The Northern Sun

Sunburned in Rhode Island. I have to say I didn't really even realize what awesome beaches awaited me in the tiniest state. Everything in Rhode Island is pretty small, the streets, the capitol, the people. And the schools. I have to take a moment to acknowledge how much going to a huge school has shaped me as an individualistic kind of person. I don't depend on someone to plan and guide me through my college career, nor are big schools adequately equipped to help all their graduates find jobs...Of course, similarities can be seen in the campus hookah bar, drunk couple getting it on in the bushes, and dorm room beer pong parties. Oh excuse me, here it is called "Beruit" you know like for the bombing.

The sun rising above the clouds on an early am flight just might be the most spectacular thing in the world. From a purple black morning through the grey bronze clouds, ascending to the blood orange brilliant sun. God, it's captivating.

Country Girls Pee Faster

As intern/office bitch for an established music management company, I had the opportunity to experience some legitimate country music this weekend. Now, coming from Texas, you may suspect that country runs through my viens. Here - mistaken. I've never been able to get into the "my girl left me and I jist got my dog now" lyric genre.

So I worked at this Kevin Fowler show at a place called Weirdos in Austin, TX. As if the wife-beater no-bra jean cut-off shorts girls washing the abundant Harley's in the front were not enough of a warning, I was soon greeted by more F450s than I have ever seen in one place at one time.

Dumb, drunk and friendly. If that's not already the title to a two-four country jam, I hope it soon will be. That's exactly what you find at a country show. Men and women alike falling over with their Coors Light by 10 pm and the headliner hasn't even gone on yet...when he's there he is sure to pump the liquid and make sure his audience is propelling their inebriation to the fullest extent. His first three songs: "The Lord Loves the Drinkin Man" Coors and Buds raised in praise-ful agreement. "Butterbean" - apparently women are some kind of bean. "Beer Bait and Ammo" speaks for itself. And after "Pound Sign" (#) which you sing because it feels so dang good to let that "f-bomb" go I didn't think I could handle much more. After only 2 Jack and cokes, I wasn't fitting into the atmosphere of inebriation. The line at the bathroom, about 15 people long. My phone is dead so other than obsessively applying lip-gloss I have no choice but the chat with the drunken blonde bathroom goers. I have to say, everyone was exceptionally nice, even so nice as to stroke and wink at me...drawing the attention of some near-standing USA flag-clad good ol' boys. Luckily the line moves fast at country shows. I gotta say, country girls just know how to pee fast. None of this primpin' shit goes down in the bathroom (not to mention probably nobody is snorting up blow in the stalls) Country girls pee faster than city girls, it's just a fact (and maybe another future country song title).

I thought I'd had enough, but then a 4x4 or two blocking my car in. Security's answer: "haha yeah you're fucked til the show's done." Great. Luckily a friend could save my life an rescue me.

Will I go to another country show? Probably not. But glad for the experience. Dumb drunk and friendly - Country music.

delete them, please

It seems to be that the ratio of outright idiotic people using social networking sites has increased.

At the bottom of the ladder, we have the myspace rung. This is a gross and dirty place full of garage band never going to make it musicians and their fans who can't spell and haven't got a life. These people should be generally avoided and maybe even deleted from existence.

Flickr, you're next. While occasionally really bad ass photos will emerge, generally you're for people without much real social engagement who take photos of themselves sitting at their desks, melancholy, somebody-love-me expression.

Second life. Get a life.

Twitter, you can be cool. But ultimately are a fad and pretty ghetto-trendy. Plus what the hell with being over capacity half the time? Hire some interns.

Google - why don't you stick to being on top, rather than buzzing and losing countries.

Facebook, I like you, but you're movement toward advertising heavy pages is really getting out of hand. And the seriousness of some people...

LinkedIn, alright, fine, never going to help me get a job, but at least you employ intelligent users.

Chatroullet hahahahahaha that is it.

It's energy

It’s energy. Like a thousand gold bubbles rising all over my body, urging to burst from my pores and shine with the warmth I feel inside. I tried for a long long time to remain as closed as a clam on the ocean floor. Afraid that I didn’t have a pearl of passion hidden deep inside me somewhere.

They never tried to sell me something I didn't want

"Trees would they let the trees fall but leave man standing?...You can't rest in the shad of a human, not even a roly-poly one; and isn't it refreshing that trees can undergo periodic change without havig a nervous breakdown over it? Best of all, perhaps, what maple or cypress ever tried to sell you something you didn't want?"
--Tom Robbins "Villa Incognito"



Though I might've hugged a tree before, I don't deny the incredible usefullness of our natural resources and maintain that they should be used...responsibly.

Thistragedy cannot be reconciled. Destruction can't be the only thing humans are good for.

Bacon on my Boobies

This may be the American Dream.

Bacon. But no thank you, I do not need bacon on my boobies.

Philosiphication

I will write to know what I think, but according to Jean Baudrillard, I cannot think an original thought or create an original response. My art cannot be transcendental, but only a recirculation of images. The liberation that occurred throughout the mid-twentieth century seems to have left my generation with the blazing question of “What now?” I observe that young people today sit and gripe about the fallacies of the world’s order, yet have no passion to remove themselves from their failed environment and inspire the changes we desire.

A utopian society can never exist, at least not in my eyes. By utopian standards the government would run flawlessly, hunger would not destroy lives, people would be happy, or at least live under the illusion of happiness. I recently viewed a commercial that talked about what you have to accomplish to make yourself a “success:” climb corporate ladders, with the ultimate goal of owning your own business. The ultimate success being the illusion that you, the individual, are in control of some aspect of your life, but advertising is the driving force behind every industry. It’s about how the image is projected and how the audience interprets the image. So is art an attempt to connect with people because people ultimately feel alone? I believe that the principle function of art is to connect. Culturally and generationally, the ideal of “art” is very specific. To fully understand the art, one would have to be absorbed in the culture from which it was produced for art cannot be objective; it derives intent from the desire to elicit a response. When looking at art objectively, you block yourself from experiencing its intent. In class we seem to discuss the motivation for suffering to an end as a goal of happiness. I do not know how I could ever attain a level of complete satisfaction. In fact, “happiness” to me seems like the ultimate manifestation of mediocracy. I do not want to settle. The world offers so much to know and experience that lifetimes could not cover it. I don’t believe in absolutes as I hope the world will constantly change, even if it is a cyclic repetition of something that has passed centuries before in an altered state. The plague and blessing of constant wonder is what drives the artist and scientist alike to search for answers, for novelties in recreation.

Every day I see aspects of sexual liberation that have not come to fruitation. If all aspects of sexuality were liberated in the 1970s, how can followers of Fred Phelps berate the life of a deceased homosexual at his funeral? Does not the state of circulation Baudrillard speaks of make it completely pointless to challenge anything, to strive for a more accepting and tolerable future? I do not think he can make the statement that “liberation” has been completed when the cycle keeps us in a purgatory of oppressed individuals. If homosexuals have indeed been liberated, why do countless countries still persecute their lives? Maybe I hope for a world too idealistically tolerable of alternate lifestyles, but oppression of expression is the principle cause for mental instability. Back home in the “hick-town” Amarillo, Texas, where I lived for the first seventeen years of my life, it is nearly impossible to be expressive of a lifestyle that is anything less than what the overwhelmingly Baptist population deems as “Christian-like.” The fact is that not everyone believes in the Christians’ god or in any god for that matter.

Halmos is absolutely correct when he discusses the move of “dance” in western society from that of an interpersonal connection to that of a surface means of expressing sexual tension. Many times in our society, I feel that sexuality is repressed because of religious or social standards. We are sexual beings. Dance must employ movement of the body and is at least an immensely sensual thing if not sexual. It can be vulgar, frightening, arousing, stimulating, or intriguing, and the depression of desire and physical need of sex creates physical tensions that can be moderated for some by getting down to the rhythms in a smoky bar. “American” club dancing is not something I would consider classy. A good deal of my friends are from Mexico and other Latino nations; the salsa, meringue, tango, and rhumba I have learned to dance are comprised of specific steps that each individual can contort to fit his own expression. Even among friends these highly sensual dances radiate with undertones of bodily glorification and acknowledgment an appreciation of sex. Animals have “mating dances” for the sole purpose of reproduction; sex sustains our livelihood so it only makes sense to have art forms that celebrate the body and sexuality. The history of the world has experienced the first extreme, gender as a segregation of sexuality to absolute male of female. I agree with Baudrillard that since so much focus is placed now on sexuality, especially Western culture, that we move toward an era of blended sexuality, where no one thing is inherently feminine or masculine, but where the ultimate goal of “liberation” is asexuality. We see it in popular fashion stores such as American Apparel with their new release of “unisex” pants. In the media everything is about sex, except sex itself which becomes about power: the use of sex to gain power or strip someone of it or the use of one’s sex to influence policy.

People seem so ready to designate themselves apart from “the crowd,” but in doing so create another population of identical individuals who see themselves as unique, which they are-just like everybody else. We are separated by geographical and cultural variables; however, to progress from a world of dissent we must focus on our similarities; what is different about us makes us the same, and we are all differently alike. Embracing our heritage, our culture is integral in discovery of yourself, but we cannot forget that each individual is a part of the whole of humanity, of society. Individuals are not created equal: genetics have a lot to do with the way life pans out. The best way to confront racism is to acknowledge it and to create awareness about the effects of discrimination. Resentment held will impede progress of unity. Different people have different talent, but each of us, as a component of human society, should have the ability to respect the wonderful differences that make us the same.

Mancrunched the Superbowl

Instead of listening to the media consumption lecture, I think I'll create a little of my own media. Since the University of Texas insists on my taking 4 advertising classes covering the same basic principles of elementary Advertising, I suppose I will have to delve into the industry myself to learn any thing of substance. And hopefully stumble upon more than one good idea.

I'm so tired of the wretched fluorescent lighting that exists in all my classrooms. Abrasive awkward and glaring on my computer screen, it just won't do. Instead, let's insert about 50 tiny led bulbs into the ceiling that could be controlled wirelessly from a teachers computer to form different patterns and light levels with pure white light instead of the yellow-gray fuzz of fluorescent.

To say something about this Mancrunch vs. Tebow anti-abortion fiasco for this year's Superbowl advertising. How can two men kissing possibly be more offensive than politically aligned advertising during this sports game. The Mancrunch commercial, while not even advocating a position on the issue, is no different than those "mmm sexy voice call this number to talk to your sexy local" commercials that visit late night television channels across the nation. How not airing this commercial justifiable to any media network. Offence of men who may not be comfortable with sexuality and a challenge to a woman's right to her own body are hardly comparable issues. My guess is the margin of homosexual men watching the superbowl is much larger than any of these too-tight-assed conservatives would like to acknowledge. CBS , you make a serious mistake being so inconsistently selective. Maybe we shouldn't show the game, I mean all that violence has got to be offensive to some radical group, what about their rights, hmm?