What a great way to start the day...
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/540076210.html
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
I love this song...
I gThis is kind of my life right now...I love it!!
"Where I Go" Natalie Merchant
Climbing under
A barbed wire fence
By the railroad ties
Climbing over
The old stone wall
I'm bound for the riverside
Well, I go over to the river
To soothe my mind
To ponder over
The crazy days of my life
Just sit and watch the river flow
Find a place
On the riverbank
Where the green rushes grow
See the wind
In the willow tree
In the branches hanging low
Well, I go to the river
To soothe my mind
To ponder over
The crazy days of my life
Watch the river flow
Ease my mind and soul
Where I go
Well I will go to the river
From time to time
Wander over
These crazy days in my mind
Watch the river flow
Where the willow branches grow
By the cool rolling waters
Moving gracefully and slow
O, child it's lovely
Let the river take it all away
The mad pace and the hurry
The troubles and the worries
Just let the river take them all away
Flow away
http://mog.com/music/Natalie_Merchant/Tigerlily/Where_I_Go
the only clip I could find and it is only a link and 30 seconds-but it's worth it
"Where I Go" Natalie Merchant
Climbing under
A barbed wire fence
By the railroad ties
Climbing over
The old stone wall
I'm bound for the riverside
Well, I go over to the river
To soothe my mind
To ponder over
The crazy days of my life
Just sit and watch the river flow
Find a place
On the riverbank
Where the green rushes grow
See the wind
In the willow tree
In the branches hanging low
Well, I go to the river
To soothe my mind
To ponder over
The crazy days of my life
Watch the river flow
Ease my mind and soul
Where I go
Well I will go to the river
From time to time
Wander over
These crazy days in my mind
Watch the river flow
Where the willow branches grow
By the cool rolling waters
Moving gracefully and slow
O, child it's lovely
Let the river take it all away
The mad pace and the hurry
The troubles and the worries
Just let the river take them all away
Flow away
http://mog.com/music/Natalie_Merchant/Tigerlily/Where_I_Go
the only clip I could find and it is only a link and 30 seconds-but it's worth it
Friday, January 18, 2008
This is really scary...
Wow what will the anti-choice movement think of next...
http://abort73.com/
talk about false advertising and propaganda blaming ignorance and complacency on why a woman would choose an abortion. Most the women I know who have had abortions are very educated and committed to their decisions despite the fact that it is hard and trying. "responsibility of knowledge," that is really good since most of the anti-choice movemet tends to be built on the backs of evangelical Christians usually looked at as uneducated, faith-based, non-rational human beings. I am impressed and yet deeply disturbed and offended at the same time...
what do you think?
http://abort73.com/
talk about false advertising and propaganda blaming ignorance and complacency on why a woman would choose an abortion. Most the women I know who have had abortions are very educated and committed to their decisions despite the fact that it is hard and trying. "responsibility of knowledge," that is really good since most of the anti-choice movemet tends to be built on the backs of evangelical Christians usually looked at as uneducated, faith-based, non-rational human beings. I am impressed and yet deeply disturbed and offended at the same time...
what do you think?
Thursday, January 17, 2008
To Be or Not To Be...Angry that is...
So I have thinking about several things to blog about and what I have settled on is this. It involves my class yesterday (not the performance one) and a guy in it and a conversation we had. I was mostly puzzled by the conversation unsure exactly what was happening and yet at the same time I became extremely irritated by what the convo yielded.
It all started because one guy H.L Goodall in his book Writing the New Ethnography said, "Voice is derivative." Basically he meant we pick up our voice specifically as writers but also as human beings trough the voices we hear and read of others. This makes a lot of sense to me. For example a childhood friend of mine was born in the south, she had a thic southern accent. Her parents also spoke with thick accents. When she moved to Colorado and met me all of a sudden I started realizing that I at certain times spoke with a southern accent. I would say "I'm fixing maself somethin ta eat." Or "Ya'll" made an appearance in my vocab. All of this was derived from my social situation, I derived my voice from the voices around me. So it is with authors-often when I read something like Foucault, I will try to imitate his and other critical theorists in my writing (I honestly think it makes me sound smarter and more learned.) Other times I may just incorporate certain elements of these theorists writings into my own, like stringing adjectives together. Nonetheless I feel like it makes sense that our voices would come from the external and become something we internalize-and honestly I do not see how this is not a feminist notion-it is in fact very feminist as far as new ways of defining feminism go.
Back to my story, guy in my class who I will name Fred although that is really not a good name choice because Fred appears stand-offish and old fashioned whereas the man I speak of is actually very warm-hearted with very good intentions. I feel like most of the time when Fred talks he wants to appear smart, educated and also empathetic. He likes to quote feminist rhetoricians when he talks in class and basically likes to throw around the term feminist to prove that he is IN FACT, sensitive to feminist issues and causes. Guess what Fred I've read those books too-taken feminist rhetoric classes and read a shit ton of theory-I mean really you wanna go with me? I like Fred, most of the time as much as I like most of the straight white dudes in my class who like to try and take me to task on issues of feminism, race, and queer on a monthly basis.
My saving grace is that in that class there is a Cool California Blonde. I am going to call her Tiffany although this is really a bad name for her because Tiffany sounds like the name of a bimbo, or at best an airhead and actually Tiffany is one of the smartest people I know. Often she and I make eye contact throughout class (we are not much for social friends) but in the classroom setting I am so glad to have her presence there because I know that most of the time she is thinking exactly what I am thinking. All my complaints of people not getting it are stifled in her because she gets it. Maybe not all of it but neither do I so I really can't complain.
So an interesting dynamic happened yesterday in regards to Fred, Tiffany and I. Fred posed te question, in his sort of pretentious, look at me I'm a feminist watch me shed my knowledge sort of way, "Isn't what Goodall is saying against the feminist notions of voice of trying to unleash the voice, to give the voice of the marginalized a place to speak. I mean isn't that the primary concern of feminists is to give voice to those who aren't heard."
Gut reaction, "Huh?" puzzled look adorning my face. How is what Goodall saying not feminist and where did you learn your feminist theory Fred-some 70's drawing room with a bunch of white women sitting around examining their vaginas talking about how they are oppressed?
Tiffany must've been thinking the same thing because she raised her hand and said, "I think the whole point of this is that people of color, women, queer people and all of those who intersect multiple identities are able to get in touch with their voices more easily and I don't think Goodall's argument is not feminist just because he says it is derivative."
My professor also sort of chimed in and said something to the affect of there have been times when ideas of voice were more internal and that they came from places inside.
I'm still confused. I don't know exactly what Fred, Tiffany or the Professor are saying. All I know is that I don't like the conversation it doesn't seem necessary or productive and it definitely seems built on archaic notions of what feminism is or has been.
I interject. "I think Goodall is advocating for recognizing positionality and I don't understand what is not feminist about this? And also when you talk about the (emphasis mine) feminist perspective of voice of whom are you speaking?"
Fred stutters, "Well although their are different versions of feminism like womanism for African Americans etc...a primary concern is voice and hearing voices we don't always hear right? I mean that's the point of standpoint theory."
Wrong. wrong wrong wrong. Standpoint theory? really? Great theory, love it, now lets keep going. Lets push those notions further. That's what I see feminism doing these days. We are no longer solely concerned with marginalized groups but how power relations are maintained, negotiated, and performed on a daily basis. It is no longer simple enough to say margin and center because there is too much complexity in the human experience to limit it to that. We are all margins and centers at different moments in time, history, and geographical and spatial location. I do not totally disagree with Fred, but women's/feminist/and gender studies and feminism more generally is also concerned with much more than consciousness raising as they once were during the second wave. While I am in debt to those who do and have done this work I would say that feminism as a discipline and a movement has been much too influenced by queer theory, critical race studies, and global social movements to so that we are concerned with power relations and social structures and a piece of this is yes hearing the voices of those who are marginalized. And a part of that is unleashing derivative voices. It is no longer simply giving or hearing voice (although this is really never simple) but understanding voices in larger structures and contexts, not hearing the voices for the voices sake. and I love hearing voices, I love reading voices, but they don't speak to me because they come from this internal harmonious woman place, but because they are social voices in social contexts and as Goodall says they fill the "gaps in my soul." But can I be critical of those voices-yes-definitely. I love Audre Lourde but her piece on "The Erotic" makes me uncomfortable as shit. I still love her and it because they challenge me-it is the challenge that I truly love.
At that moment I start to scribble in my notebook. This is why Women's Studies programs are in such contention. On one hand they are fighting to be legitimized to be taken seriously because guys like Fred think that feminists are (while maybe a positive stereotype) are still mainly concerned with unleashing the inner goddesses voices of the marginalized. And yet at the same time there is so much push to eliminate women's studies programs because they place women and gender too much as a focus when we should be concerned with all aspects of identity and the way different identities produce and maintain each other. Another perspective, women's studies is no longer needed, we're equal now right? Why aren't there men's studies programs? There are just look at who dominates the writing in the majority of other disciplines as well as the fact that implicit in understanding women as a valid line of inquiry we must also study men.
I realize that I have gotten defensive at a time and place I maybe shouldn't have. I should have been more dialogic, I shouldn't have looked and sounded so upset and angry. But he was criticizing my baby, my passion. At the end of class Tiffany came up to me, "Thank You," and tapped my desk. I guess it was worth it to be angry-even if for only that.
It all started because one guy H.L Goodall in his book Writing the New Ethnography said, "Voice is derivative." Basically he meant we pick up our voice specifically as writers but also as human beings trough the voices we hear and read of others. This makes a lot of sense to me. For example a childhood friend of mine was born in the south, she had a thic southern accent. Her parents also spoke with thick accents. When she moved to Colorado and met me all of a sudden I started realizing that I at certain times spoke with a southern accent. I would say "I'm fixing maself somethin ta eat." Or "Ya'll" made an appearance in my vocab. All of this was derived from my social situation, I derived my voice from the voices around me. So it is with authors-often when I read something like Foucault, I will try to imitate his and other critical theorists in my writing (I honestly think it makes me sound smarter and more learned.) Other times I may just incorporate certain elements of these theorists writings into my own, like stringing adjectives together. Nonetheless I feel like it makes sense that our voices would come from the external and become something we internalize-and honestly I do not see how this is not a feminist notion-it is in fact very feminist as far as new ways of defining feminism go.
Back to my story, guy in my class who I will name Fred although that is really not a good name choice because Fred appears stand-offish and old fashioned whereas the man I speak of is actually very warm-hearted with very good intentions. I feel like most of the time when Fred talks he wants to appear smart, educated and also empathetic. He likes to quote feminist rhetoricians when he talks in class and basically likes to throw around the term feminist to prove that he is IN FACT, sensitive to feminist issues and causes. Guess what Fred I've read those books too-taken feminist rhetoric classes and read a shit ton of theory-I mean really you wanna go with me? I like Fred, most of the time as much as I like most of the straight white dudes in my class who like to try and take me to task on issues of feminism, race, and queer on a monthly basis.
My saving grace is that in that class there is a Cool California Blonde. I am going to call her Tiffany although this is really a bad name for her because Tiffany sounds like the name of a bimbo, or at best an airhead and actually Tiffany is one of the smartest people I know. Often she and I make eye contact throughout class (we are not much for social friends) but in the classroom setting I am so glad to have her presence there because I know that most of the time she is thinking exactly what I am thinking. All my complaints of people not getting it are stifled in her because she gets it. Maybe not all of it but neither do I so I really can't complain.
So an interesting dynamic happened yesterday in regards to Fred, Tiffany and I. Fred posed te question, in his sort of pretentious, look at me I'm a feminist watch me shed my knowledge sort of way, "Isn't what Goodall is saying against the feminist notions of voice of trying to unleash the voice, to give the voice of the marginalized a place to speak. I mean isn't that the primary concern of feminists is to give voice to those who aren't heard."
Gut reaction, "Huh?" puzzled look adorning my face. How is what Goodall saying not feminist and where did you learn your feminist theory Fred-some 70's drawing room with a bunch of white women sitting around examining their vaginas talking about how they are oppressed?
Tiffany must've been thinking the same thing because she raised her hand and said, "I think the whole point of this is that people of color, women, queer people and all of those who intersect multiple identities are able to get in touch with their voices more easily and I don't think Goodall's argument is not feminist just because he says it is derivative."
My professor also sort of chimed in and said something to the affect of there have been times when ideas of voice were more internal and that they came from places inside.
I'm still confused. I don't know exactly what Fred, Tiffany or the Professor are saying. All I know is that I don't like the conversation it doesn't seem necessary or productive and it definitely seems built on archaic notions of what feminism is or has been.
I interject. "I think Goodall is advocating for recognizing positionality and I don't understand what is not feminist about this? And also when you talk about the (emphasis mine) feminist perspective of voice of whom are you speaking?"
Fred stutters, "Well although their are different versions of feminism like womanism for African Americans etc...a primary concern is voice and hearing voices we don't always hear right? I mean that's the point of standpoint theory."
Wrong. wrong wrong wrong. Standpoint theory? really? Great theory, love it, now lets keep going. Lets push those notions further. That's what I see feminism doing these days. We are no longer solely concerned with marginalized groups but how power relations are maintained, negotiated, and performed on a daily basis. It is no longer simple enough to say margin and center because there is too much complexity in the human experience to limit it to that. We are all margins and centers at different moments in time, history, and geographical and spatial location. I do not totally disagree with Fred, but women's/feminist/and gender studies and feminism more generally is also concerned with much more than consciousness raising as they once were during the second wave. While I am in debt to those who do and have done this work I would say that feminism as a discipline and a movement has been much too influenced by queer theory, critical race studies, and global social movements to so that we are concerned with power relations and social structures and a piece of this is yes hearing the voices of those who are marginalized. And a part of that is unleashing derivative voices. It is no longer simply giving or hearing voice (although this is really never simple) but understanding voices in larger structures and contexts, not hearing the voices for the voices sake. and I love hearing voices, I love reading voices, but they don't speak to me because they come from this internal harmonious woman place, but because they are social voices in social contexts and as Goodall says they fill the "gaps in my soul." But can I be critical of those voices-yes-definitely. I love Audre Lourde but her piece on "The Erotic" makes me uncomfortable as shit. I still love her and it because they challenge me-it is the challenge that I truly love.
At that moment I start to scribble in my notebook. This is why Women's Studies programs are in such contention. On one hand they are fighting to be legitimized to be taken seriously because guys like Fred think that feminists are (while maybe a positive stereotype) are still mainly concerned with unleashing the inner goddesses voices of the marginalized. And yet at the same time there is so much push to eliminate women's studies programs because they place women and gender too much as a focus when we should be concerned with all aspects of identity and the way different identities produce and maintain each other. Another perspective, women's studies is no longer needed, we're equal now right? Why aren't there men's studies programs? There are just look at who dominates the writing in the majority of other disciplines as well as the fact that implicit in understanding women as a valid line of inquiry we must also study men.
I realize that I have gotten defensive at a time and place I maybe shouldn't have. I should have been more dialogic, I shouldn't have looked and sounded so upset and angry. But he was criticizing my baby, my passion. At the end of class Tiffany came up to me, "Thank You," and tapped my desk. I guess it was worth it to be angry-even if for only that.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Ootischenia, The Be Good Tanyas
Ootischenia, The Be Good Tanyas
I really love this song because I think it deals with interesting issues regarding disciplining the body and possibly feeling duty to ones community or culture over oneself. I listen to a lot as I drive and I think about it critically.
--
Little sad with everything around me
I hit the floor and my feet kept moving
I look forward and never backwards
I was out the door like a roman soldier.
Impossible to keep a straight line
Too young to keep these bitter hearts
And all around me
Somebody singing
Get back get back
Long hair coming down her shoulders
She is tired and feeling so much older
So tear the pages from the family bible
It came down upon the women for survival
It came down upon the women for survival
You know it wasn’t me, no
And nothing at all, you stop me if I get it wrong
I think I’m hearing somebody saying
I’m gonna spank you ‘till you can’t sit down
Bust apart we’ll lose each other
The constellation of my sisters and brothers
I’m spinning out into the darkness
Good bye to you in the sadness of this
Good bye to you in the sadness of this
Good bye to you in the sadness of this
Impossible to keep a straight line
Too young to keep these bitter hearts
And all around me
Somebody singing
Get back get back
--
I really love this song because I think it deals with interesting issues regarding disciplining the body and possibly feeling duty to ones community or culture over oneself. I listen to a lot as I drive and I think about it critically.
--
Little sad with everything around me
I hit the floor and my feet kept moving
I look forward and never backwards
I was out the door like a roman soldier.
Impossible to keep a straight line
Too young to keep these bitter hearts
And all around me
Somebody singing
Get back get back
Long hair coming down her shoulders
She is tired and feeling so much older
So tear the pages from the family bible
It came down upon the women for survival
It came down upon the women for survival
You know it wasn’t me, no
And nothing at all, you stop me if I get it wrong
I think I’m hearing somebody saying
I’m gonna spank you ‘till you can’t sit down
Bust apart we’ll lose each other
The constellation of my sisters and brothers
I’m spinning out into the darkness
Good bye to you in the sadness of this
Good bye to you in the sadness of this
Good bye to you in the sadness of this
Impossible to keep a straight line
Too young to keep these bitter hearts
And all around me
Somebody singing
Get back get back
--
New blog
In light of my performance class I have decided to start a new blog called performat-I-vity there is a link on my page so check it out-it is scholarly and shit but I think it is relevant to daily life and stuff!!
--
http://perform-i-tivity.blogspot.com/
--
http://perform-i-tivity.blogspot.com/
Monday, January 14, 2008
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins-Hott
Jenny Lewis(Rilo Kiley) with the Watson Twins, Rise Up With Fists
Lyrics--
What are you changing?
Who do you think you're changing?
You can't change things, we're all stuck in our ways
It's like trying to clean the ocean
What do you think you can drain it?
Well it was poison and dry long before you came
But you can wake up younger under the knife
And you can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
And I better wake up
There before the grace of God go hide!
It's hard to believe your profits
When they're asking you to change things
But with their suspect lives we look the other way
Are you really that pure, Sir?
Thought I saw you in Vegas
It was not pretty, but she was
But she will wake up wealthy
And you will wake up 45
And she will wake up with babies
There before the grace of God go hide!
What am I fighting for?
The cops are at the front door
I can't escape that way, the windows are in flames
And what's that on your ankle?
You say they're not coming for you
But house arrest is really just the same
Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There before the grace of God go hide!
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists
And I will take what's mine mine mine
There before the grace of God go hide!
There before the grace of God go hide!
There before the grace of God go hide!
There before the grace of God go hide!
--
Lyrics--
What are you changing?
Who do you think you're changing?
You can't change things, we're all stuck in our ways
It's like trying to clean the ocean
What do you think you can drain it?
Well it was poison and dry long before you came
But you can wake up younger under the knife
And you can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
And I better wake up
There before the grace of God go hide!
It's hard to believe your profits
When they're asking you to change things
But with their suspect lives we look the other way
Are you really that pure, Sir?
Thought I saw you in Vegas
It was not pretty, but she was
But she will wake up wealthy
And you will wake up 45
And she will wake up with babies
There before the grace of God go hide!
What am I fighting for?
The cops are at the front door
I can't escape that way, the windows are in flames
And what's that on your ankle?
You say they're not coming for you
But house arrest is really just the same
Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There before the grace of God go hide!
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists
And I will take what's mine mine mine
There before the grace of God go hide!
There before the grace of God go hide!
There before the grace of God go hide!
There before the grace of God go hide!
--
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