Revival

I am a 6 out of 10. Here's why:

Thesis

If you're blogging after 3 AM, it better be for good reason. What does good mean? What is reason, anyway? Blogging is that thing I do late at night when I don't feel like going to bed, or for some reason I've decided to listen to black metal. Sometimes after 3 AM, my thoughts become so disassembled that I don't know what or why I'm writing.

In other words: I'm afraid this is not going to be a very good blog post.

What Happened?

The past two weeks witnessed an unfortunately sick me. The weather, though entertaining and poetry-inducing, hurt more than helped my health. To make matters worse, my Dead Week was resurrected in an Easterly fashion to taunt me as the Undead Week From Hell. I've slept for nine of the past seventy-two hours. Free time has been limited to manic forum-browsing and desperate Portal 2-gaming. When I wasn't devoting my thought to writing papers, I was devoting it to furious gibberish about gum recession and capitalist patriarchy.

All of the above is not only to vent, but to excuse the lack of activity on this blog. Let's get more active (I promise Finals Week will produce at least one or two procrastination-fueled think-pieces). Speaking of getting active

IUFAC

Or, the Indiana University Feminist Action Coalition. Hell Yeah (disclaimer: for legal reasons, the group can't exactly exist under that title yet). IUFAC is something initially conceived of by myself and two other like-minded young feminists from our History Of Feminist Theory course. Enough interest has been shown to make me grin. But as of now, we have no Manifesto and no Money.

All of that is going to change [(except for the Money, but we can just steal stuff (RADICAL)]. Our first meeting is tonight. Honestly, it's hard to say what can and will be accomplished by an activist coalition on this campus. Of course, the legislation on Planned Parenthood that recently passed the Indiana senate would be a good rallying point. For now, though, it's probably best that we simply sort out what our interests and intentions are. Or maybe we can articulate our interests and intentions through immediate political action.

Personally, I'm excited that this organization is exists at all. What is our politics going to look like? What kind of theory will we incorporate? What constitutes a feminist?

I'm even more excited by the coalition's myriad possibilities. Pamphleting, protesting, and partying! Isn't it time for some radical change? Some radical fun? Isn't it time to reintroduce consciousness raising sessions to university campuses? We need to bring some energy to these issues that are more pressing than ever. We are responsible for reviving feminism. Our generation has already been portrayed as inactive and disinterested by the bitter radicals of old, and there are too few groups proving otherwise.

I want to change this dialogue about my generation. I want to see students caring and working for change. I want to scare IU.

Promise

Several items have recently come to my attention that also elicit hella excitement on my part. My ears are counting down the days. That's right fam, #METASWAG will adorn its Music and Movie Blog caps for a moment.

The promise of Great Entertainment this summer is absolutely enormous:

June 14, 21, & 28 : Theatrical releases of The Lord Of The Rings Extended Editions

July 13: Animal Collective at Mr. Small's, in Pittsburgh

July 14: Gang Gang Dance at The Bishop, in Bloomington

July 15: Kurt Vile and Woods at Russian Recording, in Bloomington

July 17: Pitchfork Music Festival

Y'all, does that not look like a lot of fun?

MORE TEXT

I was going to include a rambling section on taste, how recent changes in my own perception of art have enabled blah blah etc. Instead, I will briefly state that thanks to certain artworks (Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, Tatami Galaxy), I will no longer be so quick to judge the artistic merit of a creation based on its form or genre. Not that I wasn't loving up anime throughout my childhood, but that the stigmatization of cartoons in high school really prevented me from embracing the art.

Other points were going to be made about Metal and Rap, but...

Conclusions

... Sleep is far more important than almost everything going on above. Things are really cooking around here. It's time to catch up, take my time, and do whatever I want to do all the time. I want to write more music reviews. I want to make lists. I want to read a lot of feminist theory this summer. I want to read a lot of fiction this summer. I want to make a lot of art this summer. I want to grow within and without myself this summer.

Also, I've been writing poetry. So, here's a poem:

A Very Special Post

The Beginning and the End, or "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

Thesis

When you're sick, it's hard to blog. Fortunately, I care about my readers enough to sacrifice much-needed sleep in favor of some late night writing. This post is going to be worth it, to a greater degree than the past few posts. I admit, there's been a dip in both frequency and quality of #METASWAG output. I had some hella stressful weeks followed by a hella careless week. In both cases, I wasn't much in the mood to blog.

However, now that my schoolwork and energy alike are decreasing, I have few options but blogging and sleeping with Grouper to keep me occupied. I guess picnics and adventures with friends and loved ones spring up from time to time, but for the most part, I have been "chill" lately.

About time. Anyway, let's start talking about Important Stuff.

UPDATE [4:30 PM, 4/14] Or talk about it in totally contradictory and terrible ways. WARNING: Theoretical mess approaching. And this is the revised post.

Challenging "Challenging"

Maybe I've just been burnt out by tons and tons of feminist theory, but the impact and importance of the always controversial Odd Future is starting to feel a bit forced. What I wanted to talk about here was the way people use the word "challenging" to describe art, and suggest an alternative definition for the word. So, what follows is hopefully a redefinition of the word challenging, and not a misguided ramble about authorial intent and convention.

This wasn't meant to be a post about Odd Future. I only intended to use them as an example of art that is labeled "challenging." I don't mean to hate on OFWGKTA. I love them. Their music sounds good to me. I even made a #GOLFWANG shirt.

It's just that people won't stop writing about them and the meaning of their art. I'm getting sick of the notion that Odd Future is meaningful, or in particular, "challenging." It doesn't help that most of the writing on the subject is horrible (my own included; this post included).

I too wrote a reactionary post on OFWGKTA shortly after watching the "Yonkers" video, and referred to Tyler as some sort of Important and Challenging figure that provoked honestly useful consideration of sexuality and violence in rap.

I was wrong for two reasons.

1) Though the music is sometimes serious and Tyler probably does have daddy issues, Odd Future is straight-up camp that has been done before.

2) My (and most folks') definition of "challenging art" is too limiting.

Odd Future is challenging art in one sense of the word. It's provocative, offensive, and noticeable. Maybe they have gotten white people to write about some contrived notion of innate violence or the artfulness of rapping about rape. It forces you to ask questions like, "Is this okay?" and "Are they serious?" and "Does it matter?" Of course it doesn't. The lyrical content (primarily limited to Tyler and Earl's output) sounds mean and misogynist. This has all been played out countless times. People should not still feel challenged by this kind of rap.

So yes, Odd Future still makes people queasy. But art called challenging should be much more than art that simply provokes a gut-reaction.

Challenging art is a label that would be better applied to work that truly inspires self-confrontation, an examination of the really buried stuff, and potentially results in a new understanding of how to exist with oneself and the world.

I'm not saying that shocking art can't be challenging in this sense, but rather that "challenging art" has been conflated with anything that makes people mad, rather than that which makes people change.

I've been lucky enough to experience a real piece of challenging art over the past few weeks: Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Here is a piece of art (the Greatest Piece Of Art?) that demands us the audience to delve within ourselves. To re-imagine how and why we exist. There were moments in the show that had me asking questions about myself that I didn't want to answer. That were actually painful to answer. This is art that doesn't rely on taboo and shock value, but appeals to some fundamental conflicts brewing within us.

But maybe I'm giving too much credit to the show, and not enough to Odd Future. Maybe I'm placing too much importance on questions of self like, "What makes a good person?" or "Am I alone?" Maybe because of Odd Future people really are asking themselves, "Do I like this music because it talks about violence against women?" Maybe this does inspire people to examine their id or whatever. Maybe the argument I'm trying to make is just as convoluted and ineffectual as the pieces I linked to earlier.

That last maybe is a definite yes.

Okay, let's make this simple (and arrive at a conclusion unearned by the previous hundreds of words, which it turns out were about nothing).

Odd Future is not Important right now because their lyrical content and attitude is shocking in an all new way. Countless other artists have done what they're doing. Odd Future is Important right now because they are hella good at what they do, a group of young rap artists appealing to young rap fans. Their art may "challenge" people to think about the artistic value of violence. But their art does not challenge notions of identity and self. Which is obviously not what they are trying to do, which is why this post is making an unfair comparison between a post-modern cartoon and a group of teen rappers, which is why I would have been better off going to bed.

This is what happens when I really want to talk about Neon Genesis Evangelion, but spend an hour reading articles about Odd Future before I start writing my post.

Conclusions

Sorry about all of this. I promise there is a cohesive statement lurking somewhere within the rambling mess above. Thanks to Ted for pointing out a lot of the inconsistencies and contradictions within the original post - criticism which I used to no good end, and simply further complicated my argument into non-existence. Whatever.

One day I'll compose a perfectly focused argument on this blog. For now, that caliber work will have to be limited to my classwork.

I was also going to write about the Weezy concert and the on-campus feminist coalition I'm trying to help fire up, but I'm just too tired. I'll save it for the next post! Until then, it's been a pleasure. I'm off to be consumed by Grouper.

CUTEST VID EVER

There is a prospect of a thrilling time ahead for you.

They Are Back

AND CANT BE TAMED BY THIS BLOG FORMAT

Thesis

Tonight is the Greatest Night Of All-Time.

Why, bro?

Because Grouper's AIA leaked and the Animal Collective are playing their first show in like a year with new material and Deakin.

A I A [2011; Mississippi Records]

by Grouper

A Review

This is the Greatest Album Of All-Time and "Come Softly" is the Greatest Song Of All-Time.

Wrap-Up

This week I saw two phenomenal concerts:

> Adventure, BRAIDS, Toro y Moi (at the Bishop)

> Jackie Chain, Mookie Jones, Smoke DZA, Freddie Gibbs, Big K.R.I.T. (at Rhino's)

Then I raved like a mad man last night. So much dancing, so much great music.

Conclusions

I was going to post an enriching and thoughtful post at many different times over the past week but I kept deciding to go outside or just chill out instead. I got a much needed break from all the stresses of the past few weeks, and feel much recovered.

At the moment, I'm facing a totally unprepared in-class presentation for tomorrow, and am unable to focus because of the aforementioned leak and the Animal Collective concert going on as I write this. If a bootleg surfaces in the next two hours, I probably won't go to bed tonight.

Excuse this unorthodox post. There are some truly exciting things going on in my life that I will reflect on in the coming days. Until then, I leave you with

Proof Of God

Puck Fatriarchy: Shirtless Blogging On A Friday Night (Evolve Or Die)

Am I still materialist if the proceeds of this purchase

helped marine life? Yes. I am.

Thesis

Too often this space is used to write masturbatory music criticism and chicken soup for the geek soul. This happens because it's fun to do that. This post will probably even include a little of both.

But let's get real, fam.

RADICAL

The following sort of thinking was probably bound to happen after talking about all the wrongs in the world over dinner and then staying in to read for History Of Feminist Theory instead of partying. I'm just feeling totally helpless and totally empowered at the same time.

After a positively-charged and exciting class discussion (led by none other than myself and my group) about the politics of experience, feminism to me feels more critical than ever. So I still can't understand why my friends widely champion and embrace vegetarian and green lifestyles, but mostly dismiss (my) feminism. It's not as hurtful as it is perplexing. I'm no stranger to having my identities challenged - I tend to get off on it - and getting behind feminism is no burden. It's a joy.

Blame it on my ego. After proudly brandishing both Catholicism and flaming geekiness through high school, I'm perhaps well-readied to defend feminism. Then again, I've kept it to myself more than I'd like. Wary of being obnoxiously vocal about or even defined by views I don't fully understand, I tend not to bring up the subject. Even so, it seems impossible for me to unlearn the humbling realities of patriarchal sexist oppression in contemporary society, or to remain silent about them. If I hear you say something "problematic," you'll probably hear me say something "obnoxious."

Self-righteous, right? I'm in that kind of mood. Really though, I'm not that hard to eat lunch with.

What do I do?

Trending right now on Twitter is #notetofemales. Seriously, fam? This is what I'm talking about (by the way, the #tagged tweets are decidedly not feminist).

In our world of so-called New Media, it seems both all-too-possible and entirely impossible to subvert heteronormativity. What is one voice shouting in a void against a million voices shouting in a void? None of it is really audible anyway, right?

I was discussing the feasibility of campus activism with a good friend (set up a table outside Ballantine? distribute t-shirts? viral pamphleting?), and got pretty bummed out. Even if I biked around in a dress while shouting cryptic revolutionary speech, I don't think I'd make it to the front page of the student newspaper. I just want to spread the word. Or make G101 required for graduation. The idea of a feminist political coalition seems so crucial, and yet I can't realistically envision something like that emerging on our campus. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

This isn't 21st-Century Kid as apathetic, it's 21st-Century Kid as down and out.

Even so, I think there's hope (for me: because I'm a selfish blogger).

A Dream

I just thought about a future for myself as a high school English teacher (that all-powerful of positions) who holds Gender Studies Club every Wednesday after school. Or infuses all sorts of subliminal and subversive feminist theory into his syllabus. Or empowers the oppressed voices in his classroom. Just thinking about it is putting a smile on my face. In fact, it's the first time in a while that I've felt at all excited about my seemingly inevitable career as an educator.

I can create a space for constructive (and deconstructive) discussion. A real community! A classroom as great as this blog! O gosh.

What's your dream?

Barnooks

I didn't want to do this here, but it's really hard for me not to mention how totally head-over-heels in love I am with Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's a borderline obsession at this point. How had I not heard about it until a month ago?

It's a cartoon about big robots and busty babes. Sounds pretty juvenile and pretty problematic. But the sort of ridiculous balance it strikes between awkward sexual humor and incredible characterization is a part of the show's charm. And obviously, NGE is about much, much more than that. The show has the wisdom and confidence to balance shameless spectacle with an existential narrative. I've never seen anything quite like it. I've never seen a show so willing to empower its female characters and then reduce them to sexual objects. I've never seen a show so willing to aestheticize violence and then examine the psychological trauma behind the destruction. I've never seen a show so able to alter its tone and structure and focus without compromising its thematic and narrative strength. It's simply revelatory.

Even the dang re-cap episode paused for an expressionist poem and then revealed an entirely new level of the plot. It's Perfect.

Well. Maybe it's time to go to bed.

Conclusions

Staying in on a Friday night isn't the worst thing that's happened to me. In fact, it's accounted for a 180 in my mood (even if the initial 180 was caused by staying in on a Friday). Anyway, March wasn't a big blogging month for #METASWAG, and I plan on making up for it in April. I have a lot of concerts, a lot of records, a lot of stresses, and a lot of events to ramble on about.

Take your time and do whatever you want, fam.

This song got me through a hellish week.