30 abril 2008

el estado y la nacion

i finished my paper on the bolivian constitution, imagined communities and the racial state today. it was pretty decent i think, but not anything revolutionary. now i'm just down to the discourse paper, which is the scarriest, but the leap seems to like my analysis. and he basically wrote my conclusion for me. now i just need to figure out how to turn 8 pages into 20-25. sigh.

i've been thinking a lot about how much i learned this semester. i think a lot more than last semester, though the fall did give me a much better handle on gramsci & althusser. but i think contemporary theory was really good this spring, and i feel conversant in things an anthropologist should be conversant in. plus, i feel like i actually know what's going on in bolivia these days (thanks google alerts!). and sunday's the big referendum. it will be interesting to see what happens.

i think i've also learned a lot about myself this semester. what i want, who i am. what i'll put up with and what i won't. basically, this year has been the happiest one since college, at least on a personal level. i have a lot of people i miss, and not many people i see on a regular basis that i really care about. but i guess they always say you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else (or something like that). i guess i'm getting there.

so in a mere 5 days i will be finished, and i can't f'ing wait. i see lots of yoga, painting, and (unfortunately) grading undergrad exams in store for next week. but oh, the freedom looks so good from this side.

on another happy note, b dub wants me to ta for her next semester, which i'm excited about. The Anthropology of American Life. Its funny that i'm the only non-North Americanist (aside from rodo & the partridge family) in my cohort, and i'm the one taing that class, but it sounds like fun. and she said she wouldn't make me do much work (always a good sign). i think this is mostly because we've bonded over our dwight-love. its hard not to. and i think in a way we're both still trying to channel him. i think i always will be. and its a comfort to have him sitting in the back of my mind. wwdd? be savvy.

so, that's a semester wrap up, i guess. perhaps premature, but i'm sticking with it. i'm not sure what the summer has in store. some nj shore, some chicago, maybe some guatemala. we shall see...

26 abril 2008

too bad they don't play tom petty in gay bars

warning: semi-explicit content...

i took my shirt off in public for the first time in almost 2 years last night.

after sushi, cocktails, and chocolate pudding pops at ee's, we went to the green lantern for the "free drinks in your underwear" special. on the walk from adams morgan to logan square we discussed public nudity, and i brought up the spare rib where crazy n & i exchanged clothing on stage. i wasn't totally comfortable with it at the time. i remember having long discussions with scamz about it, and concluding that i was not opposed to nudity in art as long as it was not exploitative or gratuitous.

not long after i ended up in undies with googly eyes in a film scamz made.

then 2 years ago, i ended up at 241 with sparks, paper telephone, anti-fiendism, a bathing rock, and some tom petty. suddenly faith had negotiated a shirtless porch, and i was sucked in briefly. despite the fact that i was with good, comfortable friends, i regretted it later. maybe it was just a charged atmosphere.

and then last night...the green lantern offered free drinks, and we accepted. on the walk there, i wasn't entirely sure i would actually take off my clothes. but we got inside, and ee took off his shirt. j followed. the bartender then mentioned that delf & i could also get free drinks for stripping down to undies. so we took our shirts off, and he said the pants would have to go too. so we obliged, after commenting that the boys had not taken theirs off. so the bartender insisted they did too. so the four of us, minus clothing, plus free drinks walked away to our table. we had a brief conversation about how comfortable and natural it felt to all be standing around a table in nothing but undies and shoes, and then didn't mention it again.

not long after man #1 approached us and told delf & i that we were "pioneers" because he had never seen women in their undies there before. he shook our hands. later, another man, fully clothed, came over and complimented delf & i on being "sexy" and he told us he liked our shoes. of course he had to preface the whole thing with "i'm gay, but you guys are sexy. and i appreciate that." hmmm... maybe he's holding himself to a little too homonormative of a standard? embrace the fluidity man!

15 abril 2008

mi camisa

i woke up this morning and threw on my yellow nlirh t shirt. i walked uphill to school, dodging cars as usual, listening to some mountain goats on the ipod.

i crossed the street, and headed onto the construction-scattered quad. as i passed the library i could see a bunch of small red and blue flags stuck into the ground. i figured it was an artful darfur or iraq war protest. as i walked past, i found it was something entirely different. red and blue flags to represent aborted "babies." the use of the phrase "pro-life."

i unzipped my jacket a bit.

salud. dignidad. justicia.

at least i chose an appropriate shirt today.

14 abril 2008

noticias desde el fin de semana

warning: explicit conversations recounted below

i rolled into the jc around 3pm, and since the sky was gray, i decided to forgo hamilton park, and went to basic instead. i had a hot chocolate and read some of loyal soldiers... rhino called around 5:30 and i met him at 221. we watched some john adams on the dvr, noting that fiend would look especially nice in a thomas jefferson as secretary of state outfit.


at some point, k called rhino, and was on his way to drop off some sort of softball payment at 7s. we went to meet him for a beer. jayne was working and drew was hanging out, but the bar was fairly empty.

scamz called on our way to the bar, and asked if we wanted to meet for some grub before tracking down the fearsome threesome that we'd meet later that night. rhino and i agreed, but K decided not to join us.

so after a blue moon, rhino and i headed in and after losing our direction near washington square park, we met scamz at peculiar pub, for some litres of beer. i had leffe. and here begins the string of totally inappropriate stories. because his stories were not my own, i will forgo the explicit detail of scamz's stories of his work trip to ft. lauderdale, and simply state that after a few imitations of the staples "easy" button and talk of bed jumping, he was then and there dubbed scam-bow. 

shortly thereafter, the crowd was rounded out with the fiend, warden, widowmaker, and eventually tits, who insisted on calling me dr. nell. after a rousing conversation involving republicans and strap-ons, with several ploys to get me to purchase one at the nearest open sex shop (and there were sure to be a variety at 9pm in the village), we finished our litres, and wandered off to kgb.

there i got to talking to the warden, well known in the past for but-sex, driving drunk, and pissing neighbors off with lines like "17, i mean 21, i mean 18," and the conversation ended up with shots of the turkey. as usual, that little bastard was ruffling his feathers from behind the bar.

we eventually ended up at big bar with more warden chatting, where i learned he is choosing between columbia and case western medical schools. apparently somewhere between drunken driving and exposing himself to the lovely folks on pratt street, he found time to actually study while in school. later,  brunjeses appeared with nyu friends. we ended up discussing the end of relationships, and he mentioned that no parking is showing at a few more festivals. at some point while all of this was going on, rhino got a warning message about possible encounters, which i should have known was a bad sign. we got back to the jc, and i took the futon without unfolding it, but slept pretty poorly. after the sun rose though, i managed to get some good hours in, and didn't really get up until 11.

saturday was less exciting with some eating, walking, and the tenement museum tour. republicanism baffles me...

sunday, scam-bow and i went to the biennial, and there were a few good things. he ended up touching something he wasn't supposed to and then was forced to endure a 15 minute conversation with a guard who could barely speak english. we saw the hair piece his friend designed and a few other good things. a good short film that basically involved blind people touching an elephant (but that doesn't really do it justice), some small pieces that he said reminded him of the picture blog...my favorite title for an art piece was "divine violence," shockingly. a good time, but really, i think my favorite moment was looking at the pollock. yet another one i'm convinced i could dance to. and it had amazing explosiveness.

from there, we got some soup and a drink, then headed downtown, and for me, across the river. i met rock, rhino & k at 7s, and had some cokes and a veggie burger. there was some interesting discussion about shape-shifters & flows, which devolved into r&r joking around with me and k making rude comments under his breath. though he did apologize later.

after 7s, i headed back down south, and got some good contemplation in. now, back to work. bolivian filicidio & the media luna's ploy for autonomy won't wait forever

02 abril 2008

las estudiantes catholicas

i live in a bubble. if it doesn't pertain to bolivian constitutional reforms, professional wrestling, or gendered violence i'm not paying much attention.

yep, it took me over a week to realize i know one of the "catholic school girls" arrested in Chicago on Easter for their anti-war protest at the Holy Name Cathedral. i guess little bird is making a name for herself. i've been forwarded correspondence, and she seems as well as possible. i don't know whether to be inspired, or scared. in any event, i'm rather taken by her performative way of doing things.

i've grown calm in my old age. i now highly doubt i'll ever live up to my "most likely to be arrested in a protest" fame of high school. i'm not code pink material these days. at least i launched a successful attack on school policies and got 5 lovely people little reimbursement checks they so deserved. maybe that just means i'm more of a policy rather than street activist. on the other hand, it makes me feel a bit better to know that at least i'm still connected enough to the community that i have friends in media-attention-worthy places. i just hope all turns out well for her. she's a pretty amazing woman.