviews (although I did get a positive review from a newspaper in Bangladesh of all places) nor was the editorial/proofreading work exactly...hm, up to code.
Time to try not to make my response too groveling.
Addendum: Seriously, what is it with me and the British? Am I already on my way to becoming the British writer/historian answer to Jerry Lewis and David Hasslehoff? My homeland's publishers and magazines and universities want nothing to do with me, while Britain has already given me two book offers (sort of) and invited me to a post-doctoral program. Dammit, I was born in the wrong country. |
|
|
